The Life of Blanche Kelso Bruce: From Slavery to Senator

By Phyllis Appel

He refused a position in President Cleveland’s administration fearing as a lifelong Republican his political loyalties would be questioned.
Bruce was nominated twice for vice president and was the first colored man to chair a senate session. One of his favorite parts about serving as Register of the Treasury was seeing his signature on greenbacks and national bank notes. This had him often teasing, “There’s money in my name.”
Read about Blanche Bruce’s hard fought journey from a slave born with the singular name of Blanche* to his rise to fame and fortune. Learn about his life during the Civil War, and his run-in with William Quantrill’s Guerillas in Lawrence, Kansas. Discover what life was like for African Americans in the South and how politics and political parties shaped our nation.

*In an interview with the St. Paul Daily Globe printed in July 31, 1887, Bruce told a reporter his mother named him after her old girlfriend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phyllis Appel
• Release date: May 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9780984538119

Phyllis Appel

A life-long resident of Missouri, Phyllis Appel has always loved to learn. That is why for the past 27 years she worked for a large school district in the Show-Me State. Now retired, Phyllis is combining her interest in writing and research to create historical biographies.

Book preview

Chapter 1: A New Identity

Blanche Kelso Bruce tried desperately to still his trembling body. As he lay hidden behind the tall bushes, the twenty-two-year old covered his ears hoping to drown out the deafening sounds of gunfire, galloping horses, and terrifying screams that swirled around him. Despite his best efforts, the angry guns of Colonel William Quantrill’s guerillas grew louder as the bushwhackers sought revenge on the citizens of Lawrence for Confederate deaths at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

The townspeople were helpless. Foolishly, they had disbanded their military companies relying on the outlaws’ promises not to invade Kansas. Now they were defenseless as the fiends torched buildings, looted stores, and murdered unarmed citizens in their homes and on the streets.

Lying on the damp ground clothed in only his shirt and drawers, Blanche nervously waited for his chance to escape. So far, only blind luck had kept him alive. Had he not been nursing his sick friend last night and heard the outlaws firing their pistols as they rode by, his fate would have been sealed. Knowing the rebels would not have spared a colored man, he ran from the house.

Concealed in the brushes, Bruce pressed closer to the moist mossy grass. As he waited for a chance to escape, a kaleidoscope of memories brought him back to his family. He recalled how his father/master Pettus Perkinson had provided for his slave mother, Polly, and his siblings. Although Perkinson had hired him out for fieldwork, he was grateful that his master had defied Virginia law and allowed him to be tutored alongside Willie, his white half-brother. Best of all, he had apprenticed Blanche to the Brunswicker as printer devil.

Bruce liked mixing tubs of ink and setting type for the printing press. It gave him time to sneak off to read the newspapers and books lying about.

The teen followed the 1860 presidential race and celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s win with less than 40% of the popular vote. Seven slave states opposed the election. They saw Lincoln as a villain who would take their slaves. They left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. However, President Lincoln refused to let the nation be divided so soon after the War of the Rebellion began.

That December, Willie enrolled in Missouri’s 35th Regiment. Their father so bitterly opposed his son’s enlistment into Colonel Moberly’s state militia that his stepbrother deserted the Union forces and headed back to Virginia to fight with the Confederates.

Hurt by the betrayal, Blanche ran off to enlist but the Yankees were not enrolling black recruits. That was when he made the fateful decision to move on to freedom. Fearful of slave hunters, he traveled the back roads. Feeling safe in the abolitionist stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas, Bruce declared himself a free man and founded the area’s first school for colored children. Now as he lay hidden among the brushes, he wondered if freedom was worth dying for.

Detecting a lull in the action, Bruce left his hiding place and ran for his life. Several armed raiders spotted him crossing the open field. The desperadoes rode furiously towards him but somehow he managed to escape their bullets and dive into the Kaw River. They searched for what seemed like hours. Dozens of times their horses came within a few feet, but he kept his head under water and hid behind a hedge of vines and roots close to the shore. Even after the rebels gave up and rode away, he remained submerged until nightfall.

