The enrolment still goes on; 65,000 in South Carolina, 69,000 in Louisiana, and large numbers in North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas and Mississippi. In South Carolina, five commissioners have been appointed to visit Liberia and make arrangements for emigration; and a joint stock company has been formed to issue 30,000 shares at $10 each—2,000 shares already taken.
The appeal is made especially in South Carolina and Louisiana, on the ground of the changed political situation, which is interpreted to signify a denial of the rights of the negro citizen, and a risk of future oppression and even of a future restoration of slavery. Africa is pictured as “a land flowing with milk and honey, with no white man to molest or make afraid.” Names are enrolled on impulse, and with little consideration, and speedily swell to large proportions. It is much easier to write a book of Exodus than to cross the sea and go through the wilderness.
Meanwhile, the question of emigration is being, of necessity, investigated. Among intelligent colored men, some press their right to the country in which they have been born, and for which they have shed their blood; others suggest that the wealthy inhabitants of the rich Republic of Liberia send over vessels to transport them there, so proving their ability; others, less wise and prudent, have sold out everything and gone to Charleston, expecting to find speedy transportation, and have returned chagrined and disappointed.
The United States Government has issued a report of the condition of Liberia, showing the dangers of the sea shore climate to the health of immigrants; that Liberia has never produced sufficient food for her own consumption, and that provisions are very high; that while the interior is fine and healthy, it is almost inaccessible, and thoroughly inhospitable from the jealousy of the petty kings.
Rev. Dr. Dana, of Norwich, Conn., who has given no little time to the study of Africa, in a recent letter to the New York Herald, on the other hand, makes the following statements: That the country in the interior east of Liberia is healthy, productive and accessible. Boporo, 75 miles inland, is elevated, with an invigorating climate and a productive soil. “The exhibit of Liberian products at the Centennial was sufficient to set beyond all question the richness of the country, and the returns it makes to average industry.” A beginning of manufacturing has been made. The government sustains primary schools, and five higher schools are managed by missionary societies, and a college. The war with the natives of Cape Palmas has terminated and a treaty been made. The Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Presbyterian Churches are represented there, and have made efficient progress. Iron ore is found there, and coffee plantations are a source of wealth. The natives, both Pagan and Mohammedan, are represented by Dr. Blyden as anxious to have Christian settlers occupy the beautiful hills and fertile plains in their neighborhood. Dr. Dana concludes: “A general exodus to Liberia of the colored people of the South need not be apprehended, but it is anything but commercially wise or politically just to disparage the condition or speak derisively of the prospects of the African Republic.”