CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS.
The following statements have respect to the present condition of the free blacks in the United States. They are all derived from authentic sources, and may be relied upon as substantially correct.
I. Population and Increase of the Free Blacks.
In the following tabular view, which is taken from the census of 1830, and that of 1820, the first column gives the name of the State; the second, the aggregate of the free colored population; and the third, the increase of the same, during the ten years which intervened between 1820 and 1830.
| Free colored Pop. in 1830. | Increase 1820-1830. | |
|---|---|---|
| Maine, | 1,190 | 261 |
| New Hampshire, | 604 | |
| Vermont, | 881 | |
| Massachusetts, | 7,048 | 308 |
| Rhode Island, | 3,561 | 7 |
| Connecticut, | 8,047 | 177 |
| New York, | 44,870 | 15,591 |
| New Jersey, | 18,303 | 5,843 |
| Pennsylvania, | 37,950 | 7,828 |
| Delaware, | 15,855 | 2,627 |
| Maryland, | 52,938 | 13,208 |
| Virginia, | 47,348 | 10,459 |
| North Carolina, | 19,543 | 4,931 |
| South Carolina, | 7,921 | 1,207 |
| Georgia, | 2,486 | 723 |
| Alabama, | 1,572 | 1,001 |
| Mississippi, | 519 | 61 |
| Louisiana, | 16,710 | 6,234 |
| Tennessee, | 4,555 | 2,008 |
| Kentucky, | 4,917 | 1,158 |
| Ohio, | 9,568 | 4,745 |
| Indiana, | 3,729 | 2,399 |
| Illinois, | 1,637 | 1,180 |
| Missouri, | 569 | 222 |
| Michigan Ter. | 261 | 87 |
| Arkansas Ter. | 141 | 82 |
| Florida Territory, | 844 | |
| Dist. of Columbia, | 6,152 | 2,124 |
By this table it appears that the total number of free blacks in 1830, was 319,599. The number in 1820 was, according to Niles’s Register, 233,398, yielding an increase during the intervening ten years, of 86,201. This last statement will be found to vary a little from the sum total of the third column above, owing to discrepancies in the published documents. Blanks are left in the third column opposite to New Hampshire and Vermont, as in those states the numbers, instead of increasing, actually diminished. In the latter state they diminished 37, and in the former, 182. Some tables make the diminution in New Hampshire amount to 321. It is worthy of particular inquiry to ascertain the causes of this rapid diminution. It will be perceived that the progress of this population in the middle and some of the southern states, is very rapid, compared with its increase in New England. This is to be attributed to the progress of emancipation. For instance, in New York there were more than 10,000 slaves in 1820, which number was reduced in 1830 to 75. The increase of free blacks in Maryland, and Virginia, is to be attributed partly to the same cause. Their very small increase in the New England States, while the whites are gaining very rapidly, forcibly illustrates the misery of their condition.
II. Civil Disabilities.
Under this head are to be comprised all those disabilities which attach to free colored persons by the laws of the several states.
1. The most extensive and universal disability (by many, however, considered a privilege) regards the militia. The laws of the several states relating to the militia, being founded upon the militia system adopted by the United States, provide for the exemption of colored persons from that service. With this exception the laws of many of the states recognise no distinctions of color.
2. The right of suffrage is confined to whites in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. In these states express provisions of their constitutions confine the right of suffrage to the whites. In the ten remaining states no constitutional restrictions of the kind appear to have been imposed upon free colored persons. Yet, it is believed, that the statute laws of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, impose similar restrictions. In most of the remaining states, it is probable that the right of suffrage is rarely, if ever, exercised by this class of citizens, although no law may exist which disfranchises them. The burdens of taxation are, so far as known, imposed without the discrimination which prevails in regard to the right of suffrage. In Philadelphia, and perhaps in other places in Pennsylvania, no personal tax is imposed, the payment of such a tax being necessary to qualify for the right of suffrage.
3. In many of the States free colored persons are excluded by law from the privilege of holding office; and where this is not the case, the presumption is that in those states where they are not allowed to vote, they would not be allowed to govern. It is not known that any such person has ever been elected to office, even in those states where the right of suffrage is extended to them.
