SECTION IV.
DISTINCT CHARACTER OF THE COLORED RACE — WHY THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE HAS BEEN PERMITTED — EMIGRATION OF THE FREE BLACKS TO LIBERIA.
From the authentic and satisfactory accounts which we have of Liberia — some particulars of which have been adduced in the preceding pages — we draw the conclusion, that it is the true home and country for the free, intelligent, and Christianized colored man: and that in laboring to make it such a home, the hand of Providence is distinctly visible, in the whole history of its foundation and progress. That is enough: all the other conclusions follow from this as a premise: both the deliverance of America and the regeneration of Africa are the necessary consequences: it remains but a question of time. Potens est veritas, et prevalebit: — "Truth is mighty and will prevail." In spite of opposition and obloquy, in spite of indifference and contempt, the cause of African Colonization will at length, we believe, completely triumph. The free blacks of the United States, will at length discover their true interests, will at length perceive that if they would consult their own real happiness, and the lasting good, moral and physical, of themselves and their children — if, in a word, they would become truly freemen, not only legally, but civilly and socially, they must separate themselves from the whites, and go where they will be in a community of their own color and kin, and where they Will be on perfectly equal terms with all around them. It requires but little thought to show them this: in fact, they know it already and feel it. The nobler-spirited of them feel deeply their state of humiliation, and the more intelligent of them to perceive the only remedy for it. Africa, the home of their fathers, calls to them across the sea, and spreads her arms to welcome them. Here, she says, is all you wish; here is a home, freedom, and happiness. Here the colored man is in dignity and in power. Here are no whites to frown upon ‘you, to pass you by with disregard, to oppress or disturb you. Here you may be not only a voter, an elector, but also yourself eligible to the highest offices. Here you may be a member of the Legislature, a Judge, the Vice-President, the President himself, if you but possess the capacity and fitness. All places of honor and trust are open to you. All the professions, too, are free to you: here, the lawyer, the physician, the clergyman are all colored men, like yourselves, yet loved, esteemed, and honored, looked up to for counsel and instruction, in all concerns, whether affecting the body or the soul, whether temporal or eternal Here, too, the avenues to wealth are all open. The merchant, the ship-owner, the land-holder, are here all men of color, yet possessing weight and influence in the community — gentlemen, respectable, and respected by all Here everything is in abundance; comforts and luxuries invite you on every side. You may literally "sit under your own vine and fig — tree, with none to make you afraid." In the soft evening-hour, after the duties of the day are over, you may sit at the door of your own mansion, and while the cool sea-breeze is breathing upon you, and the new moon is hanging in beauty over the western waters, you will look across that ocean, and — thinking of the land of the whites that lies beyond — you will bless the day you left it, to come to the home of. your fathers, the rich country which Providence has set apart for the colored race.
While, Africa is thus calling them, America is urging them away. Their presence is not. desired by the whites; they are felt to be a foreign element in the body politic, one that cannot amalgamate with its system, — one, the removal of which is necessary to its safety, health, and peace. This feeling is founded, doubtless, on the intrinsic distinction between the two races, which the Creator himself has marked. That Creator has divided mankind into distinct races; not two only, but many. At least five distinct races are, as we know, universally recognized by ethnographers, — namely, the yellow or Asiatic race, the brown or Malays, the copper-colored or American-Indian, the negro or African, and,the Caucasian or white race. The mixture of any two of these has not in general been found to be for the advantage of either party. There are fundamental differences between them, not only in physical, but in mental constitution. Mixed races, it has been generally found, are degenerate races.
