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1 By D.Harold Greene, CCMT

I Came Here in a Whisper: I Was Born – 1873 - Episode 1

A 19th Century Washington, D.C. Love Story

PEARL and the Buffalo Soldier

2

Episode 1

A 19th Century Washington, D.C. Love Story

A historical and fictional biography of the life and family history of

Pearl Goodman Coleman and John Coleman, a 10th Calvary Buffalo

Soldier, in the late 19th and early 20th Century Washington, D.C.


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“Study the Past” …… “What is Past is Prologue”

“Study the Past”

On 7th Street in Washington, D.C., there is

a statue, depicting "Study the Past," that

sits on the Pennsylvania Avenue side at

the National Archives Building where our

Declaration of Independence, Constitution,

and Bill of Rights are on display, the

cornerstone documents of the United

States,

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“Study the Past”

The quotation on the statue's base has

been attributed to a paraphrase of

Confucius that reads: “Study the Past.”

The statue emphasizes the importance of

studying history as the individualized

“Study the Past” male figure with a “closed

book” gazes down at you.

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"What is Past is Prologue"

Also sitting on the Pennsylvania Avenue

side at the National Archives Building is

another statue in scripted with


The phrase that Shakespeare invented

came to mean that the past is a preface to

the future and that we cannot forget the

lessons of history.

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A “prologue” was a preface to a play or

novel that “set the scene” and provided

some background information.

The statue represents that history is the

background for what will occur in the

future, as the individualized “What is Past

is Prologue” female figure ” with an

“opened book” gazes down at you.

”Study the Past” …..”What is Past is Prologue”– …………..……………………..…………….

Prologue…………………………………..…………………………………………………… ……

Coleman Family Tree ………………………………………………………………………….…...

Being a Negro in America is Tough. But We Made It ………………………………………..…..

I Came Here in a Whisper: I Was Born – 1873……………………………………………………

The PERILS of Growing Up as a Negro Woman in 19th Century America – 1900…………….

Life in Washington, D.C. – 1909……………………………………………………………………

My Formative Years 1890 -1910……... …………………………………..……………..………..

High Society in 20th Century Washington, D.C, 1908……...………………………………........

Educating Washington D.C. Negroes – 1912……………………………………………………..

I Was a Flapper in Georgetown - 1912………………………………….…………………………

The Buffalo Soldier – 1917………………………………………………………………………….

“Top Coleman” – 1918………………………….… ………………………………………..……..

Book Information …………………………………………………………………………………….

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Prologue

John Coleman and Pearl Goodman Coleman were my Grandparents on my mother’s family side. Her surname Goodwin was used prior to her marriage to my Grandfather; John Coleman.

She was born (B. 1897) by a mid-wife in Washington, D.C. and John was said to be born (B.1872) in Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland. (1880 Census). Robert Coleman (B.1855), John’s father, my Great Grandfather, was the son of Hooper (B. 1820) and Mary (B. 1830) Coleman my Great, Great Grandparents, former slaves, also from Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland.

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This is a tribute to my father and mother, and to my aunts and uncles

who are all now deceased, the children of John and Pearl Coleman.

They left a proud family legacy and tradition that is befitting of all the

families here in the United States, despite race, religion or ethnicity.

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“Being a Negro in America is Tough, But We Made It!”

Being a Negro in America during the lifetime of my family members was

tough (and it still is), but the times they had were also good and fruitful,

despite some of the negative things mentioned in this story about being

a Negro in America.

I do not have any regrets about being born a Negro in America.

I hope that the good in this book supersedes the negative stuff and I

encourage you to think, “Only in America!”.

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I am grateful for my ancestor’s life journeys that helped help me to see who I am.

I realize now that I am an American first, a member of the Coleman family second and a Negro last.

I am also grateful for being an American and I thank GOD for leading me and my family on our walk of faith in HIS will in this great country.

D. (Dana) Harold Greene Author and the Grandson of

John and Pearl Coleman.

2018

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D. (Dana) Harold Greene, CCMT, is the son of Harold W. Greene and Alma

Coleman Greene, the grandson of John and Pearl Coleman, and also the Great

Grandson of Robert Coleman and the Great Great Grandson of Hooper and

Mary Coleman.