4. In a few of the states only, are there any laws expressly forbidding intermarriage between the blacks and the whites.
5. Free persons of color are, in most of the states, allowed to purchase and hold property, real and personal, and mixed, and are entitled to the same protection in its enjoyment, and the same redress for injuries to it or to their persons, as the white citizens. In some states, however, the tenure of their property is very insecure without a white guardian, as they are not allowed to testify against the whites, or in cases where a white man is party.
6. As to privileges in courts of justice, in Missouri, free colored persons can testify only in suits between free blacks, and on trials of free blacks for crime. The laws of Alabama are of similar import. In Delaware they cannot give evidence against a white person, except in criminal prosecutions, upon its appearing that no white person, competent to give testimony, was present at the commission of the act charged, or that such person, if so present, has since died, or is absent from the state so that he cannot be produced as a witness. In Maryland, they may be witnesses only for and against their own color. Such is the case in Ohio, Georgia, and probably in most of the slave-holding states. In most of the free states it is presumed that the testimony of blacks is received on an equal footing with that of the whites.
In many of the states the laws expressly exclude them from being impanelled as jurors; and, so far as known, they have never served in that capacity in any of the states.
7. In the New England and Middle States, the blacks enjoy the same rights of residence, and of emigration from one state to another, which belong to the whites. In Connecticut a law is in force which empowers the proper authorities to prevent foreigners, (citizens from other states or of other countries) from residing in that state, but it is not discriminating in its application to any particular color. The black is not permitted to settle in Ohio, except he give bonds, to secure the state against any expense which he may incur by becoming a pauper; nor is any one permitted to employ such an emigrant without giving similar bonds. Laws are in force in Maryland forbidding those who shall leave the state from returning to it. Similar laws exist in South Carolina. No free blacks are allowed to go into Georgia, and none to reside in it except those who have long been resident. In Delaware, none are allowed to enter the state, but the law is very rarely enforced. They are allowed to reside in Alabama by paying a tax of five dollars. They are not permitted to go into the state from other states on any condition; nor, having left the state, can they return. Laws of similar character are in force in Louisiana, Tennessee, and probably some other states.
8. In New England and the Middle States, (a late law in Connecticut excepted) there appears to be no distinction made by law, with reference to the privileges of education or religious worship, between the blacks and the whites. In all these states, and in Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and Ohio, they are allowed by law, not only to send their children to the public schools, but to establish schools for themselves exclusively. Many such schools are patronized by the benevolent friends of the race among the whites. By a late law of Ohio, they cannot receive any benefit from the public school funds. In Alabama, they may not attend schools or have instruction among themselves. A prohibitory law, passed in Georgia, about eighteen months since, debars them from all the privileges of school education in that state. They may however be taught the catechism, or such moral lessons and portions of Scripture as they can commit to memory. With respect to other states no definite information has been received. In Connecticut a law has recently been passed forbidding the establishment of schools for the education of colored children from other states.
III. Intellectual and Moral Condition of the Free Blacks.
It is to be feared that the statements now to be made will meet with an ungracious reception among a certain portion of the community. As a powerful means of enlisting public sympathy in behalf of the African race, the advocates of the Society have sometimes entered into an exposition of such facts as would most accurately unfold their intellectual and moral condition. Accordingly, those who oppose the Society have attempted to show that it is the “disparager of the free blacks.”
It were, however, wholly impracticable to arouse public sympathy, either where no suffering or degradation exists, or where their existence is unknown. All benevolent operations must proceed upon the supposition that there is want to be alleviated, or ignorance to be enlightened, or degradation to be pitied; and the vigor with which such operations are sustained by the benevolent will be proportioned, not so much to the degree of this want, ignorance and degradation, as to their thorough and perfect exposure. The Colonization Society is not singular in its proceedings. In whatsoever sense this society is the “disparager of the free blacks,” in the same sense are the Bible and Tract Societies the “disparagers” of those to whom they extend their benevolence. In the same sense also, and to a higher degree, is the Foreign Missionary Board the “disparager” of the Heathen. Were that society to deny or to conceal the deep degradation and licentiousness of the American Indians, and of the Pagan world generally, it is difficult to conceive with what arguments they could successfully approach the sympathies of their patrons.