This being the case, it is evident that the repugnance felt by the whites at the idea of intermixture with the African race, is not without a foundation in something real, — in a feeling implanted, doubtless, for the very purpose of keeping the races distinct. Nor is this feeling by any means confined, in its direction, to the African race alone. Would there not be felt the same or a greater abhorrence at the idea of intermarriage with an American-Indian, — with a Malay, — with a Chinese? Thus, we perceive, on a little reflection, that it is not a sentiment confined, in its direction, to the Africans Nor is the existence of such a feeling by any means exclusively to be found with American whites, as has sometimes been unjustly charged. It exists with whites of all nations, who have been brought to any considerable extent into contact with the African race. It is found with people of all the different nations that possess the several West India islands — the English, French, Spanish, Swedes, Danes. All these have a similar repugnance to an a nation with the negro. There may be a slight difference in the degree of this feeling — the French and Spanish, perhaps, manifesting less of it than the others: but, of all the whites, the Anglo-Saxon race, whether the English in the West Indies, or the Americans in the United States, are most deeply imbued with it. In England itself, indeed, the feeling can scarcely be said to exist; and simply for the reason that there few or no negroes in that country, there has been no Opportunity for its exercise — nothing to call it forth or to produce it.[1] But because the African race is distinct from the white, does it follow that it is inferior By no means. That is a point not proved; nor has the day for fair comparison yet arrived. But even if it should appear that the white is superior in intellectual capacity, yet it is certain that the African is the superior in the nobler part of man — the heart. It is the testimony of Mungo Park, and of other travelers in Africa, that the negroes, even in their present uncultivated state, are a gentle, feeling, affectionate race. How many touching instances does Park relate of their kindness to him, while wandering in the wilds of the African continent![2] It is quite possible, as has been remarked by the intelligent writer already quoted Kinmont), that the African race is yet destined to show to the world a new and loftier species of civilization than has yet been seen, — not the cold and hard civilization of cultivated intellect merely, but the heavenly civilization of goodness, peace, and mutual love. "There can be no question," he says, "that when the epoch of their civilization arrives, in the lapse of ages, they will display in their native land some very peculiar and interesting traits of character, of which we, a distinct branch of the human family, can at present form no conception. It will be — indeed, it must be — a civilization of a peculiar stamp; perhaps we might venture to conjecture, not so much distinguished by art, as a certain beautiful nature, — not so marked or adorned by science, as exalted and refined by a certain new and lovely theology; — a reflection of the light of heaven, more perfect and endearing than that which the intellects of the Caucasian race have ever yet exhibited. There is more of the child, of unsophisticated nature, in the Negro race than in the European, — a circumstance, however, which must always lower them in the estimation of a people whose natural distinction is a manly and proud bearing, and an extreme proneness to artificial society and social institutions. If the Caucasian race is destined, as would appear from the precocity of their genius, and their natural quickness, and extreme aptitude to the arts, to reflect the lustre of the Divine wisdom, or, to speak more properly, of science — shall we envy the Negro, if a later but far nobler civilization await him, — to return the splendor of the Divine attributes of mercy and benevolence, in the practice and exhibition of all the milder and gentler virtues? It is true, the present rude lineaments of the race might seem to give little warrant for the indulgence of hopes so romantic; but yet those who will reflect upon the natural constitution of the African may see some ground even for such anticipations. Can we not read an aptitude for this species of civilization I refer to, in that singular light-heartedness which distinguishes the whole race, — in their natural want of solicitude about the future — in them~ a vice at present, but yet the natural basis of a virtue — and, especially, in that natural talent for music with which they are preeminently endowed; — to say nothing of that willingness to serve, the most beautiful trait of humanity, which we, from our innate love of dominion, and in defiance of the Christian religion, brand with the name of servility, and abuse, not less to our. own dishonor than to their injury. But even amid these untoward circumstances, there burst forth occasionally the indications of that better destiny, to which nature herself will at last conduct them."[3] We think there is much probability in this view. And the course of the Liberian colony thus far is proof of it. Where is there, on record, an account of a colony or settlement of whites, taken from among a class so degraded, and uneducated as that from which many of the Liberians were drawn — who conducted themselves so well, so admirably with so much order, propriety, and harmony? We may safely say there never has been such a colony. Nor, moreover, have the Liberians shown any want of energy or ability. And it yet remains to be seen whether they will not-manifest by and by, intellectual capacities equal to those of the white race.[4] It is not therefore, we would repeat, on the ground of any intrinsic inferiority in the African race, that we think they should be separated from the whites, but because we believe it to be the manifest order of nature and intention of Divine Providence. And the blacks should be as unwilling to ally themselves with the white race, as the whites with them: they should feel the same repugnance to it; and this they probably would feel, but for the fact of their having been so long in an inferior situation, and therefore accustomed to look up to the whites as a superior class. In their native Africa, they certainly do entertain a similar repugnance to the whites. Park testifies that it was manifested towards him by many of the negroes. The African belles (and he describes some of them) thought him diseased and deformed, and would probably have felt the same repugnance at the idea of intermarriage. with him, as the white ladies naturally do at that of a union with a negro.[5] The two races are essentially distinct, and that is quite enough to produce the sentiment referred to, without the supposition of intrinsic inferiority on either side. It would certainly be a more manly and dignified course for the intelligent free blacks in America to take this view of the subject and act accordingly, than to degrade themselves by servilely courting the society of the whites, content to be received among them on terms of mere sufferance.