Chapter 2: Back to Missouri

As soon as Missouri law recognized emancipated slaves as freedmen, Bruce set out for Hannibal. Many doubted that a black man could be safe in a state that flew both Union and Confederate flags. However, the twenty-three-year-old felt confident that with Yankee troops guarding the bridges and river traffic and the town under martial law, he would be protected.

Blanche got a job at the Courier, the largest pro-Union printing operation in northeast Missouri. Often when walking to work, he would stop to chat with Mr. Storrs. The proprietor of the Planters’ Hotel was always delighted to put down his broom and grumble about something. During the cold winter, conversation most often was about the shortage of coal. As the weather began to warm up, he complained about how the melting temperatures kept his cutters from harvesting the ice from the river.

When he finally ran out of grievances, Storrs turned to his favorite story; his meeting President Lincoln. Reverently he spoke of that Sunday when the Republican presidential candidate, then beardless, visited Hannibal. Once Mr. Lincoln stepped off the train, he directed him to John Brown Helm’s office. As word spread of the candidate’s arrival, the townspeople began gathering outside the judge’s office.

When the two friends went outside, Lincoln addressed the crowd. Patting the judge’s shoulder, he told how the two first met. At that time, Helm’s ran his uncle’s general store in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. While his stepmother shopped, young Abe would sit on a nail keg and be entertained by the judge. He admitted his admiration for Helm, the first man he ever knew who wore store clothes all the week. Lincoln claimed it became his goal to reach his position in society. After finishing the tale, Storrs would chuckle and then shuffle off.

Once Reverend Thomas Henderson left town, Bruce took over his classes at the Second Baptist Church. Blanche enjoyed teaching. He found that the colored adults were as eager to learn as the children.

Often when stepping inside the one room church, memories from his slave days came flooding back. Bruce could almost hear the colored preacher telling his slave congregation how the Bible willed them to be grateful to their masters for tending to their needs. Should the illiterate cleric deviate the message, the white man monitoring the service would drag the minister to his owner, who would beat him and strip him of his license.

On January 11, 1865, the blast of exploding cannon had Blanche running onto the jammed streets. On learning that Governor Thomas Fletcher had freed all 115,000 Missouri slaves, Blanche joined the cheering crowd. His family was free! Now Tennessee and Kentucky remain the only border states that allowed slavery.

Less than three months later, church bells announced General Robert E. Lee’s surrender. The war was finally over! But, the celebrating was short lived. Six days later, President Lincoln was murdered and just like that, Andrew Johnson, the vice president of only forty-one days, became head of the nation.

The train carrying the coffins of the assassinated president and his eleven-year-old son, Willie, who had died in the White House three years earlier, left Washington depot on April 21, 1865. The eight companies that owned the rail rights to Springfield furnished the president’s car and eight others would travel 1,654-miles to take Lincoln back home.

For the next twelve days, the funeral train made its way to Illinois. As it passed through 180 cities and 7 states, millions of tearful men, women, and children lined the tracks to say their final goodbyes. After twelve extended stops for public viewing, the Lincoln Special pulled into Chicago. When it left its last stop, Bruce headed to Lincoln’s home state to personally pay his respects to the slain president.

On May 3, he was among more than 100,000 mourners that met the funeral train. As soldiers from the Veteran Reserve corps transferred the coffins, even the six black horses that pulled the decorative black and silver hearse stood still. Only occasional sobs broke the silence.

While a band played funeral music, numerous dignitaries, governors, and soldiers formed a procession and headed to the city square. When Jesse Arnot’s hearse passed, tears flowed so heavily down Bruce’s face that he could hardly discern the coffin.

Once the hometown colored citizens ended the march, Bruce headed to the black-draped state Capitol building to wish the president a proper farewell. After hours of waiting in line, he entered the state house, where Lincoln had served four terms. Upstairs in Representatives’ Hall, he reverently filed past the decorated walnut casket and stood still for a time studying the president’s shrunken features before leaving the gas lit chamber.