Thus, in the case under consideration, it is equally true, that all attempts to provide for the relief of the free black and slave population of the country, must prove abortive if unattended by facts and statements relative to their actual condition. It would not be difficult to show that the same society, from whose advocates the complaint in question is heard, in its statements and arguments touching the situation of the slaves, is as truly their disparager as is the Colonization Society the “disparager of the free blacks.”
The statements which follow are called for by the necessity of the case. They are not made in a spirit of taunt, or reproach, or boasted superiority, but with the hope that they may serve to call forth that commiseration which the cause of the deeply-injured African, when truly stated, challenges for itself.
1. Intellectual Condition of the Free Blacks. Notwithstanding the privileges of education are nominally extended to them in the New-England, Middle, and some of the Southern and Western States, yet the prejudice which exists against their color serves to defeat, to a lamentable extent, the benevolent provisions of the law. In some cities and large towns, schools are maintained expressly for them. In Philadelphia, particularly, there are many distinct schools for colored children, some of which have at different times been taught by colored tutors, and much to their credit. “In these schools,” says a gentleman of that city, “where they have been under the superintendence of qualified instructers, forty years’ experience has proved, that they are no way inferior to the whites in the acquirement of learning.” In the country towns of the states above referred to, the children of the blacks are not unfrequently found in common schools with the whites. But their situation is frequently made so uncomfortable that most of the benefits of such attendance are lost. Still more unfrequently are they to be found at Academies or high schools even in New-England—and still more rarely do they find their way into Colleges. Mr. Russwurm, now in Liberia, is a graduate of Bowdoin College. Attempts were made some time since to establish a college exclusively for them in New-Haven, Conn. The plan, meeting with decided opposition from the inhabitants of that town, was finally abandoned. An attempt has been recently made to establish a high school for colored females in Canterbury, Conn. Vigorous and determined opposition has been manifested towards it by the inhabitants, so that its success is still doubtful. In many of the slave states, free blacks are not allowed to attend school, or to learn to read or write. Many of them, however, enjoy the benefits of sabbath school instruction, and commit to memory considerable portions of Scripture, &c. Yet a great majority are no doubt lamentably and grossly ignorant.
2. Religious Privileges. Except in large cities, where they are found in sufficient numbers to compose congregations by themselves, they attend public worship with the whites. But the unenviable distinctions which prevail even there, have a powerful influence in discouraging their attendance. In some parts of the country they enjoy the ministrations of preachers of their own color, and large numbers are said to be in communion with various churches.
3. Moral Condition. The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman of extensive information and philanthropy in the state of New York. “The fact, that out of 40,000 blacks in this state in 1825, but nine hundred and thirty-one were taxed, and but two hundred and ninety-eight were qualified to vote; and the further fact, that this population, according to its amount, furnishes ten-fold more of the inmates of our prisons and alms-houses, than our white population does, testify conclusively to the general improvidence, indolence, and abounding viciousness and misery of this unhappy portion of our fellow-men.”
The following tabular views, taken from the Report of the Prison Discipline Society, for 1827, exhibit, in regard to several states, the whole population at that time, the colored population, the whole number of convicts, the number of colored convicts, proportion of colored people to the whole population, and proportion of colored convicts.
| White Population | Colored Population | Whole No. of Convicts | No. of Col. Convicts | Pro. of Col. People | Pro. of Col. Convicts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 523,000 | 7,000 | 314 | 50 | 1 to 74 | 1 to 6 |
| Connecticut | 275,000 | 8,000 | 117 | 39 | 1 to 34 | 1 to 3 |
| New-York | 1,372,000 | 39,000 | 637 | 154 | 1 to 35 | 1 to 4 |
| New-Jersey | 277,000 | 20,000 | 74 | 24 | 1 to 13 | 1 to 3 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,049,000 | 30,000 | 474 | 165 | 1 to 34 | 1 to 3 |
Or,
| Proportion of the Population sent to Prison. | Proportion of the Colored Population sent to Prison. | |
|---|---|---|
| In Massachusetts | 1 out of 1665 | 1 out of 140 |
| In Connecticut | 1 out of 2350 | 1 out of 205 |
| In New York | 1 out of 2153 | 1 out of 253 |
| In New Jersey | 1 out of 3743 | 1 out of 833 |
| In Pennsylvania | 1 out of 2191 | 1 out of 181 |
The report further states, that “the returns from several prisons show that the white convicts are remaining nearly the same, or are diminishing, while the colored convicts are increasing; at the same time the white population is increasing in the northern states, much faster than the colored population.”