He is also the Great Grandson of John Wesley Goodwin of Frederick, Maryland

and the Great Grandson of Susie Edith Mae Stewart of Dorchester County,

Maryland.

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I Came Here in a Whisper: I Was Born – 1873 Episode 1

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The Question Isn’t Who is Gonna Let Me,

It’s Whose Gonna Stop Me?

A Brief History of African Americans in Washington, DC

African Americans in Washington, DC: 1800-1975

by Marya Annette McQuirter, Ph.D.*

African Americans have been a significant part of Washington, DC's

civic life and identity since the city was first declared the new national

capital in 1791.

African Americans were 25 percent of the population in 1800 and the

majority of them were enslaved. By 1830, however, most were free

people. Yet slavery remained.

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African Americans, of course, resisted slavery and injustice by

organizing churches, private schools, aid societies, and businesses; by

amassing wealth and property; by leaving the city; and by demanding

abolition.

Escape to Freedom on the Schooner Named Pearl, 1848

In 1848, 77 free and enslaved adults and children unsuccessfully

attempted the nation's largest single escape aboard the schooner

Pearl.

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Congress had the authority to pass the DC Emancipation Act because

it was granted the power to "exercise exclusive legislation" over the

Federal district by the U.S. Constitution.

This Federal oversight has been a source of conflict throughout

Washington's history.

During the Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction (1865-1877),

more than 25,000 African Americans moved to Washington. The fact

that it was mostly pro-Union and the nation's capital made it a popular

destination.

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We Could Vote Now!

Through the passage of Congress's Reconstruction Act of 1867, the

city's African American men gained the right to vote three years before

the passage of the 15th amendment gave all men the right to vote.

(Women gained the right to vote in 1920.)

The first Black municipal office holder was elected in 1868.

When Washington briefly became a Federal territory in 1871, African

American men continued to make important decisions for the city.

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Lewis H. Douglass introduced the 1872 law making segregation in

public accommodations illegal. But in 1874, in part because of growing

Black political power, the territorial government was replaced by three

presidentially appointed commissioners.

This system survived until the civil rights movement of the 1960s

brought a measure of self-government.

By 1900 Washington had the largest percentage of African Americans

of any city in the nation. Many came because of opportunities for

Federal jobs. Others were attracted to the myriad educational

institutions.

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On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the District of Columbia

Emancipation Act, making Washingtonians the first freed in the nation,

nine months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the

Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863.

20

Site of Armory Square Hospital

Independence Avenue and 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC

One of the largest Civil War hospitals in the area was located on the

National Mall, where Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum stands

today. Constructed in 1862, the medical facility was named after the Armory

of the District of Columbia was erected in 1856.

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This 1,000-bed hospital complex, with twelve pavilions and overflow tents,

spread across the Mall and included quarters for officers, service facilities,

and a chapel.

The wounded from the Civil War battlefields of Virginia were brought to the

nearby wharves in southwest Washington and taken to the Armory Square

Hospital.

After the Civil War, the Armory Building was used as storage facility, and

later housed the offices of the United States Fish Commission (after 1903,

Bureau of Fisheries).

It was demolished in January 1964

22

Site of Washington Infirmary E Street, NW between 4th and 5th Streets

(Judiciary Square), Washington, DC

In 1806, the first public hospital in Washington was established in a square

between 6th and 7th Streets, and M and N Streets, NW.

Called Washington Infirmary ( later Sibley Hospital and then Gallagher

Hospital where I was born),

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It provided for "the poor, disabled, and infirm persons.

In 1842, Congress authorized the conversion of the old jail in the Judiciary

Square into a hospital for disabled seamen, soldiers and the insane.

Two years later, however, Congress decided that the building was not

suitable for that purpose and assigned it to the medical faculty of

Columbian College (later became George Washington University).

Also named Washington Infirmary, this hospital became the city's first

teaching hospital as well as the city's first general hospital (later renamed

D.C. General Hospital).

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At the beginning of the Civil War, Washington Infirmary was taken over by

the military, and it received the first Civil War casualties in May 1861.

