"'My early education, as you well know, would naturally lead me to look upon learning and good morals as of infinite importance in a land of liberty. In the winter of 1833-4, I providentially became acquainted with the colored population of Cincinnati, and found about 4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to make good citizens. Most of them had been slaves, shut out from every avenue of moral and mental improvement. I started a school for them, and kept it up with 200 pupils for two years. I then proposed to the colored people to move into the country and purchase land, and remove from those contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and villages. They promised to do so, provided I would accompany them and teach school. I travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana, looking for a suitable location, and finally settled here, thinking this place contained more natural advantages than any other unoccupied country within my knowledge. In 1835, I made the first purchase for colored people in this county. In about three years, they owned not far from 30,000 acres. I had travelled into almost every neighborhood of colored people in the State, and laid before them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for their children. In my first journey through the state, I established, by the assistance and cooperation of abolitionists, 25 schools for colored children. I collected of the colored people such money as they had to spare, and entered land for them. Many, who had no money, afterwards succeeded in raising some, and brought it to me. With this I bought land for them.
"'I purchased for myself 190 acres of land, to establish a manual labor school for colored boys. I had sustained a school on it, at my own expense, till the 11th of November, 1842. Being in Philadelphia the winter before, I became acquainted with the trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, of New Jersey, a Friend. He left by his will $20,000, for the "support and education in school learning and the mechanics arts and agriculture, such colored boys, of African and Indian descent, whose parents would give them up to the institute." We united our means and they purchased my farm, and appointed me the superintendent of the establishment, which they call the Emlen Institute.'
Coming to Shelby county the same historian did not fail to mention a settlement of prosperous Negroes who were keeping pace with their white neighbors.
"In Van Buren township is a settlement of COLORED people, numbering about 400. They constitute half the population of the township, and are as prosperous as their white neighbors. Neither are they behind them in religion, morals and intelligence, having churches and schools of their own. Their location, however, is not a good one, the land being too flat and wet. An attempt was made in July, 1846, to colonize with them 385 of the emancipated slaves of the celebrated John Randolph, of Va., after they were driven from Mercer county; but a considerable party of whites would not willingly permit it, and they were scattered by families among the people of Shelby and Miami who were willing to take them."--Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio," pp. 465-466.
This effort at colonizing so many Negroes in the State of Ohio led to much discussion. There arose an anti-free Negro party which sounded the alarm against such philanthropy and undertook to frighten all blacks away. The sentiment of such alarmists may be obtained from the following:
"By the following letter from a gentleman on a tour through Virginia to the editor, it will appear that we are to have a colony of free negroes (no less than five hundred) planted in our adjoining county. Much as we commiserate the situation of those who, when emancipated, are obliged to leave their country or again be enslaved, we trust our constitution and laws are not so defective as to suffer us to be overrun by such a wretched population:
"'Richmond, Va., May 10, 1819.
"'Dear Sir:--Since my arrival in this county I have understood that a large family of negroes, consisting of about five hundred, have lately been liberated and are to be marched to Ohio, and there settled on land provided for them agreeably to the will of a Mr. Gess, who formerly owned them. There are persons now engaged in collecting the poor miserable beings from different quarters and driving them like cattle to Goochland county, from whence they will take up their line of march to Ohio. I am told that they are perhaps as depraved and ignorant a set of people as any of their kind and that their departure is hailed with joy by all those who have lived in their neighborhood. Ohio will suffer seriously from the iniquitous policy pursued by the States of Virginia and Kent. in driving all their free negroes upon us. The people of Ohio are bound in justice to themselves to adopt some counteracting measure. Many people here are of the opinion that we may be compelled to introduce slavery in Ohio in self-defense, and they appear to be gratified that we are suffering many of the evils attending it, without (as they call it) any of the benefits. I have been gratified to tell them what I believe to be true--that nineteen twentieths of the people of Ohio are so opposed to slavery that they would not consent to its introduction under any circumstances; and, although they commiserate the situation of those who have been liberated and compelled to abandon their country or again be made slaves, yet in justice to themselves and their posterity they will refuse admittance to such a population.
"'Your most ob't., "'A.T.'
"(Editor) We understand from a respectable authority that 270 of said negroes have landed at Ripley and are to settle near the center of Brown county on White Oak, the residue of 500 to follow soon after."--Quillin's "The Color Line in Ohio," pp. 28-29 and The Supporter, Chillicothe, June 16, 1819.
"'Richmond, Va., May 10, 1819.