In the eloquent language of Gerrit Smith, Esq., “having these statistics before us, and seeing that the policy of our laws concurs with our prejudices to debase this people, to deprive them of indispensable inducements to well doing, and virtually to close against them all avenues to honor and respectability,—how unphilosophical and ungenerous it is, to look away from these sufficient causes of their vile condition to fanciful and heartless speculations, about the inferiority of their natural endowments. It will be time enough for white men to accuse God of having given an inferior moral constitution to the negro, when they shall have spent as many centuries in enlightening, as they have in debasing him—when they shall have done as much to make him a man, as they have done to make him a brute.”
Having now considered, to some extent, the condition of the colored population in the United States, we come in the next place to inquire what can be done for them.
The object of the Colonization Society, as expressed in its constitution, is “exclusively to promote and execute a plan of colonizing, (with their own consent) the free people of color residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem expedient.” It has, by profession and principle, nothing to do with the rights of slave-holders. It wishes for no interference with the tenure of slaves. The society regards these things solely as matters of legislation, and to be affected only in a legal way. They wish, in their organized capacity, only to remove the blacks, which are now free, and shall from time to time be made free by their masters. In doing this, and by other exertions, they hope, however, so to affect the interests and feelings of the slave-holders, that they will enlist in the enterprize, and rejoice to free themselves from all property in human flesh.
That the colonization scheme is tending to this result, and, if properly managed, is adequate to its accomplishment, is certain from many considerations. It cannot, indeed, accomplish the object at once. It would be unreasonable to expect that this, or any other society or system could, in the space of a few years, remove an evil which has been increasing for two centuries. But if colonization can do that in less than one half the time in which the evil has been growing to its present size, it ought not to be accounted visionary, or unworthy of confidence.
“Now,” says the Rev. John C. Young, President of Centre College, Kentucky, “the systematic and efficient operation of this society could in less than seventy years settle the whole of our colored population in Africa; and this great work could be accomplished without the necessity of imposing on any one a single cent of additional tax. The plan of operations by which this could be effected is simple and feasible. Let the emigration be every year enlarged by one thousand persons, until the number annually exported amounts to 50,000. Continue the annual exportation of this number for twenty years longer, and the whole race will have disappeared from the land. The effect of this process, (supposing it to be actually entered upon) is not a matter of guess-work, but of calculation.” [See note in Young’s Address.] It can certainly be done; and if the operations of the society are permitted to go onward, and increase, as they have done, unobstructed by national calamities, and the wildness of fanatics, it will be done.
But supposing all this cannot be effected through the influence of the Colonization Society, or that it were not desirable, as many think, to be done, yet we maintain that so much can be done towards meliorating the condition of the colored population, both slaves and free, as to merit the hearty co-operation of every Christian and philanthropist.
The present actual tendencies of the colonization scheme, so far as abolition and the general interests of the blacks are concerned, receive a favorable character from the following considerations, which are presented as briefly as possible.
1. The colonization scheme exerts, and has exerted, a happy influence toward abolition, by directing the minds of people of all classes, including slave-owners, to the condition of the blacks. Before the plan of colonization was agitated, nothing, comparatively, had been done to meliorate the condition of this class, and no interest had been felt in their behalf. But when the plan which we speak of suggested itself to a few benevolent minds, an ardent feeling began to be roused in behalf of the negro. Inquiries were instituted; discussion commenced; and the public mind was excited to the calm but earnest consideration of the momentous subject in all its bearings. But for this Institution, the 3,000 free blacks, who are now rejoicing in the land of their fathers, under a government and laws chiefly of their own, would still be enduring poverty and wretchedness; and the slaves who have been emancipated would be still suffering in bondage.