"But we claim the right," they may say, "to remain in America: it is the place of our birth, and therefore our proper and legitimate home." Grant the right: yet does it follow that it is the wisest course, under present circumstances, to use it? "All things,". says the Apostle, "are lawful for me; but all things are not expedient." Where is the wisdom of contending for a barren right — when a voluntary abandonment of it would bring to the holder far greater ease, peace, and self-respect? "You will tell me," says the chivalrous George Harris, in his letter to his colored friends, "that our race have equal right to mingle in the American republic, as the Irishman, the German, the Swede. Granted, they have. But then, I do not want it; I want a ‘country, a nation of my own. I think that the African race has peculiarities yet to be unfolded, in the light of civilization and Christianity, which if not the same with those of the Anglo-Saxon, may prove to be morally of even a higher type. To the Anglo-Saxon race have been entrusted the destinies of the world during its pioneer period of struggle and conflict. To that mission, its stern, inflexible, energetic elements were well adapted; but as a Christian, I look for another era to arise. On its borders I trust we stand; and the throes that now convulse the nations are, to my hope, but the birth-pangs of an hour of universal peace and brotherhood. I trust that the development of Africa is to be essentially a Christian one. If not a dominant and commanding race, they are, at least, an affectionate, magnanimous, and for one. Having been schooled in the furnace of injustice and oppression, they have need to bind closer to their hearts that sublime doctrine of love and forgiveness, through which alone they are to conquer, and which it is to be their mission to spread over the continent of Africa — As a Christian patriot, as a teacher of Christianity, I go to my count/1y, my chosen, my glorious Africa: and to her, in my heart, I sometimes apply those splendid words of prophecy, ‘Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.’"[6]
Observe that in this process of separation, which is already begun and must finally be consummated, be tween the two races, it is not the blacks, in all cases, that will have to withdraw. In the West Indies, it is the whites, rather, that are removing; and this will probably continue, and to a still greater extent. This is the case especially in the West India Islands According to a report, made to the Assembly of Jamaica in January, 1853 — there had been, since 1848, a 3 total abandonment of no fewer than one hundred and twenty-eight coffee estates, and a abandonment of seventy-one; also, an entire abandonment of ninety-six sugar estates, and a partial abandonment of sixty-six. This course of things, though exceedingly mortifying and distressing to the whites, may be in accordance with the purposes of Divine Providence in reference to those Islands, and will, we hope, result in final From the large island of Hayti or St. Domingo, formerly a French colony, the whites have, we know, been driven by force; and it is now altogether in the possession of the blacks. In Jamaica and the other English West India Islands, such a measure, we trad; will never need to be resorted to; the blacks having now been emancipated, the whites will, in all probability, be found gradually and voluntarily to withdraw. This process seems already to have begun. It is the natural order of things, that those should possess who can occupy and use. The negro race is fitted by nature to live and labor in the torrid zone, the heats of which are intolerable to the whites. Consequently, we conceive it to be one of the two great purposes of Providence, in permitting the removal of a portion of the African race to the New World, — to people the torrid zone of that continent and the neighboring islands, with a race capable of cultivating and enjoying it. For it is the will of the good Creator that all parts of the beautiful world He has made, should be filled with happy inhabitants. Now, it is plain that that removal had to be effected, in a manner, by force; for from their ignorance of the maritime art, as well as from other causes, it is manifest that the Africans would never have migrated of themselves. Hence, the ‘ temporary permission of the slave-trade, in which, though so distressing in itself, we can yet see the hand of a wise Providence, turning even man’s selfishness and hard-heartedness to final good, —
"Thus, out of evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression."[7]
