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Notes
Abbreviations
Individuals
Frederick — Frederick Bruce Thomas
Hedwig — Hedwig Thomas
Valli — Valentina “Valli” Thomas
Elvira — Elvira Jungmann; after 1918, Mrs. Elvira Thomas
BHC — British High Commissioner, Constantinople
USHC — United States High Commissioner, Constantinople
BSS — British Secretary of State
USSS — United States Secretary of State
Titles
AC — Atlanta Constitution
Am — Artisticheskii mir
As — Artist i stsena
Az — Artist i zritel’
B — Le Bosphore
BDG — Boston Daily Globe
BG — Boston Globe
CD — Chicago Daily
CDe — Chicago Defender
CDE — Columbus Daily Enquirer
CDM — Charleston Daily Mail
CDT — Chicago Daily Tribune
CM — Constantinople-Matin
CT — Chicago Tribune
DNT — Duluth News-Tribune
EN — Evening News
ES — Eastern Spectator/Le Spectateur d’Orient
HC — Hartford Courant
ICC — Iowa City Citizen
JO — Le Journal d’Orient
LAT — Los Angeles Times
MG — Manchester Guardian
Mv — Moskovskie vedomosti
Nrs — Novoe russkoe slovo
NYT — New York Times
NYTr — New York Tribune
ON — Orient News
P — Programma
Rezh — Restorannaia zhizn’
Rzh — Rampa i zhizn’
S — Stamboul
Sa — Stsena i arena
SFN — San Francisco Chronicle
Tg — Teatral’naia gazeta
Ti — Teatr i iskusstvo
Tk — Teatr i kino
VM — Vsia Moskva
Vp — Vecherniaia pressa
Vt — Var’ete i tsirk
WP — Washington Post
Prologue
1–2 Jenkins: Jenkins to USSS, April 6, 22, 1919; Burri on Odessa, CP Odessa, box 1, RG 84. conditions in Odessa: Papers Relating 1919, 751, 753; Munholland, 49–50, 53; Brygin, 478; Xydias, 302. d’Anselme: Munholland, 56–58; see also Margulies, 307; Kantorovich, 261; Kettle, 249–53; Priest, 90. Bagge: BHC to BSS, April 26, 1919; Bagge’s interview with d’Espèrey, April 20, 1919, FO 371/3964, 362–65, NA.
3–4 Frederick’s stolen passport: Frederick to Ravndal, May 10, 1921, CPI 337. Russian citizenship: petition to Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs, Aug. 2, 1914: RGIA f. 1284, op. 247, d. 26. 1914–1915 g.g. (5 pp.); application presented to Nicholas II and his approval: RGIA f. 1276 (Sovet ministrov), op. 17, d. 345, ll. 134–35 ob.
5–6 evacuation: Jenkins’s reports to USSS, CP Odessa, box 1, RG84. Olga: BHC to USHC, Feb. 26, 1920, DPT 411. Frederick’s loss of fortune, Odessa’s banks: Sackett; Gurko, 147; Kettle, 253. Jenkins’s reports to USSS, ibid. Bagge interview with d’Espèrey, April 20, 1919, and Bagge to Graham, May 8, 10, 12, 1919, Letter and memoranda on evacuation of Odessa, FO 371/3964, 362–97, NA.
7–8 Imperator Nikolay’s delays, d’Anselme’s announcement, London Hotel: Lobanov-Rostovsky, 332–33; Kettle, 253; Kantorovich, 263. confusion indescribable: Jenkins’s reports to USSS, CP Odessa, box 1, RG84; Silverlight, 207. Cooke: BHC to BSS, April 25, 1919; Cooke on evacuation of Odessa, FO 371/3964, 337–61, NA; Kettle, 254, 255–57. MLB, April 10, 1919, Special Report on Odessa Evacuation. Imperator Nikolay’s departure, Bolsheviks arrive, Odessa’s appearance: Jenkins’s reports to USSS, ibid. Lobanov-Rostovsky, 338; Kantorovich, 264; Tumanov, 85; Kettle, 256.
9–10 Imperator Nikolay and conditions: Lobanov-Rostovsky, 338; Kettle, 256. Bagge to Graham on evacuation of Odessa, FO 371/3964, 366–97, NA. Imperator Nikolay’s voyage: Chevilly to Haut Commissaire, April 7, 1919; Bigaut to Vincent, April 21, 1919; d’Espèrey to Haut Commissaire, April 6, 7, 16, 1919; Vincent to Poulon, April 22, 1919, Ankara (ambassade), lot no. 2, Haut-Commissariat français à Constantinople, année 1919, boxes 2, 38, CADN.
11–12 “delousing”: it was s
imilar throughout the Constantinople area: Tumanov, 87; N. Kormilev, “Proshchai, Odessa! 2,” Nrs, May 8, 1975, 3; I. Gardner, “Bredovyi khorovod,” Nrs, July 15, 1977, 2.
13–14 d’Espèrey and French arrangements: d’Espèrey to Haut Commissaire, April 6, 16, 1919; Vincent to Poulon, April 22, 1919, Ankara (ambassade), lot no. 2, Haut-Commissariat français à Constantinople, année 1919, boxes 2, 38, CADN. Vincent to British Naval Attaché, April 14, 1919, FO 371/3964, 415–18. Bolsheviks in Odessa: Papers Relating 1919, 768; Gde obryvaetsia Rossiia, “Oblozhenie burzhuazii,” 272. Thomases arrive in Constantinople: DF. “nervous collapse”: Jenkins to USSS, “Urgent” telegram, May 29, 1919, Department of State, Decimal File, box 1460 (123J 411/65), RG 59.
15–16 Constantinople and Bosporus: “City of Minarets and Mud,” NYT, Nov. 5, 1922, 4, 13; “Constantinople, Where East Met West,” AC, Aug. 5, 1923, 21; Marcosson; Armstrong, 71–72.
Chapter One
1 “The Most Southern Place on Earth”: Cobb. Hannah and Lewis, November 4, 1872: information about Frederick’s parents and his date of birth is compiled from various sources: TT, CC, U.S. Census data for 1870 (the Thomas family was counted twice by mistake) and 1880, and his passport applications. they had been slaves: TT; Sackett. blacks outnumbered whites, most blacks owned nothing: 1870 U.S. Census, Schedule 1: Population, and Schedule 3: Productions of Agriculture, Coahoma and Tallahatchie Counties, Mississippi; Cobb, 30; Weeks, 34; Aiken, 9–10, 17.
2–3 1869 auction: CCR S, 19. Lewis was credited with having produced 48 bales of cotton by June 1, 1870 (U.S. Census, Schedule 3, Productions of Agriculture, District No. 5, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi), which means that he took possession of the land before the spring of 1869. Cheairs brothers: TT; Edwards, 1981, 6–7; Edwards, in Mabry, 1, 59. Cheairs family members were still active in the area in the 1880s and 1890s: Calvin Cheairs’ Executors v. Samuel D. Cheairs’ Administrators, 671; 1880 U.S. Census, Special Schedules of Manufactures, Nos. 7 and 8, District No. 110, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. depression, land prices: Cobb, 54–55, 74; Willis, 45–46. Thomases’ first season: 1870 U.S. Census, Schedule 3, Tallahatchie, ibid.
4–5 Coahoma County’s appearance, character, settlement: Cobb, vii, 5, 8, 10, 14, 30, 43, 78; Weeks, 3, 9, 34; Bonner, 31–32; Edwards, 1980, 7. lives of the rich: Cobb, 16. lives of slaves, mosquitoes, black children’s mortality: Cobb, 20–22; 13, 45; Weeks, 7; Williamson, 47. slaves kept illiterate: Margo, 7–8.
6–7 freedmen, sharecropping, whites thwart land rental: Cobb, 51, 55, 60, 71; Aiken, 17; Williamson, 46.
8 Frederick’s siblings, parents: U.S. Censuses, 1870, 1880. In court documents filed in 1890 and 1891, India mentioned only Frederick and her daughter, his half sister, Ophelia.
9–10 Lewis’s character: see below, Memphis newspaper stories for October 1890; Dickerson v. Thomas (April 1890), 781. parents’ literacy: India was literate: CC, 1880 U.S. Federal Census for Coahoma County, MS. Lewis was illiterate: 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Tallahatchie County, MS. In all CC documents he “makes his mark.” names: Puckett; I am also grateful to Professor Glenda Gilmore for additional information. Bruce: Biographical Directory; “Blanche Kelso Bruce.”