Says the Hon. Gerrit Smith, in a recent letter on this subject, “The late demonstrations, in Virginia and Maryland, of patriotic and Christian interest in our colored population, are commonly ascribed to the Southampton insurrection. That insurrection may have been, and probably was, a proximate cause of them; but, in my judgment, Virginia and Maryland are vastly more indebted for the steps they have taken in the cause of universal freedom to the moral influence of the American Colonization Society than to all other causes. And, may not most of those, who now rail at the Society, be likewise indebted to the same influence for their fresh and augmented interest in the welfare of the black man? The tenacious slave-holder at the south lays all the blame of these things at the door of the Colonization Society, and this too, notwithstanding some abolitionists charge the Society with playing designedly into the hands of such slave-holders. And if such (he goes on to say) be the power of those moral influences now, when Liberia has a population of 3,000, what will it be when 50,000 of our blacks shall be gathered into that asylum? Whether or not this shall be the result of colonization, remains to be seen; but meanwhile it is certain that whatever of influence is now exerted for the ultimate good of the blacks has been brought into exercise by the operations of our Institution.
2. The Colonization Society exerts a happy influence on the interests of the black population, by weakening the prejudice of the whites against them. Some of the doctrines and measures advanced and pursued in different parts of the country are, in our opinion, calculated to strengthen this prejudice.
That the Colonization Society in its operations has a contrary effect, appears from the circumstance that before this scheme commenced, little or no interest was felt for the blacks, except by a few individuals. Prejudice ground them in the dust; and, had their condition remained unaltered, would have continued to oppress them to the end of time. No sympathy was felt for them in their suffering and wretchedness. Indeed, it did apparently no good to sympathize. It was like weeping for the souls of the lost. Men will not feel when feeling is without effect. At any rate, this was true in the case of the blacks. They were despised, not because they were degraded merely; but because respect could do them no good. But when the plan of colonizing them presented itself, the case immediately altered—a way was open by which the black could be benefited, and the hearts of all who understood the plan prompted them to action. As soon as people saw that something could be done to ameliorate the condition of this wretched race, they were ready and willing to do it; and this feeling has gained strength with the increase of light, and with the success of the enterprize—and may we not expect that it will continue to gain strength as the colony on the coast of Africa increases in magnitude and importance, and as the practicability of the scheme of benevolence in question is with every successive day made more and more certain? It must increase. But some may say, and they have said, that this interest in behalf of the blacks, so far from being an evidence that the prejudice is diminishing, results directly from prejudice; and that if men would show respect for the blacks, or any interest in their behalf, they must treat them as they do themselves. Now this objection supposes two things. First, that the plan of colonization is one of positive evil to the blacks, not only in tendency but design. This assertion requires no argument. Finley, and Mills, and Ashmun, did not lay down their lives to sustain an Institution, which they thought would either directly or indirectly prove an injury to the blacks. Christians do not now pray for the success of this Institution because they hate the blacks, and wish in this way to do them evil. Heaven forbid that any one should charge them with such a crime! What, Christians pray and contribute for the support of the Colonization Society because they hate the blacks! Charity that endureth all things alone can endure this.
But again, the objection supposes that for us to respect our fellow, and do unto him as we would have him do unto us, we should consider his circumstances in every respect the same as our own. It supposes that our duty to the blacks requires us, in order to do him the greatest possible good, to treat him in all particulars, as we ourselves need to be treated—that we are not to consider age, character, color, constitution, nor any other circumstance or condition of life as making any difference, but that we must regard him, without qualification, just as we are. Now this could not be true of any two white men in the country, much less of the whites and blacks, whose condition, in every respect differs most widely. Nor do the Sacred Scriptures require this. They suppose that we are to regard the difference of condition between ourselves and others. We are to do to others as we would that they should do to us in like circumstances, it being remembered that the circumstances of no two persons in the world are alike. If, therefore, we treat the negro in a manner which we suppose will promote his highest temporal and eternal good, we are not to be charged with acting under the influence of prejudice, because we do not treat a white man in the same manner. The circumstances of the two are so wide apart, that what would be a blessing to the one, would be ruinous to the other. We think it would be better to carry the negro to Africa and colonize him there, (with his own free will, of course) under a climate suited to his constitution, and under laws and institutions calculated to make him wise and happy, than to keep him here under the withering influences which are operating against him. Are we therefore under the influence of prejudice? If we are, it is a prejudice which duty prompts us exercise. But we have bestowed more attention to this objection than it deserves. Nothing can be plainer than that the colonization scheme has had a great influence in weakening this prejudice against the blacks, and creating an interest in their behalf, which must, in the nature of things, continue to increase until the whole race shall be restored to an equality with the whites.
