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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ETHIOPIA:

HEE GLOOM AND GLOEY,

AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE HISTOKT OF THE

SLAYE TRADE AND SLAVERY,

RISE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA,

AND THE

PEOGEESS OF AFEICAN MISSIONS.
By DAVID CHEISTT,
AUTHOB OF "COTTON IS KING," ETC., ETC.

By W. P. STRICKLAN"!), D.D.,
AGENT 07 THB OHIO STATE COLONIZATION SOOIEIY.
* i I

' CINCINNATI:
PvICKEY, MALLORY & WEBB.
1857.

t'r

RECOMMENDATION.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Ohio State Colonization
Society, held June 29, 1855, it was, on motion of the Rev. Cliarles EUiott,
T).0., unanimously
"Resolved, That the Board approve of, and recommend the publication of
Prof. Cheistt's Lectuees on Colonization in book form, for general circulation."
Attest: W. P. STRICKLAND,
General Agent and Cor. Secretary.

Chm'^7

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
RICKEY, MALLORY & WEBB,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio.

CONTENTS.

Intboduotion .

PART FIRST.
The Slave Trade — Emancipation of Slaves in the United States — Coloni
zation — ^Influence of Climate on Colored Men — Foreign Emigration —
Influence of Slavery, and Foreign Emigration — Free Colored Emigra
tion into Ohio^Necessity of Colonization — Practicability of — Influence
of Colonization on the Native Africans — On the Missionaiy Enter-
prize — Relations of England to Liberia  58
PART SECOND.
Social and Moral Condition of Africa — Human Sacrifices — ^Idolatry —
Devil Worship — Witchcraft — Polygamy — Slavery in Africa — Tyranny,
Cruelties and Wars — Cannibalism — The Slave Trade — Origin of —
Slaves in a Barracoon — The Middle Passage — The Slaver Pons — Re
lations of American Slavery to African Colonization — Religious Views
of the Pilgrims — Condition of Slaves in the United States — In Ja
maica — Cuba — Brazil — Mexico — Elements of Colonization — Letter from
Govemor Pinney  109
PART THIRD.
Free Labor in Tropical and Semi-Tropical Countries — Consumption of
Slave Labor Products by England, France and the United States —
Causes operating to perpetuate Slaveiy — The Competition of Free with
Slave Labor — Africa the Field of such Competition — African Civiliza
tion — Colonization in Liberia — Hope for Africa and the African Race . 179
PART FOURTH.
Importance of Reviewing the Past — False Views of Abolitionists — The
.4nti-Slavery Policy has retarded the Progress of Emancipation — The
Indebtedness of the Christian World to Slave Labor — The Consump
tion of Slave Labor Products — Their Influence upon the Commerce of
the World — Increased Exportation of Slaves from Africa — West India
Free Labor — Suppression of Slave Trade in Brazil — Abolition of the
Slave Trade ou the Western Coast of Africa — Employments of Libe-
rian Citizens — Free Colored Population in the United States — How
they supported Slavery — What shall be done — Practical Tendency of
Colonization— Horrors of the Slave Trade — The Destiny of Africa in
the Hands of the African Race — Note  195
3

IV CONTENTS.

PART FIFTH.

Missions in Africa — Rev. Samuel J. Mills — First Emigration to Africa —
Rates of Increase in Emigration — Missions of the Methodist E. Church
in Liberia — Appropriations — Progress of — Official Visit of Bishop
Scott — American Baptist Missionary Union — Rev. Lot Carey and Collin
Teage, (colored men) — Labors of the Mission — Mr. Carey elected Vice
Agent of the Colony — His Death — Reinforcement of the Mission — Pro
gress of — The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist
Convention — Its Operations — Number of Stations, Missionarie.s —
Schools — Communicants — Central Africa — The Presbyterian Board of
Missions — Rev. J. B. Pinney — Encouraging Prospects — Alexander
High School — The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal
Church — Bishop Payne — Missionaries — Schools — The Gospel preached
to the whole Guebo Tribe, numbering 25,000 — Maryland m Liberia —
The American Christian Missionary Society — The Missionary a Col
ored Man — Progress — The Associate Reformed Synod of the South —
Preparations for Establishing a Mission — Progress — Influence of Mis
sions on Native Tribes — Missions in the English Colonies of Recap
tured Africans — Missions among the Native Tribes beyond the Influ
ence and Protection of the Colonies — Colonies of White Men in South
Africa — Conclusion — Appendix — Opposition to Colonization  249

INTRODUCTION.

That slavery has existed in all ages since the flood, is an unquestioned
fact. That it has formed a part of Uie civil as well as ecclesiastical polity
of the most powerful and influential empires of the world, Assyrian,
Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and European, is equally an established fact.
And while it has existed in all ages, and among all nations, it has also
been associated with all religions, and been the subject of legislative
enactments in all countries, ^ye find slavery intimately interwoven with
the rites and ceremonies of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity ; and
whatever its origin, whether divine, human, or demonic, this dark feature
in the constitution of nations, governments, and churches, has always
existed, while every efi'ort to erase it has only deepened the line of its
deformity. It has been a subject of greater elaboration and controversy than any
other which has agitated the public mind. It has been the theme of the
pen, the press, the pulpit, the platform, the ecclesiastical convention, the
halls of legislation, the cabinets of kings, emperors, and autocrats. The
scholar, the divine, the jurist, the politician, and statesman, have alike
been employed in laboring to solve this problem of evil ; and so difficult
has been its solution, that after the lapse of centuries, it remains as dark
and enigmatical as ever.
Africa, more than any other country in the world, has been the great
mother who has furnished more of her hapless sons for the chains and
degradation of slavery, than any other country on the globe ; and the
slavery which has existed there, from time almost immemorial, exists in
all its odious features to the present day. It may be asked, how shall
this dark continent be approached, and what policy shall the friends of
humanity adopt to elevate and save its down-trodden millions ? WiU the
Mahommedanism of the North, which is winning its way southward, and
infusing itself among the masses of Central Africa, so as in some degree
to modify their barbarism, prepare the primitive tribes for the reception
of a civilization and faith which are as true as they are divine ? Will the
Republic of Liberia, extending along the western coast, as a fringe,
spread its fibers into the interior, and, like veins of life-giving blood, pour
new currents into the heart of the great mummy 1 Is there hope for a
nation which, in the lapse of three thousand years, has scarcely moved its
hand or turned in its sleep ? Will Ethiopia ever awake and stretch out
her hands to God? Can it be that the identical types of race, servitude,
occupation, and character, that now exist in Africa, may be found
engraven on the monuments of Babylon and Thebes four thousand years
ago, and yet that we may look for the redemption of such a people 1
The present work of Prof. Christy ia designed to throw hght on these
difficult and mysterious subjects, so far, at least, as they stand connected
with the perpetuation of the evils of African slavery, and presents, in our
opinion, the only plan suggested by Providence, as indicated in the signs
of the times, for the suppression and final extirpation of this great evil.
The candid reader will find, in these pages, such reliable information aa

6 INTRODUCTION.
will guide him in his researches into the condition and prospects of the
enslaved of Africa, as exhibited in this country particularly ; while tne
statesman, politician, moralist, and Christian, will see the importance oi
adopting a different line of policy from that species of moral ana legal
suasion which has hitherto characterized the movements ot those wno
have professed to be the only friends of the slave. .
We believe it is now conceded by all sober and intelligent minds, that
if ever Africa is redeemed and her enormous system of slavery, emhracing
nine-tenths of her entire population, is broken up, it must be by the co
operation of agencies now so auspiciously begun— through means ot
Colonization upon her own soil. The abolition of the Afncan^lave
trade, and the destruction of the factories engaged in that traffic, along
the line of coast embraced in the Republic of Liberia, has established the
fact, that just so far as that Republic shall be able to extend its bounda-
-xies, by the annexation of territory, so will the infernal system be crip
pled, and eventually destroyed.
Seven years ago, Prof. Christy, with a view of forming an additional
State, to be connected with the Republic of Liberia, for the purpose of
furnishing a home for the colored people of Ohio, proposed the subject to
some friends of Colonization in the State, and Mr. Charles McMioken,
of Cincinnati, Ohio,' with a generosity worthy of so high and benevolent
an object, gave $5,000 00. Mr. Solomon Sturges, of Putnam, Ohio, also
frave $1,000 00. To these sums was added a generous donation of
$5,000 00, from Mr. Gurney, of London ; and tbe territory northwest of
Liberia, including the Gallinas, known to be the most active seat of the
trafSo in slaves, was purchased and forever consecrated to freedom, while
the chains were stricken from more than 70,000 slaves. Such was the
state of the slave trade, and tl\e wars growing out of it, in this section of
country, that the missions established there could not prosper, and all
hope was about to be cast off in regard to their success ; but now, that
the government of Liberia has been extended over the whole territory,
as far as the line of Sierra Leone, the missions are protected and prosper.
Thus we have an Ohio in Africa, in a healthy and fertile region, where
we hope many of our colored friends will find a home in the enjoyment
of all the rights, privileges and benefits of manhood.
As the author wrote the first part of this work in 1849, the numbers
and position of the free colored people are presented as in the census of
1840. No material change in the tendencies of the state of things
described has occurred since, except that the census of 1850 shows the
ratio of their increase to be much lower than that upon which the esti
mates are based, and more unfavorable to that class of our population.
Another variation in the results is found in the fact, that Indiana, as a
consequence of her recent laws in regard to the colored people, had
diminished her free colored population, iu 1850, over two thousand, in
stead of having the number increased twofold, as had occurred in every
preceding decade. The same result has followed the legislation of
Illinois, while in all the other States, there has been but little change.
The number assigned to Louisiana, in 1840, was too great, as appears
from the census of' 1850.
These explanatory remarks become necessary in an introduction to the
following work, as the facts were communicated by the author to the
Legislature of Ohio, at two several sessions, with a view to obtain that
assistance which had been granted by other States to further the objects
of Colonization, and they were also communicated to the Constitutional
Convention of this State. W. P. STRICKLAND.
Cincinnati, O., July, 1855.

PART FIRST.

Ever since the fall of man, and his expulsion from that Eden of
bliss, assigned him in his state of innocence, a warfare lias been
waged between good and evil. The conflict has been varied in its
results, sometimes good and at others evil having the ascendency.
But why is it that an all-wise, all-powerful, omniscient and infinitely
benevolent Being should have permitted the introduction of moral
evil into the world, and in his providence allow its continuance, we
cannot determine, nor shall we wait to inquire.
We believe that errors of judgment and opinion, and all evil
actions, and every form of wickedness and injustice in the world,
have their origin in the moral depravation of man's nature, and that
the contest between good ami evil will necessarily continue until
there shall be a moral renovation of his heart. This moral deprav
ation of man's nature being general, its effects are universal, and the
whole world has been but a theater upon which continued develop
ments of its workings have been exhibited.
We believe that God has made provision for maji's moral redemp
tion, — for creating in him a new heart and, renewing a right spirit
within him — and that the Gospel is the ordinary medium through
which this blessing flows to mankind. And believing this, we have
full confidence iu the success of all enterprises for the amelioration
of the condition of mankind, which embrace the Christian religion
as the basis of their operations.
The history of African slavery forms one of the darkest pages in
* the catalogue of woes introduced into the world by human depravity.
It originated in the islands connected with this continent,in an error
(if Judgment, but, strange to say, from motives of benevolence, andhas
been productive of an accumulation of human sufl^ering which affords
a most painful illustration of the want of foresight in man, and the
immensity of the evils which misguided philanthropy may inflict
upon our race.
In attempting to bring up in review this enormous evil in its origin
and various aspects, as connected with colonization, the subject
naturaUy divides itself into the following heads : (7)

8 The filave Trade.
1. The origin of the slave trade, with the efforts made for its
suppression.
II. The measures adopted at an early day for the emancipation of
the slaves introduced into the United States, with the results.
in. The provision to be made for the people of color when liber
ated.
IV. The practicability of colonizing the free colored people of the
United States.
V. The efl^ects of colonization on the native Africans, and upon
the missionary efforts in Africa.
VI. The certainty of success of the colonization scheme, and of
the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia.
I. A Portuguese exploring expedition was in progress, in 1434,
along the west coast of Africa, having in view the double object of
conquering the Infidels and finding a passage by sea to India. Under
the sanction of a bull of Pope Martin V., they had granted to thera
the right to all the territories they might discover, and a plenary
indulgence to the souls of all who might perish in the enterprise, and
in recovering those regions to Christ and his church. Anthony
Gonzales, an officer of this expedition, received at Rio del Oro, on
the coast of Africa, in 1443, ten negro slaves and some gold dust in
exchange for several Moorish capdves, which he held in custody.
On his retum to Lisbon, the avarice of his countrymen was awakened
by his .success, and in a few years thirty ships were fitted out in
pursuit of this gainful traffic. These incipient steps in the slave
trade having been taken, it was continued by private adventurers until
1481, when the King of Portugal took the title of Lord of Guinea,
and erected many forts on the African coast to protect himself in this
iniquitous war upon human rights.
Soon after the settlement of the first colony in St. Domingo, in
1493, the licentiousness, rapacity and insolence of the Spaniards
exasperated the native Indians, and a war breaking out between them,
the latter were subdued and reduced to slavery. But as the avarice
of the Spaniards was too rapacious and impatient to try any method
of acquiring wealth but that of searching for gold, this servitude soon
became as grievous as it was unjust. The Indians were driven in
crowds to the mountains, and compelled to work in the mines by
masters who imposed their tasks without mercy or discretion. Labor
so disproportioned to their strength and former habits of life wasted '
that feeble race so rapidly, that in fifteen years their numbers were
reduced, by the original war and subsequent slavery, from a million
to sixty tliousand.
This enormous injustice awakened the sympathies of benevolent
hearts, aud great efforts were made by the Dominican missionaries to
rescue the Indians from such cruel oppression. At length Las Casas
espoused their cause ; but his eloquence and all his efforts, both in the
Island and in Spain, were unavailing. The impossibility, as it was
supposed, of carrying on any improvements in America, and securing

Tht Slave Trade. 9
to the crowu of Spain the expected annual revenue of gold, unless
the Spaniards could command the labor of the natives, was an in
superable objection to his plan of treating them as free subjects.
To remove this obstacle, without which it was in vain to mention
his scheme, Las Casas proposed to purchase a sufficient number of
Negroes, from the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Africa, to
be employed as substitutes for the Indians. Unfortunately for the
children of Africa, this plan of Las Casas was adopted. As early as
1503, a few Negro slaves had been sent into St. Domingo, and in
1511, Ferdinand had permitted them to be imported in great numbers.
The labor of one African was found to be equal to that of four
Indians. But Cardinal Ximenes, acting as Regent from the death of
Ferdinand to the accession of Charles, peremptorily refused to allow
of their further introduction. Charles, however, on arriving in Spain,
granted the praver of Las Casas, and bestowed upon one of his
Flemish friends the monopoly of supplying the colonies with slaves.
This favorite sold his right to some Genoese merchants, 1518, and
they brought the traffic in slaves, between Africa and America, into
that regular form which has been continued to the present time.
Thus, through motives of benevolence toward the poor oppressed
native Indians of St. Domingo, did the mistaken philanthropy of a
good man, co-operating with the avarice of the Christian world, entail
perpetual chains and inflict unutterable woes upon the sons of Africa.
This new market for slaves having been thus created, the nations
of Europe were soon found treating with each other for the extension
of the slave trade. ' The Genoese,' as already stated, ' had, at first,
the monopoly of this new branch of commerce. The French next
obtained it, and kept it until it yielded them, according to Spanish
official accounts, the sum of $204,000,000. In 1713 the English
secured it for thirty years.' But Spain, in 1739, purchased the
British right for the remaining four years, by the payment of $500,000.
The Dutch also participated to some extent in the traffic.
The North American Colonies did not long escape the introduction
of this curse. As early as 1620, slaves were introduced by a Dutch
vessel, which sailed up the James river, and sold her cargo. From
that period a few slaves were introduced into North America from
year to year, until the beginning of the ISth century, when Great
Britain, having secured the monopoly of the slave trade, as before
mentioned, prosecuted it with great activity, and made her own
Colonies the principal mart for the victims of her avarice. But her
North American Colonies made a vigorous opposition to their intro
duction. The mother country, however, finding her commercial
interests greatly advanced by this traffic, refused to listen to their
remonstrances, or to sanction their legislative prohibitions.
But in addition to the commercial motive which controlled the
actions of England, another, still more potent, was disclosed in the
declaration of the Earl of Dartmouth, in 1777, when he declared, as
a reason for forcing the Africans upon the Colonies, that " Negroes
cannot become Republicans :— they will be a power in our hands to

10 The Slave Trade.
restrain the unruly Colonists." The success which a kind provi
dence granted to the arms of the Colonists, in their struggle for
independence, however, soon enabled them to control this evil, and
ultimately to expel it from our coasts.
In consequence of citizens of the Colonies being involved in the
traffic, in the adoption of the Constitution the period for the termina
tion of the slave trade was prolonged until January, 1808. But
Congress, in anticipation, passed a law, on March 3d, 1807, prohibit
ing the fitting out of any vessels for the slave trade after that date,
and forbidding the importation of any slaves after January, 1808,
under the penalty of imprisonment from five to ten years, a fine of
$30,000, and the forfeiture of the vessels employed therein. This
act also authorized the President of the United States to employ
armed vessels to cruise on the coasts of Africa and the United States
to prevent infractions of the law.
On the 3d of March, 1819, another act was passed, re-affirming
the former act, and authorizing the President to make provision for
the safe-keeping and support of all recaptured Africans, and for their
return to Africa. This movement was prompted by the exertions of
the American Colonization Society, which had been organized on
the first of January, 1817, and embraced among its members many
of the most influential men in the nation.
On the first of March, preceding the passage of this act, a
gentleman from Virginia offered a resolution in the House of Repre
sentatives, which was passed without a division, declaring that every
person who should import any slave, or purchase one so imported,
should be punished with death. The incident reveals to us, in a
very unequivocal manner, the state of public sentiment at that time.
In the following year, 1830, Congress gave the crowning act to her
legislation upon this subject, hy the passage of the law declaring the
slave trade piracy. This decisive measure, the first of the kind
among nations, and which stamped the slave trade with deserved
infamy, it should be remembered, was recommended by a committee
of the House in a Report founded on a memorial of the Colonization
Society. Thus terminated the legislative measures adopted by our
Government for the suppression of the slave trade.
We shall now turn to Great Britain, the most extensive participator
in this iniquitous traffic, and ascertain the success of the measures
adopted for its suppression in that direction.
Through the efforts of Wilberforce and his co-adjutors, the British
Parliament passed an act in 1806, which was to take effect in 1808,
by which the slave trade was forever prohibited to her West India
Colonies. But the want of wisdom and foresight involved in the
measures adopted to accomplish this great work, soon became mani
fest. Had Great Britain prevailed upon or compelled Portugal and
Spain to unite with her, the annihilation of the slave trade might
have been effected. The traffic being abandoned by England, and
left free to all others, was continued under the flags of Portugal and
Spain, and their tropical colonies soon received such large accessions

The Slave Trade. 11
of slaves, as to enable tliem to begin to rival Great Britain in the
supply 01 tropical products to the markets of the world.
But the philanthropic Wilberforce persevered in his efforts, and,
after a struggle of thirty years, succeeded in procuring the passage of
the Act of' Parliament, in 1824, declaring the slave trade piracy.
This was four years after the passage of the Act of our Congress
which declared it piracy, and subjected those engaged therein to the
penalty of death.
This decisive action of the two Governments was hailed with joy
by the philanthropists of the world, and their efforts were now "put
forth to influence all the other Christian powers to unite in the sup
pression of this horrible traffic. Their exertions were ultimately
crowned with success, and their joy was unbounded. England,
France, the United States, and the other Christian powers, not only
declared it piracy, but agreed to employ an armed force for its sup
pression. This engagement, however, was not carried out by all of
the Governments who had assented to the proposition; yet, still, the
hope was conlidentiy entertained that the day for the destruction of
the slave trade had come, and that this reproach of Christian nations
would be blotted out for ever.
But, alas, how short-sighted is man, and how futile, often, his
greatest efforts to do good. The vanity of human wisdom and the
uuer imbecility of human legislation, in the removal of moral evil,
was never more signally shown than in this grand struggle for the
suppression ofthe slave trade. Instead of having been checked and-
suppressed, and the demons in human form who carried it on having
been deterred from continuing the traffic by the dread penalty of death,
as was confidendy anticipated, it has gone on increasing in extent and
with an accumulation of horrors that surpass belief. A glance at its
history proves this but too fully, and shows that the warfare between
good and evil is one of no ordinary magnitude.
Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, slates, that the import
ation of slaves from Africa, in British vessels, from 1680 to 1786,
averaged 20,000 annually. In 1792, Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt both
agreed in estimating the numbers torn from Africa at 80,000 per
annum. From 1798 to 1810, recent English Parliamentary docu
ments show the numbers exported from Africa to have averaged 85,
000 per annum, and the mortality during the voyage to have been
14 per cent. From 1810 to 1815 the same documents present an
average of 93,000 per annum, and the loss during the middle passage
to have equalled that of the preceding period. From 1815 to 1819
the export of slaves had increased to 106,000 annuallj, and the
mortality during the voyage to 25 per cent.
Here, then, is brought to view the extent of the evil which called
for such energetic action, and which, it v/as hoped, could be easily
crushed by legislation. Let us now look forward lo the results.
While the slave trade was sanctioned by law, its extent could be as
easily ascertained as that of any other branch of commerce; but after
that period, the estimates of its extent are only approximations.

12 The Slave Trade
The late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton devoted himself with un
wearied industry to the investigation of the extent and enormities ofthe
Joreign slave trade. His labors extended through many years, and
tlie results, as published in 1840, sent a thrill of horror throughout
the Christian world. He proved, conclusively, that the victims to
the slave trade, in Africa, amounted annually to 500,000. This
included the numbers who perish in the seizure of the victims, in the
wars of the natives upon each other, and the deaths during their
march to the coast and the detention there before embarkation. This
loss he estimates at one half, or 500 out of every 1000. 'i'he destruc
tion of life during the middle passage he estimates at 25 per cent., or
125 out ofthe remaining 500 of the original thousand. The moilal-
ity after landing and in seasoning he shows is 20 per cent, or one-fifth
of the 375 survivors. Thus he proves that the number of lives
sacrificed by the system, bears to the number of slaves available to
the planter, the proportion of seven to three — that is to sa)^, for every
300 slaves landed and sold in the market, 700 have fallen victims to
the deprivations and cruelties connected with the traffic.
The parliamentary documents above referred to vary but little from
the estimates of Mr. Buxton, excepting that they do not compute the
number of victims destroyed in Africa in their seizure and transporta
tion to the coast. The following table, extracted from these docu
ments, presents the average number of slaves exported from Africa to
America, and sold chiefly in Brazil and Cuba, with the per cent
amount of loss in the periods designated.
Tjj^jg Anniial average Av'ge casualties of voyage.
number exported. Fer Ct. Amount.
1798 to 1805 85,000 14 12,000
1805 to 1810 85,000 14 12,000
1810 to 1815 93,000 14 13,000
1815 to 1817 106,000 25 26,600
1817 to 1819 106,000 25 26,600
1819 to 1825 103,000 25 25,800
1825 to 1830 125,000 25 31,000
1830 to 1835 78,500 25 19,600
1835 to 1840 135,800 25 33,900
This enormous increase of the slave trade, it must be remembered,
had taken place during the period of vigorous efforts for its suppres
sion. England, alone, according to McQueen, had expended for this
object, up to 1842, in the employment of a naval force on the coast of
Africa, tiie sum of $88,888,888, and he estimated the annual expen
diture at that time at $2,500,000. But it has been increased since
tiiat period to $3,000,000 a year, making the total expenditure of
Great Britain, for the suppression of the slave trade, at the close of
1848, more than one hundred millions of dollars ! France and the
Uiuled States have also expended a large amount for this object
The disclosures of Mr. Buxton produced a profound sensation
throughout England, and the conviction was forced upon the public
mmd, and "upon Her Majesty's confidential advisers," that the

77*6 Slave Trade. IH
slave trade could not be suppressed by physical force, and that it^
was " indispensable to enter upon some new preventive system
calculated to arrest the foreign slave trade."
The remedy proposed and attempted to be carried out, was " the
deliverance of Africa by calling forth her own resources."
To accomplish this great work, the capitalists of England were to
set on foot agricultural companies, who, under the protection of the
Government, should obtain lands by treaty with the natives, and,
employ them in its tillage, — to send out trading ships and opiin
factories at the most commanding positions, — to increase and con
centrate the English naval force on the coast, and to make treaties
with the chiefs of the coast, the rivers and the interior. These
measures adopted, the companies formed were to call to their aid
a race of teachers of African blood, from Sierra Leone and the West
Indies, who should labor with the whites in diffusing intelligence, in
imparting religious instruction, in teaching agriculture, in establishing
and encouraging legitimate commerce, and in impeding and suppress
ing the slave trade. In conformity with these views and aims, the;
African Civilization Society was formed, and the Government fitted
out three large iron steamers, at an expense of $300,000, for the use
of the company.
Mr. McQueen, who had for more than twenty years devoted him
self to the consideration of Africa's redemption and Britain's glory,
and who had become the most perfect master of African geography
and African resources, also appealed to the Government, and urged
the adoption of measures for making all Africa a dependency of
the British Empire. Speaking of what England had already accom
plished, and of what she could yet achieve, he exclaims :
" Unfold the map of tbe world : We command the Ganges.
Fortified at Bombay, the Indus is our own. Possessed of the islands
in the mouth of the Persian Gulf, we command the oudets of Persia
and the mouths of the Euphrates, and consequently of countries the
cradle of the human race. We command at the Cape of Good
Hope. Gibraltar and Malta belonging to us, we control the Mediter
ranean. Let us plant the British standard on the island of Socatora
 upon the island of Fernando Po, and inland upon the banks of the
Niger ; and then we may say Asia and Africa, for all their productions
and all dieir wants, are under our control. It is in our power.
Nothing can prevent us."
But Providence rebuked this proud boast. The African Civilization
Society commenced its labors under circumstances the most favorable
for success. Its list of members embraced many of the noblest
names of the kingdom. Men of science and intelligence embarked
in it, and, when the expedition set sail, a shout of joy arose and a
prayer for success ascended from ten thousand philanthropicEnglish
voices. But this magnificent scheme, fraught with untold blessings to Africa,.
and destined, it was believed, not only to regenerate her speeddy,
but to produce a revenue of unnumbered millions of dollars to the ,

14 The Slave Trade.
stockholders, proved an utter failure. The Afr. can climate, that
deadly foe to the white man, blighted the enterprise. In a few
months, disease and death had so far reduced the numbers of the
men connected with the expedition, that the enterprise was abandon
ed, and the only evidence of its ever having ascended the Niger
exists in its model farm left in the care of a Liberian.
This result, however, had been anticipated by manyof the judicious
Englishmen who had not suffered tiieir enthusiasm to overcome their
judgments, but who had opposed it as wild and visionary in the
extreme, on account of the known fatality of the climate to white
men. Thus did the last direct effort of England for the redemption of
Africa prove abortive. The slave trade has still been prosecuted
with little abatement, and for the last few years with an alarming
increase. The statistics in the parliamentary report, before quoted,
and from which we have extracted the table exhibiting the extent of
the slave trade between Africa and America, down to 1839, also
present the following table, including the numbers exported from
Africa to America, from 1840 to 1847 inclusive, with the per cent, of
loss in the middle passage and the amount.* It is as follows :

Years.

Numbers.

Loss.

Fer Ci.

Jimovnt.

1840

64,114

25

16,068

1841

45,097

25

11,274

1843

28,400

25

7,100

1843

55,062

25

13.765

1844

54,102

25

13,525

1845

36,758

25

9,189

1846

76,117

25

19,029

1847

84,356

25

21,089

[ Here, then, we have the melancholy truth forced upon us, that the
[slave trade was carried on as actively in 1847 as from 1798 to 1810;
while the destruction of life during the middle passage has been
increased from 14 percent, to 25; and that while the \'igorous means
(used to suppress the traffic, during these fifty years, have faded of
this end, they have greatiy aggravated its horrors.
And such was the conviction of the total inadequacy of the means
which had been employed by the British Government to check or
suppress the evil, that the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
at the close of the year 1847, after declaring that the slave trade was
then more actively and systematically prosecuted than for many
years, and that its horrors had been greatiy increased, urged upon the
Government, from motives of humanity, the suspension of all
physical force, and the repeal of all laws inflicting penalties upon
• There is some discrepancy in the authorities from which we quote the fi.>ures
We have not had access to the original document. One of our authorities "gives
the whole number of these evports from Africa to Brazil, and a proportional number
to Cuba. This would greatly increase all our estimates based upon the ficurea
of this table. ^

The Slave Trade. 15
those engaged in the traffic. It was proved that the slave traders,
when closely pursued by vessels of war, often hide the evidences of
their guilt, when favored by the darkness ofthe night, by burying the
slaves with which they were freighted in the depths of the ocean ; or
by persevering in refusing to surrender, force the pursuing vessels
to continue firing into them, and thus endanger and destroy the inno
cent victims crowded between the decks of their vessels. It was also
urged that the African Civilization Society be revived, but that, instead
of ivhite men, the emigrants be taken from the better educated and
more enlightened of the West India colored population. By the
adoption of this course, and the civilization of the Africans along the
coast, they hope to seal the fountain whence the evil flows.
This brief outline of the slave trade, and of the efforts made by
Great Britain for its suppression, and the utter failure of the measures
which she had adopted to accomplish that object, prove, conclusively,
two points which American philanthropiste had for years urged as
settied truths, viz :
I. Tliat the planting and building up of Christian Colonies on '
the coast of Africa, is the only practical remedy for the slave trade.
2. That colored men only, can with safety, settle upon the.
African Coast.
And so fuUy has the British Government now become convinced
<f the truth of these propositions, that Lord Palmerston has not only
placed a naval force at the disposal of the President of Liberia for
the suppression of the slave trade on territory recently purchased,
where the slave traders refused to leave, but has, in connection with
others, offered ample pecuniary means to purchase the whole territory
between Sierra Leone and Liberia, now infested by those traffickers
in human flesh, with the view of annexing it to the little Republic,
and thus rescuing it from their hands.
By this act, Englishmen have acknowledged the superiority of our
scheme of African redemption over that of the philanthropists of
Britain, and have thus given assurances to the world that their plan
of making Africa a dependency of the British Crown has been
abandoned, and that a change of policy toward our colony has been
adopted. All their own schemes in relation to Africa having faded,
they are constrained to acknowledge the wisdom and success of ours,
and are the first to avail themselves of the commercial advantages
afforded to the world by the creation of the Republic of Liberia.
But we shall, under another head, revert again to this subject, and
present some facts which may serve to explain the course of England
in her sudden expression of friendship and sympathy for our Colony.
II. The efforts made, at an early day, for the emancipation of the
slaves in the United States, with the results.
On this important question there was not the same unanimity of
sentiment which had prevailed upon that of the slave trade. The
love of ease, the prospect of gain, the fear that so large a body of
ignorant men would be dangerous to the public peace, and many

IG

Emancipation of Slaves in the United States.

other considerations, influenced the minds of a large number to
oppose the liberation of the slaves. But, notwithstanding this oppo
sition, the work progressed, until Acts of Emancipation were carried
through the Legislatures of all the States north of Delaware, Mary
land and Virginia. Nor was this good work confined to the States
vhich were engaged in legislative enactments for emancipation. The
5elings of humanity which dictated the liberation of the slave in the
orthern States, pervaded the minds 'of good men in the southern
3tates also.
The full extent of the emancipations in the slave States cannot be
accurately ascertained. The census tables, however, supply sufficient
testimony on this point to enable us to reach a close approximation
to the true number which have been liberated since 1790, when the
first census of the United States was taken.
The following table gives the number of free colored people in
1790, with the number in all the subsequent periods up to 1840, and
the increase in each ten years, together with the increase per
cent, per annum. I.
Table showing the number of the Free colored population of the
United States.

years.

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830
319,599 81,402
3.41 +

1840

Total number
Actual increase
Increase per cent.
per annum

59,466

108,398 48,932
8.22 +

186,446 78,048
7.20+

238,197 51,751
2.77+

386,235 66,636
2.08+

In 1790 the feeling in favor of emancipation, it will be seen, had
given us a free colored population of nearly 60,000 persons. What
proportion of these -were free-born cannot be determined, but it would
probably not exceed one-half.
The number of slaves in the free States, in 1790, and the decrease
in each period, up to 1840, with the annual decrease per cent, was
as follows : II.
Table exhibiting the number of Slaves in the Free States from
1790 to 1840.

YEARS.

Total number
Actual decrease
Decrease per cent.
per annum

40,212

1790

1800

35,803 4,409
1.23 +

1810

27,18] 8,622
3.17+

1820'

18,001 9,180
5.04+

1830

2,774
*15,327
18.88 +

1840

764
2,010
26.30+

The decrease of the slaves in the free States, after 1790, is not
greater than the deaths in a population of such a class of persons.
* By a law uf New York 1 0,000 slaves were emancipated in one day in 1827, thus
decreasing the number of slaves, and increasing the free colored, as stated in this
table

Emancipation of Slaves in the United States.

17

Pennsylvania passed her emancipation act in 1780, and the other
states soon afterward followed her example, but at what periods we
are not at present informed.* It is probable that the free colored
population was not increased by emancipations of the slaves remain
ing in the free states after 1790, because, as before stated, tiie decrease
of these slaves did not exceed the mortality, excepting in 1827, when
New York liberated all hers then remaining in bondage. Any in
crease of the free colored population, therefore, over their natural
increase will have been produced by emancipations in the slave
states. The following table, taken in connection with table I, shows, that_.
from 1830 to 1840 the increase of the free colored population was
reduced to but a very small fraction over two per cent, per annum.
Two per cent, per annum, therefore, may be taken as the ratio of
the natural increase of the free colored population. The excess
over two per cent, must, then, have been derived from emancipations.
HI.
Sate per cent, per annum of increase of Population of the United
States.

Years.

1790 to 1800
1800 to 1810
1810 to 1820
1820 to 1830
1830 to 1840
Average

Whites.

3.56 3.61 3.433.383.46
3.48

Free colored

8.227.202.77 3.413.084.73

2.79 3.34t2.95 3.012.32
2.88

Free colored

All

and Slaves.

combined.

3.22

3.50

3.75

3.64

2.93

3.33

3.06

3.32

2.33

3.26

3.06

3.41

Adopting this rule of computation, we find that the emancipations
in the slave states, from 1790 to 1830, must have been 131,700. If
to this we add one-half of the number who were free in 1790, or
30,000, it makes the total emancipations up to 1830 amount to 161,
700. The extent of the pecuniary sacrifice made to the cause of
emancipation by benevolent men involved in slavery, will be better
understood by estimating the number emancipated at $350 each,
which gives a product of $56,595,000. This estimated value is low
enough. To this sum, however, should be added the number of slaves
emancipated and sent to Liberia, which, up to 1843, amounted to
2,290. If to these are added the emancipated slaves sent out to
* We find the following statement in relation to the number of slaves in tho
United States at an earlier period, in the American Almanac. At the timn
of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, the whole number of slaves wa3
estimated at 500,000, viz. :
Massachusetts, 3,000 New Jersey,
Rhode Island, 4,370 Pennsj'lvania,
Connecticut, 5,000 Delaware, 9,000 Georgia, 16,000
New Hampshire, 629 Maryland, 80,000  -
Now York, 15,000 Virginia, 165,000 Total, 501,599.
t It should have been stated that Louisiana was admitted between 1800 and
1810, bringing in 39,000 Africans. This produced the increase of tbe ratio for 1810

7,600 j N. Carolina, 76,000
10,000 S. Carolina, 110,000

18 Emancipation of Slaves in the United States.
Africa since that period, the number of which we cannot at present as-
ceitain, we shall have more than another million of dollars to add to the
above sum, thus making the amount sacrificed to the cause of eman
cipation but littie short of fifty-eight millions of dollars.
But in granting the slave his freedom, it seemed to be decided by
common consent, that the British statesman was right in asserting
that Negroes could not become Republicans. The right of suffrage
was not extended to them. The stimulus of entering into competition
for the highest posts of honor was not afforded to the man of color to
prompt him to great mental effort. Able to find employment only in the
more menial occupations, his opportunities for intellectual advancement
were poor, and his prospects of moral improvement still more gloomy.
These results of emancipation in the northern states were watched
with great interest by the philanthropic citizens of the slave states.
The liberation of the slaves in the free states had fallen so far short
of securing the amount of good anticipated, that the friends of the
colored man became less urgent and zealous in their efforts to secure
further legislative action, while the opponent of the measure was
furnished with a new argument to sustain him in his course of hostil
ity to emancipation, and was soon able to secure the passage of laws
for its prohibition, under the specious plea that a large increase of the
free colored population by emancipation could not be productive of
good either to themselves or to the whites.
That some powerful cause operated in checking emancipations
after 1810, and that it again received a new impulse from 1820 to
1830, is undeniable. The number emancipated in the slave states,
during the several periods, as is determined by the rule before adopted,
was as follows :
1790 to 1800 emancipations were 37,043
1800 to 1810 " " 56,414
1810 to 1820 « " 14,471
1820 to 1830 " " 33,772*
1830 to 1840 " " 000
From 1790 to 1810 some of the most powerful minds in the
nation were directed to the consideration of the enormous evils of
slavery, and the effects of their labors are exhibited in the number of
emancipations made during that period. The decline of emancipa
tions after 1810, we believe to be due to the cause assigned above —
the little benefit, apparently, which had resulted from the liberation
of the slaves, and the consequent relaxation of effort by the friends of
emancipation. The impulse given to emancipation between 1820 and 1830, it is
believed, was caused by the favorable influences exerted by the
Colonization Society, whicli enjoyed a great degree of popularity
during this period. But from 1830 to 1840, the period when the
Society had the fewest friends, the increase of tiie free colored
•The 10,000 emancipated in New York being deducted, will leave 23,772 in this
period.

Emancipation of Slaves in the United Stales. 19
population was reduced to only two per cent, por annum, showing
that emancipations must have nearly ceased, or that the deaths among
our free colored people are so nearly equal to the births, that some
decisive measures are demanded, by considerations of humanity, to
place them under circumstances more favorable than they at present
enjny. It may be well in this place to call attention to the fact, that while
the natural increase of our free colored population cannot exceed two
per cent, per annum, that of the slaves, notwithstanding the numerous
emancipations, has been three per cent, per annum, excepting in the
first period, when the disparity in the sexes produced by the slave
trade might create a greater mortality than would afterward occur ;
and ill the last period, between 1830 and 1840, during which the
great revulsions in business, producing an immense number of bank
ruptcies in the south, caused thousands of embarrassed debtors to
remove their slaves to Texas, beyond the reach of their creditors.
The slaves thus removed, not being included in the census of 1840,
caused a reduction in the ratio of our slave increase. See table III.
Thus we find, that in the earlier periods of our history, the
promptings of philanthropy and the influence of Christian principle
produced a public sentiment which controlled legislation, and broke
the chain of the slave. And where legislation failed, it operated with
equal power on the hearts of men, and produced the same salutary
effects. But while emancipation was found to have produced to the
white man the richest fruits, it was observed, with painful feelings,
that to the colored man it had been productive oflittle else than the
"Apples of Sodom."
These results of emancipation led to anxious inquiries in relation
to the disposal of the free colored population. It was all-important,
in the judgment of the friends of the colored man, that he should be
placed under circumstances where the degradation of centuries might
be forgotten, and where he might become an honor to his race and a
benefactor to the world. The conviction forced itself upon their
minds, that a separate political organization — a Government of
his own, where he would be free in fact as well as in name — was
the only means by which they could fully discharge the debt due to
him, and place him in a position where his prospects of advancement
would be based upon a sure foundation.
These remarks bring us to the consideration of the third branch
of our subject.
III. The provision to be made for tlie people of color when
liberated.
A separate political organization was decided upon, and Coloniza
tion at a distant point, beyond the influence of the whites, considered
the only means of future security to the colored man. To select the
field for the founding of the future African Empire was not such an
easy task. The history of the Indian tribes had proved, but top
forcibly, that an establishment upon the territory of the United States

20 Colonization to Liberia.
would soon become unsafe, in consequence of the rapid and universal
extension of the white population. The unsettied state of the South
American Republics was considered as offering still less security.
Europe had no room for them, nor desire to possess them. England
had already removed those cast upon herself and her Canadian pos
sessions, by the casualties of war, back again to Africa, and founded
her Colony of Sierra Leone. /The only remaining point was Africa.
Its western coast was of most easy access, being but littie further from
us than Havre or Liverpool. The condition of its native population
offered many obstacles to the establishment of a colony. But the
inducements to select it as the field of the enterprise in contempla
tion were also many. It was the land of the fathers of those who
were to emigrate. It was deeply sunk in both moral and intellectual
darkness. The lowest rites of Pagan worship were widely practised.
Human sacrifices extensively prevailed, and even cannibalism often
added its horrors to fill up the picture of its dismal degradation.
And, as though the Spirit of Evil had resolved on concentrating in
one point all the enormities that could be invented by the fiends of
the nether pit, the slave trade was added to the catalogue, to stimulate
the worst passions of the human heart, and produced developments
of wickedness and of cruelty, at the bare repital of which humanity
shudders. Except at a few points, no ray of moral light, to guide to
a blissful eternity, had yet penetrated the more than midnight moral
darkness which had for ages shrouded the land. The deadly influ
ence of the climate, together with the interference of the slave trade,
had hitherto defeated the success of missionary effort, and there
seemed to be no hope for the moral renovation of Africa but through
the agency of men of African blood, whose constitutions could be
come adapted to the climate, and who could thus gain a foothold upon
the continent, repel the slave traders, and introduce civilization and
the gospel.
Here, then was a field for the action of the freed-nien of the United
States. Here was a theater upon which to exhibit before the world
the capacities of the colored race. Here, too, could be solved the
problem of the value of the republican form of government. And,
above all, here could be fully tested the regenerating, the elevating,
and the humanizing power of the gospel of Christ.
In commencing the settiement of a colony of colored persons on
the coast of Africa, two objects were to be accomplished :
I. To improve the condition of the free colored people of the
United States.
2. To civilize and christianize Africa.
To these objects the friends of the colored man devoted themselves.
The first emigrants were sent out in 1830. The pecuniary means
of the society were never very great, and its progress in sending out
emigrants and in building up the colony has necessarily been slow.
From the first it met with violent opposition from the slave traders on
the coast of Africa, who, by creating the impression upon the minds
of the natives that the colonists would prevent their further connection

Colonization to Liberia. 21
with the slave trade, and thus cut off their chief source of acquiring
wealth, inflamed the minds of the chiefs, and prompted them to make
war upon the colonists. Soon after the settlement of the colony, the
native warriors, one thousand strong, attacked the emigrants, who
numbered but thirty-five effective men. But a kind Providence
shielded them from the infuriated savages who assailed them, and
enabled that handful of men to defeat their foes, in two successive
assaults, separated from each other by several weeks of time, and,
finally, to establish themselves in peace in all their borders.
Additional emigrants, from year to year, were sent out. Mission
aries labored, with more or less faithfulness, in establishing schools
and in preaching the gospel. The natives, in a few years, became
convinced that the colonists weiie their true friends, and that the
adoption of civilized habits would secure to them greater comforts
than could be obtained by a continuation of the slave trade. Their
children were sent to school with those of the colonists. A moral
renovation commenced and progressed until, in the course of twenty-
six years from the landing of the first emigrants at Monrovia, the
colony attained a condition of strength warranting its erection into an ^
Independent Republic' Accordingly, in July, 1847, its independence
¦Cvas declared, and a population of 80,000 adopted the constitution and
laws, and became members of the Republic. Its newly-elected
President, J. J. Roberts, a man of color, in his recent visit to
England, France and Germany, was treated with great respect, and
found no difficulty in securing the acknowledgment of the indepen
dence of the Republic of Liberia by the two former governments.
But it may be said, that, after all, but little has been done, compared
with the means expended, in this effort to make provision for the
free colored people, and for the introduction of a Christian civilization
into Africa. A more striking view of the results will be brought out
by contrasting the products of the labors of the American Coloniza- i
tion Society with some of the other efforts which have been made to I
rescue Africa from the wrongs inflicted upon her.
England, mighty in power, and possessing the means of executing
magnificent enterprises, has expended, as already stated, more than
one hundred millions of dollars for the suppression of the slave trade
and the civilization of Africa. But her labors and her treasures have
been spent in vain. Her gold might better have been sunk in the
ocean. The monster, hydra-like, when smitten and one head severed
from the body, has constantiy reproduced two in its place ; and, at
this moment, as before shown, it is prosecuted with greater activity
than for many years.
It must be remembered that these efforts of Grettt Britain have
been made during the period of the existence of the American Col
onization Society, and in seeming contempt of its pigmy efforts. Forf
years previous to the independence of Liberia, and while England;
was aiming at making Africa a dependency of her Crown, she, onj
several occasions, manifested a disposition to cripple the energies of i
our colony. And so extensive were the agencies she seeins to have '

22 Colonizalion to Liberia.
employed, that it is now matter of wonder that she had not succeeded
in wholly crushing the Colonization enterprise, and securing to herself
the control of that richest of all the tropical portions of the world.
But all her efforts at checking the progress of this heaven-bom enter
prise have been as fruitless as those adopted by her in reference to
the slave trade, or for civilizing Africa. The fact stands acknow
ledged before the world, that Great Britain, after the expenditure of
more than one hundred millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing the
slave trade on one mile of coast beyond the limits of her colonies ;
while our colonization efforts have swept it from nearly /owr hundred
miles of coast, where it formerly existed in its chief strength.
But why is it that there is such a marked indifference in the results?
Why is it that the Colonization Society, witii a yearly income some
times of only $10,000, and rarely ever reaching $50,000, should have,
in twenty-six years, annihilated the slave trade on 400 miles of coast,
and secured the blessings of freedom to 80,000 men, formerly slaves,
and have succeeded in binding, by treaties, 200,000 more, never again
to engage in the traffic in their brethren, — while Great Britain, with
all her wealth and power, has accomplished nothing ?
We will not undertake to answer these questions. It cannot
always be discerned by men why the Ruler of the Universe often
defeats the best devised human schemes, which to them may seem
certain of success ; and prospers those which, to human foresight,
were the least promising. We need only remind you that Great
Britain has relied, almost exclusively, upon the employment of
physical force to accomplish her purposes, while the Colonizalion
Society has depended, as exclusively, upon moral means. The
, agencies it has employed have been the humble mechanic, the hus-
i bandman, the school-master, the missionary, and the Bible. And,
though often thwarted in its purposes by those who felt interested in
its overthrow, yet, relying upon moral means, and never resorting to
force but in self-defense, it has signally triumphed and put to shame
Kte wisdom of men and the power of kingdoms. Its operations have
proved that the schoolmaster, the missionary, and the Bible, possess a
moral power infinitely more potent than coronets and crowns.
These results go very far toward proving the truth of the proposi
tion, announced in the outset, — that the Gospel of Christ is the
medium through which God operates in bringing mankind into sub
jection to his will, and that a reliance upon any other means for the
moral redemption of the nations of the world, must prove an utter
failure. In view of all these results, w-e are fully warranted in maintaining
that the Colonization Society, in its measures for benefitting the
colored people, has done an incalculable amount of good, and demands
our confidence and our support, and that it is justly entitied to the
paternity of three measures which have been productive of the great
est good to Africa :
1 . The procuring of the first legal enactments declaring the slave
trade piracy.

Influence of Climate on Colored Men.

23

2. Tlie total extinction of that cruel traffic from near 400 miles of
the coast of Africa.
3. The establishment of an Independent Christian Republic on
that continent.
There is another feature of this question, of the disposal of the
free colored population of the United States, which demands attention,
and is of the utmost importance in selecting for them a home. The
northern latitudes of the United Slates do not furnish a suitable
home for men of African descent. The evidence of the truth of
this proposition is furnished by their own movements when left free
to act. The census tables supply the testimony upon this subject.
By referring to table HI, it will be seen that the ratio of the natural
increase of the free colored population is two per cent, per annum.
The knowledge of this fact furnishes the key to determine the in
crease or decrease, by emigration, in any state or group of states.
IV.
Free colored population in Mcdne, A'ew Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Rlwde Island, Connecticut, and Vermont.

YEARS.

1799.

1800.

1810.

1820.

1830.
¥l7331

1840.

Total number

13,126

17,317

19,488

21,248

•23,634

Actual increase

4,191

2,171

1,760

83

1,303

Increase per cent.

per annum
3.19
1.25
0.90
0.03
0.61
Slaves in do.
3,886
1,340
418
145 48
23
In the prosecution of the investigation of the question before us,
the effect of climate upon the African constitution, we find that
previous to 1790, the desire of the manumitted slave to escape from
_the scenes of his oppressions had given to the six New England
states a free colored population of 13,126. From 1790 to 1800 the
census tables show that the line of emigration was still northward,
and augmented their ratio of increase more than one-third over the
natural rate. But during the next forty years, ending with 1840,
their ratio of increase, as shown in table IV, was rapidly diminished,
and fell so far below the ratio of their natural increase, that from 1830
to 1830, with a free colored population of 21,248, they had an in
crease in these ten years of only eighty-tliree persons. The aggre
gate for the whole period stands thus: In 1810 they had a free
colored population of 19,488, and in 1840 but 22,634, being an in
crease of only 3,146; while their natural increase, if retained, would
have augmented their numbers to 33,648. This diminution must
have been caused by emigration back again toward the south,
because we find that New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had
a correspondinff increase during this period, with the exception of
the last ten years, when they also lost a portion of their natural
increase. But this tendency of colored men to avoid northern latitudes is
quite as fully proved by a comparison of the northern parts of New
24 Influence of Climate on Colored Men.
York, Peni sylvania and Ohio, with their southern portions, as it is
exhibited in the case of the New England States, when compared
with those further south. Take, for example, a few of the counties
in the north-east of Ohio. In 1840, Geauga had only 3 persons of
color, Ashtabula 17, Lake 21, Portage 39, Summit 42, Medina 13.
Lorain 63, Trumbull 70, and Cuyahoga, including the city of Cleve
land, 131, in all 388. Now look at a few of the counties bordering
the slave states and in the more southern part of the state. Belmont,
in 1840, had 734, Gallia 799, Highland 786, Brown 614, Ross 1195,
Franklin 805, and Hamilton 3546.
This contrast, which might be extended much further, reveals tiie
fact, that any one of the last named counties, in the southern portion
of the state, had nearly double, and several of them more than
double the number of colored persons that the whole eight northern
counties above named included.
But to give a more forcible illustration of the truth of our proposi
tion, allow me to extend this contrast between the northern and
southern counties of Ohio, so as to include the whole free colored
population of the state. By drawing a line east and west across the
state, so as to divide its territory into about equal parts, giving an
excess of counties, as now divided, to the north, the result is, that in
1840, the 38 northern counties, now divided into 42, included only
3,360 persons of color, while the 40 counties of the southern half
embraced a colored population of 15,000. And if we deduct Stark,
Columbiana and Harrison on the east, and Mercer on the west, from
tiie northern counties, they will have left, in the 36 remaining coun
ties, a free colored population of only 1373, or a little more than half
the number in Hamilton county. I append the list of all the counJ
ties, that it may be accessible to those who may wish to prosecute
this investigation.*
After making all due allowance for the alledged defect of energy in
the colored man, as accounting for his not seeking a residence in the
north ; and what has still more influence on his mind — the greater
indulgence which he finds from the planter of the south, now setded
in our more southern counties, than he does from the northern man
who is a stranger to his habits, — there is, we affirm, ample testimony
to prove, that the northern latitudes of the United States do not furnish
a suitable climate for men of African blood, and that they are con
gregating as far south as circumstances will permit. This fact, we
insist, proves conclusively the necessity of securing a tropical home
for colored men.
But in addition to all the foregoing details, which prove the inadapt-
atioil of northern latitudes to the African, we have, very recently, the
fact revealed to us in a late census of Upper Canada, that in that
province, where we had been a thousand times assured that from
30,000 to 25,000 runaway slaves from the United States had found
refuge, there were, in 1847, barely 5,571 colored persons in the

f See Note, page 21.

Influence of Climate on Colored Men.

25

colony. In this statement, however, which includes the whole
twenty districts, there may be an error in one of them which may
vary this result.
But 1 cannot dismiss tiiis part of our subject without a few remarks.
The citizens of our nortiiern counties often charge us, of the south
ern, with being destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity and
benevolence, because we are disposed to discourage the further immi
gration of colored men into the state, and because we advocate a
separation of the races by colonization. And this they do with an
apparent seriousness that warrants us in concluding that they believe
what they say. Perhaps if we- had only three to a county, like old
The following statement, referred to on the previous page, gives the colored popu
lation of Ohio in the several counties, commencing at the northern and southem
extremities, as presented in the census of 1840.

Hamilton,  2576
Clermont  122
Brown,  614
Adams,  63
Scioto,  206
Lawrence, ¦ ¦  148
Gallia,  799
Meigs,  28
Jackson,  " . . 315
Pike  329
Highland,  786
Butler,  ... 25 1
Warren,  341
Clinton,  377
fioss  1195
Hocking,  46
Athens  • • 55
\\'ashington,  269
Monroe,  13
Morgan  68
Perry,  47
Fairfield,  342
Pickaway,  333
Fayette,  239
Greene,  344
Clark,  200
Montgomery,  376
Preble,  88
Darke,  200
Miami, . . . •  211
iShelbv,-  262
Logan,  407
Champaign,  328
Madison,  '^^
Franklin,  805
Licking  140
Muskingum,  862
Guernsey,  '90
Belmont,  742
Jefferson,  497

Ashtabula,  17
Lake,  21
Geauga,  3
Cuyahoga, .  121
Trumbull, . . ¦  70
Portage,  39
Summit,  42
Medina,  13
Lorain,  63
Erie,  97
Huron,  108
Sandusky,  41
Ottawa,  5
Seneca,  65
Wood,  32
Lucas,  -54
Henry,  6
Williams,  2
Paulding,  0
Van Wert,  • . 0
Mercer,  204
Allen,  23
Hancock,  8
Hardin,  4
Marion,  52
Crawford,  5
Richland,  65
Wayne,  41
Holmes,  3
Stark,  204
Carroll,  49
Columbiana,  417
Harrison,  163
Tuscarawas,  71
Coshocton,  38
Knox,  63
Delaware, .'  76
Union, ,  • . ¦ T'S
Morrow, Mahoning,Auglaize,Defiance.

26 Influence of Climate and Foreign Emigration.
Geauga, we, too, might be disposed to catch them for pet-i, to amuse
our children, as we do mocking birds and paroquets. But with us
the novelty of seeing a colored man has long since passed away, and
we no longer make pets of them, on account of color, but treat them
precisely as we do other men. The upright and industrious we respect
and encourage. The immoral and degraded we wish anywhere else
than in our households or as near neighbors.
V.
Free colored population in New Fork, New Jersey, and Pennsyl
vania,.

YEARS.

1790
13,953

1800
29,340

1810

1820

1830

1840

Total number

55,668

74,742

101,103

1 18,925

Actual increase

15,387

26,328

19,074

26,321

17,822

Increase per cent

per annum
11.03
8.97
3.42
3.54
1.76
Slaves in do.
, 36,484
34,471
26,663
17,856
2,732
742
But in addition to climate, the colored man has another formidable
adversary to contend with. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl
vania, as before stated, and as the figures in table V show us, had
accessions to their colored population much beyond the natural in
crease on their original numbers up till 1830. But from 1830 to 1840
these states also commenced repelling their free colored population,
and their ratio of increase was reduced considerably below two per
cent, per annum — Pennsylvania, however, still having a ratio of 2 yV^,
showing that she had not been as much affected as the other two
states, though between 1820 and 1830 her ratio had been reduced to
VI.
Free colored population of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
YEARS.
1790
1800
1810
77,633
1820
Total number
24,718
47,979
89,817
Actual increase
23,261
29,654
12,184
Increase per cent.
per annum
9.41
6.13
1.55
Slaves
405,3,50
457,584
508,197
537,060
1830
116,141 26,324 2.93
1840
138,781 12,640 1.08
576,043i530,087
vn.
Free colored population of North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia.
YEARS.
Total number
Actual increase
Increase per cent.
per annum
Slaves
1790
7,174
5.67
336,930|338,851
1800
11,247 4,073
1810
16,621 5,374 4.77
470,407
1820
23,205 6,584 3.96
613,148
1830
29,950 6,745 2.90
778,533
1840
33,761 3,811 1.27
853,799
Influence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. 27
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 'North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia, also repulsed nearly one-half of their natural increase
between 1830 and 1840, as exhibited in tables VI and VII, showing
that the emigration from the northern states was not passing in that
direction. VIII.
Free colored population of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.

YEARS.

1790 475

1800

1810

183Q

1830

1840

Total number

1,050

3,030

6,353

11,044

14,880

Actual increase

575

1,980

3,333

3,691

3,836

Increase per cent.

per annum
12.10
18.85
10.96
7.35
3.47
Slaves
15,247
53,927
125,096l354,278l424,365
618,849
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, though for a time, receiving
large accessions of free colored people emigrating, probably, from
Virginia and North Carolina, westward into their bounds, seem also
to have checked it, between 1830 and 1840, to a considerable extent.
But as more energetic measures have since been adopted to repel all
immigration, extending even to the selling of the intruders into
slavery, as was the case last year in Kentucky ; the census of 1850
will no doubt exhibit a reduction of the ratio of these states, also, to
the natural rate of increase, if not below it.
Louisiana, alone, of all the larger slave states, has maintained a
uniform increase of her free colored population. Her position on
the Mississippi affords great facilities to enterprising colored men,
wishing to escape from the rigors of northern winters, to penetrate
her territory. IX.
Free colored population of Louisiana.
YEARS.
1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
Total number
7,585
10,960
16,710
25,502
Actual increase
3,375
5,750
8,792
Increase per cent.
per annum
4.44
5.34
5.36
Slaves
34,660
69,064
109,588
168,452
In the slave states, the prejudices and the rigid laws in relation
to their free colored people, will account for the losses which they
have sustained, But in New York and New Jersey, some other'
cause must have exerted a repelling influence, or there would not
have been such a desertion of that region by colored men. This
cause will, we believe, be found to exist in the foreign emigration
into our country. The foreign emigrant, escaping from the tyranny
of the despotisms which have so long crushed his energies, and
where he had been accustomed to work for a mere subsistence, is
overjoyed, on reaching this country, to receive a rate of wages for
which the colored man is unwilling to labor. He is thus the most
28 Influence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration.
formidable rival of tiie colored man, and supplants him in his employ
ments and drives him from his t.;mporary home. But while this
rivcdry of the foreigner, ihe prejudice of the slave holder, and the
influence of climate, seem to create insuperable obstacles to the
success of any scheme of securing to colored men a permanent home
in the north, it affords a strong proof of the wisdom of the scheme of
African Colonization, where the rivalry of white men and the influ
ence of cUmate, or the prejudice against color, can never reach him
or interrupt him in his pursuits.
But there is still another subject connected with the movements of
the free colored people which greatiy interests the citizens of Ohio.
We have seen that a regular movement of the free colored population,
from north to south, has been in progress ever since 1800, and that it
was Only checked, m its southern course, by reaching the borders of
the slave states. But after 1830 this floating mass took a new direc
tion. As the foreign emigration first touches the eastern coast, its
effects are first felt there, and from thence it rolls westward. While
the current of the colored emigration, therefore, is setting in from the
north, it is met by this opposing tide from the east, and deflected to
the west.
On turning to the west, we find that while this continuous stream
of colored emigration has been pouring out of all the states north-east,
east, and south-east of us, they have been concentrating with almost
equal rapidity in the Ohio valley. X.
Free colored population in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

YEARS.

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830

1840

Total number

500

2,905

6,598

14,834

28,105

Actual increase

2,405

3,693

8,236

13,271

Increase per cent.

per annum
48.10
12.71
12.48
8.94
Look at the figures in table X. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in
1800, had 500 free persons of color in their bounds. In 1840 they
numbered 28,105. If the influx, since 1840, has been as great as in
the preceding period, these three states will have a free colored popu
lation, at present, of over 50,000, of which the share of Ohio is
30,000. To afford a more striking contrast of the position in which we
stand, as compared with the six New England States, it is only
necessary to say, that tiie ratio of the annual increase of the free
colored population of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from 1820 to 1830,
doubled their numbers in eight years, while that of the former six
states would require, to double theirs, a period of two hundred and
fifty six years.
But to avoid a charge of unfairness in selecting a period of only
ten years, and tiiat the most favorable to our purpose, we shall extend
the contrast to forty years, from 1840 back to 1800, and the result is
Free Colored Emigration into Ohio. 29

'a

still more startling. During this period of forty years, the six New
England Slates did not increase their colored population quite one
third, ( it was y^o ) wbile Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, have doidjled
fifyflve times on their original numbers. Our increase, therefore,
when compared with theirs for a period of forty j ears, stands as 55
to i.
-' Here, now, is presented a condition of things which demands the
.iilention of the Legislature and the people of Ohio. We have, for
years, been disposed to evade tiie question of the provision to be
made for the people of color. The causes operating lo concentrate
diem in the Ohio valley are beyond our control, and they must con
tinue to cougreefate here. Nor can we check this movement by any
ordinary precautions, were we disposed to make the effort, because
v.e I'annot, by any legislation of ours, reach the causes which compel
them to leave the other states. We cannot change the climate of the
north-east, nor mold the African constitution so that it may endure
the rigors of its winters ; and much less can we impart to the colored
man a spirit of entrgy and ai-tivity in business which shall enable
him to compet£ wilh ihe New Englander. We are still less able to
roll back the mighty wave of foreign emigration, which, annually,
supplii-s to the east a surplus of cheap labor, and drives tlie man of
color from his employments, and compels him to wander to the west
in search of bread. And it is still more impracticable for us to
induce the slave states to repeal the laws and give up the prejudices
wliifh drive out the free colored man from amongst them. The
colored people, if disposed, cannot extend westward and southward.
Tlie iron wall of slavery and the prohibitions in the new constitutions
of Illinois and Iowa, will prevent emigration in that direction. They
ar,=-, therefore, shut up, imprisoned among us, and instead of any
diminution, we must prepare for an increase of their numbers.
It is a fact well understood, that in the slave states, no movement,..
involving emancipation to any great extent, can now take place
e.rctpt in connection with the removal of the freedmen fi-om
among them. Some of them at present talk of emancipation and
colonization in Africa, but if we should open our doors as widely as
many desire, the slave holder need not tax himstlf wilh the expense
of the passage of his slaves to Liberia. It will be cheaper and less
troublesome to let them alone, and they will soon put themselves
under the care of their loving brothers across the Ohio river. And,
ill jid'ipting tills course, the slave holder may feel that he is conferring
a favor upon us, because, on several occasions, where masters had
emancipated their slaves, and started them for Liberia, they have been
persuaded to escape to Ohio or Pennsylvania.
Several of the border states will, before many years, become free
slates, because of the growing conviction among the people that the
presence of slaves upon their soil has created a blighting influence —
that it has paralyzed the physical and moral energies of the white
youth — that until the slaves are removed, the sons of iheir yeomanry
will not engage in field labor, and that until this revolution is ellecled

30 Free Colored Emigration into Ohio.
the slave states cannot prosper as the free states have done. They
are further convinced that the presence of colored people, as free
laborers, will exert equally as baneful an effect upon the industry of
the whites, as the presence of the slave has done. We have failed,
in a twenty years war of words, to change these opinions. They
know that their sons scorn the idea of laboring upon an equality with
men of servile origin. This may all be wrong, but that does not
alter the fact. The people of the slave states will never consent to
emancipation, but in connection with the removal of the freedmen.
This is their fixed purpose : and any measure for the melioration of
the condition of the colored man which does not include this fact,
and adapt itself to it, will be so far defective.
Now, it seems evident, that to whatever extent emancipation may
take place, whether by individuals or by states ; and further, to what
ever degree the slave states may carry their hostility to the free
colored people among them, and succeed in driving them out ; to
the same extent may we expect to be made the receivers of the un
fortunate wanderers, unless we can divert the current of emigration
in some other direction.
With all these facts before us — the influence of climate — the rival
ry of the foreign emigrant — the prejudices of the slave holder — the
adverse legislation of the slave states — the rapid concentration of the
free colored people along the southern margin of the Ohio valley —
and the impracticability of their emigrating further south or west — it
must be apparent, at once, that we occupy a very different position
from that of the New England States and the northern counties of
Ohio. We are constantly receiving large accessions from the slave
states. Many of our towns and villages have had their colored
population doubled since 1840, and there is no prospect, at present,
of their influx being checked.
^ The Ohio Black Laws, though designed, originally, to operate
as a check upon colored immigration, have wholly failed of their
object, and have only added another to the numerous inefficient
measures adopted for protection against the evils generated by slavery
— evils so numerous and complicated, that, often the remedies applied
only increase the malady.
And here we must be allowed to remark, that few men can excel
our northern friends in depicting the horrors of slavery. They have
studied it chiefly in that point of view. Its degrading and brutifying
tendencies, generating vices the most debasing and destructive, have
been portrayed, but too truly, in our hearing, by them, a thousand
times. They, of course, expect us to beheve their statements and to
adopt their views of the odiousness of the system.
Now, in return, we ask of them that they shall believe us. And
if one half they have told us be true, in relation to the low state of
morals — the deep and damning depravity of the victims of slavery —
then visit us with the plague, or any other physical ccdamily, rather
than bring this moral pestilence into contact wilh our children. We
speak but the common sentiment of the great mass of our citizens.

Necessity of Colonization. 31
These sentiments are not generated by hostile feelings to the colored
man, any more than the missionary, who wishes to guard well tiie
virtues of his children and impart to them a nobility of thought and
sentiment, should be charged with hating the degraded Hindoo or
Hottentot, for whose intellectual and moral elevation he risks his life,
because he sends his children back to a Christian country to be edu
cated by Christian friends.
Many of the first setders of southern Ohio had fled from Virginia,
Kentucky, and the Carolinas, to rear their families beyond the reach
of the demoralizing effects of slavery, and in the enactment of the
Black Laws they hoped to erect an impassable barrier between them
selves and slavery, or any of its fruits.
It was hot prejudice against color, alone, that dictated the passage
of the Black Laws of Ohio, and which has kept them so long upon
our statute book, but it was a dictate of self-preservation. It was a
determination to confine slavery, with all its fruits, within the limits
where it existed, and to guard themselves and their children against
moral contamination by contact with those unfortunate beings whose
deplorable degradation has been so eloquentiy, and often, but too truly
delineated to us.
A repeal ofthe Black Laws maybe proper;* some modification of
them, at least, is demanded. But it forms no part of the task assign
ed us to express an opinion ou the subject. This much, however,
we can say, that something more is needed than the repeal of these
laws, before the colored man can have justice done him, or the public
mind be satisfied with the posture of affairs.
Nor can we be persuaded that he who rarely ever sees a colored
person, and who knows nothing of the unfavorable circumstances in
which a majority of the colored people are placed, where they are
congregated in large numbers, is the proper man to mature measures
for their relief. He has not the opportunity of forming a practical
judgment in the case, and his schemes, therefore, will be more apt to
partake of the visionary than the practicable.
But we are told that it is our duty to labor for the elevation and im
proveraent of the colored man, and thus prepare him for citizenship.
In reply, it is only necessary to say, that of the importance of this
duty tbe friends of colonization are fully aware, and to discharge it is
their direct and proposed aim ; but through the unhappy opposition
of their enemies, in this good work, who have assumed to be exclu
sively the friends of the man of color, inducing him to believe that
we are his "inveterate enemies," we have been, to a great extent,
excluded from that access to him requisite to tiie fulfillment of our
wishes. The colored people, therefore, are not accessible to us, and
tiie responsibility of their improvement does not rest upon us, but
upon those who have them in charge. And even if they were access
ible to us, and we had their confidence, should the emigration from
the other states continue to be as rapid as heretofore, the execution
»This lecture was written before their repeal by the present Legislature.

32 Necessity of Colonization.
of the task of their education would be a burthen too heavy for Ohio
to bear. But had we the means, the circumstances of inequality, to
which reference has already been made, and which neither authorita
tive legislation nor the resolves of voluntary associations can remedy,
forbid the hope of giving that form and measure of education requisite
to qualify any man for the high duties and enjoyments of citizenship.
' What then can we do? No large body of men will long remain
contented in the bosom of any community or nation, unless in the
enjoyment of equal social and political rights. Ignorant, and vicious,
and lazy men are dangerous in any community ; because, not under
standing their true interests, and but little inclined to do their duty,
they are easily turned into an engine of evil to society. Our own
peace and safety, therefore, demand that we should secure to our
colored people the blessings of education and tlie advantages of
political equality.
But we firmly believe that the first of these objects, the education
of the free colored people, can only be accomplished under circum
stances where the colored man can, by the labor of his own hands,
provide for his own wants, while he is prosecuting his studies. And
we as fully believe, that such a combination of circumstances as will
make the thorough education of our colored people practicable, exists
only in Liberia. In that climate winter makes no demands, and the
labor of one man will easily support three. Schools are already or
ganized, and every parent is required by law to educate his children.
In a climate, like ours, however, demanding almost constant labor
during summer to provide for winter, and where schools are arcessi
ble to but few of the colored people, there is but littie to encourage
the hope that their education can become general. To this conclusion
intelligent colored men themselves have arrived, and the erection of
the Colored Manual Lcdior School, near Columbus, Ohio, where
200 acres of land have been secured for this object, and paid for,
chiefly, by contributions from colored men — where education and labor
can go hand in hand — shows the strength of the hold which this convic
tion-has upon their minds. But the advantages of such an institution
cannot be enjoyed by very many. At most, only a few hundreds can be
accommodated at the same time. Such an institution, therefore, while
it may be of immense advantage to a few, cannot be relied upon to
secure general education ; and advantageous as it may be to those
few, still it will be very partial ; far from reaching that high education
which gives character, and witiiout which, for the standing and hap
piness of the citizen, mere learning is, comparatively, of littie value.
We are also as fully convinced that it will be equally as impractica
ble, as their general education, to secure to our free colored people the
advantages of political equality any where else than in the Republic
of Liberia, or in a new one of their own creation upon that continent.
That the free colored population of our countiy can be raised to
that degree of moral and intellectual elevation which they should
possess, without the enjoyment of all the social and political privi
leges which are the natural birtiiright of man, none will pretend to

Necessity of Colonization. 33
claim. These blessings must be secured to them before any material '
advancement can be expected from them. But the opposition to!
granting them equal social and political privileges in Ohio is a "fixed
fact." It is believed that no permanent good to the colored man cuuld
grow out of such a measure. The granting to him the right of
suffrage has been productive of no good in the states which have
conceded to hiin that privilege. Instead of increasing their free
colored population, since tiiat act of liberality, these states have had a
regular diminution of it. The right of suffrage to the colored man,
where the whites have a large preponderance of numbers, seems of
about the same utility as the tin rattle, or littie doll, presented to the
discontented child, to amuse it and keep it from crying.
It is the settied conviction of nearly all our thinking men, that'
colored men, intellectually, morally, or politically, can no more flourish ¦
in the midst of the whites, than the tender sprout from the bursting
acorn can have a rapid advance to maturity beneath the shade of |
the full-grown oak; while the light of the sun, so essential to its ;
growth, penetrates not through the thick foliage to impart its invigora
ting influences to the humble tenant of the soil ; and where, each
day, it is liable to be crushed under the feet of those who seek, shelter
from the noon-day heat beneath the boughs of its lordly superior.
This is no overwrought picture of the condition of the free colored
people among us. Those stimulants to mental and moral effort,
which beget such a superiority in citizens of free governments, reach
not to the mind of the colored man, to rouse him to action. And so
fully convinced of this fact are intelligent colored men themselves
becoming, that they are beginning to act in concert in reference to
securing the necessary territory to adopt a separate political organiza
tion. This affords strong grounds for hoping that the day of their
political redemption is dawning. Heretofore they have been deluded
with the hope that their elevation would be effected among the
whites ; that hope is now fading from their minds. The adoption of
measures to secure a distinct political organization is an acknowledg
ment of the truth, that a separation from the whites is essential to
the prosperity of the colored man, and that colonization at some
point offers to him his only hope of deliverance. This is an impor
tant step in the progress toward a settlement of this vexed question.
It is true, that, at present, an eye is turned, by many of those who
are agitating this subject, toward a grant of land from Congress out
of the territory acquired fi:om Mexico. As this is the only territory
now at the disposal of Congress, and as the question of its future
ownership will be settled during the next year, at furthest, there will
soon be a decision of that matter. Out of that territory, if any where
on the continent, must the donation of lands be made for the future
African state. And upon it, or to Liberia, must the wave of emi
gration roll when it recedes From our borders.
Here, then, we perceive that this question is assuming a new and
definite form. .? separate political organization is desired by many
of the colored men. But they think Liberia is too distant, and too

34 Necessity of Colonization.
unhealthy, and therefore wish a grant out of New Mexico or Califor
nia. There is, perhaps, not a man in this audience, nor in the norih,
who would object to such a grant for such a purpose, so far as the
grant of United States' property is concerned. Your speaker, for his
part, is wilting to raise up both hands and shout at the topmost pitch
of his voice, in the ears of Congress, to secure it, if he thought it could
be obtained, and that it would, to the occupant, be a peaceful pos
session, and safe for the country. But he believes it is idle, it is
wicked, longer to keep the poor colored man pursuing pha'ntoms
which always must elude his grasp. We say, frankly, that we have
no hope that such a grant of territory can be had from Congress.
And even if it could, dare we hope that it would prove a peaceful
home, such as prudent Christian men would wish to leave as a legacy
to their chddren ? Its proximity to the slave states, it is feared, might
lead to continual collisions.
It is useless, however, to discuss this question, because, whenever
our intelligent colored men are put in possession of the facts in relation
to Liberia, they must greatly prefer it to any point on this continent.
We are aware that some of the colored orators declaim loudly
against any attempts to persuade the free colored people to emigrate
to Africa, while three millions of their brethren remain behind in
slavery. Now, it is very natural that a benevolent heart should dic
tate such feelings, and we must respect their motives. But we would
remind all such objectors to emigration to Liberia, that while three
millions of their brethren are enchained here, there are, according to
the best authorities, one hundred and ten milhons in Africa, eighty
millions of whom are of their own caste, including, no doubt, their
own blood relations, who are mostly crushed under a system of
oppression and of cruelty, and reduced to a condition of moral degra
dation, compared with which, American 'slavery, with all its woes,
is bliss itself. These eighty millions of men are nearly all destitute
of the gospel of Christ, and, consequentiy, without the elements of
an intellectual and moral renovation. The sale of their brethren
into slavery, excepting in a few sunny spots, illuminated by Christian
colonies, still continues with all its attendant horrors. The slave
trade, baffling the utmost exertions for its suppression, is still prose
cuted with unabated vigor. ' Its wretched victims are stdl found
wedged together in the foul and close recesses of the slave ships, with
scarcely space enough to each for the heart to swell in the agony of
its despair.' All hope that it can be suppressed by operations on the
ocean are at an end. It must be assailed where it originated, — on the
land. The instrumentahty to be employed must be that which the
result of long experience dictates, — the gospel. The agents to per
form tkis great work are as clearly designated — colored Chriiiian
colonists. This combined agency of the gospel and colonization has
already begun to redress the wrongs of Africa. " It is fast restoring
a continent shrouded in the darkness of accumulated centuries, to the
lights of civilization and Christianity. It is opening up to that
degraded and impoverished people, new sources of prosperity and

Practicability of Colonization.

35

new fields of enterprise in the boundless resources of that great con
tinent.' The agencies so successfully begun by the colonization
scheme, need only to be sufiiciently augmented to secure the regen
eration of Africa.
Then, with such ample provision made for the free colored man,
and with such a field of future greatness and of glory opening up
before him, why should he not be encouraged, and why not aided.
to enter upon his rich inheritance, instead of begging for a home on
this continent, where, at best, his future prospecLs would be overcast
with gloom. Does the man of color wish to speak to the southern
slave-holder in tones that can be heard and will be respected ? instead
of relying upon the feeble cry of three and a half millions in this
country, Africa has eighty millions of voices which he may control,
and whose united shout for freedom to the slave, would shake the
fetters from his Umbs and give him liberty.
IV. The practicability of Colonizing the free people of color.
The best mode of discussing the practicability of any scheme, is,
first to ascertain what is to b? accomplished. The following list of
the twenty-four principal states, and the number of free colored peo
ple in each, in 1840, presents the amount of persons to be provided
for, and the manner of their distribution throughout the union.

