THE NEGRO
AND AMERICAN LIBERTY.
1895:
Published by Prof. John Moore,
Boston, Mass.
CRISPUS ATTUCKS. (From the “Bostonian.”)
B. WILKINS & CO.,
PRINTERS,
93 FEDERAL ST., BOSTON.
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR LIBERTY IN AMERICA.
BY PROF. JOHN MOORE.
It seems like a paradox to speak of the Negro as efficiently related to the cause of freedom in America. He was brought here and forced into slavery, in which condition he was held most of the time since the country was settled. He was treated not as a human being, but as property to be used only for the advantage of his oppressors. Some became free, but North as well as South, they were largely shut out from the opportunities for industry and general improvement of their condition. They were under a social ban and not recognized as equal to their fellowmen of a different complexion. After suffering from such treatment for generations it could hardly be expected that Negroes would feel much enthusiasm in the cause of popular liberty on account of the wrongs they suffered, and the seeming hopelessness of ever getting their rights.
But notwithstanding this the colored man displayed an intense love of freedom, and a willingness to fight and make sacrifice for the common cause of human liberty, even when his own prospect of sharing in it, was not promising. White men, generally assuming that they had the special right to the monopoly of that blessing.
In this the Negro showed a magnanimity and noble manhood, never surpassed by those of any other race. The time is coming when due justice will be done to our African brothers by the patriotic historian, which has not yet been accorded.