3. Colonization exerts a favorable influence on the interests of the blacks, by improving their character and elevating their condition, so as to remove objections from the minds of those who oppose them.
Before the Society commenced operations the character of the negro was degraded to a level with the brutes. They were even called brutes, and books were written to show that they were not human. But since the days of colonization such thoughts and feelings have been laid aside. Men have begun to recognize the negro as a man, and treat him as such; and he himself has become conscious of his power. Says a writer in the Christian Spectator, “Not Hayti has done more to make the negro character respected by mankind and to afford the means of making the negro conscious of his manhood, than Liberia has already accomplished. The name of Lott Carey is worth more than the name of Boyer or Petion. It has done, it is doing more to rescue the African character from degradation, than could be done by a thousand volumes against prejudice.” And thus the writer goes on to say, “it has done, and is doing more to accelerate the abolition of slavery than could be done by a ship-load of such pamphlets and speeches as some that we might mention. Elevate the character of the free people of color—let it be seen that they are men indeed—let the degrading associations that follow them be broken up by the actual improvement of their character, as a people, and negro slavery must rapidly wither and die.
4. Colonization exerts a favorable influence on the general interest of the blacks, especially by directing the thoughts of slave-holders to the subject of emancipation, as well as actually securing, in many cases, the emancipation of slaves. Of this we have abundant evidence. Almost every week we hear of some slave, or a number of slaves, who have been emancipated. We hear also of many persons who are willing to give freedom to their slaves, providing they can be removed from the soil. There are multitudes of this description in Kentucky; and in Missouri a large proportion of the slave-holders are willing and desirous of doing this. A letter from a gentleman in St. Louis, says, “A great change has taken place here within ten years on the subject of slavery. The advocates of perpetual bondage are very few. The slaves are, in many instances, an expense to their owners; and the Colonization Society is looked to as the only hope of ridding the land of the burden.” The same may be said of numbers in the other slave-holding states. On this subject, the writer above alluded to remarks, “This is not conjecture. The friends of colonization in their arguments can read off a catalogue of instances in which emancipation has already resulted from the progress of this work. We know that on the other hand it is said that the arguments and statements of colonizationists prevent emancipation. But the proper proof of this assertion would be to bring forward the particular facts. Tell us of the individuals who have in fact been effectually hindered from setting their slaves at large by what they have read in the African Repository, or by what they have heard from the agents of the Society. We say, then, that colonization is bringing the power of example to bear on public sentiment at the south in regard to slavery. Each single instance of emancipation is indeed a small matter, when compared with the continued slavery of two millions; but every such instance, occurring in the midst of a slave-holding community, is a strong appeal to the natural sentiments of benevolence and justice in all who witness it.” It must be felt, it is felt, by all who hold their fellow-men in bondage.
5. African colonization will exert a most happy influence on the general interest of the negro, particularly in reference to the abolition of slaves, by bringing free labor into competition with that of slaves. Many people in this country begin already to feel that slave labor is unprofitable; and if their circumstances were such that they could employ free labor, they would certainly do it. Self-interest alone would prompt nearly all the slave-holders in Missouri and Kentucky, and multitudes in Virginia and Maryland, to do this if they could. And not a few in the more determined slave-states are ready to acknowledge the comparative worthlessness of slave-labor, (for self-interest must be brought to bear upon the interest of emancipation) and they will be ready to release their slaves. Slavery will cease as soon as men shall be persuaded that it is unprofitable. Now this will be the tendency of colonization. It will multiply the products of tropical regions, above what can be done in slave-holding countries, and show to the latter, by actual demonstration, the unprofitableness of the system. On this subject the writer in the Spectator says, “We are confident that the most rapid and most effectual method to bring free labor into competition with slave labor, and thus to drive the products of the latter out of every market, is to establish on the soil of Africa a free and civilized commonwealth, whose institutions shall all be fashioned after American models, and whose population shall be pervaded and impelled by the spirit of American enterprize. This is the work which the American Colonization Society is prosecuting with all its resources. The friends of slavery may dream that this work is to secure and perpetuate that miserable system; but if any of them do thus imagine, they err as widely in that as they do in supposing that the repeal of the protective tariff will relieve them of their embarrassments. The free-trade principles, for which they are now contending, are the principles which will, by and by, bring all slave-holders to the alternative of universal emancipation, or universal bankruptcy.”