Maine,

1,355

Pennsylvania,

47,854

Tennessee,

5,524

N. Hampshire,

537

Ohio,

17,342

N. Carolina,

22,732

Massachusetts,

8,669

Indiana,

7,165

S. Carolina,

8,276

Rhode Island,

3,238

Illinois,

3,598

Georgia,

2,753

Connecticut,

8,105

Delaware,

16,919

Mississippi,

1,:166

Vermont,

730

Maryland,

62,020

Missouri,

1,574

JVew York,

50,027

Virginia,

49,842

Alabama,

2,039

New Jersey,

21,044

Kentucky,

7,317

Louisiana,

25,502

/^It wiU be seen, under our first head, that the number of human
beings torn from Africa, on American account alone, in 1847, all of
whom, perhaps, were for the Brazilian market, amounted to 84,356.
Now, we would ask whether this fact does not furnish a useful lesson
upon the subject of the practicability of Colonization from the
United States to Africa.
The total annual increase ofthe whole colored population of the
United States, slave and free, from 1830 to 1840, was 54,356, or,
30,000 less than the exports of slaves, in 1847, from Africa for the
American market.
The whole number of the free colored population of the United
States, in 1840, was 386,235, or only a Uttie over four and a half
times greater than one year's importation from Africa.
T/ie total increase of the free colored population of the United
States, from 1830 to 1840, was 6,664, annuaUy, making the number
torn from Africa, in one year^more than twelve and a half times as
great as the whole annual increase of the free colored population of
the United States.
I'he total free colored population of Ohio, is, at present, about

36 Practicability of Colonization.
30,000, and that of Indiana and Illinoi.s 20,000. The other states will
have but a small advance on their free colored population of 1840.
The exports of slaves from Africa, in one year, are, therefore, nearly
tiiree times greater than the whole number of free colored people at
present in Ohio ; more than four times that of Indiana and Illinois ;
nearly four times that of the six New England states in 1840 ; nearly
double tiiat of Pennsylvania ; thirteen thousand more than that of
New York and New Jersey; four thousand more than Delaware
and Maryland; nearly double that of Virginia; nearly seventeen
thousand more than double that of North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia ; nearly six times that of Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Alabama ; and nearly four times that of Louisiana.
If, therefore, a set of desperadoes, not so numerous but that they
have eluded detection and capture, can, in one year, accomplish all
that is here enumerated, what could not the united efforts of the
legislatures of the several states accomplish, without oppressive taxa
tion, were they simultaneously to commence the work of colonizing
the free colored people?
Suppose each of the states in the foregoing list, were, as a prepar
atory measure, to appropriate to the Colonization Society, one dollar
for each colored person in their bounds, the sum of $375,528 would
be raised, being about one half the whole sum expended by the
society since its origin. Now, there is scarcely one of the states
named, which could not give an annual appropriation of the sum
stated, without the tax being felt by its people.
The sum required by this scheme, to be expended by Ohio, would
be only one cent and a half for each of the two millions of her present
population. To pay the expenses ofthe transportation of her whole
30,000 free colored people, at .1)50 each, — the sum for which the
colonization society agrees to take out emigrants — would cost but
sevenly-five cents for each person. But suppose Ohio could prevent
all further immigration into the state, and would agree to send out the
natural increase only, which, at two per cent, on 30,000, would be
600, the tax would be but one cent and a half to each citizen of the
State. Then, who will say that it will not be practicable to raise this sum
in Ohio, on condition that six hundred persons of color, annually,
would volunteer to emigrate? And which of the other states would
decline entering into a measure of such easy accomplishment ' We
trust not one.
As it may amuse the curious, and furnish a rule to determine the
quota of each state for paying the cost of emigration of its natural
increase, we would here slate, that one dollar per head, for the whole
free colored population, is exactiy fifty dollars a head for the natural
increase, — the ratio of increase being two per cent. One dollar a
head, for eaeh free colored person in a state, will, therefore, transfer
its natural increase to Africa, and put them in possession of a home-
strad upon which to make a living.
"• I shall not, here, refer to the probabilities of the free colored people

Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 37
being willing to accept the oflered boon of a home in Liberia, but
leave it to another branch of our subject.
V. The influence of Colonization upon the native Africans, and
upon Missionary efforts in Africa.
On these points we shall study great brevit)'. The influence of
colonization upon the native Africans has been, in all respects, beue-
fii'i.d. It is only necessary to state, that in purchasing the lands
from the native kings and head men, and thus securing the right of
sovereignty over the soil, tiie inhabitants are at once secured in the
protection of the laws of the Liberian government, and iu the enjoy
ment of its advantages. Those held in slavery, and they constitute
about eight-tenths of the population, are at once emancipated. The
same care is taken in promoting their education that is observed in
the instruction of emigrants from the United States. When suffi-
cientiv advanced in intelUgence, thev are admitted to the rights of
citizenship. In this way, 75,000 of the natives have been emanci
pated from slaverv, and secured in all the rights of freemen. By
treaties wilh surrounding tribes, 200,000 more are bound not to
engage in the slave trade, nor to go to war amongst themselves.
These treaties secure to the respective tribes embraced, the protection
of the Republic against all other hostile tribes. A breach of the
conditions of these treaties, on the part of any tribe, forfeits the pro
tection of the colony. Thus, for ten years past, the colony has
preserved peace amongst many petty tribes whose trade formerly
was war. Colonization, therefore, in many respects, has done great
good to -Africa. And, in addition to all this, we may add, that such
is the favorable impression which our colonies are beginning to send
abroad among the native tribes, that, recently, six kings have com
bined and annexed their territories, including one hundred miles of
coast, to the Maryland colony. This statement we have met with,
as comino; from Bev. Mr. Pinney, for a time the governor of Liberia.
The motive prompting these kings to annex, is, that they may enjoy
the protection ofthe colony.
The Hi.story of Missionary efforts in Western Africa, fully sus
tains the truthfulness of the pictures which have been drawn of the
fatality of the climate to the white man, and of the dreadful moral
darkness which overspreads the land.*
Catholic missionaries labored for two hundred and forty-one years,
but every vestige of their influence has been gone for many genera
tions. The Moravians, beginning in 1736, toiled for thirty-four
years, making five attempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and effected
nothing. An English attempt, at Bulama Island, in 1793, partiy
missionary in its character, was abandoned in two years, with a loss
of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs, from England,
in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London,
• We have drawn our facts mostly from Mr. Tracy's history of Colonization and
Missions.

38 Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts.
Edinburgh and Glasgow society, commenced three stations in 1797,
which were extinct in three years, and five of the six missionaries
dead. The Church missionary society sent out its first missionaries
in 1804, but it was four years before they could find a place out of
the colony of Sierra Leone, where they could commence their
labors. They established and attempted to maintain ten stations.
But the hostility of the natives, who preferred the slave traders to
them, drove the missionaries from nine of them, and forced them lo
take refuge in Sierra Leone, the only place where they could labor
with safety and wilh hope. The tenth station at Goree, was also
abandoned and given up to the French.
" Here, then, without counting Sierra Leone and Goree, are eigh
teen Protestant missionary attempts, before the settiement of Liberia,
all of which failed from the influence of climate, and the hostUity of
the natives, generated by the opposition of the slave traders." And,
since the settiement of Liberia, until 1845, when these investiga
tions were completed, all attempts to sustain missions beyond the
influence of the Colony have also failed.
" But while we mourn over these faUures in attempts to do good to
Africa, it is a source of the most profound gratitude to have the facts
placed authentically before the world, that every attempt at coloniz
ing Africa with colored persons, and every missionary effort con
nected with the Colonies, either of England or America, have been
successful." These facts prove, conclusively, that while other lands may be
approached and blessed by other methods, the only hope for Africa
appears to be in Colonization by persons of color. This is the only
star of promise which kindles its light on her dark horizon. It is
the only apparent means of her salvation.
"After the presentation of such an array of facts, extending over a
period of four centuries, may we not claim that the question is
decided — that the facts of the case preclude all possibihty of reason
able doubt — that the combined action of Colonization and missions
is proved to be an effectual means, and is the only known means,
of converting and civilizing Africa."
And who that believes this, will not give heart and hand to the
work, and labor, through good report and through ill, for the con
centration of all the talent and piety, belonging to the colored people,
upon that coast? Who that truly desires the redemption of the
African race from their degradation of accumulated centuries, but
would rejoice to see hundreds and thousands, and tens of thousands,
of the virtuous and intelligent of our colored population, like so many
angels of mercy, flocking to Africa, and employed in that labor of
love which must be performed before Ethiopia can stretch out her
hands to God ?
After what has been said, in relation to the low state of morals
amongst the slaves, and the new accessions of colored emigrants
which we are likely to receive from tiie slave states, it is proper, in
this place, that we should present §ome explanation". Our observa-

Influence of Colonization on Missionary Efforts. 39
tions, it will be noticed, were based upon the representations made
by our northern friends on the degrading and brutifying tendencies
of slavery, and were offered, partiy, as a retort upon them for wish
ing to overstock us with such a population as tiiey must necessarily
believe will emanate from the midst of slaveiy, while they them
selves scarcely touch the burthen with the tip of the finger. Our
views, however, differ materially from theirs, in relation to the
moral condition of the slaves.
While we believe that slavery, like despotism in any other form,
in itself considered, contains no one principle which tends to elevate
and improve the intellect and the heart, yet we know that there are
accidents connected with it, in this country, as there have been with
despotism in Europe, which afford to its victims the means of
improvement. We believe that the Providence of God never places
men, towards whom he has designs of mercy, in circumstances
where the gospel of Christ is not adapted to their condition. That
gospel, we know, has spoken peace to thousands of poor slaves,
and whispered to their desponding hearts the hope of freedom in
heaven. It is undeniable, that an immense degree of intellectual and
moral advancement, beyond that of the native of Africa, has been made
by the slaves of the United States, under all the disadvantages to
which they have been subjected. It is true, that thousands of
masters are laboring with much success for the moral and religious
improvement of their slaves. It is well known, that the moral
character and religious principle of many a slave will compare with
and excel that of many of the whites, even in the north. It is
certain, that the voluntary emancipations which occur, are by tiiis
class of masters and from this class of slaves. And it is a fact, that
the greater number of the newly emancipated slaves, who come to
the free states, have more or less acquaintance with their social,
moral, and religious duties, and are more or less disposed to make
further efforts for their own advancement. And knowing and be
lieving all this, we are prepared to take them by the hand and to
encourage them to the fuU extent of the numbers that we are able to
receive. We are also prepared to cooperate with, and do aid them,
in their efforts at education. In the village in which your speaker
resides, a Presbytery of the church with which he is connected,
pays, regularly, from a donation by a deceased member, the half of
the salary of a teacher for a colored school. From observation
there, and elsewhere, we have learned that though but a small portion
of the parents have a right appreciation of the importance of educa
tion and of the arduousness of the task of acquiring knowledge, yet,
upon the whole, they manifest fully as much interest in the work
as the same number of whites would do, who possess no higher a
standard of intellectual attainment.
Were it in our power, therefore, to increase the facilities for their
education a thousand fold, we would do it at once. Because we
feel it to be an imperative duty resting on the white men of
the United States, allowing of no halfway measures or efforts.

Relations of England to Liberia.
(labor for the redemption of Africa, and to repair the wrongs
that have been done her.
But to execute this task, we must call to our aid men of African
blood. We should have one teacher or missionary for every 1000
inhabitants. To supply the whole 80,000,000 of people of color in
Africa, with teachers and missionaries, will, therefore, require an
educated army of 80,000 colored men, who must be supplied from
the United States and from Liberia. While, then, we struggle to
elevate and improve the colored man in the United States, we point
him to Africa as the field of usefulness in which we wish to see
him labor.
VI. The certainty of success of the Colonization scheme, and
ofthe perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia.
In the facts which have been already presented, in the course of
our investigations, many reasons will be found to encourage our
hopes that the colonization scheme must continue to prosper, and
that the experiment of an African Republic must succeed. We shall
now proceed to offer additional facts and considerations of much more
weight and importance on this point, than any which we have, yet,
produced. The first and more important is based upon the com
mercial advantages, in Africa, which Liberia is beginning to unfold
to civilized nations. But as time will not allow us lo enter upon an
extended investigation of the peculiar advantages which each nation
will derive from the civilization of Africa, we shall confine ourselves
to those of England, because she is more vitally interested in the
success of Liberia than all the others. When the facts in her case
are known, it will be easy to make the application to other nations.
It will be seen, in the course of these investigations, that it is of the
utmost importance to England to aid the Republic of Liberia in
extending its influence with all possible rapidity over the continent
of Africa. The reasons upon which we base this opinion are brielly
as follows :
Next to the necessity under which the government of Great
Britain is laid to create new markets for her manufactures, comes
the vast importance which she attaches to having the control of
tropical possessions and tropical productions. Their importance to
her heretofore, in contributing to give to her the ascendency which she
acquired amongst nations, was thus strongly stated by JIcQueen, in
1844, when this highly intelligent Englishman was urging upon his
government the great necessity which existed for securing tu itself
the control of the labor and the products of tropical .Africa.
" During the fearful struggle of a quarter of a century, for her
existence as a nation, against the power and resources of Europe,
directed by the most intelligent but remorseless military ambition
against her, the command of ihe productions ofthe torrid zone, and
the advantageous commerce which that afforded, gave to Great
Britain the power and the resources which enabled her to meet, to
combat, and to overcome, her numerous and reckless enemies in

Relations of England to Liberia.

41

every battle-field, whether by sea or by land, throughout tiie world.
In her tlie world saw realized the fabled giant of antiquity. AVith
her hundred hands she grasped her foes in eiery region under
heaven, and crushed them with resistiess energy."
If the possession and control of tropical products gave to Eng
land such immense resources, and secured to her such superiority
and such power, then, to be deprived of these resources would oi"
course exert a corresponding opposite effect, and she would not
yield tiiem to another but in a death-struggle for their maintainance.
Now, we expect to prove that this struggle has commenced and
progressed to a point of the utmost interest, both to England and to I
tiie cause of humanity; and that the present moment finds Great
Britain in a position so disadvantageous, arising from the progress of ;
other nations in tropical cultivation, that one principal means of her !
extrication is in the success of Liberia.
ilr. McQueen, in proceeding further with his investigations,
reveals to us the true position of England by the following startiing
announcement: " The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign tropical pos
sessions is become so great, and is advancing so rapidly the power
and resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this
country (England,) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary
resources, and in all her political relations and negotiations."
The peculiar force of these remarks, and the cause for alarm
which existed, will be better understood by an examination of ths
figures in the following table. They contrast the condition of Great
Ijrilain as compared with only a few other countries, in the produc
tion of three articles, alone, of tropical produce.
Sugar— 1842.

British possessions.

Foreign countries.

West Indies, cwts. 2,508,553
East Indies, " 940,452
Mauritius, (1841) " 544,767
Total 3,993,771

Cuba,Brazil,Java,Louisiana,

cwts. 5,800,000
" 2,400,000
" 1,105,757
" 1,400,000
Tord. 10,705,757

Coffee

—1842.

West Indies, lbs. 9,186,555
East Indies, " 18,306,448
Total 27,393,003

Java, Brazils, Cuba, Venezuela,

lbs. 134,842,715
" 135,000,800
" 33,589,325
« 34,000,000
Total 337,432,840

Cotton

—1840.

AVest Indies, lbs. 427,529
East Indies, " 77,015,917
To China, from do. " 60,000,000

United States, lbs. 790,479,275
Java, " 165,504,800
Brazil, " 25,222,828

Total 137,443,446

Total 981,206,903

42 Relations of England to Liberia.
But that this exhibit may convey its full force to the mind, it
must be observed, that nearly three-fourths of this slave-grown pro
duce, has been created, says McQueen, within thirty years prece
ding the date of his writing. (1844.)
It will be noticed, also, that the whole of these products, with the
exception of those of Java and Venezuela, are the produce of slave
labor ; and it must be remembered, also, that the perpetuation and
increase of this labor is, in a great degree, except in Louisiana,
depending upon the slave trade for its continuance. It is easy,
then, to perceive, from the foregoing facts, that the slave trade has
been very sensibly and very seriously affecting the interests of the
British government — that it has been an engine in the hands of other
nations, by which they have thrown England into the back ground
in the production of those articles of which she formerly had the
monopoly, and which had given to her such power — and that Great
Britain must either crush the slave trade, or it will continue to
paralyze her.
Here is the true secret of her movements in reference to the slave
trade and slavery. Public sentiment, under the control of Chris
tian principle, compelled her in 1808, to a first step in this great
work of philanthropy ; and this step, once taken, there could be no
retreat. But this first step, the abolition of the slave trade in her
colonies, gave to Spain and Portugal all the advantages of that
traffic, and the cheaper and more abundant labor, thus secured, gave
a powerful stimulus to the production of tropical commodities in
their colonies of Cuba and Brazil, and soon enabled tiiem to rival,
and greatiy surpass England, in the amount of her exports of these
articles. But the investigations which had led to the knowledge of the
enormities of the slave trade, necessarily exhibited the evils of
slavery itself. Public opinion decreed the annihilation of both, and
the British government had no other alternative but to comply. The
means to which she resorted for the suppression of the slave trade,
and their failure hitherto, have been already noticed. The measutes
adopted for the emancipation of her West India slaves, have resulted
StiU more unfavorably to her interests than those for the extinction
j of the slave trade.
It was considered absolutely necessary to the prosperity of Eng
land, that she should regain the advantageous position which she
had occupied in being the chief producer of tropical commodities.
But to effect this, it was necessary that she should be able to double
the exports from her own Islands, and greatiy diminish those of her
/rivals. This could be accomplished, only, by an increase ol
laborers from abroad, or by stimulating those on the Islands to
double activity in their work. An increase of laborers from abroad
could only be secured by a resort to the slave trade, which was
impossible ; or to voluntary emigration from other countries to the
Islands, which was improbable. Tlie only remaining alternative
was to render the labor already in the Islands more° productive.

Relalions of England to Liberia.

43

This could not be done by the whip, as it had already expended its
force, and could not allbrd the relief demandi'd. This position of'
afl'airs made the government willing to listen to the appeals of tlie
friends of West India emancipation. They had long argued that
free labor was cheaper titan slave labor — that one freeman, under
tlie stimidus of wages, u'ould do twice the work of a slave com
pelled to industry by the ichip — that the government, by immediate
emancipation, could demonstrate the truth of this proposition, and
tiius furnish a powerful argument against slavery — that the world
should be convinced that the employment of slave labor is a great
economic error — and that this truth, once believed, the aboUtion of
slavery would every where take place, and the demand for slaves
being thus destroyed, the slave trade must cease. Parliament, yield
ing to these arguments, passed her AA'est India Emancipation act,
1833, with certain restrictions, by which the liberated slaves were to
be held by their old masters as apprentices, partiy until Aug. 1,
1838, and partiy until Aug. 1, 1840. This apprenticeship system,
however, being productive of greater cruelties than even slavery, the
Legislative councils of the Islands, coerced by public sentiment in
England, were forced to precipitate the final emancipation of the
slaves, and on Aug. I, 1838, they were declared free. This act at
once brought on the crisis in the experiment. The results ara
stated in the following official table, taken from the AVestminster
Review, 1844.

Sugar
Exported from

Average ol
1831-2-3.
3 yrs. of Slavery.

Average of
183.5-6-7.
3 yrs. of Apprent'ship.

Average of
1839-40-41.
3 yrs. of Freedom.

8t. Vincent,
Trinidad,
Jamaica,Total W. Indies,

23,400.000 lbs.
18,923 tons.
86,080 hhd.
3,841,153 cwt.

22,500,000 lbs.
18,255 tons.
62,960 hhd.
3,477,592 cwt.

14,100.000 lbs.
14,828 tons.
34,415 hhd.
2,396,784cwt.

This immense and unexpected reduction of West India products
under the system of freedom, was cause of great alarm. The :
experiment which was to prove the superiority of free labor over
that of slave labor had failed. The hope of doubling the exports by
that means was blasted. $500,000,000* of British capital, invested
in the Islands, says McQueen, was on the brink of destruction for
want of laborers to make it available. The English government
found her commerce greatiy lessened, and her home supply of tro
pical products falling below the actual wants of her own people.
This diminution rendered her unable to furnish any surplus for the
markets of those of her colonies and other countries which she
formerly supplied. These results at once extended the market for \
slave grown products, and gave a new impulse to the slave trade, j
The government and its advisers now found themselves in the 1
mortifying position of having blundered miserably in their emancipa
tion scheme, and of having landed themselves in a dilemma of singu-
* We reckon the pound sterling, here and elsewhere, for convenience, at five
dollars.

44 Relations of England to Liberia.
lar perplexity. Had England induced, or compelled Portugal, Spain,
and Brazd, — the latter then no longer a colony but an independent
nation, — to fulfill the conditions of the treaty declaring the slave trade
piracy, and also to abolish slavery, she might have succeeded in her
object. But she did not await the accomplishment of this work
before she declared the freedom of her own slaves. This act
resulted so favorably to the interests of those countries employing
slave labor, by enlarging the markets for slave grown products, that
the difficulty of inducing them to cease from it, was increased a
hundred fold. Nor did the expedients to which she resorted prove
successful in extricating her from the difficulties in which she was
involved. A duty of near 39 shillings, afterwards raised to 41
shillings the cwt., or 4^ pence the pound, levied on slave grown
sugar — designed to prohibit its importation into England and secure
the monopoly to the West India planter, thereby enabling him to
pay higher wages for labor — while it failed to stimulate the activities
of the freedmen sufficiently to increase the exports to their former
amount — resulted only in taxing the English people, by the increase
of prices consequent upon a diminution of the supply, in a single
year, says Porter in his Progress of Nations, to the enormous amount
of $25,000,000 more than the inhabitants of other countries paid for
the same quantity of sugar. This enormous tax accrued during
1840, from tiie protective duty, but was greatiy above that of any
other year during its continuance. The whole amount of the bounty
to the planter, thus drawn from the pockets of the English people
and placed in' those of the West India negro laborers in excessive
high wages, in the course of six or seven years, saysTWcQueen,
f844,~amou"med to $50,000,000.
The crisis had become so imminent, that energetic measures were
immediately adopted to guard against the impending danger. Eng
land must either regain her advantages in tropical countries and
tropical products, or she must be shorn of a part of her power and
greatness. This truth was so fuUy impressed upon the minds of
her intelligent statesmen, that one of the best informed on this sub
ject, (McQueen,) declared, that
" If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the cultiva
tion of the tropical territories of other powers opposed and checked
by British tropical cultivation, then the interests and the power of
such states wiU rise into a preponderance over those of Great
Britain ; and the power and the infiuence of the latter will cease to
be felt, feared and respected, amongst the civilized and powerful
nations ofthe world."
To relieve the English people from the onerous tax of the sugar
duties, and at the same time, in obedience to the dictates of public
opinion, to continue the exclusion of slave grown products from the
English markets, sugar, the product of free labor, it was decided,
should be admitted at a duty of 10 shiUings the cwt. But it was
soon discerned, that this policy would only create a circuitous
commerce, by which the slave grown sugar of Cuba and Brazil

Relations of England to Liberia. 45
would be taken by HoUand and Spain, for their own consumption,
and that of Java and jManilla sent to England ; thus creating a more
extensive demand for slave grown products and consequentiy for
slave labor, and giving to the slave trade an additional impulse in
an increased demand for slaves.
The necessity for this continuous supply of slave laborers from
Africa, for the planters of Cuba and Brazil, will be better understood,
when the nature of AVest India and Brazilian slavery is made
known. When England prohibited the slave trade in 1806, the
number of slaves in her colonies was 800,000. In twenty-three
years afterwards, or near the time she emancipated them, they
numbered but 700,000. The decrease in this period was, therefore,
100,000; (-Memoirs of Buxton).
The United States, in 1800, had a slave population of 893,000.
In 1830 she numbered 2,009,000, being an increase of 1,116,000.
Thus, in thirty years, the United States had an increase of one
million one hundred and sixteen thousand on a population of
893,000; while the AVest Indies, under the English system of
slavery, with a slave population nearly equal to that of the United
States, in a period only six years less, suffered an actual decrease
of one hundred thousand.
The destruction of human life in the slavery of Cuba and Brazil
will, doubtiess, be equal to what it was formerly in the West Indies,
inasmuch as the same causes prevail — the great disparity of the
sexes amongst those brought by slave traders, from Africa, for the
planters. In the slave population of Cuba this disproportion, says
McQueen, is 150,000 females to 275,000 males. It is estimated,
that to keep up the slave population of Cuba and Brazd, will require,
yearly, 130,000 people from Africa. It is, then, at once apparent,
that Cuba and Brazil are dependent, as we have said, upon the
slave trade for keeping up the supply of their laborers; and, that,
if this annual importation of slaves should be stopped, then, their
foreign exports would be proportionally lessened and their growing
prosperity checked.
Under these circumstances, there could be no doubt, that if Eng
land could suppress the slave trade, she would at once cut off the
supply (if laborers furnished by that traffic to Cuba and Brazil, and
" check " their ability to rival her as producers of tropical coin-
moelilies; and, further, if she could increase the number of laborers
in the West Indies sufficiently, she could restore those Islands to
their former productiveness, and recover her former advantages.
She, therefore, renewed her efforts for the suppression of the slave
trade, with greatiy increased activity. She also commenced the
transfer oi free laborers from the East Indies and from Africa to the
AVest Indies. Every slave trading vessel captured, was made to
yield up its burden of human beings to the West India planters,
instead of to those of Cuba and Brazil ; thus securing to the
former all the advantages of laborers which had been designed for
the latter. This arrangement was adopted in 1843, and the only

46 Relations of England to Liberia,
exception to it was in relation to Spanish slavers, which were to be
given up, wilh their cargoes of slaves, to the authorities of Cuba.
A premium was paid to her naval officers and seamen for all the
slaves thus captured and transported to her West India Colonies.
The expenditure for this object, in 1844, says McQueen, had
amounted to $4,700,000.
In this movement an intelligent colored man, Mr. William
Brown, of Oxford, Ohio, has remarked, that England seems to have
copied the example of the eagle, which disdains to soil his own
plumage by a plunge in the water, but, as he must have the fish or
die, makes no scruple of lobbing the more daring fish-hawk of its
prey and appropriating the captive fish to his own use, instead of
jestoring it to its native element.
All these efforts, however, failed in relieving England from her
difficulties. The slave trade continued to increase, and the slave
grown productions to multiply. The number oi free laborers trans
ported as emigrants from Africa and the East Indies, or captured
from the slave traders, and landed in the Islands, were so few,
comparatively, as to make no sensible difference in the amount of
West India productions, and the scheme, though still continued, has
ffailed of its main object — the increase of British West India pro-
! ductions. Some other means of replacing England in her former
position, must, therefore, be devised.
But let us look a moment, before we proceed, at the AVest Indies,
and learn more fully, the extent and nature of the influences which
have gone forth upon the world as the result of AVest India Eman
cipation and British policy and philanthropy.
It seems to have been a great error of judgment in the British
philanthropists, who urged AVest India Emancipation upon the
' ground that free labor would be more productive than slave labor,
— that a freeman, under the stimulus of ivages, would do twice the
, labor of a slave toiling beneath the lash : because this proposition is
true only in reference to men of intelligence and forethought, but is
untrue when applied to an ignorant and degraded class of men.
The ox under the yoke, or the mule in the harness, when spurred
on by the goad or the whip, will do more labor than when turned
out to shift for themselves. So it will be with any barbarous people,
or with the mass of such a slave population as the AVest Indies then
included ; where but Utile more care had been taken of the greater
portion of them than if they had been mere brute beasts, and not moral
agents. If any higher estimate had been put upon them, than as mere
machines to be used in the production of tropical commodities, then
it had been impossible for their numbers to have been reduced one
hundred thousand in so short a period as before stated.
The first impulse of the heart of tiie more inteUigent slaves, when
they awoke to a consciousness of freedom, would prompt them to
withdraw their wives, daughters, and younger children, from the
sugar plantations, that the mothers might attend to their household
duties, and the children be sent to school. This would deprive the

Relations of England lo Liberia. 47
planters of much of the labor upon which they had depended. The
men, too, would many of them prefer mechanical pursuits, or confine
tiiemselves to the cultivation of small portions of land, and decline
laboring for their old masters, in whose presence they must still
have felt a sense of inferiority. Many, from sheer indolence and
recklessness of consequences, would only labor when necessity com
pelled them to seek a supply of their wants. The marriages taking
place would withdraw still more of the laborers from the fields, and
reduce the amount ofthe products ofthe Islands.
AA'hile, therefore, the ease, comfort, and welfare, of the colored
man was secured, the interests of the planters were almost ruined by
emancipation, and the influence and power of England put in
jeopardy. Littie did the 700,000 AA'est India freedmen, who
refused to labor regularly for the planters, think, when following
their own inclinations, or lounging at their ease under the shade trees
of these sunny Islands, that their want of industry, their reluctance
to go back to the sugar mills, for the wages offered, was crippling
the power of one ofthe greatest empires on earth, and robbing Africa
of 400,000 of her children, annually, to supply to the worid, from
Cuba and Brazd, those very commodities which they were refusing
to produce. Yet such was the fact, and such the mysterious links'
connecting man with his feUow, that the want of ambition in the
AVest India freedman to earn more than a subsistence, depriving the
planters of the necessary free labor to keep up the usual amount of ^
exports, created a corresponding demand for slave grown products,
and robbed Africa, in each two years thereafter, of a number of men
more than equal to the whole of the slaves emancipated in the
British Islands. !
There would seem, then, to have been but littie gain to the causa
of humanity by AA'est India Emancipation. This view of its results,
however, would be very erroneous. On the contrary, there is
exhibited here, in this result, another mysterious link in the chain of
events connected with the redemption of Africa. The failure of the
AA'est India experiment, has been a failure, only, of England's ex
periment adopted to restore herself to her former position and her
former advantages, and will not retard tiie onward progress of the
cause of humanity. It has, on the contrary, no doubt greatiy tended
to precipitate upon the world the solution of a problem of the first
importance in the great work of its recovery from barbarism. It
must now be admitted that mere personal liberty, even connected
with the stimulus of high wages, is insuflScient to secure the indus
try of an ignorant population. It is Intelligence, alone, that can be
acted upon by such motives. Intelligence must precede voluntary
Industry. This proposition, we claim, has been fairly proved in
the AVest India experiment. And, hereafter, that man or nation,
mav find it difficult to command respect or succeed in being esteemed
wise, who will not, along with exertions to extend personal freedom
to men, intimately blend with their efforts adequate means for
inteUectual and moral improvement. The West India colorer'

48 Relations of England to Liberia.
population, now released from the restraints of slavery, and accessilde
to the missionaries and teachers, sent to them from English Chris
tians, are rising in intelligence and respectability ; and, thus, AVest
India emancipation has been productive of infinite advantage to tiiem,
though English capitalists may have been ruined by the act. But
we will go further, and give it as our deliberate opinion, that as soon
as intelligence and morality, growing out of the religious training
now enjoyed, shall sufficiently prevail, the amount of products rai^.d
in the West Indies wiU greatiy exceed that yielded under the system
of slavery. Liberty and Religion can make its inhabitants as p-c.<5-
perous and happy as those of any other spot on earth. We do not
say, however, that this can take place while they sustain the posi
tion of vassals of the British crown, and their importance in the scale
of being continues to be estimated according to the extent to which
they can add to its prosperity and its glory.
Had the West India colored men, under the stimulus of freedom
and high wages, each performed twice the labor of a slave, as they,
no doubt, might have done, and as was confidently anticipated by the
enthusiastic friends of emancipation, more than twice the products
of former years would have been exported from the Islands, and
England, in that event, restored to her former position, and looking
only to self aggrandizement, would have remained content, and con
tinued to employ men as mere machines, as she heretofore had done,
nor cared for their intellectual and moral elevation. But the failure
of England in the AVest Indies, forced her to renewed efforts for the
acquisition of additional tropical possessions, where, with better
prospects of success, she could bring free labor into competitiun
with slave labor.
Before tracing the movements of Great Britain, however, in her
prosecution of this enterprise, let us again look a moment at her
position. "Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical pro
ductions, and next nearly aU Europe, as she formerly did, she had
scarcely enough, says McQueen, 1844, of some of tiie most impor
tant articles, for her own consumption, while her colonies were
mostly supplied with foreign slave produce." " In the mean time
tropical productions had been increased from $75,000,000 to $300.-
000,000 annually. The English capital invested in tropical pro
ductions in the East and AA'est Indies, had been, by emancipation in
the latter, reduced from $750,000,000 to $650,000,000 ; while, since
1808, on the part of foreign nations $4,000,000,000 of fixed capital
had been created in slaves and in cultivation wholly dependent upon
the labor of slaves." 'The odds, therefore, in agricultural and com
mercial capital and interest, and consequentiy in political power and
infiuence, arrayed against the British tropical possessions, were very
fearful — six to one.'
This, then, was the position of England from 1840 to 1844, and
these the forces marshalled against her, and which she must meet and
combat. In aU her movements hitherto, she had only added to the
strength of her rivals. Her first step, the suppression of the slave

Relations of England to Liberia. 49
trade, had diminished her AVest India laborers 100,000 in twenty-
tiiree years, and reduced her means of production to that extent,
giving all the benefits, arising from this and from the slave trade, to
rival nations, who have but too well improved tiieir advantages. But,
besides her commercial sacrifices, she had expended $100,000,000
to remunerate the planters for the slaves emancipated, and another
SI 00,000,000 for an armed repression of the slave trade. And yet,
in all this enormous expenditure, resulting only in loss to England,
Africa had received no advantage whatever, but, on the contrary, she
had beenrobbed, since 1808, of at least, 3,500,000 slaves, (McQueen)
who had been exported to Cuba and Brazd from her coast, making
a total loss to Africa, by the rule of Buxton, of 11,666,000 human
beings, or one million more than the whole white population of the
United States in 1830, and more than three times the number of our
present slave population.
Now, it was abundantiy evident, that Great Britain was impelled
by an overpowering necessity, by the instinct of self-preservation, to
attempt the suppression of the slave trade. It was true, no doubt,
that considerations of justice and humanity were among the motives
which influenced her actions. Interest and duty were, therefore,
combined to stimulate her to exertion. The measures to be adopted
to secure success, were also becoming more apparent. Few other
nations are guided by statesmen more quick to perceive the best
course to adopt in an emergency, and none more readily abandon a
scheme as soon as it proves impracticable. Great Britain stood
pledged to her own citizens and to the world for the suppression of
the slave trade. She stood equally pledged to demonstrate, that free
labor can be made more productive than slave labor, even in the
cultivation of tropical commodities. These pledges she could not
deviate from nor revoke. Her interests as well as her honor were
deeply involved in their fulfillment. But she could only demonstrate
the greater productiveness of free labor over slave labor, by opposing
the one to the other, in their practical operations on a scale coexten
sive with each other. She must produce tropical commodities so
cheaply and so abundantly, by free labor, that she could undersell
slave-grown products to such an extent, and glut the markets of thei
world with them so fully, as to render it unprofitable any longer to
employ slaves in tropical cultivation. Such an enterprise, success
fully carried out, would be a death blow to slavery and the slave
trade. " But," says McQueen, " there remained no portion of the
tropical world, where labor could be had on the spot, and whereon
Great Britain could convenientiy and safely plant her foot, in order to
accomplish this desirable object — extensive tropical cultivation — but
in tropical Africa. Every other part was occupied by independent
nations, or by people that might and would soon become independent."
Africa, therefore, was the field upon which Great Britain was compelled
to enter and to make her second grand experiment. Her citizens
were becoming convinced that it was unwise, if not unjust, to abstract
laborers, even as free emigrants, from Africa, to be employed in other
4

50 Relations of England to Liberia.
patts of the world, when their labor might be employed to much
better advantage in Africa itself. The government could, therefore,
safely resort to some modification of her former policy. To confine
her efforts for the recovery of her prosperity, ivithin the limits of her
own tropical possessions, would be to abandon the vast regions of
tropical Africa to other nations, and thus permit them, by taking
possession of it, to redouble the advantages over her which they
already possessed. By employing the labor q/" Africa within Africa,
she would' cut off the supply of laborers derived by other nations
from the slave trade, and would have an advantage over them, not
only of the capital expended in the transportation of slaves from
Africa, but she would have a gain of seven-tenths in the saving of
human life now destroyed by the slave trade. British capital,
instead of being directly and indirectly employed in the slave trade,
as has been fully shown by the Hon. H. A. Wise, late American
minister to Brazil, could be more honorably and safely invested in
the cultivation of the richer fields of tropical Africa itself.
In her West India experiment, however, England had been taught
the all-important lesson, that intelligence must precede voluntary
industry. Her Niger expedition of 1842, already noticed, was
based upon this principle, and hence the extensive preparations
connected with that movement, for the improvement of the intelligence
and morals and industry of the natives. But the terrible mortality
which destroyed that enterprise taught her another lesson, that while
men cannot fulfill the agency of Africa's intellectual elevation.
Since that period, England has been mostly occupied with the settie
ment of her difficulties with China, and her war with the Sikhs of
India, and she has made but littie progress in her African affairs ;
excepting by explorations into the interior and negociations with the
powers interested in the slave trade.
In the meantime the colony of Liberia had been pursuing its quiet
and unostentatious course, and working out the problem of the colored
man's capabUity for self-government. The active industry of that
handful of men, had created a commerce of much importance, and
supplied exports to the value of $100,000 annually. Its declaration
of independence was published to the world at a period the most
auspicious. France, under those generous impulses so characteristic
of her people, had herself trampled the last relics of despotism in the
dust, and declared tbe Republic. Great as she herself is, she did not
despise the little African republic, but, extending her view down the
stream of time, discerned in it the germ of future empire and greatness,
and therefore, she welcomed it into the famdy of nations. But lest,
in its feebleness, it should receive a wound to its honor, or an injury
to its commerce, from an attack of the dealers in human flesh infesting
its borders, with distinguished liberaUty she offered the use of her
war vessels for their destruction.
England, too, found herself in a position inclining her to favor the
young repubUc ; nay, not only inclining but imposing upon her the
necessity of promoting its welfare. Impelled by her own interests

Relalions of England to Liberia. 51
and wants, to secure extensive tropical cultivation, by free labor, in
Africa, she had been surveying the whole vast field of that continent,
the only country now remaining where her grand experiment could
be commenced, and found much of it already occupied. France, fully
alive to the importance of the commerce with Africa, had, within a
short period, securely placed herself at the mouth of the Senegal and
at Goree, extending her influence eastward and southeastward from
both places. She had a settiement at Albreda, on the Gambia, a short
distance above St. Mary's, and which commands that river. She had
formed a settiement at the mouth of the Gaboon, and another near
the chief mouth of the Niger. She had fixed herself at Massuah
and Bure, on the west shore of the Red Sea, commanding the inlets
into Abyssinia. She had endeavored to fix her flag at Brava and the
mouth of the Jub, and had taken permanent possession of the im
portant island of Johanna, situated in the center of the northern outlet
of the Mozambique channel, by which she acquired its command.
Her active agents were placed in southern Abyssinia, and employed
in traversing the borders of the Great AVhite Nile ; while Algiers on
the northern shores of Africa, must speedily be her own. Spain had
planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the island of Fernando
Po, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the rivers, from
Cameroons to the equator. Portugal witnessing these movements,
had taken measures to revive her once fine and still important colon
ies in tropical Africa. They included 17° of latitude on the east
coast, from the tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly 19° on the
west coast, from the 20th° south latitude, northward to cape Lopez.
The Imaum of Muscat claimed the sovereignty on the east coast, from
Zanzibar to Babelmandel, with the exception of the station of the
French at Brava. From the Senegal northward to Algeria was in the
possession of the independent Moorish princes. Tunis, Tripoli, and
Egypt were north of the tropic of Cancer, and independent tributaries
of Turkey.
Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also
the west coast from the Gambia northwaids, was found to be in the
actual possession of independent sovereignties, who, of course,
would not yield the right to England. Southern Africa, below the
tropic of Capricorn, already belonging to England, though only the
same distance south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are north
of it, is highly elevated above the sea-level, and not adapted to tropical
productions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before
noticed, extending from near the British south African line to Cape
Lopez, excluded England from that district. From Cape Lopez
to the mouth of the Niger, including the Gaboon and Fernando
Po, as before stated, was under the control of the French and
Spanish. The only territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized countries,
which could be made available lo England for her great scheme of
tropical cultivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia, embra
cing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude. But this territory includes

52 Relations of England to Liberia.
the powerful kingdom of Dahomey and that of Ashantee, whose
right to the sovereignty ofthe soil could not, probably, be purchased,
as was that of the former petty kings on the line of coast occupied
by Liberia. Their territory, however, and that of Liberia, together
with the whole of the vast basin of the Niger, under the hand of
industry could be made to teem with those productions, the command
of which were of such essential importance to England. But both
Dahomey and Ashantee were engaged in the slave trade, and, Uke
other parts of the continent, nine-tenths of the population held as
slaves. — (Dr. Goueen.) This territory, therefore, could not be
made available to England until she could succeed in securing the
discontinuance of their connection with the slave trade and the abolition
of their system of slavery; and not even then, as we have before proved,
untd intelligence should be introduced and diffused and industry begot
ten — a ivork of generations. But negotiations in relation to these ob
jects had been commenced, says M'Queen, in 1844, under favorable
auspices, and the king of Dahomey had agreed to abolish the slave
trade, and had favorably received some Wesleyan missionaries.
England has, since that period, successfuUy exerted her influence in
other quarters for its suppression. In the British House of Com
mons, lately. Lord Palmerston announced, that the Bey of Tunis had
abandoned within his dominions, not merely the slave trade but slav
ery itself — that the Sultan of Turkey had prohibited the slave trade
among his subjects in the eastern seas — that the Imaum of Muscat
had abolished it within certain latitudes — that the Arabian Chiefs in
the Persian Gulf have also abandoned it — and that the Shah of Persia
has prohibited it throughout his dominions. Thus, then, though the
system of an armed repression of the slave trade has entirely failed,
as before shown, yet the hope is springing up that it may soon be so
circumscribed that its extermination can be more easily effected by
encircling the remaining parts of the coast with Christian colonies
But all these movements, important as they are to the cause of
humanity, do not, in the least, check the slave trade with Cuba and
Brazil, and the reason seems to be this : the slave trade is not a
business by itself, and the slave traders are not a distinct class of men.
The trade is so mixed up with the general business of the world,
that it can derive facilities from the most innocent commercial trans
actions. In Brazil it is neither unlawful nor disreputable, and, it is said
that nobody abstains from it, or from dealing with those concerned in
it, from any fear of law, scruples of conscience, or regard of charac
ter ; and that to trade with Brazil at all is to deal wilh a slave trader,
or with some one who deals freely with slave traders. Hence, Eng
lish capitalists in loaning money in Brazil, or English manufacturers
in filling orders for goods from Brazil, are furnishing faciUties for the
slave traders to prosecute their infamous pursuits. The ship-builders
of the United States, in selling fast-sailing merchant vessels to Brazil
ians, are furnishing to slave traders the means for transporting slaves
from Africa. Thus British capital and industry and American skill,
though; to the superficial observer, employed in a lawful way, are

Relations of England to Liberia. 53
indirectiy furnishing the means for the prosecution of the slave trade, i
and affording facilities to those engaged directiy in it, which, if with- '
drawn, would greatiy embarrass their operations, and make it much
less difficult to suppress it. Nor has the success of England, in
securing the above named acts for the suppression of the slave trade,
accomplished anything in her great -work oi extensive tropical free
labor cultivation in .Africa, as the means upon which she relies to
recover her former position, and to break down the prosperity of her
rivals. In Sierra Leone, the commercial affairs being in the hands of white
men, has prevented that advancement in industry, and in the know
ledge of business among the colored population, which must exist
before habits of active industry will be adopted by them. But in
Liberia all the business is in the hands of colored men, and some of
them have accumulated fortunes. Their success has encouraged
others to follow their example, and industry is beginning to prevail.
The great work oi tropical cultivation by free labor has been success
fully commenced by the Freemen of Liberia. Tropical products
have been exported in small quantities, from the colony to England.
Its coffee was found to be superior to that of all other countries, except
Mocha, and about equal to it. The coffee tree, in Liberia, produces
double the quantity, annuaUy, which that of the AVest Indies bears.
Its cotton, a native of its forests, is of a superior quality. Its capacity
for producing sugar has been tested, and found equal to any other
country. Capital and labor only are required to make Liberia more
than rival Louisiana, because frosts never touch its crops, and labor
ers will not be thrown idle in the former, from that cause, as they are
in the latter. Such is the nature of the soil and climate of Liberia, and
such the easy cultivation of the products used for food, that the labor
of a man, one third of his time, will supply him with necessary sub
sistence, leaving him the remaining two-thirds for mental improvement
and to cultivate articles for export. An industrious man in Liberia
must, therefore, become rich, and able to indulge his taste for the
elegancies of life, leading him to the purchase of foreign commodities.
Liberia, therefore, offered to England a field in which she could at
once commence her experiment. All that is needed in Liberia to
develop its resources, and to give it the ascendancy over all otiier
portions of the tropical world, is capital and labor. The first can be
abundantiy supplied by England ; the second by the United States and
Alrica. But African labor, beyond the limits of the colony where
intelligence prevails, cannot be made productive until tiie education of
the natives has been undertaken. This work, if extended very rapid
ly, must be performed, in a good degree, by emigrant teachers and
missionaries from the United States. Hence the wisdom of the policy
of England in now favoring our colony. We can supply teachers to
aid in civilizing Africa. Great Britain cannot, and, disconnected from
our colony, she cannot create intelligence and industry, and there
fore, cannot, at present, commence her scheme of extensive tropical
cultivation without the aid of Liberia,

54 Relations of England to Liberia.
Here, now, we claim, is the solution of the question of England's pres
ent Uberality toward Liberia. Her own interests and purposes, demand
an early demonstration of the practicability of employing free labor
in opposition to slave labor, on an extensive scale, in tropical Africa.
Her own African colonies have been, says McQueen, very iiijudicious-
'ly selected for extending an influence into Africa. But the position of
Liberia is much more favorable, and will enable her, perhaps, from
the head of the St. Pauls, to reach across the Kong mountains, and
grasp the tributaries of the upper Niger, and, connecting the two
rivers by rail-road, secure the commerce of the interior to the capital
of the Republic, as the cities of New York and Philadelphia have
secured that of the Mississippi valley.
England, therefore, at the moment that President Roberts visited
London, found herself in a position compelling her to a change of
policy toward our colony. Liberia at that moment, was the only
territory under heaven, where could be commenced, immediately,
her darling scheme of extensive tropical cultivation by free labor.
And Liberia only, of all the territory that might be made available,
contained the elements of success, — intelligence and industry.
Here was England's position and here Liberia's. The old Empire,
shaken by powerful rivals, and driven to extremity, was seeking a
prop of sufficient strength to support her. The young RepubUc in
the feebleness of infancy was needing a protector. That secret,
unseen, hidden, invincible, and all-controlling Power, whicli had
impelled England onward in her giant efforts to extirpate the slave
trade and to abolish slavery, and which had inspired the hearts of
American Christians to restore the colored man to Africa, and had
watched over and protected the feeble colony until it could assume a
national position ; that Providence which had made England's crimes
of former years, to react upon and embarrass her iu all her relations,
had now brought, face to face, the Prime Minister ot England and the
President of the Republic of Liberia. The first, was the representative
of that once unscrupulous but powerful government, whose participa
tion in the slave trade, to budd up an extensive commerce and to ag
grandize herself, had doomed the children of Africa to perpetual bond
age; but who was now, as a consequence of that very slave trude,
compelled to the most powerful exertions for its suppression, to save
herself from commercial embarrassment and national decline : the se
cond, was the Executive of a new Nation — himself a descendant of
one ofthe victims of the English slave traders — seeking the admis
sion of an African Republic into the family of nations. The old
Monarchy and the new Republic thus found themselves standing in
the relation to each other of mutual dependence — the one, to secure
a field for the immediate commencement of her grand experiment of
rendering free labor more productive than slave labor, and of creatiuo-
new markets for her manufactures, — the other, to obtain protection
and to offer the products of the labor of the freemen of Liberia to
the commerce of the world.
But it may be asked, why Great Britain should be wiUing to aid

Relations qf England to Liberia. 55
Liberia in extending her influence over Africa, and thus introduce into
the world a new nation who, as soon as its eighty miUions of people
are civiUzed and stimulated to industry, can have the preponderance
over all the world in tropical productions, and consequently, have
the means of acquiring power and influence in the world equal to that
of other nations. The solution of this question is not difficult.
The policy of Great Britain, for a long period, caused her to grasp
after foreign colonial possessions, and her glory and her strength wa.s
believed to be measured by the extent to which she could multiply
her foreign dependencies. AVhen her manufacturing interests began
to multiply, she found a great stimulus to this branch of her national
resources, in the markets furnished by her colonies. The increased
commerce thus created, furnished another channel for the employment
of British capital and enterprise. The multitude of sailors required
for the merchant service, were readily transferred to her navy in
times of war, and gave her immense power on the ocean. ' But the
unfortunate attempt of England,' says McCulloch, in his statistical
account of the British Empire, to compel the American colonists ' to
contribute toward the revenue of the empire, terminating so disas
trously, has led her ever since to renounce all attempts to tax her
colonies for any purpose, except that of their own internal gj)vernment
and police.' Colonies, therefore, have since been cherished chiefly
on account of the outlets they afford to her surplus population; the
field they offer to private adventurers for the acquisition of fortunes,
to be afterwards transferred to the mother country; the increase they
add to her commerce ; the markets which they furnish for her manu
factures ; and the agricultural or mineral products which they supply,
in return, for consumption and use in England.
An opinion, however, is beginning to possess the public mind iu
England, that the possession of colonies is not of tbe especial
importance to her that they were once considered. The expenditure
for their government and defense often outweighs the political and
commercial advantages realized from their possession. It is now
believed, that her commercial and manufacturing interests can be as
well if not better promoted, by a liberal commerce with Uidependenl
states, than with colonies under her own control. This conviction
has been forced upon the English, chiefly by the results which have
follov>fed the Independence of the United States. The British go
vernment now derives ten times more advantage, says McCulloch,
from intercourse with the United States, than when she had a
Governor in every state, or than she has derived from all her other
colonies put together. In a more comprehensive view of British
relations, by Porter, in his Progress of Nations, we find it stated,
that, in 1837, the exports of Great Britain to the United States
amounted to more than half the sum of her shipments to the whole
of Europe, while of her entire foreign exports, amounting to $235,-
000,000, only one-third was consumed by her colonies.
But as other governments have arisen and attained stabOity, and
encouragement has been afforded by them lo home industry, the

56 Relations of England to Liberia.
instinct of self preservation has led to the adoption of such restric
tive duties as would protect their people, in the infancy of their
manufacturing efforts, against the superiority in machinery, capital
and skiU of older nations. In this way England has been so much
restricted, from time to time, in her commercial operations, that, in
1844, (AVestminster Review) her exports to the European states,
notwithstanding their vast increase of population, were considerably
less than they had been forty years ago.
But England has been embarrassed, not only by the restrictive
duties of other governments, but many of them are beginning to rival
her, in the sale of manifactures, in those countries whose markets
are still open to foreign competition. This rivalry in manufactures
is one of more serious import to Great Britain than even the rivalry
which opposes her in tropical productions. The latter is to her as
the arteries, the former the heart. The truth of this assertion will
be seen in the following statements.
The great leading interest of England, — her principal dependence
for the maintainance of her power and influence, — is her manufac
tures. Out of this interest grows her immense commerce, and from
her commerce arises her ability to sustain her vast navy, giving to
her such it controlling influence in the affairs of the world. ' AVealth,
civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indefinitely to the
powers of manufacturing and commercial industry.' All these Great
Britain possesses in an eminent degree. ' It is asserted that the
manufactures of England could, in a short time, be made to quadruple
their produce — that so vast is the power which the steam engine has
added to the means of production in commercial industry, that it is
fusceptible of almost indefinite and immediate extension — that
Manchester and Glasgow could, in a few years, prepare themselves
for furnishing muslin and cotton goods to the whole world — that with
England the great difficulty always felt is, not to get hands to keep
pace with the demand ofthe consumers, but to get a demand to keep
pace ivilh the hands employed in the production.'
With such resources and capabilities, and with such interests
involved in their development ami extension — interests involving the
very existence of the empire — England is not to be easily defeated
in her purposes. AVhen restricted or excluded from one market,
she speedily seeks or creates another. The inteUigence, the enter
prise, and the energies, of her subjects, are called forth by govern
ment, and made subservient to the promotion of her interests and ths
extension of her commerce and her power. The desert or savage
Islands of the sea; the bulwarks of India, or the waUs of China;
the frozen regions of the north, or the tropical suns of the south,
present few obstacles to her enterprise. Nor need we stop to prove,
in detail, that the almost irresistible energies of Great Britain, thua
put forth, and embracing in their range aU the carth,/ni:f their chief
motive power in her desire to extend the sale of her manifactures
Crush her manufactures, and the tiirone will soon totter to its faU
But what gives a tenfold interest and importance to her enterprises

Relations of England to Liberia. 57
is, that wherever she goes, wherever her standard is planted, a
Chi-istian Civilization, though forming no part of her design,
almost invariably follows her conquest of, or treaty with, a pagan
nation or a savage tribe. The greatness of England, and her con
sequent necessities, are thus compelling her to the fulfillment of a
mission of vast moment to the world ; and in its execution she seeins
likely to be driven from point to point until she completes the eartii's
circuit. Though she " meaneth not so," yet she may emphatically
be called the great agent for the extension of civilization. She
is now, it seems, compeUed to expend her energies upon Africa, so
as to secure to herself the advantages arising from its civUization.
Two hundred thousand of her own subjects are now annually emi
grating to other countries. This is to England an annual loss o{
two hundred thousand laborers, whom she cannot profitably employ
at home. But were the hordes of barbarians in tropical Africa
civUized, and engaged in developing its immense resources, »tiie
demand created in the supply of their wants would furnish labor for
all unemployed English subjects, and add immensely lo the pros
perity of Great Britain.
It wiU now be seen that England is not only interested in encour
aging the cultivation of tropical productions by Liberia, as a means
of destroying the slave trade and slavery, and of crippling the
energies of her rivals, but that she is also most deeply interested in
securing the markets which Liberia will open up in Africa for
English manufactures . Tropical Africa can never afford an outiet
for European emigration, and can, therefore, be of no importance to
England for that purpose. Its commercial advantages can be as well
secured in the hands of independent states, as if England had posses
sion of it as colonies. Great Britain, therefore, can, consistentiy with
her policy and her interests, employ her influence and her power in
promoting the welfare of Liberia. Nay, more, it wiU be seen, when
aU the facts stated are considered, that she is compelled, by her own
necessities, to use the most energetic measures for the speedy exten
sion of the influence and the sovereignty of the Republic of Liberia,
as the point where she can, at the earliest period, commence her
important experiment. Other points hereafter, may, and no doubt
wiU be speedily made subservient to her purpose, but Liberia is her only
present reliance for the commencement of her great work. CivUiza
tion is here already introduced and begins to radiate into the interior,
and only needs the necessary aid and time to extend its blessings
throughout Africa.
It is true, that England wiU have rivals, in the sale of her manu
factures, in Liberia. She cares but Uttle for that, however, because
her facilities for manufacturing are, at present, and must be for years
to come, so much superior to that of all other countries, that she can
successfully rival them, even in their own markets, when not embar
rassed by tariffs. She has taken good care to make Uie first treaty
of commerce and amity wilh Liberia, and thus stands in tiie fore
ground, as the friend of the young ReoubUc.

58 Relations of England to Liberia.
Now, then, we repeat, without the fear of successful contradiction,
that Great Britain finds herself in a position, at this moment, so
disadvantageous, botii in her relations to tropical cultivation and in
the sale of her manufactures, that one principal means of extrica
tion is in the success of Liberia, and tiiat she is, therefore, vitaUy
interested in having the young Republic extend its influence, with all
possible rapidity, over the continent of Africa ; so as, at the earliest
practicaljle day, to have her eighty millions of naked or half-clothed
inhabitants subjected to civilization, stimulated to industry, clothed in
British fabrics, and, in return, producing abundantly those tropical
products now become absolutely necessary, for the manufactures, the
luxuries, and the necessities of life, amongst the civiUzed nations of
the temperate zones. And with such interests involved in the suc
cess of Liberia, and with such power and influence enlisted in her
support, humanly speaking, how canour Colonization scheme fail?
But we must hasten to a conclusion of this protracted discussion, and leave many
points of additional interest untouched. Indeed nothing but the great importance of
the bearings of the questions which have been investigated, can justifv' the occupa
tion of so much time. The cause of humanity, however, demands that attention
shall be given to these topics. Africa has long groaned hopelessly to be deUvered
from the deluge of woes which has for ages rolled over her. The dawn of her re
demption is now appearing. The light of civilization and Christianity has broken
forth upon her shores and begins to dispel the gloom of centuries. The slave traders,
like so many spirits of darkness, are compelled to limit their hellish labors to districts
yet uniliumined by that light. Nothing seems to be wanting to the accomplishment
of Africa's redemption but a suflficient increase of the agencies wliich have already
Deen productive of such rich fruits in Liberia. These agencies are being rapidly
called into action. The Providence of God is operating upon the nations, most di
rectly concerned in the qoestion of Africa's future destiny, so as to make it their in
terest to favor the civilization of the inhabitants of that continent. Great Britain, as
already shown, is enlisted by considerations, commercial and manufacturing, uhich
she never overlooks, to aid in this great work of philanthropy, bhe can supply un
limited sums of money to stimulate enterprise and industry, and to promote civiliza
tion in Africa, and she will do it as fast as it can be profitably employed.
The people of France, having achieved their own liberties, soon pronounced the
freedom of the slaves in their islands. France did not wait to calculate the political
and commercial considerations involved in emancipation, before she obeyed the dic
tates of humanity. Herself free, she desired the freedom ofthe world. Having pos
session of many important points on the coast of Africa, she will crush the slave
trade wherever she has conlrol, and thus greatly aid in its suppression and in the
promotion of .African civilization. But as she has not within herself, the command
of the agencies necessary to civilize the districts which she owns, she may find herself
compelled to call upon the colored people of the United States to commence and carry
on the work, and thus promote our colonization enterprise. And as France has al
ready proved herself capable of acts of the greatest magnanimity, we must ask other
one favor, though it may seem, in us, an act of presumption. But as an .\merican
Republican, we can appeal to French Republicans. It is ofthe utmost importance to
the t?epublic of Liberia, that it should have guaranteed to it, by other nations, the
right to purchase and annex the whole line of coast from Sierra Leone to Cape Lo
pez, so that no other power may be allowed to interfere with the extension of its
jurisdiction over that region. The Gaboon, now in the possession of France, lies at
the soulheiistern limits of this region, and is one of the most valuable points in .Africa.
'Vt'e ask of France. Iherefore, that she shall offer the Gaboon country, as a free gift,
to the free colored people of the United Stutcs, upon which to form a new state ip
connexion with Liberia. .\nd, from the circumstances under whicli hor title to this

Concluding Remarks. 59
territory was acquired, during ihe Monarchy, it is believed that ike Republic, when
the subject is presented for its consideration, will yield it for that purpose.
The United States is also d^ply interested in the success of Liberia, and is being
involved in difficulties and perplexities propelling her onward to a point where she,
too, must exert herself in behalf of the young RepubUc. Commercial and manu
facturing interests will influence her, as they have already influenced Great Britain.
But in addition to these, other considerations of far deeper import will soon pre.^s
themselves upon our attention. The rapid increase of our slave population is begin
ning to alarm the stoutest advocates of the perpetuation of slavery. Wilh tlicir
uniform ratio of increase continued, which, it will be remembered, is iliree per cent.
per annum, in 50 years, from IS.'iO. the slave population ofthe United States, will
number I'J.OOO.OOO, with an annual increase of 360,000. In 100 years hence, they
will have increased to 44,500,000, with an annual increase of 1,300,000. And in
150 years their numbers will be 165,000,000, and the yearly increase 5,000,000.
Now, it is utterly impossible that this number of slaves can be held in bondage,
or be profitably employed, by the southern states of our union, for half the period
included in our calculation. But how emancipation is to be ultimately efi'ected, we
cannot foretell. This we know, that it must be done. The South is becoming aware
of the difficulties o{ tlie future of slavery, and are beguining to look at its appalling
consequences. Many states have already legislated to prevent the sale and transfer of
the slaves of the more northern states into their bounds, and it would not oe unexpected,
if, in a few years, the slave holders ofthe more northern slave states, should be unable
to find a market for their surplus slaves. And whenever this event occurs, the masters
will soon he over-supplied wilh laborers which they cannot employ profitably, and
emancipation must take place. And when ever this work commences, the work of
Colonization to Africa will be greatly increased. Liberia, therefore, is to the south
em st Ues, as well as to those of the north, and to the nations of E urope, a point of very
great interest. Not one of them, scarcely, can carry out their present policy without
promoting the interests of our colony. In these facts we iind an additional argument
for the perpetuity of the Republic of Liberia.
And further, if the scheme of tropical cultivation in Africa, by free labor, can be
successfully carried out, at an early day, and of which we entertain but Uttle doubt,
the work of emancipation in this country may be forced to a consummation much
more rapidly than many suppose. The United States, it must be borne in mind, have
not one acre of tropical lands. Our crops of cotton and sugar, are both liable io
bliirht, by frosts, before they are fully matured and secured. But it is not so in
Africa. More than three fourths ofthe lands of that vast continent are within the
tropics, and secure from the action of frosts. The employment of capital, in tropical
cultivation in -Africa, would long since have been extended to miUions upon millions
of dollar.5, but for the error committed in attempting it by white men and amongst
an uncivilized people. This error is now detected and will not be repeated. The
American Colonization Society has, by its efforts, dispelled the doubts and difficulties
overhanging the question of Africa* Civilization. Capital, in a few years, can
be employed more profitably in Liberia than in the United States. Capital and labor
wiU soon both find their way to .\frica, and perhaps in modes not now anticipated.
It is no uncommon occurrence now, for a slave holder, in this country, to let his
ihi-e out on parole, to earn a fixed price, upon the payment of which to the master,
the slave is a freeman. It is very rare, in such cases, that a breach of faith occurs.
No-.v, it may not be long, if the southem market should be closed against the sale of
northern slaves, before this system of self-emancipation may be carried out upon a
grand scale, by masters bargaining with iheir slaves to emigrate to Liberia, there
to earn the price of iheir freedom. Such an arrangement would add to the amount
"f free labor products which must come into competition with those of the slave labor
of our southem states. In this way Kentucky and Virginia could retaUafe, with
fearful effe t, upon South Carolina and Louisiana.
But as we hasten to a conclusion, we can only throw out suggestions without
waiting to dwell upon them. \\'e are fully aware, that the idea that tropical culti
vation 'in .Africa, can seriou.sly aflect the value of slave labor in the United Stales, for
centuries to come, will be considered visionary. But we mu-t ask aU such doubters
to recollect, that commercial revolutions occur almost as suddenly, in this age, as

60 Concluding Remarks.
political ones. The world has learned how to achieve great things in a short time
We western men have witnessed such wonders pass before our eyes, that we believe
capital and labor, skill and enterprise, can accomplish any thing within the range of
human power, and that what formerly required centuries for its consummation, can
now be executed in months or years. Born in Ohio, when it was yet comparatively
a wilderness, I, myself, have seen it rise to what it now is, and have also seen State
after State called rapidly into existence, in the wilderness of the west, in less than
half a century. And yet the sources of this prosperity and this progress are unex
hausted and inexhaustible. No limits can be set to this progress but the impassable
barriers of the great Pacific.
Give to Liberia intelligent and industrious emigrants, and she, too, will advance in
prosperity and in greatness. The materials of such an emigration exist in the United
Stales, and our colored men, generally, are only awaiting the evidences of the truth
of what is said of Liberia. When convinced ihat it is not a trap to enslave them
again, as they have been told, they will move with the heart of one man, as the Is
raeUtes of old removed from Egypt to Canaan, The sympathies of our colored men
are with England and Fran^. These nations possess their confidence more fully
than Americans. England and France are both interested in blessing Africa with
civilization. A formal invitation from these two governments, addressed to our free
colored people, and asking them to emigrate to Liberia, under their protection and
patronage, would enlist tens of thousands to remove at once to the young Republic.
These emigrants, being settled at suitable points along the coast, would greatly aid
in checking the slave trade, and thus, its risks being much increased, the British
capital employed at present in that traffic, would be withdrawn from Brazil and
transferred io Liberia. A large concentration of capital and labor in Africa, which
are both practicable, would soon be felt, in the markets of the world, by the increased
supply of free labor tropical products brought into competition with those of
slave hbor. "When this event shall occur, as occur it will, a reduction of the value
of slave labor must follow ; and this together with the rapidly increasing bulk of the
now unwieldy mass of our slave population, must greatly hasten the period of
final emancipation.
jVow, if the possession of the sovereignty of the soil of tropical Africa, and the
control of its products, be of such vast political and commercial importance to such
governments as France and England, as their policy towards Africa, heretofore, so
fully indicates; we would respectfully enquire of our c.dored people, whether their
possession and control are not of equal importance and value to African men them
selves ^ And, if the monopoly of tropical products once secured to Englishmen an
ascendancy among nations; will not the same advantages be of equal importance to
African men, and afford to them the means of rising into national greatness and na
tional glory'! And, further, if Africa is of such importance to European nations,
that they will expend millions of dollars to secure to themselves the advantages of its
products and its commerce; what will posterity, what will the world say, of those of
our African population, who refuse lo receive sucharich inheritance, though offered
io their acceptance as a free gift? And, again, if the destruction ofthe slave trade
and the abolition of slavery, be matters of such vast moral importance as to call for
the united efforts of Christian men, throughout the world, to destroy them; and if
these greatest of all modern moral enterprises, inferior only to our purely missionary
efforts, cannot be accomplished, but by our Christian colored men forming themselves
into a rampart around the African coast; and if colored men can, by engaging in
this great moral and religious movement, better their own condition and secure to
themselves and their children, and ultimately to the millions of Africa, all the blessings
of social, civil, and religious Uberty ; why should we not urge them to a fair and candid
consideration of the question of returning to .'Africa as civilized and christianized men,
to take peaceful possession of that ancient inheritance from which their uncivilized
and pagan forefathers were forcibly torn?
But we shall not further weary your patience. "We had designed presenting an
arffument for the success of the Republic of Liherin, based upon the innate moral
principle existing within her, and growing out of the religious freedom secured to
her citizens, and the ample means of religious instruction provided for her people.
But we forbear.

PART SECOND.

The close of the last century exhibited the social and moral condi
tion of the world in such an aspect as to prove the excellency of
Christianity over aU other reUgious systems. Paganism had long
since wrought out its legitimate results, and demonstrated its impo-
tency to produce a high degree of human happiness. Mohamme
danism, a shade better in its principles, had progressed but littie
beyond Paganism in promoting the welfare of its votaries. Both
of these systems, constructed on principles consonant with fallen
human nature, were,of necessity, becoming eflfete, and stood before the
v.orld as gigantic edifices, whose foundations were giving way, and
the whole structures tumbling into ruins.
Christianity, embracing principles antagonistic to all impurity and
every form of injustice, and demanding of men implicit obedience to
God, was no welcome visitor upon earth, but had to endure, fro.m its
earliest introduction, the most bitter enmity and the most sanguinary
opposition. At the end of 830 years from Christ, in addition to the
' hostility of the Jews, it had passed through ten successive persecu
tions by the Roman Emperors, which, faiUng to suppress it, only
served to prove that the religion of the Saviour of the world was
indestructible. When, therefore, despots discovered their inability to annihUatc
the new religion, combinations were formed to adopt it in the room
of preexisting systems, or rather, perhaps, to engraft it upon them,
and mould it to suit their purposes. But notwithstanding that
Christianity was thus corrupted and perverted into an engine of
political and ecclesiastical despotism, it still retained much of its
innate vitality, and greatiy advanced the social and moral welfare
of those subjected to its influence ; thus proving its superiority over
the false religious systems which had so long prevailed.
It being an essential element of the religion revealed by Christ to
generate independence of thought, its beUevers were often found

62 Introduction.
holding opinions at variance with those established by law. These
tendencies, it was fea.red, would make the unrestrained toleration
of Christianity dangerous to Despotism, because freedom of thought
and of speech, allowed lo the people, would weaken confidence in
the infallibilily of the judgment of kings, and thus peril the stability
of thrones. The art of printing being undiscovered, the living
teacher, for a long period, was the chief agency for the propagation
of the new faith. To silence his voice, when not in unison with
despotic will, it was conceived, would Umit independence of thought,
and the desired uniformity of opinion and implicit obedience to rulers
be secured. Hence arose eflbrts, extending through many centuries,
and leading to the shedding of torrents of blood, to force upon the
world a unity of faith. But the employment of the rack and the
dungeon, the gibbet and the stake, only tended more fully to evolve
another inherent principle of the doctrines taught by the Son of
God — the natural equcdity of mankind, and the individual respon
sibility of man to God, demaneling for the human race equal
rights and liberty of conscience.
A doctrine so inconsistent with preconceived opinions, and
fraught, it was perceived, with such dangers to civil and ecclesi
astical despotisms, could not but lead to the most vigorous exertions
for its suppression. Success so far attended their efibrts, that the
light of the Gospel became dimmed and ages of darkness ensued,
during which despotism reposed in safety amid the moral night it
had produced, until the forgotten Bible, chained within walls of
massive stone, as if to hide it from the people, was discovered by
the master-spirit of his age, and its divine light made to reUlumine
the world.
The occurrence of this event with the nearly simultaneous dis
covery of the art of printing, which led to a rapid and indefinite
multiplication of copies ofthe Scriptures, now imposed upon despots
the double task, of exterminating the living teacher, and of preventing
the circulation of tiie printed Bible. Persecution again followed
persecution, untd, under the guidance of a kind Providence, a few
of the advocates of civU and religious liberty, fleeing for their lives
from Europe, Bible in hand, found a refuge in the new world. Here
the legitimate fruits of Christianity, when untrammelled by the
devices of men, were soon developed, and the American Republic
arose, as a beacon to the world, teaching what a Free Christianity
can accompUsh for mankind.
In the mean time the principles of religious liberty had gained
some favor in a few of the nations of Europe, and produced their
appropriate results, though in a more limited degree than in the
United States, because religion was left less free. And thus there
was a progressive movement on both sides of the Atiantic, leading to
a higher civUization and a greater sum of human happiness than "the
older systems had ever produced, or than has yet been attained
where they still prevail.
Near the close of tiie last century, therefore, the contrast could be
clearly drawn between Paganism, Mohammedanism, a Christianity

Introduction. 63
excluding the Bible from the people and modeled to fetter the
freedom of thought and of speech, and a free Christianity taking the
Bible alone as its basis, and, without the intervention of any human
agent, placing the soul of man directiy in communion with God.
The eflecls of these various systems, in advancing or retarding huniini
happiness, and in promoting or checking civilization, had become
so manifest, that the Christian philanthropist, acting under the im
pulses of the law of love, resolved upon giving to the world a Free
Christianity. It is unnecessary, before an intelligent audience, to enumerate tiie
obstacles which impede the progress ofthe agents employed to bestow
a Free Christianity upon the world, with the view of securing to
mankind a higher civilization and increased enjoyment in this life, as
well as to impart to the hearts of men the hope of eternal happiness
in the world to come. It is only necessary to our present purpose
to say, that, in all these efforts tiiere has been no field selected which
was so dark and unpromising, and none that so long baflled all exer
tions, and so utterly faded of success, as that of Africa previous to the
colonization of its coast by civiUzed and Christian colored men. The
facts in relation to this subject were fully presented in our lectiire,
one year ago, in this haU. It is there shown that two hundred and
forty years of efibrt by the Catholics, and one hundred and forty by
Protestant missionaries, including the period of the operations of our
Liberia Colony, had proved, conclusively, that the redemption of
Africa from barbarism cannot be accomplished by white men, but
that colored men must be employed in that vast work of benevolence.
It was also proved, that the slave trade, after the expenditure, by
England, of more than one hundred millions of doUars for its sup
pression, instead of being diminished in extent, has been steadUy and
rapidly increasing; and that the conviction is forced upon the public
mind, that this greatest of crimes against humanity can only be sup
pressed by surrounding the coast with colonies of intelUgent colored .
men, who must be protected and sustained by Christian governments
until the civUization of the native population can be effected.
The important truth being ascertained, that the agents in the civili
zation of Africa must be men of African blood, the great question
which presses itself upon the consideration of the philanthropist and
the Christian, is this : Where can we obtain colored men in suffi
cient numbers, who are properly educated and enhghtened, and who
are themselves the subjects of redeeming grace, to act as agents iu
bestowing a Christian civiUzation upon Africa?
To answer this question, is a prominent object of the present lec
ture. But, to obtain a just conception of the magnitude of the work
that lies before us, it becomes necessary to determine the extent and
character of the social and moral evils existing in Africa; and this is
the more necessary, because of the prevalence ofthe opinion, that the
degradation of Africa is chiefly due to the slave trade. Our investi
gations, we believe, wiU fully sustain the truth of the assertion, that
even if it were possible to break up the slave trade by other means
than colonization, but Uttle would be gained lo the cause of humanity

61: Social and Moral Condition of Africa.
and little good accomplished for Africa; and that if the benevolent
designs toward the African race, which so generally prevail among
good men, be executed, there must be a union of effort of all the friends
of this oppressed people, in supporting and extending the work of
colonization in Africa; and further, that tbe United States is placed
in such a peculiar position, as clearly to indicate that we alone, of all
the nations in the world, are able to give to Africa that form of Chris
tianity and of civil government which will secure to her the highest
degree of civilization and the greatest amount of prosperity. The
materials coUected have been arranged under the following heads.
I. The social and moral condition of Africa, independent of the
slave trade.
II. The modifications produced by the slave trade upon the social
and moral condition of Africa.
III. The relation which the slavery of the United States bears to
the recovery of Africa from barbarism.
I. The earlier travelers in Africa, meeting with many acts of
kindness, formed favorable opinions of the natives, and the impression
has been created, that the greater part of the evUs oppressing that
country have had their origin in the slave trade, and are not a neces
sary consequence of her own social and moral condition. A better
acquaintance with the state of the interior has tended to correct the
first impressions. The iron despotism of their kings, the absolute
ness of their domestic slavery, the objects of their idolatrous worship,
the modes of performing their religious rites, the cruel superstitious
existing everywhere, their degrading customs, their human sacri
fices, their cannibalism, it was discovered, must have dated their
origin far back beyond the period of the commencement of the slave
trade, and produced the most debasing efl^ects upon the inhabitants.
The slave trade, it was evident, had not originated the greater evils
under which Africa groaned, but was itself one of the legitimale
f rials ofthe social and moral degradation previously existing and
still perpetuated on that continent. A brief statement of facts wiU
prove the accuracy ofthe view here presented.
When England, in 1808, prohibited the slave trade, it was antici
pated that, as this traffic diminished, and a legitimate commerce
increased, the civUization of the African people would necessarUy be
accomplished. While she had the monopoly of the slave trade, she
had erected many forts on the coast of Africa, and on declaring it
illegal and commencing her operations for its suppression, they were
immediately transformed into trading posts for opening up a legal
commerce with the natives. This change of policy, requiring many
agents to reside on the coast and to visit the interior, soon made the
world better acquainted with Africa.
As the power of Great Britain was considered almost omnipotent,
it was not doubted at first, but that the slave trade would be annihi
lated through her influence and exertions, and Uie consequent
civUization of Africa immediately foUow. But the elemenls oj

Human Sacrifices. 65
denization were not then so well understood as at present. It was
believed that to extend commerce was to extend civUization. The
commerce conducted between the enlightened nations of Europe, it
was known, had greatiy promoted their civUization. It was soon
found, however, that the causes of African degradation lay deeper
than had been conceived. The difference between the intellectual
and moral capacities of tiie civilized and uncivilized man was found
to be almost infinite. The horrible superstitions by which the
minds of the people of Africa had been darkened and bewildered
must first be eradicated before civilization could progress. Com
merce, unaided, it was soon demonstrated, could not accomplish this
work. An active commerce at Cape Messurado, conducted foi
three hundred and fifty years, had faded to advance the natives a
single step toward civUization. Similar results had followed else
where. Barbarous tribes, then as now, it was discovered, were in
capable of comprehending moral truth while in the savage state ; and
could only be brought under its influence by a careful course of
moral teaching. But the appetites and passions of their natures
being the same as with other men, commerce unavoidably imparled
to them the vices of civilization, and introduced among them the
elements of physical destruction, instead of planting the seeds of
moral renovation. The result of missionary efforts elsewhere, had
led to the discovery that the light of the gospel must be let into the
soul before the darkness of heathenism, in which it was shrouded,
could be dissipated, and the intellectual and moral elev.ation of the
people be promoted. Christianity, the only parent of a pure moral
ity, it had been perceived, was the primary element in raising men
from barbarism, and that civilization, industry, and commerce were
necessary fruits of the gospel wherever planted. These facts being
observed, though as yet but dimly and by few, led to efforts for the
intioduction of Christianity into Africa, and the missionaries thus
employed furnished to the world additional light upon the subject
of its social and moral condition. The establishment of colonies
upon the coast has also afforded further opportunities of investigation
and supplied fuller information in relation to the terrible moral gloom
overshadowing Africa.
It is, then, from the investigations of British agents, travelers, mis
sionaries and colonists, that we derive our facts in relation to the social
and moral condition of Africa.
We shall begin with their human sacrifices. According to their
ideas, the future world wiU be a counterpart of this ; will present the
same objects to the senses, the same enjoyments, and the same dis
tinction of ranks in society. Upon this belief are founded proceed-
ino's not only absurd, but of the most violent and atrocious description.
A profusion of wealth is buried in the grave of the deceased, who is
supposed to carry it into the other world : and human victims are
sacrificed, often in whole hecatombs, under the delusion that they wiU
attend as his guards and ministers in the future mansion. This sav
age superstition seems to have prevaUed to a peculiar extent in those
5

66 Human Sacrifices.
great interior monarchies, which, in other respects, are more civiUzed
than the rest of Western Africa.
The Ashanteeshave two annual customs, as they are caUed, say.i
Mr. Bowditch, a British agent, of 1819, in which the King, and chief
men, seek to propitiate the departed spirits of their ancestors, by the
sacrifice of a crowd of human victims. Foreign slaves and criminals
are selected in preference, but as each seeks to multiply the number,
unprotected persons cannot walk abroad without the hazard of being
seized and immolated. At the death of any of the royal famUy,' vic
tims must bleed in thousands ; and the same is the case when the
king seeks from the powers above, favorable omens respecting any
great projected undertaking. On the death of the king, a most hor
rid scene of human slaughter takes place ; all the sacrifices that had
been made for the death of every subject during his reign being
required to be repeated, to amplify that for the death of the monarch,
and to solemnize it in every excess of extravagance and barbarity.
The brothers, sons, and nephews of the king, affecting temporary
insanity, burst forth wilh their muskets, and fire promiscuou.sly among
the crowd. Few persons of rank dare stir from their houses for the
first two or three days, but drive forth their slaves as a composition
for their own absence. The king's household slaves are all murdered
on his tomb, to the number of a hundred or more, and women in abun
dance. As the king is allowed three thousand three hundred and
thirty-three wives, and as the immolation of the wife on the death of
the husband is customary iij Africa, it is probable that many of the
slaughtered women are the wives of the king, despatched to attend
their deceased lord in another world. The king of Ashantee, other
wise a very amiable and benevolent sovereign, on the death of his
mother, says Mr. Bowditch, devoted tiiree thousand victims to water
her grave, two thousand of whom were Fantee prisoners, and the rest
levied in certain proportions on the several towns.
That this is no fabled account of the cruel superstitions of Ashantee,
is evident from very recent testimony. As late as 1844, inteUigence
from Liberia, published in the African Repository, states that at the
death of the late king, one thousand human victims were sacrificed.
The kingdom of Dahomey is governed upon the same system as
Ashantee, and with all its deformities — which it carries to'a still more
violent excess. The bloody customs take place on a still greater
scale ; and the bodies of the victims, savs iVIr. B., instead of beino-
buried, are hung upon the walls, and aUowed to putrify. Human
skulls make the favorite ornament of the palaces and temples, and the
king has his sleeping apartment paved with them.
This statement is confirmed by the testimony of the Rev. J. L.
Wilson, missionary in Western Africa, in 1839, who writes, that
"human sacrifices are sliU ofl'ered in great numbers, not only in Ashan
tee, but in all the petty principalities of the surrounding country.
The story that the king of Dahomey has his yard paved with human
skuUs is no fable. There are Europeans on the coast who have seen
it, and can bear witness to the truth of the statement."
Governor Abson, of Cape Coast Castie, visited tiie kingof Dahomey

Human Sacrifices. 67
at a time when six slave ships were at Whydah, anxious to make
purchases, and when, owing to tiie scarcity of slaves, the prices had
risen to nearly ihirty pounds. But such was the strength uf super
stition over avarice, tiiat the king refused to sell his prisoners to the
slave traders, preferring to put them to death for their skulls, in the
contemplation of which the people seemed to take a horrible delight.
When the governor inquired of the king, if his going to war was not
to obtain captives lo sell to the slave traders, he replied, " I have
kUled many thousands without thinking of the slave market, and
shall kill many thousands more. Some heads I place at my door,
others I throw into the market place, that people may stumble over
them. This gives a grandeur to my customs ; this makes my ene
mies fear me ; and this pleases my ancestors, to whom I send thera.
Dahomeans do not make war to make slaves, but to make prisoners
to kill at the customs."
The king of Dahomey used to hold a constant communication with
his deceased father. Whenever he wished to announce to him any
remarkable event, or to consult him on any emergency, he would send
for one of his ablest messengers, and after delivering to him his errand,
chop off his head. It sometimes happened, that after the head was
off, he recollected something else which he wished to say, in which
case a second messenger was dispatched, in like manner, with a post
script to his former message. Gov. Abson was present on an occa
sion of this kind. The poor fellow selected for the honor of bearing
his majesty's message, aware of what was to happen, declared he was
unacquainted with the road, on which the tyrant, drawing his sword,
vociferated, "I'll show you the way," and with one blow severed
his head from his body — highly indignant that an European should
have witnessed the least expression of reluctance in the performance
of a duty which is considered a great honor.
Such seems to have been the inefficiency of British arrangements
on the coast, at the period when Mr. Bowditch visited Africa ; and
such the want of moral influence exerted by the residents over the
natives, that Sir James Yeo informed the comrnittee of African mer
chants, that the impotence of their outposts were such, that ihey
could not even prevent the offering of human sacrifices under tiieir
waUs. Two victims, says Mr. B., had been sacrificed, wilh ihe most
refined barbarity, in broad day, close to the fort of Accra.
Human sacrifices, on a more limited scale, seem to be of common
occurrence. The Rev. Mr. Schon, of the English Church Missionary
Society, who accompanied the Niger Expedition in 1843, says that
human sacrifices are offered by the Ibo people, residing one hundred
and twenty mUes above the mouth of the Niger. The usual modes
of destroying life are to fasten the victims to the branches of trees
close to the river and leave them to famish, or to tie their legs together
and drag them from place to place until they expire, when the bodies
are cast into the river to be devoured by alligators. In a tour of
exploration along the coast, in 1839, the Rev. J. L. WUson says,
" We were informed that only a fev/ days previous to our arrival, a
nei'^hborino- chief had, in ccnsequnnce of an eclip'^e of the sun, whicli

68 Human Sacrifices.
was regarded as ominous of approaching calamity, buried several of
his subjects alive ; and it was not known how many more would be
subjected to the same fate."
On the gold coast, the shark is worshipped by the inhabitants.
Every year, says Dr. Porter, the inhabitants of Bonney doom a guilt
less child to expiate, with its Ufe, the follies and crimes of its destroy
ers. The poor babe is named for this bloody rite at its birth, from
which time it is called their Jewjew, and allowed every indulgence
that its fancy can wish for, until it arrives at nine or ten years of age,
when its sanguinary doom must be fulfilled. Its tears and lamenta
tions avail not; its parents have placed their feelings of nature on the
altar of a mistaken devotion ; it is therefore left alone to plead with
those that hope to benefit by its destruction. The sharks collect as
if in expectation of the dainty meal being prepared for them. The
spot chosen is a point of sand, into which a stake is driven at low
water mark. The mother sees her innocent offspring bound to this,
and as the tide advances, left alone. Various noises are made to
drown the cries of the terrified chUd. Its Uttie hands are seen im
ploring, and its lips calling for her aid ; the water soon reaches the
stake, and the greedy monsters are seen by the tender victim quickly
approaching with the deepening tide. The shouting mob stand
watching the stake until the advancing tide has emboldened the sharks
to approach their prey — then their dreadful revelry begins. No tear
is shed for the poor sufferer, but the day is concluded with rejoicing
and festivities.
But we wUl only trespass upon your patience so far as to present one
more case under this part of our investigations. The Liberia Lumi
nary, of 1848, gives an account of the sacrifice of a human being, a
short time previous, under circumstances which prove that there is
no abatement of the power of superstition over men's minds in Africa,
where the light of the gospel has not been reflected.
** A famous Goulah chief, anxious for success in a military campaign
upon which he was setting out against the Condoes, applied to a Ma-
hommedan priest to know what he should do to insure success. The
priest inquired of him whether he was able to make the necessary
sacrifice, to which he replied that he could make any sacrifice that
could be named. The nefarious impostor then told him he must sac
rifice his son ! and, taking his dead body upon his shoulders, his feet
swung around his neck, and his head hung behind him, in this man
ner advance before his troops to the contest, and victory would be
certain ! ! The directions were complied with. CalUng his son into
a house, he caught him, deliberately tied him, and then, wilh his own
parental hand, he cut his throat ! Having offered this sacrifice, he
and his troops prepared to advance toward the jurisdiction of their
enemies ; then was this inhuman father seen with his dead son on his
back, in the manner directed, without any display of parental affec
tion or of emotion, save that aroused in his barbarous breast by the
confident expectation of victory. Being successful in three subse
quent engagements, this horrible sacrifice will, no doubt, be hereafter
considered as the sure precursor of victory.

