THE NEGRO IN AMERICA AND AFRICA.
Dr. Edward W. Blyden, of Liberia, Africa, is the author of an interesting article in the Methodist Quarterly Review for January, 1880, from which we gratefully reprint elsewhere his tribute to our work. Anything which comes from the pen of this distinguished gentleman—one of the most cultured men of the race whose cause he pleads—is well worth reading and consideration. With much that the Doctor says, we are in full and hearty agreement, but beg leave to make one or two suggestions, growing out of what seem to be at least not unwarranted deductions from his positions.
No one can regret more than we do the prejudice which exists, in this country especially, against the colored man. And there is no doubt that, as Dr. Blyden observes, even among those who are not unmoved by the story of his wrongs, and who are earnestly engaged in philanthropic efforts for his uplifting, this personal prejudice and sense of superiority does exist. That it is not so to anything like the same degree in England and on the Continent, is suggestive in the light it casts upon the fact among us. On what is the difference of feeling founded? Certainly not altogether in the natural race-prejudice. That is a fact not to be denied. There is a prejudice which is universal between all people of distinct races of men. It is felt by the original inhabitants of Africa against the Caucasian, as Dr. B. shows, as well as by the white man in his own home against the black. But in this land, the prejudice is intensified by the position and the character of those who have made up the negro population.
Dr. Blyden objects to our calling the Negro, Indian and Chinaman “the despised races.” He even dislikes to have Africa called “the Dark Continent.” Of course, our brother knows that the sympathies of this Association are, as they have always been, with these people of his land, and that our toils and labors have not been limited, nor of brief continuance, in their behalf. All this he most fully and kindly acknowledges in his article. It is hardly necessary for us to say, then, that we have used the term as describing what is, and as contrasted with what ought to be. It is true, rightly or wrongly, that they have been looked down upon and are still despised. And we have used the word as setting forth the fact, and as, therefore, the strongest plea to Christian sympathy and help; for we have been sure that where we could enlist these, the term would no longer have application. The good Samaritan did not despise the poor Jew who had fallen among thieves, as he held him up on the ass which bore him to the inn. He was too busy pitying and helping him. Perhaps this is enough to say. We have used the term “the Despised Races” not as an epithet, but as a plea.
A fair inference at least from the Doctor’s article is, that he sees no hope for his people on this continent, and that their only way to success is to emigrate to the land of their mothers, and to make its reclamation their ambition. But how does that affect our work and the present generation? The American Colonization Society, as seen by its last published report, sent out to Africa during the year 1878, one hundred and one colonists; during the same year the bark Azor transported two hundred and forty. It is but a spoonful dipped from this deep sea. It is but the smallest possible percentage even of the increase of the colored population of America. Meanwhile, what are we to do with the five millions who remain, and with their children and their children’s children? What we do for them we must do for them here.
We, too, believe in colonization; in the evangelization of Africa by Africans; and the only difference in our aim and purpose from the work with which the Doctor is so fully identified, is that we want to distribute our colonists more widely. It is well to have a Christian republic in Africa. But it is our desire to plant small colonies of twenty-five or thirty, among whom shall be both ministers and mechanics, here and there through the still “dark continent”—points of radiation for the light of life and of Christian civilization which they are to hold forth.
We are full of sympathy and interest with the good work in Liberia. May the Lord bless it abundantly. But the work here is not hopeless. Hundreds of thousands of the Freedmen still answer, from amid all their disappointments and disabilities, “We are rising.” Our plan and purpose desire to take part in both hemispheres of the whole rounded work—to save the African in America and in Africa alike.