6. The prosecution of this work has a happy influence on the general interests of the blacks, by introducing into the slave-holding states inquiry and discussion respecting the evils of slavery, and the possibility of its abolition. Says the above writer in the Christian Spectator, “The great body of the friends of the Colonization Society, at the South no less than at the North, regard the scheme of that institution as something, which will ultimately, in some way, deliver the land of the curse of Slavery. All who oppose the Society there, oppose it on the same ground. They look upon it as being, in its tendency, and in the hopes of its supporters, an Anti-Slavery project. Thus, in those very regions, in which the system of Slavery sheds all its blasting influences, there is constituted a party, the members of which are recognized by their opposers, and more or less distinctly themselves, as hostile to Slavery, and as looking for an opportunity to move for an abolition. In this way it was, that when an occasion presented itself, a few months ago, the legislature of Virginia became a scene of earnest and public discussion on this long interdicted theme, and to the astonishment of the nation it appeared that the party opposed to slavery was only not a majority. Had Colonization never been thought of, had the scheme of the American Colonization Society never been undertaken, who believes that projects for the abolition of slavery would have been so soon if ever discussed in the legislature of Virginia? Without that preparation of the public mind, which the Colonization Society in the calm and peaceful prosecution of its labors has indirectly accomplished, insurrection and massacre, with all the fear and horrors which they occasion, would have led only to cruelties of legislation and of practice. There is no oppression so unrelenting and desperate as when the oppressor fears his subjects; and the unanimous feeling of Virginia would have been (erroneous indeed, but not on that account the less irresistible and inflexible,) a feeling like that of him who holds a wolf by the ears: it is dangerous to keep him, but more dangerous to let him loose; and therefore, the more furious the struggles of the prisoner, the fiercer and closer will be the despairing grasp that holds him.”
We entertain no doubt that the discussions, thus commenced, will gradually become more free and thorough: will appeal more directly to the great law that acknowledges the inalienable and universal rights of man; and will, at the same time, find its way still farther South, till it pervades and awakens every state from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico. This is inevitable: the discussion of such a subject, involving such hopes, and fears, and interests, when once it has been opened, can never be suppressed. Nor is this all: such a system as slavery cannot long withstand the power of free and full discussion. The hour in which the debate on slavery commenced in the capital at Richmond, may be considered as having sealed the death-warrant of the system, not only for Virginia, but for the nation. And now it may be said, that whatever is to be hereafter the success of the Colonization Society, in the prosecution of its own appropriate enterprize, this great result is ultimately sure. Not that it has nothing more to do by its indirect influence in accelerating this result: certainly the greater the success of the Colonization of Africa, the greater will be the progress of public opinion towards this consummation. But let the Society be dissolved, let the pirates of the African seas wreak their cherished wrath on Liberia—let Montserrado be made again the mart for the slave-trade—let the spot now adorned with Christian churches become again the seat of devil-worship; let the smiling villages on the St. Paul’s be made desolate, and the now cultivated soil be overspread with the vegetation of the wilderness; still it will be true that the indirect influence of the American Colonization Society has secured the abolition of Slavery.”