Idolatry. 69
Such was African superstition in 1848, and such will it continue
to be until Christianity dispels the gloom which overcasts the native
mind. We turn now to African Idolatry. The native Africans, generally,
have very obscure conceptions of the nature and attributes of God
and of a future stale of moral retribution ; while almost every super
stition that can degrade the human mind reigns in full sway.
To express generally what is sacred, what is forbidden, what is
endowed with supernatural powers, either beneficent or malignant,
they employ the term fetiche or gri-gri. Everything which strikes
the fancy of a negro is made his fetiche. This word is derived
either from the Portugese word fetisso, a block adored as an idol, or
from feliczeira, an enchantress. The Portuguese gave the name to
the idols of the negroes on the Senegal, and afterward the word
received a more extensive meaning. The general signification now
given to fetiche, seems to be, an object worshipped, not representing
any living figure. The grand natural fetiches are rocks, hills, or trees
of remarkable size and beauty. But there are fantastic objects of
veneration, which each individual adopts and carries about with him.
Such are a piece of ornamented wood, the teeth of a dog, tiger, or
elephant, a goat's head, a fish bone, or the end of a ram's horn. They
believe the material substances which they worship to be endowed
with inteUigence, and the power of doing them good or evil :; and also
that the fetichere, or priest, being in council with their fetiche, is
made acquainted with all that those divinities know, and thence is
familiar with the most secret thoughts and actions of men. The
household, or famUy fetiche, narrowly inspects the conduct of every
individual in the house, and rewards or punishes each according to his
deserts. The public fetiches are supposed to be equally watchful
over community in general.
These fetiches they set up in the houses, the fields, or the enti-ance
and center of the villages, erect altars to them, and place before them
dishes of rice, maize, and fruits. ^ The better sort of famiUes have
weekly festivals on which they sacrifice a cock or sheep. '^This
gri-gri or fetiche worship is universal, and hours would not suffice to
detaU the particulars connected with it, or the debasing influence
which it exerts over the mind. The Rev. Mr. Schon found it prac
ticed far up the Niger. He says, 1843, "They showed me their
gods. Under a smaU shade erected before almost every house,
among the people of Iddah, were broken pots, pieces of yams,
feathers of fowls, horns of animals, broken bows and arrows, knives
and spears. Such are their gods ! It is easy lo attack them or to
expose them to ridicule, but not so easy to eradicate the superstitious
belief in them from out of the hearts of men."
The framing of these fantastic objects of African worship, conse
crating them, and selling them at enormous prices, forms the chief
occupation of the African priesthood. Various are the expedients
resorted lo by these priests, or gri-gri men, to obtain presents from
the people, by operating on their superstitious notions. One mode ia

70 Devil Worship.
by teaching that food must be placed at the graves of the dead for the
deceased person. The Rev. J. L. Wilson visited one town, where
the bones of the deceased king, who had been dead many years, have
been enclosed in a box, and deposited in a house appropriated exclu
sively for this purpose. Fresh food, water, and every comfort which
a living man could wish, are daily deposited in the house. These
provisions, the people are told by a gri-gri man, who statedly visited
the place to hold converse with the deceased majesty, are devoured
by the king. Mr. Wilson, after some difficulty, obtained leave to
enter this "Sacred place, through the small opening affording admit
tance, and found a bed, chairs, table, &c., used, no doubt, by the
superintending priest during his visits.
Bui in addition lo the fetiche idol worship, idolatry of the more
common form among pagans, seems also lo be practised in Africa.
In 1833, the Rev. Mr. Schon wrote the Church Missionary Soci
ety, from Sierra Leone, that he had been assured that idol worship
was practised in the town, but that those engaged in it, desired to
evade detection. Seeing a number of people surrounding a house,
he went to the spot and found indications convincing him that some
idolatrous ceremonies were being conducted within doors. Attempt
ing lo enter, he was repulsed. Returning some time afterward, in
company with another missionary, and removing a little of the
thatching, he looked in and beheld ten or twelve women prostrated
before a hideous idol. Finding themselves discovered, the natives
were thrown into the greatest confusion, and opening the door,
allowed the missionaries to enter. The mere view, says Mr.
Schon, was sufficient to fill the mind with horror. The large
idol actually represented the devil, with a blood-stained face and
two horns. Before him stood a water pot half filled with the blood
of animals that were sacrificed to him. In another corner of the
room were smaller idols and gri-gris, lying and hanging in great
number ; and fowls, which were sacrificed lo them, were lying in their
blood on the floor of the room.
Another peculiar form of the African superstition is their Devil-
worship. The people cherish the general belief of a future state,
little connected, however, with any idea of moral retribution. The
question is, whether they have faithfully observed the promise made
to the fetiche. They uniformly, says tiie Rev. J. L. Wilson, ascribe
the works of creation lo God, but regard the devil as tbe author of
all providence. Hence will be seen at every entrance into their
towns, a gri-gri pole, with a rag upon it, or something of the kind,
either to prevent his entrance, or conciliate his favor. The}^ never
open trade on board of a ship, without pouring a libation of rum
into the. water, as a portion with which the devil is particularly
pleased. The Rev. Mr. Wynkoop states, that at aU tiie entrances in the
enclosure, or roads to the town, are smaU houses called the grand
devil-house, where tiie people deposite different articles in them lo
concUiate his dreaded majesty. These presents, of course, form a
part of the perquisites of the priests.

Tfitchcraft. 'il
Dr. A. C. Wilson, writing from the station at Fishtown, 1840,
says, " Today there was a bullock sacriliced to concUiate the devil,
asking those favors of him that should be asked of God, and giving
him the honor which belongs lo Jehovah alone."
The God whom the Africans are supposed lo worship, says Dr.
McDowell, who spent some lime al the colonies, has been called the
" devil," by European visitors. The place selected for the perform
ance of the mysteries connected with his worship, is in the center
of some thick forest, called the gri-gri bush, or devil-bush. The
influence which it is made to exercise over the people generally, is
partly superstitious, partiy political. The chiefs or head men meet
once a month, aud ofler goats or other animals, as a sacrifice to this
evil being or devil. Into this sacred forest no woman or boy is
allowed to intrude, the penalty being death, foreign slavery, or a fine.
The young freemen of the tribe are initiated into manhood by being
taken into thp devil bush, where they are shown a wooden cross
erected, and a loud hoarse voice addresses them from the deep
recesses of the wood, telling them certain things they must not do,
upon the penalty of being seized by the evil demon, or spirit, and
hung upon the cross to be an example to others. These instruc
tions, as might have been expected, are of a purely selfish character,
having reference to themselves and their own tribe.
After any one has been initiated into tiiese gri-gri mysteries, and
offends the chiefs, they are liable to be taken into the devil-bush,
from which they never return. Nor dare any one ask, " Where is
he?" " The devU has taken him," ends all further inquiry or hope,
and his friends must not mourn for him. If a chief suffers in this
way, his people and his wives must suffer along with him, unless by
timely notice from the priest, they desert the doomed one, and attach
themselves to another chief or tribe before the arrival of the day of
execution. When Bob Gray, chief at Grand Bassa, sold flie devil-bush, which
now forms a part of the settlement of Edina, to the Agent of the
American Colonization Society, the whole surrounding tribes were
about to arm against him for his impiety, and he had to pay a heavy
fine, as well as solicit the protection of the colony to save his head.
The Methodist church now stands not far from the spot where the
blood of the victims of their superstition and cruelty has flowed pro
fusely. Many a wretch has been dragged into the depths of that
forest gloom never to return.
The superstitions of the African tribes seem to be the operation
of a wild veneration manifested in the form of vague fears of some
evU influence being continuaUy impending over them, which they try
to obviate by the performance of some ridiculous mummeries, and
suspending round their persons their gri-gris. Out of this feelinj
ar'ses the common belief in iritchcraft, and the overwhelming super-
.itiiious credulity which everywliere prevails, affording to the priests
immense power over the inhabilauls. Dark and magical rite?,
numberless incantations apd barbarous customs, are continuaUy

72 Witchcrajt.
practised, and in the power of which the people have unbounded
confidence; and such is their influence upon the general mind, that
they are accompanied by all the terrors that the dread of a malignant
being and the fear of unknown evil can invest them.
In the attempts to bewitch any one, the usual mode of operation is
said to be, to take a gourd or vessel, containing, among other ingredi
ents, a combination of difl^erent colored rags, cats' teeth, parrots'
feathers, toads' feet, eggshells, fishbones, snakes' teeth, and liz-
zards' tails. This is secretly placed near the dwelling of the person
intended to be brought under its influence, and upon whom the ope
rator wishes lo inflict an injury. Terror immediately seizes the
individual, and either by resigning himself to despair, or by the
secret communication of poison, in most cases, death is the inevitable
consequence. Upon the death of any one, therefore, suspicion is excited that he
has been bewitched or poisoned, by some one, and the friends inva
riably institute an inquiry into die question of who had '¦^made
ivitch," for the deceased. The power of determining this question
rests with their priests, and of course constitutes one of the chief
sources of their influence over the people. The instances of cruelty
growing out of these trials are frequent and horrible. A certain
number of witnesses are selected, and every individual who can be
an object of suspicion is required to plunge his hand into a pot of
boiling oil. If innocent, it is alleged, he suffers no pain ; if guilty,
his hand is severely burnt. Should the person thus found guilty,
assert his innocence, he is subjected lo another, and what everybody
regards as a sure and infaUible test, that is to swallow a strong and
large polation of sass-wood. It either produces death, or violent and
distressing vomiting. The quantity of the tea, says the Rev. J. L.
Wilson, 1836, that is given to the man, when his accusers are bent
on his destruction, is altogether incredible — enough, were there no
poisonous qualities in it, to destroy the life of any one. Several
deaths occurred from this practice, near Mr. Wilson's station, but
he finally succeeded in putting a stop to such glaring injustice and
cruelty. But this cruel mode of trial is still prevalent outside of the colonies
and mission stations. The journal of the Rev. Mr. Payne, of the
Protestant Episcopal Mission, Dec. 9, 1848, records the death of
three women, in rapid succession, from this ordeal, who had been
accused of causing the death of a man wounded in battie. Upon
Mr. Payne remonstrating strongly and endeavoring to put a slop to
Ihe work of death, the chief accosted him thus : " Payne, what
kind of a man are you ? We are trying to rid ourselves of the
witches who have caused our late reverses, and you are angry ?
We verily thought the deya, who declared these women to be
vvitches, lied; but, behold, on trial, aU prove guilty!!" "Alas,"
adds Mr. Payne, "for a bloody superstition which receives new
strength from every additional victim ! Help Lord, for vain is the
help of man."
The cases arising under this means of detecting supposed criiUr

Polygamy. 73
inals are numerous, one only, in addUion, wiU be presented. The
Liberia Herald, 1844, says, "Directiy after tlio death of King Shaka,
of the Gallinas. a secret inquisition was set on foot to ferret out the
witch-man. For a long time the search was fruitiess ; al length a
gri-gri man, by continued incantations and daring diabolical com
munications, succeeded, and the hapless regicide was brought to
light. Confronted with his accuser, he protested that he was inno
cent — the doctor protested he was guilty, and the all-discovering
ordeal was resorted to, to decide the question. Of course the man
was condemned to die, and as King Shaka was big king too much —
the severity of the punishment was proportioned to the dignity of
the deceased. Sentence was pronounced and thus executed — the
man was taken to the mouth of the river, his tongue cut out, and he
thrown alive to the sharks.
. , "This ordeal," continues the Herald, "is a most powerful engine
of stale policy in Africa. It is the right arm of an African monarch.
He has only to keep on terms wilh the doctors or gri-gri men, who
are the constituted inquisitors, and nothing is easier than to rid him
self, at anv time, of a dangerous or aspiring subject. Whether tiie
ordeal be the sassy water, the boiling oil, or the heated iron, they
are never at a loss for means to produce any result they wish. If it
be the first process, they weaken or strengthen the decoction, and
increase or lessen the quantity so as to render it innocent or fatal,
just as interest or inclination may lead. If the second or third, they
can, by previous application of some preparation to the part to be
operated upon, enable it, for a short time, to resist the effect of heat;
and then, by hurrying the ordeal, the accused escapes unscathed.
If they conclude to murder the victim, they reverse the operation,
and gitilt is as clear as noonday. Thus this system puts the life of
the whole community^ in the hands of this class of men, and renders
il a formidable fraternity of conjurers." "]
Polygamy, says the Rev. J. L. WUson, 1834, is universal. A
man's importance in society is according lo the number of his wives.
These are regarded as his property, and in reality are his servants.
They are usually purchased at a very early age. One of the wives
in any family is the mistress of the others, and is honored by tiiem
as such. They are all in strict subjection to their husbands, and not
unfrequentiy are severely chastised for the slightest oflTense. The
women perform all the drudgery. At the age of about twelve the
females are taken to the devil-bush, and retained for something like
two years. They are under the care ofthe grand devil-man, who,
at slated times, rushes out into the midst of them, and utters his ora
cles. They are induced to believe that he is a supernatural being,
and his dress and manner both confirm it. So far as the object of this
confinement could be learned, it was to prepare them for the duties
of life — one of the chief of which is to make a full and unreserved
communication of everything they may know, lo their husbands.
In 1839, Mr. Burgess, writing from Zanzibar, on the east coast of
Africa, says, "That in aU the tribes bigamy was common. No
sacredness was attached to the marriage relation. They retain their

74 Slavery,
wives as long as they are pleased wilh them, and then sell them. In
some tribes one man would have from one to twenty v\ives. The
Manomoisies sometimes have as high as eighty. Wives are bought
and sold. The females do the work ; men work tiU they obtain
wherewith to buy a wife, then woik no more, only trade and fight."
It has been staled already, that the king of Ashantee, 1819, kept
three thousand three hundred and thirty-three wives. All the female
se-x. is considered as at the king's disposal, says Mr. Bowditch, and
an annual assemblage takes place, when, having made a large selec
tion for himself, he distributes the remainder among his grandees,
who are bound to receive them wilh the humblest gratitude.
The number of wives possessed by the king of Dahomey equalled
those of the king of Ashantee. The stoutest of them, says Mr.
Bowditch, were enrolled into a military regimeni, regularly trained
to the use of arms, under a female general and subordinate officers ;
and according to the testimony of several Europeans, went through
the exercise with great precision. Governor Abson was present
at Abomey when the king inarched against the Eyoes, on which
occasion he was attended by a body guard of eight hundred women.
English papers, for May, 1849, brought us some details of recent
negotiations by an English agent, with the king of Dahomey, fiom
which we learn that the number of his armed women is near six
thousand at present. They constitute his body guard, and never
leave him, and are answerable for the safety of his person.
It was the boast of the king of Eyeo, that his queens, linked hand
in hand, would reach from one end of the kingdom to the other.
These women, says Mr. Bouditch, act as the king's body-guards,
perform the most menial offices, aud are seen in every part of the
kingdom, carrying on their heads heavy burdens from place to place,
favored only with an exemption from ordinary toil.
But we need not multiply quotations. Enough is given to prove
Ihat one of the greatest evils which can mar the social condition of
any people — polygamy — prevails to a vastiy greater extent in Africa
than in any other portion of the world.
Next in order comes the domestic slavery of Africa. In addition
to the degrading customs and cruel superstitiims, which cannot
have had their origin in the slave trade, slavery, to a frightful
extent, exists in Africa, and tiie wars and demoralization produced
by ambition or the hope of making prisoners, for slaves, and to
secure plunder, would "still continue if slavery in all the worid
beside were abolished. On this subject the materials are ample,
but we must limit ourselves to some of the more prominent facts.
This view was forced upon the mind of Burkhartlt, the African
traveler, who, on concluding his labors, says, "Europe will have
done but liule for the blacks, if the abolition of the Atiantic slave
trade, which is trifling compared with the slavery of the interior, is
not followed up by some wise and grand plan, tending to the civil
ization of the continent."
Mr. Burgess, writing from Zanzibar, on the eastern coast of Africa.

Slavery. 75
says that "slavery is common in aU the tribes. They buy tiieir
own people. Some Manomoisies own four or five hundred slaves."
Major Denham, the English traveler, states, that on the occasion
of the marriage of the shiek of Bornou with the daughter of the sultan
of JNIandara, a combined expedition was sent against the Musgow
nation, which, after a desperate struggle, brought in three thousand
slaves ; and the nuptials were celebrated wilh barbaric pomp, fur
nished out of the tears and captivity of so many, victims."
'J"he Major further states, that, "For the last eight years the shiek
of Bornou has carried on a very desperate and bloody war with the
sultan of Begharmi, who governs a powerful and warlike people,
inhabiting a very large tract of country south of Bornou, and on the
eastern bank of the Shary. Although meeting with some reverses,
and on one occasion losing his eldest son in the wars, who was
greatly beloved by the people, he has, upon the whole, been success
ful ; and is said to have, from the first to the last, destroyed and leel
into slavery more than thirty thousand of the sultan of Begharmi's
subjects, besides burning his towns and driving off his flocks."
Kano, the capital of a province of the same name, and one of ihe
principal towns of the kingdom of Soudain, has a population of from
thirty to forty thousand inhabitants. Of these, according to Captain
Clapperton, who visited it, more than half are slaves. The sale
and purchase of slaves is as common as the sale or transfer of any
other species of property. He describes the slave market as very
extensive. Even the wives of the kings, as already stated, are no belter than
slaves, in the common and harshest acceptation of the word ; and as
the pomp of the sovereign consists principally in the multitude of
his wives, il is easy to conceive the numbers of one class alone who
are reduced to servitude.
Dr. Goheen, the very intelligent and successful physician to the
African mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States, after more than a year's residence in Liberia, thus writes:
'¦ t^lavery in the United States, in its worst form, and under the
lash, is not as bad as slavery here in its mUdest form. It is a well
known truth, that in Western Africa nine-tenths of the whole popu
lation are in a state of slavery. The females are all sold at an early
aLre, to be, when they grow up, wives, or beasts of burden, as their
proprietors may require. If the majority here were not slaves, how
would they ever get into the foreign slave dealers' hands ? They
are sent in hundreds from the interior lo the slave-factories and sold.
They are not deprived of their liberty when they leave these shores —
they only change masters. Slaves they are, and such they have
been to the most savage rulers, who inflict upon them the severest
punishments, and feel free to kiU, to eat, or to throw them alive upon
the funeral pile, at pleasure. Slavery in the United States, though
an evil, cannot possibly be as great a one as it is here. Here is the
country where slavery, wilh all its legitimate and concomitant hor
rors exists. Africa is the mother that clings lo it as her only, her
dearest oflTspring. And here is the country so deeply dyed in the

76 Tyranny, Cruelties, Wars.
sin of slavery as to require all the Abolitionists and aU the Coloniza-
tionists, and their united means and labors for centuries, in clearing
its skirts and removing the Ibul stains that make her the prize money
of other nations."
The testimony in relation to the domestic slavery of Africa might
be greatiy amplified, and the truth of the proposition, that it would
continue, though slavery in all the world beside were abolished, be
more fully proved, but what has already been presented is deemed
quite sufficient for our purpose.
The evils arising from the tyranny, cruellies, and wars of Africa,
have been incidentally presented, in the course of our investigations,
and we shall not dwell upon them at length, thougli volumes might
be filled with details of the most shocking character.
The Rev. J. L. Wilson, 1839, says, "Only a few years since, the
king of Ashantee sent the governor of Cape Coast sixty jaw bones
of human victims which he had killed, as an evidence of his despotic
power, thinking al the same time it would prove to be a present of
great value. The king of Ashantee thinks as littie of taking off the
heads of his subjects as those of his chickens."
The Rev. Mr. Shrewsbury, an English missionary in South
Africa, 1829, thus describes a native chief, recentiy deceased. "His
cruelties almost exceeded belief; he rioted in blood; and never had
higher enjoyment than when killing his own subjects. When his
mother died, immense numbers of his people were summoned to
gether to weep, and the mourning was appointed to continue three
days and nights. Every artifice was made use of to provoke sorrow,
and cause the tears to flow ; but it was impossible for the multitude
to continue weeping constantly ; and yet, when any one did not shed
what the tyrant considered a sufficient quantity of tears, he was in
stantiy despatched for want of affection to his mother's memory. In
the course of those three davs three hundred persons are said to have
been put to death. And whenever a man was killed, his wife or
wives, and all his children were destroyed on the same day."
The Rev. Mr. Champion, missionary in King Dingaan's country.
South Africa, says, 1836, "The king holds his eminence by many
customs that are in vogue. He eats the first green corn, and at the
celebration calls all the nation together to dance before him. Sugar
cane, sweet potatoes, and such like, are cultivated and reserved for the
king. No one can sit in a chair but the king. One of his captains
was here not long since, who was afraid even to sit on a box, lest he
should resemble the king. Blankets, except the very meanest de
scription, are royal ones. For the common people to obtain and
wear them would be instant death. Anything at all fine goes to the
king, and for others to wear or use them is to aspire to be like the
king. The ivory comes all to the king, and for this purpose he
sends out many men to hunt elephants. Wilh the teeth he obtains
of the whites presents of beads, cloths, &c., which he bestows on
his immense famdy and his favorite captains. When they return from
war, aU the cattle are driven lo the chief town as the king's property,

Tyranny, Cruellies, JJ'ars. 77
Some he bestows on the brave and on his generals, but the many are
reserved lo increase his immense herds and for slau"hter.
" He has another stern grasp on his people, in that punishment
which is inflicted for small as well as great ofl'enses. A word that
bears in any way against the king, or is suspected even, and the die
is cast, the man is counted for dead. A captain is killed, and often
his family and dependents foUow him. The king wishes perhaps
lo shdw his power, and to see spoils coming in from slaughter, and
he sends, as lately, and in one night, after by stratagem he had col
lected all al home, &uts off a rich country of his own tribe or his own
subjects. " Cases of individuals pul to death are almost always occurring.
The people are shy to tidk about the subject, after they have told
you it was by order of the king. It is almost always because they
are alleged to have done something wrong, but where or when, no
one knows ; only when reasoned into a corner, they say the king
knows. .^.Iways it is, yes, father, it is all right — when even son,
mother, father, or brother is slain."
Infanticide of a peculiar nature prevails in Africa: twins are never
allowed to live. As soon as they are born, they are put into two
earthen pots and exposed to beasts ofthe forest; and the unfortunate
mother ever afterward endures great trouble and hardships.
The exposure of the aged and infirm, says Mr. Moffat, after they
are incapable of supporting themselves, is common. They are left
in desert places, witii an allowance of food and water to subsist them
for a time, after which, if not sooner devoured by beasts of prey,
they are suffered to perish of hunger.
"Another sanguinary custom grows out of the superstitious vene
ration ofthe .Africans lor the shaik. The person upon whom suspi
cion of crime has fallen, is ordered by the king to swim across the
river, when, if innocent, he is expected to arrive safe upon the other
side ; but if otherwise, the sharks are to hnve him for breakfast.
'I'he trial takes place, says Dr. Porter, before his majesty and an
immense concourse of people; the suspected person is brought forth
and forced into the river, when the poor victim makes every exertion
to reach the destined goal, but. strange to say, the king has never yet
left the beach without being fully convinced of the truth of his sus
picions, as no instance is on record of the sharks ever allowing him
to be in the wrong."
The testimony already adduced, proves th-il many of the sanguinary
wars of Africa have their origin in other causes than the stimulus fur
nished by the slave trade. Were additional testimony needed in
proof of this point, much is afforded in Moffat's Southern Africa.
The writer, long a resident missionary, and an active agent in many
ofthe scenes described, has given the world a work of great interest
and value. The army of forty thousand Mantatees, who appro.iched
and attacked the tribes in which Mr. Moffat was laboring, were
themselves refugees, robbed of their cattle and driven from their
homes, by superior force, and compelled, in turn, to rob olhcrs, that
tiiey themselves might live. Having heard that there were immense

78 Cannibalism.
flocks of sheep al the English colony at the Cape, which they wished
to possess, they were fighting their way in that direction, when
compelled to change their course by the valor of the better armed
forces which they encountered. Tiiey do not seem to have had any
connection whatever with the slave trade.
The Rev. Dr. Philip says, that king Moselekatse, who had de
scended on the thickly-peopled regions of the north, like a sweeping
pestilence, capturing thousands of slaves, and leaving in his course
nothing but dUapidated walls and heaps of rubbish, mingled with
human bones and skulls, had never traded in slaves. The cruelties
of the Matebele nation, of which Moselekatse was king, is thus
depicted by Mr. Moffat, and will furnish an appropriate conclusion
lo these investigations. "Nothing less than the entire subjugation,
or destruction of the vanquished, could quench their insatiable thirst
for power. Thus, when they conquered a town, the terrified inhab
itants were driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents and
all the married women were slaughtered on the spot. Such as had
dared to be brave in the defense of their town, their wives and their
children, were reserved for a still more terrible death ; dry grass,
saturated with fat, was tied around their naked bodies and then set on
fire. The youths and girls were loaded as beasts of burden, with
the spoils of tiie town, to be marched lo the homes of their victors.
If the town was in an isolated position, the helpless infants were left
to perish either with hunger, or to be destroyed by beasts of pre}'.
On such an event the lions scent the slain and leave their lair; the
hyenas aud jackalls emerge from their lurking places in broad day,
and revel in the carnage; while a cloud of vultures may be seen, de
scending on the living and the dead, and holding a carni\'al on human
flesh. Should a suspicion arise in the savage bosom that these
helpless innocents may fall into the hands of friends, ihey will pre
vent this by collecting them into a fold, and after raising over them
a pile of brushwood, apply the flaming torch to it, when the town,
out lately the scene of mirth, becomes a heap of ashes."
In relation to the cannibaHsm of Africa, a subject so revolting, we
wdl not be expected to give many details. Of the existence of this
practice there can be no doubt. The annual report of the American
Colonization Society, 1828, contains the following statement:
" The most fierce and atrocious conflicts, instigated by slave
traders, have prevailed during the last two years, among the tribes in
the vicinity of Monrovia. The crime of cannibalism, shocking, it-
may be supposed, even to barbarous natures, has been perpetrated
during these wars. On the capture of a small town among the Go-
rahs by the Deys, Ihirty victims were sacrificed to this detestable
practice." Many are the witnesses who have borne testimony to the general
prevalence of cannibalism over large districts of Africa. Very recent
reports of scientific exploring companies sent out from France, also
give suffrcient evidence to prove the truth of the previous reporis,
leaving us under the painful necessity of believing thai all that has
been said of cannibalism in Africa is true. — See Appctidix.

The Slave Trade. Til
As stated in the outset, the object of the investigations of the sub
jects coming under our first head, has been to show the true state of
Africa's social and moral condition, independent of the slave trade;
and to prove that even if it were possible to break up that traffic by
other means than colonization, but littie would be gained to the cause
x)f humanity and little good accomplished for Africa. And have we
not succeeded ? Have not facts enough been given, to prove that
Africa's degradation is complete — that if the slave trade were this
hour annihilated, and all the evils which we have enumerated as
not dependent upon the slave trade still existing, the social and
moral condition of that continent would demand the utmost efforts
of Christians everywhere for its recovery from the horrors of
barbarism. It might, by some, have been -supposed that the catalogue of woes
oppressing Africa, and belonging legitimately to herself, were
enough to atone for her iniquities. But no : such heaven-daring
violations of divine law, such impious disregard of the principles of
justice and humanity, could not escape the indignation of the
Almighty. The sufferings of wicked men, the consequence of their
own transgressions, can never make atonement for their sins. There
is no principle of God's moral governmeni of nations, that wUl per
mit the stay of execution of judgment for transgression, but upon
repentance. Africa had not repented, but was adding iniquity unto
iniquity. Justice, therefore, cried for vengeance, and the slave traders,
resembling more the demons of the lowest pit tiian men, were let
loose upon this doomed people, to involve the oppressor and the
oppressed in one common ruin.
We shaU see, however, before we close, that mercy was mingled
with judgment. And we shall find that in the history of the African
slave trade, and the events connected with it, we have another iUus
tration of the truth of the proposition, that when God has designs of
mercy toward a wicked people, the judgments with which he visits
them for their sins, are adapted lo secure their repentance and lead
them back to Himself.
II. The Modifications which have been produced on the Social and
Moral Condition of Africa by the Slave Trade.
Until introduced by the Moors, it appears that the trading in slaves
was little known to the inhabitants of the interior of Africa. The
prisoners taken in battle were reduced'to slavery by the captors, and
formed the marriage portions given to their children. It seems that,
in general, they were humanely treated, excepting when the cruelties
of their superstitions led to opposite results. Il is, says Denham and
Clapperton, to the pernicious principles of the Moorish traders, whose
avaricious brutality is beyond all belief, that the traffic for slaves in
the interior of Africa not only owes its origin, but its continuance.
The eagerness of the interior population lo possess the alluring articles
of merchandize offered, tempted them lo sell their slaves, whUe the
enormous profits on their sale, iu the cities along the Mediterranean

oo The Slave Trade.
caused the Moorish traders to refuse to receive anything in exchange
for their goods but slaves.
On the western coast of Africa, as briefly detailed in our former
lecture, the slave trade was commenced by the Portuguese. For a
long series of years the supply was obtained by forcibly seizing the
natives, and confining them on board their vessels, untd a sufficient
number for a cargo were obtained. This practice, though inconsid
erable at its commencement, became general, says Rees' Cyclopaedia,
and was prosecuted by Portuguese, Spaniards, French, EngUsh,
Dutch, &c. The wretched inhabitants were thus driven from the
coast and compeUed to take refuge in the interior. But the Euro
peans still pursued them, entering their rivers, and thus penetrating
the heart of the country. The increased demand for slaves, how
ever, soon became so great as lo require a less precarious mode of
securing a supply. Accordingly, forts and factories were established,
merchandize lauded, and endeavors made, by a peaceable dep"rtment,
by presents, and by every appearance of munificence, to allure the
attachment and confidence of the Africans.
These traffickers were not long in discovering the chiefs or kings
of the African tribes, and making treaties of peace and commerce, by
which it was agreed that prisoners of war and convicts for crimes
should be sentenced to European servitude ; and that the Europeans
should, in return, supply the kings with the luxuries of the north.
These treaties were immediately carried into effect, and the terrible
consequences which might have been anticipated were soon developed.
Indeed, there can be no doubt but that the results were foreseen by
the traders, and this scheme of extending their operations, seemingly
under the sanctions of justice, was thrown before the worid, in this
plausible form, to prevent the indignant frown of public sentiment
from prohibiting the further prosecution of the traffic in slaves.
The number of persons convicted of crimes, fell so far short of the
wants of the slave traders, that other means had to be adopted to aug
ment their numbers. Not only those fairly convicted of crime were
now sentenced to slavery, but even those who were suspected ; and
with regard to prisoners of war, they delivered into slavery, not only
those who were taken in a state of public enmity and injustice, but
those also who were taken in the arbitrary skirmishes of the venal
sovereigns of Africa Wars were made among the tribes near the
coast, not as formerly, from motives of retaliation and defense, or
from love of conquest, but for tiie sake of obtaining prisoners alone,
and the advantages resulting /rom the sale of them. When a Euro
pean ship came in sight, this was considered as a motive for war, and
a signal for the commencement of hostilities. The despotic sove
reigns of Africa, influenced by the venal motives of European traffic,
first made war upon the ueiuhboring tribes in the violation of every
principle of justice; and if they did not thus succeed in |.heir main
object, they turned their arms against their own subjects. The first
viUages at which they arrived were immediattly surrounded, aud
afterward set on fire; and the wretched inhabitants seized, as they
were escaping from the flames.

The Slave Trade. SI
In a few years the traffic in slaves became systematized, and the
residents remaining along the coast became the regular agents between
the slave merchants and the tribes in the interior, who were better
able to procure slaves to send to the ports where they were in de
mand. The slave trade was thus gradually extended from the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts into the interior, by Europeans, as it had been from
the Mediterranean by the Moors, and it has been no uncommon
occurrence for the slaves sold to the traders on the Atlantic coast, to
have been brought from the interior a distance of 700 miles.
The influence of this horrible traffic upon Africa was most perni
cious. Deplorable as was the social condition of her people, inde
pendent of the slave trade, it would seem, at first view, to have been
rendered infinitely worse by it.
On this occasion, however, time will not allow us lo present the
wide range of facts which we have been able to collect upon this
branch of our subject. At present we can only remark, that from the
testimony of many witnesses — embracing travelers in Africa, and
missionaries, and colonists — it appears that the slave trade, besides
vastly aggravating some of the social evils previously existing, and
greatiy multiplying the causes of war among the different tribes, has
exerted a paralyzing eflfect upon the little agricultural industry which
previously existed ; and that there is less of social happiness and less
of personal enjoyment in the districts where the traffic prevails, than
in the interior where its influence has not so fully reached ; and fur
ther, that the king of Dahomey is at present largely engaged in sup
plying the slave traders with slaves, amounting lo the number of
30,000 annually, to obtain which he makes annual slave hunts, the
dangers of which he himself shares.
One case only we shall present, and of recent occurrence, to afford
an idea of the cruelties practised at the depots for slaves on the coast,
where they are collected for transportation ; and lo present a well-
attested account of the horrible atrocities to which the slave trade
leads those who are enlisted in it.
In July, 1842, Rev. J. L. Wilson visited a slave factory on the
Gaboon, to inspect its condition. On his arrival at the gate of the
barracoon, which was an enclosure of more than an acre, the slaves
were talking and laughing cheerfully, but the moment the gate opened,
the most profound silence ensued, and they became terrified, suppos
ing that a victim was to be selected to be eaten. Among the slaves
were persons of both sexes, from five to forty years of age, not one
of the number having any covering. Most of the men were fastened
two and two, one ankle of each being fettered. The women, girls,
and half-grown boys were made secure by a brass ring encircling the
neck, through which a chain passed, grouping thera together in com
panies of forty or fifty each. Boys and girls under ten years of age
were left unshackled. The poor wretches had to sleep on bamboo
platforms arranged round the building, without any covering to protect
them from the cold and the musquitoes, both of which were intolera
ble to persons in their situation at that season of the year.
" But there was one company which particularly arrested my
6

82 The Slave Trade.
attention — affected my heart. It was made up of motiiers who had
recentiy been bereft of their children. How they came to be chained
together, I cannot tell, unless their keepers, yielding to what they
considered an innocent and harmless desire, allowed them to be drawn
together by their sympathies and sorrows.
"Their owner knew, perhaps, what had become of their chUdren,
but he was unaffected by the reminiscence. Not so with them.
Their countenances indicated an intensity of anguish that cannot be
described. Though heathen mothers, a flame had been kindled in
their hearts which no calamity could extinguish.
" When infants are born in the barracoon, or when they are brought
there with tiieir mothers — because it is inconvenient to keep them in
the factory, and almost impossible to carry them across the ocean —
they are subjected lo a premature and violent death. I speak
advisedly, when I affirm, that this is a common occurrence in the ope
rations of the slave trade ; and it was in this way, I was credibly
informed, that these sorrowing females had been sundered from their
offspring. * * * J Igft the barracoon with my curiosity amply
satisfied, and with emotions which wUl never allow me to visit
another." The horrors of the middle passage, as the transportation of the
slaves from the ports in Africa, lo the countries where they are sold,
is caUed, are so well known to every reading man, that I shall only
present one instance of the revelations made by the capture of a
slaver, with the view of affording an idea of the capacity of our Libe
ria colony to receive and provide for emigrants who may land upon
its territory.
The Pons, a slave ship on the coast of Africa, was captured by an
American vessel, in December, 1845, and her cargo of slaves landed
at Monrovia, and provided for by the Liberians. She had eight hun
dred and sixty-six slaves on board, eighteen of whom died during the
night after the capture. The vessel had no slave decks, and these
poor wretches were almost literally piled in bulk on the water casks
below. As the ship appeared lo be less than three hundred tons, it
seemed impossible that one-half could have lived to cross the Atlantic.
Forty-five or fifty of the number were females, who vvere confined in
the round-house cabin on deck. Notwiihslanding this crowded stale
of the vessel, it had been the intention of the captain to take on board
an additional four hundred slaves. The ."tench from below was so
great, says Capt. Bell, that it was impossible to stand more than a few
moments near the hatchways. The men who went below from curi
osity, were forced up sick in a few minutes, when all the hatcnt-s
were off. What must have been the sufferings of these poor slaves
when the batches were closed? "I am informed," s.nys Capt. Bell,
" that very often, in these cases, the stronger will strangle the weaker ;
and that this was probably the reason so many died, or rather were
found dead, ou the morning after the capture. None but an eye wit
ness can form a conception of the horrors these poor creatures endure
in their Iransil across the ocean."
The vessel was fourteen days in reaching Monrovia, during which

The Slave Trade. 83
time one hundred and fifty died. "When they were landed," says
the Liberia Herald, " nearly the whole population collected on the
beach to witness the sight. The colonists, wilh the exception of a
v-ery few, had never witnessed such a spectacle before. The slaves
were much emaciated, and so debditated that many of them found
difficult}' in getting out of the boats. Such a spectacle of misery ai:d
wretchedness, inflicted by a lawless and ferocious cupidity, so ex
cited our people that it became unsafe for the captain of the slaver,
who had come lo look on, to remiin al the beach. Eight slaves
died in the harbor the day before they were landed. The prize
master says, as soon as a slave became helpless through debUity or
sickness, those nearest would throttle him, in order that his body
removed, they would have more room. They were all, men and
women, with the exception of two' or three called headmen, landed
in a state of perfect nudity ! "
Dr. Lugenbeel, the United Slates' agent, immediately put them all
out among the people of Liberia as apprentices. The Methodist
mission took charge of eighty boys and twenty girls. The education
of many of them has been progressing weU, and a number of them
are at present, 1849, members of the church, and rejoicing in the
faith of the gospel. Oh what a kind Providence lo turn the captivity
of these poor creatures into a blessing of inestimable value !
Since the employment of a naval force on the coast for the capture
of slavers, many expedients are adopted by the heartless villians en
gaged in the slave trade to escape detection. One instance only
need be noticed to give a true idea of the recklessness of life which
prevails. In 1830, Captain Homans, having taken on board six
hundred slaves, on the coast of Africa, set sail for Cuba, found him
self about being surrounded by four cruizers who had watched his
movements. Favored by the darkness of the night, which soon set
in, he extended a heavy chain cable around his vessel outside the
railing, with a ponderous anchor attached, and bringing his slaves one
by one on deck, by means of their handcuffs of iron he fastened
tbem to the cable. The penwork of the hold and every thing that
could create suspicion, was also brought on deck, bound in matting
well filled with shot, and thrown overboard. The cable, by a single
blow of the axe, was then cut loose, a heavy plunge was heard as the
anchor reached the water, and a crash as the cable fell off the side,
ab-^ve which arose one terrible shriek — it was the last cry of the
murdered Africans. One moment more, and all was sliU. Six hun
dred human beings had gone down with that anchor and chain into
the depths of the ocean. Two hours after daylight the captain was
overhauled. There was no evidence that his vessel was a slaver,
and her captors were obliged to let her pass.
We have said that the slave trade did not originate the degradation
into which Africa has been sunk, but that, though it aggravated many
existintr evils, and introduced some new elements of woe, by arousing
the cupidity ofthe inhabitants, yet it was itself only a legitimate fruit
of the social and moral degradation previously existing on that
continent. Listen lo the reasons upon which we base our opinion.

84 The Slave Trade.
Africa, sunk in the gloom of the darkest superstitions known to
the world, and neglecting all that industry which creates a surplus
of products lo constitute the elemenls of a legitimate commerce,
and which secures to nations those comforts and luxuries not pro
duced in their own latitudes; when an intercourse with civilized
countries was opened up, had not an adequate supply of agricultural
fruits, or mineral wealth, to exchange for the European commodities
of which she found herself in want. This neglect of necessary labor
on her own soil, which was so well adapted to yield abundantiy the
tropical products tiien beginning to be in demand in civilized coun
tries, left her but one resource to secure the articles she desired —
and that resource was the selling of human flesh ! Alas, for poor
Africa ! Human flesh was the only commodity which she could
supply, in sufficient quantity, to the commerce of the world. No
proposition is more susceptible of demonstration than this, that the
slave trade is a legitimate fruit of Africa's degradation. Had
she not rejected the gospel which once blessed her, and, as a neces
sary consequence, lost her industry and sunk into barbarism, she
would not have been under the necessity of selling her children, nor
would it have been possible to have persuaded her to adopt a measure
so unnatural, so cruel, so inhuman, so infernal, aud fraught with such
a deluge of woe. And there is but one way of suppressing the evils
under which Africa groans, and that is, to restore to her that blessed
gospel which she rejected, and that industry which she lost; and
then, the causes creating the slave trade being removed, that traf
fic itself must necessarily be annihilated, and Africa permanentiy
redeemed. Had time allowed the presentation of all the testimony collected
in reference to the modifications produced upon the social and moral
condition of Africa by the slave trade, the picture, though dark
indeed, would have been faint when compared wilh the sad reality,
and limited when contrasted wilh the vast extent of that traffic and
the agonizing sufferings which are its attendants. The slave trade,
it will be perceived, had no tendency lo check or suppress the
domestic slavery of Africa, but made its perpetuation of greater im
portance as furnishing a principal means of keeping up tiie traffic
with the slave trader. It has done nothing lo break down the idola
try, the devil-worship, the witchcraft, the tyranny, aud cruelties of
Africa, which have deeply degraded her, hut has left these all un
changed. The tropical cultivation employing slave labor, makes a
demand upon Africa chiefly for males, and thus the slave trade,
leaving an excess of females in that country, has, no doubt, increased
polygamy, and the miseries growing out of that social evil. The
slave trade did not originate the sanguinaiy wars of the powerful
kings of the interior, who, actuated by ambition of conquest, or love
of plunder, laid waste the weaker nations thai surrounded them,
sirewing the earth wilh their corpses, that tiiey might decorate their
rude halls with skulls ; but il has greatly multiplied the petty feuds
of smaller tribes and led the larger ones to make regular slave hunts,
to supply the increasing demand for slave labor. Ahd though the

Religious Views of the Pilgrims. 85
slave trude, by awakening the passion of avarice into a predominance
over that of superstition, may have limited the number of human
sacrifices, it was but to prolong a life that it might be subjected to
all the vicissitudes of foreign slavery.
And tiius, whUe the social and moral condition of Africa, inde
pendent of the slave trade, was truly deplorable, and sufficient to
rouse to action every man whose heart can sympathize with human
suffering, the slave trade rendered its condition still more dismal,
making the caU upon the Christian world for relief stiU more urgent.
III. The relation which the slavery of the United States bears to
the recovery of Africa from Barbarism.
No great movements of mankind, either voluntary or compulsory,
uprooting the population of one country and transplanting it into
another, have ever occurred without producing important results, for
good or for ill, to the people transferred and to the world. The
removal to North America of portions of the populations of Europe
and Africa — the first voluntary, and the second compulsory — the one
the most enlightened and upright of the human family, and the other
the most ignorant and debased — the extremes of humanity — and
their coalescence, upon our soil, in the relation of master and slave,
Was one of those strange and incomprehensible events, the design
of which cannot be fathomed by any depth of human wisdom and
foresight, but can only be understood when time has wrought out
its ultimate results.
Our first settlers from Europe were the advocates of a Free Chris
tianity, who h_ad been exUed by an intolerant zeal for religious
uniformity, and forced to flee from persecution to a land where they
could obtain equal rights and liberty of conscience. No sooner had
they become fairly sealed in their wUderness homes, than they began
to afford examples of the practical tendencies of their religious faiih,
by attempting the education and ^conversion of the native Indians !
The substance of their religious belief, so fai- as it had a contrcdling
Influence in modeling their course of policy, may be thus stated.
They believed that man was originally created a pure and holy
being, and in the possession of an extent of happiness that was only
limited by his capacity for enjoyment; but that by an act of disobe
dience he lost his original purity of character, and involved himself
and all his posterity in moral ruin, and thus the whole race fell
under the condemnation of the law of God. They believed, that
all the ignorance, suffering, injustice, and oppression existing in the
world are a necessary consequence of the depravity of men's hearts ;
and that these evils must continue untU mankind are brought hack to
their allegiance lo God, and the rebel receives pardon and is released
from the curse of the divine law. They beUeved, that notwithstand
ing man's transgression, "God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life ;" and that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the
substitute for sinners, by his obedience, sufferings, and death, having

86 Relations of American Slavery
satisfied the demands of divine justice and made an atonement for
sin, thus secured pardon, justification, and eternal life, for all who
should believe in his name : but that those who beUeved not, must
forever continue under condemnation and wrath. They belie-yed
that human misery would disappear from earth, in the proportion
that men could be persuaded to embrace the religion of Christ, and
to conform their conduct to the teachings of his gospel ; and that as
soon as ihe whole world could be brought under the influence of that
gospel. Humanity would dry up her tears and peace and joy become
universal. They believed that the command of the Saviour to his
disciples, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature," is as fully binding upon believers in after ages, as it was
upon those lo whom it was at first delivered, and that the conse
quences which he declared should attend that preaching — " He that
believeth and is baptized, shaU be saved, and he that believeth not
shaU be damned" — will continue to accompany it to the latest
generations of men ; and that, therefore, the responsibUity of spread
ing the gospel as fuUy rests upon all believers, in all time, so far as
their circumstances, pecuniary abilities, opportunities, talents, and
spiritual gifts will allow, as it did upon Paul, when, in view of the
sinfulness of men and their liabUity lo wrath, he exclaimed, "for
necessity is laid upon rae ; yea, woe is unto rae, if I preach not the
gospel." Entertaining such views of their responsibilities to God and lo
man, the desire to promote the temporal and eternal interests of
their posterity, and of the world, became a ruling principle of action
with the first emigrants to New England. They commenced their
labors on such a scale as their circumstances permitted, and in a
few years mastered the language of the Indians, established schools
for their education, and translated and printed the Bible in the native
tongue, thus enabling the savage of the forest to read the words of
eternal life. Such was the spirit of the Pilgrims, and such the
origin, in this country, of that Christian phUanthropy which includes
within its embrace the whole human famUy, and is now exerting its
energies to give the gospel to the whole heathen world.
The first of our supply of the population of Africa, dragged from
their homes by the promptings of avarice, lo gratify an unhallowed
' commercial cupidity, were landed in the colony of Virginia in 1620,
the same year in which the Puritan Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
This is a remarkable coincidence. The first advocates of a Free
Christianity, and the first African slaves who touched our coast were
landed in the same year. '
In thus bringing together darkness and light — in mingling the
lowest form of Pagan ignorance and depravity with the highest
development of Christian intelligence and integrity — it would seem
that Divine Providence designed to demonstrate to the world the
capability of a Free Christianity to transform the grossest material
of humanity into the most refined, and thus to prove the unity
and natural equality of the human race.
Our investigations under this head have been directed, though but

To African Civilization. 87
incidentally, to the facts connected with tiie solution of this great
problem — the sufficiency of a pure Christianily to restore to man
his lost happiness — with the view, principally, of pointing out the
relation which the slavery of the United Stales bears to the recovery
ol Africa from barbarism.
The best authorities make the number of slaves exported from '
Africa, up to 1847, about seven millions eight hundred and forty-five
thousand. Great as this number appears, the estimate is no doubt
within the actual number of the victims of the slave trade. Aud
then, lo have a proper conception of the extent of the sufferings
foUowing in the train of this traffic, it must be remembered, that the
number of lives lost in Africa during the wars for the capture
of slaves and theit "trartsportation to the coast, equals the number
exported, making her entire loss fifteen mUlions six hundred and
ninety thousand human beings. This statement will give a just
conception of the extent to which Africa has been robbed of her
children. To obtain the facts which we need in our discussion, our
plan has been lo follow the more prominent lines along which the
slave trade has borne the population of Africa, and ascertain what
results have foUowed, in the several countries to which the African
people have been taken, with the view of determining the inlellei:tual
and moral progress they may have made, and the present qualifi
cations of each group lo act as pioneers in the work of Africa's
redemption. Passing by, for the present, those transported to the British West
Indies, to Brazd, to Cuba and to Mexico, we find that those im
ported into the colonies now composing the United Slates, were
very differently situated from each otiier and from their brethren
left behind in the pagan darkness of Africa. A part of thera fell
into the hands of men, not so scrupulous, perhaps, as others of the
colonists, on the subject of equal rights, but who, to say the least,
were so far under the influence of Christian principle, that they
deemed it an imperative duty to leach their households to read the
Bible, andto instruct them in the principles ofthe Christian religion.
The term household, according to their interpretation, included
slaves. At that day apprentices were not masters in the shops
where they learned trades, nor students sovereigns in colleges to
which they were sent to be educated. The judgment of age was
respected, because the experience of years was supposed lo impart
wisdom. Implicit obedience to tliose in authority, whether parenis,
teachers, masters or magistrates, was demanded and yielded ; and
the consequence was, that whUe education enlightened the mind, and
religious instruction moulded the heart, a generation of men were
ushered upon the stage of action, wilh a love of order and submission
to law, as unalterable as was their hostUity to despotism, and tiieir
determination to secure to themselves tiie rights of conscience, and
the blessings of civil liberty — of liberty under the restraints of law.
But whUe they rigidly held the doctrine of the natural equality of
the hvman race, they as unchangeably believed that only men
of inlelligence and moral integrity are capable of self-government

88 Relations of American Slavery
The school house and the church, the sources of intelligence and
moralit}', with tbem were objects ofthe first importance, because the
perpeluily of the free institutions they were founding would depend,
they believed, not upon any magic in the mere possession of freedom,
but in the inlelligence and moral principle of their posterity. Whde,
therefore, they labored for the intellectual and moral elevation of the
Indian and the African, they refused lo admit thera to the privdeges
of citizenship. No morbid sentimentality upon the subject of equal
rights could induce them to forget the peril into which they would
cast the precious jewel of the elective franchise, by conferring it
upon savage or half-civilized men, necessarily destitute of the abiUty
through ignorance, of making a discreel use of the privilege. While,
then, they believed the savage man to be equal, by nature, with the
civUized man, and that, by education, he could be made his equal,
also, intellectually and morally, until thus educated aiid capable
of being controlled by moral principle, they would have conceived it
to be madness to make the savage man the equal partner in com
mercial business with the civilized man, and much less would tiiey
have considered il a measure of safely to make him the equal in tiie
administration of governmeni.
It was into the midst of such raen as these, though contrary lo the
principles and wishes of the majority, and in opposition to their
remonstrances and legislative enactments, that England forced the
population of Africa. And, as if by an instinctive forecast, despotism
seems lo have anticipated the effects, on this continent, of a Free
Christianity, generating independence of thought, and demanding for
men equal rights and liberty of conscience, and sought, by casting in
a mass of ignorance from Africa, to retard if not to prevent the full
development of these great principles. This disposition was clearly
indicated by the English statesman, who declared, as a sufficient rea
son for turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the Colonists against
the further importation of slaves, that " Negroes cannot become
Republicans — they will be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly
Colonists." That such motives prompted England to prosecute the introduction
of slaves into the colonies with great activity, was fully believed by
the American statesmen of the Revolution, and their views were thus
energetically expressed, by Mr, Jefferson, in the first draft of the
Declaration of Independence, but which was afterward omitted :
" He (the king of Great Britain) has waged cruel war against
human nature ilself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty
in tbe persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating
and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical war
fare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian
king of Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup
pressing every legislative attempt to restrain this execrable commerce.
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distin
guished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms

To African Civilizalion. 89
among us, and purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them
by murdering the people upon whom he has obtruded them : thus
paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people,
by crimes which iie urges thera lo commit against the lives of another."
But that desire to imparl the blessings of the gospel lo their fellow-
men, which had prompted that yet feeble colony to attempt the con
version of the Indians, could not but lead also to eflbrts for the elevation
of the poor African slave. In accordance with this view, we find
that the slaves were subjected, more or less, to the rules of their mas
ters' famUies, affording, to many of them, opportunities of intellectual
and moral improvement, which soon began to elevate thera in the
scale of being from that of the lowest slate of barbarism, which they
had occupied in .Ifrica, to one of approximate civilization. Pious
ministers, also, being generally aUowed free access to tbe slaves,
obeyed the injunction to preach the gospel lo every creature, and
labored for their improvement and conversion. Thus nearly the
whole mass of the victims of the slave trade, who were brought to
the territory now forming the United Slates, were ultimately placed
under circumstances which afforded to them advantages of infinite
value, and from which, to this day, they might have been excluded,
had they not been brought from Africa.
Many generations of men have been ushered into existence and
disappeared again from the earth, while these causes have been in
operation. Of the number of thousands of colored men who have
lived, during this period, embraced the gospel, and died in the hope of
a blessed immortality, we can form no estimate. But the number of
professors of religion of African descent, now living in the United
States, may be estimated at nearly three hundred and fifty thousand.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of the United .States, many years
since, commenced a systematic course of missionary labors among
the colored people, but designed principally for the slaves. The
Reports of this Church, for 18-19, show that a large number of mis
sionaries are employed in this field, and give twenty-eight thousand
five hundred and eighty-nine colored persons as members at the North,
and one hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-
eight at the South. We find it stated in a southern paper, that the
number of colored members, in the slave States, belonging to the
Baptist Church, is over one hundred and twenty-five thousand. The
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Associate Reformed Presbyterians,
in the South, have also long been engaged in the religious training
of the slaves, and have received many of them into chureh member
ship. At the present moment, the Sabbath schools of these seve
ral religious bodies are very extensive and very efficient. The
Cumberland Presbyterians, we understand, are not inattentive to the
religious wants of the slave, but we are without statistics on the sub
ject of their operations. The number of colored members in the
Baptist Church at the North is not known lo us, but must amount lo
several hundreds. Our estimate of three hundred and flfty thousand,
as the whole of the colored members of churches in the United Slates,
is, therefore, probably not above the tuie number.

90 Relations oj American Slavery
But besides these pleasing results of the agencies accompanying
slavery in this country, it must be added, that we have at present
about four hundred and sixty thousand free persons of color, from
whom the shackles of slavery have fallen, and many of whom possess
an amount of inteUigence which indicates, very plainly, that equal
advantages only are needed lo enable them to attain a high standard
in all that adorns the character of the civilized and Christian man.
And, in addition lo all this, it raust be noticed, that the whole coloied
population of the United Stales, which will number, in 1850, about
three mUlions six hundred and ninety-seven thousand — though the
standard of morality, with the larger part, is known to be very low —
may be said lo be freed from the degrading influences of African
superstition and idolatry, and thus made more accessible to the Chris
tian teacher. This result was greatiy hastened by another most
singular coincidence. Scarcely had the work of the religious train
ing of slaves been fairly undertaken, and its practicability determined,
when the further influx of heathenism was prevented by the prohibi
tion of the slave trade, and the task of overcoming their pagan super
stitions and idolatrous customs was thus more easUy accomplished.
But this does not yet complete the catalogue of good results accom
panying the transportation of the population of Africa lo this country.
In addition to the blessings of Christianity secured to them, in con
nexion with slavery, their captivity among us seems to have been but
a preparatory step toward the development of another of the results
to be produced in permitting the cupidity of the Christian world to
make merchandise of the sons of Africa ; and that result is their being
constituted a distinct people, a civiUzed, enlightened and powerful
nation. The indications of this are unmistakeable. In the progress
of inteUigence among the Africans of the United States, that passion
for equal rights and privUeges which characterized those who laid the
foundations of American Independence, was also infused into their
breasts, animating thera likewise with the love of liberty and the
determination to secure lo themselves and their chUdren the blessings
of free government. But being conscious of the secondary position
which they must necessarily occupy in the social relations of this
country ; and in view also of the important fact, that the respect and
esteem of the world could not be secured to the colored race short of
the demonstration of their capacity for self-government ; and knowing
the impossibility of testing that point where such a preponderance
of whites existed; and where, by the more rapid increase of the
whiles, by foreign immigration, the colored people must necessarily
forever constitute a very small minority, and their influence scarcely
be felt, excepting as their votes would be in demand during party con
tests : in view of these and other considerations, after the most mature
deliberation, a few colored men were led, thirty years ago, to accept
the proposition of making a noble and daring effort for nationality in
Africa ilself, where eighty miUions of their brethren niiglit be civil
ized and incorporated wilh tiiem, thus creating a government whose
numerical strength would be four-fold tiiat of the one they would
leave.

To African Civilization. 91
The encouraging success which has crowned this enterprize ofthe
colored people, is well knewn, aud proves as fully that it is of God,
as tiuit our own happy Republic was planted by the right hand ofthe
Almighty, as a model to the world of the power of a free Christianily
to promote human happiness. The Republic of Liberia, now num
bering within its limits one hundred tiiousand souls, is but a trans-
planlment to Africa of American civilization, American views of the
rights of man, and American principles in relation to the freedom of
religion, 'i'hese principles are already beginning to produce their
ameliorating effects in Africa, and their power to elevate and ennoble
mankind are becoming more and more manifest every day. It is a
fact, now acknowledged in Eurdpe and America, tiiat the moral infiu
ence already exerted by Liberia, has done more for the cause of
humanity, in die suppression of the slave trade, and in the aboli
tion of slavery and die other evils afflicting Africa, than has been
accomplished by the combined efforts ofthe civilized world.
We have now traced the prominent results following the enslave
ment of the Africans in the United States, until we have seen the tide
of emigration begin to flow back frcftn our shores to Africa, bearing
her children to her again, not as received from her, with minds dark
ened by heathenish superstitions, but, many of them, enlightened and
christianized men, able to bless her and redeem her. The plan of
our investigations leads us to foUow the other lines of dispersion of
the population of Africa ; lo ascertain the results in other countries,
wilh the view of determining the relation which the slavery of the
United States bears lo ihe recovery of Africa from barbarism.
We shall turn first to the British West Indies, and as Jamaica is
the most prominent of these islands, and wUl best serve as a type of
the whole, our inquiries will be chiefly confined lo it. We have
obtained our facts, principally, from the recentiy written history of
Jamaica, by the Rev. J. M. PhilUppo, for twenty years a Baptist
missionary in that island.
The Island of Jamaica, discovered in 1494, was settied by a colony
of Spaniards in 1509, who, by their oppressions and savage cruelties,
in less than fifty years, wholly exterminated the native population,
originally numbering from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand.
African slaves seem to have been introduced al an early day as sub-
stitules for the natives, and up to 1655, when the English, then at
war wilh Spain, took possession of the island, forty thousand slaves
had been imported by the Spaniards, only fifteen hundred of whom
were then surviving. Jamaica, by this change of masters, was not
much improved in its social and moral condition, which, under the
one hundred and forly-six years of Spanish rule, had been deplorable.
It now became the rendezvous of buccaneers and piratical crusaders,
a desperate band of men from all the maritime powers of Europe,
who continued lo perpetrate almost every degree of wickedness, both
on sea and land, until 1670, when peace was made witii Spain, and a
more vigorous administration of law attempted. Twenty-six years
after E.ngland conquered the island, 1696, up. to which period the
importation of slaves was still continued, the whiles numbered fifteen

92 Relations of American Slavery
thousand one hundred and ninety-eight, and the slaves nine thousand
five hundred. At the end of an additional forty-six years, 1742, du
ring nearly the whole of which time the monopoly of the slave trade
was held by England, the whites numbered fourteen tiiousand, and the
slaves one hundred thousand. The annual importation of slaves into
Jamaica now reached sixteen thousand, so that, at the end of another
twenty-eight years, they numbered two hundred thousand, while the
whites had scarcely increased two thousand. These numbers show,
that from 1743 till 1770, a period of twenty-eight years, the number
of slaves who sunk under the lash of the Jamaica task-master, must
have been two hundred and forty-eight thousand, or almost nine
thousand annually. The whole nufnber of slaves imported by the
English, up lo 1808, when the slave trade was forbidden by Parlia
ment, was eight hundred and fifty thousand, to which must be added
the forty thousand imported by the Spaniards, making the total num
ber of the population of Africa, transported lo Jamaica, amount Mo
eight hundred and ninety thousand raen. And yet, the startling truth
must be told, that when the census of the slave population of this
island was ordered by government, in 1835, under the emancipation
act, instead of an increase on the numbers imported, they amounted
to only three hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and ninety-two.
It will be an easy task for any person of ordinary intelligence, to
picture to himself the stale of morals and the social condition of tiie
white inhabitants of Jamaica, during the several periods of its history
to which we have referred ; and what must have been the reflex
influence of such a population upon tbe poor ignorant savages from
Africa. To say that the moral character of the whiles of Jamaica
was the extreme reverse of that of the eariy setders of the United
Stales, would, perhaps, be slricUy true. On this point, however, we
shall not dwell. Our object is to see what were the results to the
Africans introduced into that island, that their progress, intellectually
and morally, may be contrasted with that of the colored population
of the United Slates, that we may learn their qualifications lo give lo
Africa a Christian civilizalion.
On this point we are not left to conjecture. The Rev. Mr. Phil
lippo is very full upon the subject of their social and moral condition,
and the facts stated by him in his history, before referred to, are con
firmed by the missionary history of the island. He represents the
slaves as having retained, in full practice, all tiie gross and debasing
superstitions which were capable of being transferred from Africa,
snd that "upward of one hundred years after Jamaica became an
appendage of the British crown, scarcely an effort had been made to
instruct the slaves in the great doctrines and duties of Christianily;
and although, in 1696, at the instance of the mother country, an act
was passed by the local legislature, directing that all slave owners
should instruct their negroes, and have them baptised, 'when fit for
it,' it is evident, from the very terms in which the act was expressed,
that it was designed to be, as it afterward proved, a dead letter — a
mere political maneuver, intended to prevent the parent slate from
interfering in the management of the slaves."

To African Civilization. 93
From this time to 1770, a period of seventy-four years, the
question of slave instruction lay dead in Jamaica, when Parliament
put certain questions to iNIr. Wedderburn as to the actual state of the
religious instruction of slaves in the Island. He replied, "There
are a few properties on which there are Moravian parsons ; but in
general there is no religious instruction." The same testimony was
borne at the same time by Mr. Fidler, Agent of Jamaica, and two
others, who, when asked, " What religious instructions are there for
the negro slaves," answered, " We know of none such in Jamaica."
The Rev. Dr. Coke, who was sent out on a missionary exploration
in 1787, says, " When I first landed in Jamaica, the form of Godli
ness was hardly visible ; and its power, except in some few solitary
instances, was totally unknown. Iniquity prevaUed in all its forms.
Both whites and blacks, to the number of between three hundred
thousand and four hundred thous.and, were evidentiy living without
hope and without God in the world. The language of the Apostie
seems strikingly descriptive of their entire depravity: "There is
none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that understandeth, there
is none that seeketh after God. Their throats are an open sepulcher;
with their tongue they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under
their lips ; their feet are swift to shed blood, and the way of peace
they have not known."
In 1796, Mr. Edwards, the historian of the West Indies, in his
place in the House of Commons, when speaking of sending raissioii-
aries lo a certain point in Jaraaica, said, " I speak from my own
knowledge when I say, that they are cannibals, and that instead of
listening to a raissionary, they would certainly eat him."
But this must complete our testimony of the effects of slavery upon
its subjects in Jaraaica. Mr. Philippo shows very conclusively,
that the colored population of Jamaica, up to a very recent period,
were elevated scarcely a jot above the natives of Africa. They had
brought wilh them from Africa nearly all its gross and debasing
superstitions, and all its social moral evUs, making their new homes
in Jamaica almost a facsimile of those from which they had been
torn in Africa.
One additional fact, however, must not be overlooked ; and that is,
that this fearful moral degradation of the slaves of Jaraaica, and
their total destitution of all the means of religious instruction, did
not render them peaceful and contented, and secure the safety of their
masters. This is abundantiy proved in the fact, that during the
period in which the Island was held by England, nearly thirty insur
rections of the slaves took place. This fact, when contrasted with
the comparatively few attempts at insurrection which have taken
place in the United States, where religions instruction among the
slaves has been common, should teach the slaveholder, that tiie
perpetuation of the ignorance and degradation of the slaves, is no
safeguard against servile insurrections, but that the teachings of
Christianity, while it opens up the way of eternal life to the slave,
and prepares him to take upon himself the duties of a freeman, du
not necessarUy endanger the safety ofthe master.

94 Relations of American Slavery
We have already stated the fact, that commerce is incapable of
civUizing savage men. In the history of Jamaica, we have stiU
more positive evidence that slavery is equally powerless in the
promotion of civilization, and that it can only be considered as a
Uuk in the chain of events which may bring savage tribes into the
midst of a civiUzed people, but that the civilization of savages, under
such circumstances, is no more a necessary result of slavery, than
it is of their imprisonment in the slave ship that transported them
across the ocean, or the manacles that bound them during the voyage.
Let us look at the facts. The Enghsh conquered the Island in 1665.
The last testimony on the subject of the want of reUgious instruction
for the slaves, dates in 1796. The Island, therefore, had been under
British rule for a period of one hundred and forty years. If, then,
slavery could elevate, and improve, and civUize its victims, surely
there was time enough for it to have,produced these fruits in the one
hundred and forty years of British rule in Jamaica. But no such
fruits had been borne. The slaves were stiU savage. Now, to these
one hundred and forty years must be added at least twenty more of
British rule, because missionary operations, introducing the Gospel,
were not actively commenced until twenty years after this period.
But if longer time is claimed, then add the one hundred and forty-six
years during which the Island was under the Spaniards, to the one
hundred and sixty under the British, and we have three hundred
years of absolute slavery in Jamaica, and yet the slaves made no
advancement in the scale of moral being beyond the condition in
which they had been originally found in Africa. The results of
African slavery in Jamaica, at the end of these three bundled years, is
thus graphically described by Mr. Phillippo, " It may be emphatically
said, that darkness covered the land, and gross darkness the people.
And if one ray of light glimmered in its midst, it only served to render
the surrounding darkness still more visible — more clearly to exhibit
the hideous abominations beneath which the Island groaned."
This particular reference has been made to this point, because of the
fact, that many have a vague, indefinite, ill-defined notion, that the
great good which has resulted to the slaves of the United States, in
connection with slavery, is a /j-Mif of slavery. And should il still
be claimed, that the moral elevation attained by the African racs in
the United Stales, is a necessary fruit of slavery, wiih equal pro
priety it can be urged, that the moral degradation of the slaves of
Jamaica, for the three hundred years preceding the beginning of the
present century, was also due to slavery. Both these propositions
cannot be true. The fact is, that they are untrue in both cases.
That the inteUectual and moral elevation of the slaves of the United
Stales is not due to slavery, is amply proved by the fact, that the
least advancement has bein made by them ivhere slavery exists in
its greatest- strength, and where the Christian teacher has been the
most carefully shut out from them. Aud so far as Jamaica is con
cerned, it is true, beyond all doubt, tiiat its slavery did not degrade
its African population info savages. It found them savages, but was
wholly powerless for their moral elevation, as long as the only

To African Civilization. 95
influences exerted over thera were from a white population destitute
of a Christian morality.
But if slavery, of itself, be powerless in the moral elevation of its
subjects, it does not necessarily prevent all moral improvement. The
truth of this proposition is fully sustained by the results in both the
United Slates aud Jamaica. It is further proved by the effects
following the introduction of Christianity into all the British West
India Islands. The work of missions in Jamaica, as well as in the
other Islands, met wilh the most rancorous opposition from the
planters, who viewed tbe religious instruction of the slaves as "in-
conip.itible with the existence of slavery." The mission work,
though begun in Jamaica, by the Baptists, in 1813, and by tiie
Minhodists, under Dr. Coke, in 1789, and again in 1815 — made but
little progress, being resolutely opposed, until about 1820. In 1824,
the Moravians, who had commenced in 1754, had four stations and
four missionaries ; the Wesleyan Methodists eight stations and eight
missionaries ; and the Baptists five stations and five missionaries.
Here then, are the dates of the commencement of regular religious
instruction in Jamaica. Though overawed by the mother country,
the planters still manifested bitter hostility to the religious instruction
of the slaves, and in 1832, on a partial insurrection of the Blacks,
their wrath overflowing all bounds, they destroyed fourteen chapels,
with private houses and other property, belonging to the Baptists,
amounting in value to $115,250, and six chapels, belonging to the
Methodists, and property worth $30,000. Every species of cruelty
and insult weie inflicted upon the missionaries. The emancipation
act of the next year, 1833, for ever put it out of the power of the
planters to repeal such acts of injustice and violence, and the mis
sionary work, uninterrupted, has been eminentiy successful. In
1842, says the Rev. Mr. Phillippo, the whole number of converts in
Jamaica was one hundred thousand, out of a population of near half
a million ; the number of regular places of worship were two hun
dred and twenty-six, and the out stations swelling them to three
hundred; while the number of missionaries were over one hundred
and seventy, with nearly an equal number of native assistants. Thus
stood the question of the religious instruction of the African popula
tion of the Island in 1842. Superstitions and immoralities were fast
disappearing under the influence of the gospel, and the marriage
relation was respected. But the fewness ofthe missionaries and teach
ers, in proportion to the population, rendering il impracticable lo bring
all under a course of instruction, makes the progress slower than is de
sirable, and leaves many portions of the Island still sunk in ignorance.
Previous to the year 1823, there were not more than one or two
scliools for -the cohired people on the whole Island. In 1824, the
whole number of missionaries was seventeen, in a slave populalion
of three hundred and eleven thousand, and a free colored population
of forty thousand. Here, then, were the educational agencies of
Jamaica, twenty-flve years ago — not over nineteen missionaries and
teachers to a population of three hundred and fifty-one thousand
souls, or only one lo each eighteen thousand four hundred.

