this century it was a debated question among cultivated, thoughtful, nay even scientific minds, whether the Negro was indeed an integral member of the human species.
This, then, was the condition of the Negro race fifty years ago—this the estimation in which that race was held.
And now I desire to call your attention to the great change which has taken place in both these respects, since that period.
Since the commencement of this century, the leading European and American Governments have renounced all participation in that nefarious traffic which has barbarized Africa; and some of them have declared the slave trade piracy. The black man, thus held in a state of servitude, has been emancipated. The cheerful voice of freedom has been heard all around the islands of the Caribbean Sea; and eight hundred thousand human beings, under British rule, have been awakened by its grateful tones, to liberty and manhood. Influenced by this gracious example, France has stricken the shackle and the fetter from the limbs of three hundred thousand men and women. And Denmark has given the promise that she too will follow, at an early day, in the same benevolent pathway.
In America, the civil condition of the Negro race presents, in many places, the same signs of a half century's progress. From Mexico,[1]Bolivia, Peru,
- ↑ Slavery was abolished in Mexico, September 15, 1829, by the following decree:—"Slavery is forever abolished in the Republic; and consequently all those individuals who, until this day, looked upon themselves as slaves, are free."
