The Executive Committee feel assured that the peaceful means adopted by this society for the Christian civilization of the African races require only the advocacy of Christian Ministers and the Press generally to be responded to by the people of Great Britain.
The horrors of the slave trade, as perpetrated on the continent of Africa and during the middle passage, can only be put an end to by the establishment of a lawful and a lucrative, a powerful and a permanent, trade between this country and Africa; which will have the effect of destroying the slave trade, spreading the Gospel of Christ, and civilizing the African races. For this purpose the support of the mercantile class is earnestly solicited for a movement which—commenced by the colored people of America flying from oppression—bids fair to open new cotton fields for the supply of British industry, and new markets for our commerce, realizing the sublime promise of Scripture, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days it shall return unto thee."
Alarmists point to the sparks in the cotton fields of America, while thoughtful men reflect that the commercial prosperity of this great country hangs upon a thread of cotton, which a blight of the plant, an insurrection among the slaves, an untimely frost, or an increased demand in the Northern States of the Union, might destroy; bringing to Lancashire first, and then to the whole kingdom, a return of the Irish famine of 1847, which reduced the population of that portion of the kingdom from eight to six millions.
The Southern States of the American Union are following the example of the infatuated Louis the Fourteenth of France. As he drove into exile thousands of his subjects engaged in manufactures and trade, who sought refuge in England and laid the foundation of our manufacturing supremacy, so are the Slave States now driving from their confines thousands of freed colored men. Where are the exiles to go? The Free States are too crowded, and Canada too cold for them. Can we not offer them an asylum in Jamaica and other colonies? They are the cream, the best of their race; for it is by long-continued industry and economy that they have been enabled to purchase their freedom, and joyfully will they seize the hand of deliverance which Great Britain holds out to them. We only want additional labor; give us that, and we shall very soon cultivate our own cotton.—Slavery Doomed.
Fugitive-Aid Society in Canada
At a meeting held in the Town Hall, Manchester, on the 8th of August inst., the following remarks were made by Thomas Clegg, Esq., who presided on the occasion.
The Chairman said that they held but one opinion as to the horrors and evils of slavery; and he thought that most of them believed that one of the great benefits which would result from Africans trained in Canada being sent to Africa, would be that they could there, for the advantage of themselves and their country, grow cotton, sugar, and fifty other articles, which we much needed. During his first year's operations in getting cotton from Africa, all his efforts only purchased 235 lbs.; but in 1858, he got 219,615 lbs.; and he saw from one of the London papers of the previous day, that not less than 3,447 bales, or 417,087 lbs., were received from the West Coast during 1860. This rapid increase, in the early history of the movement, showed that Africa was the place that could grow cotton, and that Africans were the men who ought to grow it. (Hear, hear.) There was no part of Africa, of which he had heard, where cotton did not grow wild; there was no part of the world, except India, perhaps, in which cotton was cultivated, where it was not sought to obtain Africans as cultivators. Wild African cotton was worth from 1½d. to 2¼d. a pound more than the wild produce of India; cultivated cotton from the West Coast was worth, on an average, as much as New Orleans possibly could be. (Hear, hear.) He would undertake that good African cotton could be laid down free in Liverpool at 4¼d. per pound; that it should be equal to New Orleans; and at this moment such cotton was worth probably 6¼d. per pound. (Hear, hear.) He looked upon this question as affecting not only the success of missions, but as affecting also the eternal welfare of the Africans and the temporal welfare of our people.