11–12 Frederick’s childhood, hunting, fishing, wildlife: Cobb, 15, 44; Weeks, 7; Bonner, 32, 59, 2; Cohn, 1948, 26. smells and sounds: Bonner, 56–61, 128, 127; Oats, 2; Cohn, 1995, 2.
13–14 1870 census data: Schedule 3, Productions of Agriculture in District No. 5, Tallahatchie County. 48 bales: estimate based on data from 1870 census. hired hands: 1880 U.S. Census, Schedule 2, Productions of Agriculture in District 101, Coahoma County, shows “Key” and “Ralph Florida” in the Thomas household.
15–16 land transactions: CCR: I, 295–96; L, 229–30; Q, 69–70, 615–617; R, 269–270; S, 19–20, 306–307; V, 412–16; W, 258–59; CCR CC, 155–58. CCD 1: case 655, 317; case 900, 446. CCM 3: 113, 211, 249, 300, 365–66, 368, 378–80, 492–93, 510–11, 543–44, 582–83, 595–97, 628–29. CCM 4, 1893–1905: 33, 218, 221–23, 231–32. CCD [no number], Probate Side: 230, 510. CCI E: 282–85. white English partner: CCR L: 229–30; George Rudman: Ancestry.com, Incoming U.S. Passenger Lists, and 1880 U.S. Census.
17–18 Thomases donate land: CCR S: 306–7. blacks and churches: Aiken, 21; Lomax, 70; Wharton, 256–57, 262; Williamson, 47, 172–73. church a log cabin: Sydnor, 41. A.M.E. Church in Friars Point: Willie Oats Jr. to Florence Larson, Aug. 12, 1996, North. Cherry Hill church: Edwards, 1980; Edwards, in Mabry, 22; Nicholas, in Mabry, 33, 34; Brieger, 167. Cheairs brothers: Samuel and other family members are buried in the Cherry Hill Cemetery: Cemetery. churches in Mississippi: Williamson, 53; Aiken, 26; Wharton, 248; Weeks, 143. On white schools in Coahoma County in 1870, and the first white school in Clarksdale in 1884, see Weeks, 142. Bureau of Refugees: “Freedmen’s Bureau.” Black education: Wharton, 249; Margo, 6.
19–20 second major turning point: Dickerson v. Thomas (April 1890) and Dickerson v. Thomas (October 1890). Quoted phrases and specific details are drawn from the published reports. There are discrepancies between the state supreme court’s summary and the much more detailed account in CC; I have used both sets of documents. Dickerson’s wealth: Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 647–68. “it weren’t no use in climbin”: quoted by Sacks, 13.
21–22 Maynard and the Cutrer brothers: CCD 1: case 655, 317; Weeks, 92, 165–66. Cutrer’s crime was reported widely: “Slandered Once Too Often,” BDG, July 31, 1890, 4; “The Shooting of Editor F. F. Chew,” CDT, Aug. 1, 1890, 5; “An Editor Fatally Shot,” July 31, 1890, NYT, 5. Dickerson family’s roots: Weeks, vii, 73; U.S. Census Slave Schedule, 1860; U.S. Censuses, 1870, 1880. first scandal: Dickerson et al. v. Brown; Wallenstein, 82–84; Bercaw, 158–61. Before the Civil War, it was illegal in Mississippi to emancipate a child born to a female slave. Cheairs et al. v. Smith et al. refused to confirm a will in which a white planter attempted to free two mulatto children. $115,000: U.S. Census, 1870.
23–24 newspaper in Jackson: quoted in Bercaw, 160. Dickerson clan: U.S. Censuses 1880, 1900. Lewis’s case against Dickerson: CCD 1: case 655, 317; CCM 3: 113, 211, 249, 300, 365–66, 368, 378–80, 492–93; case also summarized: Dickerson v. Thomas (April 1890). boardinghouse: TT. court’s decision on April 19, 1889: CCM 3: 378–80. “misrepresentations”: Dickerson v. Thomas (April 1890), 783. courthouse location: Weeks, 175. Clarksdale’s founder: “John Clark,” in Biographical and Historical Memoirs, 553–54. Daniel Scott, warring factions: “A Mob in Mississippi,” BDG, July 8, 1887, 1. Dickerson and train station: Weeks, 73.