Through this instrumentality, moreover, — distressing as it was in itself, thousands, and tens of thousands, have been brought out of the darkness of heathenism to a knowledge of the true God and Savior. Among the slaves. of the United States, for instance, it is stated by Dr. Baird,[8] that there are no fewer than 300,000 church members — one-tenth of the whole number, children included (a larger proportion of religious professors, we suspect, than would be found in most countries of Christian Europe); and in the State of South Carolina alone, as stated by Freeman, there are upwards of 40,000 communicants belonging to the slave populations.[9] Is not here manifest the hand of Divine Goodness and Wisdom, bringing light out of darkness and peace out of pain?[10] When, however, the end for which the African slave-trade had been for a time permitted, was sufficiently attained, then, in the Divine Providence, influences were brought to bear upon the evil instrument itself, to check its action. The world became enlightened to see the wrong of that trade, as it had not before seen; the voice of benevolent individuals and of societies was raised against it, and the power of nations was invoked to put a stop to it. The face of the world has now been set against it, and it must ere long cease. But, what is remarkable, the most effective, and probably the only completely effective, means for putting a stop to that trade, is the return of the exiled Africans themselves (or a large portion of them), civilized and Christianized, to their native shore, and so settling the coast with an enlightened population. Thus wonderful are the workings of Divine Providence. He makes the evil the instrument of its own repression: — He makes the disease its own cure, after it has performed the good work of purging and purifying the system. The Africans, carried away in suffering and distress from a land which, though their native country, and therefore dear to them, was nevertheless itself a land of darkness and wide-spread slavery, return at length — they or their descendants — free, enlightened, spiritualized, to break the shackles of their kindred, to proclaim liberty and light throughout the country of their ancestors; to "give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death," — "to let the oppressed go free." And while doing this good work, they turn at the same time to the slave-trader, and say with a stern look, "Come no more here — your work is done, your day is past: you need carry away no more of our people to be either re-enslaved or enlightened in a foreign land: light and liberty are brought now to our own doors: we can stay at home and have the blessing of Christianity besides: go! let us see your face no more."[11] Who will not join in this noble enterprise? What enlightened and high-souled free colored man in America will not come forward and give his aid to this cause, when he once understands it, and sees its grand bearings? Here the work is entirely your own; the white man cannot take part in it, except by sympathy or pecuniary aid — he cannot personally join in this holy crusade against the Powers of Darkness and of African bondage: that climate is his grave — God made it so, but He has made it your healthy and happy home. For He was determined that the gentle African should have a land — and a noble land, too — which the restless white man should not intrude upon, but at the expense of life.[12] Come, then (we would say to the free colored man of America), come and join in this high enterprise which God has committed to you; become His instruments in carrying out the great purpose which the Divine Providence had in view in permitting the exile of Africans from their native shore-— namely, that they or their descendants might return again, and become the great means of giving freedom, civilization, and Christianity to Africa itself.
And this call, we are sure, will be answered; the free men of color in the United States will at length understand the nature of the great work that lies before them — the duty they owe to themselves, to their descendants, and to their African kindred — and will engage heartily in it. Nay, this they are already doing to a considerable extent; the emigration to Liberia is now fast increasing. Accounts from New York, of the date of May 18, 1853, mention that since the beginning of that month, six vessels, carrying 800 colored emigrants, had sailed from the United States to Africa. If, in eighteen days, 800 emigrants had taken their departure, the number in a year must amount, it may be presumed, to some thousands. But this is only the beginning: emigration, we know, increases in a geometrical ratio. The emigration from Europe to America, which once was limited to a few hundreds or thousands, is going on now at the rate of nearly half a million a-year. Ireland alone sends out her hundred thousand yearly. What shall prevent the free blacks of America from emigrating, by and by, at a similar rate? Norwill these need to be transported at the expense of the Colonization Society, as was necessarily the case with the first settlers: they will transport themselves. Many of the free blacks have means; and those who have not will be helped by those who have. How do the starving Irish contrive to emigrate in such vast numbers? Where there is a will, there will be found a way. In fact, the free blacks are emigrating now as fast, perhaps, as the young African republic can make preparations to. receive them; but every company that goes will prepare the way for more, by a more extensive cultivation of the soil, and by establishing new settlements, — till by and by the flourishing and vigorous colonies will be able to receive their tens or even hundreds of thousands of immigrants yearly, both without danger on the score of support, and without detriment to the cause of liberty and order, but, on the contrary, with benefit to all parties concerned. Emigration on such a scale would soon exhaust the numbers of the free blacks in America — would soon remove them all; for, as before said, they are [but between four and five hundred thousand altogether.