96 Relations of American Slavery
In this brief outiine of the history of Jamaica, ample evidence is
furnished lo show that slavery is powerless for good lo its victims.
It also proves, that a free Christianity can transform, and elevate,
and civilize, even slaves. But, as a barbarous people cannot make
much progress in a single generation, Jamaica, at present, can supply
little aid in the bestowment of a Christian civiUzation upon Africa.
In relation to Cuba, the tale is soon told. According to McQueen, its
slave population, some years ago, was four hundred and twenty-five
thousand, of whom one hundred and fifty thousand were females,
and two hundred and seventy-five thousand were males. This dis
proportion of the sexes will sufficiently indicate the social evils
growing out of such a condition of things. Since that period, the
slave trade has received a great stimulus, by the opening of the
English markets to slave-grown sugar, and the continued importation
of slaves into Cuba, gives her al present six hundred thousand. She
has also one hundred thousand free colored persons, and six hundred
and ten thousand whites.
A report read before the London Anti-Slavery Society, 1843,
represents the plantation slaves of Cuba as never receiving the least
moral or religious instruction. " Most of them are baptized, because
the curate's certificate of baptism serves' as a title deed in the civil
courts of the Island. They live, in general, in a stale of concubinage.
They have not the most distant idea of Christianity. The annual
decrease by deaths over births is, among the plantation slaves, from
ten to twelve per cent., and among the others from four to six per
cent. The births exceed the deaths among the free colored popula
tion, from five to six per cent. The hours of labor were from four,
A. M. until ten, P. M., including eighteen hours of the twenty-four,
with an allowance of an hour for dinner."
An extract of a leiter from an eyewitness in Cuba, which was
addressed to Lord John Russell, and copied into Blackwood's Maga
zine, February, 1848, says, "It was crop time: the mills Ment
round night aud day. On every estate, (I scarcely hope lo be
believed wdieii I state the fact,) every slave was worked under the
whip, eighteen hours of the twenty-four, and in the boiling-houses,
from five to six, P. M., and from eleven o'clock till midnight, when
lialf the people were concluding their eighteen hours' work, the sound
of the hellish lash was incessant; indeed it was necessary, to keep
the overtasked wretches awake. The six hours Mhicli they rested,
they spent locked in a barracoon — a strong, foul, close sly, where
they wallowed without distinction of age or sex. While at work, the
slaves were stimulated by drivers, armed wilh swords and whips,
and protected by magnificent bloodhounds. There was no marry
ing among tiie plantation slaves. On many estates females were
entirely excluded. It was cheaper and less troublesome to buv than
to raise slaves." « * « * * « " Religious instructio'n and
medical aid vvere not carried out generally beyond baptism and
vaccination." But a sense of propriety forbids that we should complete tiie quo
tation. Enough, truly, is given to show that the gocial and mor.al

To African Civilization. 97
condition of Ihe slaves in Cuba is most deplorable. Nor have any
ameliorating agencies been introduced to work a chano-e. In a
careful inspection of the operations of English and American mis
sionary societies, we cannot find that any missionaries of a free
Christianity have gained a foothold in Cuba. The exclusiveness
of the established religion of Spain, which forbids freedom of relioion,
has, no doubl, been extended to her colony, and the poor African
stdl toils beneath the lash of his mercUess taskmaster, unconscious
of his accountability to God, and of the offer of salvation through
faith in the Saviour.
After this picture of the results accompanying the enslavement of
the Africans in Cuba, no one will look to that island for aid in .the
civilization of Africa, untd the self-denying missionaries of a free
Christianity, are permitted lo labor therein, for the instruction and
salvation of the poor slave.
The slaves transported from Africa lo BrazU have been subjected
to influences as unfavorable to intellectual and moral improvement as
those taken to any other country. Unfortunately for BrazU, a free
Christianity was not secured to its early settiers from Europe, and the
consequences have been deplorable. In accordance wilh the views
and policy of the times, the most rigid and extrerae measures were
adopted to preserve unity of faith. Two ministers and fourteen stu
dents, sent out to BrazU by the Protestant Church of Geneva, were
prevented, by the sanguinary fanaticism of the adherents of the estab
lished religion, from introducing a Bible Christianity. Tbe leading
men of the party of Huguenots, who fled lo Brazil in 1555, from per
secution in France, were thrown into prison, and after eight years'
confinement, John Boles, the most prominent of tbe prisoners, was
martyred, at Rio de Janeiro, " for the sake of terrifying his country
men, if any of them should be lurking in those parts." The Meth
odist Episcopal Church of the United Slates, a few years since,
attempted lo enter into Brazil as a missionary field, but the effort,
proving unsuccessful, has been abandoned.
Without the Bible as a moral instructor of youth, and without the
presence of the advocates of a free Christianity, as rivals to stimu
late and liberalize the state religion, it is not a matter of wonder
that the Brazilians should have sunk in the scale of moral being. The
rising generations, coming more or less under the influence of the
native heathenism, could not attain as high a standard of intelligence
and morals as those which had preceded them. It was to be expected,
therefore, that the costly church edifices, erected by the pious zeal
and profuse liberality of the early Portuguese emigrants, should often
be perverted from the use lo which they were originally consecrated ;
and, as is asserted in Kidder's Brazil, that the preaching of the gos
pel should not be known among the weekly services of the church ;
and, also, as is declared by SouTHEy, that its practices should be
those of polytheism and idolatry.
Details of the social and moral condition of the BrazUians is
uncalled for on such an occasion as this. But, as connected with our -
investigations, we must be permitted to say, that such weie the evil

98 Relations of American Slavery
tendencies of the religious system of Brazil, that, in 1843, the min
ister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs, addressed the Imperial
Legislature as follows :
" The state of retrogression into which our clergy are faUing is
notorious. -The necessity of adopting measures to remedy such an
evU is also evident. On the 9lh of September, 1842, the government
addressed inquiries on this subject to the bishops and capitular vicars.
Although complete answers have not been received from all of them,
yet the foUowing particulars are certified :
" The lack of priests who wifi dedicate themselves to the cure of
souls, or who even offer themselves as candidates, is surprising. In
the province of Para, there are parishes which, for twelve years and
upward, have had no pastor. The district of the river Negro, con
taining some fourteen settlements, has but one priest; while that of
the river Solimoens is in sirailar circumstances. In the three comar-
eas of Belem, and the Upper and the Lower Amazon, there are thirty-
six vacant parishes. In Maranham, twenty-five churches have, at
different tiraes, been advertised as open for applications, without
securing the offer of a single candidate.
" The bishop of St. Paulo affirms the same thing respecting vacant
churches in his diocese, and il is no uncommon experience elsewhere.
In the diocese of Cuyaba, not a single church is provided with a
settied curate, and those priests who officiate as slated supphes,
treat the bishop's efforts lo instruct and improve them with great
indifference. " In the bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, most of the churches are sup
plied with pastors, but a great number of thera only temporarily.
This diocese embraces four provinces, but during nine years past not
more than five or six priests have been ordained per year.
" It may be observed, that the numerical ratio of those priests who
die, or become incorapetent through age and infirmity, is two to one
of those who receive ordination. Even among those who are ordained,
few devote themselves to pastoral work. They either turn their
attention to secular pursuits, as a means of securing greater conven
iences, emoluments, and respect, or they look out for chaplaincies, and
other situations, which offer equal or superior inducements, without
subjecting thera lo the literary tests, the trouble and the expense
necessary lo secure an ecclesiastical benefice.
" This is not the place lo investigate the causes of such a state of
things, but certain it is, that no persons of standing devote their sons
to the priesthood. Most of those who seek the sacred office are indi
gent persons, who, by their poverty, are often prevented from pursu
ing Ihe requisite studies. Witiiout doubt, a principal reason why so
few devote themselves to ecclesiastical pursuits, is to be found in the
smaU income allowed thera. Moreover, the perquisites established
as the rerauneration of certain clerical services, have resumed the
voluntary character which they had in primitive times, and the priest
who attempts to coerce his parishioners into payment of them, almost
always renders himself odious, and gets littie or nothing for his
nrouble."

To African Civilization. 99
After such a picture of the inefficiency of the established religion
of Brazil, and such evidences of its decay and want of sufficient vital
energy to preserve il from extinction, it will excite no surprise to find
the government, in 1836, proposing to employ Moravian missionaries
to catechise the Indians of the interior.
An American in BrazU, writing to tiie Boston Advocate from Rio,
Sept., 1849, says: "Every one, on his first landing at Rio, will be
forced to the conclusion that all classes indiscriminately mingle to
gether ; all appearing on terms of the utmost equality. If there be
any distinction, it is perceptible only between freedom and slavery.
There are many blacks here quite wealthy and respectable, who amal
gamate with the white families, and are received on a footing of per
fect equality. The mechanical arts are at least half a century behind
those of our own. The churches, some fifty in number, are falling
to decay, which gives to the city a look of dUapidalion ; few are still
observant of its ceremonies ; but lillie or no attention is paid to the
Sabbath. The stores do business, and the workshops are open the
same as on other days. A few may be seen going to worship on the
Sabbath, but a greater number resort to billiard tables in the afternoon,
and to theaters at night. The slave population is estimated at three
times the number of that of the whites. They are allowed to go
ahnost naked, the upper part of the body of both male and female
entirely so."
Amid this general dearth of religious interest among the BrazUians,
it will of course be expecled that the moral training of the poor slave
has been totally neglected, and that he yet remains in all the darkness
and degradation of African heathenism. Treated as a beast of bui'den,
he can know but little more of his moral responsibUity to God than
the mule he drives.*
We find no evidence, thus far, that will warrant our adopting any
other agency than Christianity as a primary means of moral im
provement for the African slave, or in the civilization of any barbar
ous people. Nor do we find any agency elsewhere than in the
United States, upon which reUance can be placed for extending a
Christian civilization to Africa.
"But," says one, "you have passed by an element of human pro
gress, more certain in its operation than any you have named. Give
the slave but liberty, and he wUl vindicate his humanity, and rise to
an equality wilh his imperious oppressor. This language once seemed
oracular, but lime, which tests opinions and theories, has fuUy shown
that there is no magic power in liberty and equality, any more than
in trade and commerce, to originate civilization and produce a moral
revolution among a savage or semi-barbarous people.
In proof of this proposition, it is only necessary, to our present
» The population of Brazil, at present, is as follows :
Slaves  3,000,000
Indians and Free Negroes  ^,500,000
Whites  1,500,000
A large majority of the army, as well officers as privates, are of African
descent.

100 Relations of American Slavery
purpose, lo refer to Hayti, where, after enjoying liberty and equality
for neariy half a century, the people have with apparent willingness
submitted to despotism, and bid fair, if regenerating agencies from
abroad are not introduced, to relapse into barbarism. Hayti, Uke
BrazU and Cuba, having only a fettered Christianity, derived from
France, made no provision for the instruction of the slaves.^ School
bouses for the people, those earliest off-shoots of a free Christianity,
liad not been provided by the French proprietors for their slaves.
Hence, when the shackles of slavery were removed from the slaves
of Hayti, by the act of the Constituent Assembly of France, Intelli
gence not prevailing, tbe Industry of the Island, formerly compulso
ry, was soon abandoned. Before emancipation, says Blackwood's
Magazine, 1848, the exports from Hayti, of sugar alone, reached six
hundred and seventy-two millions of pounds, and the consumption of
French manufactures, in the island, reached $49,450,000 ; but at
present, she neither exports a single pound of sugar, nor imports a
single article of manufactures.
In this result we have a startiing confirmation of the truth of the
proposition slated in our former lecture, when discussing the results
of West India emancipation, that intelligence must precede volun
tary industry.
Nor has the Christian world neglected to offer to Hayti a free
Christianity, that she loo might be blest by its transforming power.
The offer was made and rejected, and this day she is reaping the
bitter consequences. In 1835, the American Baptist Missionary
Society made an attempt to establish a mission in Hayti, which at
first promised success, but was abandoned in 1837. When Mr.
Phillippo visited that Island in 1842, about a dozen members, fruits
of this mission, yet remained.
As early as 1816 the English Wesleyans coraraenced a mission in
Hayti, but in 1819 the missionary had to leave on account of perse
cution from the adherents of the prevailing religion. The converts,
left behind, faithful to the truth, endured a series of persecutions, bitter
aud relenfless, only stopping short of actual martyrdom. In 1830,
they numbered only ninety members, under the care of a native
preacher ordained in England.
The missionaries found ignorance and immorality predominant at
this period, and, in one or more instances, had evidence sufficient
afforded to prove that idolatry was practised in Hayti.
Between 1820 and 1829, a brisk emigration from the United
States to Hayti, was conducted, transferring, according to Benjamin
Lundy, eight thousand free colored persons to that Island, tlie ex
penses of six thousand of whom being paid by the Haytien govern
ment. But this infusion of Republican leaven, though equaling in
number the whole of the emigrants sent to Liberia, seems not to
have wrought any wonders in the civUization of their brother
Republicans. AU have quietiy sunk down together into despotism.
The present social and moral condition of Hayti may be inferred
from the following extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Graves, one of
the editors of the Christian Reflector, who recentiy visited the Island.

To African Civilization. 101
" The S.abbalh is the great business day of the week to the middle
and lower classes, whUe the rich employ il as a holiday. Il is the
day especially devoted to military parade and marketing. The
public squares are crowded with buyers and sellers, anti all the
shops thronged with customers as on no other day of the week.
The marriage relation is, for the most part, sustained without a
marriage contract, and divorce and polygamy are too common to
excile attention. The faithful husband of a wife is a character so
rare as to be a marked exception to the general rule. * as * »
In a word, the institutions of the Sabbath and of marriage, are alike
prostrate. Both have a name; but the divine object of neither is
secured, with a vast majority of the population. As a legitimate
consequence, profaneness, intemperance, and vulgarity extensively
characterize all classes of society."
The revolution in Hayti, which expelled Boyer from the Island,
led to a correspondence having in view the introduction of mission
aries from the United States. One of the letters frora a prominent
citizen of Jeremie, 1843, says, "You have exactiy hit on the essen
tial points in recommending the establishment of individual families
by marriages, to serve as a basis of the great social family, the
establishment of institutions for the diffusion of moral and religious
instruction," <tc.
The inference lo be drawn from this letter is, that in 1843, as in
1849, the marriage relation was not established and respected in
Hayti. Here, then, in Hayti, we have the proof that liberty and equality,
enjoyed sociaUy and politically, lo its fullest extent, are also power
less in the promotion of civdization. Even its newly made emperor,
we are told, still practises some heathenish rites allied to the devil-
ivorship of Africa. We shall not go to despotic Hayti for agents to
help to build up Republican Liberia.
But shall we go to Mexico for aid in the civilization of Africa ? A
part of the population, torn by tbe slave trade from Africa, was taken
to Mexico. As our plan conteraplates the tracing of the various
lines of dispersion, so as to inquire into the results, a glance at
Mexico will be appropriate, especially as we have in that govern
ment still a different phase of the movement exhibited to us for our
instruction. Tbe character of the earlier Spanish adventurers and colonists in
Mexico, and the means by which they subdued and enslaved the
natives, is too famUiar lo all to need a notice at present. From a
statement in Jay's Review of the Mexican War, we learn that the
population of Mexico stands as foUows:
Indians, . . 4,000,000
Whites, . . 1,000,000
Negroes, . . 6,000
Mixed breeds, . 2,009,509=7,015,509.
Judge Jay, it must be remembered, is a waim abolitionist, and of
course not disposed lo asperse the character of the descendants
of Africa anywhere. By this statement it will be perceived, that

102 Relations of American Slavery
one important object has been gained in Mexico, and which, nt the
opinion of many, constitutes the sole barrier to the colored man s
elevation in the United States. We refer to prejudice against color.
In Mexico it seems to have had no existence, but that, on the con
trary, amalgamation, on an extended scale, has been practised,
producing a populalion of mixed breeds, amounting to more than
two raUUons of souls, out of seven millions, and reducing the pure
negro stock, imported from Africa, to the meager number of six
thousand. But this was not the only point gained for the African in
Mexico. In due time, liberty and equality were also bestowed.
Mexico, in 1813, threw off the yoke of Spain, and declared herself a
Republic. But the attempt of Iturbide, to restore a despotism, raising
up a race of military chieftains for his overthrow, afterward pro
duced a struggle for power, resulting, in 1824, in the prohibition of
the slave trade, and the adoption of a constitution declaring yVee all
born after that date. Pedraza being elected President, Santa Anna
at the head of the military, interposed, and placed in the presidential
chair the defeated candidate, Guerrero, who, lo strengthen himself, and
the better to resist an invasion frora Spain, then in process of execu
tion, issued a. decree, September, 1829, emancipating all the slaves.
Thus was liberty and equality at once secured to the slaves of Mexico.
But Mexico, under Spain, had a fettered Christianity, trans
planted to her sod, which is still retained, and she has carefully
excluded from her limits a free Christianity, with its schoolhouses
and Bibles for the people. 'The third article of her<|constituiion
of 1824, declares, that, "The religion of the Mexican nation is, and
will be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will
protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any
other whatever." It is true, that when Bustamente, who deposed
Guerrero, was overturned in 1833, by Santa Anna, this general
attempted to pursue a liberal course of policy, and abolished ecclesi
astical tithes, monastic vows, and the authority of the Pope ; and
took the education of youth out of the hands of the priests, appointing
the professors in the five free colleges which he established, without
regard to country or religious faith. But this effort to liberalize the
religion of Mexico proved an abortion, the President, after putting
down several revolts, being forced to readopt the old system as the
established faith of Mexico.
Now let us see what has been gained for the Africans who were
taken to Mexico. First, tbe abolition of prejudice and the adoption
of amalgamation ; and second, emancipation wilh liberty and
equality, including the right of suffrage. Here, then, in the opinion
of many, is a vast gain for the African, above what he has had granted lo
him elsewhere ; because, though, in Hayti, he had liberty and equality,
yet all being African together, there was not the honor conferred
which was secured in Mexico, by making him the equal to the de
scendants of tbe proud Castilians who had conquered Montezuma.
Now for the results of these favoring circumstances. But, happily I'or
us. Judge Jay has drawn the picture of Mexico, for 1846, to the life.
" The Republic of Mexico had long been the prey of militarjr

To African Civilization. 103
ciiieftains, who, in their struggles for power, and the perpetual
revolutions they had excited, had exhausted the resources of the
country. Without money, without credit, without a single frigate,
without coramerce, without union, and with a feeble population of
seven or eight miUions, composed chiefly of Indians and mixed
breeds, scattered over iraraense regions, and for the most part sunk
in ignorance, and sloth, Mexico was certainly not a very formidable
enemy to the United States." In addition, the Judge stales, tiiat the
exports from Mexico, in 1842, were, exclusive of gold and silver,
$1,500,000, or a littie over forty-nine and a half cents per head to
her population, excluding the Indians. To those who are curious
in seeking for contrasts, it may be interesting to them to know, that
the export commerce of Liberia is about $100 per head for each
emigrant residing in the Republic.
Here, now, are the results of the movements in Mexico. She
adopted a Republican form of government, denounced the foreign
slave trade, and emancipated her slaves, placing the whole population
in a condition of social and political equality. But in thus obeying the
dictates of one of the fundamental principles of the North American
confederacy, which declares the natural equality of mankind, she
overlooked the other stdl more important one, that only men of in
telligence and moral integrity are capable of self-government . This
fatal error, the source of all her misfortunes, was the result of another
oversight which iSIexico committed in the outset of her career. In
casting off the shackles of political despotism, she retained the
fettered form of Christianity which had been adopted lo give security
to crowned heads, and which is so antagonistic to the spirit of repub
lican institutions. This system, where not stimulated by the rivalry,
of a free Christianity, makes no provision for general education. The
RepubUcan leaders, therefore, who wished to advance the general intel-
igence of the people, could not accomplish the task, nor take the educa
tional interests out of the hands of those who had previously possessed
their control. The ignorance of the masses being thus perpetuated,
the severing of the ties binding the slave to the master left the freed
man, in consequence of his ignorance, a constant prey to the
intrigues of mUitary chieftains. The right of suffrage was thus
rendered almost utterly valueless in Mexico, because the decisions
of the ballot-box were repeatedly set aside, and the power of tiie
sword interposed lo give to the nation its rulers. How far emanci
pation in Mexico may have arrested the prosperity of the nation,
and tended lo destroy its internal peace, rendering property and life
insecure, by letting loose a large number of semibarbarous and
savage raen frora the restraints of slavery, to be controUed at wUl by
ambitious chieftains, we shall not wait to inquire. Our concern is
with the effects produced upon the Africans by their transfer to
Mexico. Their history teUs us, that Uberty and equality in Mexico,
have faUen far short in the production of the good to the slave which his
wants require ; not that these privileges are valueless and ought to he
withheld, but because that the intellectual and moral culture, which
impart intelligence and moral integrity, were nqt included in the gift

104 Relations of American Slavery
We have now completed the circuit of oui investigations. The
facts revealed in relation to the intensity of the wretchedness of the
African race, not only in Africa ilself, but in many of the countries to
which they have been transported, are weU calculated, at first view,
to cause the philanthropic heart lo shrink from making an effort to
afford relief, because of the immensity of the obstacles to be over
come, before their deliverance can be accomplished. But, upon a
closer view of the subject, it would seem that their dispersion to the
different countries in which they have been enslaved, was permitted
by Divine Providence, wilh the view of teaching the world some
great lessons upon the subject of the true elements of human pro
gress, awd at the same time to make ample provision for the recovery
of Africa from barbarism. Let us see.
Without at present recapitulating the facts upon which we base
our opinions, or stating the arguments by which they may be sup
ported, the investigations, just completed, afford much material to
sustain the following conclusions :
I. That a Free Christianity — revealing the individual responsibility
of man lo God, producing a pure morality, generating independence
of thought, begetting a spirit of philanthropy, and teaching the natu
ral equality of mankind — is the primary element of civilization
and all useful human progress.
II. That the secondary but essential elements of civUization and use
ful human progress, and which are included in and necessarily
dependent, for their full development, upon the primary, are these:
1 . Liberty of conscience in the worship of God
2. Both secular and religious education.
3. Personal freedom.
4. Social and political equality.
5. The sacredness of the marriage relation, and the possession and
conlrol, by parents, of their offspring.
6. The right of property in the fruits of industry.
7. Time, for the operation and development of these elemenls.
From the possession of these rights and privUeges, and their con
stant exercise, there necessarUy is produced among men : First, The
fear ofGod and just conceptions of moral responsibility. Second,
An enlightenment of conscience, begetting moral integrity and a pure
moraUty, thus securing confidence between man and man, and creat
ing the basis of the safety of society. Third, A proper estimate of
man's relations and responsibUities to his fellow-man. Fourth, Phi
lanthropy, or the desire of the welfare of our neighbor. Fifdi, The
love of home and of offspring, leading to untiring efforts for their
welfare. Sixth, Industry, to accumulate properly for the individual's
or the famUy's use. Seventh, Trade and commerce, to supply the
artificial wants which advancing civilization creates.
The truth of these conclusions being adniitted, it wiU follow, that
just so far as the primary and secondary elements of civilization
and useful human progress are possessed, or not possessed, in whole
or in part, by a barbarous or semi-barbarous people, to the same

To African Civilization. 105
extent and in the same proportion may we expect them to advance or
retrograde. And if we find that the progress or non-progress of the
Africans, who foim the subject of our inquiries, has been in the pro
portion in which they have enjoyed, or not enjoyed, all, or some, or
none, of the blessings, rights, and privUeges named, then we have
evidence lo establish the truth of the proposition, that the catalogue
given, constitutes the elements of civilization. And further, it being
thus proved, that a free Christianity necessarily begets inteUigence
and moral integrity, and therefore tends to restore man to his original
stale of knowledge and uprightness ; and as such a moral condition
necessarUy secures the welfare of society, it follows, tlwt our propo
sition, heretofore stated, is true, viz : that Christianity, uneorrupted,
is capable of restoring to man his lost happiness. Now let us see
how far our conclusions are sustained by the facts brought out in our
investigations. In the United States, where the primary element, a free Christian
ily, had its birth, the commencement of the slave's elevation is of
equal date with his touching the shore. But as the secondary ele
menls of progress have been mostiy denied lo the slave, and the pri
mary often enjoyed but imperfectly, his advancement has been
impeded, and his progress falls short of what il would have been, had
his privileges been more extended, so as to include more of the ele
menls of civilization. This view is fully sustained by the fact, that
the greater advancement made by the yree colored man over the slave,
in the United States, is -about in the proportion of the extent of the
additional privUeges which he has enjoyed.
[n Jamaica, which, for three hundred years, was emphatically
without religion, and where, during that time, neither the primary
nor a single one of the secondary elements of civilization were in
the possession of the slaves, no progress was made by them until a
free Christianity was introduced and their religious education com
menced. Nor was the progress rapid until the emancipation act, of
1833, put them in possession of an increased number of the elements
of civilizalion. As they still lack an essential element, social and
political equality, and as secular and religious education is not sup
plied to the extent of the wants of the populalion, retarding causes
exist in Jamaica, which will prevent that high intellectual and moral
development that should be secured to the African. \
In Cuba and Brazil, it does not appear that the slaves possess
either the primary or secondary elemenls of civUization, and, conse
quentiy, the first step in human progress remains to be taken. Un
like Jamaica, which was without religion, Cuba and Brazil had a
fettered Christianity, but sunk so low as to have lost what little vital
ity it once possessed, and consequentiy, in these countries no one
has cared for the soul of the slave, but he is still left lo toil on in
mental and moral night, and in anguish and in woe, until a premature
death kindly wrests him from the oppressor's grasp.
In Hayti, one fact presents itself, of peculiar importance in proof
of our proposition, that a free Christianity is the primary element of
civilizalion. The primary element alone existed among the slaves

106 Relations of American Slavery
of the United States, and aU the secondary, except liberty of con
science, and religious education, were wanting ; yet progress was
made, and an approximation to civUization attained. But in Hayti, for
neariy half a century, all the secondary elements of progress, except
ing liberty of conscience and secular and religious education, were in
possession of the people, but instead of progress under these advan
tages, there has been retrogression ; and no other sufficient reason
can be assigned for it, but that the primary element, a free Christian
ity, which alone can develope the moral powers of man and impart
life and activity to the secondary elements, was wholly excluded from
the island. Had Hayti, when she became republican, possessed the
primary element of progress, she would have been doited over with
schoolhouses and churches ; secular and religious education would
have prevailed everywhere; the sacredness of the marriage relation
would have been respected ; tbe welfare of offspring promoted ; vol
untary industry adopted, and the energies of its inhabitants roused
into action. Under these circumstances despotism could not have
riientered the island.
The facts in relation to the colored population of Mexico, are so
slricfly the same wilh those of Hayti, that we need not stale them.
Twenty years' possession of nearly all the secondary elements of
civilization, but in complete destitution of the primary, has scarcely
impelled them forward a step beyond their original barbarism. To
tbe white population of Mexico, the results have been very similar lo
what has occurred in Brazil. In both countries, there is danger, it
would seem, /rom the natural tendencies of fallen human nature lo
barbarism, that the civUization transplanted from Europe, in the ab
sence of the primary element of progress, may greatiy retrograde, in
consequence of the overpowering infiuence of heathenism, by which
it is surrounded. This remark will equally apply lo nearly all the
South American governments, which, on throwing off the European
yoke of political despotism, and giving freedom to the slave, made no
provision for public education, either secular or religious.
But this examination of the different results that have grown out
of the various degrees, in which the African has been brought under
the influence of the elements of civilization, in the countries where
he has been enslaved, may now be closed. Facts enough are given,
certainly, to leach us important lessons in relation to the elements of
useful human progress — facts enough to show that Christianity is the
primary element of civiUzation ; not Christianity, as fettered and
made an engine of despotic sway over mankind, holding them in
ignorance of their rights and obligations; but a free Christianity,
based upon the Bible, demanding for men, equal rights and liberty of
conscience, and leaching them that respect for the rights of others,
and that moral integrity which gives security to governments, based
upon law — facts enough, too, to prove, that unless all the elemenls of
progress, primary and secondary, be enjoyed unrestrained, and in
fidl exercise, by a people, there will exist impediments to their
advancement — facts enough, further, to prove that it is dano-erous to

To African Civilization. 107
withhold from men, the elements of moral progress, when conferring
upon them those of social and political advancement — and facts
enough, furthermore, to prove, that for a civilized community, or stale,
or nation, to admit a barbarous or semi-barbarous people into its
bosom, or to retain them when forced upon it, without supplying to
them the elemenls of intellectual and moral elevation, is to cherish
an agent antagonistic to civilization, and which must react unfavorably
upon itself, in retarding, if not preventing, its further prosperity.
Our investigations also show, that the African race is not in posses
sion of all the elements of civilization in any of the countries to which
they have been transported. A further investigation would show that
there is no prospect, at present, of their ever attaining them in these
countries. But as their possession and free exercise, is essential to
the production of the highest mental and moral developments of
which the race is susceptible, the establishment of the Republic of
Liberia, becomes a matter of the highest importance, and most pro
found interest to the colored race.
In the Republic of Liberia, and in Liberia only, can the colored
man obtain possession and the free exercise of all the elements of
civilization, and useful human progress. In the Republic of the
United Stales, and in the United States only, can the while man
obtain possession and the free exercise of all the elements of civili
zation, and useful human progress. Here are two facts, not to be
controverted. There exists at present, no European government,
whose population possesses all these elemenls of progress. France
has pul herself in possession of the secondary, but is destitute of the
primary. England may be said, in a good degree, to possess tiie
primary, but withholds a part of the secondary from a large portion
of her people. We repeat the assertion, therefore, that the Republic
of the United States, is the only nation under the sun, where the
white man can enjoy all the elemenls of useful human progress, and
that the Republic of Liberia, is the only point, on the whole earth,
where the colored man can enjoy them. And, further, we assert,
that the United Stales is the only country, where the colored man has
¦ had the opportunity of enjoying any part of these blessings, and of
witnessing the workings of the whole, and of comprehending their
nature, and learning their value.
And now we aie prepared also to assert, that the United Stales,
only, of all the governments of the earth, possesses the necessary
agents, in the persons of intelligent and industrious colored men,
to recover—Africa from barbarism, and to-'hestffw upon that be
nighted land, as we are now doing in Liberia, all the elements ne
cessary to the production of the highest degree of civilization, and
of thus securing to her, the greatest amount of prosperity, and of
happiness. Here, then, are the results of bringing together, on the soil of the
United Stales, the highest developments of Christian intelligence and
integrity, and the lowest form of pagan ignorance and depravity.
Here are the results of the experiment which, seemingly, was to lest

108 Relations of American Slavery
the capability of a free Christianity to transform the grossest material
of humanity into the most refined — proving the unity and natural
equality of the human race. Here is ample testimony, to prove the
sufficiency of a pure Christianity, lo restore to man his lost happi
ness. And here, now, is unfolded to view, the solution of the great
question involved in all our investigations, </ie relation which the sla
very of the United States bears to the recovery of Africa from
barbarism. The people of Liberia are themselves a standing wonder to the
world. The greater part of them were slaves, until the hour they
left our shores, and of all men in the world, would have been pro
nounced, and were pronounced, the least able to accomplish the work
they were sent to perform. But the elements of progress were borne
along wilh them. The missionaries of a free Christianity offered
themselves as a willing sacrifice, from year to year, to plant the ele
menls of civilization in Africa, that there, amid moral darkness and
degradation, the evidence might be furnished, that the religion of
their Lord and Master was divine ; and able, not only, lo secure
eternal life to the soul of the believer, but lo redeem the world from
oppression and woe. y
Europe stands asronished at the mighty progress of the United
States, in all that is ennobling and great, lis people imitate our ex
ample, and aim at our results, without understanding the secret of our
success, and therefore fail. They seem to be wholly incapable of
comprehending the nature of our free institutions. Liberty, under
the restraints of law, is an enigma they cannot solve. Thus far, we
have stood alone, as a monument of the power of Republican Insti
tutions, to advance the welfare of man. And, indeed, such seemed
to be our unique position, that we were ready to boast that only the
Anglo-Saxon could be safely free. But now Liberia, as if to rebuke
us for our pride, stands forward, and begins lo loom up as another
monument of the power of free institutions. He that was once a
poor slave, and cowered beneath the voice of the white man, now
stands erect in Liberia, like his own native palm tree, nor bows in
meek submission but to the voice of the Eternal.
The citizens of Liberia are beginning to realize the relations and
responsibilities of their new position, and call loudly for help lo exe
cute the high destiny to which they are called. Said the Rev. Mr.
Paine, of Liberia, when on a visit to New York, with President
Roberts, 1848: " Nearly every one of the officers, from the least
even to the greatest, are communicants in some evangelical chureh,
and adorn their life by a holy walk and conversation. You do not
find them on the Sabbath day, strolling about tbe streets, and seeking
for pleasure, as I have seen your people in this country, but they are
found in the school and sanctuary. As au evidence of their being a
stricrty moral and religious people, he would state, that out of eleven
members in the House of Representatives, and six in the Senate,
seventeen in all, only one was not a professor of religion. Intelli-'
gent Liberians," continued Mr. Paine, "are impressed wilh the con
viction, tiiat the Supreme Disposer of events, has caUed them In a

To African Civilization. 109
high mission ; that they have transferred Plymouth to Africa, and
that civUization, republicanism, and Christianity, are to proceed from
them over a vast continent that lies in the shadow of death. They
are nerving themselves lo the fulfillment of such a destiny. They
have grasped the great idea, and have incorporated it with the foun
dations of the Republic."
The following important letter, from the Rev. J. P. Pinney, for
merly Governor of Liberia, was not received in time for insertion in
the proper place :
D.wiD Christy, Esq.
Dear Brother — Your interestingletter of the 16th ult., lingered, and
then my absence for a few days, to attend a meeting at Annapolis,
delayed a reply until it is probably too late lo do you a service. In
Mr. Tracy's pamphlet, entitied " Missions in Africa," there is a note
with some interesting facts relative to cannibalisra.
I never saw men eating human flesh, but have heard of its being
done in the vicinity of Liberia.
The letters of Sion Harris and Rev. G. Brown, who were attacked
at the mission of the M. E. Church, at Heddington, in 1840, by
Gotorah, the famous Condo warrior, (he had threatened lo eat the
raissionary), state that the dried lirabs of men slain previously were
thrown away in their flight.
This same warrior visited Gov. Buchanan, in 1839, to treat for a
peace, and while there gave, in public council, as an objection lo
making peace, that he would have nobody lo eat.
In 1835, while I was agent of the Colonization Society, I sent two
Methodist ministers, who were men of high standing, each having
before been elected lo the office of Vice Governor of the Colony, as
commissioners to negotiate a peace between the Veys and Condoes.
While they were at Bo-poro, the chief town of the Condo nation,
they stated thai human flesh was offered in the market for food.
In 1833, I raade a lour sixty or seventy mUes, lo a king north-east
of the Bassa Cove Colony. jMy purpose was to proceed several
hundred miles, but the king resolutely refused leave, and no bribe or
importunity prevailed to change his decision. The reason assigned
was, that as I came wilh letters from the Governor, the King was
responsible for my safety, and the neighboring tribe, Pessa men,
would kill and eat rae.
The missionaries from England to Coomassie, capital of Ashantee,
staled in their published journal, in 1841, that they saw men return
ing from the market with human lirabs for food.
Of the Gallinas, I know nothing from actual observation. I im
agine that Cape Mount would furnish you as good a point for a
settlement. By occupying Gallinas, you would more surely exter
minate the greatest slave mart in western Africa.
Very respectfuUy, yours,
J. B. PINNEY.
New York, M-irch 2, 1850.

PAET THIED.

Our readers will observe that we have presented the leading inci
dents connected with the enslavemeTit of the African race, and pointed
out the great advantages secured to thera in the United States, over
those afforded in any other country. The facts presented therein
also show, that the work of Africa's redemption from barbarism has
been encouragingly coraraenced by our Colonizalion scheme. It is
natural, therefore, that we should cast about to see whether the im
pelling forces, tending to promote and perfect this great work, possess
sufficient power lo ins-,.re its success. For it must be confessed, that,
in view of the vastness of the work lo be accomplished — including
the secular and religious education of perhaps raore than one hundred
and sixty millions of savage men — if no more numerous agencies can
be brought to the execution of the task, than the noble littie band of
Liberians, hope would almost sicken and die, in contemplating the
length of time that raust elapse before civUization and the gospel can
be made to reach the whole population of Africa.
In tracing the causes now in operation, which must rapidly propel
die work of Africa's civilization, we find that the facts may be brought
most forcibly to view, by contrasting the present relations of Free
Labor to Slave Labor, in the cultivation of those tropical and semi-
tropical products, upon which slave labor has been and is now chiefly
employed. We may be told — indeed we have already been warned by a
I'riend, to whom the statistics have been shown — that by arraying such
facts, before the public, as we have collated, we shall greatiy strengthen
slavery. But we must beg leave to say, that we apprehend no such
results. The facts are such as the friends of African freedom, every
where, should know, to enable them to adopt some practical and
efficient remedy for the evils of the slave trade and slavery. It is
not necessary lo publish ihe tact to the slaveholder of Cuba and
BrazU, that free labor, in ihe English and French West Indies, has
(110)

Jntroauction. Ill
failed lo supply lo commerce an amount of tropical commodities
equal to what had been furnished by slave labor before emancipation
They already know this fact. Slaveholders, whether engaged iu
the production of cotton, sugar, or coffee, have known it, and profited
by it. The slave trader, also, has known the result of West India
emancipation, and has quadrupled his business and his profits by
possessing that knowledge. And shall the Philanthropist, alone, be
debarred frora knowing truths of such moment ?
The facts which we shall present may be unwelcome lo some, yet
the}' cannot be controverted. They may detract somewhat from the
honors claimed by many who boast of their success in checking the
progress of slaver}', and may prove that ihey were raore benevolent
than wise, but il cannot be avoided. The day has come for decisive
action upon the subject of the suppression of the slave trade, and the
civilization of Africa. All schemes hitherto adopted have signally
failed. The wisest statesmen have been baffled and defeated in their
attempts. It is time, therefore, that a review of the actions of the
past should be taken, and the results spread out before the public. In
the execution of this task, if faithfully performed, it is believed that
there may be found some common ground upon -ivhich all the friends
of Africa and of humanity may cordially cociperate.
The evidence which we have been enabled lo collect upon this
subject, is all from undoubted authorities, and we believe will clearly
establish the following propositions :
I. That Free Labor, in tropical and semi-tropical countries, is tailing
lo furnish lo the markets of the world, in any thing like adequate
quantities, those coraraodities upon which slave labor is chiefly
eraployed.
II. That the governments of England, France, and the United Slates,
at the present moment, are compelled, from necessity, lo consume
slave labor products, to a large extent, and thus still continue to be
the principal agents which aid in extending and perpetuating slavery
and the slave trade.
111. That the legislative raeasures adopted for the destruction of the
slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended to
increase and extend the systems they were designed to destroy.
IV. That the governments named, cannot hope to escape from the
necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call
ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of
countries not at present producing the coraraodities upon which
slave labor is employed.
V. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can be made
to compete, successfuUy, with slave labor, in the production of
exportable tropical commodities.

112 Present Relalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
VI. That there are moral forces and commercial considerations now
in operation, which wUl, necessarily, impel Christian governments
to exert their influence for the civiUzation of Africa, and the pro
motion of the prosperity of the Republic of Liberia, as the prin
cipal agency in this great work ; and that in these facts lies our
encouragement to persevere in our Colonization efforts.
VII. That aU these agencies and influences being brought to bear
upon the civUization of Africa, from the nature of its soil, climate,
products, and population, we are forced to believe that a mighty
people will ultimately rise upon that continent, taking rank with
the most powerful nations of the earth, and vindicate the character
of the African race before the world.
Not the least interesting result, growing out of the investigations
upon which we are entering, when taken in connection wilh those of
our two preceding lectures, is the conviction that has been produced
in our own mind, and which we believe will be made upon all, that
England and the United Stales, the two governments at present most
capable of exerting the greatest moral influence over Africa, and of
calling into activity her latent but giant energies, are al this moment
involved in positions of so much embarrassment, in consequence of
their having been connected with the slave trade and slavery, that
they cannot extricate themselves, but by the civilization of Africa.
France, also, in the" case of her former colony of Hayti, has had
poured out lo her a portion of the cup of bitterness, which, it seems,
must be pressed to the lips of all the nations who have participated
iu oppressing Africa. By her late act of emancipation, in her re
maining tropical colonies, France has still farther embarrassed herself,
aud, like England and the United States, must soon be compelled
either to supply herself almost exclusively with slave-grown cotton,
and other tropical products, or lend her aid in promoting free labor
cultivation in tropical Africa.
In this remarkable condition of things, we are reminded of the
great truth, that God presides among the nations, and overrules their
actions lo promote his own purposes of judgment and of mercy to
mankind, and that governments, like individuals, are hindered in
their designs here and have free progress there, only so far as corres
ponds wilh his great scheme of displaying his hatred of sin, vindica
ting his justice, and of manifesting his love to a fallen world, and his
determination to redeem it to himself.
A brief review of some of the leading events, relating to tiie
action of the nations of Europe, in their connection with tiie slave
trade and slavery, wiU bring us to the statement of the facts upon
which we base our propositions.
The records of history put it beyond all question, that the rapid
rise of Great Britain, during the 18th century, which secured to her
the superiority over other nations in naval power, in commerce, and
ultimately in manufactures, was due, principally, to her liaviim-

Present Relalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 113
acquired by the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the monopoly of the slave
trade. The traffic in slaves being, by this treaty, placed under the
control of England, her rivals were deprived of the means of supply
ing slaves lo their tropical possessions, excepting through her mer
chants, while she could add to her colonies any number required by
the planters. And when we call lo mind the fact, that the average
period of life of the imported African slave, as a profitable laborer in
the West India colonies, is not over seven years, it will be seen that
this treaty most effectuaUycrippled the rivals of England, and of ne
cessity gave to her, as is the boast of McQueen, the principal monop
oly of the markets of the world for her West India tropical products.
And, indeed, so seriously were the other powers affected by this
measure, that in 1739, Spain paid to Great Britain a half million of
doUars to secure a release of her monopoly for the remaining four
years to which il extended ; and thus the nations of Europe once
more became equal participants in this unholy commerce.
A true idea of the immense value of England's commercial inter
ests, wliich were based upon the slave trade and slavery, may be
learned frora the fact, that in 1807, the export products of her West
India possessions employed 250,000 tons of English shipping, and
that these islands sustained a population which consumed annually
817,500,000 worth of British manufactures.* It was the possession
of such resources as these, coupled with her East India acquisitions,
that enabled England, whose navy at the opening ofthe 18th century-
was one thousand guns less than that of France, to increase it in one
hundred years to near its present extent, and shordy after the begin
ning of the present century, to bid defiance to the combined oppo
sition of the powers of Europe. But it must not be forgotten, that
much of this wealth, securing to England such prosperity and such
glory as she attained, was wrung from African sinews in her West
India colonies.
But now besfins the era when the power of Great Britain is to
become arrayed on the side of African freedom. The year 1808
terminated the connection of both Great Britain and the United
States wilh the slave trade. Whatever may be said of the motives
prompting these governments to this act, it must be admitted, that a
great work of philanthropy was accomplished. But its prohibition
bv these powers, unfortunately, left the monopoly of the traffic in
slaves in the hands of Spain and Portugal, who prosecuted it with
the greatest activity, and soon made the soil of Cuba and of Brazil to
oroan beneath the cultivation of those exportable tropical products
which England had so successfully commenced, and so advantage
ously prosecuted. Being then in its infancy, the government of the
United Stales could exert but littie influence upon other nations, and,
consequentiy, the conlrol of this great question rested with England.
It was a capital error in her policy, to neglect securing an abandon
ment of the slave trade by the other European governments. Their
* Blackwood's Mag., l^ie, p. 5.

114 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
success In rivaling her in tropical cultivation, together with the sub'
sequent legislative errors of Great Britain, and the consequent de
struction of the prosperity of her West India colonies, has been fully
discussed in our first lecture. Since its publication, however, many
additional facts have been ascertained, and many new developments
have been made, in connection with English and French West India
emancipation, which enable us to understand more clearly its work
ings, and lo foresee more certainly the final effects of that great work
of philanthropy upon the African race.
The prohibition of the slave trade, and the emancipation of her
West India slaves,* greatly embarrassed the comraercial interests of
England, and forced her to grapple with the giant evils of the slave
trade and slavery, and to alterapl their destruction. But each step
taken, after the prohibition of the slave trade, while it certainly pro-
moled, locally, the cause of human liberty, dealt a death-blow lo some
of the vital interests of the government. And, as if the Almighty
had designed to record, in letters of living light, his disapproval ofthe
motives prompting England to enslave the African race, these blows
have fallen upon the identical interests which had been created and
buUt up by the slave trade and slavery, viz: her West India sugar,
cotton, and coffee cultivation, and the markets for her manufactures
which these islands afforded.
Previous to 1808, England's West India colonies were supplied
with laborers from Africa, by means of the slave trade. The slaves
in these islands numbered 800,000, in that year; but in 1834, when
their emancipation had been effected, there were only 700,000. t
This diminution of the slaves, whUe it very seriously affected the
exports frora the colonies, served lo reveal the true character of West
India slavery, and the means by which colonial prosperity had been
sustained, and can only be accounted for frora overworking, and the
great disparity of the sexes always consequent upon the supply of
laborers by the slave trade.|
After the supply of slave labor had been cut off, by the prohibition
of the slave trade, il was discovered that a vast decrease of exports
was taking place in the colonies. The remedy proposed for this evil
was emancipation ; by means of which it was conceived that the lib
erated slaves would, as freemen, perform twice the labor that had been
wrung out of them whUe under the lash, and also that double the
quantity that had been supplied, of British manufactures, whUe in
slavery, would be required to clothe them if free.§ Such a conceit
as this could never have originated but in a mind entertaining unsound
views of human nature, and unacquainted with the impossibility of
controlling, by moral suasion, a half-civilized or savage people, and of
inducing them lo give up long-established habits. But the scheme
was adopted, and England committed her second legislative error in

* See Part 1, for a full discussion of this subject.
t See Life of Bu.\:ton, aud our First Part p 4l
J See Part 1 , p. 4 1 . § Sec Part 1 , p.' 39.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 115
anli-slavery effort. The emancipation of the West India .slaves
-was decreed in 1833, and fully executed in 1838.
The movements of France in relation to African freedom, must
also be noticed, to obtain a clear view of the present relations of free
labor to slave labor. The history of the island of St. Domingo sup
plies materials of great interest upon this subject. The French por
tion of that island, in 1789, consisting of 30,826 whites, and 27,548
free colored persons,* had 480,000 slaves t employed in agriculture,
and furnished three-fifths of the produce of aU the French West India
colonies, amounting in value to more than $50,000,000, and consumed,
of French manufactures, 849,430,000. J The Spanish part of the
island employed in agriculture oiUy 15,000 slaves.^
The political troubles of St. Domingo began in 1790, between the
mulattoes and the whites, the slaves remaining industrious, quiet, and
orderly. But in August, 1792, the slaves joined in the rebellion, and
the massacre of the whites was coraraenced. The most dreadful
scenes of cruelty and bloodshed continued to be enacted until- 1801,
when a constitution was adopted, and the island, under the name of
Hayti, formally proclaimed an independent neutral power. At the
close of this year, Bonaparte made an effort to reconquer the island,
and, in order to succeed, the French general, Le Clerc, first attempted
to restore the planters to their former authority over the negroes,
many of whom, in the preceding struggles, had been granted their
freedom ; but, faUing in this, he was forced, as a last resort, on the
25th of AprU, 1802, to "proclaira liberty and equality lo all the in
habitants, without regard to color." The Haytien chieftains, Touis-
sant, Dessalines, Chrislophe, &c., being immediately deserted by the
blacks, were forced to submit, and the French sovereignty was again
recognized throughout Hayti. As a first step to deprive the people
of their efficient leaders, Le Clerc seized Touissant and his family, iu
the night, about the middle of May, and hurried them on board a ves
sel, which sailed immediately for France. T[ This act of perfidy at
once aroused the population to resistance, and the French, after a loss
of 40,000 men, by disease and war, were compelled to capitulate,
Nov., 1803, and, with a remnant of the array, of only 8,000 men,
beg leave to depart from the island. Dessalines now assumed the
authority, and a general massacre of the remaining French inhabitants
took place.**
From this period, 1803, dates the independence of Hayti. Its
population was, at this time, 348,000.'lt Chrislophe was declared
king in 1811. Petion succeeded hira and died in 1818, when Boyer
came into power and annexed the Spanish part of the Island. From
this period until 1843, when Boyer abdicated, the Island enjoyed a
fair degree of tranquUity. The legislation was rigidly directed lo
* Westminster Rev., 1850, p. 261. f Macgregor, p. 1152.
i Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 6. § Macgregor, p. 1152.
IT Confined to a loathsome dungeon, he died the next year.
** See Life of Benjamin Lundy, and also Macgregor.
f-'r Macgregor, p. 1152.

116 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
secure the industry of the inhabitants, but wilh Uttle success as we
shall see.
In 1848, the whole of the slaves in the remaining French colonies
were emancipated by a decree of the Republic. Their population,
including free persons and slaves, we find stated as follows :*

Colonics.

Free.

Slaves. 75,330 89,349 62,154

Colonies;

Free.

Slaves.

Martinique, ..(1846),
Gaudaloupe,. . .(do),
Bourban,  (do),
Nossi Be and
Nossi Cumba, . (do)

47,352 40,42845,512

Nossi Falli and
Nossi Mitsou, (1846),
St. Mary Mag
dalene,  (do),
Senegal  (184.5),
Algiers, (estimate).

14,512 3,4658,427

7,698
2,415
10,113 10,000

Total, 

159,696

257,059

We are now enabled to stale the amount of the colored popula
tion, in the EngUsh and French colonies, to whom freedom has
been secured, and upon whom, since their emancipation, free labor
tropical cultivation lias devolved. It was as foUows :
British West Indies, ... 1834  700,000
Hayti,  1804,  348,000
Other French Colonies, 1848,  257,000
Total  LSOpJJO
Here we shall terminate our preliminary historical retrospect and
proceed to demonstrate our first proposition, which is this :
I. That free labor, in tropical and semi-tropical countries, is faUing
to furnish to the markets of the world, in anything like adequate
quantities, those commodities upon which slave labor is chiefly
employed. We shall commence with the British West Indies. The foUowing
table embraces the exports frora Jamaica alone. We cannot ascer
tain the amount exported from the whole English West India col
onies, including the period of the slave trade. But as Jamaica is
much the largest and most important Island, and as nearly the same
results have followed in all the islands, it may justiy be taken as the
type of the whole, and as fully exhibiting the influence which the
legislation of the mother country, on the subject of the slave trade
aud slavery, in its several stages of progress, has exerted upon her
own commerce and manufactures, and upon the prosperity of the
colonies. The quantities stated are the average annual exports for
periods of five years each, embracing the last five years of the slave
trade, the last five of slavery, and the first five offreedom.i We
*Anti-Slavery Reporter.
tWhere 'he sugar is given in hogsheads, we have reduced it to pounds, esti-
mating the hhd. at 1600 lbs. nett. ^
Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 117

are also enabled to bring down the results lo the close of 1848,
including the three last years separately.

Years of Exports.

lbs-. Sugar.

P. Ram.

lbs Coffee.

Ann. Value.

Ann. average, 1803 to 1807*
1829 to 183,3*
1839 to 1843*
" exports 1846+1847t
" 1848+

211,139,200 152,564,800 67,924,800
57,956,80077,686,400 67,539,200

50,426
35,505 14,18514,395
18,077
20,194

23,625,377 17,645,602 7,412,498 6,047,150
6,421,122
5,684,921

$19,263,105 13,957,390 6.066,420

*Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 225.
fLittel's Living Age, 1850, No. 309, p. 1^5.— Letters of Mr. Biffelow.
We add also the exports from British Guiana, because it includes
the article of cotton, and exhibits the decline in its production.*

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

Pun. Rum.

Ck's. Molas.

lbs. Couon.

Coffee, lbs. Dutch,

182718301833 18361839
1843

113,868,800
111,248,200
101,464,000 91,427,200 61,585,60057,180,800

22,362 32,939 17,824
24,202 16,070 8,296

28,22621,189 44,508 37,08812,134
24,937

6,361,600
2,169,200 1,479,6001,278,400 541,600 9,600

8,063,7529,502,756
5,704,482
4,801,352 1,583,2501,428,100

The rate at which the cultivation of cotton has declined in the
British West Indies, is indicated by the imports of that article from
them into England, in the periods staled below, t

1829

1830

1831

1632

1833

1834

1840*

4,640,414

3,449,247

2,401,685

2,040,428

2,084,826

2,296,525

427,529

*McQueen, see Lecture, 1. p. 37.
The total amount of the imports of sugar and coflTee, into England,
from all her West India Colonies, but not embracing the period of
the slave trade, were as follows :J

Years of importation.

Ann. aver, in the 5 yrs, 1827 to 1831,
" " " " 1832 to 1836,
« " " " 1837 to 1841,
<< " " " 1842 to 1846,
In the year 1847, 
" " 1848.§ 

lbs. Sugar.

448,765,520411,869,056 313,570.144
277,252,400 358,379,952
313,306,112

lbs. Coffee.

26,670,60119,904,53613,473,389 7,985,153
6,770,79g

*Blackwood's Mag., 1848, p. 225. +See table of imports, p. 16, of this Paxt.
{Westminster Review, 1850, p. 279. ^London duar. Review, 1850, p. 97.

118 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
"In 1831 the British West India Colonies produced 459,622,600
lbs. of sugar ; " being neariy eleven miUions of pounds more than the
average of that and the preceding four years. This amount seems to
have been sufficient for the home consumption, because the importa
tion of 65,320,192 lbs. of foreign sugar, during that year, was for
re-export only.* But in 1848, such had been the increased con
sumption of that article, in the seventeen years which had elapsed,
that the imports of sugar amounted to 769,604,416 lbs., of which
there was taken for consumption 690,213,552 Ibs.t Of -this amount
the British West Indies supplied only 313,306,1 12 lbs,! and 229,748,-
096 lbs. were oi foreign slave grown sugar.^ We shall here close
our statements in relation to the failure of free labor cultivation in
the British West India Colonies, and turn to those of France.
The foUowing statistical table of exports from Hayti, 1[ tells, but
too forcibly, the results of emancipation upon the commercial pros
perity of that Island, and shows* the magnitude of the loss sustained
by France in having this colony wrested from her. It includes the
exports of the three principal products from 1789 lo 1841.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

lbs. Coffee.

lbs. CoUon.

Remarks.

1789

141,089,931

76,835,219

7,004,274

Island tranquil.

1790

163,318,810

68,151,180

6,286,126

Wh'sand Mul. at war.

1801

18,534,112

43,420,270

2,480,340

Slaves freed in 1793.

1818

5,443,765

26,065,200

474,118

Boyer in power.

1819

3,790,300

29,240,919

216,103

t< (C

1820

2,517,289

35,137,759

346,839

tt tt

1821

600,9.34

29,925.951

820,563

tt tt

1822

200,451

24,235,372

592,368

tt tt

1823

14,920

33,802,837

332,256

tt It

1S24

5,106

44,269,084

1,028,045

tt «(

1825

2,020

36,034,300

815,697

tt (1

1626

32,864

32,189,784

620,973

tt tt

1835

1,097

48,352,371

1,649,717

Ex's for whole Island.

1836

10,199

37,602,672

1,072,555

(( tt

1837

30,845,400

1,013,171

tt tt

18.38

49,820,241

tt ti

18.39

7,889,092
1,635,420
tt ti
1840
741
46,126,272
922,575
Republic.
1841
1,363
34,114,717
1,591,454
((
1848
very little
33,600,000+
*J^o statement yet received. + Campbell, Arnott & Co.
The assertion of Independence by the people of Hayti, and the
almost immediate abandonment of sugar cultivation in the Island, at
once deprived France of three-fifths of her colonial imports of that
article. To supply the deficiency, the Emperor Napoleon made the
attempt, on a grand scale, to produce beet-root sugar in France itself
But this experiment did not meet the public wants, and the cultivation
*London Quar. Review, 1850, p. 97. +Ib. p. 88. }Ib. p. 97. «b p 88.
irMacgrcgor, Loudon Ed. 1847.
Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 119
of sugar, by slave labor, was necessarily rapidly increased in the
remaining French colonies. The slave trade being actively prose
cuted at that period, it afforded a full supply of slaves to the French
planters, and the exports of sugar, from her remaining colonies, must
have rapidly increased, as we find, that in the first nine months of
1847, they had increased to an .amount exceeding by five millions
and a half of pounds, the exports from Hayti, for the whole year,
in 1790.
The effects of the recent emancipation of her slaves by the French
Republic* bids fair to prove as disastrous to the commerce of her col
onies and to the interests of France, as were the lesulls of the rebel
lion of Hayti. We find it stated, in the current news of the day,
that, " according lo official data, the amount of sugar imported into
France, from her colonies in Guiana, the West Indies, and the Island
of La Reunion, has faUen from 168,884,177 lbs., the quantity im
ported during the first nine months of 1847, lo 96,929,336 lbs., for
the same period of the year 1849, being a faUing ofl", for the nine
months, of 71,854,841 lbs.
We wish here to slate dislinctiy that our leading object in pre
senting, so fully the evidences of the failure of free labor tropical
cultivation, is not to prove that slavery should not be abolished ; be
cause that would involve the absurdity of insisting, that one-third the
world should be enslaved, to secure to the other two-thirds their
coffee, sugar, and cotton, at a reduced price. But our aim is to
impress the great trutii on the mind of the christian public, ///a^ mere
personal freedom is insufficient to elevate and ennoble an unen
lightened people, and that intellectual and moral culture should
accompany all emancipation schemes, otherwise they must fail in
the accomplishment of the great good which personal freedom,
under other circumstances, secures to man.
Having now presented the principal instances where free labor has
failed in tropical cultivation, upon territory formerly employing slave
labor, we may pause and state the extent of that failure, so far as to
include the articles of coffee, cotton, and sugar. But as we have not
had access to any statement of the exports from the whole of the
British West India Islands, for the period of the slave trade, we must
take those of Jamaica as the type ofthe whole. From 1807 to 1831
the exports of sugar fell off, in Jamaica, 38,yYo P^'" cent., and that of
coffee 33,y'^. By adding this amount to the exports from aU the
Islands in 1831, will give us their probable exports in 1807. The
article of cotton cannot be brought under this rule, for want of accu
rate data, previous to 1829.
The deficit of free labor tropical cultivation, as compared with
slave labor whde sustained by the slave trade, including the territorial
liraits upon which England and France have liberated their bondsmen,
stands as foUows : — a startiing result, truly, lo those who expected
emancipation to work well commercially.
» See page 122.

120 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Contrast of Slave Labor anu Free Labor Exports from the West Indies.

Slave Labor.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

lbs. Coffee.

lbs. Collon,

British West Indies 
Havti 

1807 1790

636,025,643
163,318,810

31,610,764 76,835,219

ir,ooo,ooo» 7,286,126

Total, 

809,344,453

108,245,983

24,286,126

Free Labor.
British West Indies 
Hayti, 
1848 1848
313,306,112 very little
6,770,792
34,114,717t
427,529+
l,59l,454{
Total, 
313,306,112
40,885,509
2,018,933
Free Labor Deiicit, 
496,038,341
67,360,474
22,267,143
»1800. +1840. n847.
We have not included the French Islands emancipated in ] 848,
because the information possessed in relation lo them is not suffi-
cientiy accurate. When the decline of free labor, in them, reaches
its maximum, at least another 100,000,000 lbs. of sugar must be
added lo the sura of free labor failures.*
To understand the bearing which this decrease of production, by
Free Labor, has upon the interests of the African people, it must be
remembered that the consumption of sugar has not diminished, but
increased, vastiy, and that for every hogshead that free labor sugar is
diminished, a hogshead of slave labor sugar is demanded to supply
its place ; and more than this : for every additional hogshead de
manded by the increased consumption of sugar, an additional one, of
slave labor production, mt^«f be furnished, because the world will not
do without sugar. It must be noticed, also, thai, al the present
moment, the greater portion of all this double demand for sugar, falls
upon the people of color. It seems to be a setded rule, that if the
African race will not supply to the world its sugar, by voluntary
labor, receiving for themselves all the profits on its production; then
the world compels them to do it, by compulsory labor, and votes the
whole profits to the white man who applies the whip that stimu
lates them to industry.
These remarks will apply to coffee and cotton, also, or to any
other exportable tropical commodity upon which slave labor is em
ployed. We now close our investigations in relation to our first pro
position, believing that we have fully demonstrated its truthfulness,
and shall proceed to the second.
* See Parts First and Second, for our views of the causes of the failure of
the type of free labor wliich exists in the West Indies.
Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 121
II. That Christian governments, at the present moment, are compeUed,
from necessity, to consume slave labor products to a large extent,
and thus stiU continue to aid in extending and perpetuating slavery
and the slave trade.

The discussion of our first proposition closed with a statement of
the deficit of free labor tropical cultivation, within the territorial liraits
upon which tiie eraancipation of the staves, formerly held in bondage
by England and France, had been effected.
In discussing the second proposition, we shall first ascertain the
extent of the consumption of tropical commodities, by the three gov
ernments most deeply interested in the questions of slavery and the
slave trade, (England, France, and the Uuited States,) and then the
sources from which their supplies are obtained, and the proportions
that are the product of free labor or of slave labor. And, first, of
Cotton :
The manufacture of raw cotton into fabrics for clothing, was intro
duced into England at an early period ; but il was confined chiefly to
operatives in famUies, untU about 1785, when the discovery of the
power of steam, and the improvements in machinery, gave lo manu
facturing industry an impulse that has extended it with almost mirac
ulous rapidity.
The best information that can be gained from the English custom
house books, gives from one to two millions of pounds of cotton as
the amount annually imported between 1697 and 1751. In 1764,
the imports had reached 3,870,000 lbs., and in 1784, over 11,480,000
pounds.* Previous lo 1795, the supplies of cotton were obtained by England
from the West Indies, South America, India, and the Levant.t It
was not until 1791, that any collon was shipped lo England frora the
United States. In this year, 189,316 lbs. were sent over, and in the
year following only 138,328 Ibs.J
The iraportation of cotton into England maintained a nearly equal
annual progressive increase, firom 1784 to 1805, when it had reached
60,000,000 lbs., and in 1817, near 125,000,000 lbs., a smaU part of
which (8,156,000 lbs.) was re-exported. §
The quantity of collon consumed by Great Britain, from 1817, the
period last staled, to 1836, is embraced in the following table, which
is extracted from that very able work. Porter's Progress of the
Nation. That from 1840 to 1849 is also added, and is taken from a
very elaborate and valuable article in the London Economist,!] a pe
riodical that has no superior for accuracy. The whole table is one
of great value in our discussion, and presents the important fact, that

* McCulIough's account of British Empire, Vol. I, p. 643.
+ lb., p. 648. i lb., p. 648.
§ McCuUough, Vol. I, p. 649.
II Supplement to London Economist, Jan. 5, 1850.

122 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
the consumption of cotton in England, in 1849, was 624,000,000 lbs.*
The imports for the year reached 755,469,008 lbs.; of which there
were re-exported 98,893,536 lbs., leaving for home consumption
656,575,472 lbs.,t of which only the quantity above stated was
used within the year.
Table exhibiting the quantity of Cotton annualhj consumed in England, from
1818 to 1838, t and from 1840 to 1849. §

Years.

Cotton, lbs.

Yeab.

Cotton, lbs.

Years.

Cotton, lbs.

1818

109,902,000

1828

217,860,000

1840

517,254,400

1819

109,518,000

1829

219,200,000

1841

460,387,200

1820

120,265,000

1830

247,600,000

1842

477,339,200

1821

129,029,000

1831

262,700,000

1843

555,214,400

1822

145,493,000

1832

276,900,000

1844

570,731,200

1823

154,146,000

18.33

287,000,000

1845

626,496,000

1824

165,174,000

1834

303,000,000

1846

624,000,000

1825

166,831,000

1835

326,407,692

1847

442,416,000

1826

150,213,000

1836

363,684,232

1848

602,160,000

1827

197,200,000

1838*

460,000,000

1849

624,000,000

* Lectures of George Thompson, Esq., England, 1339, p. 03.
The cotton consumed in the United States, in 1848, including an
estimate of that manufactured in the, cotton-growing States, and in
those along the tributaries of the Mississippi, estimating the bales at
400 lbs. each, was 260,000,000 lbs.|| Our average annual increased
consumption of cotton is 14,000,000 lbs. ,11 which, for 1849, wiU aug
ment the quantity consumed in the United States lo 274,000,000 lbs.
The consumption of cotton in France, in 1832, was 68,725,961 lbs.,
and in 1833, 72,767,551 lbs.** The exports frora the United Slates
lo France, in 1849, were 151,340,000 Ibs.tt The whole amount
delivered for consumption that year was 156,000,000 lbs., of which
147,000,000 lbs. were from the United Stales, and the remaining
9,000,000 lbs. from other countries,^— from Brazil, say 3,000,000 lbs.
The whole amount of cotton taken for consumption, in 1849, in
the remaining continental countries, was 129,920,000 lbs., of which
128,800,000 lbs. were from the United Stales,§§ leaving of that from
other countries, only 1,020,000 lbs.
The consumption of cotton from the United States, on the whole
continent of Europe, now reaches 280,000,000 lbs.||||

* In the table of the Economist, published before the whole consumption of
1849 had been ascertained, it is estimated at 659,984,000 lbs., the editor having
taken, as his data, the consumption of the first eleven months of the year. Sub
sequently, the actual quantity was ascertained and published, and we have
changed the figures to the true amount.
+ London Economist, 1850, p. 195. { Porter's Progress of the Nation.
§ Supplement to the London Economist, Jan. 1850, n. 36.
II New Orleans Bulletin. '^
ir Supplement to London Economist, Jan. 1850 p 35
** J"'"'= P™f "='• tt London Economist, 1850, p. 103.
++ See page 123. II II Sup. to L. Econ., Jan. 1850, p. 35.
§§ London Econ., 1850, p. 103.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 123
We are now prepared to state die amount of collon, from all
sources, actually consumed by the United States aud Europe, in
1849. Il was as follows :
Great Britain,  lbs. . 624,000,000
France and other Continental countries, . , . 285,920,000
The United Stales,  270,000,000
Total Collon Consumption,  lbs. 1,179,920,000
The next point of inquiry is. Whence are these supplies of cotton
obtained ? " Next to the United Stales, but at a very great distance
from them, Brazil, the East Indies, and Egypt, are the countries which
furnish the largest supplies of cotton for exportation." * The ad
vantages possessed by the United Slates, in the growing of cotton,
and the superior quaUties of our staple, render it difiicult, if not
impossible, for the other countries producing that article, to compete
with us in its cultivation. The subjoined table is full of instruction
on this subject.
Imports of Cotton into Great Britain, during each of the six years, endiny with
1834, specifying the countries whence imported, the re-exports, and quantity left
for consumption.^

Countries whence
Imported.

Germany, Holland, )
Belgium,  S
Portugal, Proper, 
Jlaly aud Italian Islands,
.Malta, 
Turkey and Continent- )
al Greece,  J
Egypt, (Ports on Med- 5
iterranean,)  5
Mauritius. 
East Indies and Ceylon,
Philipine Islands, 
British N". A. Colonies,.
British West Indies,- . . -
Hayti, 
Cuba and other foreign >
West Indies.  J
TJ. plates of America,-
CKjlombia, 
Brazil, 
Chili & Rio de la Plata,
Vurious other countries.
Peru, 

Total imported, 
Amount exported,. - •

1829.

 7
• 27,893

• ¦•61,234
• ••91,905
•5,894,460

. • . . 50.599
¦ 21.48i:-61
. . -16.011
......52.419¦ .4.(>40.414
. . . 149,048
. . . 128.696

157.lb7.396 . . . 697.564
.28,878.380

lbs.
.... 77,135
.... 85,967
 IS
.-¦¦27,073
• ¦ ¦ 353,077
. ¦3,048,R33
....14,056
•12,481.761 29.672
 i473
¦ ¦3,429;247
¦ ¦ • 166,260
- ¦ . - 10,174
210.683,358 ¦ ¦ • 22t,.381
• 33,092,072

 1.9.3)  4,063
 69,378i  45,629

222.767,411 203.961,452
30,2^9,116 • •6,5.34,976

Left for consumption, 192,478,296 255,426,476 266,366,298 268,804,586

lbs.

. • • 35,640
• • 843,895
¦ • 306,560
¦ 7,714,474

25,805,153 • • - • 8,420
• •316,016
• 2,400,085
• •251,179

219.333.628 • •334.691
31,695,761 ... 10,624
 110
. . . 67,027

28S.674.a53 • 22.303,656

lbs.
• 116,727
• • 59,050
• •21,7.39
• • 28,063
• 289,779

¦35,178.625¦ ¦¦¦ 40,679
 7,158
¦ -2040,428
¦ • • • 59,413
 314

1833,

• • • 3.909
. 943,381
• - 15,708
¦ • 17,298
. 433,898
. 533.304

32,755,164 ... 37.908
¦ . 146,526
.2,084.862• ¦ 3fc9;791

219,756,753 237,596,758

293,602
• 20.109,560
...'..3,729  1,446
 1,194

2S6.832.525 .18027,940

. 306,0.33
-28,463.621 378
 38

303.656,837 17,363,682

1834.

lbs.
. . • 7,296
• • • 5.624
• 826,458

• 410,730
•441,437

¦Si.mO.S'S

 3.3-32
-.2,290.625• - - 223,004
 3,794
269.203,075 ¦•1,004.^40 • 19,281.390
 78.ao7
• ¦ . 154,639
 4.053

326,875 405
24,461,963

286,292,955 302,413,402

The foUowing lable, added to the above, affords all the information
that is necessary to a full understanding of the question, whence the
supplies of collon are obtained :
» McCuUough, Vol. I, p. 651. + lb.

124 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Imports of cotton into Cheat Britain, from all foreign countries, presenting the an
nual average during periods of five years, from 1830 to 1849, inclusive.*

Years.

MiscelUneous.t

Brazil.

Bgypt.

East Indies.

Dnited States.

1830 to 1834
1835 to 1839
1840 to 1844
1845 to 1849

5,510,000
12,909,600 9,430.8003,586,400

59,590,80051,474,800 37,698,000 39,654,800

7,959,600
13,842,400 16,633,200 17,967,200

32,318,000 57,612,00093,383,600 71,940,800

247,356,400 344,688,800464,226,400 7.34,244,560 J

Wben the cotton of the United Slates had been fairly tested in
England, it was found to be very much superior to that from the East
Indies. The seed of our cotton was, therefore, introduced into India,
and its cultivation so far succeeded, as lo warrant the belief that, with
proper encouragement from government, it might be grown in any
quantities. In 1839, a vigorous effort was raade, headed by George
Thompson, Esq.,§ to enlist Parliament in the enterprise. It was
urged that all the elemenls of successful cotton cultivation existed in
the East Indies, and that the English nation migbt soon obtain its
supplies of collon from that country, and repudiate that of the United
Stales. The introduction to the American edition of the Lectures delivered
by Thompson on that occasion, which was written by Wm. Lloyd
Garrison, contains tbe foUowing sentences. || They sufficiendy indi
cate what were the anticipations of the advocates of the measure :
" If England can raise her own cotton in India, at the paltry rate
of a penny a pound, what inducement can she have to obtain her
supply from a rival nation, al a rate six or eight limes higher? It is
stated that East India free labor costs three pence a day — African
slave labor, two shillings ; that upward of 800,000 bales of cotton
are exported from the United States, annually, lo England; and that
the cotton trade of the United States with England amounts to the
enormous sum of $40,000,000 annually. Let that market be closed
to ihis slaveholding Republic, and its slave system must inevitably
perish from starvation ! "
Mr. Thompson, throughout the whole course of his lectures, seems
not to doubt the success of East India cotton cultivation, and also thalof
sugar and coffee, and that the result would be the destruction of the slave
trade, and the downfall of slavery everywhere. He thus exclaims :^
" The balde-ground of freedom for the world is on the plains of
Hindoslan. Yes, my friends, do justice to India; wave there the
scepter of justice, and the rod of oppression falls from the hands
of the slaveholder in America ; and the slave, swelling beyond the
* Supplement to the London Economist, 1850, pp. 34, 35. — Bales estimateil at
400 lbs. each.
+ Chiefly the British Colonies.
+ We have substituted the average imports of 1848 and 1849, from the United
States, instead of from 1845 to 1849, because it gives a nearer approximation to
the truth. 1847, in the U. S., made only three-fourths of a crop, and it was
the year of famine iu Great Britain.
§"Th6 great Abolitionist. || Lecture by George Thompson, Esq., 1839, p. 9.
IT Lecture, page 121.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 125
measure of his chains, stands disenthralled, a free inan, and an
acknowledged brother ! "
We need not trace the history of this effort to promote the cultiva
tion of cotton in India. It is of such recent occurrence, that aU
intelligent raen are familiar with the results. Paragraphs like the
following frequently meet the eye of the general reader. It is taken
from a reliable periodical.
" Late accounts from India [through the English press,J represent
that tho atterapls of the British capitalists, during the last two or
three years, to cultivate cotton in the district of Dharwar, from which
ranch was expected, have signally faded. In 1847-8, about 20,000
acres were cultivated. It is now ascertained that the crop has rapidly de
creased, onl}' 4,000 acres having been under cultivation the past year."
It is unnecessary to discuss the causes operating in the East
Indies, to make it impossible to stimulate its free laborers much
beyond their wonted rules of industry. Our views upon this ques
tion will be found in our two former lectures, where we present the
causes of tiie failure of West India free labor. We need but state,
here, that the East Indies have only a Pagan civilization, which has
long since attained its full maturity. Any efforts, therefore, aside from
the introduction of Christianity, and a Christian civilization, or
the reduction of the population lo slavery, raust fail in securing a
much greater degree of industry than exists al present. If left lo
their own free will, aU attempts to introduce improvements in agri
culture and manufactures, will probably result like the following effort
made to improve their mode of plowing. Under the head of " Cot
ton in India," the London Times ofthe present year, says :
"The one great element of American success — of American en
terprise — can never, al least for many generations, be imparted to
Imtia. It is impossible to expect of Hindoos all that is achieved by
citizens of the States. During the experiments lo which we have
alluded, an English plow was introduced into one of the provinces,
and the natives were taught its use and superiority over tiieir own
clnrasy machinery. They were at first astonished and delighted at
its effects, but as soon as the agent's back was turned, they look it,
painted it red, set il up on end, and worshipped it."
Another anecdote, confirraatory of the impossibdity of effecting a
change of habits in the people of India, was told by the Rev. J. H.
iMonison, missionary iu India, during his late visit to this country.
An English gentieman, resident in India, had coraraenced an improve
ment, requiring the removal of a large quantity of earth. Employing
native laborers, they commenced the task in their usual way, by car
rying the earth to the place of deposit, in baskets, upon their heads.
Pitying them, and wishing to facUitate the work, he had a number
of wheelbarrows constructed, and taken upon the ground. Showing
the laborers how to use them, they appeared pleased wilh the nov
elty, and worked briskly. Gratified that he had relieved thera from
a toilsome system of labor, the gentieman left them to pursue their
work. But on returning some days afterwards, he was astonished

126 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
and mortified, to see them filling their wheelbarrows, and then, lifting
Ihe whole burden upon their heads, deliberately carrying it off as they
had done their baskets. Such is Pagan stupidity and Pagan attach
ment to custom.
The successful cultivation of cotton in the United States, and the
belter adaptation of the lands in Cuba and BrazU, to the production
of sugar and coffee, has led the planters of these two countries to
devote their labor chiefly to the production of the last named com
modities. The preceding tables of imports into England, (page 16,)
proves the truth of this statement, and shows a great diminution in
the production of collon, except in the United States. In reviewing
the results in the several cotton-growing countries, the London Econ
omist remarks : *
" Frora Brazil, therefore, our annual supply has diminished nearly
20,000,000 lbs. ; or if we compare the two extreme years of the
series, 1830 and 1848, the faUing off is from 76,906,800 lbs. to
40,097,600 lbs. or 36,800,000 lbs.
" The supply from Egypt, however, seems to have reached its
maximum in 1845, in which year we received 32,537,600 lbs. This
year it does not reach half that amount. Moreover, this country,
from the peculiar circumstances of its government, is littie lo be
relied upon, — the supply having varied from 16.116,000 lbs. in 1832,
to 1,027,600 lbs. in 1833 ; and again, from 7,298,000 lbs. in 1842,
to 26,400,000 lbs. in 1844.
" For many years it was the custom of the Pacha of Egypt, to
require a certain araounl of cotton from his tenants, or, in fact, to
compel them to pay the whole, or a fixed portion of their rent, in
cotton. Under this forcing system, the cultivation was extensively
introduced. Of late years, however, the Fellahs have been allowed
to grow the article, or not, at their option ; and such is their natural
indolence and want of enterprise, that even where they still continue
the growth, they do so in a very careless manner, t
" Our supply from the East Indies varies enormously, from 36,-
000,000 lbs. lo 108,000,000 lbs. per annum, inasmuch as ive only
receive that proportion of the crop which our prices may divert from
China, or from internal consumption.
" The summary of our supply, from all these quarters corabined, is :

1830 to 1834, 105,410,400 lbs.
1835 to 1839, 136,088,000 lbs.

