"The mulatto is often triumphantly appealed to as a proof that hybrid races are prolific without end. Every physician who has seen much practice among the mulattoes knows that, in the first place, they are far less prolific than the blacks or whites,—the statistics of New York State and city confirm this fact of daily observation; and in the second place, when they are prolific, the progeny is frail, diseased, short-lived, rarely arriving at robust manhood or maturity. Physicians need not be told of the comparatively enormous amount of scrofulous and deteriorated constitutions found among those hybrids.
"The Colonization Journal furnishes some statistics with regard to the colored population of New York city, which must prove painfully interesting to all reflecting people. The late census showed that, while other classes of our population in all parts of the country were increasing in an enormous ratio, the colored were decreasing. In the State of New York, in 1840, there were fifty thousand; in 1850, only forty-seven thousand. In New York city, in 1840, there were eighteen thousand; in 1850, seventeen thousand. According to the New York City Inspector's report for the four months, ending with October, 1853:—
1. The whites present marriages, 2,230 The colored present marriages, 26 2. The whites present births, 6,780 The colored present births, 70 3. The whites deaths about 6,000 (exclusive of 2,152 among 116,000 newly-arrived
emigrants, and others unacclimated.)The colored exhibit deaths, 160 giving a ratio of deaths among acclimated whites to colored persons of thirty-seven to one; while the births are ninety-seven whites to one colored. The ratio of whites to colored, is as follows:—Marriages, 140 to 1; births, 97 to 1; deaths, 37 to 1. According to the ratio of the population, the marriages among the whites, during this time, are three times greater than among the colored; the number of births among the whites is twice as great. In deaths, the colored exceed the white not only according to ratio of population, but show one hundred and sixty-five deaths to seventy-six births, or seven deaths to three births,—more than two to one.
"The same is true, of Boston, as far as the census returns will enable us to judge. In Shattuck's census of 1845, it appears that in that year there were one hundred and forty-six less colored persons in Boston than in 1840; the total number being 1842. From the same work, the deaths are given for a period of fifty years, from 1725 to 1775, showing the mortality among the blacks to have been twice that among the whites. Of late years, Boston, probably, does not differ from itself in former times, nor from New York at present. In the compendium of the United States census for 1850, p. 64, it is said that the 'declining ratio of the increase of the free colored in every section is notable. In New England, the increase is now almost nothing;' in the south-west and the Southern states, the increase is much reduced; it is only in the north-west that there is any increase, 'indicating a large emigration to that quarter.' What must become of the black population at this rate in a few years? What are the causes of this decay? They do not disregard the laws of social and physical well-being any more than, if they do as much as, the whites. It seems to me one of the necessary consequences of attempts to mix races; the hybrids cease to be prolific; the race must die out as mulatto; it must either keep black unmixed, or become extinct. Nobody doubts that a mixed offspring may be produced by intermarriage of different races,—the Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafuses of Brazil, so elaborately enumerated by Prichard, sufficiently prove this. The question is, whether they would be perpetuated if strictly confined to intermarriage among themselves? From the facts in the case of mulattoes, we say unquestionably not. The same is true, as far as has been observed, of the mixture of the white and red races, in Mexico, Central and South America. The well-known infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Australian races, led the Colonial government to official inquiries, and to the result, that, in thirty-one districts, numbering fifteen thousand inhabitants, the half-breeds did not exceed two hundred, though the connection of the two races was very intimate.
"If any one wishes to be convinced of the inferiority and tendency to disease in the mulatto race, even with the assistance of the pure blood of the black and white race, he need only witness what I did recently, viz.: the disembarkation from a steamboat of a colored pic-nic party, of both sexes, of all ages, from the infant in arms to the aged, and of all hues, from the darkest black to a color approaching white. There was no old mulatto, though there were several old negroes; many fine-looking mulattoes of both sexes, evidently the first offspring from the pure races; then came the youths and children, and here could be read the sad truth at a glance. The little blacks were agile and healthy-looking; the little mulattoes, youths and young women, farther removed from the pure stocks, were sickly, feeble, thin, with frightful scars and skin diseases, and scrofula stamped on every feature and every visible part of the body. Here was hybridity of human races, under the most favorable circumstances of worldly condition and social position."
| 1. | The whites present marriages, | 2,230 |
| The colored present marriages, | 26 | |
| 2. | The whites present births, | 6,780 |
| The colored present births, | 70 | |
| 3. | The whites deaths about | 6,000 |
| (exclusive of 2,152 among 116,000 newly-arrived emigrants, and others unacclimated.) | ||
| The colored exhibit deaths, | 160 |
Such are the results of an unfavorable climate and the mixture of the blood of two races that can never intermarry. The union of such races produces the results described by Dr. Kneeland. Similar results are observed when the two races differ less and where marriage is possible, as for instance in Mexico and Central America, which are in ruins from the union of the Spanish and native blood. Union of different races is, on the other hand, often highly beneficial, our own blood being a fortunate result of such a union, but such races must be similar and not like those of Europe, Africa, and the natives of this country, wholly dissimilar or repugnant. At the South, the free black would suffer less from the effects of climate; but much more from the extreme prejudice existing there towards the black, when he assumes the position of an equal. To suppose he could exist under such a state of things is to ignore all experience, and the observation of every day. In Jamaica, the English Government have troops to protect the freed slaves from the encroachments of their old masters; but there it is stated, on the authority of the London Times, that the blacks are not only falling below the point of civilization attained during their servitude, but in many cases actually returning to their native barbarism, and the worship of idols. We have no such standing army here, but the slave, when free, must be left to the tender mercies of his former master. What would be the fate of the slave is as certain as is the fate of the North American Indian, the difference being that the Indian flies from civilization, which destroys him, while the imitative and mild-tempered African cling-to civilization which as certainly destroys him. How far he may rise in the scale of civilization if left to himself, whether the African is a self-sustaining and progressive race, or whether it will lose, when left to itself, what has been gained, and fall back in a state of barbarism, are questions not settled as yet by experiment. The attempt is making in Liberia, and it is to be hoped successfully, to solve this question in favor of the negro; but sufficient time has not yet elapsed, nor is the testimony which comes from the West Indies by any means such as could be wished.