We will conclude this part of our subject by quoting the following eloquent passage from Mr. Freeman's Plea, describing the present condition of the free blacks in the United States, and presenting, at the same time, a well written memorial adopted by the people of color themselves at a meeting held some years since in the Bethel and African churches in the city of Baltimore: —
"Look at their unwelcome reception, wherever they go, among the whites; and consider the fact that their presence is regarded as an evil wherever they are. To some States they are prevented from going, by enactments which expose them to a forfeiture of their freedom, if they should dare set foot upon the soil. Louisiana, sometime since, required all free persons of color who had removed to the State since the year 1825 to leave it. Thousands, who had taken refuge in Ohio, driven out from that State, sought a home in Canada; but the result is, that the Canadians, in their turn, have threatened their expulsion. They are laid under restrictions which cannot but be exceedingly painful, in most of the States both North and South; and in none do they enjoy anything much better than a nominal freedom Various expedients are resorted to by the State Legislatures, to deliver themselves from a free colored population, by disabilities and other embarrassments. The South casts them off; the North has no place for them; the West pushes them away; Canada threatens to expel them: and where shall they go? — what shall they do? They are here isolated; they have no home of their own, no community of their own, no country of their own, no government of their own, no system whatever, intellectual or moral, in which their individual existence forms a part of the machinery; but every cheerful hope seems crushed. They are, I was going to say, dislocated from humanity. — The free people of color in Baltimore seem to have taken a correct though painful view of this subject, in a memorial which is now before me. Addressing the citizens of Baltimore, they thus speak: I
"'We have hitherto beheld, in silence, but with intense interest, the efforts of the wise and philanthropic in our behalf. If it became us to be silent, it became. us also to feel the liveliest anxiety and gratitude. The time has now come, as we believe, in which your work and our happiness may be promoted by the expression of our opinions. We reside among you, and yet are strangers; natives, and yet not citizens; surrounded by the freest people and most republican institutions in the world, and yet enjoying none of the immunities of freedom. This singularity in our condition has not failed to strike us as well as you; but we know it is irremediable here. Our difference of color, the servitude of many and most of our brethren, and the prejudices which those circumstances have naturally occasioned, will not allow us to hope, even if we could desire, to mingle with you, one day, in the benefits of citizenship. As long as we remain among you, we must be content to be a distinct caste, exposed to the indignities and dangers, physical and moral, to which our situation makes us liable. All that we may expect is, to merit, by our peaceable and orderly behavior, your consideration and the protection of your laws. It is not to be imputed to you that we. are here. Your ancestors remonstrated against the introduction of the first of our race who were brought amongst you; and it was the mother-country that insisted on their admission, that her colonies and she might profit, as she thought, by their compulsory labor. Leaving out all considerations of generosity, humanity, and benevolence, you have the strongest reasons to favor and facilitate the withdrawal from among you of such as wish to remove.
"But if you have every reason to wish for our removal, — how much greater are our inducements to remove! Though we are not slaves, yet we are not free. Beyond a mere subsistence, and the impulse of religion, there is nothing to amuse us to the exercise of our faculties, or excite us to the attainment of eminence. Though, under the shield of your laws, we are partially protected, not oppressed — nevertheless, our situation will and must inevitably have the effect of crushing, not developing the capacities that God has given us. We are, besides, of the opinion, that our absence will, by the permission of Providence, accelerate the liberation of such of our brethren as are in bondage. When such of us as wish and may be able, shall have gone before to open and lead the way, a channel will be left, through which may be poured such as hereafter receive their freedom from the kindness or interest of their masters, or by public opinion and legislative enactment, or who are willing to join us who have preceded them.
"Of the many schemes that have been proposed, we must approve of that of African Colonization. If we were able and at liberty to go whithersoever we would, the greater number, willing to leave this community, would prefer Liberia on the coast of Africa. We shall carry your language, your customs, your opinions, and Christianity, to that now desolate shore, and thence they will gradually spread with our growth far into the Continent. The slave-trade, both external and internal, can be abolished only by Settlements on the coast. We foresee that difficulties and dangers await those who emigrate, such as every infant establishment must encounter and endure. But "Ethiopia shall yet lift up her hands unto God." Thousands and tens of thousands, poorer than we, annually emigrate from Europe to your country, and soon have it in their power to hasten the arrival of those they left behind. If we were doubtful of your good-will and benevolent intentions, we would remind you of the time when you were in a situation similar to ours, and when your forefathers were driven by religious persecution to a distant and inhospitable shore. An empire may be the result of our emigration, as of theirs.'"[13]
- ↑ Says the late Mr. Kinmont (a Scotchman long resident in America, and a very able and original writer), "An example of the evil resulting from mixing science with religion, to the injury of. both, may be seen in the argument for the amalgamation of the African and European races, on the ground of their being one family, both descended from Adam and Eve. It belongs to science and to the common instincts and feelings of mankind to say, whether there are not races of men, so unlike in their temperaments as to prohibit, as nefarious and contrary to nature, the amalgamation of them. The identity and unity of the human family, imaged in Adam and Eve, is a religious; not a scientific truth; and any deductions made from it, to have any presumption of fairness, must be religious, not scientific. Thus, if from the unity of the human family, so acknowledged, it be argued that we owe to every race of mankind on the globe the same obligations of justice and mercy which we owe to each other, the argument would be a good one, and would brand those horrid acts of injustice of which the white race have been guilty, both to the black and to the red. But it may be safely affirmed, that had it not been for the debasement of the moral sense, the result of such injustice, the natural repugnance to amalgamation among these races, particularly between the black and the white, would have been such, that it could never have taken place under any circumstances. But men having first lost all sense of shame, in destroying the natural birth-right of freedom in a distinct branch of the human family, no wonder this second curse-an unnatural confusion of races — has followed on the back of the other, and that we should be about to incur this sad penalty of the transgression of the natural laws of justice and humanity. The Copts, or modern Egyptians, are a mixed race of Negroes and Caucasians, and hence their degradation." — Twelve Lectures on the Natural History of Man, p. 152, by Alex. Kinmont, A.M., Cincinnati, 1838.