But the facility burned to the ground in November 1861 and was later

replaced by the Judiciary Square Hospital.

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I Was Born in a Whisper, 1873

Episode 1

It was 100 years after the founding of

Washington, D.C., 1873, that my story

begins.

I was born in a whisper. In a whisper meant

that the people who birthed me didn’t want

the world to know that I was born.

The questions as to why is quite evident, as

they call it illegitimate now, but then you

were born out of wedlock, or born as a

bastard.

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My father was John Wesley Goodwin, a

white man from Frederick County, Maryland,

about seventy miles from Waldorf City,

Carroll County, Maryland.

He would often come down to Waldolf,

Maryland and rural Carroll County to sell life

insurance and to do other business with

Negros in the Homestead Section of Carroll

County.

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He also came to visit relatives down there

who happened to be the ex-slave owners of

grandmother’s family and my mother Susie

Edith Mae Stewart. They said that is how he

met my mother.

Every time John Wesley came down to

Waldorf City, he’d be watching this beautiful

and young Susie as she grew into a

beautiful seventeen year old temptress.

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They said that she was “the apple” of his

eyes, and he was just waiting, all them

years, for her to be grown enough to

understand his intentions.

He began to give her nice stuff and buy her

things, acting as her benefactor and as a

wolf in sheep’s clothing.

.

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When he came to Waldorf City, he

frequently went over to my grandfather

and grandmothers shack in the Negro

Homestead section in rural Carroll

County to visit with this young vixen.

Rural Negro Farmers, c. 1890

30

Back then, it was known that it didn’t

matter if she was a virgin or the wife

of a Negro man, because in the rural

south, white men had their privileges

over a Negro woman’s body and life.

Yes, they were no longer slaves, but

that didn’t matter back then.


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They could literally do as they pleased

with any Negro woman that they

wanted and there wouldn’t be any

repercussions for their actions.

Well, Susie, my mother, was what he

wanted and it was just a matter of time

before he got what he wanted.


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After secretly courting her for nearly

three years, he took his privilege

seriously and got what he wanted.


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I was told that he picked a day to visit

Susie at her grandparent’s shack,

when her folks were away, and he just

took her.

I don’t know if it was her will to let him

or if she had just broke down her will

and just let him do it, but he did it to

her.

That’s why I am here.


34

Rumors spread around Hampstead

after Susie became pregnant, that she

had gone and givin’ herself to one of

the local Negro men, with her intention

being to marry that man.

But darker rumors told the real story

after I was born a light skinned Negro

baby, that my real father was a white

man.

Suspicions fell on John Wesley

Goodwin, Susie’s white suitor.


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Everyone knew it was John Wesley,

make no doubt about it, when I was

born with white features.

I also favored John Wesley’s looks, his

nose, his mouth and even the color of

my hair was like his.

There was no doubt that I was his

baby and he was my daddy, but we

couldn’t make that claim against a

white man back then.


36

Ms. Kittler, the local mid-wife who

helped my mother thru her birthing

labor, saw this too.

That’s why she gave me the

Goodwin’s surname on the mid-wife

birth papers.

She listed on the birth form John

Wesley Goodwin as the birth father

and Susie Edith Mae Stewart as the

birth mother of this nameless light

skinned Negro baby girl.


37

Rumor has it that when I was born, my

daddy didn’t want no parts of being

blamed as the father of this Negro

baby girl.

My official birth certificate with this

information was never registered with

the Charles County Courthouse.

I officially became a “whisper” baby on

that day. (c. 1890) Center Market - Washington, D.C

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Back then, he could do what he

wanted with a Negro woman and no

one in the white or the Negro

community could say different and

hold him responsible for me.

They just moved on with their lives

and nobody cared.

(c. 1890) Center Market - Washington, D.C

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More rumors came out that John

Wesley sired two other “whisper”

babies, Nellie and John (Jocko) by

another Negro woman in the

community as well.

They didn’t know who the Negro

woman was, but they suspected that

it was Susie who was the mother, as

my grandparents also took in these two babies and growed them up.

