No one can regret more than we do the prejudice which exists, in this country especially, against the colored man. And there is no doubt that, as Dr. Blyden observes, even among those who are not unmoved by the story of his wrongs, and who are earnestly engaged in philanthropic efforts for his uplifting, this personal prejudice and sense of superiority does exist. That it is not so to anything like the same degree in England and on the Continent, is suggestive in the light it casts upon the fact among us. On what is the difference of feeling founded? Certainly not altogether in the natural race-prejudice. That is a fact not to be denied. There is a prejudice which is universal between all people of distinct races of men. It is felt by the original inhabitants of Africa against the Caucasian, as Dr. B. shows, as well as by the white man in his own home against the black. But in this land, the prejudice is intensified by the position and the character of those who have made up the negro population.
Dr. Blyden objects to our calling the Negro, Indian and Chinaman “the despised races.” He even dislikes to have Africa called “the Dark Continent.” Of course, our brother knows that the sympathies of this Association are, as they have always been, with these people of his land, and that our toils and labors have not been limited, nor of brief continuance, in their behalf. All this he most fully and kindly acknowledges in his article. It is hardly necessary for us to say, then, that we have used the term as describing what is, and as contrasted with what ought to be. It is true, rightly or wrongly, that they have been looked down upon and are still despised. And we have used the word as setting forth the fact, and as, therefore, the strongest plea to Christian sympathy and help; for we have been sure that where we could enlist these, the term would no longer have application. The good Samaritan did not despise the poor Jew who had fallen among thieves, as he held him up on the ass which bore him to the inn. He was too busy pitying and helping him. Perhaps this is enough to say. We have used the term “the Despised Races” not as an epithet, but as a plea.
A fair inference at least from the Doctor’s article is, that he sees no hope for his people on this continent, and that their only way to success is to emigrate to the land of their mothers, and to make its reclamation their ambition. But how does that affect our work and the present generation? The American Colonization Society, as seen by its last published report, sent out to Africa during the year 1878, one hundred and one colonists; during the same year the bark Azor transported two hundred and forty. It is but a spoonful dipped from this deep sea. It is but the smallest possible percentage even of the increase of the colored population of America. Meanwhile, what are we to do with the five millions who remain, and with their children and their children’s children? What we do for them we must do for them here.
We, too, believe in colonization; in the evangelization of Africa by Africans; and the only difference in our aim and purpose from the work with which the Doctor is so fully identified, is that we want to distribute our colonists more widely. It is well to have a Christian republic in Africa. But it is our desire to plant small colonies of twenty-five or thirty, among whom shall be both ministers and mechanics, here and there through the still “dark continent”—points of radiation for the light of life and of Christian civilization which they are to hold forth.
We are full of sympathy and interest with the good work in Liberia. May the Lord bless it abundantly. But the work here is not hopeless. Hundreds of thousands of the Freedmen still answer, from amid all their disappointments and disabilities, “We are rising.” Our plan and purpose desire to take part in both hemispheres of the whole rounded work—to save the African in America and in Africa alike.
DR. BLYDEN ON THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
The American Missionary Association, whose publications we have prefixed to this paper, in their work of lofty and noble purpose through the South are endeavoring to prepare the negro for higher spheres of labor than “cotton-fields, turpentine orchards, and rice-fields.” Every negro who is at all acquainted with matters in the United States must have the highest admiration for it. Almost alone among the benevolent institutions of that land in the days of the great struggle, they never for one moment yielded to the imperious dictates of an oligarchical monopoly, but gave expression to the idea which they inscribed upon their banner, that one of the chief purposes of their organization was to resist the tyranny of the autocracy which doomed the negro to perpetual servitude. No one could be enrolled among its members who was a slave-holder. They have the gratitude of the negro race.
But history will have a brighter page than even that with which to adorn their annals, when she comes to recount the devotion and sacrifices of the hundreds who have been sent forth under their auspices, as uplifters of the prostrate host in the South, to whom, left as they were, paralyzed by slavery, free movement and real progress were intrinsically impossible without the aid of such agencies as the American Missionary Association. As time rolls on, the romance which clings to those heroes who fought to unfetter the body of the slave, will fade beside the halo which will surround these who have labored to liberate his mind.
(Methodist Quarterly Review.)