- ↑ One of these we cannot forbear extracting. Park, after escaping from the Moors, had reached Sego, the capital of the kingdom of Bambsrra, where for the first time he saw the long looked-for river Niger. The king, on hearing of Park’s arrival. forbade his crossing the river to visit him-probably with the well-meant purpose of keeping him out of the hands of his enemies, the Moore, who were numerous in that capital. He was thus left in a very uncomfortable situation. "I was regarded," he says, "with astonishment and few, and was obliged to sit all day without victuals under the shade of a tree; and the night threatened to be very uncomfortable, for the wind arose, and there was great appearance of a heavy rain; and the wild beasts are so very numerous in this neighborhood, that I should have been under the necessity of climbing up the tree, and resting amongst the branches. About sunset, however, as I was preparing to spend the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose that he might graze at liberty, — a woman, returning from the labors of the field, stopped to observe me, and, perceiving that I was weary and dejected, inquired into my situation, which I briefly explained to her; whereupon, with looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle and bridle, and told me to follow her. Having conducted me into her hut, she lighted a lamp, spread a mat on the floor, and told me I might remain there for the night. Finding that I was very hungry, she said she would procure me something to eat. She accordingly went out, and returned in a short time with a very fine fish, which, having caused to be half broiled upon some embers, she gave me for supper. The rites of hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger in distress, my worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might sleep there without apprehension), called to the female part of the family, who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves a great part of the night. They lightened their labor with songs, one of which was composed extempore, for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive; and the words literally translated were these: — ‘The winds roared and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary. came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. — Let us pity the white mam — no mother has he,’ &c. — Trifling as this recital may appear to the reader, to a person in my situation the circumstance was affecting in the highest degree." — Park’s Travels in the Interior Africa, chap. 15.
How beautiful, too, was the conduct of the king of Boussa to the Lenders, while on their way down the Niger, to discover its outlet! "The king of Bonssa." says the narrative, "sent messengers down the Niger, to a town called Bahba, in order to pave the way for the secure passage of the travelers. When a favorable answer was returned, the African monarch capered round his hut with transport; and after a burst of joy,'he began to cry like a child — his heart was so full. ‘Now,’ said he, ‘whatever may happen to the white men, my neighbors cannot but acknowledge that I have taken every care of them, treated them as became a king, and done my best to promote their happiness and interests.’ And so he has," continue the Lenders — What a picture of goodness is this! The civilized monarchs of Europe may well take a lesson from it.
- ↑ Kinmont‘s Lectures, pp. 190, 191.
