In view, then, of the real facts of our position, as it relates to our black people, what ought to be our chief concern? To hasten emancipation? No: that will come at any rate; it may come too soon. The main thing is to see how we can provide for it so that the new relations it will bring may be productive of good and not of evil to both races.
This, then, is the great matter; the public mind should be turned to it seriously and at once. Maryland has no precedent to follow. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England had none of her difficulties. They could emancipate and leave results to take care of themselves; or they might have refrained from emancipation with pretty nearly equal indifference. No strong, deeply rooted slaveholding interest could ever have grown up in those States; for the same reasons which prevent any such from fastening itself upon western Maryland and western Virginia. Slavery never could have become ingrained in the fibre and texture of the communities north of us, as it has grown into ours. Hence while the putting of it off by them was a mere rejection of something uncongenial with the system, it will be with us a serious alterative process to root out a constitutional malady which has crept into the blood, and blended itself with the very springs of life.
If we should rush precipitately upon emancipation, and rest with that as though it were every thing—let us see what would come of that. One hundred and fifty thousand black people, deprived of the guardianship and control of masters, the bonds of domestic relationship which united them with the community being rent asunder, and that identity of interest gone which secured them a definite and harmonious, though humble sphere in the social organism—shall they be left to the mercy of stringent laws and police restrictions, and have the life worried out of them by the incessant fretting of petty persecutions? Poor unfortunates, thrust forth out of the pale of communion to maintain a separate existence, with no foundation to rest it upon, with no element of social or political life wherewith to nourish it, with nothing to cling to, nothing to be engrafted upon, an existence without entity, miserable, forlorn, who could be so unfeeling as not to commiserate their condition! Nor would it be the slowly wasting process of petty persecutions which they would have alone to encounter. Day by day the pressure of competition would become more and more grievous, driving them from every avocation in which they could hope to find employment. Forced from the city into the country, they would be compelled to seek refuge from the country in the obscure alleys of the city. I have alluded to the riots in Cincinnati and Philadelphia a few years ago, the causes of which are too well known. In the city of New York, if my information is correct, negroes are excluded from cab driving and similar occupations. If such things are seen in communities where the number of blacks is comparatively small, what might not be expected in a community where the blacks are so numerous as they are in ours?
It may be here remarked that so long as Slavery remains a prominent institution in a State, its influence upon labor, and upon the estimation in which labor is held, has the effect of protecting the class of free negroes to a considerable extent from the competition, and its results, of white labor. The slaveholding interest is the bulwark of the whole colored race; it stands between them and destruction. Here in Baltimore there are no ordinances excluding free negroes from particular occupations. The competition of white labor, however, mostly Irish and German, has driven the free negroes from many sorts of employment on Fell’s Point, especially from the wharves and coal yards. If Slavery were abolished and the slaveholding interest extinct, the whole force of an irresistible competition would come directly upon the colored people, and would overwhelm them utterly. When we are considering emancipation, therefore, we must consider other things also, if we would be mindful of our duty as having in charge a docile inoffensive class, whose fate depends so much upon our conduct towards them.
One other thing remains to be here mentioned before we pass to the next and last division of the subject. In the event of emancipation, if we trust to the action of our domestic policy to drive the black population into other parts of the Union, it must be borne in mind that the reactive policy of our neighbor States, both north and south, will be immediately operative to repel the influx of blacks, likely to be poured upon them from Maryland. Can it be supposed that Pennsylvania will open her arms to receive the exiles rejected from our bosom? Ohio has already raised the barrier of exclusion as against Kentucky. The slaveholding States will not take our expelled negroes. We could not expect that; for Maryland at this moment will not take the free negroes of any other State.
Our condition, then, will be one of isolation, to such a degree, at least, as to throw us wholly upon our own energies. In other words, if we emancipate we must not expect to slough off the results upon other States. We must confront them ourselves; we must meet them on our own soil, and manage them as best we may. It is probable, however, that an act of prospective emancipation would induce some slaveholders to emigrate with their slaves to the south-west; and in this way there would be some diminution of the mass of the colored population.
VIII. Colonization.
The law of 1831 which recognised Colonization as a part of the public policy of Maryland was a compromise, though generally not so regarded now, between the emancipation tendency then operative and the slaveholding interest. The fanatical movement of the abolitionists checked the progress of things here; all sides, all parties, all tendencies were united to rebuke the insolent demonstrations of that fanaticism.
Colonization proposes to convey to the western coast of Africa, and to establish there, on territory procured for the purpose, the free colored people of Maryland, with their own consent. To carry out this design the Legislature of Maryland, in 1831 appropriated ten thousand dollars annually for twenty years, and constituted the Maryland State Colonization Society the agent in the business. Three Managers of the fund are appointed by the State, to act in concert with the Colonization Board. Neither the managers nor the members of the board receive any compensation; yet no enterprise was ever prosecuted with more energy, prudence, and success.
It is not necessary that I should go into details here to show what colonization has achieved under the auspices of the Maryland board. The people of Maryland are familiar with this subject. The Colonization Journal, published semi-monthly in Baltimore, under the charge of Dr. James Hall, the board’s general agent, makes known to the public all the particulars connected with colonization, and the affairs of the settlement in Africa. It may be sufficient at present to say that a most propitious fortune seems to have accompanied every step of this great undertaking. The colony was planted by some thirty or forty emigrants; it now has a population of more than seven hundred. It is an organized community; in its form, constitution and laws it is a republic; the governor, appointed by the State board, is a colored man; the other officers, elected by the people or appointed by the Executive, are all colored men. The little commonwealth is prosperous; it has established its influence over the neighboring tribes; and recently Gov. Russwurm procured by purchase a considerable and very important territory, lying adjacent to Cape Palmas. The colony has its schools, its houses of worship, its military organization, its tribunal of justice, its officers of police, its administrative functionaries. Roads have been opened into the interior, and a trade is carried on in rice, camwood, palm oil, and other productions of the country. The language of an eye witness will best testify to the condition of affairs in our Maryland colony: I quote the Rev. John Seyes, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, long a resident at the old colony of Monrovia, and recently a visiter at Cape Palmas: