A summer on the borders of the Caribbean sea.

by J. Dennis Harris

Reforms do not go backwards, nor filibustering northwards, and “nothing is more certain than that the slaves are to be free;” but the problem as to what position they are to sustain as freemen is but little thought of, and, of course, less understood. It is true some suggestions have been offered on this subject, foremost among which stands that of Mr. Helper, as the most absurd and ridiculous. It did not occur to Mr. Helper, when he suggested the broad idea of chartering all the vessels lying around loose for the huddling together of the blacks after emancipation and shipping them off to Africa,—it did not occur to him that they were men, and might not wish to go; at least it did not occur to him that they were men. So I make the suggestion for his benefit, and for the benefit of those who may come after him, this being a question not to be settled by arbitrary means, but by means which shall meet the approbation of all parties concerned, nor yet forgetting that at the head of these parties stands Him whose name is not to be mentioned without reverence.

Whence comes the colored people’s instinctive horror of colonization in Africa? Colonizationists say they can not account for it, since Africa is their fatherland. But if this were any argument, I could account for it by the simple affirmation that it is not their fatherland. The truth is, “Time has shown that the causes which have produced races never to improve Africa, but to abandon it, and give their vigor and derive their strength from other climes, is not to be reversed by the best efforts of the best men.” Besides this, charity begins at home. Allowing that the colonizationists, by sending a few handfuls of colored men to Africa, may plant the germ of civilization there, that the seed may spread or the fire may flame until the whole continent becomes illuminated with Christian love, and her sons stand forth regenerated and redeemed from the dark superstition that enthralled them. Then what? It is a great deal, and a great deal more than we can hope for, and a hero is he who will sacrifice his life in making the attempt to bring about such a magnificent result; but in doing this very little will be accomplished for the millions who remain, increasing, on this continent.

Nevertheless, there is a growing disposition among colored men of thought to abandon that policy which teaches them to cling to the skirts of the white people for support, and to emigrate to Africa, Hayti, or wherever else they may expect to better their condition; and it is encouraging to know that the time is at hand when men can speak their convictions on this subject without being made the victims of illiterate abuse and indiscriminate denunciation, all of which is the natural result of more general information, and which will lead to the discovery at last of what is to be the final purpose of American slavery—the destiny of the colored race after slavery shall be abolished.

The history of Hayti and Jamaica, and of the American tropics generally, indicates the propagation of the colored race, exclusive of whites or blacks. (This is simply calling things by their right names, for which the compiler of these facts expects to be made the most popular writer of the age, of being highly flattered, infinitely abused, feared, hated, and all that attends the discovery of truth generally.) Throughout the West Indies, with the single exception of Cuba, the whites have been unable to keep up their numbers, and in that instance only by a recent flood of immigration on a large scale from Europe. The colored race, on the contrary, is perfectly well adapted to this region, and luxuriates in it; and it is only through their agency that some small portion of the torrid zone has been brought within the circle of civilized industry. I have said their history would prove this.

When discovered by the Spaniards these islands were inhabited by a colored people not unlike our Indians. Their homes were invaded; they were reduced to a state of miserable vassalage, and the proud Caucasian stalked about, the conquerer of every spot of earth his avarice or cupidity desired. The natives, unable to endure the persecutions to which they were subjected, withered and fell like the autumn leaves, and Africa became the hunting-ground of the slave pirate for hardier and more enduring slaves.

Africa became their hunting-ground, and quiet villagers were startled in the dead of night to behold their huts in flames, and to hear the shrieks of their fellow-men and fellow-women, who were being torn away from their native homes as victims for the slave-ship, there to suffer all the tortures of the yoke and the branding-iron, and finally to be landed, if at all, on the American coast, with no other prospect than that of a life-bondage spread out before them. This state of wickedness continued, so far as England was concerned, until its glaring outrages challenged the attention of the British realm, and until the Parliament of England passed an act declaring all British subjects should be free;—“An act of legislation which, for justice and magnanimity, stands unrivalled in the annals of the world, and which will be the glory of England and the admiration of posterity when her proudest military and naval achievements shall have faded from the recollection of mankind;” an act of legislation which restored the liberties of eight hundred thousand of our fellow-men, and left them in possession of superior claims and circumstances to those from which they had been originally removed, (because, undoubtedly, the chances of any free man are better upon this continent than in Africa.)

Then came a series of American slanders: “Jamaica was ruined;” “the negro unfit for freedom;” and the downfall of prosperity and the loss of trade were everywhere said to be inevitable.

But the negro and his descendants are proof against slander and against the New York Herald, which terms are soon to be synonymous. Jamaica was not ruined: but, while these complaints were raised against her population, 40,000 land patents, varying from ten to one hundred acres each, were being taken up in a single year! Lands having been provided and schools introduced, happiness began to smile, prosperity reäppeared, and the whole country was redeemed from what had been a field of terror to what promises to become the very garden of the Western world.

This is said to be an axiom of political philosophy upon which it is safe to rely: For any people to maintain their rights, they must constitute an essential part of the ruling element of the country in which they live. The whites of the tropics are but few in number. They have heretofore sustained themselves by their superior wealth and intelligence. But, as fast as the colored people rise in this respect, their white rulers are pushed aside to make way for officers of their own race. This is perfectly natural. When a colony of Norwegians come over from Norway and settle a county in Wisconsin, do they elect a yankee to represent them? Norwegians elect Norwegians, Germans elect Germans, and colored men elect colored men, whenever they have the opportunity.

Even now a large majority of the subordinate officers of Jamaica, I understand, are colored men. The Parliament is about equally divided, and the Attorney-General and Emigration Agent-General are colored men; and it is fair to assume, within a few years of the date of this paper, there will not be a single white man throughout the West Indies occupying a position within the gift of the people.