"'Dear Sir:--Since my arrival in this county I have understood that a large family of negroes, consisting of about five hundred, have lately been liberated and are to be marched to Ohio, and there settled on land provided for them agreeably to the will of a Mr. Gess, who formerly owned them. There are persons now engaged in collecting the poor miserable beings from different quarters and driving them like cattle to Goochland county, from whence they will take up their line of march to Ohio. I am told that they are perhaps as depraved and ignorant a set of people as any of their kind and that their departure is hailed with joy by all those who have lived in their neighborhood. Ohio will suffer seriously from the iniquitous policy pursued by the States of Virginia and Kent. in driving all their free negroes upon us. The people of Ohio are bound in justice to themselves to adopt some counteracting measure. Many people here are of the opinion that we may be compelled to introduce slavery in Ohio in self-defense, and they appear to be gratified that we are suffering many of the evils attending it, without (as they call it) any of the benefits. I have been gratified to tell them what I believe to be true--that nineteen twentieths of the people of Ohio are so opposed to slavery that they would not consent to its introduction under any circumstances; and, although they commiserate the situation of those who have been liberated and compelled to abandon their country or again be made slaves, yet in justice to themselves and their posterity they will refuse admittance to such a population.
"'Your most ob't., "'A.T.'
In view of this alarm aroused by the so-called Negro invasion the Ohio colonizationists availed themselves of the opportunity to set forth their plan as the only solution of the problem. The following articles are interesting.
"NEW STYLE COLONIZATION
"It seems that our old friend Gerrit Smith is anxious to form a colony of colored people in the State of New York. It is not known that he pays the expenses of any to get to that happy spot, but he certainly offers them a share in the property of earth, when they arrive. Some have thought his effort in this respect, another proof of his great liberality. Perhaps it is--but of the character of those lands we know nothing. The Journal of Commerce seems to understand the subject from the following, which we cut from a late number:
"'Bounty of Gerrit Smith.--Some of the newspapers are eulogizing this once sensible man, because he is giving away deeds in any number to colored men, of forty acre lots of his vast tract in Hamilton county. The considerations in the deeds are as follows:
"'"For and in consideration of the sum of one dollar to me, in hand paid, and being desirious to have all share in the subsistence and happiness, which a bountiful God has provided for all, has granted, sold, etc."
"'If the negroes do not run away from the bears and wolves and climate and sterility of Hamilton county, with more anxiety than they ever did from Southern slavery, then we do not understand their character. We do not blame the negroes for getting their liberty if they can, but to make them take farms in Hamilton county, is too bad. The wild beasts up there will rejoice in a negro settlement among them, especially at the beginning of winter.'
"Had Judge Leigh taken the Randolph negroes there, they might have fared as well as they have done in Ohio, and certainly he could have gotten the land much cheaper!
"After all, 'there is no place like home!' And there is no 'home, sweet home,' for the colored man, but in Liberia!"
--The African Repository, XXII, 320-321.
"'Bounty of Gerrit Smith.--Some of the newspapers are eulogizing this once sensible man, because he is giving away deeds in any number to colored men, of forty acre lots of his vast tract in Hamilton county. The considerations in the deeds are as follows:
"'"For and in consideration of the sum of one dollar to me, in hand paid, and being desirious to have all share in the subsistence and happiness, which a bountiful God has provided for all, has granted, sold, etc."
"'If the negroes do not run away from the bears and wolves and climate and sterility of Hamilton county, with more anxiety than they ever did from Southern slavery, then we do not understand their character. We do not blame the negroes for getting their liberty if they can, but to make them take farms in Hamilton county, is too bad. The wild beasts up there will rejoice in a negro settlement among them, especially at the beginning of winter.'
"FREEDOM IN A FREE STATE
"Facts are almost daily transpiring which show the immense importance of colonization. Among them, none are more conspicuous than those which come to us from the free States. If the colored people cannot enjoy freedom in a free State, what can they do? Where shall they go? Here is a fact:
"Randolph's 'John'.--We are told by the Lynchburg Virginian, that John, the well-known and faithful servant of the late John Randolph, who, with the emancipated slaves of his master, went to Ohio, and were there treated by the citizens in a manner of which our readers have been apprized, has returned to Charlotte with the intention of petitioning the legislature to allow him to remain in the commonwealth. He says, they have no feeling for colored people in Ohio, and, if the legislature refuse to grant his petition, he will submit to the penalty of remaining and be sold as a slave--preferring this to enjoying freedom in a free state.
"We have been repeatedly asked, why do you not send those slaves to Liberia? To this question we reply, we have had nothing to do with them, and have reason to believe that they have been prejudiced against going to Liberia. And in addition to this, it is now very doubtful whether they have money enough left to take them to Liberia; and it would be impossible for us, in the present state of our finance, to give them a free passage and support them six months after their arrival.
"We have been informed that many of the rest of them would come back to Virginia, and be slaves, rather than remain in Ohio, if they could get back. And yet they are now free and in a free state! But what does it all amount to?
"Suppose western Virginia and northern Kentucky, were tomorrow to emancipate their slaves, what would become of them? They could not remain in those states. They must remove. Where shall they go? To Ohio, most easily, and as there are more Abolitionists in that state than any other, more hopefully! But would they be admitted there? Where then shall they go? Let those who can, answer these questions. In view of them, and such like, the scheme of colonization rises in magnificence and grandeur beyond conception.
"This then is the time to aid this scheme, that when these thickening events shall turn the tide into Liberia, there may be strength and intelligence enough there to receive it!"
--The African Repository, XXII, 321-322.