25–26 court’s “Opinion”: Dickerson v. Thomas (April 1890), 784, 781. “writ of assistance”: CCM 3: 492–93.
27–28 Thomases deed half their farm: CCR CC: 155-58. “lynchingest” state: Cobb, 91. Thomases move to Memphis in summer of 1890: this can be deduced from TT; Dow’s Memphis, 1891, 120–21; in Coahoma County, the verdict’s aftershocks lasted from April 1889 until October 1890, with a peak in June 1890. A Shelby County death record indicates that Lewis had been a Memphis resident since 1887; this seems to be an error, although it is possible that he visited the city more than once.
29–30 sixty thousand, largest cotton market, 1866 race riot, lynchings increase. Dow’s Memphis, 1889, 47; Bond and Sherman, 46, 70–71. rented a house: Memphis Avalanche, Oct. 29, 1890, 1. Dow’s Memphis,1891, 920–921. house and its location: Insurance Maps of Memphis, 1888 and 1897. Lewis’s work: Dow’s Memphis, 1891, 920–21, and advertisement following 968; TT; Memphis newspaper articles (see below).
31–32 Frederick’s job: TT. Weir’s market: Dow’s Memphis,1891, 968. Howe Institute: TT, in which he refers to the school as “Howe’s University”; Bond and Sherman, 94; Annals, 162. Eastbrook was principal c. 1888–1892. Howe curriculum: Bond and Sherman, 42, 71, 94; LeMoyne Normal Institute, 1883–1884, which probably resembled Howe’s a half dozen years later.
33–34 boarders at Lewis and India’s house, events that followed: local newspapers provided extensive and often lurid coverage: Memphis Appeal
, Oct. 29, 1890, 4; Oct. 31, 1890, 5; Memphis Avalanche, Oct. 29, 1890, 1; Oct. 31, 1890, 1; Nov. 2, 1890, 11; Memphis Public Ledger, Oct. 28, 1890, 1; Oct. 29, 1890, 2; Nov. 1, 1890, 5; Memphis Daily Commercial, Oct. 29, 1890, 5; Oct. 31, 1890, 5. There are some discrepancies among the accounts. In a number of instances, I quote or repeat the exact wording of the newspaper stories.
35–36 supreme court’s explanation: Dickerson v. Thomas (October 1890), 158. India’s petition: CCM: 510–11; CCD Probate Side: case 431, 230. her revival of lawsuit: CCM 3: 543-44. case’s convolutions: CCM 3: 595–97, 628–29; there is some confusion in the court documents regarding the size and location of the property. In 1891, India revived a second lawsuit that Lewis had begun against James A. Peace: CCR Q: 69–70; CCM 3: case 900, 582–83; Weeks, 32, 61, 63, 83. Dickerson’s death: CCM 4: case 655, 218; U.S. Census 1880. Coahoma County Chancery Court’s decision: CCM 4: 221–23, 231–32; CCI E: 282–85. India in Memphis: presumably with Ophelia, she moved to a smaller house at 417 Clay Street: Polk’s Memphis Directory for 1892, 963, 1108, 1148; Insurance Maps of Memphis, 1897. India moved to Louisville: she worked for the family of William C. Kendrick: Caron’s Directory 1893, 616, 1092; 1894, 616, 1089; 1895, 604, 1078; 1896, 646, 1154 (her name is given erroneously as “Indiana”). Frederick’s “desire to travel”: TT.
Chapter Two
1–2 Frederick left the South: in those years, young black men from the country who left home usually sought work in southern cities; Williamson, 59. Arkansas character: Nordhoff, 37. “drifted,” St. Louis, 1890: TT. St. Louis: http://stlouis.missouri.org/heritage/History69/#golden. Chicago’s history, character: Spear, 1–4, 140–41. blacks in Chicago: Reed, Black Chicago’s First Century, 65, 230, 241, 249, 359. Gallagher: TT; Chicago by Day and Night, 208; The Lakeside Annual Directory, 1889, 655; 1890, 2573; 1891, 843; 1893, 1947. Auditorium Hotel: TT; “Two Jolts for Jack Johnson,” CDT, Nov. 2, 1912, 8; Auditorium, 11ff., 77, 86.
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