1840 lo 1844, 157,145,600 lbs.
1845 lo 1849, 133,120,800 lbs.

" The result of this inquiry, then, is, that our average annual sup
ply from aU quarters, except the United States, was, in the five years
ending 1849, less by 2,943,200 lbs. than in the five years ending
1839, and. less by 24,000,000 lbs. than in the five years ending 1844.
Of this diminished supply, moreover, we have been exporting an
increasing quantity, averaging, annually, in the last five years, 31,-
680,000 lbs. againsl27,360,000, annually, in the previous five yeais."

* Supplement to Jan. 5, 1850, p. 34. +74. p. 38.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 127
The imports of cotton into the UnUed States, mostiy from the
Dutch West Indies, is very inconsiderable in amount, beino-, for 1848
only 317,742 lbs., or less than 800 bags, of which 51,000 lbs. were
re-exported. The exports of cotton from the United States, affords the key to
the chief source of supply of that article to European countries.
Exports of Cotton from the United States, io Foreign Countries, for ihe years 1846
1847, 1848, and 1849, the years ending June 30.* '

AVliither E.xported.

Russia,  ,
Prussia 
Sweden and Norway,. . .
Denmark, 
Hanse towns, 
Holland 
Belgium, 
England, 
Scotland, 
Ireland, 
Gibralter, 
British Amer. Colonies,.
France on the Atlantic,
" Mediterranean,
Spain, 
Cuba, 
Portugal, 
Italy, 
Sardinia, 
Trieste and Austrian ports
Mexico, 
Cent. Repub. of America,
China and South Seas, .

Lbs.— 1S46. Lbs.— 1847

4,292,680

2,555,788 32,287
7,543,017
3,849,8597,408,422
326,365,971 13,312,850 6,379,746
1,054,310 47,380
124,185,369 7,867,480 117,885
10,102,969 19,533
11,212,093 2,387,264
13,382,043 4,392 828

85,760

5,618,365

2,887,693 660,732
10,889,543 1,978,324
10,184,,348
338,150,564 12,683,738 424,497 90,199
226,493
98,421,966 4,695,492
12,313,658 3,139,156

8,720,718
4,494,594
11,780,673

Total, lbs..
Value, ....

547,558,055
$42,767,341

848,998

527,219,958
$53,415,884,

Lbs.— 1848. Lbs,— 1840-

10,266,911 116,523
4,978,024 69,020
17,420,498 4,851,509
15,279,676
546,911,132 25,091,965

133,202 22,352
129,263,272 7,034,583
19,323,425 4,557,474 774
6,077,621
2,514,364
20,643,690

12,953

814,274,431
$61,998,294

10,050,631

7,030,305 4,779
13,844,494
11,877,366
28,113,309
696,669,474 38,706,884 3,968,5475,725,812 97,104
144,481,949 6,858,283
23,285,804 1,584,784 240,895
10,604,462 6,053,707
13,279,384 2,208,704 524,721
760,801

1026,602,269 $66,396,976

We must bring this discussion of the cotton question to a close.
If we lake the table of imports into England,! as the guide, it wUl
be seen that she was importing, annually, during the last period
named, ending wilh 1849, the following proportions of slave labor
and oi free labor cotton :
The product of Slave labor.
From BrazU,  39,654,800 lbs.
From United States, .... 734,244,560 "
 773,899,360 lbs,
Tlie product of Free labor.
From Egypt,  17,967,200 lbs.
From East Indies,  71,940,800 "
From Miscellaneous, .... 3,586,400 "

93,494,400 "
England's excess of imports of slave labor cotton, 680,404,960 "
• Reports of Sec. of Treas. of U. S. on Commerce and Navigation-
t Present Part, page 120.

128 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
The actual consumption of cotton, by England, in 1849, as before
staled, was 624,000,000 lbs. Ofthe imports of 133,149,200 lbs. *
cotton not the growth of the United States, there were re-exported
31,680,000 lbs.,t leaving thereof, for consumption in England, 101,-
469,200 lbs. Deducting this amount from the quantity consumed in
1849, leaves 522,530,800 lbs. as the amount of England's consump
tion of collon derived from the United States.
But of the 101,469,200 lbs. above named, at least 30,000,000 lbs.
raust have been from BrazU, and consequently of slave labor origin,
leaving for the English manufacturer, only 71,469,200 lbs. of free
labor cotton.
The result of this investigation may now be stated thus :
Slave Labor Cotton consumed in 1849.
By England, from Brazil, . . 30,000,000 lbs.
By England, from United States, 522,530,800 "
By France,^ frora United States, 147,000,000 "
By France, from BrazU, say, 3,000,000 "
By other continental countries,
from United Stales, . . . 128,800,000 "
By United Slates, growth of
United States  270,000,000 "
Total slave labor consumption,  1,101,330,800 lbs.
Free Labor Cotton consumed in 1849.
By England, from aU sources, 71,469,200 lbs.
By France, say,  6,000,000 "
By other continental countiries, II 1,120,000 "
Total free labor consumption, . ~. '. '. '. . 78,589,200 lbs.
Grand total cotton consumption,  1,179,920,000 "
That this exhibit of the cotton question is not an exaggerated
statement, got up for effect, but is within the limits of the truth, will
appear evident when the extent of the production of cotton is taken
into consideration. By the Custom House books of commercial
nations, all imports and exports of merchandise are easily ascertained.
The following statement, embracing only the quantity of cotton
consumed in the United States and exported from it, and the amount
imported into England from other countries than the United States,
in 1849, will be sufficient for our purpose.
Exports of cotton from the United States, . . 1,026,602,269 lbs
Amount consumed in the United States, . . . 270,000,000 "
Amount imported into England from East Indies,
Egypt, BrazU, &c.,  133,120,800 "
Total  1,429,723,069 "
Amount included in our estimates, . . .. 1,179,920,000 "
Surplus over our estimates,  249,803,069 "
* See table, page 120, present Part. + Present Part., p. 122.
t Present Part, p. 118. || London Economist, 1850, p. 103

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 129
After this exhibition of facts, we have no fears that the fairness of
our statements will be caUed in question. Indeed, a close scrutiny
will show that we have not pressed into the tables of slave grown
cotton, all that we might have done. All the foreign imports of cot
ton, not the growth ofthe United States, that were not re-exported by
England, are counted as consumed, thus reducing the proportion of
the slave labor cotton of the United Slates by the amount of the
forjuer reraainuig unconsumed. We wish il also to be noticed, that
we have included in the list of slave labor cotton consumed in Eng
land, in 1849, only 522,530,800 lbs. from the United States, while in
that year, she imported of our cotton, 755,469,008 lbs., being an
excess over the amount included in the quantity consumed, nearly
equal to the surplus above stated, and proving that that surplus must
be mostly the product of slave labor.
We may now safely place, in contrast, the figures representing the
proportions of Free Labor and of Slave Labor Cotton consumed by
the United States and Europe, in 1849, and claim, that, so far as this
commodity is concerned, our second proposition is triumphantly
sustained. Look at the figures :
Total slave labor cotton consumption, . . . 1,101,330,000 lbs.
Total free labor cotton consumption, . . . 78,589,200 "
Excess of consumption of slave labor over free
labor collon,  1,022,741,600 "
Your attention is now caUed to the article of Coffee. As England
occupies the most prominent position upon the subject of African
freedom, and is making the most determined struggles to stimulate
free labor, and make it compete with slave labor, her connection wilh
this question, as with aU the others, becoraes one of great interest.
Up to 1825, a discriminating duty of 56 shillings per cwt. was levied
upon coffee from British India, for the benefit of the English West
India colonies. At that time, this duty was but Uttle fell, because,
owing to the excessive duly levied upon aU descriptions of coffee,
the consumption of the kingdom was below the supply frora the
West Indies, and the surplus had lo seek a market elsewhere. In
1825, the discriminating duly was reduced to 28 shillings the cwt.
The duty after this lime stood thus :
West India coffee paid 6d. per lb., or 56s. per cwt.
East India " " 9d. " or 84s.
and all other kinds were, and stUl are, charged Is. 3d. per. lb., or
140s. per cwt., amounting to a prohibition.
The consumption of coffee in Great Britain, after these changes in
the tariff, increased from 8,000,000 lbs., in 1824, to 22,000,000, in
1830. The demand created by this increased consumption, could
* Eep. Sec. Treas. IT. S., on Commerce and Navigation.
+ Present Part, p. 119. tSee table, p. 119, present Part.
II Present Part, p. 122. i Present Part, p. 118.
p London Economist, 1850, p. 103. *» Present Part, p. 118.
9

130 Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor.
not be supplied by the West India planters, and the price rose 39 per
cent., so as to bring the East India coffee into use.
At the time of the reduction of the duties. West India coffee sold
at 90s. the cwt., but it advanced to 125s. without effecting an in
creased production. The quantity annually imported from the West
Indies, in the five years that preceded the reduction of the duty
in 1825, averaged 30,280,360 lbs., and from 1832 lo 1836, only
19,813,160 lbs., being a reduction of 34 per cent, in the supply,
notwithstanding an advance of 39 per cent, in the price. This result
led lo another modification of the coffee duties in 1835, when East
India coffee was admitted on equal terms with that of the West Indies.
While the duty on East India coffee was 9d. per lb., the amount
increased, because of the increase of price of West India coffee, from
about 300,000 lbs. a year, to 1,500,000 lbs. In 1835, the consump
tion of East India coffee araounted to 5,596,791 lbs., and in 1837
reached 9,114,793 lbs.*
The following table, embracing the whole field of the extent of
the production and consumption of coffee, is so fuU and satisfactory,
that nothing more can be needed to a clear understanding of the sub
ject. Il was prepared in December, 1849, by Campbell, Arnott &
Co., the great Liverpool coffee merchants, and may be relied upon
as possessing much accuracy.

Comparative View of Production and Consumption of Coffee.

COUNTRIES PRODUCING.

lS3ii.

1838.

1843.

Brazil, 
Java and Sumatra. 
Cuba,  ' 
PorLo Rico, Laguayra, and Costa Rica,-
St. Domingo, 
Brittsli West Indies, and Ceylon, 
Dutch West Indies, 
French East and West Indies, 
Mocha, India, Sec, 
Total Production, 
Deduct consumption of Untied Slates,
Balance for Europe, 

lbs.
73.920.000
60,480.000 49.280,000
20,160,00044.800,00028,208.000 4,480,000
11,800.00011,200,000

Ihs.
113,000.000 98.500 non
491280 000
22.400.000
.38,080.000 21.952.000 3.360.0008.9G0 000
6,720.000

301.728 000 361,312,000

49,280,000! 89,600,000

252,448,000 271,712,000

Jbs.
188,160,000
156 800,000
492S0,000
24,640.000
40.320.00019.040,000 3.)60.0008,960.0006,720 000

lbs.
250,000.000 134.4l)0,li00 22,400 000
3:1,600.000
3:1.600.00033.060000 2.240 OUO
6 720.0110
4,480,000

497.230,000

556.520.000

123,200,000

COUNTRIES CONSUMING

1832

1838

1S43

Great Britain,  23.520.000 25,318.000
France and transit, and Switzerland,  3:3,600,000 36.064,000
Holland, Belmum, aud Germany,  1 52.:!20,000 190.400.000
Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark,  11.200 0001 15.680.000
Ilaly, Austria, Levaul, Greece, aud Turkey, . . 34,720.000 40.320,000
Spain aud Portugal,  6.720,000 8,960,000

Total Consumption, 
Surplus on the 30tli of December,.

31.360.00040,320.000
219.620.000 88.400 000
51,520.000 11,800.000

33,080.00044,800 000
232 9G0.OO0
26,860,00068.240,000 13.440.000

262,030.000 316,736,000

376.320 000

414,400 000

U7,600,000i 94.752.000

177,632.000

U9.936.000

* Porter's Progress of the Nation, Vol. II., p. 118, 113.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 131
In 1821, the United Slates consumed 11,866,063 lbs. of coffee.
The duly was then five cents per lb. and remained at this rale unul
1831, when il was reduced to two cents, and in 1832 to one cent.
In 1833 coffee was admitted free of duly, and has so remained
ever since that date. The consumption of that year was 75,057,906
lbs., to which it had gradually risen from the 11,886,000 lbs. of 1831.
From this date, the consumption of coffee in the United States, had a
rapid increase untd 1847, when il had reached 150,332,992 lbs.* In
1848 the consumption was 156,000,000 Ibs.t
As all our investigations have reference to the question of the ex
tent to which Christian governments are consuming slave labor
products, il becomes necessary lo refer to the sources whence the
coffee imported by each is obtained. It stands thus :
England, by her discriminating duties, almost entirely excludes
slave labor coffee, and derives nearly the whole amount of her con-
sumpdon of that article from her own colonies. Of the 34,431,074
lbs. of coffee imported for England for home consumption, 29,769,730
lbs. were fiom her own colonies, and only 4,661,344 from elsew here. ||
According lo the table of Campbell, Arnott, and Co., the quantity
of coffee produced in slave labor countries, including Brazil, the
Dutch West Indies, Cuba, Porto Eico, &c., in 1848, was 338,240,000
lbs., whde in the remaining coffee growing countries, which were all
free labor, (France, in that year, having emancipated the slaves in her
colonies,) the production was only 217,800,000 lbs., being less than
that of the product of slave labor, by nearly one-third, or 120,440,000
lbs. As Holland, Belgium, and Germany, consume 98,560,000 lbs.
of coffee more than is produced in Java and Sumatra, this excess is
probably all slave grown produce. Looking at the small product of
the colonies of France, and her large consumption, the conclusion is,
that the greater portion of what she uses must be the product of
slave labor.
The following table points to the sources whence the United States
derives its coffee, and the extent to which she is dependent upon
slave labor for that article.
Imports of Coffee into the United States, for the year 1848. t

Countries whence imported.

Coffee, lbs.

Countries whence imported.

Coffee, lbs.

510
56,702 2,001
3,037,373 141,077710,331
2,381,773 25,484
2,258,710 384,393

Hayti 

16,990,976 328,971
12,720,613
111,657,395 507,810 37,13657,507
167,400 1,923

Dutch do. do 
British do. do 
Dutch East Indies 
British do. do 
Holland 
Manilla and Phillipine Is.
Cuba 
Other Spanish W.I 

Venezuela 
Brazil 
Cisplatine Republic 
Chili 
Africa generally 
Asia generally 
France on Atlantic 
Total, lbs.

151,412,125

«Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., Dec. 1, 1847. f Campbell, Arnott, and Co.
t Rep. Sec. Treas. ou Cora. & Nav., 1848 & 9, the year ending June 30, 1848.
II London Qr. Rev. April, 1860.

132 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Of the coffee imported, as above, that from Brazil, Cuba, and
other Spanish and Dutch West Indies, amounting to 114,294,214
lbs., was all slave labor produce. Taking all the remaining imports
as the product of free labor, and they only afford us 37,117,911 lbs.,
or a half million less than one-fourth of the amount imported. Thus
stands the coffee question in the United States.
From the preceding statistics it appears that the United States and
the nations of Europe are now consuming, annually, or have as stock
on hand, about 555,520,000 lbs. of coffee, divided as follows:
The product of slave labor .... 338,240,000 lbs.
The product of free labor  217,280,000 lbs.

Difference in favor of slave labor

120,960,000 lbs.

Next, and last, the article of Sugar claims attention. "It was
unknown to the ancients, as an article of consumption. In Europe
it was introduced as late as the fifteenth century." The first sample
of West India sugar was manufactured in Jamaica, in 1673. The
rapidity with which its production, and consumption, has increased,
will be indicated by the following table, showing the exports of
sugar from Jamaica. This lable is made up from one in Martin's
Br-itish Colonies, a work of great research ; the facts of which are
derived from official sources. The statistics have been condensed so
as to give the average annual exports from 1772 lo 1836, and there
is added, from Blackwood's Magazine, those from 1839 lo 1843, and
from 1846 10 1848.* A few years omitted in the earlier periods,
are blanks in Martin's tables. From 1804, onward, where differ
ent results from the general average are found, we give the years
separately. This arrangement is important, to enable us to judge
of the influence which the prohibition of the slave trade exerted
upon the prosperity of that and the other West India Islands ; and
to determine the period when the decline in the amount of Jamaica
exports had its origin.
Average annual exports of Sugar from Jamaica, for the periods stated.\

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

1772 to 1775

123,979,700

1809 to 1810

180,963,825

1788 to 1791

143,794,837

1811 alone.

218,874,600

1793 to 1798

145,598,850

1812 to 1821

183,706,280

1799 to 1803

193,781,140

1822 to 1832

153,760,431

1804 alone.

177,436,750

1833 to 1835

131,129,100

1805 alone.

237,751,1.50

1836 alone

75,990,950

1806 alone.

231 ,656,6.50

18.39 to 184311

67,924,800

1807 to 1808

197,963,825

1846 to 1848§

67,539,200

II Present Lecture, p. 10.
As heretofore stated,^ the effects
in 1808, and of the emancipation

§ Ibid.
of the abolition of the slave trade,
of the slaves in 1834, upon the

» See present Part, p. 113. t Page 110, Present Part.
f The tables of Martin give the exports in hhds. tierces, and bbls. We have
reduced the whole to lbs., estimating the hhd. at 1600 lbs., the tierce at 900 lbs.
and the barrel at 250 lbs., as por best authorities.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 133
commercial interests of Jamaica, will serve as a true index to the
results in all the English West India colonies.
The course of legislation in England, for several years past, has
tended to increase the consumption of sugar by augmenting the
supply. Up to 1844 all foreign sugars were excluded, and her
own colonies enjoyed a strict monopoly of her markets. But the
fadures of her West India possessions, after emancipation, lo furnish
their usual supplies, led, in 1844, to the admission of foreign free
labor sugar for consumption, and, in 1846, to that of slave labor
sugar also.
In 1848, the London Quarterly Keview* says, that the amount
taken for consumption, of foreign slave grown sugar, was 229,748,-
096 lbs. We have been unable to ascertain the total annual con
sumption of slave grown sugar, in England, since 1846, but find, by
the London Economist,! that, for the first eleven months of each
year, it has been as follows : 1848 lbs. 118,366,976
1849 " 63,517,888
The total imports of sugar into England, and the amount re-ex
ported, were as follows :
English imports.X English re-eocports.\\
1846 lbs.  lbs. 29,624,432
1847 "  " 96,613,992
1848 " 852,792,976 " 48,735,008
1849 " 928,002,208 « 84,768,096
The difference between the imports and re-exports is the amount
taken for consumption, and the difference between this and the actual
consumption indicates the stock left on hand at the close of the year.
The whole amount of sugar consumed in England, in 1831,§
was over 450,000,000 lbs. From 1844 to 1849, the consumption
of this article, including molasses at its equivalent in sugar, was as
follows : U

1846 lbs. 57,902,544
1847 " 104,838,048

1844

lbs.

486,648,960

1847

lbs.

675,329,120

1845

it

570,127,040

1848

((

692,256,320

1846

ii

609,781,760

1849

((

728,931,600

By taking the average consumption of 1848 and 1849, a true idea
of the present annual demand for sugar, in the English market, will
be afforded :
It was, per annum,  lbs. 710,593,960
Of which slave-grown sugar** constituted, say, 146,000,000

Leaving England's consumption of free labor sugar, 664,593,960
» See present Part, p. 114. t 1850, p. 86.
i London Economist, 1850, p. 169. 1| lb., p. 170.
§ Present Part, p. 114. ffLond. Economist, 1850, p. 170.
** See page 130. — Allowing all the exports from the English Colonies to
be imported and consumed by her, the whole amount is less than her con
sumption, by about 146,000,000 lbs.

134 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
The sources of England's supply of sugar can be seen at once, in
the annexed table. The amounts stated, however, are only for the
first eleven months of each year, and do not give the whole quantity
imported and entered for consumption.
Sugar entered in the first eleven months of each year, for consumption.*

Year.

West Indies.

Mauritius.

East India.

Total colonial. Total foreign.

184618471848 1849

244,737,136 261,306,080283,772,036 319,032,896

93,879,520
112,783,216 86 086,896
106,993,152

150,773,616 124,300,144
140,658,572138,867,792

489,390,272 498,399,440510,517,404 564,893,616

57,902,544"
104,838,048134,046,976 47,837,888

We add another table, which embraces the whole of the exports
from all the British colonies, from 1840 to 1849, and exhibits their
extent for the twelve months of each year.
Exports of Sugar from all ihe British Colonial Possessions.^

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

Remarks.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

Remarks.

18401841 184218431844

365,060,192
473,177,488 463,220,064459,557,728459,495,696

Strict monopoly
it it
it it
(C ii
(C cc

184518461847 18481849

551,336,992501,061,904 700,906,576566,077,792583,024,400

Fr. lab. sug. adm.
Foreign, of all
kinds, adm.
(( ((

This table includes the entire sources of supply possessed by Eng
land within her own colonies, and shows that their exports of sugar,
were Short of her consumption, in 1849, by 145,907,200 pounds.
Short of her total imports, do. 344,977,808 "
But it must here be remarked, that the whole exports from the
British colonies are not always imported into England, because a
portion of their products are taken by other countries. In 1848,
the United Stales imported from the British West India Islands,
1,258,222 lbs. of sugar, and in 1849, 1,245,492 lbs. It must be re
collected, then, that the exports fi-om her colonies are not always
the measure of England's imports from them, and that, therefore,
the amount of her supplies of cotton, sugar, coffee, &c., frora her
colonies, are not always equal lo their exports.
The production of cane sugar in the United States, until recently,
was confined to Louisiana. The rapidity with which it has pro
gressed, in this country, furnishes a useful lesson for the little Re
public of Liberia. She possesses the best quality of sugar lands,
and has around her an unlimited amount of labor that may be made
available. The following table presents the amount of the crops of sugar
produced in Louisiana, at nearly equal intervals, during thirty years :

* London Economist, 1850, p. 86.
t London Economist, from Pari. Rep. 351, 1850.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 135
and shows the extent of our domestic supply of cane sugar.* The
production of maple sugar, in 1840,t was about 30,000,000 lbs.
Table of crops of Louisiana Sugar.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

Years.

lbs. Sugar.

18181824-5
1829-301834-51839-40

18,000,00030,000,00073,000,000
110,000,000119,457,000

1844-51848-91849-50* " Texas.t
Lou. gals, molas.

204,916,000220,000,000
269,769,000 10,000,00012,000,000

* New Orleeins Commercial Bulletin. t Ibid.
The imports of foreign cane sugar into the United States, for the
last two years, were as follows : J
1848 . . . 257,138,230
1849 .... 259,324,126
Of these amounts the following were the proportions of free and
of slave labor :
Imports of Free and of Slave Labor Sugar into the United States.]]

Slave labor, lbs. 1848 lbs. 1849

Free Labor. lbs. 1848 lbs. 1849

From Cuba.
other Sp.W.L
Brazil.
Dutch W.I.
Guiana.

131,058,107 47,778,973 6,687,657 513,977 32,455

183,011,744 51,483,16611,131,457 737,855
209,755

Totalslv.gr. " free lab.

236,071,169 246,573,977
21,067,061) 12,695,355

Excess si. lb.

215,025,548j233,878,622

Sw. & Dan W.l.
Dh.E.I.,Hol. etc
Hayti.
Manilla, &c.
China.
Br. W. L, &c.
Other countries.

2,734,9702,432,305 357,091
12,546,098 352,032
2,096,683 547,882

Total free labor. 21,067,061

2,095,899 665,050 4,617
6,649,1321,060,3721,292,761 327,524

12,695,355

The exports of domestic sugar from the United States is very
limited, being for 1848 only 3,522,779 lbs., and for 1849 but
2,356,104 lbs.
Ofthe foreign imports, there were re-exported for 1848, 13,686,-
510, and for 1849, only 6,473,800 lbs. §
To arrive at the amount of the consumption of sugar in the United
States, the quantity exported must be deducted from the amount of
the imports and of the domestic production. In doing this, we
have allowed the re-exports of foreign sugar all to have been of the
slave labor production, and thus afford an advantage lo the figures
representing the free labor sugar consumed in the United States.
Making these deductions, the following results are produced :
*Ed. D. Mansfield, Esq., of Cincinnati Chronicle.
f See Census, 1840.
t Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Cora, and Nav.
II Rep. Sec. Treas. U. S., on Com. and Nav.
§ The molasses imported into the United States, amounted, in 1849, to 23,-
796,806 gallons, of which only 756,339 gallong were of free labor. Of these
Imports 793,535 gals, were re-exported.

136 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Ccnsumption of Cane Sugar in the United States.
lbs. 1848 lbs. 1849
Growth of the U. S., less the exports, 216,477,221 277,402,896
Slave labor imports, " " 222,384,759 240,099,177
Slave labor Sugar consumed, U. S., 438,861,980 517,502,073
Free labor Sugar, " " 21,067,061 12,695,355
Total Sugar consumption, 459,929,041 530,197,428
Excess of slave grown, do. 417,794,919 504,806,718
The consumption of sugar in France, in 1848, was about 290,-
000,000 lbs. Of this quantity, 140,000,000 lbs. were of beet root
sugar, produced in France. The production of cane sugar in the
French colonies, in 1840, was 161,500,000 lbs.* For the first nine
months of 1847, they supplied lo France 168,884,177 lbs., but for
the same period of 1849, only 96,929,336 lbs., being a falling off,
as heretofore stated, of 71,854,841 lbs. the first nine months after
freedom.t The production of beet root sugar is increasing every
year. A heavy duty upon foreign sugar nearly excludes it from the
French market, and thus, since her emancipation act of 1848, France
may be considered as consuming very little slave grown sugar.
We have been unable to procure the statistics of the production
and consumption of sugar as fully as those of coffee and cotton.|:
But they are sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes. For
England and the United Slates Ihey are ample, but for the continent
somewhat imperfect. The August number of Hunt's Merchant's
Magazine contains a statement, from the House of Eaton, Safford
& Fox, of Cuba, ofthe production and consumption of sugar through
out the world. Although imperfect in a few cases, it enables us lo
reach a close approximation to the amount of slave and free labor
sugars annually produced. Taking the whole of the authorities we
have consulted, and they warrant us in staling the production of slave
grown sugars as follows :
Cuba and Porto Rico  672,000,000 lbs.
Brazil  268,000,000 "
United States  280,000,000 "
Total slave grown sugar  1,220,000,000 lbs.
This amount does not include the production of the Dutch colo
nies in the West Indies and Guiana, where slavery still exists. The
statement is short by that amount, and we have been unable to find
it given separately from that of the Dutch East India possessions.
Of this slave grown sugar England and the United States consume
663,502,000 lbs. annually. This leaves, of slave grown sugars for the
continental countries of Europe, 556,498,000 lbs. The whole con
sumption of these countries, excepting France, but including Russi.i,
* We are indebted to M. Doreao, a French gentleman engaged in the coUec-
fion of sugar statistics, for these facts. f See present Part, p. 116.
} In obtaining our cotton statistics, we have been much indebted to Mr.
Thomas Fbankland, of the Society of Friends, recently from England, whose
acquaintance we made at the Christian Anti-Slavery Convention, in Cincinnati.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 137
Turkey, and Egypt, is estimated by Eaton, Safford & Fox, at 765,
375,000. From this, deduct the above balance of slave grown sugar,
9nd there is left to be supplied by free labor, a demand of 208,877,000.
To determine the probable accuracy of the result last stated, we
have taken the exports oi free labor sugar from the British posses
sions, as determined by our former investigations, and those of the
other sugar-producing countries, as estimated in the article in Hunt's
Magazine. The result is as follows :
English possessions  683,024,000 lbs.
Ilolland possessions  120,000,000 "
Danish and Swedish possessions  20,000^000 "
German and Belgian, including heet ^ugar  30,000,000 "
Excess of production over consumption in the South American Repuhlics,
Egypt, and China  80,000,000 "
Total free lahor sugar for European and United States consumption  783,024,000 lbs.
Deluct free labor sugar consumed by United States and England  577,289,000 =*
Balance left for continent, exclusive of Prance  205,735,000 lbs.
But this statement of free labor sugar contains some of the beet
root and all of the slave-grown sugar of the Dutch slave labor colo
nies. The estimates of Brazd, on the other hand, have no deduction
for home consumption, so that the figures above given, no doubt rep
resent, very nearly, the consumption of free and slave labor sugars
on the continent.
We may now sum the whole results of our labors in one con
densed table, so as to exhibit ihe present relations of free labor to
slave labor, and the indebtedness of the christian world to slavery
for these articles of prime necessity.
Total consumpiionof Free Lahor and of Slave Labor Cotton, Coffm, and Cane Sugar, hy ihe
countries ruimed in the foregoing investigations.

C<^untries
consuming.

Slave labor
lbs. cotton.

Free labor
lbs. cotton.

Slave labor
lbs. coffee.'^

Free labor
lbs. coffee.

Slave labor
lbs. sugar.

Free labor
lbs. sugar.
664,693.900 12,695,355
150,000,000
205,735,000

Great Britain 
United States 

6o2..530,800
270.000,000
150,000,000
123,800.000

71,469,200

4,661.344
119,682,189213,896,647

33,41.8,156 37,117,911
147,213,933

146,000,000 617,502,000 none.
556,498,000

6,000,000
1,120,000

other continental
countries 

Total of each 

1,101,330,800

78,689,200

335,240,000

217,800,000

1,220,000,000

933,024,315

1,022,741,C00

120.440,000

280,975,685

* Add the consumption of the United States to that of England, and deduct the amount
from the total Slave Labor consumption, to find the amount of Slave Labor coffee consumed
by Prance and the continent.
III. That tiie legislative measures adopted for the destruction of the
slave trade and slavery, especially by England, have tended lo
increase and extend the evils they were designed to destroy.
In the outset of the investigations demanded to sustain ihis propo
sition, it is necessary to refer to the condition of slavery and the slave
trade before measures had been taken to arrest their progress. The
statistical tables, in the present lecture, show that the commercial,
prosperity of the English and French West India colonies had reached
its maximum about the period when the first acts having reference lo
the removal of the oppressions which had .afflicted the African peo
ple, were adopted by these governments. England's act, prohibiting
the slave trade, was passed in 1807, and took eifect in 1808. In
138 Present Relations of Free Labor io Slave Labor.
1805 and 1806, the exports of sugar from Jamaica were over 230,-
000,000 lbs.,* for each year, and from the whole English West Indies,
il was about 636,000,000 lbs. The article of sugar is referred to, be
cause it is the principal one exported from these islands. From 1827
to 1831, the period preceding the emancipation of the English West
India slaves, the exports of sugar from these colonies were reduced to
an annual average of 448,665,5201bs., or nearly one-third, and from Ja
maica alone, from 1829 to 1833, to 152,564,800 lbs.,t or more <Amio«e-
tliird. This was twenty-five years after the prohibition of the slave
trade, when ample time to show its effects had elapsed. The act of
emancipation was passed in 1833, look effect in 1834, and the free
dom ofthe slaves was perfected in 1838.
The effect of emancipation was a still farther reduction ofthe ex
ports from these colonies — the whole exports, in 1848, being only
313,506,112 lbs., J or more than one -half less than in 1807, and
Jamaica itself but 67,539,200 lbs., or nearly three-fourths less than
in 1807.
The first direct act of the French, in reference to African freedom,
was the proclamation of General Le Clerc,§ in 1802, proclaiming
liberty and equality to all the inhabitants of Hayti, without regard
to color. The exports of sugar from that island in 1790, were
163,318,810 lbs. II Its prosperity was al once greatiy impaired
by the revolution, and at present its exports of sugar are almost
nothing. Had a reduction of the quantity of sugar, coffee, or cotton, conse
quent upon the suppression of the slave trade and the emancipation
of the slaves, been the only effects of these efforts to benefit the Afri
can race, the world would have submitted to the sacrifice without a
murmur, because the present cheap and abundant supplies of these
articles would have been unknown. But far different from the re
sults anticipated, were the consequences of these measures upon the
welfare of the African people. We shaU proceed lo trace them.
England and the United Stales, in prohibiting the slave trade, did
but obey the dictates of a moral power emanating from a philan
thropic public sentiment. It was an act demanded by the Christian
principle of these countries. But in the plan of its execution, we
have lamentable evidence of the limited wisdom and foresight of man
in grappling with evils of great magnitude.
In 1808, when the slave trade was prohibited by England and the
United States, Africa was annually losing 85,000* of her populalion
by the slave trade. Of this number 19 per cent, perished in the
middle passage, making avadable, lo the slave purchasers, 77,000
slaves. But the discontinuance of the slave trade, by these two pow
ers, by no means diminished the evd sought to be destroyed. From
- that day the export of slaves from Africa increased, and from 1810
to 1815, she was robbed yearly of 93,000 of her population; and
*See present Part, pages 116 and 135.
tSeepresent Part, p. 113. }Ib, §Ib. p. 111. || lb. p. 114.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 139

fiom 1815 to 1819 of 106,000 annually. Of the latter, 25 per
cent, perished in the "middle passage," so that out of 106,000 lorn
from Africa, but 79,400 reached the planters, or only 2,400 more
than they had obtained when the exports from Africa were but 85,000
With the exception of 1830 to 1835, the exports of slaves from
Africa continued to increase until the close of 1839, when they
reached the appalling number of 135,800 a year, wilh a continued loss
of 25 per cent, of the number in their transportation.
The following tables, prepared by a select committee of the House
of Commons, showing the stale of the African slave trade wilh rela
tion to America, for the last sixty years, convey a clear view of the
state of this traffic during that period.*
Number of Slaves computed to have been Exported and Imported westward from
Africa, from 1788 to 1840.

Average casual

03 J-

o

o

ij

ties during the
u .S
eS
« rf
S3 S nd
Am'nt of
Voyage.
H-s-l
3d
i fue lies
m
Exported.
Av'rg
— CQ g
¦£5.3 o t. '3
¦fi o c
2 3
^:^
pr'p'r-
Am'nt.
la"
^oi"
S "
^-.e
tion.
m
K-t
K-t
In 1788 
100,000
14 p. c.
14,000
25,000
18,000
44,000
86,000
r 1798 to 1805
85,000
14 ¦'
12,000
15,000
20,000
38,000
73,000
S p
1605 to 1810
85,000
14 "
12,000
15,000
25,000
33,000
73,000
1810 to 1815
93,000
14 "
13,000
30,000
30,000
20,000
80,000
«t:
1815 to 1817
106,600
25 "
26,600
32,000
31,000
17,000
80,000
&
1817 to 1819
106,600
25 "
26,600
34,000
34,000
12,000
80,000
S
capt'd. by
*§
1819 to 1825
103,000
25 «
25,800
39,000
37,000
1,200
77,200
i"
1825 to 1830
125,000
25 "
31,000
40,000
50,000
4,000
94,000
fx
1830 to 1835
78,500
25 "
19,600
40,000
15,000
3,900
58,900
[ 1835 to 1840
135,800
25 "
33,900
29,000
65,000
7,900
101,900
Number of Slaves computed to have been annually Exported and Imported
westward from Africa, from 1840 to 1848.
Average casualties
Slaves
Total
of
slaves
expt'd.
during the
voyage.
import
Import
Captur
ed into
Spanishcolonies
ed into
Brazil.
ed by
cruis'rs.
Average
proportion
Am'nt.
of slaves
import'd.
1840
64,114
25 pr cent.
16,068
14,470
30,000
3,616
48 086
1841
45,097
25 "
11,274
11,857
16,000
5,966
33,823
1842
28,400
25 "
7,100
3,150
14,200
3,950
21,300
1843
55,062
25 "
13,765
8,000
30,500
2,797
41,297
1844
54,102
25 "
13,525
10,000
26,000
4,577
40,577
1845
36,758
25 "
9,189
1,350
22,700
3,519
27,569
1846
76,117
25 "
19,029
1,700
52,600
2,788
57,088
1847
84,356
25 "
21,089
1,500
57,800
.3,967
68,267
« Westminster Review, 1850, p. 263.
140 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
But why this disastrous defeat of the benevolent designs of Eng
land and the United States, in their efforts to suppress the slave
trade? The question is easily answered. The diminution of Uie
exports from the British West Indies, being more than one-half,
equaled a loss of 420,000 of her former 800,000 slaves. France
had lost threefifths* oi her annual colonial supplies of sugar and
otiier products, in the emancipation, or death by war, of her 480,000
slaves in Hayti.t The I63,300,000J lbs. of sugar lost by these events,
had to be supplied to France by increased production in her remain
ing colonies. This required an additional amount of labor, equal
ing what had been rendered unavailable in Hayti, or 480,000 men;
and this number, added to England's equivalent loss of 420,000,
making in all 900,000 slaves, had to be procured from Africa, and
to be renewed every seven years.^
Following the example of France, Spain and Portugal immediately
commenced extending their cultivation, in Cuba and Brazil, by a
vigorous prosecution of the slave trade. They were encouraged in
the execution of this design, in the opening markets created for their
products by the diminishing exports of the English and French colo
nies. The withdrawal of the English and American slave merchants
from the African coast, removed all rivalry, except that of France ;
and in a little over thirty years, slave grown products increased nearly
three-fourths above what they had been when the slave trade was
prohibited.il These facts being stated, it is easily seen why the slave trade
should have increased with such rapidity, and to such an amazing
extent. For each slave emancipated by England and France, who
refused to labor as he had done while a slave, (for which no man will
blame him, but which, it was predicted, he would do out of gratitude
to his benefactor,) another had lo be obtained from Africa lo make
up the loss to commerce.
But in addition to the diminished supply of tropical products,
occasioned by the prohibition of the slave trade and the emancipa
tion of the slaves in the West Indies, there has been a vastly increased
consumption of some of the commodities upon which slave labor
has been employed ; and, as before remarked, all this rapidly increas
ing demand had to be supplied by slave labor. Hence, the enormous
increase of the slave trade, notwithstanding the efforts made for its
suppression. But where was the error, in the legislation by England, on this
subject? It was in this : She should, before taking any action her
self, have obtained the consent of the other European powers, to unite
in disallowing the slave trade lo their subjects. At that day some of
the articles now so profitably employing slave labor, were compara
tively unimportant to commerce. People, then, were more desirous
of escaping from the evils of slavery than they are al present, and

• Piesent Part, p. 111. fib. }Ib. p. 118. §Ib. p. 114.
II See Part First, p. 42, for McQueen's statement of this fact.

Present Relalions of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 141
efficient measures for emancipation could have been more easdy
executed. But England's first act of philanthropy was done at a moment
when her manufacturing operations were rapidly growing up into
great national interests,*that could not be checked or dispensed with,
and the ultimate importance of which could not then be foreseen.
Whde, therefore, on die one hand, she was afterward pleading the
cause of humanity, and urging the abandonment of the slave trade
and of slavery, upon other nations ; on the other, her own di
minishing supplies of , tropical products, and increasing cotton
manufactures and sugar consumption, were creating, at home and
abroad, that increasing demand for slave labor products, which sup
plied the chief aliment that sustained the foreign slave trade and
foreign slave labor cultivation. And even when Great Britain par
tially succeeded, by bonus'^ or by treaty, in gaining over a nation lo
her measures, alas ! there was not that virtuous public sentiment,
such as had existed in England and the United States, to act over
upon that nation, and lo encourage or impel il onward in the execu
tion of its noble and humane engagements.
An outiine of British legislation, in reference to the admission of
tropical commodities to her markets, will show how effectually her
legislation at home defeated negotiation abroad.
Up to 1844, the British colonies enjoyed a practical monopoly of
the British markets. The duty on foreign sugar was 63 s. per cwt.,
on sugar the growth of her East India possessions and Mauritius,
37 s. per cwt., and on that of her West India Colonies, only 27 s. per
cwt.t In 1844 the first inroad was made, the act taking effect fn
November of that year, by which foreign free labor sugar was
admitted at a lower duty.t This act terminated the monopoly which
the British colonies had in the markets of the mother country, and
allowed the introduction of the free labor sugars of Java and Manilla
for consumption in England; while Holland and Spain compensated
themselves for the amount of their usual supplies thus diverted lo a
profitable market, by sending to Cuba and Brazd for a sufficient quan
tity of their cheaper slave labor sugar to make up the deficiency. §
In 1845, a general reduction of the sugar duties was made, which
reduced the protection against foreign slave grown sugars one-half,
and in 1846, the final act was passed, admitting all foreign sugars on
advantageous terms. This act made a progressive reduction, during
three years, of the duties on foreign sugar, until in 1849, when those
on foreign and colonial were to become equal to each other. || In 1848
however, another act was passed by Parliament, postponing, for three
years, the equalization of the duties lo be levied on foreign and colo-
* A bonus was paid to Portugal, in 1815, to conclude a treaty to abandon
the slave trade, and near the same time, by a similar treaty with Spain, she
received from England $2,000,000, and afterward evaded her engagement. —
Ed. Rev., July 1836.
f Westminster Rev. 1850, p. 276. J: London Economist, 1850, p. S5.
4 See Part first, p. 41. || Blnckwood's Mag. 164, p. 5.

142 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
nial sugars, and thus, seemingly, affording a slight protection to the
colonies until 1854. But the difference in duties, owing to the man
ner in which the scale is arranged, and the greater cheapness of
slave-labor cultivation, makes the law afford only a nominal • protec
tion and be of little practical value. The "duties, per cwt., on for
eign and colonial sugars, stand as follows since the last enactment,
aud will be equal on all kinds in July, 1854.t

To 5 July,
1830. £,. s. d
British 0 11 0
Foreign 0 17 0
British 0 14 0 j
Foreign 0 19 10 |
British 0 16 0 1
Foreign 1 4 8 |
British 0 4 6
Foreign 0 6 4

MDSOOVADOa.

To 5 July,
1851.
£. s, d.
0 11 0
0 15 6

To 5 July.
1852.
£. s. d.
0 10 0
0 14 0

To 5 July,
1853.
£. J. d.
0 10 0
0 13 0

To 5 July,
1854.
£. s d.
0 10 0
0 12 0

WHITE CLAYED.
0 12 10 I 0 11 8 I 0 11 8
0 18 1 0 16 4 0 15 2

0 14
1 2

WHITE REFINED.
8 I 0 13 4 I 0 13 4
8 I 1 0 8 I 0 19 4
MOLASSES.
2 10 3 9 10 3 9
9 0 5 3 0 4 10

0 11 8
0 14 0
0 13 4
0 17 4

Fr'm 5 July,
1854.
£. 5. d.
0 10 0
0 10 0

0 11 8
0 11 8
0 13 4
0 13 4

3 9
4 6

3 9
3 9

The immense falling off in the exports of the British West India
colonies, which had taken place after emancipation, and the impossi-
biiity of her East India possessions supplying the deficiency, left the
government of Great Britain no other alternative but a reduction of
the sugar duties, and the admission of slave grown sugar. A strug
gle to stimulate West India industry had been continued thirteen
years, from 1833 to 1846, resulting only in taxing the English people
by protective duties, $150,000,0001 more than the consumers of
other countries had paid for an equal quantity of sugar, and the effort
had lo be abandoned.
For many years her West India colonies had supplied to England
more sugar than was necessary for home consumption, allowing the
government to force off that of her East India possessions into other
markets, by a differential duly of 10 shUhngs the cwt. in favor of her
West Indies. But in 1846, her own consumption of sugar was 609,-
781,760 lbs.,§ and the total exports of all her West India colonies only
277,252,400 lbs.,|| and with that of the East Indies and Mauritius
added, but 501,061,904 lbs.,f an amount, even if England received it
all, not sufficient for her home consumption by 108,119,856 lbs.
By this result the whole field of the foreign markets,ybrmer/«/ supplied
with English sugar, was left open for that of slave labor products.
The impulse given to the efforts of other nations, in the prosecu
tion of the slave trade, when it was abandoned by England and the
United Stales, received no check, as is shown by the foregoing
¦f Westminster Rev. 1850, p. 276.
} Westminster Rev. 1850. p. 275. § Present Part, p. 129.
U Present Part, p. 113. ? Present Part, p. 130.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 143
table,* until 1830, when a reduction of the price of sugar from 44s. Gd.
the cwt. to 24s. 8d., diminished the export of slaves from Africa 37
per cent. But this depression lasted only during the time that the
price of sugar continued al that reduced rate. In 1836, sugar ao-ain
rose to 29«. 3rf. the cwt., and gave an impetus to the slave trade that
increased the export of slaves from Africa 73 per cent., or to 135,800
per annum from that tdl the close of 1839.t
But 1840 constitutes an epoch in the history of the slave trade,
because, during that year, the first successful cheek was given to it,
and the hope created that it could be annihilated. From that period
until 1847, the varying results will be found in the foregoing Parlia
mentary tables. By the first lable il will be seen, that the African
slave trade had reached its maximum from 1835 to 1839, when the
average annual exports were 135,800, and that in 1840 it was sud
denly reduced to 64,114.
This reduction was effected through the unwearying efforts of
England, stimulated, in a great measure, it is believed, by the com
mercial considerations referred to in our first Lecture. Be this as it
may, by her influence, the authorities of Brazil, in 1840 and 1841,
made the attempt to suppress the slave trade, and the effect was
immediate.! General Espartero being in power in Spain, also acted
in good faith in the execution of the conditions of the treaty with
England, and appointed General Valdez, Governor of Cuba. When
Valdez entered upon his duties, the imports of slaves into Cuba were
about 14,000 annually. The first year of his government reduced
the imports 8,000 ; and in 1842, the last year, the number imported
was only 3,100 men.§ Political changes occurring, the plans of these
governments were soon abandoned, and the increasing demand for
slave grown products, which was soon after created, by their admis
sion into the English markets, gave renewed activity to that traffic,
increasing it, in 1847, to within a trifle of what it was from 1798 to
1810, and in 1848 and 1849, it is believed, to an extent nearly equal
to what it has been al any former period. ||
With these facts before us, a true conception can be formed of the
past and present condition of the slave trade.
It is evident that if England could have persisted in her exclusion
of slave grown products from her markets, and could have rejected
such free labor products as would have been replaced in other mar
kets by an equivalent of those of slave labor origin, that a death-blovv
would have been given lo the slave trade, and, in its suppression, lo
the slavery of Cuba and Brazd. But, unfortunately, at the moment
when negotiation abroad, combined with protective duties at home,
had enabled England to reduce the exports of slaves from Africa, in
1845, to 36,758, and the imports into Brazd to 22,700 ; the clamor
in England, for a full supply of sugar, forced the governmeni, first
* See table, present part, p. 135. t London Times, 1849.
t Speech of Sir R. Peel in British Parliament, 1844. § Ibid.
II Westminster Review, 1850, p. 265, states that the imports of slaves into Bra
zil in. 1848 were 72,000, a larger number than at any former period.

144 Present Relations of Free Labor and Slave Labor.
to admit free labor sugar, and next, through the predominance of
free-trade principles, slave labor sugar also. These acts at once
opened up a market of such importance to countries employing slave
labor, that an irresistible impetus was given to the slave trade, stimu
lating those engaged in it to break through every treaty stipulation,
and bid defiance to all the physical force that can be arrayed against
them. It was the advancing demand for slave grown products, created by
the causes before staled, that made it impossible for the governments
of Spain and Brazil lo act in good faith in the suppression of the slave
trade. Governments cannot go much in advance of the public senti
ment of their people, nor can they long remain much behind it. The
positions of England and the United Stales, on the slave trade, were
the result of the correct moral sentiment existing among their people.
But the people of Spain and Brazil, governed only by commercial
considerations, and not by motives of phdanthropy or the principles
of equity, looked only to the profits, to be made by continuing the
slave trade, and cared nothing for the amount of human woe induced,
if they could but amass fortunes to themselves. These governments,
therefore could not resist the tide of public sentiment; and their
policy being changed, a rapidly-increasing flood of misery has
continued to roll on, wave after wave, untd humanity shudders at
beholding the dark and dismal deluge continually dashing in upon the
shores of the southern portion of our continent.
That the legislative measures adopted for the suppression of the
slave trade and the abolition of slavery, have tended lo increase and
extend the evils they were designed to destroy, is not an opinion of
recent origin, but one of very general belief in England. The pres
ent is, perhaps, the first effort to classify the facts and demonstrate
the proposition. But that British legislation directiy tended lo this
result, has been frequentiy asserted, by many of the most intelli
gent Englishmen, with great positiveness ; and more tiian this, it was
predicted, with equal positiveness, by men who understood human
nature better than those controliiig the movement, that their mea
sures would certainly produce the results which have followed. In
proof of this we need only quote a few paragraphs. The first is one
embracing predictions of the consequences that w-ould follow the
adoption of the course of legislation proposed. It wUl be found in
the Westminster Review, 1849.
" We cannot abolish slavery and the slave trade — we can only
clear ourselves of ihem ; aud we may clear ourselves of them, say
ing we are abolishing them, in a way, to strengthen them. It is not
abolishing tbem to sliift thejn from the West Indies to Cuba. By
our way of ridding ourselves of slavery, we are making slaves more
valuable and tbe slave trade more profitable, and increasing the inter
est of all other nations in buying, and selling, and keeping slaves.
We shall pay $100,000,000, and millions on millions besides, in
the price of sugar and loss of capital for confirming slavery and the
slave trade. To expect other nations to follow our example by

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 145
making it their interest not to do it, is not very wise. The way to
abolish slavery is to make it contrary to the interest of the slave-
^dealer and slaveholder."
The remaining paragraphs are confirmatory of our proposition,
and are from sources entitied to great respect.
" Fifteen years ago we thought we had done with the slave trade
and slavery. But these odious subjects come back to us. The
dark specters are not laid. One hundred and forty millions is the
estimate of the sum of money spent lo destroy them. Hundreds of
associations, thousands of committees, public speeches, sermons,
prayers, &C., &c., &c., have all been used as exorcisms lo lay the
specters of the bondage and the traffic which degrade men to the level
of domestic animals. Our poorer people have been deprived of
comforts which would have sweetened, literally and figuratively, their
existence, because we would deal heroically wilh slavery and the
slave trade. The chains of the negro have long been broken in mar
ble. The fame of many renowned names have been won by feats
of eloquence and zeal in this sacred cause. We celebrated many
victories over the iniquity. But lo ! slavery and the slave trade are
stronger than ever, and more horrific than ever. On this subject,
England has done two noble things, and committed two blunders.
The nobleness has been ethical, and the blunders have been econom
ical. Narrowness has been the source of the evils. Christian ethics
had highly cultivated the consciences of the abolitionists, but they
were ignorant of economical science."*
After referring to the modifications of the sugar duties, by Parlia
ment, and the scarcity of the supplies of sugar in the French mar
kets consequent upon emancipation in Hayti, Blackwood's Magazine
says : t
" To provide against the evidentiy approaching crisis in the supply
of sugar in the British market, we have thrown open our harbors to
slave-grown sugar irom every quarter of the globe ; and from the
rapid decline in the West India Islands, even before this last coup-de-
grace was given them by the application of free-trade principles to
their produce, it is painfully evident that a result precisely similar (to
what occured in Hayti.) is abovit to take place in the British colonies.
And it is little consolation to find that this injustice has recoded upon
the heads of the nation which perpetrated it, and that the decline in
the consumption of British manufactures by the West India islands
is becoming proportioned to the ruin we have inflicted on them.
"But most of all has this concatenation of fanaticism, infatuation,
and injustice proved pernicious to the negro race, for whose benefit
the changes were all undertaken. Happy would it have been for
them if the British slave trade had never been abolished; and they
had crossed the Atiantic chiefly in Liverpool or Glasgow slave-ships,
and been brought to the British West India Islands ! For then the

• Westminster Review, Oct. 1849. t January, 1848, p. 6, 7.
10

145 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
slave trade was subject lo our direction, and regulations might have
been adopted to place it upon the best possible footing for its unhappy
victims. Bui now we have thrown it entirely into the hands of the
Spaniards and Portuguese, over whom we have no sort of conlrol,
and who exercise it in so frightful a manner that the heart absolutely
sickens at the thought of the amount of human suffering at the cost
of which we have reduced the price of sugar to sixpence a pound.
Compared with it, the English slave-ships and English slavery were
an earthly paradise. Mr. Buxton, the great anti-slavery advocate,
admitted, some years ago, that the " number of blacks who now
cross the Atiantic, is double what it was when Wilberforce and
Clarkson first began their benevolent labors."* Now, under the fos
tering influence of free-trade in sugar, it may reasonably be expected
that in a few years, the whole, or nearly the whole sugar consumed
by Europe, will be raised by the slave colonies, and wrung by the
lash from the most wretched species of slaves — those of Cuba and
Brazil! Moreover, the slave trade, lo supply them, will be triple
what it was in 1789, when the movement in favor of the negro popu
lation began ! Thus, by the combined effects of fanaticism, igno
rance, presumption, and free trade, we shall have succeeded, by the
middle of this century, in totally destroying our own sugar colonies;
adding, to no purpose, $100,000,000 to our national debt ; annihilating
properly lo the amount of $650,000,000 in our own (coloninl) do
mains ; doubling the produce of foreign slave possessions ; cutting off
a market of $17,500,000 a year for our manufactures ; and tripling
the slave trade in extent, and quadrupling it in horror, throughout the
globe." Another writer specifies more fully the effects of these measures.t
" The impulse which the government act of 1846 has given to the
slave trade in every part of the world, is something perfeclly enor
mous ; but its mischievous and inhuman effects will be best understood
by a reference to ascertained facts. Prior to 1846, the traffic in
slaves between the African coast and the Spanish colonies had been
gradually declining, and had in fact almost disappeared. The exclu
sion of slave-grown sugars from our home market had nearly forced
the Cuban proprietors into a different system, and arrangements were
pending in that Colony for the emancipation of the slaves, just at the
time Lord John Russell came forward in favor of the chain and the
lash, and all was changed. " The value of field negroes in Cuba had
risen (in the course of the two years, from 1846 lo 1848) from 300
to 500 dollars each, a price that would speedily bring a supply from
the coast." " We will not, forsooth, permit foreign nations to traffic
in slaves, and yet we give them the monopoly of our market, know
ing all the while that upon that importation alone we are dependant
for a cheap supply — cheap sugar means cheap slaves." " Why
did we aestroy that market in Jamaica which we so eagerly sieze in
» Buxton on the Slave trade, p. 172.
t Elackvvood's Magazine, Feb. 1848, p. 235, 236

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 147
Brazil ? " " Great Britain, after forcing the Emancipation Act or
her colonies, aud in the most solemn manner announcing, in a voice
of thunder, her future determined opposition to the existence of the
traffic in slaves, at once took a course which made her the customer
of less scrupulous countries, and the largest encourager of that odious
traffic in the world, thus ruining her own colonies."
Quotations of simdar expressions of opinion might be multiplied
indefinitely, but enough have been given. It may be added, however,
that the North British Review, in a careful digest of the evidence
contained in the six Reports on the Slave Trade and Slavery, made
to Parliament, within the last two years, is led to this conclusion :
That England's coersive measures have not merely failed to check
the supply of slaves to Brazd, but that, on the other hand, they have
had the effect of greatly aggravating the horrors of the middle
passage, and the sufferings endured by the negroes in the barracoons
on the coast of Africa, as well as very materially prejudicing the
interests of British merchants trading lo that country. This failure
of the coercive policy for the suppression of the slave trade, the
Reviewers contend, "results from its unsoundness in principle."
IV. That the governments named, cannot hope lo escape from the
necessity of consuming the products of slave labor, except by call
ing into active service, on an extensive scale, the free labor of
countries not al present producing the commodities upon which
slave labor is employed.
In the discussion of our first proposition, we proved that the tropical
countries, where slavery has been abolished, have failed lo furnish to
commerce, since emancipation, an amount of products equal to what
they had previously supplied. In discussing some of the other pro
positions, it appeared that the whole free labor exports from the
Asiatic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, added to those of the
Western, had fallen far short of supplying the demands of Europe
and America. It also appeared that to this cause was principally
due the vast increase of the slave trade during the present century.
To sustain our fourth proposition, it will be necessary to show,
that the free labor to which we have referred, cannot be so stimulated
as to make it sufficiently productive to compete with, and displace,
the fruits of slave labor in the markets of the world.
When the non-progressive character of the population of Pagan
countries is considered, but little aid wdl be expected from the Asi
atic portion of the Eastern Hemisphere,* in efforts to make free labor
compete wilh slave labor, in tropical cultivation. The inquiries into
this subject, ma};^, therefore, be confined to the Western Hemisphere.
To understand the relalions which the free labor and the slave labor,
of this hemisphere, bear to each other, and the capabdity of the first
to compete with the last, il is necessary to state the proportion which
the number of persons of the one class bear to those of the other.
?Present Part, p. 121.

148 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
The amount of the population of the English and French West
India Colonies, emancipated from slavery, has been already staled,*
and comprehends nearly the whole of the free labor employed in the
cultivation of the commodities we have been considering. Esiima-
ting the increase of the population of Hayti, since emancipation, at
40 per cent., and that of the English colonies al 20 per cent., will
give them a present population of 1,400,000. To this must be added
the persons emancipated by France, in 1848, making the total free
labor forces, within the limits under consideration, about 1,657,000
persons. Against this free population there is arrayed the following
number of slaves : t
United States,  3,252,000
Brazil,  3,250,000
Spanish Colonies,  900,000
Dutch Colonies,  85,000
South American Republics,  140,000
African Settlements,  30,000
Total slave population,  7,657,000
Free labor do. above stated,  1,657,000
Excess of slave population,  6,000,000
Of the number of slaves in the United States, about 1,000,000 are
in Stales which do not produce cotton and sugar. Deducting these,
wdl leave 6,657,000 slaves arrayed against 1,657,000 free persons, or
5,000,000 more slaves than freemen.
These figures testify, with unequivocal distinctness, that the free
population, above named, cannot be made to compete with the slave
population, in tropical cultivation. In addition to the immense dis
parity of numbers, a moment's consideration will make it evident,
that, even were their numbers equal, the circumstances under which
the' people, called free, are placed, would still make it impossible to
stimulate them to such a degree of industry, that their voluntary
labor would be equally productive with the compulsory labor of the
slaves. A very brief examination will show, that this is not an exaggerated
view of the condition of the people under consideration. In refer
ring to Hayti, we need only direct attention to a preceding tablef as
an index of its industry, and to our second lecture! for a correct view
of its social and moral condition. The other French colonies, in nine
months of their first year of freedom, have diminished their exports
of sugar, nearly 72,000,000 lbs.§
The British West Indies, it may safely be said, have a free popu
lation whose industry cannot be made to compete with even an equal
amount of slave labor. In addition to the extensive array of facts
* Present Part, p. 112.
f Tenth Report of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. We add
for Texas only 22,000, and estimate the other States up to 1850, at 3 per cent
per annum, since 1840. But Texas has at least 40,000.
\ Page 11 II Pages 42, 43. § Present Part, p. 115.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor 149
submitted in the present and former lectures, the public have recently
been supplied with much new and hnportant information from Ja
maica, by Mr. Bigelow, one of the editors of the New York Evening
Post, a leading Anti-Slavery paper.
This gentieman has recentiy visited Jamaica, and made a careful
examination of its condition. He represents industry as al the lowest
ebb ; and that the downward tendencies of the island cannot be more
rapid than at present. A degrading estimate is put upon labor, and a
white man is never seen at work upon the estates. The blacks,
" with the average sequence of negro logic, infer that if gentlemen
never work, they have only to abstain from work to be gentiemen."
Ill the city of Kingston, he says, one looks and listens in vain for
the noise of carts and the busile of busy men ; no one seems to be in
a hurry ; but few are doing anything ; while the mass of the popula
tion are lounging about in idleness and rags. Nor is there any present
hope that these habits of indolence wdl be abandoned ; because there
is absohitfly nothing to stimulate the majority of the people to in
dustry and to efforts for intellectual and moral advancement. The
greater portion of the lands under cultivation is held by owners of
immense estates, and but littie encouragement is extended to the people
to cultivate sm.ill tracts, because this policy would draw off the labor
from the sugar estates. The property qualification of voters is fixed
so high as to exclude the mass of the people from any participation in
the government ofthe island, or in the enactment ofthe laws that are to
control them. Out of a population in Jamaica, of 400,000, of whom
16,000 are white, the average vote ofthe island has never exceeded
3,0()0. The center of legislative control is in London, and the mem
bers of the colonial legislature are mere shadows, destitute of the vital
functions of legislators. The veto power ofthe governor, who is ap
pointed by the Queen, enables him practically to control all legisla
tion. The enormous property qualification required to make a man
eligible to a seat in the legislature, excludes all but the landholders
from ihat bodv. By ihis arrangement all the energies of legislation
are exerted tn promote the growth and sale of sugar and rum. In ad
dition to other depressing influences, young men of moderate means,
ur who are poor, cannot reach the profession of the law, because none
can practice at the bar except such as have pursued their studies in
England, and been admitted there. So liule do those who conlrol
public affairs, comprehend the principles of human action, that though
wages are only 18| to 25 cents a day, (the laborer boarding himself)
the planters all imagine that a reduction of wages is essential to the
revival of agricultural prosperity.
Such are the disadvantages under which these poor, oppressfiil
Africans labor in the West Indies, and such the utter hopelessness
of theii being able to make much progress, that, next lo their brethren
yet in slavery, they demand, and should receive, the sympathies of
the christian woild.
It would have been difficult lo convince the world, that such utlei
ruin, as has occurred in Jamaica, could have been produced by any

150 Present Relalions of Free Lobar to Slave Labor.
course of legislation. But Mr. Bigelow reveals facts upon this sub
ject that are truly astounding. He says :
" Since 1832, out of the six hundred and fifty-three sugar estates
then in cultivation more than one hundred and fifty have been aban
doned and broken up. This has thrown out of cultivation over 200,-
000 acres of rich land, which, in 1832, gave employment to about
30,000 laborers, and yielded over 25,600,000 lbs. of sugar, and over
6,000 puncheons of rum. During the same period, over .five hun
dred coffee plantations have also been abandoned and their works
broken up. This threw out of cultivation over 200,000 acres more of
land, which in 1832 required the labor of over 30,000 men."
An estate formerly seUing for $90,000, in 1845, sold for $5,000.
Another, which once cost an equal sum, has been offered by its
present owners for $7,500, and finding no purchaser, was abandoned.
A multitude of such cases are embraced in Mr. Bigelow's letters,
showing a general prostration of the commercial interests of the
island. That an over-crowding of population can have no influence
in checking the prosperity of Jamaica, is proved by the fact, that out
of her 4,000,000 acres of land, all being ofthe most fertile kind, not
over 500,000 acres have been brought under cultivation, or even
appropriated. The low stale of civiHzation, leaves the population of the British
West Indies with few wants. Il is asserted that the people of these
islands are enabled to live in comfort, and acquire wealth, without,
for the most part, laboring on the estates of the planters, for more than
three or four days in the week, and from five to seven hours in the
day, so that they have no stimulant to perform an adequate amount
of labor.*
This condition of things puts it out of the power of the planters to
produce sugar for less than £20 per ton, on the average, while the
cost in slave countries is only £12f per ton.
This discloses the fact that the planters of Cuba, employing slave
labor, can manufacture sugar for £8 the ton less than those of Jamaica
can produce it hy free labor. As one of the immediate results of this
condition of things, il was asserted in 1848, that " the great influx of
slave-grown produce into the English markets has, in the short space
of six months, reduced the value of sugar from £26 lo £14 per ton ;
while, under ordinary circumstances of soil and season, the cost tons
of placing il in the market is not less than £20 per ton. "J
It is well, here, to explain why il is that the duties on foreign
sugar afford no real protection lo the English West India planter.
" The slave sugars are all so much better manufactured, wliich the
great command of labor enables tbem to do, that, lo the refiner, ihey
are intrinsically worth more than ours. In short, they prepare their
sugars, whereas we cannot do so, and we pay duty at the same rate
on an article which contains a quantity of molasses. So that, if the
* Blackwood's Mag. 1848. p. 227. f lb. p. 230.
i Blackwood's Mag. 1848, p. 230. Resolutions of a meeting at St. David'i,
Jamaica.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 151
duties were equalized, there ivould virtually be a bonus on the.
importation of foreign sugar. The refiners estimate the value of
Havanna, in comparison with West India free sugar, as from three to
five shillings per cwt. better in point of color and strength. The
reason is, that these sugars are partially refined or clayed."*
The relation in which foreign sugars stand lo colonial, in the mar
kets of England, taking into account the protective duties, will be
clearly seen by the following statement of the cost of production of
each, with the duties added, and an allowance made for the extra
value of the Cuban sugar over that of the English colonies, taking the
period from July. 1850 to July, 1851 :
British Muscovado costs planters per ton,  jE20 00«.
Duty on do. per ton,  11 00
Total cost in market,  £31 00s.
Cuban Muscovado, do. per ton  £12 00s.
Duty, per ton,  15 10 27 10
Balance in favor Cuban planter,  3 10a
Add extra value of Cuban sugar, £4 per ton,  4 00
Slave labor advantage over free labor  £7 10s.
By reference to the table of duties, on a preceding page, it will be
seen that if the present relations of the cost of production shall be
maintained, when the duties become equalized, slave labor will have
an advantage in the English market, if no change occurs in the duties,
of £12 the ton.t The duty on both kinds will be, in 1854, 10s. the
cwt. or £10 the ton, and tiie extra value of Cuban sugar being the
same, the profits of the slave labor sugar will be £12 the ton as above
stated, viz :
Cost of production of free labor, per ton  £20 00s.
Duty on do. per ton  "... 10 00
Cost in market to planter  £30 00s.
Cost of slave labor, do  £12 00s.
Duty on do.  10 00 22 00
Surplus profit of slave labor,  8 00.?.
Extra value of do  4 00
Total excess of profit to slaveholder,  £12 00s.
Who cannot see that such advantages as the Cuban and Brazilian
slaveholders novv possess, may enable them lo banish free labor sugars
from the English markets ! But to gain a clear understanding of the
reason why the slaveholding planters of Cuba, Brazil, &c., can pro
duce sugar at a cost so much lower than those of Jamaica, and other
free labor tropical countries, it is necessary again to call attention to
the difference in their abdity to command labor. In the former
countries, not including the United Stales, the planters can command
» Blackwood's Mag. 1848, p. 230.
+ The estimates have been made for Muscovadoes only, and the expense of
freights not included.

152 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
the labor of a slave population of 4,100,000, while the latter h-dve
only 1,657,000.* It must be noticed, also, that this slave population
is compelled, under the lash, lo perform a full day's work every day
in the week, and that in crop time the labor is often extended to
eighteen hours per day ;t while ihe free men of Jamaica, &c., igno
rant, depressed, and discouraged, by unequal laws, content themselves
with leisurely putting in from five lo seven hours in the day, during
onlj' three or four days of the week.J
We certainly need not add anything more in support of the propo
sition, that free labor, under present circumstances, cannot compete
with slave labor in tropical cultivation, and that, therefore, christian
governments cannot escape from the necessity of consuming slave
labor products, except by calling into active service, on an extensive
scale, the free labor of countries not at present producing the com
modities upon which slave labor is employed.
V. That Africa is the principal field where free labor can he made to
compete, successfully, with slave labor, in the production of
exportable tropical commodities.
To demonstrate the truth of this proposition it is demanded ; First,
ihat it be shown that the soil and climate of Africa are well adapted
to the production of Sugar, Coffee, and Cotton ; and Second, that the
natives can be successfully employed in their cultivation.
In relation to the first point, there is no longer any doubl among
intelligent men. Coffee, equal, if not superior, to that of Java or
Mocha, is raised in Liberia, and can be easily cultivated to any
extent. The shrub bears fruit thirty or forty years, each producing
ten pounds annually. Cotton, of a superior quality, yielding two
crops a year, is indigenous, and thrives twelve or fourteen years
without renewing the plant. Sugar Cane grows in unrivaled lux
uriance ; and, as there are no frosts to be dreaded, can be brought to
much greater perfection than in our Southern States.§ Other articles
of great value are raised in Liberia, but it is unnecessary to specify
them, or to enlarge this branch of our investigations ; as Dr. J. IV.
Lugenbeel, late United States Agent, in Liberia, and Superintendent
of the Medical School of the Colony is publishing a series of essays
upon the subject. The Doctor resided five or six years in Africa,
and had an excellent opportunity for employing his eminent talents
to examine the Geography, the Productions, the Climate, as wed as
the Diseases of the New Republic. His essays embrace all these
topics, and afford ample information, in relation to Liberia, fox all
who wish to learn the facts.
On the second point much information has been collected, and it
is no longer doubted in Liberia, that the labor of natives can be made
available. The Colony numbers about 150,000 souls. || Many
• Present Part, p. 144. ^ Second Part, p. 92.
} Present Part, p. 146. ^ African Repository, July, 1850
II President Roberts' message to Liberia Legislature, Dec, 1849.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor, 153
of these natives are becoming industrious, by the example of the
colonists, and the desire to possess the comforts of civilized life.
Some are partially educated, and one, a few years ago, occupied a
seal in the Legislature. Many of them have married persons born
in the United Slates, and thereby become more identified wilh the
citizens of the Republic. The colonists, of ability, can secure, from
the natives, all the labor necessary, at very low wages. This is now
so well understood as to discourage those emigrants, from the United
States, who desire to go as day laborers.
Mr. Ed. J. Roye, a merchant of Monrovia, fully confirms this
statement, in a letter to Mr. W. H. Burnham, of Zanesvdie, Ohio.
He mentions it as the chief discouragement to emigrants dependent
upon labor for a subsistence, but adds, that many of the poor Ameri
cans in the colony " are already turning their attention to farming,
which pays well." " To men of character, education, wealth, and
enterprise, nothing can be considered beyond their reach, and no
station, in the Republic, too high to be attained." *
At first view this seems disheartening to the poor colored man ;
but to discerning men, Liberia presents stronger claims on this
account. Mr. Roye's statement proves two things important to
Europe and America. 1. That native labor can be had cheap. 2.
That those emigr-ants who engage in agriculture, can do well.
What is most important to elevate and ennoble the poor emigrant,
is, to forget the days of his bondage, stand erect as a freeman, and
depend alone upon the strength of his own arm, and the blessing of
God. Cringing to others unmans him. To place him in circum
stances which will force him to agricultural or mechanical pursuits,
is best calculated to create in his breast a feeling of manly indepen
dence. And, God willing, this is what Colonizationists are determined
to do for the free colored people of the United States.
The desire to possess the commodities supphed by the commerce
of civilized nations is evidentiy much stronger in the people of
Africa, even where the influence of the Colonies is but little felt,
than in those of any other barbarous country. This desire has been
generated by the slave trade, and is the principal obstacle to its sup
pression. Having no fruits of agricultural labor to offer for the arti
cles they desire, slave hunts are made the means of procuring slaves
to give in exchange. And such is the strength wilh which this
desire for traffic with foreigners operates, and such their unwilling
ness lo be deprived of it, th-at in the late purchase of Gallinas, when
the chiefs sold ihejr territory to President Roberts, they expressly
stipulated for the establishment of commerce upon a permanent basis.
They knew very well that the slave trade was to cease from that
moment, and, as an equivalent, demanded, not only a large sum of
money, but that commissioners should be immediately appointed " to
settle the wars in the country, (because wars will now no longer be
* This seems to have been prophetic language, as. since it was written, Mr.
Roye has held a seat in the Legislature of Liberia, and been chosen Speaker of
the House of Representatives.

154 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
useful when the captives taken cannot be sold,) and open the trades
in Camwood, Ivory, and Palm oil, with the interior tribes; and also to
settle among them, as soon as convenient, persons capable of instruct
ing thera in the arts of Husbandry."*
But can the native labor of Africa be made to compete wilh the
slave labor of other tropical countries, and supply the christian world
with that immense amount of coffee, sugar, and cotton, it now con
sumes? This is the great question. If the native be left, without
the aid of foreign intelligence, to develop his intellectual and moral
powers, he must remain fitted only for a life of slavery abroad, or of
savage indolence al home. But if the Republic of Liberia be sup
plied with a sufficient number of industrious, intelligent, and moral
emigrants, lo enable il to extend its settiements and its laws around
the coast, and into the interior, a few years only will elapse before
the natives, coming under the influence of civdization, will experi
ence such an increase of wants as can be supplied only by industry.
What has already occurred in the present settlements of Liberia will
follow in all new ones, and a spirit of industry be awakened as far
and as rapidly as the colonization ofthe country shall be accomplished.
We have previously shownt that the stereotyped character of the
Pagan nations of Eastern Asia, renders it difficult to stimulate the
inhabitants to a much greater degree of industry than already exists,
and that such free labor cannot compete wilh slave labor. Why,
then, should we expect that the native labor of heathen Africa should
be more available, and made to compete wilh slave labor ? The
answer lo tiiis question is obvious. Without the introduction of
Christian civilization, neither of them can progress. But the hum
ble African yields more readily to the instruction of the Christian
missionary than the proud Asiatic. The hope of Africa's earher
civilization is, therefore, daily brightening, and the probability cf
exciting its inhabitants to industry becoming more certain.
We close this part of the inquiry by a quotation from the Annual
Report of the American Missionary Association, f(.r 1849, which not
only affords an explanation of the causes that make Asia less acces
sible lo the Gospel than Africa, but supplies additional testimony in
regard to tbe adaptation of the soil of Africa lo the production of
sugar and collon. This mission had its origin in the liberation, and
return to Africa, of the Amistad slaves. It is located al Kaw-Mendi.
on the Western coasc of Africa, some distance from the sea, and lies
between Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Rev. Mr. Thompson, once
imprisoned in the Penitentiary of the Stale of Missouri, for aiding
slaves to escape from their masters, is now at the head of this mis
sion. This testimony is valuable, coming, as it does, from Aboli
tionists, from whom colonization in Africa has received but Uttle
countenance. The Report says :
" The sugar cane and cotton grow well in that country, and if
American Christians could send out business men, who could teach
* Letter of President Roberts, May 17, 1850. + Page 121.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 155
natives the manufacture of sugar, and the best method of raising
cotton, il would contribute much lo the overthrow of slavery, and
facilitate the progress of the gospel. The mission makes earnest
appeals for such assistance." The Report also says, that " Africa
presents some peculiar advantages for missionary work, and some
stronsr claims upon American christians for help." It sums them up
as folTows :
" 1. That country is nearer to us than any other foreign mis
sionary field.
" 2. The country is apparently open to us, and its governments
will offer no serious opposition to our entering any part of il.
" 3. The people see and appreciate the superiority of men in civil
ized life, and desire the cultivation which wiU raise them to tne same
grade. " 4. There is there, no hoary and venerated system of supersti
tion, inwrought into the forms of society, and presenting at every
point opposition lo change.
"A reason more powerful, perhaps, than any otiier, lo induce us lo
engage in this work, is the deep degradation of Africa, superinduced by
the slave trade, in which Americans have taken so prominent a part."
Much additional testimony on this subject might be presented, but
time will not permit. We shall, therefore, close our discussion of
this proposition with a brief statement of the main facts by which its
tnilh is sustained.
Could England and the United States be induced to engage ener
getically, to promote the growth of coffee, sugar, and cotton, in Africa,
they would gain an immense advantage over the planters of Cuba
and Brazd, and be able to strike an efficient blow at the slave trade
and slavery. What are the facts ?
For every 300 men made available, by the slave trade, to the
Cuban and Brazdlian planters, Africa loses 1,000;* or the proportion
may be stated as three to ten. In the transfer of the three to Cuba
and Brazil, their constitutions are impaired by the " middle passage,"
and in seven years they sink beneath the oppressive labor to which
they are subjected. Their places must be supplied, al least every
seven years, by //tree others from Africa, subjecting her to the loss of
another ten. At every point in Africa, occupied by a colony, the
slave trade is at once excluded, and its agents are driven to other
points to secure their victims. This will leave, at the places occu
pied, the whole ten men who had formerly been sacrificed lo supply
three to the Cuban planters.
Now, though the industry of the native African shoilld fall far
below the standard of the ever-active and enterprising Anglo Saxon;
yet a little consideration will enable us to perceive that, under the
circumstances, the native population of Africa will be able, not only
to compete wilh the slaves of Cuba and BrazU, but will constitute the
only reliable force ior the suppression of the slave trade.

* Buxton, see Lecture First, p. 8.

