Fitchett, E. Horace. The Free Negro in Charleston, South Carolina. University of Chicago: Dissertation, 1950.
--- "One of the most effective methods by which the free Negro f Charleston identified himself with the life of his community was to organize himself into societies which were ostensibly, at least, benevolent organizations. Dickerman, who had acces to the records of the Brown Fellowship Society, and was himself and educator, had this to say about that order:
It was started with five members and in a few years the number grew to about fifty. Besides cultivating a spirit of fellowship, it aimed to provide relief in time of affliction, to afford school privileges for their children, and to extent [sic] aid to any worthy persons of their race who might be in any want. . . . " (118)
--- "The Brown Fellowship Society for Negroes was organized the same year as was the American Revolution Society among the civilians and it was given the same name as another order which was founded in 1762, Fellowship. The Humane and Friendly Society among Negroes was started in 1802, just one year after the Hebrew Orphan Society received its charter, and the Friendly Union was begun among free Negroes n 1813, which was one year after the formation of the Whig Association in 1812.
Some of these societies incorporated into their body of rules provisions for imposing standards. One can easily discern how eager they were to avoid being misunderstood as a conflict group. Among the eligibility requirements of the Brown Fellowship Society was that one had to be free and it was implied that one should be a mulatto." (119)
--- "All available evidence strongly supports the assumption that one of the bases for class distinctions in Charleston's free Negro society was skin color. The descendents of the members of these distinct classes have had a knowledge of this class-color relationship passed down to them from their ancestors. While the records suggest that the mulatto occupied a more favorable position in the system, economically and socially, those of the dark skin class have come to give superior significance to racial purity or the moral stability of their lineage because of the absence of race mixture." (121)
--- "For example, although there was considerable prejudice on the part of the old mulatto families in Charleston against association with the blacks, nevertheless at least two black families were generally accepted as belonging to the upper-class. This was due to the fact that these black families could boast of free ancestry and were as well situated economically as the mulatto families. On the other hand, although to which the mulattoes belonged, there was still some resistance to admitting them into the most intimate associations. Member of one of the old mulatto families frankly confessed that black families of free origin were always referred to within the circle of the mulatto families by a whispered epithet which designated them as a peculiar kind of free persons of color. Moreover, although these black aristocrats were received by the mulattoes on formal occasions, they knew instinctively as it were, that they should not seek a marriage alliance with the mulatto and that they were not expected at the intimate social functions although they received invitations." (Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States, pp. 405-406 [qtd p. 124])
--- "The rules of the Brown Fellowship Society and the conduct of the free Negro showed this group was not dangerous.--It is very reasonable to suppose that prospective members to these societies were given a very careful scrutiny and examination before they were approved. They had to be "safe," contented, unobtrusive persons; they had to belong to the in-group; and they had to have a relatively high economic position in the group. There had to be an assurance that the organization or its members would never offend the mores of the community." (127)
--- "The Brown Fellowship Society provided opportunities for exclusive, fraternal relations among free Negroes.-- There is every reason to believe that the organizations, particularly the Brown Fellowship Society, furnished important social outlets for its members. To belong to this organization gave one recognition and a feeling of social security. Membership apparently meant that one had not only the status of the upper class in his own group but that he had a position of distinction and privilege in the larger community as well. This was an important, if not the most important, function of this Society. It is true that the benevolent features were kept alive also, because they provided the best justification for the organization's existence. It is probably fair to say that those with whom it was proper to associate, whom one should marry, how one should spent [sic] his time and where he should be buried when he died, all of these affairs were regulated by this closely knit group of brown people." (136)
--- "In Charleston every group or society had its own burying ground. This was true of the white as well as the Negro population. These places became sacred grounds in the deepest meaning of that term. In them reposed, it was thought, the history of a glorious past. " (145)
--- "While the Brown Fellowship Society played an important role in the life of the free Negro in Charleston before and for a while after emancipation, its influence has declined in contemporary life. In fact, it has become almost extinct. There is no active membership; there are no meetings; and there is no program." [1950] (p. 180)
--- "It seems fair to say that because of the superior educational, economic and social experiences which the privileged free Negro had during the ante bellum period he became the natural leader of the inarticulate, underprivileged masses of freedmen. This new orientation essentially changed the free Negro from a class conscious group to a race conscious group." (245)