A Rural Negro Family- Carroll County, MD (c. 1876)

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But no one, including John Wesley,

came forward to admit that this

happened too.

The surname of my mother’s sister

and brother was also Goodwin.

Who’d a thought?


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We just accepted the fact that we

was born and we didn’t know who

the daddy was.

Having a lot of “whisper” babies in

the Negro community was quite

common and no one paid it much

attention.


42

A “Whisper Baby”

There were a lot of “whisper” babies

in Carroll County in those days.

It was common and not unusual

back then because it was not held

against me, my sister or my brother.


43

There were Negro babies of all

different colors, with freckles, blond

hair, blue eyes and with Negro

features all over Carroll County.

It was just accepted that white men

and Negro women were doing it and

having half white Negro babies.


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You could tell this by looking at the

outcome of their messing around

with each other.

It didn’t make no difference in those

days.


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I was still raised, nurtured and loved

as part of our family by my mother,

grandfather and grandmother as one

of their children.

It didn’t matter where you came

from.

All that mattered was that we were

here now, so we just moved on with

It. A Rural Negro Family- Carroll County, MD (c. 1876)

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Being born without a true daddy was

not a big deal, as when we were

slaves, quite often, our daddy could

be sold to another plantation or even

killed by white folk.

So it didn’t matter as long as my

mother and the rest of my family was

still here.


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As I got older, I was determined that

being born as a “whisper” baby was

not going to stop me from having a

great childhood and from doing great

things with my life.


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Eventually, John Wesley Goodwin,

my daddy, never came back to

Carroll County to see me and my

siblings that we knew that he had

also fathered.

He just stopped coming down here.

I heard rumors that he was being

pressured by his family to abandon

us and plead no acknowledgement

of his “whisper” babies in Carroll

County. A Rural Negro Family- Carroll County, MD (c. 1876)

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He is Still My Daddy

That is what stopped him from coming

down there to see us grow up.

He got what he wanted from my

mother Susie, but he wasn’t prepared

to deal with the consequences and

responsibilities that followed his time

with her.

African Americans posed outside of church ( c. 1870)

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It ain’t just white men who did this.

There were a lot of Negro men who did

the same thing, and many of them still

lived in the community.

There were Negro and white men who

did it to their daughters and cousins

against what the Bible preached.


51

There were babies running around

who looked like everything that you

could imagine because these things

were happening.

They got what they wanted and then

they got what they deserve, so it was

no sense in John Wesley coming back

to see us.


52

Few of them had a true family last

name or they often took the last name

of their former slave master.

I had a true family name and the name

was of my birth father that I could use

and share with the world.


53

Thank you daddy, John Wesley

Goodwin and mother, Susie Edith Mae

Stewart, for bringing me into this world.

I love you both, and the generations of

my family after me will one-day know

the real story and the history of this

“whisper baby”, as I tell it to you now.


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Next Episode

The Perils of Growing Up as a Negro Woman in Turn of the

Century Washington, D.C. – 1900 – Episode 2

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Growing Up As a Strong Negro

Woman

Growing up in the 1890’s in rural

Carroll County, Maryland was not bad,

but it was not good either.

It was only a matter of time that I had

to get out of there. I was not going to

be no damn farmer’s or share

cropper’s wife.

I ain’t!

African Americans Woman ( c. 1880)

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There wasn’t much to do there except

maybe go to Waldorf City, the county

seat.

You could shop in the stores where

Negros were allow to shop in, if you

had money; if you had a way to get

there; and if it was the light of day.

Negros weren’t allowed to go out at

night. You could be arrested and shot

for doing so.

.

African Americans Woman ( c. 1800)

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I was determined to go to Washington,

D.C. and to get out of the backwards

ways of rural Carroll County, Maryland,

and I did.

I went to Washington, D.C. in 1900, to

start my new life and career.

I thank GOD that he gave me those

Proctor girls as my guides and they

kept me straight until I met my Buffalo

Soldier, John Coleman.

African Americans Woman( c. 1800)

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Purchase the “Pearl and the Buffalo Soldier” Video eBook at our website: http://www.19thcenturynegrolife.homesteadcloud.com/

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