156 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labifr.
The maximum of labor required of the three slaves in Cubs, is
eighteen hours a day.^ By preventing the transfer of these three
men, we shall have ten to employ in Africa. If these ten men can
be induced to labor only five hours and a half per day, the product
will more than equal that of the three in Cuba. The case would
stand thus :
3 slaves in Cuba, laboring 18 hours per day = 54 hours,
10 freemen in Africa " 5^ " " = 55 "
The ten men in Africa, laboring but 5^ hours per day, would, there
fore, be able to compete with the three in Cuba or Brazd.
The reason that Jamaica, or any of the other free labor colonies,
cannot compete with Cuba, Brazd, &c., is, that the freemen of the
former, either from indolent habits, or from attention to cultivating
their own small tracts of land, or from being engaged in other pur
suits, do not choose to labor for the sugar planters more than from
five to seven hours a day, and from three to four days in the week.^
It is not asserted, that whde engaged, the free laborer does not per
form as much work as a slave. The difficulty in Jamaica is, that the
planters, out of the free population, cannot find men enough, to put
in as many hours labor, as those of Cuba, by a free use of the whip,
are able to obtain from their slaves. Laboring so irregularly, even
were their numbers equal, il would be impossible for the 1,657,000
colored freemen of the Western Hemisphere to compete with the
7,657,000 slaves which il includes.^ The difficulty in making the
free labor of the British and French West Indies compete wilh the
slave labor of Cuba and Brazil, arises, therefore, from the want of an
equal number of hands willing to perform an equal amount of labor
al an equal cost. The American Colonization Society has discovered
that this discrepancy can be remedied by a direct atlention to Africa,
which shall call into activity, as free laborers, its 160,000,000 of
people, as rivals, in tropical cultivation, to the before mentioned 7,657,-
000 slaves. But to obtain a clear conception of the economical
advantages of employing the people of Africa upon iheir own soil,
over that of transporting them to Cuba and Brazil, it must be recol
lected, that as soon as the ten men in Africa could be persuaded to
labor ten hours a day, they would double the products of the three
in Cuba. Il must also be remembered, that the ten, remaining in
their native climate, and belonging to a race of the greatest long
evity known, could be relied upon as regular laborers, for a much
l(>nger period than the three enfeebled and overworked slaves of
Cuba. This remark applies equally to the whole .4ifrican population.
Under these circumstances, it is certain that the free labor of Africa,
under proper regulations and stimulants, can be made to compete with
the slave labor of Brazil and the Spanish Colonies.
But till re is another fact, of much importance, to be considered.
» See Part Second, p. 92. f Present Part, p. 146.
t Present Part, p. 143 to 147.

Present Relations of Free Labor io Slave Labor. 157
The slave populalion of Brazil and the Spanish Colonies, numbering
4,100,000, or more than one half of the whole number in the West
ern Hemisphere, is maintained alone by the slave trade. Destroy
this trade, and their plantations would dwindle into insignificance, or
become extinct. From the rapid mortality of the imported slaves,
these plantations require restocking from Africa every seven years.
Cut off this supply, and Cuba and Brazil would at once be rendered
incapable of flooding the markets with cheap slave labor products, lo
the exclusion of free labor commodities.
We have seen that the exports from the British West Indies began
to decline from the prohibition of the slave trade, in 1808, and reached
their minimum since the emancipation in 1838.* The diminution
of the exports of coffee and sugar from the British and French West
Indies, from the periods above stated, tended to increase slavery and
encourage the slave trade.t The constantly increasing demand for
these products must be supplied. Cuba and Brazil endeavored, by
increasing their number of slaves, to supply the deficiency. This
extended the slave trade, and it has continued to increase, wilh two
or three slight variations, until the present moment.J Interrupt the
kidnapping of slaves from Africa, and no new field can be found to
supply the market. Hence, to destroy the slave trade, would directiy
diminish the exports of sugar and coffee from Cuba and Brazd.
But if these prolific fountains are dried up, how is the continually
increasing demand for these products to be supplied ? How are the
United States, England, and the Continent of Europe to be furnished
with these indispensable articles ? Africa seems to furnish the only
hope. Let England, France, and the United States, make a united
effort to extend the benefits of Christian civilization, not only around
the coast, but into the heart of this hitherto benighted portion of the
earth, and the most cheering results might be anticipated. Let ac
cumulated wealth pour her exhaustiess treasures in the lap of the
Colonization Society, enabling it to send out to Africa multitudes of
civdized and enlightened men, to diffuse intelligence and freedom
along the shores of its rivers, and over its mountains and plains !
Let England, with her commerce, her wealth, her public spirit, and
her Christianity, exert her powerful influences in extending her com
merce, her enterprise, and her civilization, among the natives of this
extensive continent ! Let France unite her energies in these im
portant efforts, and soon Africa, free and prosperous, might almost
supply the world with the products to which we have referred.
From the facts before stated, it is evident that the free labor of the
West Indies is powerless for the suppression of the slave trade. It
furnishes but a limited supply of coffee and sugar, and cannot lessen
the immense demand for these products, which gives to that trade its
profitable character. These products are of prime necessity and im
portance to the Christian world; and, whde such a large proportion
» Pre.sent Part, p. 128. f See p. 133 to 140, present Part.
t Present Part, p. 135.

158 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
of them are produced by Cuba and Brazil, we are compelled to up
hold slavery and the slave trade by their consumption. But estabhsh
their cultivation and supply, by free labor, upon a permanent basis,
and we shall ere long be released from this dire necessity. Africa
presents the principal, if not the only field, where all the means of
thus extensively cultivating sugar, coffee, and cotton, by free labor,
can be commanded, and from which die great markets of the world
can be successfully supplied. The reasous for this opinion may be
thus stated :
If the products of free labor can be increased, they will displace an
equal amount of the products of slave labor. This will diminish the
demand for slaves, and, consequently, lessen the extent of the slave
trade. But the hands now employed in free labor cannot, to any
great degree, increase their products, even at the present' cost, and
things must remain as they now are until additional free labor is else
where employed. These additional laborers, willing to work for
low wages, can only be found in sufficient numbers among the teeming
population of Africa.*
Africa, then, is the field, and its 160,000,000 of men must supply
the laborers necessary to accomplish this great work. The increasing
demand for sugar and coffee has placed the wants and interests of
Christendom in opposition to the destruction of the slave trade.
Cuba and Brazil furnish these great staples for the market, by slaves,
as we have seen, brought from Africa. Hence, the Christian world,
by consuming these products, have indirectly sustained both slavery
and this abominable traffic. But lei ample plantations be opened and
cultivated in Africa, sufficient to supply the market, and you have
removed the grand obstacle to the entire destiruction of this trade in
blood. To accomplish an object so desirable, more extensive plans must
be devised ; the Colonization Society must enlarge the sphere of its
operations, the number and character of emigrants must be increased,
and a universal effort put forth, commensurate with the great object
to be accomplished.
But the direct suppression of the slave trade, as a preliminary step
in the progress of African redemption, is impossible. The combined
efforts of Christendom, in a forty years' struggle, have failed even in
checking this enormous outrage upon humanity. It may be circum
scribed, diminished, and partially suppressed, but il must depend, for
its final destruction, upon the political regeneration, together with the
intellectual elevation and moral redemption of the entire continent.
The alternative seems already forced upon Christendom, either to
encourage slavery and the slave trade, by continuing to consunie the
produce of Brazil and Cuba, or to set about speeddy accomplishing
the civdization of Africa.

* The cultivation of cotton has been commenced at the British Colony of
Pert Natal, in S. E. Africa, says the London Economist, and the labor of the
Zooloos can be had at ten shillings tho month. The wages of native laborers is
about the same at Liberia.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 159
The great theater, then, upon which the battie between free labor
and sla\fl libor is to be fought, is in Alrica; and colonization is the
all-polen, jgent which is to marshal the free labor forces, and lead
iaem on to victory. But this warfare, unlike all preceding contests,
is one literally demanding that every sword shall be beaten into
a plowshare, and every spear into a pruninghook. In this campaign,
tilling the soil, and not slaying men, is the duty required ; and the
advantages are so decidedly with free labor, that ultimate success is
certain. Each industrious emigrant to an African colony, will more
than equal a dozen slaves laboring elsewhere. His example and his
influence, acting upon the native population, will excite to industry a
dozen, or twenty, or a hundred more ; and these, again, will exert an
influence upon others, and so on indefinitely.
Who can doubl, under such circumstances, that Africa, with its
multitudinous population, is the field where free labor may be made
successfully to compete with slave labor, in the productions to which
we have so often referred, and that the Colonization Society is the
medium through which, in the Providence of God, the slave trade is
to be finally destroyed ?
VI. That there are moral forces and commercial considerations
now in operation, which will, necessarily, impel christian govern
ments to exert their influence for the civilization of Africa, and the
promotion of the prosperity of the Republic of Liberia, as tie
principal agency in this great work, and that in these facts lies our
encouragement to persevere in our colonization efforts.
This proposition opens up a wide field of discussion, but in its
consideration we must be brief.
There have been moral forces acting upon England and the Uni
ted States, for many years past, to such an extent that these govern
ments have been driven to the adoption of energetic measures for
ameliorating the condition of the people of Africa. Much has been
done in these efforts, and much more remains to be done. In the
United States, 460,000 colored people have obtained their freedom,
and in the English Colonies nearly 800,000 rejoice in being released
from bondage. The slave trade has been prohibited, declared piracy,
and costiy efforts for its suppression long prosecuted. But though
the measures devised, for the relief of the African race, by these
governments, h-ave failed in the accomplishment of all the good anti
cipated, and in some respects, most sadly failed ; yet these moral
forces have lost none of their power, but are still propelling the two
nations onward to the final accomplishment of the great work of
Africa's redemption from barbarism. During the course of these
efforts much light has been thrown on this subject, and it is believed
that, through the agency of the Colonization Society, the proper
principles have been developed by which the suppression of the slave
trade and the civilization of Africa may be effected.
In making this declaration, we do not intend to chira more of

160 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
wisQom and philanthropy for the United States than for England. The
difference in the character of the measures adopted, and the difference
in the results attained, have been caused by the difference in the
circumstances of the people of the two countries. Fifty years ago
the English people looked to the Crown and Parliament, lo execute
almost every enterprise of a religious or benevolent character. That
government, like all others, in all its movements, has to consider well
the promotion of its own interests. To adopt any other rule of
action, is deliberately to aim at self-destruction. The danger, then,
with nations, as with individuals, when suffering humanity makes its
appeal, is that the measures adopted for relief, may include more
of the selfish than of the benevolent principle, and failure, or only
partial success, attend the efforts made.
When the moral forces directed against the slave trade and slavery,
by the people of England, reached the government in sufficient power
to compel it to action, that great leading interest ofthe British nation,
the commercial element, became too closely blended with the benev
olent, and the policy adopted proved to be too narrow to remove the
evils sought to be destroyed.
In the United Slates, the moral forces comitwnced their opera
tions al a very early period, and our independence had scarcely been
attained, when the government enacted its laws for prolubiting the
slave trade, and declared it piracy.* Since that period, they have
acted with less force upon the government, and nearly all subsequent
efforts have either been by a few of the Slates, separately, or by the
people. This course of action seems more in accordance with, and
necessarily to grow out of, the spirit of our free institutions. While
the government suppresses great public evils, and oversees the civil
and mUitary affairs of the nation, it only protects citizens in all their
benevolent enterprises and rehgious interests, but never undertakes to
conduct or control these movements for the people. The people,
therefore, do not depend upon the government to conduct such affairs,
but execute, freely, their own purposes, in accordance with their
own peculiar views. The efforts of our people, in behalf of the
African race, have been conducted by associations of individuals,
and, consequently, the schemes adopted have borne the impress of
the minds that conceived and conducted them. This has been em
phatically true of the American Colonization Society. Individual or
governmental interests being in no way involved in this enterprise,
and it being, in its origin, chiefly under the control of christian men,
it took the broadest possible ground that christian philanthropy dic
tated, and thus a scheme was devised broad enough to accomplish the
destruction of the slave trade, and the work of Africa's redemption.
The religious element predominated in its organization, and the
commercial was excluded.
Had this work been undertaken by our government, it would, no
doubt, have adopted the policy of England, and made the colony in

••See Parts First aud Second.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 161
Africa subservient to the interests of the parent country. Such, it
must be expected, would have been the action of all governments in
like cases. But die Colonization Society, originating solely in chri.'i
tian benevolence, has only sought the welfare of tiie African people,
and aimed al creating for them an independent government, to be
conducted wholly by themselves. In this it has succeeded ; and not
in this only, but it has developed a practic.il plan for the suppression
of the slave trade, in the success of which all the nations are equally
interested, and all may equally cooperate.
This view of the tendency of colonization in Africa, is now
generally entertained. Besides many other authorities of the highest
order, it is very fully admitted by a committee of the British Parlia
ment, in a recent Report on the Slave Trade. The committee first
show that England's long-cherished plan of an armed repression of
the slave trade — costing her one hundred and forty millions of dol
lars, and hundreds of the lives of her subjects — had failed in its
object, and that no modification in the system can be expected lo
succeed, and then close wilh the following testimony lo the system of
colonization, as the most effective mode of destroying that traffic :
"Your committee entertain the hope, that the internal improve
ment and civdization of Africa will be one of the most effective
means of checking the slave trade, and for this purpose, that the
instruction of the natives by missionary labors, by education, and by
all other practical efforts, and the extension of legitimale commerce,
ought to be encouraged wherever the influence of England can be
directed, and especially where it has already been beneficially
exerted."* This, then, is the position, in reference to the African question,
into which we have been conducted by the operation of the morai
forces upon England and the United States. Our scheme of Coloni
zation, being wholly independent of national interests, except what
are common lo all; and including within itself all the elemenls
necessary to secure the civdization of Africa and the destruction of
the slave trade ; now receives the approbation of the philanthropists
of both countries, and secures to the Republic of Liberia, from the
government of England, that countenance and aid which is the surest
guarantee of its rising importance in the benevolent work of African
regeneration. If, therefore. Colonization can receive sufficient aid to
develop, fully, the elements of its organization, a speedy consum
mation of the great work it has in view may be anticipated.
From whence, then, are the additional aids to come, which, added
to the moral forces in operation, shall propel, wilh sufficient rapidity,
this great work of African civilizalion, and free the world li-om tbe
reproach and the curse of the slave trade ? They exist, principally,
it is believed, in the commercial considerations which begin to
demand, most imperiously, that the rich lands of tropical Africa shall
oe brought under cultivation, and made lo yield lo commerce tiiose
* Xorth British Review, August, 1849, p. 255.
11

162 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labot.
articles, which free labor and slave labor, both combined, are now
incapable of furnishing, in adequate quantities, from the fields al
present cultivated.
The moral forces, though acting with much energy, and in otiier
respects, doing much good, have been unable lo destroy the slave
trade, because ot the counteracting influence of tbe commercial con
siderations enlisted in its behalf But the wants of commerce are
beginning to demand the execution of the plans which the moral
forces alone could not perform. Then, as the two great elements of
success now coincide, it seems that their influence must be irresisti
ble, and the effect certain. The morcd forces must continue to exert
their full effect, because they cannot become quiescent, while the
Christian world is dependent upon slave laborannually,*
For cotton, to the amount of . • . . 1,101,330,800 pounds.
For coffee, to the amount of ... . 338,240,000
For sugar, at least  1,220,000,000
and largely for many other articles of prime necessity. That com
mercial considerations are beginning to act, in the direction of
African amelioration, with much urgency, is easily shown. The
increased production of coffee and cotton, throughout the world, is
by no means keeping pace with their increased consumption. In
former years, there was often a large stock of coffee remaining on
hand at the close of each year. But latterly the increased consump
tion has been so rapid that it has gained on the production, and left a
greatiy diminished stock al the year's end. The deficit of coffee in
the markets for 1849 advanced the price very largely, and the supply
for the present year, as estimated by the most competent authorities,!
will be 70,000,000 pounds below the present known consumption ol
Europe and the United States.
The extensive range of statistics which have been presented, in
relation to the production of cotton, have been mostly taken from the
London Economist, for January 1850; and we must allow its able
editor to sum up the results of his elaborate investigations.! He
says : §
" Now, bearing in mind that the figures in the above tables are,
with scarcely an exception, ascertained facts, and not estimates, let
us sum the conclusions to which they have conducted us ; conclu
sions sufficient, if not lo alarm us, yet certainly to create much
uneasiness, and to suggest great caution on the part of all concerned,
directly or indirectiy, in the great manufacture of England.
" 1 That our supply of cotton from all quarters, {excluding the
United States,) has for many years been decidedly, though irregularly,
decreasing. " 2. That our supply of cotton from all quarters, (including the
United States,) avadable for home consumption, has of late years

• See Present Part, p. 133. + Huut's Merchant's Magazine, Aug. 1850.
X Page 138. § The italics are his own.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 163
been falling off at the rale of 400,000 pounds a week, while our con
sumption has been increasing during the same period at the rate of
1,440,000 pounds a week.
" 3. That the United States is the only country where the growth
of cotton is on the increase ; and that there even the increase does
not on an average exceed 3 per cent, or 32,000,000 pounds annually,
which is barely sufficient lo supply the increasing demand for its
own consumption, and for the continent of Europe.
•¦ 4. That no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual
increase, as the planters always grow as much cotton as the negro
population can pick.
" 5. That, consequently, if the cotton manufacture of Great Bri
tain is to increase at all — on its present footing — it can only be
enabled to do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth of col-
ton in other countries adapted for the culture."*
The writer also presents the following historical sketch of the
cotton trade of England, and closes wilh a statement of the reason
why other countries have diminished their production of cotton.
It will be seen that it is due to the fact, that they are unable to com
pete wilh the United States in its production. We can supply the
markets so much cheaper than they are able to do, that our cotton is
driving theirs from the English market. The writer says :
'' Within the memory of many now living, a great change has
taken place in the countries from which our main bulk of collon is
procured. In the infancy of our manufacture our chief supply came
from the Mediterranean, especially from Smyrna and Malta. Neither
of these places now sends us more than a few chance bags occasion
ally. In the last century the West Indies were our principal source.
In the year 1786, out of 20,000,000 pounds imported, 5,000,000
came from Smyrna, and the rest from the West Indies. In 1848 the
West Indies sent us only 1,300 bales, (520,000 pounds.) In 1781,
Brazil began to send us cotton, and the supply thence continued to
increase, though irregularly, tUl 1830, since which time it has fallen
off to one half. About 1823, Egyptian cotton began to come in
considerable quantities ; its cultivation having been introduced into
that country two years before. The import exceeded 80,000 bales,
(32,000,000 pounds,) in 1845. The average of the last three years
has not been a third of that quantity. Cotton has always been
grown largely in Hindoslan, but it did not send much to England till
about Ihirty years ago. In the five years, ending in 1824, the yearly
average import was 33,000 bales; in 1841 il reached 274,000; and
may novv be roughly estimated at 200,000 bales a year, (80,000,000
pounds.) " Now what is the reason why these countries, after having at one
time produced so largely and so well, should have ceased or curtailed
*We have not copied all the tables of figures from which these opinions have
oeen formed, but only such as were needed in our argument.

164 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.

their growth within recent years ? It is clearly a question of price.
Let us consider a few of the cases :

At the close of the years,

Lowestprice of
Pemambuco,

Fan
per
cent.

Lo-west
price of
Maranham

Tall por
cent.

Lowest
price of
Egyptian.

Fall Lowest
per price of
cent. Surat.

Fall per
cent.

1H36-1839 inclusive
1840-1843 

aid Id
5id

36'

8id bid
4ld

4^'

lOJd 7d

....; 4|fl!
....' 3 d
43 1 2 (2

1844-1848 

¦in

"Here, surely, may be read the explanation of the deplorable fall
ing off in our miscellaneous supply."
From these facts, thus clearly slated by the Economist, and which
can be supported from many other authorities, it is plain that there
are at least two commodities. Coffee and Cotton, which are not sup
plied in adequate quantities, evenby the combined efforts of both free
and slave labor; nor can the commercial demand, especially for cot
ton, be met but by an extension of its cultivation to other countries
not engaged in its production.
Cotton, is so essential lo England, that she must have a supply
upon which she can depend. A short crop in the United States,
like that of 1847, or the occurrence of any event which would di
minish our production lo any extent, would affect the commercial
and manufacturing interests of Great Britian most seriously — so
seriously, indeed, that, as a wise government, she is bound to protect
herself against such a contingency. The truth of this assertion is
made apparent, at once, on taking a view ofthe value of her exports
of cotton goods, as compared with those of her other manufactures.
Exports of Cotton Goods, by England, in the years stated.
1834* value
1835* "
1836* " •
$102,567,930 110,498,665
• 153,014,560
1837* value
1848t "
18491 " •
$102,940,410 1 14,406,000
, 139,453,970
Woollen Goods.
1848t value . $32,554,815 | I849t value . $42,096,650
Silk Manufactures.
1848t value . $2,940,585 j 1849t value . $5,001,785
Linen Manufactures.
1848t value . $16,481,190 | I849t value . $20,517,215
Truly, her Cotton Manufactures is the right arm of England, be
cause it is the principal element in sustaining her commerce. This
great leading interest, then, she will never consent to sacrifice. But
it is now threatened with an insufficient supply ofthe raw material.
The efforts to extend the cultivation of cotton in India, by native labor,
h.ive been abortive ; that for introducing it into the heart of Africa, by
the agency of white men, at the time of the Niger expedition, proved
disastrous ; and the British government is now anxiously looking
*M'CuIlough, vol. 1, p. 054. -fLoudon Economist, Feb. 1850, p. 196.
Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 1C5
abroad for the means of placing its cotton manufactures in a condition
of greater security. The diminishing production in all other countries,
but ours, is alarming to her, when she considers that the increased
production in the United States, has been, and will probably continue
to be, only equal to the increase of the slave population — viz : 3 per
cent, per annum* — and that this increased production is all required
by the increased demand consequent upon the multiphcation of
spindles and looms in the United Slates and on the Continent of
Europe. It must also be noticed, that the demand for cotton fabrics
is increasing in proportion to the increase of wealth and the extension
of civilization. Without an increased supply of the raw material.
Great Britain, therefore, cannot participate in the advantages of this
increasing demand, and must suffer loss. This is a position she will
*At a subsequent date, from that before quoted, the London Economist,
prompted by the suggestions of many English friends, resumed the consideration
of the subject of the probable increase of the ratio of cotton production in the
United States. It had been urged, that by the transfer of the slave population
from other districts and other pursuits to that of cotton, the ratio of increase
might be augmented so that the production in the United States should be made
to equal the increasing consumption. But the conclusion arrived at is adverse
to this view, and his opinion strengthened that the United States cannot meet
the growing demands of commerce.
But there is one consideration which the Economist has overlooked, and which
seems to have been but seldom noticed, that will be found to present an impassa
ble barrier to the unlimited extension of cotton production in the United States.
We refer to the Geology of the cotton region of this country; and we do so be
cause the importance of the facts we state will be understood in England.
Public duties have taken us over many parts of the cotton growing States,
including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.
A considerable portion of the uplands of the three first-named States, are com
posed of Primary rocks, having often but a light covering of soil, which, from its
loose porous nature, on cultivation, is easily swept away by heavy rains, or soon
becomes exhausted by a succession of crops. The more common plan of renew
ing such exhausted lands, is to abandon their cultivation until a new growth of
timber, arising and maturing, and shedding its foliage from year to year, restores
a new soil, to be again cultivated and again abandoned. There are lands in North
Carolina which have been thus turned out and re-enclosed three or four times
since the settlement of the country.
Another portion of these States consists of the sands, clays, marls, &c., of the
Tertiary formation, some of which furnish more permanent soils than the Pri
mary; but all of which are liable to exhaustion, to a greater or less extent, under
cultivation, and demand manuring to keep them productive.
The valleys are mostly of Alluvial deposites, and often of inexhaustible fertility.
And last, there is a limited extent of these States composed of the Chalk, or
Rotten Limestone, as it is locally called. This formation usually affords rich soils.
In Mississippi and Alabama, and the cotton growing portiou of Tennessee, the
Primary rocks do not appear; but the Silurian, Deuonian, and Carboniferous
limestones, sandstones, and shales, mostly constitute the highlands. In the lime
stone districts the soils are generally rich, and, with proper attention to manur
ing, will remain inexhaustible. The sandstone and shale districts of course
afford soils liable to exhaustion, unless recourse is had to liming as well as man
uring. A considerable portion of the surface, in the mountainous and hilly
regions, occupied by these formations, is too rugged and rocky for cultivation.
The less elevated districts of these States, are composed of alternate beds of
pure sands and clays, and of ferruginous sands and clays, and marlite, of tlie
Tertiary formation ; or the massive Chalk deposites ; or of Diluvium, Post-
Diluvium (?) and Alluvium. The soils of the Tertiary are very variable in their

166 Present Relalions of Free Labor io Slave Labor.
not long occupy — that she does not need to occupy — because she can
release herself from il.
But in the efforts hitherto made by England, and seconded by other
Christian nations, she has been driven from measure to measure —
each seeming to promise success, and each, in succession, partially
or totally failing — until this moment, when commercial considera
tions are pressing, with their strongest force, for the extension of
cotton cultivation to other countries than those now engaged in its
production. Now, the most remarkable feature in the partial successes
and complete failures of the national schemes for the destruction of
the slave trade, and kindred evils, is the evidence they afford of a
superintending Providence, overruling in the affairs of men for the
accomplishment of His own purposes through the agency of individ
uals or nations. Il now begins to appear, as clear as the sun at
qualities — the clay and sandy strata soon becoming exhausted and the ferroginoua
and marly portions often being very durable. The chalk supplies some of the
richest soils known, but in places having only a thin covering of soil and being
nearly pure carbonate of lime, in dry seasons, the cotton, as the planters express
it, is often burnt out. With abundance ot manure, this formation can be kept
perpetually fertile. It is of considerable extent in Mississippi and Alabama.
The fertility of the Alluvium of the valleys is, of course, mostly inexhaustible'
The Diluvium is of limited range and the Post-Diluvium more extensive. Both
afi'ord some good soils and much that are soon exhausted.
Tho indispensable article of manure, throughout the three States lirst named,
is dilficult to obtain. The cultivation of cotton affords nothing but the meager
supply of its own seed for restoring the fertility of the soil, and this seed is moslly
used on the corn crop. The chief remaining method of supplying manures, is
tedious and expensive, and is accomplished by collecting tbe fallen leaves from
the forest trees of the mountains or nearest uncultivated lands. These are
thrown in bulk into the farm yards, where cattle are confined, until sufficiently
rotted and intermixed with excrement, when the mass is strewed in the drilt
during the planting of the cotton crop.
Manuring has not yet been much resorted to in tbe fresher lands of the south
western States. All these lands, except the Alluvium, in all these States, will
need manures to sustain their fertility. But in cultivating cotton exclusively,
manures, in sufficient quantities, cannot be produced, as they may ingrain-growing
districts, to keep up the productiveness of the lands ; and, consequently, the
production of cotton cannot be increased in a ratio much beyond that of the
present. If cotton only is cultivated, the lauds become exhausted; and if a sys
tem of rotation of crops be adopted, to preveut the exhaustion of the soil, the
quantity of cotton is diminished. It will be amusing to the English Scientific
Agriculturist to know, that so far as any reference is had to the restoration of
the fertility of the soil, in the Carolinas, by a change of crops, the system of
rotation has been Cotton and Pine .' Cotton and Pine ! ! Arkansas and Texas
possess nearly the same geological characteristics as Georgia, Mississippi, and
Alabama. Without entering into further details, we are convinced that, as a Geologist,
we hazard but little in saying, that a considerable portion of tbe cotton lands, of
the older southern States, must continue to wear out under constant cultivation;
and that similar results, though less rapid in their operation, owing to differ
ences in their Geology, must also follow in the newer States ; aud that, therefore,
the diminution in the quantity of lands that will remunerate tho cultivator, though
for the piesent not equal to the quantity of new lands brought into use, will,
nevertheless, reach to such an extent as to render it impossible, for any great
number uf years, to increase the production of cotton much beyond the present
ratio of three per cent, per annum.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 167
noonday, that all these combinations of events — succeeding as they
have done, each other — have tended to one grand result, worthy of the
¦wisdom of Deity ; and that result the involving of the principal nations
of Christendom in such difficulties and perplexities — all seeming to be
the natural fruits of their former connection wilh African oppression —
as must impel them forward, from necessity, moral and commercial,
to the civilization of Africa.
The London Economist, in the article before quoted, after having
shown that Brazil, Egypt, and the East Indies, cannot be relied upon
to meet the wants of the English manufacturers, says :
"Our hopes lie in a very different direction ; we look to our West
Indian, African, and Australian colonies, as the quarters from which,
would governmeni only afford every possible facility, we might, ere
long, draw such a supply of cotton, as would, to say the least, make
the fluctuations of the American crop, and the varying proportions of
it which falls to our share, of far less consequence lo our prosperity
than they now are."
But we must hasten to a conclusion. Commercial considerations,
of overwhelming force, are impelling England lo powerful efforts to
secure lo herself a certain and adequate supply of cotton. This
she cannot obtain but in promoting its growth in o//jer countries
than those now producing it. The West Indies, in their present
circumstances — nor until the missionaries now laboring there succeed
in elevating the people, and more equal laws prevail — cannot supply
this demand, nor even then without an increase of population. There
will, therefore, be only two fields remaining, Australia and Africa.
Of the two, without entering into detail, we must insist that Africa is
the more promising, and success in it the more certain ; not only from
the character and abundance of its population, but because the moral
forces will be exerted in behalf of Africa raore fully than for Australia.
The reason is obvious : though Australia may be adapted to cotton,
its cultivation there, and the civilization of its natives, cannot be made
to act so directiy and efficiently upon the slave trade, as the promotion
of its growth will do in Africa. And, besides this important consid
eration, the population of Australia, including emigrants and convicts
transported thence, is only 300,000 — a number loo insignificant lo
accomplish much in cotton cultivation after producing necessary arti
cles of subsistence. In the native population of Australia, "human
nature wears its rudest form," and they are declared lo be, hath phy
sically and intellectually, the most degraded of any savage tribes.
Their numbers have been estimated al 100,000,* and it may safely be
said, that it is useless to lake them into the account in estimating
free labor agencies for tropical cultivation. It must be apparent,
therefore, that both the moral forces and commercial considerations,
operating in England in behalf of an extended Cotton cultivation,
must be directed to Africa, almost exclusively, and, in turning lo
Africa, must, necessarily, be concentrated upon Liberia as the great
center of action. * Encyclopedia of Geography, vol. 3, p. 127.

168 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Thus stands the Cotton question in England. Her supply ol that
article from the United Stales has reached its maximum, and from all
other quarters has been sleaddy diminishing; placing her under the
necessity of securing, from Liberia, the demands of her increasing
consumption. In tbe production of Sugar and Coffee in Africa,
Great Britain is not so deeply interested — her chief supplies of these
articles being obtained from her colonies. But from moral and com
mercial considerations she would prefer lo substitute 146,000,000
lbs. of Liberia Sugar for that amount of slave labor product now con
sumed by ber; because she desires to discountenance slavery, and
because freemen in Liberia will need more of her fabrics, in exchange,
than the Brazilian planters will purchase for their half-naked slaves.
We may, therefore, rely upon England as the fast friend of Liberia
and of African civilizalion.
In the United Stales the moral forces have long been operaUncr
with great efficiency for African civilization. The commercial con
siderations are now also beginning to be fell with a good degree of
power.* On this subject, however, we cannot at present enlarge,
but must be content wilh calling special attention to one point.
The great element in the United States, for the promotion of Afri
can civdization, consists in our industrious and intelligent free colored
population. The facts presented in the present Lecture, wilh the
inducements previously existing, should incline them to flock to Africa.
In Liberia, the colored man has secured to him all the privileges of a
freeman. There he can have schools and colleges for the education
of his chddren, and enjoy civil and religious liberty. He can assist
in the great work of African civilization, and aid in destroying the
slave trade. He has there a fair field for tbe acquisition of wealth,
and the enjoyments it secures. That these promises are not illusive,
but will be fulfilled, is easily proved. Our investigations show, that
the demand for an increased amount of Cotton, affords a guaranty
that the labor of the Liberians would pay, if directed to its produc
tion. The increasing demand for Coffee cannot be supplied but by
its cultivation in Liberia, or by an increase of slaves in Brazil, and a
corresponding increase of the slave trade. The consumption of this
article has increased in a ratio oi five per cent, per annum. The
demand for 1850 is estimated at 630,000,000 lbs. The production
of 1849 was only 426,000,000 lbs., and the stock of old Coffee on
hand but 134,000,000 lbs., leaving a deficit for the present year, 1850,
of 70,000,000 Ibs.t Brazil now supplies over two-fifths of the whole
amount of Coffee consumed, and cultivates it at a cost one-third less
than other countries. But she cannot extend her cultivation at pres
ent, for want of slaves, and should Great Britain compel her to sus
pend the slave trade, which is probable, there must be a diminution
of her production. Its cultivation in other countries, where it has
been declining, cannot be revived for many years.J II is almost
» See the Report of a Committee of Congress on the establishment of a line
of steam vessels between the United States and Liberia.
t Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, Aug., 1S50. * Ibid.

Present Relations qf Free Labor to Slave Labor. 169
certain, therefore, that the production of Coffee within the present
limits of its cultivation, can do no more than make up the deficiency
now existing, and keep up the supply to the present demand of 630,-
000,000 lbs. annually ; and it is more than probable that even this
cannot be effected, because, if the crop of 1850 only equals that of
1849, the deficit for 1851 will be 200,000,000 lbs., being nearly
equal to one-third the consumption. This, then, will leave at least
the increasing demand of five per cent, per annum to be supplied by
Liberia ; and, behold, what a vast source of wealth even this one
article opens up to the citizens of that Republic !
The following tabular statement, prepared at our request, by Mr.
J. M. M. Wilson, a graduate of Miami University, presents at one
view, the extent and value, during the next fifteen years, of this five
per cent, ratio of annual increasing consumption of Coffee :
Tabular Stateme.nt of the amount and value of Coffee which wUl be demanded by
a ratio of increase of Jive per cent, per annum on the present consumption.

Amount reauired.

Annual increase.

Increase over

Value— Dollars,

lbs.

lbs.

1860.

at 6 cts. per lb.

1850, 1851,

630,000,000 661,500,000

'3i,500,6o6'
' "31,500,000'
si,89o,666'
1852,
694,575,000
33,075,000
64,575,000
3,874,500
1853,
729,303,750
34,729,750
99,303,750
5,958,225
1S54,
765,768.937
36,465,185
135,768,937
8,146,136
1855,
804,057,384
38,288,447
174,057,384
10,443,443
1S56,
844,260,252
40,202,869
214,260,253
12,855,615
1857,
886,473,265
42,213,013
256,473,265
15,388,395
1858,
930,786,928
44,323,663
300,796,928
18,047,815
1859,
977,336,674
46,539,746
347,336,674
20,840,200
1860,
1,026,503,508
48,866,834
399,203,508
23,772,210
1861,
1,077,513,233
51,310,175
447,513,233
26,850,793
1862,
1,131,388,895
53,875,662
501,388,895
30,083,333
1863,
1,187,958,340
56,569,445
557,958,340
33,477,500
1864,
1,247,356,257
59,397,917
617,.356,257
36,841,375
1865,
1,309,724,070
62,367,813
679,724,070
40,783,307
We should not have introduced this table, but for its value in
affording a true idea of the growing commercial importance of the
cultivation of the lands of Liberia. It shows that the annual ratio
of increase, aside from the large deficit in the supply of Coffee, is at
this moment, worth nearly two millions oi dollars, and that in fifteen
years il will be worth oyer forty millions 1 ! The increased demand
for Collon will be of nearly equal importance. To this must be
added her sugar, indigo, dye-woods, palm oil, ivory, &c., &c., and
the new Republic assumes an importance, in tbe commercial world,
only surpassed by the moral influence she is destined to exert over
the whole continent. Indeed, her commercial progress already has
been astonishing. Five or six years ago, her exports were about
$100,000, but now Ihey are $500,000, and rapidly increasing. Libe
rians comprehend the advantageous position they have secured, and
170 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
are eager to develop the resources of their country. Their greatest
want is men. They appeal fo us for industrious, inteUigent, enter
prising, upright emigrants, to aid them in unfolding to the world the
long-hidden treasures of Africa, and to participate in the advantages
that her riches will bestow. Are not colored men, in this country,
able to comprehend the value of these resources ? Must we con
clude that they wdl remain indifferent, and reject the rich inherit
ance offered in Liberia, and tell the world that they have less
foresight, energy, and enterprise, than other races of men ? We
oannot believe this.
But the discussion of this proposition must be closed. Our Re
public occupies a very peculiar and important position. We have
the agents necessary lo effect the moral regeneration of Africa ; and
if they be treated as men, and liberal provision be made for emigra
tion, by the Stales and the General Governmeni, our intelligent colored
men will not shrink from duty.
A crisis has arrived in the commercial world, in which there is an
inadequate supply of two of the leading staples upon which slave
labor is employed. Free and slave labor combined have faded to
supply the consumption, and an increase of price has occurred suffi
cient to give a stimulus to their production. This increased produc
tion must occur either in Brazil and Cuba, or free labor must be
sufficiendy stimulated to meet the demand. But where and how is
this to be accomplished 1 There is lillie hope of its soon occurring
in the East or West Indies. Already at one point in Liberia, nearly
30,000 coffee trees are maturing, and will soon aflbrd 300,000 lbs. a
year for export. There might, and would have been, had the people
of the United Stales performed their duty, 700 such plantations in
Liberia at this moment, ready to supply 200,000,000 lbs. of Coffee
annually. Had the growth of Liberia not been retarded by the nar
row policy that opposed Colonizalion, it requires little discernment
to perceive, that this increasing demand might have been supphed by
the labor of the freemen of the African Republic, instead of being
left as a tempting prize, to be seized by the Brazilian planter and the
African slave trader. The crisis now existing, therefore, demands
the united exertions of all the friends of humanity, both at the North
and the South, to push forward, wilh the utmost energy, the work of
Colonization, as the only means of checking the extension of slavery
aud the slave trade. The wants of commerce demand, and must
receive, an adequate supply of Coffee and Cotton, and we must
either secure that supply from Liberia, or submit to see an increase
of cruelty and oppression in Cuba and Brazil.
We might greatly enlarge upon the extent to which moral forces
and commercial considerations are pressing the English and American
people to promote African civilization, through the agency of Liberia,
but what has been said must suffice.
YIL That all these agencies and influences being brought to bear
upon the Civilizalion of Africa, from the nature of its sod, climate,

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 171
products, and populalion, we are forced to believe that a mighty
people will ultimately rise upon that continent, taking rank with
the most powerful nations of the earth, and vindicate the character
of the African race before the world.
We cannot, at present, enter upon the discussion of this proposi
tion. It includes a field of great interest, which would be amply
broad for a whole discourse. But we must leave il as an expression
of our anticipation of the ultimate destiny of Africa, and close with
a few remarks.
Our last Lecture presented the African under the influence of de
grading superstition, and the brutalizing effects of the slave trade.
Tbe picture was dark indeed. In the present Lecture we had designed
lo present many evidences of his nobleness of character, when such
debasing causes do not influence his actions. But we must defer
them, and limit ourselves to a few points more closely connected with
the subjects we have been discussing.
It has been fashionable to charge upon the slaveholder equal crim
inality with the African kidnapper and slave trader, because the fore
fathers of the slaves held in bondage were originally brought from
Africa. As our diploma does not bear dale from Mount Ebal,* and
we are not trained to cursing, we shall be excused for speaking more
calmly upon this point, and taking a more comprehensive view of its
relations. Let the criminality of the slaveholder be what it may, il
will be proper to examine the facts and ascertain whether others are
not equally implicated in the guilt. Slaveholders are now producing,
annually, more than eleven hundred millions of pounds of Cotton,
and more than twelve hundred and twenty millions of pounds of Su
gar, and nearly three hundred and forty millions of pounds of Coffee.
Do they consume these articles themselves ? Are these products so
polluted that the world will neither touch, taste, nor handle them?
Not at all. The great struggle everywhere is as to who shall obtain
the greatest quantity of them, who make the greatest profit, and who
derive most comfort from their, consumption. This is especially
true of London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris, Vienna,
Berlin, Brussels, Hamburgh, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and St. Peters
burgh, as well as of PhUadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh,
and Cincinnati. The early abolitionists endeavored to prove, ihat
the slaveholder was equally guilty with the slave trader and kidnap
per, because the former received his slaves from the hands of the lat
ter ; and that those who now hold in bondage the descendants of the
slolen slaves, are equaUy guilty wilh the original kidnapper. Ac
cording lo this logic, that " the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the
children's teeth are set on edge," is a true proverb — and the men of
the seventh generation, involved in an evil without their consent, by
the actions of their forefathers, are equally guUty wilh its originators.
If this be sound logic, ihen the manufacturer who buys slave grown
Cotton, and makes il into cloth, is equaUy guilty with the slaveholder
' * Deut. 27 : 18.

172 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
himself who produces it. But the implication in guUl, if guilt there
be, does not stop here. He who purchases and wears the goods
manufactured from slave grown cotton, is also implicated; and as
there is annually consumed over eleven hundred millions of pounds
of slave grown cotton, and barely seventy-eight millions of free labor
growth, it follows that all Christendom is involved in the same con
demnation. These facts serve to illustrate one of our positions —
that the Christian world cannot avoid consuming the products of
slave labor, and thereby encourage slavery and the slave trade, but by
civilizing Africa.
There is one plan to avoid this great evd, and in an hour free our
selves from il, and that is to burn down all the cotton factories in
Europe and America, and suffer none lo be erected in their stead.
But what would the world gain by the sacrifice ? or rather, what
would it lose 1 Commerce, the great agent in the world's civiliza
tion, would be destroyed. A check upon commerce is a check upon
civilization. Human progress and human happiness materially de
pend upon commerce. But it is not practicable, even were il desi
rable, to destroy these factories to eradicate slavery. It is impossible
to destroy them. The pecuniary considerations involved are more
powerful than the moral. The owners of these factories wdl con
tinue lo manufacture slave grown cotton ; commerce mW continue to
transmit the products of the looms lo every corner of the world;
and the earth's populalion will continue to wear these fabrics. The
slave grown sugar and coffee will also be consumed ; because a sup
ply from free labor cannot be obtained. As it is impracticable, then,
to prevent the consumption of slave grown coffee, sugar, and cotton,
on account of the pecuniary profit and personal comfort they afford
to mankind, so it is alike impossible lo abolish slavery while the
world continues to consume the products of its labor. Our own
view, as expressed iu the outset, is, that the whole Christian world
is involved in this evil. Is there any more criminality in superin
tending the production of slave grown cotton, than in overseeing its
manufacture, or in being clothed with the fabrics into which it has
been transformed ? Is the Louisiana or Cuban planter more criraiwal
in raising, and sending to market, his crop of sugar, than the aboli
tionist of London or Boston is for sweetening his coffee, his tea, or
his poundcake with the same article ? Is the Brazihan slaveholder
more guilty for furnishing coffee, by the labor of his slaves, than the
merchant is for purchasing and selling il to all the anti-slavery men
in Ohio ? Are they innocent for greedily drinking it, knowing it to
be procured by the lash of the task-master? If coffee were not
consumed, none would be raised. If sugar were not used, none
would be made. If cotton were not manufactured and worn, none
would be grown. Hence slavery would be abolished ! Who then
supports slavery and the slave trade, but the one who consumes
its products ? We leave these questions lo every man's conscience.
In the present crisis we would approach our southern brethren in
the language of the sons of Jacob, and say : " We are verily gudly

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 173
concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when
he besought us, and we would not hear ; tiierefore is this distress
3onie upon us ; " and in the spirit of christian liberality, propose
some plan that would equalize the burden of relieving the country
from the distracting evils of slavery. Capitalists al the south buy
negroes because the investment is profitable, and they can no more
be expected lo emancipate their slaves, whde their labor is profitable,
than northern men can be expecled to burn their factories or banks
with aU their valuable contents.
But what is there to prevent a change in this condition of things ?
Must it remain forever? Must slavery, acknowledged on all hands,
except by a very few, to be an evil, continue as a perpetual source
of discord, endangering the safely of the Union, or affording a
fruitful theme of excitement for fanatics and demagogues ? Men
may transfer their property, at pleasure, into cash, whether it be in
lands, manufactories, or slaves. They are governed only by interest
and inclination in such matters. Convince the slaveholder that he can
do better than lo invest his money in slaves, and he will not buy them.
But when the investment is made, and you ask him lo emancipate,
without compensation, he considers it an unreasonable demand.
Emancipation in the West Indies, he knows, has resulted in pecun
iary ruin to the master, and has increased slavery in the aggregate,
instead of diminishing it. It is of the first importance, therefore, in
the adoption of any emancipation schemes, that an adequate number
of efficient free laborers should be secured to supply the place of the
slaves. Unless this can be done with safely to the planter, he wUl
not risk the change ; and unless the plan be such an one as wid not
create a fresh demand for slaves elsewhere, and produce an increase
of the slave trade, humanity would forbid its adoption. Then devise
a plan by which a productive free labor can be substituted for slave
labor, and the master receive compensation for his slaves, and he
would, no doubt, gladly free himself from the inconveniences and
want of safety of his position.
There are many reasons why such a change would be acceptable
to the South. A feeling favorable to emancipation, inelependent of
compensation, has long existed there, and legislative action has been
deemed necessary to prevent loo great an increase of free blacks.
The laws forbidding emancipation, except on condition of the
removal of the freed man, have been approved by the friends of
emancipation ; because the two leading objects they have in view, are,
to better the condition of the slave, and to throw their own sons in a
position of self-dependence, that would lead them to industry. To
secure both these objects, demands the removal of the colored peo
ple. But as no efficient system exists in the slave States, for the
encouragement of white labor, and as none can be adopted while the
blacks remain, many of the enterprising whites, of small means, have
yearly emigrated to the free States. This has been most injurious to
the slave States. Each white man, who emigrated, was a loss to
them and a gain to the free States. Thousands upon thousands of

174 Present Relations of Free Labor io Slave Laoor.
the beat citizens of Ohio, Indiana, and IlUnois, are from the .slave
States, and abandoned their former homes on account of their dislike
to place their sons, as laborers, on an equality with slaves, and in the
midst of the demoralizing influences that slavery generates. It is
this tide of emigration which is so seriously checking southern pros
perity and keeping the numerical strength of the slave States so much
below that of the free. But this dislike of freemen to labor on an
equality with slaves, influences not only the southern white man of
moderate means, but it prevents foreign emigrants from choosing their
homes in the "sunny south" instead of the chilly north. Neither
can emancipation, alone, check this tide of while emigration from
the slave States, nor attract the foreign emigrant to them. The free
colored people exert as paralyzing an effect upon industry there, as
the presence of the slaves ; and, to secure the objects aimed at, colo
nization must be connected with emancipation. This effect of the
presence of emancipated slaves, upon the industry of the whites, is
not confined alone to the United States. It has been a legitimate
result of African slavery wherever it has existed. According to Mr.
Bigelow, whose letters have been already quoted, il has been pecu
liarly the case in Jamaica. In summing up the causes which have
continued to depress the prosperity of that island, since emancipation,
he places, first in the list, the dislike of the whiles to labor with a
people of servUe origin, and the aptness of the blacks to adopt their
idle habits. His first cause of industrial depression is thus stated :
" 1. The degradation of labor, in consequence of the yet compar
atively recent existence of negro slavery upon the Island, which
excludes the while population from almost every department of pro
ductive industry, and begets a public opinion calculated to discourage,
rather than promote industry among the colored population."
Mr. Bigelow is of the opinion that the English Government lakes
this view of the subject ; and, with the design of correcting the evils
and restoring the prosperity of the Island, is contemplating the with
drawal of the white population, and allowing the colored people to
become the proprietors of the soil. Now, if it be so, that the pros
perity of the West India Islands demands a separation of the races,
where il is the boast that so Uttie prejudice against color exists, how
much more imperiously is the separation of the blacks and whites
demanded in this country, where prejudice against color is supposed
to be so much stronger ; but which, in fact, may be called by another
name, because it is founded, not so much in relation lo color as to
the habits engendered by slavery, and to which, color is supposed
to be a certain index, as it reveals the servile origin of its possessor.
Colonization is the true remedy, to the colored people, for this social
evil, as it is also the true means of stimulating the industry of the
whites where slavery has existed.
But there is another depressing cause, weighing down the colored
man, for which Colonization is tiie only remedy. While he remains
among those to -whom he, or his fathers, were formerly in bondage,
his presence not only continues to degrade labor, and prevent industry

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 175
among the whiles, but he continues to feel a sense of inferiority that
retards improvement. The remedy for this, is his removal from the
scenes that remind him of his former servile condition, and especially
his separation from the race which held him in bondage. This opinion
of the unfavorable condition in which the colored people are placed,
is becoming general. It is a great truth, which is fast forcing itself
upon minds that hitherto would not admit it for a moment. Even the
National Era, the Abolition organ, has been led to embrace views
corresponding so closely wilh this as to be its equivalent. In an
article headed " Free Labor versus Slave Labor," the editor expresses
the opinion, that emancipation in the United Slates would lead lo the
concentration of the colored people in the South, and the displace
ment of the laboring whites, and produce beneficial results. He
says :
" The aggregation of the negroes would necessarily build up a
public opinion of their own, a feeling of nationality, which is es
sential to the development of character. This they never can have
while dispersed over so wide an extent of country, among an
unfriendly people, who trample on their rights and treat them as
outcasts."* It will be apparent, on slight examination, that the aggregation of
the colored people and the displacement of the whites, must be a
very different thing in the United Stales from what it would be in
Jamaica. The removal of 16,000 whites, (about 3,000 faraiUes,) in
that Island, from a colored population of nearly 400,000 persons,
will be a trifling task compared with the rooting out of the immense
white population of one-third of the States of this Union ! The
former is practicable, the latter impossible ; and the sooner it is dis
missed from any part of the public mind the belter. The truth is,
that the only hope of placing the colored people of the United States
beyond the influence of those " who trample on their rights and treat
them as outcasts," and where there would necessarily grow up " a
public opinion of their own, a feeling of nationality, which is es
sential to the development of character," is not to retain them as
free laborers in the service of the southern planter, as the Era's
scheme contemplates, but to afford them the means of reaching Libe
ria, where they may, themselves, be the landed proprietors in a
Republic of their own, instead of remaining here as serfs in the land
of their former bondage. These are the different destinies that Colo
nization and Abolition have in store for the African race.
But can such a substitution of free labor for slave labor, as we
have contemplated, be made with equal profit to the southern cap
italist? Can there be found a sufficient number of freemen, to
replace the slaves, so that there shall be no diminution of products
to serve as a fresh stimulus to slavery and the slave trade elsewhere ?
WiU southern men, in such circumstances, be wiUing to emancipate,
on condition of receiving compensation? Could the States and the
» National Era, May 16, 1850.

176 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
General Governmeni provide for the expenses of the emigration of all
the colored people?
These are the great questions of the day in reference lo the whole
subject of emancipation. We shall not undertake, formally, to ans
wer them. Colonies of foreigners, recently settled in Texas, have
commenced the cultivation of cotton without the aid of slaves. The
agent of the "Free Produce Society," Levi Coffin, of Cincinnati,
assures us that these colonists, together with many other persons
thus engaged in cotton raising at the South, find it a profitable busi
ness, and that they can fully compete wilh their neighbors who em
ploy slave labor. From personal observation, we are prepared lo
say, that the value of the proceeds of small farms, on which but
few laborers are employed, is twice as great in the North as in the
South. We have less acquaintance wilh the operations of the large
planters at the South, but suppose that the contractors on our public
works at the North, who employ an equal number of hands, and
possess equal business talents, after paying full wages, realize the
greatest profits. We mean to be understood as claiming, that free
labor, under the most favoring circumstances, is twice as productive
as slave labor ; and that the southern planters, in substituting an intel
ligent white laboring population, and paying full wages, would realize
a better profit than they do under their present system. With a few
years' experience, the foreigner is as profitable a laborer as the native
American. The present annual influx of near a half a million of
foreigners, into the country, would furnish many laborers to the
South, were the objections to settiing there removed. The adoption,
by the General Government, of a system of emancipation, allowing
compensation for the slaves, and connecting with it their coloniza
tion in Liberia, would at once attract foreigners to the southern
States, to an extent fully equal to the number of colored people that
could annually be safely settled in Africa. The number of emi
grants that can be provided for in Liberia, will be an hundred per
cent, greater, in proportion to its populalion, than can be received in
countries where protection has to be made against winter. In a few
years that Republic can be prepared lo receive an immense emigra
tion. The opening of the South to free labor, would give a vast
stimulus to the spirit of emigration in European countries, and bring
a flood of useful emigrants from their teeming populations ; including
mechanics, manufacturers, and agricultural laborers, which might
equal, as soon as desirable, the whole number of our slaves, and
constitute a body of operatives much more profitable. Europe, at
present, is annually pouring out more than a half a million of her
people, without feeling any sensible diminution ; nay, without losing
a tithe of her increase. The greater part of that emigration is lo the
United States ; and as there is not such an attractive field furnished
in the world, to foreign emigrants, as our southern States afford, were
a system adopted for the emigration of the African population, we
would receive a greatiy increased number of Europeans. How long
it would lake for three mUlions of foreign emigrants to find their way

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 177
nto tlie South, to take the place of the three millions of slaves, we
cannot say ; but there exists littie doubt that their ingress would be
as rapid as the colored people could possibly leave for Liberia.
Il is thus that free labor might be substituted for slave labor, and
the slaveholder be rendered more prosperous and happy. The res
toration to the planter, by the General Government, of his capital
invested in slaves, and the introduction of a system of free labor
which would require a much less ouday of money than the present
system, would, doubtiess, be approved at the Soutii, and a proposition
of this kind be accepted by acclamation.
Gentlemf.n of the Constitutional Convention:
In closing, we must caU your attention to the question of making
provision for the emigration of the colored people of Ohio, or for
such of them as may, from lime to time, desire to remove lo Liberia.
The late purchase of territory for a new colony, by Charles
McMicKEN, Esq., to be called Ohio in Africa, is attracting the atten
tion of the colored people, and considerable anxiety prevails to obtain
reliable information about Liberia, and especially in relation to the
lands now offered to them as their future homes. The general feel-
i?ig among those who take an interest in this movement, is, that a
committee of their own choosing, which should be approved by the
agent of the Colonizalion Society, shall be sent to explore the country.
This seems a reasonable request, and should be complied with.
The Colonization Society have in their offer a larger number of
sla^¦es than they can colonize, and we cannot ask that its funds shall be
diverted from so sacred an object as securing their freedom. The as
sistance for our colored people must come from the State itself. But
the voluntary contributions of individuals are insufficient for this
purpose, and loo precarious to be reUed upon. PubUc sympathy,
throughout the Union, cannot be aroused in behalf of the free col
ored people, as it can for the slave, so as to make their removal a
national question. And yet their agency, as pioneers to aid the
Liberians in making provision for new emigrants, is essential to the
success of any great national emancipation scheme. The cost of
emigration of the free colored people must, then, be borne by the
States in which they reside. This view has already been adopted
by some of the States. Maryland has established a colony at Cape
Palraas, upon which she has expended a large sum. Its prosperity
amply repays her liberality. Virginia, last winter, also made a large
appropriation, ($30,000 a year,) to colonize her free colored people.
But in addition lo this, she has levied a poll tax upon them, which
wiU, doubtless, lessen the task she has undertaken, by driving over
upon the adjoining free Slates, all those who do not wish to emigrate.
Ohio has done nothing yet for colonization. Her recent legislation
has all been directed so as to invite the largest emigration of colored
people frora abroad.* *See first Part, pages 19 to 26.
12

178 Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor.
Taking all the circumstances connected wilh the subject into view,
it is evident that the means of promoting the cause of Colonization
in Ohio, must be obtained within the State, and that an application lo
the Legislature for aid will be necessary. It is all important, then,
that tho question of legislative power to appropriate money for this
object, be put beyond all dispute. To bring the question of affording
aid to Colonization directly before the people, for their approval, it is
respectfully requested on behalf of the friends of that cause, and on
behalf of the colored people who wish to emigrate, that you, gentle
men, in tbe discbarge of your duties, as members of the Constitu
tional Convention, will insert a clause in the new Constitution,
empowering the Legislature lo grant an appropriation of money to
the American Colonization Society, under such restrictions as will
best promote the noble enterprise in which it is engaged, and encour
age the emigration of the colored people from this State lo Liberia.
There is certainly much, at this moment, gentlemen, lo excite en
couraging hopes for the colored race, and to stimulate their friends to
forget all minor differences, and press onward to the accomplishiiieiit
of the grand results new evidentiy attainable through Colonization.
Nor are we left without hope, that our own beloved country may yet
be freed from the reproach of African slavery, which has been en
tailed upon her by the cupidity of the mother country. Take a view,
for a moment, of the signs of the limes, and the present position of
affairs. The despotisms of Europe are being shaken to their centers.
The crowned heads seem to have gained a momentary respite. The
want of safety in property and life in the old world is greatly stimu
lating emigration to the new. Here, only, can white men enjoy all
the rights of freemen, and be brought under the influence of -all the
elements of useful human progress.* The recent vast enlargement
of our territory, may have been permitted to afford room for the op
pressed millions of Europe, who are sighing for peace and for freedom.
Our national councds have been directed to a peaceful adjustment of
the questions threatening the safety of the Union. The opening up
of the untold riches of California is placing in the possession of the
nation the means of accomplishing great things for the worhl. This
most singular combination of events, points very significantiy to the
great work devolving upon the nation. Fo substitute free labor for
slave labor is in our power. To give compensation to the master
for his slaves will not be beyond our^ability. The foreign emigrants
pouring into the country will perform the first great work. The
immense revenues that will hereafter flow into onr national treasury
will enable us to execute the last. Is it doubted ? The appropriation
of an annual sum only equal to half the amount expended in the
Mexican War, would, in seventeen years, colonize all the slaves, and
pay to the masters $300 each, for young and old, as compensation.
To substitute free labor for slave labor need produce no commercial
derangement with us that would encourage the slave trade or slavery
*See Part Second, page 113.

Present Relations of Free Labor to Slave Labor. 179
elsewhere. There need be no diminution of products, but the im
proved tillage would yield an increase. England and France, when
freeing the slaves in their Colonies, found no such tide of intelligent
foreigners as we are receiving, flowing into them, lo take the place of
their slaves, and prevent a decrease of agricultural products. We
can do what no other nation would be capable of doing. It is in our
power not only lo free ourselves from the evil of slavery, and the
whole world from the necessity of consuming slave-grown products ;
but, in the execution of this great work, lo hasten the redemption of
Africa from barbarism ; and, in doing this, lo crush the slave trade
and slavery everywhere, and establish our own glorious republic upon
a foundation as enduring as the everlasting hills. No one, we tliink,
can calmly examine the present relations of free labor to slave labor,
in tropical and semi-tropical countries, as embodied in the mass of
facts we have coUated, and not be convinced that Emancipation in the
United Slates, and the Colonization of the colored people in Liberia,
to develop its resources and civUize its inhabitants, would give a
death-blow to the slavery of Cuba and BrazU, and to African oppression
throughout the world. And who would not be delighted to aid in
such a glorious work? Who would not be overjoyed to witness
such a sublime achievement of Republican principle ? Who woiild
not devoutly adore that Divine Wisdom which had wrought out such
deliverance for Africa.
And now, gentlemen, we commit this subject into your hands.
The first step, in the agency which Ohio should have in this great
work, must be taken by you. Our lands for the Colony of Ohio in
Africa, are included in the GaUinas, hitherto the greatest mart of the
slave trade on that coast. To secure its purchase, Great Britain, with
profuse liberality, for more than a year, blockaded all its principal
trading points and thus kept off the slave traders untd the chiefs and
kings were induced to seU. That blockade is now raised — the pur
chase having been made. The country is once more exposed lo the
approaches of the slave traders, who may again succeed in renevi'ing
the traffic. This can only be prevented by the settiement of the
points liable to be visited by them. This territory being in the offer
of the colored people of Ohio, will for a time, not be offered to others.
It is important, therefore, that decisive steps be taken to secure the
execution of the enterprise of establishing an Ohio Colony in Africa.
The failure of an application lo the Legislature, last winter, for aid
to begin this work, was, in some degree, owing to an opinion held
by a few of the members, that they had not constitutional power to
appropriate money for this object. Our appeal, then, must first be to
you. The faUure lo confer upon the Legislature the power for which
we ask, wUl leave us in doubl and perplexity, and cast a blight upon
our prospects. But the insertion of a clause in the Constitution, such
as is desired, wUl ensure Legislative action, and may lead the St-ate
to adopt and cherish this offspring of benevolence — Ohio in Africa
— and thus create a new and efficient agent for the overthrow of
oppression and the promotion of human liberty. We commend it to
your care, and to the blessing of the Ruler of Nations.

PAET FOURTH.

It is a dictate of prudence, in all human pursuits, to pause, at times,
and review the past, that we may ascertain whether our efforts Lave
been successful, or whether a change of policy may not be demanded to
accomplish our purposes. The more important the interests involved,
the greater is the necessity for the adoption of this rule. Let us apply
it to the efforts which have been made in behalf of the oppressed people
of Africa. Except the propagation of the (Jospel, few benevolent enter
prises have enlisted so many hearts as those for the destruction of the
African slave trade and the abolition of slavery ; and, in none have the
active agents been so often foiled, and doomed to see their brightest
hopes decay and almost die, as in these twin offeprings of benevolence.
An impression has gone abroad, of late, among a certain class, that
much progress has been made in overturning the system of slavery ; and,
that, in a little time, the task -wiU be done, and the oppressed go free.
It is proposed, in the space of a few pages, to notice the more prominent
events connected ¦with the subject, with the view of sho^wing that this
belief is not warranted by the facts in tbe case ; and that the Anti-
Slavery policy, so far as it has opposed Colonization to Africa, has re
tarded emancipation, by checking the extension of free labor tropical
cultivation, and thus rendered slave labor more and more necessary,
and more and more profitable, in the cultivation of those tropical products
which the constantly increasing wants of commerce now so imperiously
demand. In performing this task, we shall du'ect attention to the enormous in
debtedness of the Christian world to slave labor, at this moment, for
certain articles of prime necessity ; then show the inability of free labor,
in tropical and semi-tropical countries, to compete with the slave labor
of thoso regions so as to afford any relief; present facts to prove, that
the tendency of the efforts of Great Britain, in behalf of the African
race, up to a^eoent date, has been to increase the evils she was attempt
ing to destroy ; offer some considerations which make it probable, that
the suppression of the African slave trade, an event now considered cer-
(180)

Facts for Tliinhny Men. 181
tain, will be of immense pecuniai-y benefit to the slave holders of the
United States; and, in concluding, demonstrate that the only hope for
any gi-eat increase of free labor tropical cultivation, at an early day, is
in Africa, and that the main prospect of making it available there, is by
colonization to Liberia.
As the field of investigation is an extensive one, we must study great
bre^vity ; and, to render om- labors less complicated, we shall refer to
three articles of slave labor product, only, -viz. : Coffee, Sugar, and
Cotton. First, then, as to the indebtedness of the Christian world to
slave labor.
According to official documents, and other reliahle sources of informa
tion, the consumption of Cotton in Europe and the United States for
1849,* was 1,179,920,000 lbs. Of this amount, only 78,589,200
lbs. were the product of free labor countries, leaving the Christian world
indebted to slave labor, for this article of prime necessity, to the extent
of 1,101,330,800 lbs.
Of this amount England consumed 624,000,000 lbs., of which only
71,469,200 Ihs. were from free labor countries, leaving her indebted to
slave labor countries for 552,530,800 lbs. of Cotton. The amount of
this article consumed by Great Britain, being more than one half of the
whole consumption of the Christian world, shows that she is the greatest
prop to slavery in the world. Her patronage to the slave holders of the
United States, alone, for 1849, was, for Cotton, 734,244,560 lbs., of
which she manufactured 522,530,800 lbs. and exported the remainder
to the Continent.
But why is this ? we may he asked. Why is it that England, after
making such immense sacrifices for the overthrow of slavery in her own
dominions, should be the principal purchaser of the products of the
slave labor of a rival nation? We answer, that her greatness and
power, the abUity to meet the payment of the interest upon her nar
tional debt and to sustain the throne itself, is dependent upon her com
merce ; and that her commerce is based upon her exports of manufac
tures. These exports stood as follows, for the year 1849, and that
year wiU serve as the index to other years :
SiUis Exported,  $5,001,785
Woolen Goods, Exported  42,096,650
Linen " "  20,517,215 $67,615,(i50
Cotton " "  $139,453,970
It wUl be seen, therefore, that Cotton is indispensable to Great Britain,
and that to cut off her supply of that article, would be to destroy nearly
two thirds of her commerce, manufactures of Iron excepted.
The United States is also dependent upon Cotton, to a large extent,
as the basis of her foreign commerce, not only as it respects the raw
material, but in the manufactured article.

*This Tract is a condensed enumeration of the facts embraced in the pamphlet addressed to
the Ohio Constitutional Convention, in 1850, on " the present relations of free labor to slave
labor," and their bearing on African Colonization. The authorities, for the facts stated, are aU
giren in that document, and are to be relied upon as correct, both there and here. The euppres-
fcif n of the slave trade, then in anticipation, ha-s now been nearly realized, and the arguments
based upon this event will be found worth considering.

Facts for TldnHny jllen. 183
ports of slaves from Africa, were but 85,000 annuaUy ; but, instead of
being diminished by that act, that bloody traffic went on increasino-,
until, in 1830, it had reached an average of 1'25,000 annually. In
1833, the Emancipation Act was pa.'ssed by Parliament, and it was fol
lowed by a stUl farther increase of the slave trade, running up tho ex
ports of slaves from Afi-ica, between 1835 and 1840, to 135,800 per
annum. But why this result? Cuba, BraaU, and tho French West India
Oolonies, contmued to pm-cbase imported slaves, that they might extend
their cultivation, and reap all the advantages of tho decreased produc
tion, under free labor, in Hayti, and the British West India possessions
To give a clear idea of the rapidity with which the demand for these
products has increased, one instance only need be given, which will
serve as an index to the whole. In 1805, the English consumption of
Cotton was but 60,000,000 lbs. In 1833 it was 287,000,000 lis.,
and in 1845 it had risen to 626,000,000 lbs. But in 1849 it was
reduced to 624,000,000 lbs. To this fact we shall recur .again, at
present merely stating, that as tho cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and
Cotton, went down in Hayti and the British West Indies, it went up in
the countries employing slave labor.
Being in the possession of such facts as these, a just conception can be
formed of the present indebtedness of the Christian world to slave labo-^
and the character of the obstacles in the way of effecting any immc^dif
change in that relation. In the article of Cotton, alone, the excess of
the consumption of the products of slave labor over free labor, is more
than one thousand millions of pounds ; and, in all three of the products
named, it is over fourteen hundred and thirty millions of pounds.
Attention must now he directed to another aspect of this subject, and
one that is indispensable to the proper understanding of the present
posture of slave labor.
It had become apparent, at the close of 1849, that slave labor, and
free labor, both combined, were about to fail in producing an adequate
supply of Cotton and Coffee, to meet the demand for these commodities ;
and, as a necessary consequence, the prices of both advanced, largely,
beyond what they had been for years. It was also known, that ex
cept so far as more favorable seasons might afford larger crops, occa
sionally, no increased ratio of production was to be expected in the
countries engaged in the cultivation of these articles ; and that their
consumption had been increasing in a greater ratio thari their production,
so that a short supply must become permanent, unless additional laborers,
in other countries, not now producing them, could be induced to engage
in their cultivation.
There was one mode, indeed, }sj which an increased production of
these commodities might have been secured, in the present producing
countries ; and that was by an unlimited and untrammeled increase of
the slave trade, adding, annually, two or three hundred- thousand slaves
to the plantations of Brazil, Cuba, and other slave labor cfiintries.
And such was the pressing necessity for an increased supply of Cotton
in England, in 1850, that this course of policy was very nearly adopted.
The phUanthropists, despauing, at that moment, of the suppression of
the slave trade, and anxious to relieve it of the horrors induced by tho

182 Facts for Tliinldng Me'
To Understand the fuU indebtedness of t^. 0Qrx.5tL.a - /avo
labor and to "free labor, respectively, at this moment, the following figures
must be given :
CONSUMPTION or COTTON, SUGAE, AND COFFEE, IN 1849.
Slave Labor. Free Labor. Slave Labor Excess.
Cotton, lbs. 1,101,330,800 78,589,200 1,022,741,000
Sugar, " 1,220,000,000 933,024,000 286,975,000
Coffee, " 338,240,000 217.800,000 120,440,000
These figures show the relation in which the Christian world stood, to
these two systems of labor, in 1849, and that relation has not since
undergone any material change. Nor is there any practicable mode of
immediately altering this relation, now apparent to the eye of the
Christian philanthropist. Much dependence has hitherto been placed
on the application of moral suasion, for the removal of slavery from our
country. But the demands of commerce now far outweigh the moral
forces operating against that institution, and it must continue, as far
as man can judge, until a change in the sources of supply, of the com
modities upon which slave labor is employed, can be accomplished.
But there is no prospect of such a change being effected in the
countries now producing these commodities. Their production by slave
labor has been rapidly increasing for many years, while that by free
labor has been as regularly decreasing, so that no material change is to
be expected very soon. The truth of this assertion -wUl be e-vident when
it is stated, that the forces employed -within the westem hemisphere, in
the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export, stand about
thus : *
Slave population  6,657,000
Free colored population  1,657,000
The latter class, standing only as one to six, cannot, by any possibil
ity, compete with the former, and no revolution in the supphes of the
commodities named, is to be expected fi-om that quai-ter.
In confirmation of this view, it is, only necessary to say, that while
tbe slave trade suppUed the English West India planters and those of
Hayti with laborers, the exports in a single year, of the articles under
consideration, from these Islands — ^the latter in 1790 and the former in
1807— amounted to 928,000,000 lbs. ; while under freedom, from 1838
to 1848, their exports averaged, annually, only 356,000,000 lbs., —
being a decrease of 572,000,000 lbs. As there was, during the periods
named, no diminution in the consumption of these articles, but a steady
increa,se, this faUing off in the amount of free labor products operated
as a great stimulus to the slave holder, and also to the slave trader. Is
this doubted ? Then look at a few facts connected with this subject.
V/'hon ]<]ngland prohibited the slave trade to her citizens, and thus cut
off the supply of laborers to her West India planters, m 1808, the ex-
* This docs not include tho free colored people of the United States, nor the one million of slaves
in this country, who reside north of the Cotton and Sugar line. The whole number of Aftican
Slaves iu the Western llcmisphere is about 7,600,000.

