comparative ease of forming crews. Colored seamen, in large numbers, I apprehend, can easily be obtained. Even in the United States, their numbers are legion; and we may proudly say that, in activity, dutifulness, and skill, they are equal to any sailors on the globe. Nor would there be any great lack of the needed class just above the grade of sailors; that is, a class who would join intelligence and knowledge to practicalness. What a number of men, trained to a late boyhood in the colored schools, do we not know who have sailed for years out of New York as "stewards" in the great "liners." How many of these are there not, who, both at school and by experience, have attained a real scientific acquainance with navigation. And how many of them, had they been white men, would, long ere this, have risen to the posts of mates and captains! How many of such could you and I point out who were our schoolmates in the old "free school," in Mulberry street?[1]
Here, then, you have the material and the designated agency for an almost boundless commercial
- ↑ In a most elaborate paper, entitled "The Niger Trade," by Sir George Stephen, (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London, 1849,) the author shows, most clearly, the need and the practicability of employing the agency of black men, for the purpose of African civilization. Sir George suggested the employment of them, in the [British] naval as well as merchant service; in all grades of office, from seamen and marines up to naval officers; and he points to the West India Colonies, and Hayti, remarking, "Hayti has a navy exceeding twenty in number, of which four are steamers; all are, of course, manned and officered by black or colored men." In this paper, Sir George quotes and emphasizes the words of McQueen—"It is by African hands and African exertions chiefly that the evil must be rooted out"