7. African Colonization will have a powerful tendency to destroy the slave trade. Hitherto all efforts to stop the progress of this abominable traffic have been unavailing. Notwithstanding the laws made against it by various nations, and especially against the importation of slaves into their territories, the work still goes on. It is estimated that 50,000 were carried into foreign slavery the last year. And this will continue to be the fact for years to come, unless more effectual measures are taken than any that government can adopt. The slave-stealers lie along the coast of Africa, and glide up and down her rivers, ready to seize upon every man, woman and child, who come within their reach. And this they will continue to do in spite of all penal enactments. By resorting to false flags, and false decks, and false passports, they effectually elude detection; or, if they are hard pressed and cannot escape their pursuers, they throw their cargoes overboard, and thus evade the law which requires that slaves shall be actually found in the ship in order to justify a capture. When hard pressed they will even head the negroes up in casks, and cast them into the sea, that they may take them up again when the chase is over. Now there is no conceivable way, while the world remains as it is, by which this inhuman traffic can be suppressed, but by establishing colonies on the coast of Africa. And this will do it. ‘This will draw a cordon around the continent which the slave-trader cannot penetrate.’ All communication with the natives will be cut off, and if it is not wholly so, the influence which the colonists will have upon them will remove their disposition to sell their brethren and sisters into bondage. The colony at Liberia has already done this to a great extent. Says a recent British publication, when speaking of the influence of the American Colony at Liberia, ‘Nothing has tended more to suppress the slave-trade in this quarter, than the constant intercourse and communication of the natives with these industrious colonists. Wherever the influence of this colony extends, the slave-trade has been abandoned.’ And we have other evidence to show that, for hundreds of miles around Liberia, the slave-trade has ceased. Is it not plain then that African colonization exerts, and if suffered to proceed will continue to exert, a favorable influence for the suppression of the slave-trade? Does not Divine Providence seem to point to this as the only way to bring it to an end? Is not this the way by which those sighs and groans, and agonies unutterable, which Heaven annually witnesses on the coast of Africa, and in the middle passage, will be brought to an end?
8. Colonization will have a favorable influence on the interests of the negro by affording facilities for the introduction of civilization and christianity into the continent of Africa. The introduction of religion and the arts into Africa, as into every other heathen country, is an object which should be near the heart of every christian and friend of man. The whole continent is now filled with the habitations of cruelty—the people are sitting in the region and shadow of death. No gospel light has ever shone upon them; but ignorance and superstition, and moral death, everywhere prevail. Now the establishment of colonies on the coast, which are under the influence of christian principle, will have a tendency to remove this darkness from the natives around. It has begun to do this already. Many of the natives around Liberia have desired to place themselves under the protection of its government, and esteem it no small privilege if they may be permitted to call themselves Americans. They are anxious to place their children in the schools of the colonists, and many of them through the instructions which they have there received have become pious and devoted christians. Throughout the whole region, bordering on Liberia, the natives appear to be disarmed of prejudice, and ready to receive the instructions and adopt the principles of the colonists. Now let this colony be enlarged—let the means of education and christian knowledge be increased and extended to the neighboring tribes—and multitudes of them would doubtless be converted to God. If the colony at Liberia is successful, and receives the confidence and support of the christian community, a college may shortly be established there which, by the blessing of Heaven, will qualify men to act as missionaries over the whole continent. Multitudes might there be trained up, who, with all their advantages of color and adaptation to the climate, will be vastly better qualified to preach the gospel to their countrymen than any who could go from this country. What encouragement then is there to urge forward the work of colonization! For the sake of the poor natives alone, let the work go forward—let colonies be established all along the coast—let churches and schools be built up—circulate Bibles and tracts, and let the light of the gospel shine—and the natives will feel its holy influence. One tribe will receive the truth and communicate it to another, and they again to another—knowledge will increase and multiply daily. Every gale which sweeps from the western coast, will waft Messiah’s name farther and farther into the interior, until that whole continent shall become vocal with the high praises of our God.
Such are some of the favorable influences of the Colonization Society on the general interests of the colored population. We might enumerate many more, and say many things to obviate the objections which some have urged against the Society, but time will not permit. We conclude the argument, therefore, by urging all the friends of colonization diligently to consider the testimony concerning this enterprise, and to prepare themselves to vindicate it against the attacks of its enemies, and to commend it to the confidence and support of the community. The state of feeling at the present time towards the Colonization Society requires that something should be done. Its enemies, though feeble, are clamorous, and if nothing is done to check their influence, may deceive some portion of the people. Let, then, the friends of colonization awake and prepare themselves for a discussion, from which they have everything to hope. The enterprise will go forward—the colony at Liberia will be sustained, and the society will receive, as it deserves, the universal and cordial gratitude and support of every portion of the community.