From some of our Western States the colored man has been entirely excluded. This is a wise provision, and a merciful one, to the blacks, who come into the free States only to drag out a few years in some menial employment, and then disappear with their families, if they have any, leaving no trace behind. If history and experience teach us anything, it is this, that two races constituted like the Anglo-Saxon and the African, can never co-exist in a state of equality, which means competition. So long as the inferior race is in a dependent condition, and can claim support and protection from the white, it remains, with rare exceptions, contented and happy, the great burden of such a relation falling, in fact, upon the master, and not upon the slave. The moment that relation is changed, the negro thrown upon his own resources, and exposed to the withering and blasting effects of that ineradicable antipathy which exists towards all of African descent, that moment his fate is sealed; he perishes like the autumn leaves when comes a killing frost, and, in course of a very few generations, not a vestige remains to show that he has ever existed.
This is a truth which experience and observation have taught us, and which could not have been taught in the same manner to Mr. Jefferson, and other founders of our government, whose opinions are quoted in favor of the abolition of slavery. That slavery was an evil, they knew, and we know it also, but that the evil is mainly to the white, and that the black could never co-exist with his master in a state of freedom, they did not know, because the experiment had not been tried. Sufficient time has now elapsed to settle that question, and in a manner which would seem to leave but small chance for doubt to a rational mind.
Such, I suppose, to be the immutable law of Providence, regulating the intercourse of those races which he has made, and given to one a white skin, and to the other a dark one. The Creator of all things could, doubtless, have made all white, or all black, but, for some purpose which we cannot fathom, he has chosen not to do so. He has created some races near akin to each other, and some entirely incompatible and repugnant, and it is not for us to say that he has done wrong. If possible, we should ascertain what are the laws, physical and moral, which he has established, and then we shall do well to acquiesce in them as being right, without attempting to repeal or improve upon them, or to set up in opposition our own notions about what we call abstract right. Right is not an abstraction, but a reality, and, to find out what it is, we have to consult our experience, observation, revelation, expediency, divine laws and human laws, and every source from which we can gather the means of directing our limited capacities to the formation of just conclusions.[1]
Some may say, perhaps, better let them perish then, than remain in slavery. As the slaves do not say so themselves, I do not, for one, feel warranted in saying it for them. They may, in the designs of Providence, have an important mission to perform,—that mission being, for aught we know, to carry back from their long sojourn in a land of bondage the seeds of civilization to benighted Africa, the home of their fathers. Whatever may be their ultimate fate, I do not feel warranted in hastening and deciding it by exterminating them, or, in other words, dissolving the tie that binds them to those whose duty and interest it is to protect them. A heavy burden lies upon the backs of the masters, which they cannot throw off at will, and with which we are not burdened. They have a sad and perplexing duty to perform, and why should we, by our interference, increase those burdens which we can do nothing to lighten? All such interference is a positive injury to the slave, and insulting to those with whom we have formed a copartnership, and with whom we must live as one family, so long as we continue to be a free people.
One who has a true respect for the colored man and a just regard for his interests, will not, I think, wish to see him placed in a false position, such as he occupies in the free States, hanging for a short time upon the skirts of a community which disowns him, and then sinking into the grave leaving no trace behind. For the negro there is, socially, no hope in the free States, and those who flatter him with such a prospect do him a most grievous wrong. A few of partly African descent and possessed of considerable intellectual endowments have been thus deceived, as they will no doubt have occasion to realize most fully.
As lovers of their race how can they wish to see it occupy its present position in the free States? If they would improve its condition, why not lead out a colony to its native land, where it can live and not die, where it can be relieved from the destroying influence of the Anglo-Saxon, and stand up on its own ground, conscious of no superior, feeling its own dignity, and with ample opportunity for the development of all the faculties with which it has been endowed. Such a work would be worthy of the best intellect and the highest powers that have been bestowed on either black or white; but those of the colored race who are content with delivering anti-slavery lectures, or writing for anti-slavery papers, so far from elevating their race are engaged in a work which can end only in ruin, to the blacks certainly, in the loss of life and entire extinction, and to the whites in the loss it may be of a Union which no art can restore to its original beauty and perfection when once destroyed. As the true friend of the negro, I would not flatter him with delusive hopes and false expectations that can never be realized as has been too often and constantly done by very excellent men, and with the very best intentions; but, I would endeavor, as far as possible, to tell him the truth, however unpalatable, in the full belief that in the end such truth will operate for the best interest of all, black and white, bond and free.