The following morning while Reverends Henry Brown and William Trevan took charge of the president’s horse, Old Bob, the coffin lid was soldered shut. At 11:30 a.m., the band struck up Lincoln’s Funeral March and the procession began. At Oak Ridge Cemetery, Lincoln’s son, Robert, watched as the caskets were carried to a temporary vault.

During Bishop Matthew Simpson’s hour-long eulogy, Bruce’s attention turned to the Radical Republicans standing behind him. In hushed voices, the men expressed their concerns on President Johnson’s plans to run the country. When Johnson remained the only southern member in Congress, they had hope that he was a reformer. Now they weren’t so sure. Would his disdain of wealthy southern landowners make him tough on the rebels? Or, would his southern prejudices hinder black equality? Bruce never knew their conclusion for soon after, the tomb’s heavy iron doors closed.

Chapter 3: Blanche Moves On

Blanche worried about his family’s future. Instead of benefiting from their newfound freedom, their lives seemed far worse. Without money or a home, his mother and siblings depended on Willie for their support, yet the war had left his stepbrother penniless and in poor health. With his father dead, slaves freed, and his hogs, cattle, and horses stolen by men claiming to be Union soldiers, Willie’s only possessions were his land and a diploma from Missouri State University in Columbia.

After his Kansas friend, George Cornelius Smith, wrote Bruce about Oberlin College accepting negro students, he set out for Ohio. For the next year, he chopped wood and took on odd jobs to supplement his dwindling funds. Once his money gave out and no financial aid was forthcoming, he had little choice but to leave his Congregational ministry studies.

Bruce returned to Missouri. In St. Louis, he found a porter’s job on the steamer Columbia. Between carrying bags and catering to demanding passengers in the grand saloon, he would often sneak up to the Texas deck and breathe in the cold, misty air. Leaning against the railing, he stared at the flowing waters and let his mind drift. Although he enjoyed life on a steamboat, it presented great risks. Snags ripped holes in the hull, boats caught fire, and violent storms all threatened ships. Then there were exploding boilers that turned vessels into toothpicks.

Having faced death long ago, Blanche put his trust in fate. That didn’t mean he was reckless. As much as he longed to join the Carpetbaggers and seek his fortunes in the impoverished South, he realized his luck could only stretch so far. With Congress and President Johnson squabbling over freedmen’s rights, a black man was more likely to be lynched than become rich.

One day when leaving the landing, Bruce noticed a small crowd gathered around the bulletin board. While wandering over to read the announcements, he overheard talks of the Missouri Equal Rights League scheduling a meeting on October 3. Believing 1865 was well past the time to advance colored people’s rights, he decided to attend.

That Tuesday night, Blanche was among the first to arrive at the Eighth Street Colored Baptist Church. After conversing with several friends, he took a seat near the front row. As the room filled up, he was awestruck to see black leaders like James Milton Turner, Moses Dickson, and Samuel Ireland.

As Reverend Preston G. Wells made his way to the pulpit, all conversations ceased. After welcoming the gathering, he spoke of the league and explained the need to have a local branch in St. Louis to advance black people’s rights in the state. After much applause, Reverend Wells was chosen chairman, while Bruce surprisingly found himself voted secretary. Next, Enos Clark, the white state representative, delivered a stirring speech advocating black suffrage. Clark called it essential that they lobby the state legislature to amend the state constitution to give colored people the vote. Without able to vote or hold office, they were free in name only. Other speeches followed.

Despite years of hard work, their petitions failed. Missouri Afro-Americans would not be able to vote in the 1968 election. This worried Blanche. The Democratic nominee, Horatio Seymour, had branded General Ulysses S. Grant the Nigger candidate. He insists that white men should rule. Should the Republicans lose, Bruce feared that all gains the freedpeople secured would be erased.

Luckily, Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas had not returned to the Union. This kept rebels from voting. Meanwhile, thousands of freedmen in Union states voting for the first time gave General Grant a huge victory.

Johnson was so angry by the Republican win that on