- ↑ Mr. Freeman, in his Plea for Africa, has collected many instances of distinguished blacks — eminent in literature, science, and even in the military art. Among these are the following: "J. E. J. Capitein, born in Africa, and bought by a slave-holder, on the river St. Andre, was carried to Holland, where he acquired a knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic. He studied theology at the University of Leyden, took his degree, was ordained at Amsterdam, and went out as a missionary to Guinea, in 1742. He was the author of several published sermons, poems, and dissertations. His Dissertatio de Servitute Libertati Christianos non contraria, went through four editions. A. W. Amo, born in Guinea, was brought to this country when young, took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, at the University of Wittemberg. in 1734. He was skilled in Latin and Greek, and delivered lectures on philosophy; in 1744, he supported a thesis at Wittemberg, and published a dissertation On the Absence of Sensation in the Soul, and its Presence in the Human Body, was appointed Professor, and the same year supported a thesis ‘On the Distinction which ought to be made between the Operations of Mind and those of Sense.’ He also distinguished himself in mathematics. In an account of his life published by the Academic Council, his integrity, talents, industry, and erudition are very highly commended. Francis Williams, a negro, born in Jamaica, was educated in the University of Cambridge, England: he opened a school in Jamaica for instruction in Latin and mathematics, and wrote many pieces in Latin verse, which discovered talents of a good order. Phillis Wheatley, who was born in Africa, torn from her country at the age of seven, and in 1761 sold to John Wheatley, of Boston, United States. Allowed to employ herself in study, she rapidly attained a knowledge of the Latin language. In 1772, at the age of nineteen, and still a slave, she published a volume of religious and moral poetry, which passed through several editions on both sides the Atlantic. She obtained her freedom in 1775, and died five years afterwards. Thomas Fuller, a native African, resident for some time near Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, although unable to read or write, was an extraordinary example of quickness in reckoning. Being asked, in company, for the purpose of trying his powers, how many seconds a person had lived who was seventy years, seven months, and seven days old, — 0 answered correctly in a minute and a — half. On reckoning it up after him, a different result was obtained by the company. ‘Have you not forgotten the leap years?’ said the negro. These they had forgotten: the omission being supplied, the answer was found to be right. This account was given by Dr. Rush, when Fuller was seventy years old. Benjamin Bannaker, a negro of Maryland, applied himself to Astronomy with so much success that he published almanacs in Philadelphia for the years 1794 and 1795. James Derham was once a slave in Philadelphia. In 1788, at the age of twenty-one, he became the most distinguished physician in New Orleans. ‘I conversed with him on medicine,‘ says Dr. Rush, ‘and found him very learned; I thought I could give him information concerning the treatment of diseases, but I learned more from him than he could expect from me.’ Boerhaave and De Haen have given strong testimony to the medical skill of not a few blacks. Several are mentioned as having been very dexterous surgeons. Joseph Rachel, a free negro of Barbadoes, was another Howard. Having become rich by commerce, he devoted all his property to charitable uses, and spent much of his time in visiting prisons to relieve and reclaim the wretched tenants. He died in 1758. Hannibal, an African negro, rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General and Director of Artillery, under Peter the Great, of Russia: His son was also Lieutenant-General in the Russian corps of Artillery. [We may add to these the name of Toussaint L'Ouverture, General and afterwards Governor of the negroes of St. Domingo, who, for his patriotism and excellence of character, as well as for his military skill and political wisdom, may almost be denominated the Washington of negroes.] Professor Blumenbach," continues Mr. Freeman, "possessed a library composed entirely of works written by negroes. He says, there is not a single department of taste or science, in which these people have not been distinguished. Dr. Blumenbach is the author of the most able and scientific Treatise on the varieties of the human species, and was better qualified than any other person, to decide upon their constitutional differences. He observes that there is no savage people, which have distinguished themselves by such examples of perfectibility and capacity for scientific cultivation; and, consequently. that none can approach more nearly to the polished nations of the globe than the negro." — Plea for Africa, pp. 17, 46, second edition.
- ↑ Says Park, "I had no sooner entered the court appropriated to the ladies, than the whole seraglio surrounded me. They were ten or twelve in number, most of them young and handsome, and wearing on their heads ornaments of gold and beads of amber. They rallied me: with a good deal of gaiety, on different subjects, particularly on the whiteness of my skin and the prominency of my nose. They insisted that both were artificial The first, they said, was produced when I was an infant, by dipping me in milk; and they insisted that my nose had: been pinched every day, till it had acquired its present unsightly and unnatural conformation. On my part, without denying my own deformity, I paid them many compliments on African beauty: I praised the glossy jet of their skins, and the lovely depression of their noses. But they said that flattery or (as they emphatically termed it) honey-mouth, was not esteemed in Bornou. In return, however, for my company or compliments (to which, by the way, they seemed not so insensible is they affected to be) they presented me with a jar of honey and some fish, which were sent to my lodgings." — Park's Travels, chap. iv.
- ↑ Uncle Tom's Cabin, chap. xliii
- ↑ "It will be observed that, according to the testimony of Park, a large portion of those taken from Africa had been already slaves from their birth. In the vessel, for instance, in which Park himself sailed, on his return from his first journey-out of one hundred and thirty Slaves on board. only about twenty-five had been of free condition: the remaining hundred and five, or more than four — fifths of the whole number, had previously been slaves in Africa. Thus, as far as concerns these, at least, it was little more than a removal from slavery in one country to slavery in another. In this view, the dealings of Providence in regard to them, in permitting their exile, will appear less hard; and when at the same time we take into consideration the. important uses which that removal was to effect, that permission will appear plainly intended for wise and merciful ends.