184 Facts for Thinking Men.
fear of capture on the part of the traders ; and, moreover, being mostly
" peace men," and opposed to the shedding of blood ; had commenced
to urge the withdrawal of the naval squadrons from the African coast,
so as to leave the traffic in slaves once more unmolested, that it might
be prosecuted with care and deliberation and less loss of human life.
During 1850 and each of the four preceding years, Brazil receivedfrom
Africa, from 50,000 to 60,000 slaves for the supply of her planters,
notwithstanding the efforts of the squadrons to prevent it. But, as the
mortaUty of her slaves is ten per cent, per annum, she needed 200,000
at least, to keep pace ¦with the demands which commerce was making
upon her for slave grown products. The English Cotton lords, foresee
ing, doubtless, that the movement would at once double the supply of
laborers to Brazil, and increase her abUity to export Cotton, readily
united with the philanthropists, and, in the name of humanity, demanded
that the government should withdraw its African squadron. The adop
tion of this measure by Parliament, would have given to the slave
trader an uninterrupted field for renewing his horrid traffic in human
flesh. But Lord John Russell brought the whole weight of his influence
against it, as Premier, and refused any longer to have the action of
government controlled by men who had proved themselves, throughout
the anti-slavery movement, as ignorant of the principles of political
economy, as they were erroneous in their notions of human nature.
To afford a true idea of the embarrassments under which the English
manufacturers labor, in reference to a supply of Cotton to keep then-
looms in motion, it is only necessary to state : that from 1830 to 184.5,
-omitting 1837 and 1841, the increase in the consumption of Cotton in
England, averaged, annually, nearly 35,000,000 lbs. The whole eon-
sumption, in 1830, was 247,600,000 lbs. and in 1845 it had risen as
before stated, to 626,496,000 lbs. But in 1845 her consumption of
Cotton had reached its maximum, and she has not since manufactured
so large a quantity, in any one year, by two or three mdUons of pounds.
The reason of this is fully explained in the London Economist and other
British periodicals. Her supplies of Cotton from all other countries,
except the United States, had been diminishing for many years, save
when excessively high prices diverted a larger portion from India to
England. The ratio of increase in the production of Cotton, in the
United States, has been only about three per cent, per annmn, or nearly
equal to the natural increase of her slave population. Beyond this ratio
of increase, the production of Cotton in the United States cannot extend,
excepting so far as new and richer lands are obtained and cultivated ;
and, even then, an increase from this cause cannot be permanent, as
much of the Cotton lands of the South have been worn out and aban
doned, and much more must share the same fate. The ratio of increase
in the production of Cotton, in the United States, cannot, therefore, rise
permanently much beyond three per cent, per annum.
Now, we wish it noted, particularly, that the ratio of increase in the
manufactui-e of Cotton, in the United States and the continent of Eu
rope, equals this three per cent, per annum, and takes up the whole
increased production of the United States. O-wing to the disturbances
in Europe, of a political natm-e, the nianufacturmg interests on the con-

Facts for ThinMng Men. 185
tinent have been somewhat deranged, but at the opening of 1850, the
condition of this question was as we have stated.
England, then, has been left without the means of procui-ing a suffi
cient supply of Cotton for her manufactories ; and has been driven to
extraordinary efforts, for some years past, to remedy this evil. These
efforts need not be noticed in detail : they were begun in India, extended
to Australia, to South Africa, and last of all to Liberia. The results of
these attempts have been rather discouraging, generally, and, in some
instances, total failures, except in Liberia ; where the soil, climate, and
population, afford hopes of complete success, when the new Republic
shaU have sufficient capital to employ the native labor ¦within its borders.
And here we may be allowed to remark, that it does not appear to
be so much from a dislike to the use of the slave gro^wn Cotton of Brazil
and the United States, that England is seeking supplies from other
countries, as because she cannot obtain enough of it to meet her wants.
After using 552,500,000 lbs. of slave grown cotton annually, and but
71,469,000 lbs. of free labor origin, it need not be claimed that tho
Cotton lords of England have any scruples of conscience on that score.
But we must advert to another aspect of this great question.
When a sMUful general has to contend with a powerful foe, he never
rushes recklessly on to the contest, relying for victory upon mere bravery ;
but surveys the enemy's movements and position with care, aims at
discovering his plans, and then attacks the posts of most vital importance
to his adversary. It cannot, justly, be claimed that the English anti-
slavery efforts have been conducted upon this principle; but it can be
shown that the slave trader, and those interested in sustaining his unholy
traffic, have acted upon it, and, until very recently, have gained strength
and superior advantages from every movement made for the suppression
of that traffic.
It can also be shown that the signal failure of West India free labor,
so unexpected to the emancipationists, and so destructive to the West
India planters, was, in a good degree, the legitimate result of the slave
trade. Look at the facts. The constant and cheap supply of slaves to
the planters of Cuba, enabled them to produce Sugar at £12 the ton;
while in the English West Indies, under freedom, the planters have been
unable to produce it for less than £20 the ton, though paying the free
laborer but 18f to 25 cents per day, as wages, the workman boarding
himself. Such wages being insufficient to aUure the freeman to the toils
of the sugar mills, or to induce him to allow his wife or daughters to go
there, except from necessity, the planters, unable to pay more, at the
prices their Sugar bore in market, could not compete with the Cuban
slave holders, and had to abandon their estates. It was thus that the
slave trade crippled English West India cultivation, and rendered it
wholly powerless as a competitor to slave labor; and it was thus, ao-ain,
that slavery was made to react so as to sustain the slave trade.
The same remarks will apply to the cultivation of Coffee, and the same
results, nearly, have foUowed, in all cases, where either manumitted
free labor, or Pagan free labor have come into competition with' African
slave labor, in the production of the commodities which we have been
considering. Here are the facts :
Brazil and_ the Spanish West Indies, excluding Cuba, exported, iir

186 Facts for Thinking 3Icn.
1832, only 94,080,000 lbs. of Coffee; but after the EngUsh emancipa
tion of 1833, the enormous importation of slaves into the former coun
tries, enabled them to run up their production so as to export, in 1848,
the immense quantity of 313,600,000 lbs. of this article. See the enor
mous power of the slave trade I In 16 years it enabled these countries
to increase theh- coffee exports from 94,080,000 lbs. to 313,600,000 lbs.!
On the other hand, Hayti, the British West Indies, Ceylon, Moeha,
and India, all free labor countries, exported less in 1848, by 6,000,000
lbs., than they had done in 1832.
Java and Sumatra, also free labor countries, though increasing their
exports of Coffee from 60,480,000 lbs., in 1832, to 156,800,000 lbs.
in 1843; yet, owing to the extreme low prices, in the following years,
arising from the heavy supplies from Brazil, they aUowed their exports
to faU off, in 1848, 12,400,000 lbs. below what it was in 1843.
Cuba, employing slave labor, diminished her coffee exports, it is tree,
from 49,280,000 lbs., in 1832, to 22,400,000 lbs. in 1848; but it was
only to increase her sugar exports from about 100,000,000 lbs. to near
600,000,000 lbs. per annum, and to give the death blow to its produc
tion, by free labor, in the British West Indies.
Here, now, -without further detaUs, are facts enough to enable think
ing men to discern how far the failure of free labor tropical cultivation
is due to the slave trade ; and to convince them that not only in Sugar
and Coffee, throughout the whole field of their production, but in Cotton,
too, has manumitted free labor, as weU as pagan free labor, failed to
sustain itself in competition with African slave labor; and that the slave
trade has embarrassed, discouraged, and almost ruined free labor tropi
cal cultivation.
But let us look a Uttle more closely at the position into which this
tremendous agent of e^vU, the slave trade, has thrown the Christian world.
By introducing a savage population into new and rising Christian States,
where labor was much in demand, it has checked the progress of civiliza
tion, and entaUed evUs that the wisdom of man is unable to remove.
By multiplying at will the number of slaves in the world, it has cast a
blight upon free labor ¦within the tropics. By rapidly augmenting the
supplies of slave labor products, at cheap rates, it has driven those of
free labor from the markets, except at ruinous prices, and thus has it
successfully paralyzed the arm of the freeman. By sectu-ing to slave
labor the monopoly of the markets for its products, it has compelled the
Christian world to become the prop of that system, by making it necessary
that she should consume its fruits. By this decrease of free labor pro
ducts, it has placed slavery, apparently, upon an immovable basis,
enabling it to bid defiance to its enemies, and to force England, the
most deeply interested of all nations in its destruction, to become its
principal supporter. Thus, the day of- freedom for the slave, it would
seem, is prolonged, and the hope of the philanthropist almost ready to
expire. Here, now, is the position in which this momentous question
stood at the opening of 1851.
But before the close of that year, we heai'd the cheering declaration,
by the British Prime Minister, that the slave trade was virtually at an
end. ¦ Tu-ed of diplomacy with Brazil, and wearied with repeated viola
tions of treaties, on the part of that government, the Emrlish sciuadron

Facts for Thinking Mm. 187
was sent to her coast, and, by firing- mto the slave trading vessels in her
ports, brought her to terms. BrazU at once agreed to prohibit the traffic
in slaves to her citizens, and it is confidently believed that she will now
act in good faith, inasmuch as she will be closely watched by England.
That the boast of the British Premier was no idle one, is proved by
the parliamentary reports of the present year, on the Brazilian slave
trade ; which show that only about 3,000 slaves had been smuggled into
Brazil during the past year, wbUe the number introduced during the five
preceding years, had been from 50,006 to 60,000.
The Queen of England, in her speech of the 15th August, 1852, at
the prorogation of Parhament, says: "Treaties have been concluded by
my naval commanders, with the king of Dahomey and all the African
chiefs whose rule extends along the Bight of Benin, for the total abolition
of the slave trade, which at present is whoUy suppressed upon that post."
The recent purchase of the territory between Liberia and Sierra
Leone, by President Roberts, upon which our Ohio colony is to be
planted, has placed the whole of that part of tbe coast imder the juris
diction of the Liberian authorities, and forever rendered the slave trade
Ulegal throughout its former strong holds in the GalUnas and Grand
Cape Mount.
We may, therefore, say, remarks the editor of a leading Boston paper,
that there is not now, on the whole coast of Africa, a single open, legal
ized slave mart for the foreign trade. Slaves may, and no doubt wiU
be smuggled from Africa, as long as Cuba encourages the traffic ; hut
there is no longer any place on that continent, where slaves can be
openly collected and kept for the foreign market and sold to foreign
traders, under cover of African laws.
This, then, is a new and most important fact, to be added to those
which we have noticed in our rapid re^view of the present condition of
free labor and slave labor, and it must produce great revolutions in the
questions we have been considering. Let us, therefore, proceed to take
a calm and dispassionate review of the history of past events and results,
so as to form a sound judgment of what will be the practical effects of
the suppression of the slave trade, upon the interests of free labor and
slave labor respectively. As the prosecution of that traffic, by supply
ing an abundance of laborers, at cheap rates, has paralyzed free labor
tropical cultivation, every where, and secured to slave labor the principal
monopoly of the markets of the world for its products, let us see what
resulte may be anticipated from the suppression of the slave trade and
the consequent suspension of the supplies of slaves from Africa to the
planters of Cuba and Brazil.
As like causes produce like effects, under similar circumstances, we
must see if a like event ¦with the present suppression of the slave trade,
has before occurred, and then ascertain the results that followed. A
case precisely parallel, is afforded in the history of the prohibition of the
slave trade, to the British West India planters, by the English Parliar
ment. These planters, up to 1806, had received from the slave traders an
uninten-upted supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their culti
vation as commerce increased its demands for their product,?. Let us
take the results in Jamaica as an example of the whole of the British

188 Fads for Thinking Men.
West India Islands. She had increased her exports of sugar from a
yearly average of 123,979,000 lbs. in 1772-3, to 234,700,000 lbs. hi
1805-6. No diminution of exports had occurred, as has been asserted
by some anti-slavery writers, before the prohibition of the slave trade.
The increase was progressive and undisturbed, except so far as affected
by seasons more or less favorable. But no sooner was her supply of
slaves cut off, by the Act of 1806, which took effect in 1808, than the
exports of Jamaica began to diminish, until her sugar had fallen off from
1822 to 1832, to an annual average of 131,129,000 lbs., or nearly to
what they had been sixty years before. It was not untU 1833 that the
Emancipation Act was passed ; so that this decline in the exports of
Jamaica, took place under aU the rigors of West India slavery.
The cause of this decline in the exports of the British West India
colonies, is easily explained. The planters preferred males as laborers,
and the slave traders imported males, principaUy, from Africa, to sell to
them. As soon, therefore, as the supplies were withheld, the slave
population began to diminish, by the usual mortality among the adults;
so that, at the end of about twenty-three years, according to Buxton,
instead of any increase, they had decreased from 800,000 to 700,000.
The result of this movement was, that the exports from the whole Brit
ish West Indies, were reduced one-third below what they had been before
the prohibition of the slave trade.
Now, let us inquire a moment into the condition of Cuba and BrazU,
which have been as fully dependent upon the slave trade for their supply
of laborers, as the British West Indies were before 1808.
A census of Cuba, a few years since, showed that out of a slave pop
ulation of 425,000 there were but 150,000 females. The slave popula
tion of Brazil is believed to be composed of about the same disproportion
in the sexes as that of Cuba. The rate of mortality among adult slaves,
imported from Africa, is very great, being in Brazil, as before stated,
near ten per cent, per annum, and requiring a renewal of that class of
slaves, on the plantations, once in ten years.
It is very easy, with these lights before us, to foresee what must be
the effect of the suppression of the slave trade on Cuba and BrazU.
The supply of slaves being cut off, the deaths must, in a few years,
equalize the sexes, and result in a great decrease of the slave population.
This must produce a corresponding diminution in their exports, for many
years, extending, annually, to at least one-third their former amount.
This decrease in the supply of slave labor products, will create a corres
ponding increase of their prices in the markets. But this enhancement
of their value will not compensate the Cuban and BraziUan slave hold
ers for their diminished production and the losses in the number of their
sla\'53. The suppression of the slave trade, then, ¦wiU be a serious pecu
niary loss to the slaveholders of these two countries.
But who are to be benefited by this revolution in slave labor coun
tries, hitherto dependent upon the slave trade? Undoubtedly, the
benefits will be enjoyed by free labor, wherever it is employed in the
cultivation of similar products; and by slave labor in countries not
depending upon the African slave trade. This stimulus to industry,
then, will reach Hayti, the British West Indies, and Liberia, to prompt
then- freemen to greater industry, by the pi-o.spect of better comnensation

Facts for Thinking Men. 189
for their labor. As the suppUes of slave-grown products diminish, and
the prices increase, free labor products must be multiplied, and free labor
itself, in some degree, be released from its embarrassments.
But this stimulus of higher prices -will reach the United States in a
much greater degree, because our slaveholders are prepared, at oftce, to
avail themselves of these advantages, and it ¦will add to the stability of
slavery, by increasing the price of its products, and enhancing the value
of the slaves. Already the short supply of Cotton, before noticed, has
vastly increased the value of both Cotton and slaves, and the suppression
of the slave trade, at this juncture, must greatly add to the advantages
of the slaveholder of the United States.
After all the efforts, therefore, that have been made for the destruc
tion of slavery, during a half century of unwearied exertion, the progress
of events has so complicated this great problem, that at the very moment
when the slave trade is supposed to be extinguished, or nearly so, and
tropical free labor left unshackled, the Christian world is more deeply
indebted to slave labor than at any former period, and the slavery of the
United States rendered more permanent and profitable, to all human
appearance, than at any time since its origin.
If any one doubts the justness of this conclusion, as a fair deduction
from the facts which have been presented, we most sincerely and earnestly
invite bim to show us our error, as our only aim is the discovery of
truth, in the Ught of which alone, can we hope to discover the path of
duty, in relation to the great questions connected -with the redemption
of the African race.
The investigations now completed, have conducted us to a most inter
esting conclusion, and brought out results wholly different, no doubt,
from what most of our readers have been anticipating. They are, how
ever, legitimate deductions from the facts connected -with the subject,
and show, most conclusively, that the question of slavery, in our countiy,
is placed upon new grounds.
It shows, also, that those who have had the control of the anti-slavery
movements, have manifested little foresight in their policy, as nearly
every measure adopted to check or suppress the evUs of slavery and the
slave trade, have been foUowed by results the reverse of what they
expected, and were laboring to secure. But we have no disposition to
find fault, our only aim being to point to the bearing that the new order
of things must have upon African Colonization and the prosperity of the
Republic of Liberia.
While our researches have revealed the immense extent to which the
Christian world is now consuming slave-gro-wn products, at the same time
the utmost capacity of slave labor, to meet the demands of commerce,
has also been disoovered. This is something gained. In the United
States, the ratio of increase in the annual production of Cotton, keeps
even pace -with the natural increase of the slaves, and nothing more.
Our sugar growers cannot go beyond this, except as they draw off tho
laborers from the cotton fields. Thus stands the slave labor of the
United States.
The slave population of Cuba and Brazil, should the slave trade be
effectually suppressed, will soon be placed upon the same basis as that
of the United State.s. Tho planters there, will have no inoroa:-:e ui

190 Facts for Thinking Men.
laborers, excepting from the natural increase of the slaves. The reduc
tion of the slave population, by the death of the excess of males, judging
from the results in the English colonies, after 1808, wiU not be made up
by the natural increase, in less than thirty years. UntU that occurs,
Cuba and BrazU will be unable to keep their exports up to the present
amount. The exports of the English colonies, upon the prohibition of
the slave trade, fell off one-third, and a Uke result may now be expected
in Brazil and Cuba.
Under these circumstances, the utmost capacity of slave labor, in
tropical and semi-tropical cultivation, can be accurately estimated, and
the extent of its supplies to commerce be clearly foreseen. This -vriU
enable the friends of free labor to measure the strength and resources of
the forces with which they must compete — a thing that was impossible
under the reign of the slave trade. But on this point we shaU not
speculate. The present inability of free labor and slave labor, both combined, to
meet the demands of commerce, and the reduction of cultivation that
must occur in Cuba and Brazil, will leave a vaccuum in the markets,
for tropical products, to be filled from other sources, or to give an
increased value to the amount that can be suppUed from the present
fields of cultivation.
But who is to he enriched by this result? Who is to supply the
deficit, and reap the golden harvest it will afford? Or, in default of
augmented cultivation, who are to have their coffers made to tiverflow
by an increase in the price of the productions they are able to fm-nish?
These questions are worth considering, and we must give them a
moment's attention.
The English West India free labor colonies cannot be much benefited,
at present, by this increased demand for tropical products, as they can
not, immediately, increase their cultivation to any great extent. This
will be readily admitted, when it is stated that the lands in these colo
nies are mostly held by white men, who reside in England ; and that
the colored men in the islands o-wn but a few acres each — barely enough,
generally, to afford the necessai-y amount of food for their famiUes.
But already the West India landholders are bestirring themselves at
the brightening prospects, and are appealing to the free colored people
of tho United States, to rush over to the islands, become loyal subjects
of Queen Victoria, and faithful laborers on the plantations of Enghsh
gentlemen ! Our free colored men, however, deserve something belter
than this, and they know it : and they give indications of a determina
tion to reject the proffered boon of becoming mere laborers in the sugar
mills of the West Indies, especially as they cannot expect over fifty
cents per day, as wages.
Doubtless, an increase of wages will now command more of the native
labor of these islands, than at any time since emancipation, and tend to
multiply then- exports ; but no great advancement can be made untU the
intelligence of the colored people is raised much above the present
standard, by more extensive means of education than now prevaU, nor
even then, until they become tho owners of the soil.
As Hayti still exports about one-third of her former amount of Coffee,
she will be benefited by the rise in the price of that ai-tiole : but. a« lipr

Facts for Thinking Men. 191
Sugar and Cotton cultivation has been greatly neglected for many years,
she will derive little present advantage from that quarter by any in
creased demand.
Liberia, with only eight or nine thousand colonists, and eighty
thousand partiaUy civilized natives, mostly engaged in trade, or in pro
ducing food for home consumption, cannot derive any material benefit
from an increased demand for Cofiee, Sugar, and Cotton, for some years
to come. Her citizens, however, are now turning attention to their
cultivation with encouraging success ; and British capitalists offer to
her citizens any amount of means for the employment of native labor
Ln the cultivation of Cotton. Liberia can command an unbounded
extent of fertile tropical lands, well adapted to the cultivation of all the
three great staples upon which slave labor is now chiefly employed.
She has within her o-wn jm-isdietion at least 300,000 natives, mostly
uncivilized, and is backed in the interior and flanked on the west and
east by untold mUUons who must ultimately be redeemed from barbarism.
AU this labor she must one day control. But as she has not now a
sufficient number of men to carry on the work of civilization, and to
control this labor, her wealth cannot be greatly augmented by any
extent of demand for articles she is not producing.
Recent experiments in AustraUa, for the cultivation of Cotton, are
said to have been eminently successful, but the stUl more recent dis
covery of gold in that country has drawn off the laborers from the cotton
cultivation to the more tempting occupation of gold digging.
It appears from these statements, that no tropical free labor country
can derive much immediate benefit fi-om an increased demand for tropical
products ; and that the great practical good derived from it is only a
consciousness that the slave trade can no longer paralyze tropical free
labor and render the fruits of its industry valueless in the markets of
the world. This, however, is one great point gained, and constitutes
an era in the history of the African race.
The parties, then, who wUI necessarUy be benefited in the greatest
degree, by the suppression of the slave trade, -wUl be the native popula
tion of Africa and the slaveholders in the United States. All free
labor countries, it is true, wUl be stimulated to immediate action, but
they wUl require time to realize much of the benefits of the coming
changes in the condition of slavery. The natives of Africa -will merely
be freed from their greatest curse, and be better prepared for civilization.
Then, it is evident, that in the suppression of the slave trade, the slave
holders of the United States, alone, of aU the parties named, -wUl at
once enter upon the enjoyment of the benefits of these changes, and
wUl continue to be enriched thereby, until free labor multipUes its forces
and throws into the markets a sufficient amount of products to supply
the demand and reduce the prices.
But can free labor do this in a day, a year, or ten years? Certainly
not. The task, however, has been begun, and ia the fnly mode, and
on the only territory in which it can succeed ; and, but for the unfor
tunate oppcsition of tho Abolitionists, this work might have been in a
much greater state of forwardness than -we now find it. That mode is
to employ the labor of Africa within, Afrirn. ]\Iany moderate anti-
glnvf^rv iriPTi. wbn have hitherto onnosed us in this effort to caU out free

192 Facts for Thinking Men.
labor in Africa, are now giving up their opposition to Colonization;
b«ing convinced that the good of the colored men themselves, as well
as the interests of free labor, can be most efficiently jiromoted by emi
gration to Liberia. But others are still violently opposed to Colonization.
Leaving out the 500,000 free colored persons of the United States,
and there are but about one million and three quarters of African free
men employed in the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export ,
while the slave population, now similarly employed, is not less th.in six
millions and three quarters ! Allowing the decrease of the slave popu
lation, in Cuba and Brazil, that wUl follow the suppression of the slave
trade, only to equal that in the English colonies, after 1808, and there
will still be left at least six millions of slaves as competitors against one
million and three quarters of freemen.
Now, the contest, if conducted with these forces alone, will be an un
equal one, as the degree of intelligence among the majority of the eman
cipated West India people is but a few degrees higher than that of the
natives of Africa, and their voluntary industry will be proportionally
unproductive. In stating the strength of the free labor forces, employed as rivals to
slave labor, we have not included the 500,000 free colored men of the
United States. This was intentional, as they do not belong to the forces
practically arrayed against slavery. On the contrary, they are, to the
utmost of their pecuniary ability, as a body, engaged in its support.
We speak knowingly, and mean what we say and beg to be heard.
It is the extensive demand for slave labor products, and the profits
on their sale, which is the main prop of slavery. Destroy this demand,
and slave labor becomes valueless. Let the consumers become producers,
and the task is accomplished to the full extent of the change effected.
Draw off enough of the consumers into the ranks of the producers, to
supply the demand for slave grown products, at lower rates than slave
labor can afford them ; and the whole system must be paralyzed, just as
certainly as the cheap slave labor, suppUed by the slave trade, was ruin
ous to free labor.
But the free colored people of the United States, instead of being
thus arrayed against slavery, by remaining here, are practically suo-
taining that institution, and perpetuating it as far aa the patronage of a
half million of customers can 4end it support.
How are they doing this ? The colored people have sworn eternal
enmity to slavery, and have pledged themselves to struggle for its
downfall ; how is it, then, that they can'be thus engaged, perseveringly,
in the support of an institution towards which they bear au unbounded
hatred ?
Well, they are doing it in this way, and, like the Christian world at
large, they are supporting slavery from noeossity. At a moderate esti
mate, each free colored person purchases, annually, three dollars' worth
of cotton goods for clothing. This gives a support to slave kbor, and
its manufacturing alUes, of one million and a half of dollars a yeai-; aa
.imount more than equal to the whole sum expended in founding the
llopublic of Liberia; and which, if invested in the biro of native labor
iu Africa, would employ over 60,000 freemen in the cultivation of Cot
ton, and give a tremendous impulse to free labor.

Facts fur Thinking Men. 193
Wo know the free colored people did not mean so, but for all practical
purposes, in the contest for Afi-ican freedom, they have, all along, been
fighting on the wrong side !
But what can these 500,000 fi:ee colored people do, to prevent the
profitable extension of slave labor, now appearing so inevitable in conse
quence of its advantageous position! Shall they fight? That is a
hopeless remedy. Shall they remain here to agitate the question, and
continue the consumption of slave grown products? The past history
of this mode of waifai-e, proves it powerless in promoting their object.
What can they do, then, to secure to fi-ee labor at least the benefits of
the increasing demands for tropical products, and thus limit slavery to
its present advantages, and prevent its further extension ? Surely, the
answer is a plain one. Let these 500,000 free colored persons become
producers of free labor products, instead of consumers of those that are
slave grown, and let therh caU to their aid ten times their own numbers,
and soon their weight, as a people, would be felt and acknowledged by
the Christian world. But there is no country in the world, except
Africa, where a sufficient amount of laborers can be found to affect this
great question.
And here now, allow us to say, that the whole practical tendency of
Colonization, so far as it has reference to the free colored people, from
the day of its origin, has been to array them on the side of free labor;
and that, too, under such circumstances as would best pomote their own
interests and that of their chUdren, and advance the cause of human
freedom in Africa and throughout the world. For, so long as Africa
remains barbarous, just so long ¦wUl the people of color, scattered through
out the world, be reckoned as an inferior race, not capable of enjoying
equal rights ¦with the white races among whom they dwell.
And aUow us to say, further, that we do not expect that these 500,000
free colored persons, by emigrating to Liberia, ¦wiU be able, by the lahor
of their own hands to compete with the slave labor still employed in
tropical cultivation, and to secure to themselves, at once, all the benefits
of the increasing demands of commerce for the productions of the tropics :
but we do say, that they will he equal participants in it, and that there
is no other possible mode of employing the African free labor within
Africa, and making it rival African slave labor in other countries, but
by the emigration of inteUigent colored men to that continent, to take its
labor under their care and give it a proper direction.
And is not the control of the labor of Africa sufficiently valuable to
tempt the enterprise of inteUigent colored men to secure its possession?
Heretofore nations have contended for its monopoly, and is it not worth
the attention of individuals ? Look at what African lahor has done out
of Africa, and then judge of its capabiUties if employed -within Africa ;
and judge, also, of the priceless boon which southern slaveholders bo-
stow upon their bondmen, when they offer them freedom in Liberia !
Hitherto the thousands of mUUons of dollars' worth of products, trans
ported by commerce to the ends of the earth, from the tropical and semi-
tropical districts of the Westem Hemisphere, to aggrandize the nations
who possessed their control, have all been created by the stron"- arms
and broken hearts of the sons and daughters of Africa. Century after
century, Africa's chUdren have been tom from her bosom, to labor for

194 Facts for Thinking Men.
the enrichment of strangers, and to die and be forgotten as the bmtes
of tho field ! Nor was this accomplished but by dreadful losses of human
life — losses, which, if occurring in any ordinary branch of commerce,
would lead to its abandonment as a ruinous speculation. Look at these
lasses but a moment : for each 300 men, made available to the planter,
by the slave trade, Africa had to lose 1,000 — the 700 perishing in the
casualties attending the traffic. Tropical cultivation must be vastly
profitable to bear such losses as this. And yet, -with aU these disadvan
tages, what has not slave labor accomplished in the production of wealth !
Take as an example, the slave grown crops of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton,
for a single year, namely, 1849, and theu- market value, at only eight
,-ind one-half cents per pound, was over t^oo hundred and thirty miUions
of dollars ! !
Now if African labor, after the destruction of seven-tenths, to make
three-tenths available, has enriched half the nations of the world, and
now supplies the basis of two-thirds of their commerce, what may not be
expected for Africa herself, when all her labor shall become avaUable
for her own aggrandizement?
And, need we repeat, that Colonization is but a broad scheme of
intervention, for securing to Africa the benefits of her o-wn labor ; that
Liberia is but the foundation stone of the glorious temple, yet to be
reared in Africa, to freedom and to God ; that the part we ask our free
colored people to perform, is but to perfect this work of benevolence and
love ; that without their aid, the development of the resources of Africa
must be slow, and slave labor be left, almost without a rival, to extend
itself upon this continent, crushing free labor and the colored freeman
both into the dust ; and that, though there wiU be six mUUons of slaves,
against whom to do battle in the markets of the world, the free colored
people, hy removing to Africa, wiU have one hundred miUions of their
own race to summon to their aid, in sustaining themselves in this final
struggle for the social, civil, and reUgious redemption of themselves and
of the long benighted land of their fathers.
And who will now dare to oppose Colonization, and say, that Africa,
after enriching the world by her labor, shaU not now receive back lo her
embrace, enough of her captive children to secure to herself the profits
of her industry ! Who will be bold enough to deny to her enough of
hor enlightened sons, to organize her scattered tribes into one great
nation, enabling her to become the gigantic commercial country, for
which she is so eminently fitted by her immense population and wonder
ful agricultural resources !
With such facts before him, as are embraced in these pages, who can
fail to foresee the results of the new contest that is commencing, and to
realize that the triumph or defeat of tropical fi-ee labor, is dependent upon
the course of action adopted by the colored freemen of the United States.
Truly, may it be said, that the destiny of Africa, and the Afi-ican race,
is now in their hands ! And, with equal truth, may we not assert, that
opposition to Colonization, is opposition to the extension of Free Labor
and must tend to the perpetuation of slnvov-r

NOTE
Does the Slave Trade and Slavery exist among Liberians'^
The or^nization of the Republic of laberia, has effected a radical change in the commercial
regulations mthin tlie territory over which it claims jurisdiction. Tho laws of tlie llepublic have
interfered with the business of tho merchants trading on that coasS, by requu-ing that thoy shall
now pay duties on the goods sold to the natives, where formerly they could tiafElc freely, with
out being interrupted by tariffs. This change in the mode of conducting their trade, has lessened
the profits of the merchants, and has enraged, against the Republic, that class of them who have
been more anxious to amass fortunes than to promote the social and moral welfare of the African
people. The feebleness of the little Republic seems to have led this class of men to believe, that, if they
could .succeed in persuading Christian nations to withdraw their protection, the settlements might
c:i5ily be destroyed by hostile natives, or the government compeUed to relinquish its claims to the
exercise of sovereignty. In either case, tho trade of tho coast would be restored to its previous
condition, and they left in the possession of their former advantages.
The most artful and successful mode of attack upon Liberia, has been tc represent the Colonists
as aiding in the slave trade, aud as subjecting the natives to slavery. This charge has been so
often repeated, that the friends of Liberia, in England, have investigated the subject, and the
following testimony, from men of the highest chai-acSer in the British Navy, has been collected
and laid before the public. Other testimony, equally conclusive, might be added, br.t what 13
here appended, is considered as amply sufficient to stamp the charges as infamously false.
But we must first, state that the Constitution framed for the Colonists, by the American Colo
nization Society, and by which they were governed from 1825 to 1836, declared, " Art. T. There
shall be no slavery in the settlement ;" and, further, that in 1839, a Legislative Council was
created in Liberia, and the Constitution remodeled, eo as to read thus :
Art. 20. " There shall be no slavery in the Commonwealth."
Art 22. " There shall be no dealing in slaves by any citizen of the Commonwealth, either
within or beyond the limits ofthe same.'*
In 1847, the Colony declared itself an Independent Republic, with, the following language in
its Constitution :
'¦ Aet, I. — Sec. 1. All men are bom equally free and independent, and among their natural,
inherent and inalienable rights, are the rights of enjoying and defending life and libbrtt.
Sec. 4. There shall be no slavery within this Republic. Nor shall any citizen of this RepnbUo
or any person resident therein, d^d in slaves, either within or without this Republic.
Sec. S. yo person shall be deprived of life, hberty, property, privilege, but by the judgment
of his peers, or the law of the land.
In testimony of her sincerity, in reference to human rights, in her Treaty with England, which
went into operation in April, 1850, Liberia binds herself as follows ;
Art. 9. " Slavery and the slave trade being perpetually abolished in the Repubhc of Liberia,
the Republic engages that a law shall be passed declaring it to be piracy for any Liberian citizen
or vessel to be engaged or concerned in the slave trade."
jS'cw for the testimony in relation to the faithfulness with which, all these articles have been
executed. [R'e quote fi^m the Colonization Herald, Dec. 1852 ]
"¦ Captain Arabian, R. N., in one of his despatches says : '' Nothing has been done more to sup
press the slave trade in this quarter, than the constant intercourse of the natives with, these indus
trious colonists ;" and, ag^n: " Their character is exceedingly correct and moral; their minds
strongly impr&seed with religious feeling ; and their domestic habits, remarkably neat and com
fortable." *¦' Wherever the influence of Liberia extends, the slave trade has been abandoned by
the natives."
Lieutenant Stott, R.N., inaletter to Dr. Hodgkin, dated July, 1840, says, it (Liberia) promi5e9
to be the only successful institution on the coast of Africa, keeping in mind its objects, viz :
'¦ that of raising the African slave into a free man ; the extinction of the slave trade ; and tho
religious and moral improvement of Africa ;" and adds, " The surrounding Africans are awaro
of the nature of the colony, taking refuge when persecuted by the few neighboring slave traders.
The remnant of a tribe have lately fled to and settled in the colony on land granted them.
Between my two vL^its, a lapse of only a few days,' four or five slaves sought refuge from their
m.^&!:e^, who was about to sell or had sold them to the only slave factory on the coast. Tho
native chiefs in the neighborhood have that respect for the colonists, that they have made
treaties for the abohtion of the slave trade,"
Captain Irving. U. N., in a letter to Dr. Hodgkin. August 3d, 1840, observes: "Tou ask me if
they aid lu the slave trade. I assure }ou, no ! and I am sure the colonists would feel themselves
n.iuh hurt should they know such a question could possibly arise in England. In my opinion
it IS tbp best and safest plan for the extinction of the slave trade, and the civilization of Africa-
for It is a well known fa<;t that wherever their flag flies it is an eye sore to the slave dealers "
Captain Herbert, IL N. : « With regard to the present state of slave taking in the colony of
Liberia, I have never known one instance of a slave being owned or disposed of by a colonist. On
the contrary, I have known them to render great facility to our cruisers there in taking vessels
engaged in that nefarious traffic."
Captam Duniop, who had abundant opportunities for becoming acquainted with Liberia durincr
the 3 ears 1848, '49, and '60, says: "lam perfectly satisfied no such thing as domestic slaverv
exists, in any shape amongst the citizens of the Republic."
Commodore Sir Charles Hotham, Commander-in-chief of H. B. Majesty's squadron on theWest-
eiTi Coast of Africa, m a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated April 7, 1847 and puh-
lirfhed m the Parliamentary Returns, says : " On perusing the correspondence of my predecesBOrs
1 found a great difference of opimon existing as to the views and objects of the settlers • some even
accusmg the govemor of lending himself to the slave trade. After discussing the whole subject
with officers and others best qualified to judge on the matter, I not only satisfied my owu mind
that there is no reasonable cause for such a suspicion, but further, that this establishment merita
aU the support we can give it ; for it is only through their means that we can hope to improve the
African race." Subsequently, in 1849, the same officer gave his testimony before the House of
Lords, m the followmg language : " There is no necessity for the squadron watching the coast
between SierraLeoue and Cape Palma,", as the Libtrian territory intervenes, and there the slave
trade haa been eztinimishpil." (195)

PART PIFTH.

In temporal affairs, experience supplies the best rule for the guidance
of man. In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by which
his conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel,
while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode of
its propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measures
by which it is to be extended. Pagan countries differ so widely in
their civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intel
ligence, that corresponding variations must be made in the plans for
their evangelization. Africa, when first visited by the Missionary, was
one broad field of ignorance and barbarism. Its condition differed so
widely from that of any other country, where missions had been estab
lished, that the efforts made for its redemption, could be little else than
experiments. The time has arrived when we may safely proceed to contrast the
results of the several classes of missions in Africa, ascertain what ex
perience teaches, and determine the rule by which the greatest progress
is to be made, in the extension of Civilization and Christianity, in that
land of darkness and desolation. This task we now propose to exe
cute, and shall take up the several missions in the following order :
1. The missions founded in Liberia.
2. Those in the English colonies of Recaptured Africans.
3. Those among native tribes, beyond the protection of the colonies.
4. Those to the natives of South Africa, within the English colonies
of white men. I. The Missions founded in Liberia.
Rev. Samuel J. Mills is called the father of our Foreign Missionary
scheme. His heart first received the Divine impress of the spirit of
missions, and through him it was communicated to others. " I think
I can trust myself in the hands of God, and all that is dear to me ;
but I long to have the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be preached
to the poor Africans." This language, entered in his diary, whde a
(196)

Tlie Missions founded in Liberia. 197
student at College,* proves that the thought of Africa was foremost in
his mind. He beheld her captive children, dwelling in our midst,
deeply degraded. From this condition they could not be elevated to
tbe dignity of freemen. Christian philanthropy made the effort, but
was unable to afford them relief f Their country, too, was yet a
bleeding victim, ^Yith few to pity and none to protect.
With" the National Independence of our country, there arose higher
conceptions of the individual man. This was a logical inference from
the principles maintained. People found themselves capable of self-
government ; hence, the individual must possess the capacity for self-
elevation. So reasoned the founders of our Republic ; and, to this
end, equal laws and privileges were secured to every citizen, that the
improvement of all might be promoted. But in the case of the col
ored man, the National Government was powerless. It possessed
neither the means, nor the constitutional authority, to change the rela
tions in which he stood to the whites. It only remained, therefore, to
make the colored man, himself, the instrument of his own redemption.
No sooner had this thought sprung into existence, than it was seized
by the Philanthropist ; and, in his grasp, it suddenly expanded into
the grand idea of making him also the agent for the deliverance of
his country.
The time had come for Samuel J. Mllls to act. Five years had
rolled away since his companions, whom he had enlisted in the cause —
JuDsos, Newell, Nott, Hall, and Rice — had gone to their fields of
labor, in the East.]; Africa, as well as Asia, was now remembered
by the friends of Foreign Missions ; and Mills offered himself,§ to open
the pathway for the colored man's return, with the Gospel of peace, to
the home of his fathers. He accomphshed his object, only to find his
grave in the ocean, thus marking the way the captive must pursue to
reach a land of freedom.
The exploration of Mr. Mills, was made in company with the Rev.
Ebesezer Bubgess, under a commisson from the American Coloniza
tion Society. His death was deeply lamented by the friends of
Foreign Missions, but the importance of the cause in which he fell,
justified the sacrifice. The favorable report made by Mr. Burgess,
enabled the Society to proceed in its enterprise. The first emigrants,
86 in number, sailed for Africa, February, 1820 ; and the Colony was
first planted at Monrovia, January, 1822. The pecuniary income of
the Society being small, || the emigration was slow — only 1,232 persons
having reached the Colony during the first 10 years. The average
number of Colonists, up to the period when the Colony became inde
pendent, was only about 170 per annum : the average from the first
» 1806.
t^Ir. Mills enlisted in this cause himself, but on the organization of the
.American Colonization Society, he embarked in it as the more practicable
scheme. 1 1812. §1817.
II The receipts, for the first six years, averaged only $3,276 per annum.

198 The Missions founded in Liberia.
of January, 1848, to the close of 1853, has been o40 per annum:
and for 1853, alone, it has been 782 : thus showing a rapid increase
since the establishment of the Republic. Previous to that date, three-
fourths of the emigrants had been emancipated slaves, who received
their freedom on condition of going to Liberia ; but, since its independ
ence, a largely increased proportion have been freemen.
We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia
has been subjected, as the main facts are famiUar to every one. Her
extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by
the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans ; and, on
the other hand, her ruin has been sought, in the destruction of the
Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which
stood men who are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. Good men,
who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, finding
themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gos
pel into Africa, have, mostly, given in their adhesion to the cause, and
left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh,
as the only enemies to African Colonization. The prayer of Samuel
J. Mills, for the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, has been
heard, and Ethiopia now stretches forth her hands unto God.
In proceeding to the missionary history of Liberia, we shall begin
with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The mission in the Republic
of Liberia, is her oldest in the Foreign field. The nucleus of this mis
sion, consisted of several members, and one or two local preachers, of
the Methodist Church, who went out with the first emigrants. In
March, 1833, the Rev. Melvdle B. Cox, the first ordained missionary,
landed in Monrovia. To maintain this mission, has cost much trea
sure, and many precious lives ; but the fruits of it are inestimable. It
is now formed into a regular Annual Conference, composed of three
districts, each with a presiding elder, and having its circuits, stations,
and day and Sunday schools. The mission now covers the whole ter
ritory of Liberia and that of Cape Palmas.* The Conference con
sists of 21 members in full connection and on trial, all of whom are
colored men. Its churches, according to the Agent's Report, 1853,
embrace 1,301 members, of whom 116 are natives, and there are 115
probationers. The Mission has 16 Sunday schools, with 839 pupils,
of whom 50 are natives ; and 20 week-day schools, with 613 scholars.
There are also 7 schools amongthe natives, with 127 pupils.
The sums appropriated to sustain this mission were, for 1851,
:,000; for 1862,^26,000; for 1853, $32,967; and for 1854,
2,967. This liberality is sufficiently expressive of the confidence
of the Methodist Church in Liberia. The Report of the Board of
Managers, for 1861, says :
* Cape Palmas, in its political organization, is a distinct colony from Liberia.
It -n-as established by Maryland, and has recently declared its independence.
We shall speak of it, however, as a part of Liberia. Their territorie.'i lie con
tiguous, and the Missions of most of the Societies are common to both colonies.

The Missions founded in Liberia. 191:
" All eyes are now turned toward this New Republic on the
Western coast of Africa, as the star of hope to the colored people,
both bond and free, in the United States. The Republic is establisli-
ing and extending itself; and its Christian population is in direct con
tact with the natives, both Pagans and Mohammedans. Thus the
Republic has, indirectly, a powerful missionary influence, and it.-;
moral and religious condition is a matter of grave concern to the
Church. Hence, the Protestant Christian missions in Liberia, are
essential to the stability and prosperity of the Republic ; and the sta
bility and prosperity of the Republic are necessary to the protection
and action of the missions. It will thus appear, (concludes the Re
port,) that the Christian education of the people, is the legitimate
work of the missions."
Governed by these considerations, the Methodists have erected a
seminary buUding, in Monrovia, at a cost of $10,000, which is now
affording insti-uction to youth in the higher departments of science and
literature. The Report for 1853,* speaks still more encouragingly of the mis
sion in Liberia. It says:
"The value of this mission is, perhaps, inconceivable: it not only
dispenses the word of life to the people, but it contributes largely to
the maintenance of good morals and good order in the Republic, and
thus strengthens and assists in preserving the State. In this way it
indirectly contributes to make the Republic of Liberia a steady light,
beckoning the free colored people of this country to a land where they
can be truly free and equal, and where only they can be truly men
and govern themselves. The mission is thus assistina: the State to
give a triumphant answer to our Southern States when they ask. If
we set the slave population at liberty, where can they go and be free
and prosperous ? This is a result of immense value. It probably
contains the solution of the question of American slavery — that great
mystery of iniquity which dims the otherwise resplendent light of our
glorious Republic. And yet, further, this African mission in the Re
public of Liberia is a steady and shining light to the western portion
of Africa, where now reigns the most degrading, cruel, and destructivi
superstitions to be found in the world. Until within a quarter of ;
century past, many thousands of human victims have been sacrificed
annually, in their cruel and dark religious rites, within sight of the
coast ; and not very far removed from the coast these sacrifices still
continue, to an extent of which it makes one shudder to think, much
less to behold. Can the Church waver in her support of such a mis
sion on the Westem coast of Africa. She will not."
By order of the General Conference, Bishop Scott made an official
visit to Liberia, at the close of 1862, and returned in April, 1863 —
having spent seventy days in the Colonies. He represents the spirit-
* Missionary Advocate, April, 1853.

200 The Missions founded in Liberia.
ual condition of the Mission as, generally, healthy and prosperous ;
and the work as going steadily onward. In relation to the civil
and social condition of the Colony, the Bishop bears the following
testimony :
"The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on
the model of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men,
seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a
people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and
I heard not one profane word. The Sabbath is kept with singular
strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly wor
shipers."* But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says,
very little indeed has been done — much less than the friends of the
mission seem to have good reason to expect — much less than he him
self expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering,
and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed. These
results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithfulness on
the part of the missionaries ; as other denominations have not been
more successful — perhaps not quite so muoh so — ^but are the result of
the peculiar condition of the native population. These pecuharities
will be noticed under the head of the native missions.
The American Baptist Missionary Union, commenced its mission
in Liberia, in 1822, under the care of the Rev. Lot Carey and the Rev.
ColUn Teage ; who had been ordained to the ministry, in Richmond,
Virginia, January, 1821. They were both colored men, and possessed
of much intelligence and energy. They commenced their labors io
Monrovia, in the infant colony of Liberia, and founded a Church dur
ing the first year. Lot Carey was chosen pastor of the Church, and
Mr. Teage removed for a time to Sierra Leone. "In the performance
if his duties as a missionary, Mr. Carey evinced remarkable energy and
'Hithfulness. He was born a slave in Virginia, but many years before
leaving Richmond he had purchased his freedom and that of his two
• hildren, and had acquired the rudiments of a superior education, and
1 1 roved himself worthy of the highest trusts in the business with which
lie was charged. On the pestdential shores of Africa he soon found
. 'ocasion for all the knowledge he had acquired, both among his fellow
I migrants and the rude barbarians from the interior with whom they
Docanie associated. By his acquaintance with medicine, he healed
heir maladies ; by his sagacity in civil affairs, he settled their disputes
" nd aided in the organization of their infant society ; and by his earn-
.stness and power as a preacher, he commended the Gospel to their
l-.earts and consciences with unusual success. "¦(•
In 1 825, the Rev. Calvin Holton, a white man, went out as a mis-
« Letter to the Colonization Herald — October, 1853.
•I- Gammel's History of the American Baptist Missions.

The Missions founded in Liberia. 201
sionary, but died almost immediately after his arrival. " The mission
continued to be sustained by Mr. Carey, with the aid of two or three
pious assistants from among the emigrants. The resources by which
it was kept alive were supplied almost entirely by his own efforts, as
the funds which were furnished by the Board were of necessity at this
time exceedingly limited. The labors of the mission were bestowed
upon the emigrant colonists, and also, as far as possible, upon the na- \
fives of the country, who had either been rescued from slave-ships
and settled upon the coast, or had voluntarily come in from the neigh
boring wilderness to join the colonies of their more civilized brethren.
Mr. Carey in this manner preached and maintained schools at Monro
via, and also at Grand Cape Mount, among the Veys, one of the most
powerful and intelligent of the tribes on the coast. At these and
other settlements he was the life and soul of nearly all the religious
efforts and operations that were carried on. He preached several
times every week, superintended schools both for religious and secular
instruction, — in some of which he taught himself, — traveled from one
settlement to another, and watched with constant vigilance and unre
mitting care over all the spiritual and the social interests of the
colonists. "In September, 1826, he was unanimously elected vice-agent of
the colony, and on the return of Mr. Ashmun to the United States, in
1828, he was appointed to discharge the duties of Governor in the in
terim — a task which he performed during the brief remnant of his life
with wisdom, and with credit to himself. His death took place in a
manner that was fearfully sudden and extraordinary. The natives of
the country had committed depredations upon the property of the col
ony, and were threatening general hostilities. Mr. Carey, in his capac
ity as acting Governor, immediately called out the military forces of
the colony, and commenced vigorous measures for repelling the assault
and protecting the settlements. He was at the magazine, engaged in
superintending the making of cartridges, when, by the oversetting of
a lamp, a large mass of powder became ignited, and produced an ex
plosion which resulted in the death of Mr. Carey and seven others who
were engaged with him. In this sudden and awful manner perished
an extraordinary man, — one who in a higher sphere might have devel
oped many of the noblest energies of character, and who, even in the
humble capacity of a missionary among his own benighted brethren,
deserves a prominent place in the list of those who have shed luster
upon the African race.
" At the period of Mr. Carey's death, the Church, of which he was
the pastor, contained 100 members, and was in a highly flourishing con
dition. It was committed to the charge of Collin Teage, who now re
turned from Sierra Leone, and of Mr. Waring, one of its members, who
had lately been ordained a minister. The influences which had com
menced with the indefatigable founder of the mission continued to be felt
long after he had ceased to live . The Church at Monrovia was increased

202 The Missions founded in Liberia.
to 200 members, and the power of the Gospel was manifested in other
settlements of the Colonization Society, and even among the rude na
tives of the coast, of whom nearly 100 were converted to Chrisdanity
and united with the several churches ofthe colony."*
In December, 1830, Rev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wife and
two children, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission. They
were all seized with the African fever, soon after landing, and Mrs.
Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as to embark
for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of the passage.
In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as a
physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony. Soon
after his arrival, he recommended the Baptist Board to establish their
mission, for the benefit of the natives, among the Bassa tribe.
In 1835, two other white men, Rev. G. W. Crocker, and Rev. Mr.
Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accom
panied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring nearly
three years, was forced, by ill health, to return to the United States.
Mr. Crocker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840, to Miss
Warren, who had gone out as a teacher. She died soon afterward,
and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to leave for the
Uuited States.
In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by
Rev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites, who continued to occupy the
station, and labored with great success for several years.
In December, 1840, Messrs.. Constantine and Fielding, -with their
wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both
died in six weeks ; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated by the
fever that they were compelled to return home in 1842.
In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored, that
he resolved to return to Africa ; and, having been united in marriage
to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two days after
landing. " Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes, and at an un
expected moment, a missionary of no common zeal and devotion to the
cause." -j-
On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the mis
sion, and labored for its advancement for two years ; when the wrectk
of her constitution, under the influence of the climate, compelled h(-r
to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home.
In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so com
pletely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they left
the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried at his
post too long ; death overtook him on the passage, and the sea supplied
him a grave.
Thus, after thirteen years' labor, and the sacrifice of a noble band
of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mission
» Gammel's History of the American Baptist Missions, flbid.

The Missions founded in Liberia. 203
left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the native
converts. Amongst them, there was one preacher and four teachers,
who kept up the organization of the little chuich, and continued the
schools. It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of missionaries
for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or retreated. In
that year, however, Rev. J. S. Goodman, and Rev. W. B. Shermer, and
their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and were accepted. They
set sad November 27, 1862, and were accompanied by Mrs. Crocker,
who longed to return to the mission and devote her life to the service
of her Lord and Master.
This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in safety;
but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the death of Mrs.
Crocker and Mrs. Shermer ; and that Mr. Shermer himself, had also
been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by way of England.
In wiiting from London, under date of January 13, 1864, he says :
" That dm-ing the past twelve months, six missionaries of different de
nominations have died, and eight have been and are obliged to return
to America; all of whom had gone to Africa within the last year.
This is indeed a fearful mortality among African missionaries. Yet
God has a people there, and if the white man can not live to evangel
ize them, he can and will raise up other agencies. Educated colored
men, in all probabihty, must and wdl be the only instrumentality em
ployed in the conversion of Africa."*
The mission, before the recent deaths, consisted of 2 stations, 2 mis
sionaries, 4 female assistants, and 4 native assistants. Its Church has
16 members ; and it has 2 day-schools with 36 pupds, and 2 Sabbath-
Schools with 60 pupils.
The Foreign Missionabt Board of the Southern Baptist Con
vention, came into existence in 1845. Its organization was a result of
the differences of opinion, on the subject of slavery, among the mem
bers of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Liberia Churches,
which were founded by Lot Carey, CoUin Teage, and their succes
sors, connected themselves with the Southem Board, while Bassa, alone,
continued its adherence to the Northern Board. This arrangement
gave the Southern Board, at once, a strong missionary force in Liberia ;
and the mission has continued to prosper under their supervision. At
present, it is composed of 13 stations, 19 missionaries and teachers, 11
day-schools, 400 scholars, and 584 communicants. As far as we can
learn, all these missionaries are colored men.
The Board proposes to occupy three stations in Central Africa, by
six missionaries, four of whom are already secured, and have departed
for their field of labor. The mission field in Africa, is represented as
very important and very inviting, both on account of the constantly
* Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1854.

204 The Missions founded in Liberia.
increasing emigration from the United States, and the facilities enjoyed
for the evangelization of the heathen tribes. During the meeting of the
Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1 853, the advantages of Central Africa
were discussed at length ; and the Rev. T. J. Bowen,* who had ex
plored the field, delivered an address, in which he spoke particularly of
Yoruba, as a country with a delightful climate, apparently healthy, and
moderately fertile. The people, he said, are far above savages, polite
in their manners, quite intelligent, and dwelling in walled cities, some
of which cover an area as large as the city of New York. They are
prepared by their religion, he conceives, to appreciate the value of the
great Sacrifice and Mediator, Jesus, and are wilUng and anxious to hear
the Gospel ; and some of them, during his short stay of eight weeks,
gave evidence of a change of heart and of faith in Christ. He was
the first white man who had visited some parts of that country ; and
" his narrative was at once surprising and encouraging."
The Presbyterian Board of Missions, (0. S.,) sent their first mis
sionaries to West Africa, in 1833. The Rev. J. B. Pinney was the
pioneer in this mission. In the earlier years of its existence, it -was
greatly interi'upted and retarded by the sickness or death of its mis-
siqnaries ; but within the last few years its prospects are more en
couraging. In 1 837, attempts were made to estabUsh missions among
the natives, and the efforts continued throughout a series of years.
Much labor and several valuable Uves were sacrificed in the work, and
the only remaining fruit is a single station, at Settra Kroo, with a smaU
school for native children. In 1 860, a new mission to the natives was
commenced at Corisco Island, which, thus far, is very promising.
The mission in Liberia, for colonists and natives, was the first estab
lished and has been more prosperous. It now embraces 116 chureh
members, 2 ordained ministers and 1 licentiate, 3 congregations, and
flourishing Sabbath-schools. The day-schools are well attended, by
both colonists and natives. The Board, 1852, sent out the Rev. D. A.
Wilson, a white man, of finished education, to take charge of the Alex
ander High School, and raise it to the grade of a college. At Mon
rovia, the press for admission into the EngUsh school of Mr. James, is
represented as so great, that it had been found almost impossible to
keep the number as low as fifty scholars — the number had averaged
70, and in consequence of the inadequacy of teachers, the progress of
the pupils had been less rapid than, under other circumstances, must
have been the case.
The Board urges the necessity of multiplying the number of educatel
ministers and teachers in Liberia ; and offers, as an argument in favoi
of that field, and the one on Corisco Island, that these missions are
likely soon to yield abundant fruits of Gospel culture. The following
* Mr. Bowen was in Abbeokuta, when the king of Dahomey attempted its
destruction as detailed hereafter.

The Missions founded in Liberia. 205
is the closing sentence of the Report: " Their past and touching his
tory ; their sphere of labor on a continent so benighted, and yet sepa
rated from this country only by the Atlantic ; and the residence among
us of so many of the children of Africa, many of whom are in the
communion of our churches ; — all seem to direct a large share of the
missionary strength of our body to be employed hereafter in connec
tion with these missions, and in the general field of labor to which they
are doors of entrance."
The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal Church, in
Liberia, was regularly commenced in the year 1 836, at Cape Palmas.
It now embraces 6 clergymen, including Bishop Payne. A high school
has been established for training colonist teachers and missionaries.
Connected with this school are 5 candidates for orders, 3 of whom are
natives. The number of youth in this school at present, is 10 ; who
are supported at the expense of the mission. The children of the col
onists, to the number of 15 or 20, are admitted as day scholars. A
female colonist day school is also in operation, with an attendance of
45 to 60 children. The mission includes 4 stations, at all of which
native boarding-schools are, or have been, maintained with some good
degree of regularity. The average attendance of scholars here has
been over 100, and the number instructed in the way of salvation at
least 1,000. Day-schools are and have been taught, in which many
heathen chddren have learned to read, and also acquired that know
ledge which maketh wise unto salvation. Sunday-schools, composed
of boarding scholars, and .children from heathen towns, have been
another means of good. The Gospel has been, and is still, preached
to nearly the whole Grebo tribe, numbering a population of some
25,000 ; besides which, a congregation in Maryland, in Liberia, has
been supplied with stated services. More than 100 have been admitted
to baptism, or having previously received this rite, been enrolled as
communicants ofthe Church. Some of these have apostatized, others
have died in the faith ; while about 80 still remain members of the
Church miUtant. The Grebo dialect has been reduced to writing, and
many portions of the Scriptures, and other books, published in it. A
printing press is in operation, from which, besides other publications, a
small Missionary paper is issued. It should be named, as one of the
most important fruits of the Mission, that a wide-spread conviction of
the truth of Christianity has been produced in the native mind, and
an expactation that, at no distant time, it must supersede the religion
of the country.-*
Such is the prosperous condition of this mission, that the Rev. John
Payne, long at its head, was, in 1 860, appointed a Missionary Bishop
for Africa. He is a white man, highly educated, and eminently quali
fied for the sacred oflSce to which he has been chosen. Since entering
* Eeport of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

206 TlTe Missions founded in Liberia.
upon his duties, the agencies for extending the mission have been
greatly increased. A station has been commenced at Monrovia, under
the care of a colored clergyman, formerly of New York city, whose
education was finished in England ; and a large additional force of
white missionaries has been sent out to occupy other posts. The
foundation of an Orphan Asylum, to cost $2,000, has been laid at Cape
Palmas ; and the funds to erect two church edifices have been sup
plied to the Bishop. Of the white missionaries, one male and one
female have recently died ; in other respects the prospects of the mis
sion are very encouraging.
Mrs. Payne and one of the other ladies of the mission, have returned
during the last year, to recruit their health.
In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic of
Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement: "It is now
very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by
her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far as
we may, for their great work. And since colonists afford the most ad
vanced material for raising up the needed instruments, it becomes
us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our efforts in the
most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most important points
should be occupied, to become in due time radiating centers of Chris
tian influence to Colonists and Natives."*
The American Christian Missionary Society, sent a missionary to
Liberia, in November, 1853. The Christian Church has several of its
members in that Republic, as Colonists. The missionary now sent is a
colored man, and will not only look after their spiritual interests, but
attempt the performance of missionary labor in general. His name is
Alex. Cross ; and he was a slave until within a short time of his
having been appointed to the mission work. The friends of the cause
in Kentucky, where he lived, purchased him and offered him to the
Society — his master generously accepting half his value as a servant.
His wife and child were free, and accompanied him to Liberia. Mr.
Cross is a man of more than ordinary talent ; and with such additional
education as he can obtain at Monrovia, he must make a useful man.
The Associate Reformed Synod of the South, have resolved on
establishing a mission in Liberia ; and have four native boys in the
course of instruction, at the expense of the Synod, in the school of Mr.
Erskine, at Kentucky, in Liberia. The Synod entered upon this work,
a few years since, with earnestness and energy, but have met with
many serious obstacles in the accomplishment of their purpose.
This closes our inquiries into the condition of the missions in Liberia.
A remark or two, only, need be offered as to its social and civil
» Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

The Missions founded in Liberia. -07
condition. The citizens of the Republic are colored men, and enjoy a
perfect equality under its constitution. They possess all the attributes
of sovereignty, enacting and administering their own laws ; but in pur
chasing territory from the African kings, the right of sovereignly and
of sod is acquired, not to exclude the native people from the lands, but,
as they adopt habits of civilization, to put them in possession of fee
simple titles to their homes, on the same conditions allowed to the
colonists. By the influence of the colony over the native tribes, and the terms
of its treaties with them, it has abolished human sacrifices, and the
trials for witchcraft within its jurisdiction ; driven the traffic in slaves
from more than 600 miles of coast ; exerted a controlling influence in
suppressing native wars ; and affords protection to 300,000 people, now
within its purchased territory, or in treaty with the Republic.
The history of a single case will illustrate the manner in which Li
beria exerts her influence in preventing the native tribes from warring
upon each other. The territory of Litttle Cape Mount, Grand Cape
Mount, and Gallinas, was purchased, three or four years since, and
added to the Republic* The chiefs, by the terms of sale, transferred
the rights of sovereignty and of soil to Liberia, and bound themselves
to obey her laws. The government of Great Britain had granted to
Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., of London, a contract for the supply of
laborers, from the coast of Africa, to the planters of her West India
colonies. This grant was made under the rule for the substitution of
apprentices,\ to supply the lack of labor produced by the , emancipation
of the slaves. The agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., visited
Grand Cape Mount, and made an offer of flOj per head to the chiefs,
for each person they could supply as emigrards for this object. The
offer excited the cupidity of some of the chiefs ; and, to procure the
emigrants and secure the bounty, one of them, named Boombo, of Lit
tle Cape Mount, resorted to war upon several of the surrounding tribes.
He laid waste the country, burned the towns and villages, captured
and murdered many of the inhabitants, carried off hundreds of others,
* The funds for this purpose were supplied as follows: Charles McMicken,
Esq., of Cincinnati, $5000 ; Solomon Sturges, Esq., of Putnam, Ohio, $1000 ;
and Samuel Gurney, Esq., of London, England, $5000.
•j-.This .system, in its moral bearings upon the Islands, is little better than
the old African Slave trade. The disparity in the sexes is fully as great under
the apprenticeship system, as it was during the prevalence of the slave trade, and
it must be equally as demoralizing. Take, as au example, a few imports of
apprentices from India and China, for the supply of English planters. The
cargoes of five vessels, were composed of 1,433 males, 257 females, and 84
children. The practical efiect of this system upon Africa, in exciting wars, and carry.
ing ofif the male population, is identicil with that of the slave trade. See
President Roberts' letter on that subject in Appendix.
+ This sum is about equal to the price usually paid by the slave traders for
slaves.

208 Tlie Missions founded in Liberia.
and robbed several factories in that region, belonging to merchants of
Liberia. On the 26th of February, 1853, President Roberts issued
his proclamation enjoining a strict observance of the law regulating
passports, and forbidding the sailing of any vessel, with emigrants,
without first visiting the port of Monrovia, where each passenger should
be examined as to his wishes. On tlie first of March the President,
with 200 men, sailed for Little Cape Mount, arrested Boombo and 50
of his followers, summoned a council of the other chiefs at Monrovia for
his trial on the 14th, and retumed home with his prisoners. At the time
appointed, the trial was held, Boombo was found guilty of "High Mis
demeanor," and sentenced " to make restitution, restoration, and repa
ration of goods stolen, people captured, and damages committed : to
pay a fine of $600, and be imprisoned for two years."* Wben the
sentence was pronounced, the convict shed tears, regarding the ingre
dient of imprisonment in his sentence, to be almost intolerable. These
rigorous measures, adopted to maintain the authority of the Govern
ment and majesty of the laws, have had a salutary influence upon the
chiefs. No outbreaks have since occurred, and but little apprehension
of danger for the future is entertained.
The missionaries and teachers in Liberia, are nearly all colored men,
and citizens of the Republic, who yield a cordial support to its laws,
and enjoy ample protection under its government. These missionaries
have the control of the schools and churches ; and, consequently, they
possess the entire direction of the intellectual, moral, and religious
training ofthe youth. Liberia, therefore, may be denominated a Mis
sionary Republic. And such is the influence the colony has exerted
over the natives, that their heathenish customs and superstitions ai-e
fast disappearing before the advancing Christian civilization. In the
country of Messurado, including the seat of government, there no
longer exists a single temple of heathen worship. f
* African Repository, August, 1853. [See Appendix.]
t Ofiicer of TJ. S. Wavy, in Gurley's Report. Vice President Benson also bears
the following testimony to an improvement in the character of the natives.
" It is also gratifying to know that the natives are becoming increasingly as
similated to us iu manners and habits ; their requisitions for civilized produc
tions increase annually; they are seldom satisfied with the same size and
quality of the piece ot cloth they wore last year — some of them habitually
wear a pair of pantaloons, shirt or coat, and others all of these at once : and of
the thousands that have intercourse with our settlements, and used to glory in
their greegree, and were afraid to utter an expression against it, very many of
them are now ashamed to be seen with a vestige of it about them, and if a par
ticle of it should be about them, they try to secrete it, and if detected, it is
with mortification depicted in their countenances ; they disclaim it, or make
some excuse. There is also manifestly, a spirit of commendable competition
among them throughout the country ; they try to rival each other in many of
the civilized customs, a pride and ambition that I feel sure will never abate
materially, till they are raised to the perfect level of civilized life, and flow ia
one common channel with us, civilly and religiously. It is certainly progress
ing, and though some untoward circumstances may retard its consummation,
yet nothing shall ultimately prevent it."

The Missions founded in Liberia. 209
The religious and educational statistics of Liberia are not complete,
but are suflScient to show, that the -different churches have more than
2,000 communicants; the Sabbath-schools more than 1600 chddren,
of whom 500 are natives; while in the day-schools there are not less
than 1,400 pupils.
Of the white missionaries who entered the field in Liberia, during
the first thirty years of its existence, but two or three remained at the
close of that period — all the others having died or been disabled by the
loss of health. Take, as an example, the Episcopal Mission. Twenty
white laborers, male and female, entered that mission, up to 1 849, of
whom only the Rev. Mr. Payne and his wife, and Dr. Perkins remain
ed. All the others had fallen at their posts or been forced to retreat.
Take that of the Presbyterian Board also: Of nineteen white mission
aries, male and female, sent out, up to May, 1851, nine had died, seven
returned, and three remained; while oi fourteen colored missionaries,
male and female, employed, but four have died, and one returned on
account of ill health. Take the Methodists likewise: Of the thirteen
white missionaries sent out, six had died, six retumed, and one re
mained, in 1848; while of thirty-one colored missionaries employed by
this church, only sevenhad. died natural deaths, anA fourteen remained in
active service. The extent of this mortality among the white mission
aries will be comprehended, when it is stated, that their average period
of life, up to nearly the last named date, has been only two years.'*
The mission work in Liberia, therefore, has necessarily fallen into the
hands of colored men; and, thus, the Providence of God has afforded
to that race an opportunity to display their powers, and to show to
the world what, under favorable circumstances, they are capable of
achieving. In relation to the influence exerted by Liberia, on the cause of
African Missions, Bishop Scott testifies as follows :
'•' In my judgment, the bearing of African Colonization on the cause
of Christian Missions, in that vast peninsula of darkness and sin, ought
to be sufficient, in the absence of every other consideration, to secure
for that great enterprise, the warm and steady support of every lover
of Christ." f
If, then, a Colony of colored men, beginning with less than 100, and
gradually increasing to 9,000, has, in 30 years, established an Inde
pendent Republic amidst a savage people ; destroyed the slaye trade
on 600 miles of the African coast ; put down the heathen temples in
one of its largest counties ; afforded security to all the missions within
its. limits ; and now casts its shield over 300,000 native inhabitants ;
what may not be done in the next 30 years, by Colonization and Mis
sions combined, were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their
energies ?
» The details of mortality connected with the Baptist mission, have been given
full, as an example of the effects of the climate on white missionaries.
t Letter to the Colonization Herald, October, 1853.
14

210 The Missions in the English Coloniei.
II. The Missions in the English Colonies of Recaptured Africans.
These Missions are next in importance, and have been next in sue
cess, to those of Liberia. The term, recaptured, has reference to tho
natives rescued from the slave-ships, on the coast of Africa, by the
English squadron. The principal Colony of this class, is at Sierra
Leone. It was first established as a private enterprise, through the
exertions of Granville Sharp, afterwards placed under the control of
a chartered company, and, finally, taken under the care of the British
government. It had for its object, chiefly, the suppression of the
slave trade and the civilization of Africa.
The origin of this Colony has such an intimate connection with the
rise of the Anti-Slavery sentiment in England, and the adoption ofthe
measures which have done so much toward the redemption of Africa,
that the principal facts of its history must be stated.
On the 22d o-f May, 1 772, Lord Mansfield decided the memorable
Somerset case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in Great
Britain.* Previous to this date, many slaves had been introduced
into English families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been
deUvered up to their masters, by order of the Court of King's Bench,
under Lord Mansfield ; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as
a beast of prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miser
able as it might be, in perfect security.j
To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By
the decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources.
They flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron ; but considering their num
bers, and his limited means, it was impossible for him to afford them
adequate relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from
the army and navy, were afterwards added, who, by their improvi
dence, were reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr.
Sharp determined to colonize them in Africa.
Here, then, was first conceived the idea of African colonization ;
but this benevolent scheme could not be executed at once, and the
blacks — indigent, unemployed, despised, forlorn, vicious — ^became such
nuisances, as to make it necessary they should be sent somewhere,
and no longer suffered to infest the streets of London. J Private be
nevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in their behalf, and fifteen
years passed away, when Government, anxious to remove what it re
garded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr. Sharp, and supplied
the means of their transportation and support.§
*" Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or accident
which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the subject to natural
principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power claimed
never was in use here, or acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can
not say the cause returned is sufficient by the law; and therefore the man must
be discharged." — Close of Lard Mansfield's decision in ihe Somerset case.
i Clarkson's History of tlie slave trade. } Wadstrom, page 220.
^ Memoirs of Granville Sharp.

The Missions in the Enghsh 211
In April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put
on shipboard for Africa, and, in the following month, were landed in
Sierra Leone. A plentiful supply of rum had been furni.shed, and, for
reasons unexplained, they were accompanied by 60 whites, most of
whom were females of the worst character.* Intemperance and de
bauchery so generally prevailed, during the voyage, that nearly one
half of them died on the passage and within four months after land
ing. The sickness of their chaplain, the deaths of their agents, and
the consequent desertions of the emigrants, reduced the Colony, during
the first year, to 40 persons, and endangered its existence. The next
year, 39 new emigrants arrived, with abundant supplies, and the de
serters returned, so as to secure a force of 130 persons to the Colony.
During the following year, internal discord, succeeded by an attack
from a native chief, dispersed the colonists throughout the country ;
and, again, through Mr. Sharp's exertions, an agent was sent to their
relief, who collected them together, and furnished arms for their
defense. In March, 1792, a reinforcement of 1,131 blacks, from Nova Scotia,
arrived at Sierra Leone. These men were fugitive slaves, who had
joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, and had
been promised lands in Nova Scotia ; but the government having failed
to meet its pledge, and the climate proving unfavorable, they sought
refuge in Africa. A fever which had attacked the emigrants in Hali
fax, and from which 65 had died on the passage, still prevailed among
them after landing ; so that, from its effects, together with the influence
of the climate, 130 more died the first year in Sierra Leone.
About this time the Colony passed from the care of Mr. Sharp, to
that of the Company. This led to the sending of 119 whites, along
with a Govemor, as counselors, physicians, soldiers, clerks, overseers,
artificers, settlers, and servants. Of this company 67 died within the
year, 22 retumed, and 40 remained.f
As soon as health would permit, the Nova Scotia fugitives proceeded
to work vigorously, in clearing lands and building houses ; and, in the
succeeding year, two churches were erected, and a school of 300 pupils
established. These fugitives must have been men of more than ordinary energy
of character. This opinion is sustained by the subsequent events of
their history. When the French fleet, in 1794, bumed their houses
and destroyed their property, it was but a short time until the Colony
was again in a prosperous condition. But their physical energy and
industry, were not their most remarkable characteristics. When Gran
ville Sharp's mild system of govemment, admitting colored men to
share in its administration, was superseded by the more rigid laws of
the Company, which excluded them from office, they resisted the
change. Though, in America, they had fought on the side of Britain,
» Wadstrom, page 221 . f Wadstrom.

212 Colonies of Recaptured Africans.
in Africa, they espoused the cause of Republican principles. Their
disappointment in not receiving the promised lands in Nova Scotia, had
given them no very favorable opinion of English justice. When re
quired to submit to the authority of the Governor, and to a different
policy from what they had embraced on emigrating, they denied they
owed subjection to the new laws, or to any laws except of their own
enactment. Ascertaining that the legal powers of the Company were
inadequate to the enforcement of its authority, they boldly asserted
their claim to the sovereignty, and their right to exclude from the ad
ministration all but officers of their own choice. Parliament, on learn
ing the posture of affairs, at once granted the Company ample powers
to extinguish this little blaze of Democracy ; but the Colonists as reso
lutely determined to resist ; and, on September 10th, 1800, announced
their purpose of assuming all political power in the settlement. The
Governor, left in the minority, had to employ the natives to aid him.
As the insurgents refused all accommodation, there was no alternative
but a resort to force. At this moment, 650 Maroons, (free negroes,)
from Jamaica,* were landed ; and, joining the Governor, he was
enabled to defeat the rebels. Three of the leaders iu this struggle
were taken and afterwards executed ; and so well pleased was Parlia
ment, at seeing Democracy cut up by the roots, that it voted the Gov-
enor $105,000, to erect a fortification and aid in paying the Company's
debts. Two subsequent attacks by the natives, together with the urgent
appeals of the Company, led the Government, the first of January,
1 808, to assume the sovereignty over the Colony, and provide for its
safety. This measure was the more agreeable to Granville Sharp and
the Company, as he had sunk $7,000 and it $410,000 in the enter
prise. The arrangement was equally necessary to England, as, in that
year, she rendered herself illustrious by the abohtion of the slave
trade ; and needed Sierra Leone to carry on her operations, and to pro
vide for the slaves she might rescue from the traders.
Missions for the benefit of this Colony, were first attempted in 1792,
again in 1796, and in 1797; but all these efforts failed; because of
the disaffection of the Nova Scotia fugitives, and because the slave
trade, then a legal traffic to British subjects, was prosecuted every
where upon the African coast, and even within Sierra Leone. In 1804,
the Church Missionary Society sent out its missionaries, with orders to
seek for stations out of the colony, because of the opposition within it ;
but in this they did not succeed. In 1 808, when the slave trade was
abolished, these missionaries commenced ten stations beyond the Umits
of the Colony, according to their instructions, but were unable to sus
tain them. The natives, interested in the slave trade, burned the mis
sion houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the
* They had first gone to Nova Scotia, from whence they sailed to Sierra Leone.

The Missions in the English 213
missionaries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them.
When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, she but surrendered its
monopoly to France, Spain and Portugal ; hence, there was no diminu
tion of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of
both :* and, as the missions from 1792 to 1808, failed both in and out
of the Colony ; so the continuance of the trade, beyond its limits, after
1808, drove the missionaries within its jurisdiction, to enjoy its pro
tection. But these stations were not abandoned, until after a long
struggle to sustain them — the last one having been maintained until
1818. From 1808, the work of missions in Sierra Leone, was successfully
begun ; and the first dawn of hope for oppressed Africa, arose with
the first blow aimed at the slave-trade. Up to this date, the slave-
trader had held undisputed sway on the coast of Africa, and the intro
duction of the Gospel was impossible. The slave-trade, it would seem,
is an evil so horrid, that the Almighty refused to give success to the
missionary, unless that outrage upon humanity should first be sup
pressed. The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has
been continued -without interruption, except what necessarily arose from
the great mortaUty among the missionaries. A college and several
schools were estabUshed at an early day, in which orphan and destitute
children were boarded and instructed. ¦[ Besides teaching the schools,
the missionaries preached to the adults, a few of whom embraced the
Gospel ; but no very encouraging progress was made for many years.
In 1817, however, the labors expended began to unfold their effects,
and the mission to make encouraging advances ; so that, by 1 832, it
bad 638 communicants and 294 candidates in its churches, 684 Sabbath
school scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its day-schools.
Thus, in 45 years after the founding of Sierra Leone, and 24 after
the abolition of the slave-trade, was the basis of this mission broadly
and securely laid. Since that period it has been extended eastward to
Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos. In connection with all these mis
sions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone, the Episcopal Church, in 1 860, had
64 seminaries and schools, 6^600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and
7,500 attendants on public worship. Of the teachers in the schools at
Sierra Leone, it is worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans,
while fifty-six were native Africans. Such is the prosperous condition
of these missions, at present, and the amount of superintendency they
require, that the Rev. Mr. Vidal has been ordained a Bishop for West
Africa, and sent forth to his field of labor.

* See Part 1st, on African Colonization, and Part 2nd, the Relations of Free
Labor to Slave Labor, for the main facts in relation to the increase of the Slave-
trade. t It does not appear that the Nova Scotia fugitives sent their children to
these Schools.

214 Colonies of Recapitured Africans.
The English Wesleyan Methodists, through the influence of the Rev,
Dr. Coke, sent a missionary, in 1811, to the Nova Scotia free blacks, in
¦-jierra Leone ; and, in the course of a year, the converts were reported
it 60.* In 1831, twenty years aiter the commencement of the mission,
it included but 2 missionaries, 294 church members, and about 160
pupils in its schools. The Wesleyan Mission, like the Episcopal, pro
gressed slowly at first; but, as it collected the elements of progress
'Arithin its bosom, it also, began to expand, and is now advancing pros
perously. Its stations have been extended westward to the Gambia,
find eastward to various points, including Cape Coast Castle, Badagry,
Abbeokuta, and Kumasi. In connection with these missions, the Wes
leyan Methodists, in 1860, had 44 chapels, 13 out-stations, 42 day-
schools, 97 teachers, 4,600 pupds, including those in the Sabbath
¦schools, 6,000 communicants, on. trial 560, and 14,600 attendants on
public worship.
But these colonies of Recaptured Africans, are too important an
agency in the redemption of Africa, to be passed over without further
consideration ; so that their position and that of Liberia, in this respect,
may be clearly comprehended. In addition to Sierra Leone, they in
clude several minor stations ; two of which are on the Gambia, and
the others on the coast east of Liberia.
From documents presented to Parliament, it appears, that, in 1850,
there was a Christian population, in Sierra Leone, of more than 36,000,
out of about 45,000. In this population, it was estimated, that there
were representatives of no fewer than one hundred different tribes,
speaking different languages and dialects ; so that there are already
converts prepared, as far as the knowledge of the languages is con
cerned, to go forth in every direction, and to explain to their country
men, in their own tongue, the truths of revelation. Since the subject
was before Parliament, Bishop Vidal has commenced his labors, and
this question has received particular attention. It has been ascertained
that no fewer than 161 distinct languages, besides several dialects, are
spoken in Sierra Leone. They have been arranged under 26 groups ;
but there still remain 64 unclassified, which are more distinct from
each other, and from all the rest, than the languages of Europe are
from one another ; thus unfolding to the view of the Christian philan
thropist, an agency, in the course of preparation, which, under Divine
Providence, may carry the Gospel to the unnumbered millions of im
mortal souls inhabiting the continent of Africa.
A few facts will show that this is not an idle speculation, but that
she has successfully entered upon her great mission.
* Although these Nova Scotia free blacks, — or ratlier these American fugitive
elaves, — had gone to work so freely at first, in building churches and establish
ing schools, nothing farther is heard of them, in the history of missions, until
the Wesleyans, 18 years afterwards, undertook their spiritual oversight. Their
failure in securing the civil privileges for which they took up arms, seems to
have placed them in a position of antagonism to the English Church.

The Missions in ihe English 215
Among the Recaptured Africans introduced into Sierra Leone, and
brought under the civilizing influences of its Christian institutions, none
have made such rapid progress as the people of Yoruba, a country lying
eastward of the kingdom of Dahomey. Their first appearance in the
Colony was about 1822. Many of them soon acquired a considerable
amount of intelligence and a Uttle property. In 1839, they had be
come quite numerous, and a party of them purchased a vessel, hired
a white captain, and commenced a traffic with Badagry. This town
is at a point on the coast from which the Yoruba country can be most
easdy reached. The trade thus begun soon led to a rapid emigration
from Sierra Leone, and the planting of missions at both Badagry and
Abbeokuta, the capital of Yoruba.
Abbeokuta is a walled city, founded in 1825, from the fragments of
the tribes of the kingdom of Yoruba, who escaped the invading armies
of the Fellatahs, while this powerful people were the principal " slave
hunters" for the traders of the western coast of Africa. It contains
the remains of 130 towns, and at present embraces a population of
nearly 100,000. Badagry, in 1860, contained about 11,000 inhab
itants. The Sierra Leone emigrants, at the former city, numbered
three thousand, and, at the latter, several hundred. At the period
when the emigration commenced, and for several years afterward, the
slave-trade prevailed on the coast ; and the people of Badagry and
Abbeokuta were engaged in supplying the market with slaves. This
led them to wage frequent wars, and kept up feeUngs of hostility
throughout the country. In these slave hunts, the people of Lagos
bore a conspicuous part. This town is about 36 miles to the eastward
of Badagry, is large and populous, and had hitherto been the head
quarters of the slave-trade in the Bight of Benin. The river Ossa, a
lagoon, running parallel with the coast, unites these two places.
The Episcopal Mission at Sierra Leone, sent an exploring committee
to Abbeokuta in 1842, and early in 1845 its first missionaries landed
at Badagry. In both instances they found the Wesleyans in advance
of them. Being unable to reach Abbeokuta, on account of existing
wars, a mission was founded at Badagiy. In 1846, a noted slave
dealer of the coast, forced the warring tribes to cease hostilities, that
be might collect his slaves from the interior ; and the missionaries,
embracing this moment of peace, were enabled to reach Abbeokuta.
Among the Episcopal Missionaries, was the Rev. Samuel Crowther,
a native of Yoruba, who had been captured by the Fellatahs, in 1821,
and sold to the traders at Lagos. Shipped on board a slaver for Bra
zil, recaptured by an English cruizer, educated at Sierra Leone, or
dained to the ministry of the Gospel in England, he had now returned,
after twenty-five years of sanctified captivity, to proclaim the way of
salvation to his relatives and countrymen ; and he had the inexpressi
ble gratification of finding his mother and two sisters, soon after his
arrival, and of being instrumental in her conversion to Christianity.
The chiefs of Abbeokuta received the missionaries with kindness ;

216 Colonies of Recaptured Africans.
and, no wonder, as some of them had relatives of their own, sitting by
them, who had been Uberated by the EngUsh.
With the favorable regard of the chiefs, and the co-operation of
many of the emigrants from Sierra Leone, the Gospel, for a time, had
free course in Abbeokuta ; and its population Ustened with a willinw
ear to the offers of eternal life. But, in 1848, the native priests"
priestesses, and slave-catchers, stirred up a spirit of persecution ao-ainst
the converts, and the Gospel was greatly hindered. This persecution
continued, with some intervals in its violence, throughout the two suc
ceeding years. In January, 1861, the British consul, Mr Beecroft
visited Abbeokuta, and his presence had a salutary effect in overawing
the enemies of Christianity, and disposing the chiefs to abandon the
slave-trade. He gave them notice, also, that the king of Dahomey
had projected an attack upon their city, in his next campaign for cap
turing slaves, and that his Amazons had doomed it to destruction.
Thus warned, the walls were somewhat repaired, and the population
roused to a sense of their danger ; when, on March 3d, 1851, the Da-
homian army, of 10,000 men and 6,000 women, made an assault upon
the city. Abbeokuta had only 8,000 warriors to oppose this force ;
but many of its women ran to and fro, amidst the flying bullets, with
food and water for the soldiers on the walls, that they might remain at
their posts to fight for Ufe and liberty. For six long hours the mur
derous strife continued, when the Dahomians began to waver, and the
Abbeokutans, rushing out, put them to flight ; and, pressing closely
on their rear, continued the slaughter until darkness led them to retum.
At early dawn the pursuit was renewed, and, at seventeen miles dis
tance, another battle ensued in which the Abbeokutans were again
victorious. The loss of the Dahomians was 3,000 kiUed and 1,000
taken prisoners. Of the slain nearly 1,800 were left before the walls
of Abbeokuta. These were the flower of the enemy's army, chiefly
women, who are always placed foremost in the battles, as more reUable
than the men.*
Thus was Abbeokuta and its missionaries mercifully delivered from
destruction. Even the heathen openly acknowledged that they owed
the victory to the God of the Christians ; and all felt that the mission
aries were their truest friends.!
* " Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics."
.j. « -Where are yonr charms?" said a Mohammedan chief, under whom part
of the Christian converts fought against the Dahomians. " Tou will all be
killed." " We have no charms," was the simple reply, "but our faith in the
?on of God, who died for sinners." A watchful eye was kept upon them in
the field of battle, for it was said that Christianity was making women of
them; but they acquitted themselves like men: so much so, as to gain tbe
praise even of those who persecuted them; and the result showed that it -was
possible to be brave, and yet Christian, and to escape the risks of battle with
out amulets. — Church Msssionary Intelligencer, Oct. 1853.
When, in the midst of the battle, another chief, addressing one of the i-ou-
verts, exclaimed: "Ah, Kashi, if all fought like you, they might follow what
religion they like." — " Sunrise in the Tropics."

