Thoughts on African Colonization

by William Lloyd Garrison

2. The principal object avowed for the removal of the free people of color, is, their corruptive and dangerous influence over the slave population.

It is demonstrated, then, beyond disputation, that this removal will infuse new strength into the tottering system of slavery, tighten the grasp of the masters upon the throats of the slaves, lull them into a profound and quiet sleep, postpone the hour of emancipation, and enhance the security and value of slave property. The terror of mind which calls for this separation cannot be benevolence, and the combination which seeks to effect it cannot merit support. It were folly to hope that the owners of slaves will ultimately emancipate them, from conscientious motives. In the first place, they affect to be innocent in holding their victims in servitude; secondly, they are assured by their colonization brethren that they are not guilty of oppression, but, on the contrary, are watchful guardians; and lastly, they are obstinate in shutting their eyes upon the light, and kindle into a rage on being arraigned for their tyrannous conduct. Our only ground of hope, then, is in increasing the difficulty of holding their slaves, in multiplying the causes of their apprehensions, in destroying the value of slave labor, and in making their situation full of disquietude and distress. Such a course is not inconsistent with benevolence—such a course we are obligated to pursue, as we value the present and everlasting welfare of the oppressor and the oppressed, and desire to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man. It may—it must be effected by a scrupulous abstinence from the productions of slavery; by encouraging planters to cultivate their lands by the hands of free laborers; by educating our free colored population, and placing them on an equality with ourselves; and by constantly exhibiting the criminality of holding rational and immortal beings in servile bondage. Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to liberate our enslaved countrymen.

3. Consider the inevitable consequence of these reiterated and malignant statements, with regard to the habits and designs of the free people of color.

First, it deters a large number of masters from liberating their slaves, and hence directly perpetuates the evils of slavery: it deters them for two reasons—an unwillingness to augment the wretchedness of those who are in servitude by turning them loose upon the country, and a dread of increasing the number of their enemies. It creates and nourishes the bitterest animosity against the free blacks. It has spread an alarm among all classes of society, in all parts of the country; and, acting under this fearful impulse, they begin to persecute, believing self-preservation imperiously calls for this severe treatment. The legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the colored inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been reported in the same legislature for preventing free people of color from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free colored population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted that whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or in any other place whatsoever shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the colored population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the blacks in Sabbath Schools—$500 penalty for the first offence—DEATH for the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of being sold by the sheriff. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at such meetings. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as assets. Laws have been passed in Georgia and North Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or imprisonment on every free person of color who shall come into their ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels belonging to the non-slaveholding States. The Legislature of Tennessee has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years. Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence. The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State, under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein; and if he refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ or harbor him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he shall be so employed, hired or harbored! It is not lawful for any free blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted by a white licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white person duly authorised! All free colored persons residing in the State, are compelled to register their names, ages, &c. &c.; and if any negro or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he resides, a written statement of his object in doing so, and his intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by sickness or coercion, of which he shall bring a certificate, he shall be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighborhood, that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of any such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of five hundred dollars, conditioned for his good behavior. If he neglect or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free colored residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or county to another, without producing a certificate from the Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman! The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette!

All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally oppressive,—which are not only flagrant violations of the Constitution of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and inhuman,—are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in his Fifteenth Annual Report,) 'for the more complete accomplishment of the great objects of the American Colonization Society'!!

I appeal to the candor and common sense of the reader, if this grievous persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly thundering in the ears of the slave States—'Your free blacks contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source of horrid danger to yourselves! They must be removed, or your destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as might be expected—'We know it; we dread the presence of this class; their influence over our slaves weakens our power, and endangers our safety; they must, they shall be expatriated, or be crushed to the earth if they remain!' It says to the free States—'Your colored population can never be rendered serviceable, intelligent or loyal; they will only, and always, serve to increase your taxes, crowd your poor-houses and penitentiaries, and corrupt and impoverish society!' Again, what is the natural response?—'It is even so; they are offensive to the eye, and a pest in community; theirs is now, and must inevitably be, without a reversal of the laws of nature, the lot of vagabonds; it were useless to attempt their intellectual and moral improvement among ourselves; and therefore be this their alternative—either to emigrate to Liberia, or remain for ever a despicable caste in this country!'

Hence the enactment of those sanguinary laws, to which reference has been made: hence, too, the increasing disposition which is every where seen to render the situation of the free blacks intolerable. Never was it so pitiable and distressing—so full of peril and anxiety—so burdened with misery, despondency and scorn; never were the prejudices of society so virulent and implacable against them; never were their prospects so dark, and dreary, and hopeless; never was the hand of power so heavily laid upon their limbs; never were they so restricted in regard to locomotion and the advantages of education, as at the present time. Athwart their sky scarcely darts a single ray of light—above and around them darkness reigns, and an angry tempest is mustering its fearful strength, and 'thunders are uttering their voices.' Treachery is seeking to decoy, and violence to expel them. For all this, and more than this, and more that is to come, the American Colonization Society is responsible. And no better evidence is needed than this: their persecution, traducement and wretchedness increase in exact ratio with the influence, popularity and extension of this Society! The fact is undeniable, and it is conclusive. For it is absurd to suppose, that as the disposition and ability of an association to alleviate misery increase, so will the degradation and suffering of the objects of its charities.

The assertion that the free blacks corrupt the morals of the slaves, is too ludicrous to need a serious refutation. Corrupt the morals of those who are recognized and treated as brutes, and who know as little of the laws of God as of the laws of the land! Immaculate creatures! The system of slavery is constantly developing new excellencies: it is, we now perceive, the protector of virtue, the enemy of vice, and a purifier of the soul!

But something more indiscreet and preposterous than this, is advanced for our admiration. We are gravely assured, first, by a New-England clergyman, that, generally, the condition of the free man of color 'is one in comparison with which the condition of the slave is enviable;' and, secondly, by the last distinguished convert to the Colonization Society—the Hon. Mr. Archer of Virginia—'the condition of the slave is a thousand times the best, [the disparity is wonderful!]—supplied, protected, instead of destitute and desolate'![Q] Let us draw a brief comparison. The limbs of the free black are fetterless; he is controlled by no brutal driver; he bleeds not under the lash; he is his own master; his wife and children cannot be torn from his arms; he enjoys the fruits of his own labor; he can improve his own mind, make his own bargains, manage his own business, go from place to place, and assert his own rights. The situation and privileges of the slave are exactly the reverse. Reader, are they 'enviable'—'a thousand times the best'—in comparison with those of the former? I do not mean to say that there are no instances in which the slave fares as well as the free man of color; but the argument of these apologists implies that a state of slavery is superior to a state of freedom, or it is worthless.

4. It appears, from the quotations that have been given, that the only reason why the free blacks are not colonized in the 'far West,' or in Canada, or Hayti, or Mexico, is, because their proximity to the slave States might prove detrimental. If they could be sent to any or to all these places, without any danger to ourselves, why then all objections would cease. This confession places the hypocrisy of this Society in bold relief. It pretends to be anxious to evangelize benighted Africa, and stop the slave trade; but only assure it that the blacks may be safely colonized nearer home, and Africa might still continue to grope in darkness, and the slave trade to increase in enormity, and its bowels of compassion would speedily cease to yearn!—Hence it is that the rapid enlargement of the Wilberforce Settlement in Upper Canada so disturbs the repose of the advocates of African colonization; and many of them would rejoice at its overthrow.