- ↑ The Progress and Prospects of Christianity in the United States, with Remarks on Slavery in America, p. 33. By R. Baird, D.D., London, 1851. This Pamphlet contains some very just observations on the subject of slavery.
- ↑ Plea, Conversation XVI
- ↑ Much misconception has prevailed in reference to the religious condition of the slaves, in the United States. "I have before me," says Mr. Freeman, "a letter from Georgia, written by a distinguished gentleman to his friend, on this subject. ‘With regard to your inquiries,’ he says, ‘about the religious instruction of the negroes at the south, I would state, that while there is far less interest on this subject among slave-holders than there should be, still we have much reason to be grateful for what is doing, and for what in prospect may be done. — I visited Bryan County, Georgia, a few weeks since, for the exlusive purpose of seeing what was doing there for the negroes. — 0n one plantation, there is a chapel, where the master meets the adults every night at the ringing of the bell. Reading a portion of Scripture, and explaining it, with singing and prayer, constitute the regular exercises of every night in the week. On the Sabbath they have different and more protracted exercises. A day-school is taught by two young ladies — embracing all the children under twelve or fifteen years of age. The instruction in this and other schools in the county is oral, of course, but it is gratifying to see how great an amount of knowledge the children had acquired in a few months. A Presbyterian minister of Philadelphia was with me, and he said, in unqualified terms, that he had visited no Infant schools at the north, better conducted — A large portion of the wealthy planters either have already built, or contain plate building, churches on their premises, and employing chaplains to preach to their slaves. Ministers of all denominations begin to awake to their duty and responsibility on this subject. Many of them are now devoting themselves wholly to this portion of our community.' — 'Our clergy,' says another letter (from South Carolina), 'generally pay a particular attention to the black congregations. Many of them give the entire afternoon of the Sabbath to them. Sunday-schools amongst them are almost universally organized. It is also well known that, in religious families, the instruction of the slaves is an object of general solicitude. It is by no means unusual for individual planters, m for two or more in connection, to support a chaplain for the exclusive benefit of their colored people.'" — Plea, Conversation XVI. "I know of no slave — holding state in the Union," remarks Dr. Baird, "where we cannot preach the Gospel to slaves. In several states (not all), laws were made, twenty-five years ago, forbidding to teach the slaves to read: this was done solely through fear lest incendiary publications might be, as was madly attempted, circulated among them, to excite them to rise and destroy their masters. But no law has been made to prevent the preaching of the Gospel." — Prospects of Christianity in the United States, p. 34.
- ↑ "Cape Mesurado was an extensive slave-market, before the settlement of Monrovia. Two thousand slaves were exported annually from the single points of Cape Mesurado and Cape Mount. In 1834, before the settlement of the Pennsylvania Colony at Bassa cove, 500 slaves were shipped from that place in a single month. 'Wherever tho influence of the colony extends,’ says a British naval officer, ‘the slave-trade has been abandoned by the natives, and the peaceable fruits of legitimate commerce established in its place.' Twenty or thirty colonies scattered along the coast would probably put an end to the trade effectually and for ever." — Freeman‘s Plea.
- ↑ It is astonishing to observe how many white men have met their death in attempting to explore Africa. First, the distinguished American traveler, Ledyard — whom Park calls his "predecessor" — who died in Egypt at the commencement of his African career. (See Sparks’s Life of Ledyard.) Then Mango Park (on his second journey), together with all his thirty-five companions and attendants — every one perished. Then Park's son, who set out in search of his father; then Harnemann, the German, in Egypt; Nicholls, on the coast of Guinea; Captain Tuckey, on the river Congo; Major Peddie and Captain Campbell; the famous Clapperton, Major Laing, Richard Lander, and a host of others, all met their death. Similar was the fate of the trading expedition, in two steamers, that followed upon Lander’s discovery of the mouth of the Niger: of the crews, only four out of nineteen, in the one vessel, and five out of twenty-nine, in the other, survived. Look, too, at the disastrous results of the Government Expedition, in 1841. This fatality, we believe, has a deeper cause than merely the natural effect of climate; for Park stood the climate tolerably well But Divine Providence is guarding Africa. He does not mean it to become another India, subject to the white man's rule, nor to be corrupted by the white man's selfishness and hardness
- ↑ Freeman's Plea for Africa, Conversation XVIII.