The Missions in the English 217
In November, following, Capt. Forbes, of her Majesty's navy, was
commissioned to negotiate treaties with the authorities of Abbeokuta.
He found but little difficulty in persuading the chiefs to sign a treaty
for the abolition of the slave-trade and Iniman sacrifices — enormities
which had extensively prevailed — and for the extension of the missions
into the interior, and the toleration of religion. Having taken with
him several cannon, he planted them on the walls of the city, and
taught some of the citizens how to use them.
The mission in Abbeokuta, being thus freed from embarrassment, is
prospering, and the missionaries are extending their operations to the
neighboring towns. It would seem, indeed, as if the whole of the
Yoruba territory were bidding the missionary welcome, and encouraging
him onward in the work of its evangelization.* The Gospel, it is true,
still meets with opposition ; but the chiefs, mostly, are friendly and send
their children to the schools. Open persecution is no longer permitted ;
and, but for the continual apprehension of another attack from Dahomey,
the missionaries would seem to be secured against farther interruptions.
But while the missions are prosperous at Abbeokuta, far different
have been the results at Badagry. The events that have transpired
at the two places, have also been very different. Akitoye, the lawful
king of Lagos, was driven away in 1 845, and fled first to Abbeokuta
and then to Badagry. Kosoko, the usurper, being in league with the
king of Dahomey, engaged largely in the slave-trade and kept up con
stant wars on the neighboring towns. Some of the chiefs at Badagry
espoused the cause of Akitoye, while others resolved to support Kosoko.
Akitoye was friendly to the missions and attended the Sabbath-school
and preaching ; but his opponents were the enemies of the missionaries
and engaged in the slave-trade. In June, 1861, Kosoko and his party
attacked Akitoye, in Badagry, and for two days the demons of cruelty,
rapine, and murder, reigned triumphant in the town ; and only left it
when it was reduced to ruins. Fire and sword had done their utmost
on Badagry ; and nothing escaped the devolving element but the two
mission premises, and the chief part of the English trading house.
During the remainder of the year, all was confusion and ruin. The
Abbeokutans sent 800 men to the aid of Akitoye, and by one party or
the other, the towns along the Ossa were destroyed without mercy.
It is worthy of remark, that at Badagry, as at Sierra Leone, the mis
sion made no progress while the population were engaged in the slave-
trade. Neither of the three Episcopal missionaries, who labored in Bad
agry, either alone or conjointly, were permitted to see any satisfactory
fruit of their spiritual labors. ¦[ The town yet remains nearly in ruins
— a few of the inhabitants, only, haying returned and rebuilt their
houses. Lagos, therefore, was selected as the head-quarters of the
mission, and Badagry reduced to an out-station, with only a catechist.
* Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1853.
t Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.

218 Colonies of Recaptured Africans.
The treaty between the chiefs of Abbeokuta and Captain Forbes,
Wund them to promote the interests of the missions, and to abolish
the slave-trade. It secured to them, in tum, the protection of Eng
land. But Kosoko, of Lagos, and his confederates, resolved to prevent
the introduction of Christianity, civilization and legitimate traffic into
that region, to destroy Abbeokuta, and to persevere in the slave-trade.
The British squadron, therefore, having found its efforts by sea, to sup
press the traffic, altogether unavailing, and tu save its ally, Abtieokuta,
from destruction, proceeded to Lagos, December, 1851, bombarded the
town, took it in possession, dethroned Kosoko, and restored Akitoye to
his rightful possessions. So imminent was the danger to Abbeokuta,
that Kosoko had marched at the head of a large army to destroy it,
and was only diverted from his purpose by the attack upon his capital.
The Portuguese slave-dealers were immediately expelled, and thus, for
the moment, the slave-trade was suppressed in the Bight of Benin.
But the hateful slave-trade, of which Lagos had long been the chief
mart, had thoroughly engrained itself in the thoughts, habits, and
hearts of the people. Taught by the slave-dealer to consider the English
as natural enemies, they only awaited a suitable opportunity to renew a
trade so lucrative as the capture and sale of their fellow men. Accord
ingly, about nine months after the expulsion of Kosoko, the Portuguese
traders returned and secretly renewed the traffic in 'slaves. Akitoye,
faithful to liis treaty with the EngUsh, interposed his authority for its sup
pression. This led to an insurrection against him and for the restoration of
Kosoko. The Portuguese supplied the insurgents with arms and ammu
nition ; and, on the morning of August 6th, 1853, the war commenced in
the streets of Lagos. The contest was kept up till night, many were killed
and wounded on both sides, and the greater part of the town destroyed
by fire. One of the mission houses was consumed, with nearly all of
its contents ; and the other would have shared the same fate, but for
the protection afforded by the army of Akitoye, and by Capt. Gardner,
of the British navy, then in port with his vessel. A cessation of hos
tilities took place for a few days, during which Kosoko entered the
town and joined the rebels. The union of his forces with theirs, gave
him a great superiority over Akitoye ; and the missionaries, and the
English consul, had no other expectation but that they would all be
murdered. At this critical moment. Admiral Bruce, with a part of
his squadron, appeared in sight, landed nine gun-boats, well manned,
and sent a detachment of marines to protect the missionaries. This
alarmed Kosoko, and, on the night following, August 13, he and his
allies stole out of Lagos. Thus was the mission once more providen
tially delivered from destruction.*
On the 2d of September, King Akitoye died suddenly, and his son,
Dosumu, was elected in his stead. How far he may be able or willing
to resist the renewal of the slave-trade remains to be seen. The
» Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1853.

T}i£ Missions in ihe English 219
missionaries, at the latest advices, were greatly discouraged, being
worn down with fatigue and anxiety, and almost shut out from the hope
of planting the Gospel in Lagos, as it has been done in Abbeokuta.
These important movements show how the English Colonies are oper
ating as agencies in extending civilization and the Gospel in Africa ;
and how the Providence of God is overruling the wicked actions of
men for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.
But while we present these cheering evidences of the success of the
missions in this field, we would call attention to an important dif
ference in the results here and in Liberia. Sierra Leone and Liberia
were founded with similar objects in view : the removal of a class of
persons unhappdy situated, the improvement of their condition, the
civilization of Africa, and the suppression of the slave-trade. In both
cases the colonies were founded in the midst of barbarous tribes ; and
with men but recently escaped or liberated from the bonds of slavery.
Siei-ra Leone received her emigrants nearly all at once ; while Liberia
was more than ten years in obtaining an equal number. With the ex
ception of the few sui-vivors of the London expedition, the settlers in
both colonies had the same early training, under the slavery of Virginia,
Maryland, and the Carolinas. Up to 1800, the emigrants to Sierra
Leone had been enlightened men, mostly from the same region which,
subsequently, supplied to Liberia her citizens. From that period, the
population of Sierra Leone has been increased, not by additions of civil
ized men,* but first by the Maroons, and afterward by natives intro
duced by the English cruizers ; until, at present, sixty-six years from
the founding of the colony, it includes 46,000 people, reckoned subjects
of Great Britain. With the exception of a few recaptured slaves
landed in Liberia, by American cruizers, its population, each succeed
ing year from the first, has received accessions of civilized men, who
have won the confidence ofthe surrounding tribes, added them to their
communities, instructed them in the arts of civilization, allowed them
the benefits of their schools, and a participation in civil affairs ; until,
at present, thirty-three years aiter the commencement of the colony, it
includes 80,000 people, recognized citizens of the Republic.
Now, mark the difference : in 66 years. Sierra Leone, aided by a
large naval squadron, has grown into a British Colony of 46,000
.subjects ; while, in 33 years, or half the time, Liberia, with an in-
flu.Y of only 1,044 recaptured Africans, has become a Republic of
80,000 citizens.f
As to the success of the Missions in the two colonies, accurate sta
tistics are not at hand; but from what has been stated, it appears that
* Capt. Paul Cufi'ee, a wealthy colored man of Boston, in 1815, took out 33
emigrants to Sierra Leone.
t The whole population on the present enlarged territory of Liberia, is esti
mated at 300.000 ; but the partly civilized population, called citizens, is only
60,000.

2-^0 Colonies of Recaptured Africans.
for the first 30 years of their existence, the increase in Liberia has
been more than double that in Sierra Leone.
With these facts before us, it becomes a matter of great moment to
determine what has been the cause of the difference in the prosperity
of the two Colonies. It can not be attributed to any great inequaUty
between their emigrants, as, mostly, they had an identity of origin ;
nor to any great difference among the natives, as the diversity of lan
guages in the one, would be balanced by the greater degradation of
the other.* Then, as there was, originally, no material difference in
their populations, the greater success of the citizens of Liberia, in
maintaining their civil and religious institutions, can not be a result of
their attainments under the slavery of the United States, but must be
a consequence of their intellectual advancement after reaching the
Colony. Neither can the cause of the difference be found in the edu
cational and religious institutions of the two Colonies, as these are iden
tical in both. The difference, therefore, can exist, only, in the greater
extent of the social and civil privileges which the Liberians have en
joyed in their form of government. Look at the facts. From the time
Sierra Leone passed out of the hands of Granville Sharp, the colored
people have been excluded from participating in the government. The
offices have been filled with white men, who reside among the negroes,
in the position and attitude of a superior race, born to command;
while the colonists are made to feel that their destiny is to obey: hence,
in prosecuting their education, the youth of that Colony have had their
mental powers dwarfed, by the absence of the stimulants which the
hope of social and political advancement afford. In Liberia the policy
has been the reverse. From the beginning, the minor offices were held
by the colored men ; and for the past twelve years, no white man has
held any office, civil or military, in the Colony. Thus, the posts of
honor have been open to the competition of every Liberian ; and,
catching the progressive spirit of the age, the colonists have aspired to
the dignity of NationaUty ; have established an Independent Republic ;
and have progressed, in their civil and reUgious relations, with a ra
pidity doubly as great as Sierra Leone.f
* The native population, along the coast, are found to be more degraded than
those of the interior.
¦j- Bishop Ames, at the anniversai-y meeting of our Missionary Society, held
in Cincinnati, 1853, paid the following just compliment to the Republic of Li
beria : —
"Nations reared under religious and political restraint are not capable of self-
government, while those who enjoy only partially these advantages have set an
example of such capability. We have in illustration of this a well-authenticated
historical fact : we refer to the colored people of this country, who, though they
have grown up under the most unfavorable circumstances, were enabled to suc
ceed in establishing a sound republican government in Africa. They have
given the most clear and indubitable evidence of their cap.nbility of self-gov
ernment, and in this respect have shown a higher grade of manhood than tbe
polished Frenchman himself." — Methodist Mis. Adv.

The Missions among the Xative Tribes, 221
But time will not allow us to extend our comparisons. The superi
ority of the free institutions of Liberia, as an agency for overcoming
the obstacles to civilization and Christianity in Africa, will be farther
noticed in the progress of our investigations. At present we need only
say, in relation to both Colonies, that, as the result of English and
American phUanthropy, there is now a line of coast of more than
1,800 miles, from the Gambia on the West, to Lagos on the East, where
the slave-trade is suppressed, and Christianity is introduced ; and, that
within this region, once the undisputed empire of the slave-trader,
there are now 30,000 attendants on public worship, 10,300 church
members, 152 schools, 13,600 pupils, and a band of teachers, nearly
all of whom are natives or Liberians.
Such are the results within these Colonies, where the missionaries
have enjoyed the protection of Govemment, and the aid of civilized
colored men ; such are the fruits of the English and American Coloni
zation of the African race on the soil of their Father-land ; and such
the prospects of the moral redemption of the people of that continent,
by the return of its captive sons, bearing in their hands the lamp of
the Gospel.
III. The Missions amvhg the Xative Tribes, beyond the Infiuence a-nd
Protection of the Colonies.
A full history of these missions, including the facts illustrative of
the obstacles to the progress of Christianity, where the restraints of
civil govemment are not felt by the population, would be of thrilling
interest. But this would require a volume. We must Umit ourselves
to two or three ; and shall first direct attention to those of the Ameri
can Board on the Gaboon, in West Africa, and among the Zulus, in
South Africa.
The first of these missions was begun in 1834, at Cape Palraas ; but
owing to mistaken impressions in relation to the influence of the Colo
nies on the work, it was removed, in 1842, to the Gaboon, 1200 mdes
eastward. On entering this region, the missionary, the Rev. J. L.
Wilson, encouraged by the attention of the chiefs, entertained such
hopes of success, as to lead the Board to send additional missionaries
to his aid. Some of the native converts at Cape Palmas, accompany
ing him to the Gaboon, served as a nucleus for a church at the new
station. But on trial, the difficulties inherent in African heathenism
were found to be much more perplexing and insurmountable, in his
new field, than those he left behind in his old one.
The Report of the Board for 1850, says : "There is yet but one
Church in the mission, and this contains 22 members, 1 1 of whom
were received on profession of their faith, in 1849 — a greater number
than have been received in all the years since the removal of the mission
to the Gaboon. Here, as in South Africa, the habit of taking many wives,
or rather concubines, operates as a great hindrance to the Gospel ; and

222 Beyond the Inftmnce and Protection of the Colonics.
the evil is much aggravated by the late free introduction of American
Rum, which has exerted a most pernicious influence aU along the
coast." A letter from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of March, 1851, draws a still
more discouraging picture of the prospects of the mission : " In some
respects," he says, "our missionary operations seem to be quite sta
tionary. We have had no accessions to our church for some time
past ; and some who were added last year, do not give us all the satis
faction we had hoped for. If we had other converts, we should be
almost afraid to receive them into the church, by reason of the many
temptations to which they are exposed ; growing out of the loose and
perverted state of morals in this community. Nor do we see how soci
ety can be placed on such a footing, as to make it possible for us to
organize a pure Church, until there is a general outpouring of God's
Spirit upon, the people." Then, depicting the general prevalence of
polygamy, or what is worse, Mr. Wilson thus concludes : " Demoraliz
ing as this 'State of society is, the people are, nevertheless, firmly at
tached to it, and will continue to be so, until they are inspired with
better and purer feelings by the Holy Ghost. "-
Dr. Ford, another member of this mission, in an appeal for more
female laborers, draws a still darker portraiture of the deep moral
degradation existing around him. " The condition of African women
is beyond description deplorable. No one can appreciate it without
seeing it. They are bought and sold, whipped, worked, and despised.
Unquestionably they become surly, malicious, and perverse ; and under
the detestable system of polygamy which prevails everywhere, they
are perfectly faithless to their husbands. They are our most bitter
enemies, bearing a great dislike to religion, and this they communicate
to their chddren.
The Report for 1851, speaks more encouragingly, though it records
no increase of members. The Report for 1 852, shows that the mission
stood thus : 4 stations, 6 missionaries, 1 physician, 4 female assistants,
6 native helpers, and 6 schools with about 100 pupds. One member
had been added during the year, two Christian marriages solemnized,
and four persons baptized. A considerable reduction of the mission
ary force had occurred during the year, from deaths and the faUure of
health ; so that only two of the stations had been sustained during the
whole year. The Report for 1 853, records no new admissions to the
church. Only two ordained missionaries were left in the mission, and
only two stations have been occupied since July.* It is remarked, that
thougli the intelligence from tbe mission " is less cheering in some re
spects than we might wish, in others it is satisfactory and encouraging.
Two things, however, are greatly needed. The converting energy of
the Spirit is a constant and palpable necessity ; and the mission should
be largely reinforced without delay. Who will cry mightily unto the
* Missionary Herald, January, 1854.

The Missions among the Xative Tribes, 22i;
Lord for his quickening grace ? Who will devote themselves to the
missionary work among the benighted children of Africa ? " *
Mr. Preston has settled 60 miles above the Baraka station, which is
near the mouth of the Gaboon, to study the Pangwe language, and to
explore the hill country ; where the mission has been directed to
establish a new station, on account of its greater healthiness, and to
operate among the Pangwe people. He has found the country dis
turbed by wars, and that the Pangwe tribe are cannibals. Prisoners of
war and persons condemned for witchcraft, had been eaten, to Mr.
Preston's own knowledge. Such things, he says, are of frequent oc
currence ; and yet these people work yery neatly in iron of their own
smelting, and in brass obtained from traders — thus affording- evidences
of a nearer approach to civilization than the tribes on the coast.
Though the progress of this mission has been slow, and but few con
verts have been gathered into the church ; yet the labors of the mis
sionaries have, by no means, been unproductive of good results. The
native lanofuao-es have been mastered, portions of the scriptures trans
lated into them, and the pupils in their schools will soon be able to read
the sacred word, to their parents and friends, in their native tongue.
The Rev. Mr. Wilson, the founder of this mission, has been obUged
to retire from the work, on account of ill health. At the meeting of
the American Board, in 1852, he was present, explained the condition
of the mission, its encouragements and discouragements, and urged an
extended effort to take advantage of the present friendly disposition of
the natives to gain footholds for schools and churches throughout the
country. In relation to the discouragements, he said, that in penetrat
ing the interior, they found the difficulty of traveling -very great — their
pr'ogress being embarrassed by the want of an organized government.
They were thus exposed to the attacks of robbers and marauders, who
might kill them without being amenable to any power on earth.
From these facts it would seem, that Civd Government is greatly
needed for the protection of the Gaboon Mission ; and, that instead of
its being considered an obstacle, as was the case at Cape Palmas, it
is now viewed as necessary to its success : and, if necessary at the
Gaboon, it must be equally so in all other parts of Africa.
If this view were generally admitted, a great impiilse would be given
to our system of African Colonization. Civd government has not been
organized in Africa, except by Colonization from either Europe or
America ; nor can it exist, except among civiUzed men. Before it can
be organized at the Gaboon, an emigration of civilized men must sup
ply the necessary population ; or a generation or two pass away, while
the work of education prepares the natives for the adoption of civilized
customs. The climate forbids the settiement of white men at the
Gaboon, or upon any part of the western coast of Africa ; and civil
government, therefore, can not be introduced by them. Colored men.

» Missionary Herald, August, 1853.

224 Beyond the Influence and Protection of the Colonies.
alone, can live in the enjoyment of vigorous health in that region, and
they alone can accomplish this work. As the United States, alone,
can supply a sufficient number of intelligent colored men to fill it with
colonies ; it follows, that colonization, from the United States to Africa,
is necessary to the speedy organization of civil govemment and the
more rapid extension of Christianity in that country.
The Mission of the American Board to the Zulus, in South Africa,
was begun in 1835. One station was commenced among the maritime
Zulus, under king Dingaan, who resided on the east side of the Cape,
some 70 miles from Port Natal ; and the other among the interior
Zulus, under king Mosilikatsi.* This station was broken up in 1837,
by a war between the Zulus and the Boers, who were then emigrating
from the Cape. The missionaries were forced to leave, and join their
brethren at Natal ; but, in doing this, they were compelled to perforin
a journey of 1,300 mOes, in a circuitous route, 1,000 of which was
in ox wagons, through the wilderness, whde they were greatly enfee
bled by disease, and disheartened by the death of the wife of one of
their party.
The missionaries to the maritime Zulus, when their brethren from
the interior joined them, had succeeded in establishing one station
among king Dingaan's people, and another at Port Natal, where a
mixed population, from various tribes, had collected among the Dutch
Boers, then settling in and around that place. In 1838 a war occurred
between Dingaan and the Boers, which broke up the missions and
compelled the missionaries to seek refuge on board some vessels, prov
identially at Natal, in which some of them sailed to the United States,
and others to the Cape.
Peace being made in 1839, a part of the missionaries returned to
Matal and resumed their labors. But a revolt of one half the Zulus
ill 1840, under Umpandi, led to another war, in which the new
ihief and the Boers succeeded in overthrowing Dingaan. His death
liy the hand of an old enemy, into whose territory he fled, left the
Zulus under the rule of Umpandi. This chief allowed the mission in
liis territory to be renewed in 1841. But, in 1842, a war broke out
between the Boers, at Natal, and the British ; who, to prevent the
iJoers from organizing an independent government, had taken posses
ion of that place. In this contest, the Boers were forced to submit to
Ijritish authority, and British law was extended to the population
i round Natal. This led to large desertions of the Zulus to Natal, to
iscape from the cruelties of Umpandi ; and he, becoming jealous of
lie missionary, attacked the mission and butchered three of the prin-
¦ipal famiUes engaged in its support. Thus, a second time, was this
mission broken up and the mission family forced to retreat to Natal.
Here, then, at the opening of 1843, nearly eight years after the
»See Moffat's South African Missions.

The Missions among the Xative Tribes, 225
missionaries reached Africa, they had not a single station in the Zulu
country, to which they had been sent ; and they were directed, by the
Board, to abandon the field. From this they were prevented, by the
timely remonstrances of the Rev. Dr. Philip, of the English mission at
the Cape.
A crisis, however, had now arisen, by which the conflicting elements,
hitherto obstructing the Gospel, were rendered powerless or reduced to
order, by the strong arm of Great Britain. The fierce Boers had de
stroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the
Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs ;
while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority, along
with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis of a
colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at Natal,
which afforded security to the missionaries, and enabled them to estab
lish themselves on a permanent basis. An attempt was also made to
renew the mission in the Zulu territory, but Umpandi refused his as
sent, and the strength of the mission was concentrated within the
Natal Colony.
Owing to the continued cruelties of Umpandi, the desertions of his
people to Natal increased, until the Colony included a native popula
tion, mostly Zulus, of nearly 100,000.
Xo serious interruptions have occurred, since the British occupied
Natal ; and opportunities have been afforded for studying the Zulu
character, and the remaining obstacles to missionary success among
that people. Time has shown, that the tyranny of the chiefs, and the
wars of the tribes with each other, or with the whites, are not the
most obstinate difficulties to be overcome.
From the Report of the Board for 1 860, we leam, that though there
were then, in this field, 12 missionaries, 14 assistants, 6 native helpers,
18 places of preaching, and 8 schools ; there were but 78 church mem
bers and 185 pupils. The Report attributes the slow progress made,
to the extreme moral degradation of the population ; and, in mention
ing particulars, names polygamy as the most prominent. As among
the native Africans generally, so is it here, superstition and sensuality
are the great barriers to the progress of the Gospel.
But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from perse
vering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing
the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields
can only be removed by God's appointed means, the Gospel ; and,
that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual.
Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good : and,
in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the
Report of 1860, recommends the establishment of a Theological school
for training a native ministry for that field. The Reports for 1861 and
1862 are more encouraging, and show an increase of 86 church mem
bers, 16 children baptized, and 16 Christian marriages solemnized.
The Report for 1863 is less encouraging. The whole number of church
15

226 Beyond tlie Influence and Protection of the Colonies.
members is now 141, of whom only 8 were received during the year.
Family schools are sustained at all the stations ; but none of the heathen
send their children. Three day-schools are taught by native converts,
in which the children of those residing at the stations, where they are
located, receive instruction. One girls' school, consisting of about 20
pupils, is taught by Mrs. Adams.* The Christian Zulus are advanc
ing in civilization and in material piosperity ; but the heathen popula
tion are manifesting more and more of stupid indifference or bitter
hostiUty to the Gospel. This is more particularly indicated in their
refusal to send their chOdren to school.
The passage of this mission from the class beyond the protection
of the Colonies, to that of those deriving security from them, released
it from the annoyances occasioned by native wars, and left it to con
tend with the obstacles, only, which are inherent in heathenish bar
barism. It had, consequently, begun to progress encouragingly. But
a new element of disturbance has recently been introduced, which
threatens to be no less hurtful than the old causes of interruption and
insecurity. We refer to the immigration of the English into the Natal
Colony, and their efforts to dispossess the Zulus of their lands.
Before taking any further notice of this threatening evil, we must
call particular attention to another point, the importance of which has,
perhaps, been too much overlooked. In January, 1863, the Rev. Mr.
Tyler thus wrote :
" I have many thoughts, of late, concerning the great obstacle
which lies in the way of elevating the Zulus. It seems to rae that it
is their deep ignorance. We find it exceedingly difficult to throw even
one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted by sin. * *
Of the great mass who attend our services on the Sabbath, but few,
probably, have any clear knowledge of the plan of salvation through
faith in Christ. Especially is this true of the female sex, whose con
dition, both temporal and spiritual,' seems almost beyond the reach of
improvement." Mr. Tyler proceeds to show, that the Zulus, in their religious belief,
their worship, and their blind submission to the witch-doctors, evince the
most deep, gross, and stupid ignorance imaginable ; but he presents
nothing as belonging to that people, which is not common to the African
tribes generally. Without, at present, remarking on the relation
which the ignorance of barbarism bears to the progress of missions, we
shall recur to the effects of the immigration of the whites into the
Colony of Natal.
When the Zulus deserted their king and took refuge at Natal, there
were but few whites present to be affected by the movement, and allot
ments of lands were readily obtained for them. Soon afterwards,
however, an emigration from Great Britain began to fill up the country.
The main object of the whites was agriculture, and the best unoccu-
* Missionary Herald, for December, 1853, aud January, 1854.

The Missions among ihe Xative Tribes,

227

pied lands were soon appropriated. The new immigrants then com
menced settling on the possessions of the Zulus. The desio-ns of the
whites soon manifested itself so openly, that the missionariesliave been
obliged to interpose for the protection of the natives. Accordingly, a
committee of their number was deputed to wait upon the Lieutenant
Governor, to learn his intentions on the subject. The report of the in
terview, as made to the American Board, reads as follows :
" He plainly gave us to understand, that instead of collecting the
natives in bodies, as has hitherto been the policy, it was his purpose to
disperse them among the colonists, and the colonists among them. The
natural result will be, to deteriorate our fields of labor, by diminishino-
the native population, and by introducing a foreign element, which, as
all missionary experience proves, conflicts with christianizing interests.
Nor did he assure us that even our stations would not be infringed by
foreign settlers ; but our buildings and their bare sites, he encouraged
us to expect, would at all events remain to us undisturbed. But lest
this statement convey an impression which is too discouraging, we
would say, that many of our fields embrace tracts of country so bro
ken, as not to be eligible as farms for the immigrants ; and, hence, no
motive would exist for dispossessing the native occupants, unless it
would be to transfer them to the more immediate vicinity of the white
population, in order to facilitate their obtaining servants ; which at pre
sent is so difficult as to be considered one of the crying evils of the
colony. So deep is the feeUng on this subject, that many and strenuous
are those who advocate a resort to some system of actual imprison
ment. This seems a strange doctrine to be held by the sons of Britain !"
Then, after expressing an opinion that the obstacles in the way of
this measure may prevent its execution for some years to come, the
report concludes :
" Yet it is more than probable, that some of our stations will expe
rience the disadvantages of the too great proximity of white settlers.
The evils of such a proximity are aggravated by the prejudices which
exist against missionaries and their operations. And perhaps we should
say, that, as American missionaries, we are regarded with still greater
jealousy. We fear it wdl require years to live down these prejudices.
Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the influence of unprinci
pled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their labors, or the
native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the original proprie
tors, are naturally jealous and envious of those who, they suppose,
would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights. If we speak
at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice and truth.
If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are misrepresented,
and our motives are impugned. So that whichever course we take, we
can not expect to act in perfect harmony with all the interests of all the
men who, within the last few years, have come to the colony." *
* Missionary Herald, February, 1853.

228 Beyond the Infiuence and Protection of the Colonies.
The danger from the inroads of the whites must be imminent, when
the missionaries venture to speak so freely in their official report. The
grounds of these fears will be understood, when we present the facts
connected with our next class of missions. The fate of the Kaffirs,
doubtiess, awaits the Zulus, if English cupidity is not restrained by a
merciful Providence.
The Bishop of Cape Town, in speaking of the disastrous effects of
the late Kaffir war, has recentiy expressed the opinion, that, in less than
five years, another equally terrible in its results, in all probability, wdl
occur between the whites and the Zulus ; and as a consequence of the
large number of Europeans who are mixing among them, and whose
chief object appears to be their own enrichment, at the expense of that
people. The American Missionary Association, which is organized on
strictly Anti-Slavery principles, has a mission at Kaw-Mendi, 50 or 60
mUes north-west of Liberia, which belongs to the class of native mis
sions. This mission had its origin in the return of the " Amistad
Slaves," to their native country, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. Raymond
went out at the head of this mission. On reaching Africa, he found
wars everywhere prevailing to such an extent, that he could not reach
the Mendi country, to which these people belonged, and was forced to
settle at Kaw-Mendi, but 40 miles from the coast. The continuation
of these wars greatly hindered the progress of the mission, as long as
Mr. Raymond lived, and for more than a year after his successor, the
Rev. George Thompson, took charge of the station, in 1848. Mr.
Thompson thus became painfully famiUar with African warfare ; and
represents it as having been conducted with the utmost cruelty — whole
towns being depopulated and multitudes driven to the coast and sold
to the slave-traders of the GalUnas. Mr. Thompson was in Africa
about two years and a half, and was also greatly hindered by these
wars in his efforts to instruct the people ; until, happilj^, the British
squadron forcibly suppressed the traffic in slaves, at Grand Cape
Mount and the Gallinas, and thus put an end to the market. The sup
plies of European merchandise being thus cut off from the slave-trad
ing kings, along the coast, they were induced to sell their territory to
President Roberts, and place themselves under the jurisdiction of Li
beria. One of the stipulations in the treaties, requires the Liberians
to establish trading posts in the territory, for the suppl)' of goods to the
native population ; that they might no longer have any excuse for con
tinuing the slave-trade.
Kaw-Mendi is in the rear of the Gallinas. The termination of the
demand for slaves, at once disposed the tribes around the mission to
make peace with each other; and Mr. Thompson was eminently suc
cessful in reconciling the warring parties to each other. But several
months elapsed, from the date of the destruction of the slave-factories,
before peace could be restored or the Gallinas purchased. Though

Tlie Missions among the Xative Tribes, 229
ofien attempted, neither of these objects could be accomplished during
the existence of the slave-trade ; and, when effected, both were the rc°
suit of the adoption of measures for the purchase of Gallinas, as a new
field for the operations of the American Colonization Society. It i.s a
curious coincidence, that the letter of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, inform
ing the Board of his success in making peace among the tribes ; and
that of President Roberts to the Colonization Society, announcing the
purchase of Gallinas, were both written on the same day.
Mr. Thompson had so many urgent solicitations from the chiefs, for
missionaries to come and reside in their territory, that the society sent
out a reinforcement of eight males and females, in December, 1860 ;
and he, himself, returned to the United States, during the same month,
to remove his family to Kaw-Mendi. The new missionaries reached
the mission in safety, in February, 1851, and found Mr. Brooks, in
whose care it had been left, in the peaceful pursuit of his duties, and
the people urgent for more teachers. Before the close of the year,
however, the mission was shrouded in gloom. " The war had recom
menced its ravages ; and sickness and death had performed a fearful
work among the little company of missionaries." Three of the females
had died by the 10th of June. The Board report the condition of the
mission, at the close of 1851, as encouraging, and that some additions
had been made to the church during the year.
The Report for 1862, says, that the mission has labored under
serious embarrassments, and that its operations have been retarded
throughout a great part of the year, by the illness of many of its mem
bers ; and that it has been impossible to commence the new stations
authorized the last year. The Board, during this year, appointed a
large number of new missionaries, so as to increase the Mendi mission
to 17, including males and females. This reinforcement was accom
panied iy the Rev. George Thompson and Lis family, who now retumed
to the field of his former labors.
The Report for 1853, informs us that the new missionaries had
reached Africa, early in February ; and that all of them had suffered
more or less from sickness during the acclimating season. The older
missionaries, too, continued to suffer from the debilitating influence of
the cUmate. In June the eldest son of Mr. Thompson died, and soon
afterwards Mrs. Thompson's health so far failed that she had to be
removed by her husband to the United States. Mr. Arnold and his
wife have also been compelled to ask for a dismission from the service,
on account of the state of his health.
Duruig the whole of the year reported, the country has been suffer
ing under one of the most wide-spread and desolating wars that has
been known there since the establishment of the mission. It has so
far hindered the progress of the work, as to allow of the opening of
but one of the stations contemplated, that of Tissana, up the Big
Boom river. The latest advices from the mission, says the Report,
encourage the hope that the war will soon be brought to a close ;

230 Beyond the Infiuence and the Protection of the Colonies
and the opinion is expressed that the infamous slave-trade was at the
bottom of it.* ...
The school at Kaw-Mendi has received several additions to its num
bers during the year, and the new one at Tissana has been corfmenced
with encouraging prospects. The chiefs, with but a single exception,
have consented to the establishment of missions and schools among their
people. The Report closes by remarking, "that the published obser
vations of other laborers on that continent serve to show, that white
men can live and labor there ; and that there are in the interior,
towards which they are pressing, more civiUzed, intelligent, and pow
erful nations and regions of country, not only less inimical than those
they now occupy, to the health of the white man, but even more
healthy than many parts of the United States. The Spirit and provi
dence of God thus beckon us onward, and woe will be upon us if we
falter in our course."
The Report is dated September, 1863, and Mr. Thompson, m com
pany with Mr. Condit, sailed again for Africa', in November. Letters
have been received from him at Sierra Leone, where he landed in Jan
uary, on his way to Kaw-Mendi. Thus has this devoted missionary,
for the third time, braved the dangers of the African climate.
Intelligence from Kaw-Mendi, as late as October, 1863, has been
received. The mission at Tissana has been abandoned, on account of
the distracted state of the country between it and Kaw-Mendi, pro
duced by the continuation of the wars ; and, in lieu thereof, a station
has been commenced at Sherbro Island, where peace and safety pre
vail. The school at Kaw-Mendi, is prospering, writes Dr. Cole ; but
" of the one hundred chddren there gathered, the mass," he says, "are
yet heathen, with the habits that ignorance, superstition and nakedness
beget. Bad as these are, they form the most hopeful material for mis
sionary culture, and it is for their elevation and purification our mis
sionaries toil. Oh ! how much they need the sympathies and prayers
of God's people." f Mr. Gray, who went out three years since, has
returned with his wife to recruit his health.
To gain a clear view of the hindrances to the missions among the
natives, we must add the testimony of Bishop Scott, to that already
presented. The first difficulty which meets the missionary, he says, on going to
this people, is an unknown and uncultivated tongue ; a tongue, too,
which varies so much, as he passes from one tribe to another, within
* Recent developments at Sierra Leone, have proved, beyond all question,
that certain persons, in that English Colon.y, have long been secretly engaged
in the slave-trade. There is reason to believe, however, that these wars have
been excited by the English scheme of restocking their West India plantations
by purchasing emigrants, at $10 per head, from the African chiefs. See the
letter of President Roberts, on this subject, in Appendix.
t American Missionary, March, 1853.

The Missions among the Xative Tribes, 231
the space of only a few miles, that it often amounts to a different lan
guage. The nature of this obstacle will be so easily comprehended,
that the details given by the Bishop, need not be quoted. He thus
proceeds :
"But now another difficulty assails him — one which his knowledge
of men in other parts of the world had given him no reason to antici
pate. Though he may in some way get over the difficulty presented
in a rude foreign tongue, yet he now finds, to his utter surprise, that
he can not gain access to this people unless he dash them, (that is,
make them presents,) and only as he dashes them. When, where, or
how this wretched custom arose I can not tell, but it is found to pre
vail over most parts of Africa, and, so far as I know, nowhere else.
But what shall our missionary now do ? Will he dash them ?
Wdl he dash them 'much plenty?' Then they will hear him — they
will flock around him — nay, he may do with them almost as he wists,
and a nation may be born in a day. But let him not be deceived, for
all is not gold, here especially, that glitters. So soon as he withholds
his dashes, ten to one they are all as they were. But is he poor and
can not dash them '? — or able, but on principle will not ? Then, as a
general fact, he may go home. They will not hear him at all, nor treat
him with the least respect. Indeed, they will probably say, ' He no good
man,' — and it will be well for him if they do not get up a pakver
against him and expel him from their coasts. This dashing is a most
mischievous custom — dreadfully in the way of missionary labor, and I
know not how it is to be controlled. I am sick of the very sound of
the word. The Lord help poor Africa !
" But the difficulties multiply. Now a hydra-headed monster gapes
upon our missionary, of most frightful aspect, and as tenacious of life
as that fabled monster of the ancient poets. It is polygamy. He finds
to his grief and surprise, that every man has as many wives as he can
find money to buy. He must give them all up but one, if he would
be a Christian. But wdl he give them up ? Not easily. He will
give up almost any thing before he will give up his wives. They are
his slaves, in fact ; they constitute his wealth. And then it is difficult,
not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow morally
wrong to put them away. ' Me send woman away ? — where she go
to ?— what she do ?' This I consider the hugest difficulty with which
Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this people, and makes
me think that she must look mainly to the rising generation.
" But here, too, a difficulty arises. The female children are con
tracted away — are sold, in fact — by their parents while they are yet
very young, often whde they are infants ; and if the missionary would
procure them for his schools, he must pay the dower — some fifteen or
twenty dollars.
" But our missionary finds that the whole social and domestic organ
ization of these people is opposed to the pure, chaste, and comely spirit
of the Gospel, and that, to succeed in this holy work, it must not only

232 Beyond the Influence and Protection of the Colonies.
be changed, but revolutionized — upturned from the very foundation.
Is there no difficulty here ? Are habits and customs, so long estab
Ushed and so deeply rooted, to be given up without a struggle ? The
native people, both men and women, go almost stark naked, and they
love to go so — and are not abashed in tbe presence of people better
dressed ; they eat with their hands, and dip, and pull, and tear, with
as littie ceremony and as little decency as monkeys, and they love to
eat so ; they sleep on the bare ground, or on mats spread on the
ground, and they love to sleep so ; the men hunt or fish, or lounge
about their huts, and smoke their pipes, and chat, and sleep, whUe their
wives, alias their slaves, tend and cut and house their rice — cut and
carry home their wood — make their fires, fetch their water, get out
their rice, and prepare their 'chop,' — and all, even the women, love to
have it so. And to all the remonstrances of the missionary, tiiey
oppose this simple and all-settiing reply. ' This be countryman's fash.'
They seem incapable of conceiving that your fash is better than theirs,
or that theirs is at all defective. Your fash, they wdl admit, may be
better for you, but theirs is better for them. So the natives of Cape
Palmas have lived, in the very midst of the colonists, for some twenty
years, and they are the same people stdl, with almost no visible
change." The Bishop next notices their superstitions and idolatries, and the
evils connected with their belief in witchcraft ; and says, that though,
by the influence of the colony and missions, their confidence is, in some
places, being shaken in some of them ; they generally even yet think
you a fool, and pity you, if you venture to hint that there is nothing in
them. But we must not quote him farther than to mclude his closing
remarks : "
"But what! Do you then think that there is no hope for these
heathen, or that we should give up all hopes directed to that end ?
Not I, indeed. Very far from it. I would rather reiterate the noble
saying of the sainted Cox : ' Though a thousand fall even, in this at
tempt, yet let not Africa be given up.' I mention these things to show,
that there are solid reasons why our brethren in Africa have accom
plished so littie ; and also to show, that the Churches at home must,
in this work particularly, exercise the patience of faith and the labor of
love. We must stdl pound the rock, even though it is hard, and our
mallets be but of wood. It wdl break one day."
Our inquiries into the condition of the Missions among the natives,
where civil govemment exerts no influence, must now be closed. The
state of things is about this : The chiefs, ambitious of distinction and
avaricious, often favor the settiement of missionaries, on account of the
consequence it gives them, or from mercenary motives ; the division of
the population into small tribes, and their marauding dispositions, leads
to frequent wars ; the tyranny of the chiefs, and their fear of losing
their influence, often leads them, after haying admitted the missionary,

The Missions among ihe Xaiive Tribes, 233
to oppose his work and deter their people froni attending his preachino- ;
the existence of slavery and hereditary chieftainism, feaves the mats'
of the population incapable of independent action ; the ignorance of
barbarism, overshadowing their minds, renders them incapable of com
prehending moral truth ; the superstitions of ages are not to be oiven
up, readily, for a religion they can not comprehend ; the custom of re
ceiving dashes, tends to prejudice the native against the missionary ;
and, above all, the practice of polygamy, ministering to the indolence
and sensuaUty ofthe men, and reducing the women to the condition of
slaves, stands as a wall of adamant in the way of the progress of the
Gospel. These are the more prominent barriers to the success of missions in
Africa, where civil government exerts no power, and the influence of
Christian society is not felt.
It will not be improper here, to pause and observe, that there seems
to be a marked difference between the agencies necessary to secure suc
cess in propagating the Gospel among an Asiatic and an African popu
lation. Both, it must be remembered, are heathen ; but the minds of
the one are enlightened, of the other barbarous. In Asia, where a
knowledge of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the mechan
ical and tine arts prevaU, the mental culture of the people renders them
accessible to the Gospel. Many of them can comprehend its truths,
when heard from the lips of the preacher, or wben read in the printed
Scriptures. For this reason, some of the prominent missions in India
have relied upon the preaching of the word, as their principal agency ;
whde circulating the Scriptures and teaching the youth, have been em
ployed only as auxiliaries. Others have relied mainly upon the mul
tiplication of facilities for educating the youth ; while spreading the
printed word, and employing the foreign preacher, have been con
sidered as secondary matters — the chief hope being in the preparation
of a native ministry, who should ultimately enter largely upon that
work. Others, again, have combined all these agencies, as means
which God has blessed in the conversion of sinful men. The whole of
these systems have been successful in Asia, and their supporters, re
spectively, see but little cause for changing their measures.
But in Africa, and among the North American Indians, where the
intellectual faculties of the population are shrouded in the darkness of
barbarism,* the preaching of the word, in the commencement of a mis
sion, has been but rarely successful in producing conversions ; while
the total ignorance of letters among these people, has rendered the cir
culation of the Scriptures useless. Christian missionaries, therefore, in
attempting to introduce the Gospel among the Indians or Africans,
have been forced to rely upon the education of youth as the means of
success.

* Barbarism is the ignorance of infancy prolonged into adult age. This defi
nition will convey a true idea of its relations to moral and religious truth.

234 Beyond the Influence and Protection of the Colonies.
But whether in North America, Africa or Asia — whether converted
while training in the schools, or under the reading or preaching of the
word — the multiplication of native agents to take part in the work,
greatiy promotes the progress of the Gospel. So well is this now un
derstood, that the preparation of native teachers and preachers, has
become the chief aim of aU missions to the heathen ; and the persist
ence in one or the other of the systems of operations to which we
have referred, is due to the importance they respectively attach to an
educated ministry.
While, however, teaching, reading, and preaching, are the chief in
strumentalities for the conversion of the world ; the progress of the
Gospel, everywhere, is greatly accelerated by the presence of a Chris
tian population, whose example aids in overturning the customs and
superstitions of the people, and commends the religion of Christ to
their confidence. As a mission, then, adds to the number of its con
verts, or receives additions of civiUzed emigrants, its ability of becoming
more and more aggressive is increased, and its powers of progression
multiplied. Where reliance is placed upon education, mainly, for introducing
the Gospel, its progress is necessarily slow ; because a generation, or
two, is needed to bring forward a competent number of agents to take
possession of the field. The drawbacks, too, are very great — much
seed being sown, which falls upon stony ground. If schools are con
ducted upon a large scale, the children must be supported by their pa
rents ; and, in such cases, the superstitions and vices of heathenism
have, but too often, an easy victory over the doctrines and precepts of
Christianity. In this respect no new principle has been discovered.
In Christian countries, where custom, law, and the example of parents,
combine to give the ascendency to virtue, who can hope that his children
will escape moral contamination, if they be permitted to mingle, at will,
with the vicious and depraved. How much more, then, are the chd
dren of the heathen endangered, if left in the care of licentious and
idolatrous parents, among a population where the laws of virtue are
unknown ?
To avoid these evils. Bishop Scott urges, that the native children,
attending the Methodist schools in Liberia, be taken into the families
of the missionaries — a system which has been pursued with success,
by some of the other societies.
But we need not extend these observations. It is not difficult to
comprehend the connection which exists between Colonization and the
more rapid extension of the Gospel in Africa ; and to see the superior
ity of the missions in Liberia, to those among the natives. Look but
a moment at its advantages. Liberia contains a greater number of the
elenients of success, than are embraced in the missions to the natives,
or in those of any other class ; and, consequentiy, must be more effici
ent in promoting the evangelization of the African people. The over
awing influence of its laws upon the natives — the permanency of its

The Missions in Connection wiih ihe 235
schools — the circulation of the Scriptures and religious tracts amonft
those taught to read — the protection afforded by iis^ government to the
missionaries — the constant preaching of the word — the hioh morality
of its Christian population — the influx of civilized emigrants who are
the descendants of those cruelly tom from their shores in former years
— all tend directiy to promote the work of missions. Colonization,
therefore, supplies to the missions in Liberia, at once, the instrument
alities which those among the natives are only able to acquire after
many years of toil.
IV. The Missions in Connection with the Colonies of White Men in
South Africa.
We must refer a moment to the civd history of South Africa, as it is
essential to the proper understanding of its Missionary history.
The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy
was followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town
and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hot
tentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of
this , feeble race. The English capturgd Cape Town in 1796, ceded it
back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and stdl hold it in possession.
The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Euro
peans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it
became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon
the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the Dutch,
who were designated by the term Boers.* They remained in the
Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act, of the British
Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the Boers, that
they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape Colony. In
seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus, as already
stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful people.
Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed on to
the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear from
them again.
The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of Cape
Town, soon came into collision with the Kaffirs ; who, being a powerful
and warUke race, made a vigorous resistance to their advances. The
Kaffirs stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites retaliated on the
Kaffirs. These depredations often resulted in wars, each of which gave
the EngUsh govemment a pretext to add a portion of the Kaffir terri
tory to its own. As war followed on war, the Kaffirs improved in the
art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies, and learned the
use of European weapons. Thus every Kaffir war became more for
midable, requiring more troops, costing more money, and, of course,
demanding more territory. In consequence of these various annexa
tions from the Kaffirs, Zulus, and others, the EngUsh possessions in
* The German terra for fanners.

23(j Colonies of WhUe Men in South Africa.
South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 square miles ; 105,000 of
which have been added since 1847 — the year of the great failure in
the cotton crop of the United States.
The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest,
must also be very brief
A Moravian mission, begun in 1736^ among the Hottentots, was
broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and its
renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it
was again interrupted in 1796, but soon afterwards restored under
British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch g-overnment to
Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a
period of half a century.
A mission to the Kaffirs, begun in 1799, by Dr. Vanderkemp, was
abandoned in a year, on account of the jealousies of that people to
wards the whites, and their plots to take his life. The other missions,
of various denominations, begun from time to time, in South Africa,
have also been interrupted and retarded by the wars of the natives
with each other, and more especially with the whites.
The pecuniary loss to the English, by the war of 1835, was
11,200,000; and by that of 1846-7, |3, 425,000. This, however,
was a matter of littie importance, compared with the moral bearings
of these conflicts. The missions suffered more or less in all the wars,
either by interruptions of their labors, or in having their people pressed
into the army. In that of 1846-7, the London Society had its four
stations in the Kaffir country entirely ruined, and its missionaries and
people compelled to seek refuge in the Colony.
But the most disastrous of all these conflicts, and that which has cast
the deepest gloom over the South African Missions, was the Kaffir war
of 1 861-2-3. These missions, with the exception of that to the Zulus,
are under the care of ten missionary societies, all of which are Euro
pean. They had recovered from the shocks of the former wars, and
were in an encouraging state ; when, in December, 1 850, the Kaffir war
broke out. In consequence of that war, many of the missions have
been reduced to a most deplorable condition ; and afford a sad com
mentary on the doctrine that the white and black races, in the present
moral condition of the world, can dwell together in harmony.
The missions of the Scotch Free Church were in tbe very seat of war,
the buildings of two of them destroyed, and the missionaries forced to
flee for their lives ; while the third was only saved by being fortified.
The BerUn Missionary Society, had its missionaries driven from two
of its stations, during the progress of the war.
The Mission of the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotiand, which
consisted of three stations, were all involved in ruin. The war laid
waste the mission stations, scattered the missionaries and converts, sus
pended entirely the work of instruction, and has done an amount of
evil which can scarcely be exaggerated. The Report for 1863, says,

The Missions in Connection with the 237
that the mission can not be resumed on its old basis, as the Kaffirs
around their stations are to be driven away ; and though the native
converts, numbering 100, might be collected at one of the stations, it
is deemed better that a delegation visit South Africa, aijd report to the
Board a plan of future operations.
The London Missionary Society also suffered greatiy, and some of
their missionaries were stript of every thing they possessed. The Re
port, for 1853, says : " This deadly conflict has at length terminated,
and terminated, as might have been foreseen, by the triumph of British
arms. The principal Kaffir chiefs, with their people, have been driven
out of their country ; and their lands have been allotted to British sol
diers and colonists. And on the widely extended frontier there will be
established military posts, from which the troops and the settlers are to
guard the colony against the return of the exiled natives."
Such, indeed, was the hostiUty of the whites toward the missionaries
themselves, at one of the Churches in the white settiements, that bul
lets were not unfrequently dropped into the collection plates.*
Both Moravian and Wesleyan Missions have been destroyed. In one
instance, 260 Hottentots perished by the hands of EngUsh soldiers, in
the same Church where they had listened to the word of God from the
Moravian missionaries ; not because they were enemies, but in an at
tempt to disarm a peaceable population. Such are the cruelties inci
dent to this war !
The Paris Missionary Society, has thirteen stations in South Africa.
Its Report, for 1853, complains of the interruptions and injuries which
its missions have suffered, in consequence of the military commotions
which have prevailed in the fields occupied by its missionaries. In al
luding to the obstacles to the Gospel, which everywhere exist. Dr.
Grandpierre, the Director of the Society, says : " But how are these
obstacles multiplied, when the missionary is obliged to encounter, in the
lives of nominal Christians, that which gives the lie to his teachings.
Irritated by the measures which are employed against them, may not
the aborigines rightfully say to the whites, with more truth than ever,
' You call yourselves the chUdren of the God of peace ; and yet you
make war upon us. You teach justice ; but you are guilty of injustice.
You preach the love of God ; and you take away our liberty and our
property.' "
One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Kaffir war, when
summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy pic
ture :
" All missionary operations have been suspended ; the converts are
either scattered or compelled, by their hostUe countrymen, to take part
in the revolt ; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the scenes
of their benevolent labors ; hostile feelings have been excited between
the black and white races, which it will require a long period to sooth
*Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, October, 1853.

.38 Colonies of White Men in South Africa.
down ; and the prospects of evangelizing Kaffirland have been rendered
dark and distant."
But we are not yet done recounting the obstacles to the progress of
•-he Gospel in South Africa, and the oppressions to which its population
;ire subjected. Our last reference to the Boers, left them emigrating
.oward the interior of Africa. It appears that they have selected ter
ritory and organized themselves into a govemment, under the titie of
.he "Free Republic;" and that, in the course of the last year their
independence has been acknowledged by Great Britain. The Boers,
although recognized as a nation, seem little disposed to peace ; but
liave, lately, proceeded to destroy some of the stations of the London
Missionary Society, and to drive two English missionaries from their
territory. They have also attacked and plundered three of the native
tribes, kdling 60 men and taking a number of women and children
prisoners. Their movements seem to indicate that they are determined
to prevent the EngUsh from extending northward into their vicinity ;
and it is feared they wdl enslave or ruin the native tribes among whom
they have settied. When charged with this design, they denied it, and
claimed that the servitude they adopt is not slavery, but a system of
apprenticeship — such, we suppose, as the English have estabUshed, to
secure laborers for their West India plantations. The missionaries, how
ever, have ascertained that the natives are bought and sold by them ;
and from this fact it is inferred, that the fate of the Hottentots, in for
mer years, wUl, doubtiess, be the lot ofthe natives who are now in the
power of the Boers. Alas ! for poor Africa 1
Referring to these events, the London Society expresses the opinion,
that, hereafter, the missionaries will not be left untrammeled, or the
liberty of the natives preserved, in the " Free Republic," unless the
British nation shall utter its voice distinctly and earnestly in behalf of
these unoffending myriads.* In that event, doubtless, the liberty of
the natives might be prolonged, until English emigrants should de
mand their lands ; and then, the fate of the Kaffirs would await them.
We must here close these investigations. In reflecting upon the
consequences attending the emigration of the English and Dutch into
South Africa, we can not but be struck with the sameness of the re
sults there, and those connected with European emigration among the
North American Indians. Unlike the emigration of the colored people
into West Africa, that of the whites into Soutli Africa and North
America, has tended to the destruction of the native heathen, and not,
as in Liberia, to their moral redemption. Nor are the inducements to
exchange heathen customs for those of Christianity, as strong in South
Africa as in Liberia. The natives, in the former, on abandoning
heathenism only become subjects of British law, and not freemen, as
* Report of Annual Meeting, May, 1853.

Conclusion. 239
in the latter, participating in the affairs of government. The South
African chief, has even less reason than his people, to forsake his bar
barism ; as he only thereby loses his power, and, from beino- him
self a king, he becomes a subject, and compelled to bow to the white
man, who has robbed him of his greatness. These obstacles to mis
sionary progress in South Africa, are daily on the increase, by addi
tional European emigration ; as each white man, who sets his foot
upon the Cape, but adds to the necessity for robbing the natives of
additional lands. On the contrary, each colored emigrant to Liberia,
by adding to the strength of the Republic, is aiding in extending to the
natives the blessings of freedom and of peace, and securing to them
their right to their homes under the sanction of Christian laws.
Thus, it appears, that, as the colonization of colored men in Liberia
elevates the native population, secures harmony of feeling and unity
of interest between the parties, gives distinction to the race, and secures
the more rapid extension of the Gospel ; so the emigration of white
men into South Afr-ica, tends to degrade the natives, produces enmity
of feeling and diversity of interest, destroys whatever of nationality
they possessed, and erects a mighty barrier against their conversion to
Christianity. The total missionary force in South Africa, is under the care of
eleven Missionary Societies, ten of which are European, and one
American. Their condition, in 1860, before the commencement of the
Kaffir war, was as follows :* Missionaries 214, assistant missionaries
155, native assistants 8, communicants 12,116, schools 60, scholars
20,100.
CONCLUSION.
Here we must close our inquiries, sum up the results, see what ex
perience teaches, draw the contrasts between these several classes of
Missions, and determine the best mode of employing- human instru
mentalities for the extension of the Gospel in Africa.
These Missions, as we have shown, had to be planted upon a broad
field of barbarism ; where the civil condition, the objects of worship,
the social customs, the intellectual state of the people, were the antag
onists of what prevail under a Christian civiUzation. The missionary's
task embraced much of toU, privation, danger, patience, perseverance.
Wars were to be turned into peace, superstitions overthrown, polygamy
abolished, ignorance dispelled, before civdization and Christianity could
be established. This was the work to be accomplished. The results
have been given in detail, and now they must only be recapitulated
and contrasted.
The Missions to the natives, beyond the protection of the colonies,
have made the least progress. They are established upon the proper
* Baird's Retrospect, paijes 400-2.

2 19 Conclusion.
basis, but have fewer agencies employed than the other missions, and
a corresponding inefficiency is the result. Common schools. Sabbath
schools, and preaching, are means used for promoting the Gospel in all
the African missions. Those to the natives, are limited chiefly to these
three plans of operation, whde the other missions possess many subor
dinate means that greatly facUitate their progress. Preaching to
adults, though not altogether unsuccessful, has won but few converts,
and done but Uttle for the overthrow of superstition. Education lays
the axe at the root of ignorance, but from the fewness of the teachers
and schools, the small attendance of pupils, and the reaction of hea
thenism upon them, it has made very little impression on the surround
ing barbarism. Less, stUl, has been done by these missions, in pre
venting native wars ; whUe polygamy remains almost wholly unaffected
by them. The greatest difficulty, however, is, that the missionaries,
with very few exceptions, are white men, whose constitutions, gener
ally, yield to the effects of the climate, and the missions are constantly
liable to be weakened and broken up. This is true of the Gaboon and
Mendi Missions, particularly, and can be remedied, only, by substitut
ing colored missionaries, since they, alone, have constitutions adapted
to the climate. The mission to the Zulus differs from these two, in
having a cUmate better adapted to the Anglo-Saxon; but it has to
contend with the additional obstacle of a hostile white immigration,
which threatens its existence. As the customs and morals of Chris
tianity become better understood, at these missions, the enmity of the
natives continues to increase ; and the missionary, after j^ears of toil,
fuels, more and more, the indispensable necessity of multiplying the
agencies for removing the barriers to the Gospel by which he is
surrounded. The Missions in South Africa, by their early success, and the pro
gress they have always made in times of peace, afford ample evidence
of the practicabiUty of Christianizing Africa, wherever civil govern
ment protects the missionary, and prevents the prevalence of native
wars. But while we may here derive a powerful argument in favor of
increased efibrt for the extension of Christianity, where the conditions
of society are thus favorable ; the additional lesson is impressed upon
the mind, with tremendous force, that the white and black races — that
Englishmen and Africans — can not dwell together as equals ; but that
the intelligence and active energies of the one, when brought into con
flict with the ignorance and indolent habits of the other, must male
the Negro an easy prey to the Anglo-Saxon. The sad results of this
conflict of races, in the wars of the last few years, casts a deep gloom
over the future prospects of South Africa, and renders it do-abtful
whether the missions can be sustained among the natives as indepen
dent tribes. It would appear, that, under British poUcy, the loss of
liberty is the price at which the African must purchase Christianity.

Conclusion. £ 4 1
The immigration of Englishmen into South Africa, then, instead of
diminishing the obstacles to the success of the Gospel, is addin<>- a new
one of an ag-gravated character. Nor can the difficulty be obviated.
When Christian missions harmonize with the policy of England, she
grants them protection ; but when they stand in the way of' the
execution of her schemes, they are brushed aside as objects of in
difference, and treated with no higher regard than pagan institutions.
While her soldiers were slaughtering the Christian Hottentots, in the
church of the Moravians, her revenues were upholding the heathen
temples of India. As she designs to buUd up an extensive white col
ony, in South Africa, the main obstacles to these missions will be ren
dered as immovable as the British throne. In this respect, they are
more discouragmg than those to the natives, the barriers to which must
be broken down by time and perseverance.
How strangely the cruelty of Great Britain, towards the Kaffirs,
contrasts with her humanity towards the recaptured Africans of Sierra
Leone 1 In the former case, she robbed the blacks of their posses
sions, to give lands to her white subjects; in the latter, Cuba and
BrazU were deprived of their cargoes of slaves, to build up a colony
for herself But how much stranger, stdl, does England's conduct
contrast with the policy of American Colonization 1 Liberia, instead
of robbing the Native African of his rights, was founded, expressly, to
rescue him from oppression and superstition, and to bestow upon him
liberty and the Gospel of Christ.
The Missions in the English Colonies of Recaptured Africans, have
been more successful, and are more promising, than either of the two
just noticed. The cause of this difference should be considered. The
foundations of Sierra Leone were laid, when Africa was literally "the
land of the shadow of death." Its comer stone inclosed the last link
of the shackles of slavery in England. Its founder looked forward to
the redemption of the land of Ham, as a result of the scheme he had
projected. A large majority of the emigrants who founded the Col
ony, had been trained where Religion was free, and where Liberty was
struggling into birth. They had caught something of the spirit of
freedom, and wished to reaUze its blessings. These hopes were blasted;
and, in anger, they abandoned the churches they had buUt, rather than
accept religion at the hands of those who had denied them freedom.
They faded to discriminate between the unchristian policy of the Eng
lish government, and the Christian charity of the English Church.
The slave-trade was carried on under the flag that brought them the
missionary ; and they turned coldly away from the man of God, to let
him re-embark for his English home, or sink to the grave beneath a
tropical sun. Thus did the Gospel fail in its establishment among the
emigrants of Sierra Leone. Neither could it succeed among the
surrounding natives, while the hunters of slaves kept the tribes in
pcipetual hostilities. Thus twenty years rolled away, before the traffic
16

242 Conclusion.
in human flesh was suppressed ; and then, only, could Christianity
gain a foothold.
But the gift of equal rights was not included in the gift of the Gos
pel ; and half the stimulants to mental improvement remained unsup-
plied. The agencies established, however, were not powerless for
good. Security was gained for the missionary, and the population
could dweU in peace. The Episcopal missionaries were driven into
the Colony, to prosecute their labors under its protection. The preju
dices engendered by the early collisions with the civil authorities, wore
away with the lapse of time. The American fugitives, who had re
fused the Gospel from the Episcopalians, now accepted it from the
Wesleyans. The denial of civil rights to themselves, could not justify
their refusal of eternal life for their offspring. The chUdren were
gathered once more into the schools, and education commenced.
Sierra Leone was made the " city of refuge," for all who should be
rescued from the horrors of the slave-ships ; and thus it became a
central sun from which the light of the Gospel could radiate to the far
thest limits of Africa.
Sierra Leone, as a mission field, is free from some of the most seri
ous difficulties which retard the progress of the Gospel among the
Natives and in South Africa. Its chief advantages consist in its free
dom from war ; in the absence of white Colonists ; and in the accumu
lating progress of civUization. Its inhabitants possess such a unity of
races, such a social equality, as to prevent hostile collisions on account
of color. Its officers and principal merchants, only, are white ; and,
hence, fewer occasions arise here than in South Africa, where the black
man is made to feel his inferiority to the white. The intellectual im
provement of its people has been much more rapid than that of the
population in the South African Missions ; and, as a consequence, the
teachers of the schools and seminaries, in Sierra Leone and its connec
tions, are, mostly, colored men ; while few, indeed, of the natives in
the Colonies of the Cape, have been able to attain such positions.*
In these facts are we to find the causes of the superiority of the
Sierra Leone missions, over those to the Natives and to the South of
Africa. Sierra Leone, however, when contrasted with Liberia, is found to
Lack some of the essential elements of progress possessed by the Re
public. The liberty secured to the citizens of Liberia, extends to all
* The comparative condition of the missions in West Africa, South Africa,
and the West Indies, according to Baird's Retrospect for 1850, was as follows :
W. Africa. S. Africa. W. Indies,
Missionaries, - - 93
Assistant Missionaries, 170
Native Assistants,  - - 75
Communicants, ... . 9,625
Schools, - - 152
Pupils, - - - 13,631

214

263

155

36

8

349

12,116

75,503

60

160

20,102

11,042

Conclusion. 21
their relations, personal, social, political. The people of Sierra Leone, en
joy but two of these elements of progress. They have personal freedon
and a fair degree of social equality, but are deprived of the third-
political equality — which, above all, exerts the most potent influence i
stimulate the intellectual faculties of men. The young convert in th
seminary at Sierra Leone, doubtless, finds great encouragement t.
mental improvement, in the prospect of becoming a teacher, or ii
entering the ministry ; but to the unconverted youth, in the absent
of the prospect of political promotion, there is, absolutely, nothing t>
stimulate to efforts at high attainment in science and literature. Thu.s
the political system of Sierra Leone, supplies but half the elements of
progress to its people. Had it been otherwise, had the aspirations of
its early emigrants been cherished, and its civil affairs committed
mamly to their hands, the Colony might now be in a far more advanced
situation. This will be apparent on a fuller contrast of its condition
with that of Liberia.
Thirty years after the waves of the Atlantic had closed over the re
mains of Samuel J. Mills, it was proclaimed from the top of Montse-
rado, that the star of African Nationality, after ages of wandering,
had found its orbit in the galaxy of Nations. On that eventful day, a
multitude of grateful men, with their wives and little ones, were lifting
up their voices in thanksgiving and praise, to their Father in Heaven.
Over their heads waved a banner bearmg the motto, " The love of
liberty brought us here." The barbarism that excited the pity of
Mills and Burgess had disappeared; the superstitions over which they
grieved had vanished ; a Christian Nation had been bom ; and the
vault of heaven re-echoed to their shouts of joy.
It was thus that the Republic of Liberia was ushered into existence.
Sixty years were gone, since the establishment of Sierra Leone. How-
wide the contrast between its history and that of Liberia ! Liberty, at
Sierra Leone, had been rudely driven to the "bush." Its people were
held in pupilage, bound by laws not of their own enactment, and gov
erned by officers of a race who had ever claimed the lordship over
them. Taught Rehgion, but deprived of Liberty, the manhood of
mind could not be fully developed. Uninstructed in human rights,
they now yielded a sla-vish submission to a distant throne. Not so in
Liberia. Here, Liberty and ReUgion had been rocked together in the
same cradle. It was Religion that had given Liberty to the Liberian.
He knew nothing of the one unconnected with the other. The Re
ligion that had broken his fetters, was itself free. Religious and poli
tical freedom, therefore, was a principle dear to his heart. He spurned
the idea, that man must submit to dictation in religion and government ;
and, from the first, had looked forward to the day, when his country
should become a Christian RepubUc. That day has come, and gone : and
there the Liberian stands, a citizen— a Christian ; with no law— no re
straint— no rule of conducts— but what emanates from himselt or his God.

244 Conclusion.
The Republic stands, pre-eminent, as an auxiliary to missions. Its
political system, embraces all the known elements of civU, social, and
intellectual advancement ; while its citizens are controlled by the pre
servative element of Christian morals. Its pohcy makes it but one
grand agency for overturning African barbarism. Its advantages over
every other scheme are so obvious, that it must be regarded as the
model system, to which all others should be conformed ; and as the
rule by which, alone, missions to Africa must hereafter be conducted.
The conquests of Liberia, over African barbarism, have been legiti
mate results of the principles involved in her social and civil organiza
tion. She offered to the natives an asylum from the merciless slave-
catchers : they removed within her Umits to enjoy her protection. She
employed them in household affairs, agriculture, and the mechanic
arts : they were thus incorporated into her social system, attended the
Church, and sent their children to school. They wore gri-gris and
practiced polygamy : these customs debarred them from political privi
leges. They offered human sacrifices to their deities, and compelled
those suspected of witchcraft to drink a poisonous tea : the laws pun
ished the taking of life, in such modes, with the penalty of death. The
surrounding tribes, for their own safety, sought alUances with her : by
the terms of the treaties, she has kept them at peace, and prevented
the trafficking in slaves.
Thus has Liberia, by offering the natives political equality, induced
them to abandon polygamy and superstition ; thus has the fear of pun-_
ishment deterred them from the practice of tiieir murderous cruelties ;
thus has war been prevented and the slave-trade suppressed within her
bounds : and thus has American Colonization solved the great problem
of African Redemption.

APPENDIX.

The Opposition to Colonization and African Bliasioua.
We quote the folio-wing remarks, on the primary sources of opposition
to the CivUization of Africa, from the Church Missionary Intelligencer,
December, 1 853. This periodical is the organ of the English Episcopal
Church, and the opinions expressed are entitled to the most grave con
sideration. Whatever interest the slave-trader may have in driving
EngUsh missionaries from Africa, will apply equally to those from
America, and to the labors of our Colonization Society. The writer,
after noticing the efforts made to withdraw the English squadron from
the coast of Africa, so as to leave the slave-trade once more free to the
traffickers in human flesh, says :
" But we have something more to say on this subject. The Mis
sionary element has also been introduced into the comments which have
been made on this affair, and has received no small amount of con
demnation. Our Missionaries at Lagos have thus been placed between
two fires. The efforts of Kosoko's attacking party were evidently
directed against their dwellings, and this we can understand, for Kosoko
and his abettors well know that the extension of the Gospel carries
with it the eventual destruction of the slave-trade, and of every other
enormity under whicli human nature suffers. Christianity does that
which the squadron can not do. The latter cuts down the branches of
the poison-bearing tree, but the former kills it in its root. If this lat
ter be not done, it will sprout again. The strength of the slave-trade
lies in the latent sympathy of cMefs and people ; and Christianity, by
indisposing them to it, and by directing their energies into other and
wholesome channels, is drying up the secret sources from whence its
power has been derived. The greatest benefit which the squadron has
conferred upon Africa has been to afford opportunity for the introduc
tion of this beneficial influence ; and after a time, by the blessing of
God, that influence wiU have so increased, and the African mind, in
consequence, have undergone so complete a revolution, that the further
presence of the squadron on the coast will become unnecessary. That
time has not come yet, but it will do so, perhaps more rapidly than
we could venture to anticipate. We can, therefore, easUy understand
Kosoko's antipathy to Missionaries, and the exultation with which he
would have seen them compelled to quit the coast.
" But there is an unfriendly feeUng on the part of some at home,
which is not so intelligible. It betrays itself in a readiness to entertain
serious charges against Missionaries on ex-parte evidence * * *
24r>

-46 Appendix.
" We fear that in many quarters there is much misapprehension as to
the character and tendency of Missionary operations, and that by
some they are distrusted as being far otherwise than tranquilizing in
i heir influence. Has the Missionary element a tendency to complicate
matters, and render them more difficult of adjustment than they would
itherwise be ? Is it irritating and war-producing ? It has been so in-
inuated, if not openly asserted. And we can understand from whence
-uch insinuations originate. The Gospel, in its action, must be subver-
-ive of the plans and objects of numbers, especially in connection with
.V.frica and the slave-trade. There have been many sleeping partners
itl that traffic, men who never touched a slave, but who have often
'dutched the gain ; men who have fed the traffic in secret, and furnished
the materials for its prosecution. It has been a wide-spread conspiracy
i'or the degradation of the African family. Men in Europe, America,
Africa, have been bound together in this unholy compact, each having
assigned to him his own particular department, and each full of energy
in the prosecution of it. Where were the printed goods fabricated that
were used in barter between the foreign and native slave-dealer ?
Where were forged the bolts, and fetters, and chains, by which the
limbs of the captured African were constricted, and he was reduced to
an incapability of resistance ? Perhaps nearer home than we could
have imagined.* Where was launched the well-found bark, with such
admirable sailing powers, the floating prison ofthe poor slave ? Whence
the nautic"! skill that designed the craft, and the able workmen who
wrought it out, untU she saUed from the port which gave her birth, in
every respect equipped and fitted for the slave-trade, but not to be so
used until, on the African coast, transferred to other hands than those
which took her there ?f How various and extensive the interests which
were engaged in the prosecution of the slave-trade, all which have been
interfered with by the interruption of the traffic on the coast. Many
pf those, to save themselves from stagnation, have engaged in lawful
commence ; but it is with regret they have done so. Of course, in the
eyes of such parties, everything that interferes to prevent a return to
the palmy days of slave-trading prosperity, when abundant opportunity
was afforded for the gratification of more than one evil passion, be
comes an object of antipathy. The squadron on the coast, and the
Missionaries on shore, are alike detestable. If both could be removed
something might be done, and what so likely means as misrepresenta
tion ? The Missionaries are self-interested, and obstruct the develop-
paent of lawful traffic. The squadron is unnecessary, and its interfer
ence on such occasions as that of Lagos is in the highest degree
mischievous. Credulous ears are not wanting to become the deposi
tories of whisperings such as these ; and soon the whole gloss finds its
way into the columns of the daUy press, and influential journals become
the exponents of charges which would be serious indeed if they could
be proved. But these misstatements require to be promptly met,
* In England. t United States.

Appendix. 247
otherwise their effect might soon appear in a gradual diminution of the
repressive force on the coast, until it became materially weakened.
I Meanwhile, the devastations of the cholera in Cuba have been seriously
diminishing the supply of working hands, and many eager eyes are di
rected towards Africa to see whether the attempt could be made to re
open the traffic with any prospect of success. Already new vessels
have been fitted out, and we may soon have painful evidence that the
trade is not extinct, and that, if we remove our foot from the neck of
our prostrate but not slain foe, he will rise up to resume the contest."

The English Apprenticeship System.
President Roberts has written the following letter, to a gentieman
in England, in explanation of the influence exerted on the natives, by
the practice of purchasing apprentices, from the African chiefs, to serve
as laborers on the plantations of the British West Indies. Is not this
system virtually a renewal of the slave-trade, and a violation of Eng
land's treaty -with the United States for its suppression ?
Go-yERNMENT HousB, Mourovia, September, 1853.
I assure you, sir, the Government of Liberia has no desire to, nor
will it interfere improperly -with the operations of Messrs. Hyde,
Hodge & Co., nor wUl it place any unnecessary obstacles in the way
of their obtaining emigrants from the Liberian coast. The only object
the Government had in issuing the proclamation referred to, was, and
still is, to see that emigration from within its jurisdiction shall be free
and unconstrained.
It is proper I should remark, that no facts have come to the
knowledge of the Govemment to induce the belief that Messrs. Hyde,
Hodge & Co., or their agents, have actually sent off persons, or that
they would, knowingly, send off any, without the voluntary consent of
their natural guardians. But the Government had good grounds for
believing that attempts were about to be made to force certain unfor
tunate persons to emigrate without the facts of their coercion coming
to the knowledge of the emigration agents.
During last year, serious disturbances rose between certain Vey and
Golah chiefs in the neighborhood of Grand Cape Mount. And, in the
eady part of the present year, Boombo and George Cane, Vey chiefs,
residing respectively at Little and Grand Cape Mount, attacked and
captured some three or four native towns in the Dey and Golah dis
trict, and carried away as captives several hundred of the inhabitants.
Soon after these occurrences, a report was rife here that George Cane
had contracted with the agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., to
supply a number of emigrants. Complaint was also made to the Gov
ernment—by tbe chiefs who had suffered — that Cane's intentions were to
«end off to the West Indies the captives he had taken from the towns.

248 Appendix.
Now, that the agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., would coun
tenance constrained emigration, or that they would have received those
persons, knowing them to be captives, we had no reason to believe.
But it is more than lUiely that nine out of ten that would have been
offered as emigrants, at that time, would be of this unfortunate class.
And the chances were a hundred to one that the emigration agents
would be deceived in regard to the real condition of the people. Very
possibly, no complaint then and there would have been uttered by
them. They were suffering painful captivity ; and whatever their
feelings might be in regard to emigration, they would gladly, perhaps,
have availed themselves of that or any other opportunity to escape the
cruelties of their captors. And, further, sir, I am assurred these poor
fellows were given to understand that when they should be offered as
emigrants, if they disclosed their real condition, or refused to emigrate,
their lives would be sacrificed. Many of these captives have since
been released, and returned to their homes and families ; and all, I
am told, corroborate this statement. Now, sir, under these circum
stances, was it unreasonable to suppose that many might be sent off
without their voluntary consent ? And was it not the duty of the
Government to provide as far as possible the means of checking such
outrages ? Of course, in all -this there is no blame to be attached to
Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., or thefr agents.
But, my dear sir, with respect to this emigration business, the strict
est watchfulness must be observed ; otherwise, the enterprise may
lead to abuses and evUs of the most painful character. Not that re
spectable British agents would knowingly be the means of producing
such results ; but let the chiefs along the coast find that they can send
off captives, as emigrants, to the British West Indies, and obtain an
advance of only ten dollars each, and the old system — war — of pro
curing slaves -will again be renewed. J. J. Eobeets.

[From 'the Liberia Herald.]
Trial and Sentence of Boombo.
MoNRO-yiA, April 6tb, 1853.
We have seldom -witnessed the trial of a case producing so much
interest as that of Boombo's. The readers of the " Herald," need not
be told, that Boombo is a chieftain of Little Cape Mount, that he had
voluntarily entered into an arrangement with the Govemment of Li
beria, and subscribed to demean himself according to the laws and
constitution ; also, that he and his people lived on lands purchased by
the Government of Liberia from the native owners. Boombo, though
bound by his solemn engagements to refrain from wars, and not to dis
turb the peace and quietness of the country, has repeatedly, since he
placed himself under the laws of Liberia, broken his engagements by
carrying on predatory wars, destroying towns and murdering and

Appendix. 249
carrying into captivity hundreds of inoffensive men, women and chil
dren. To all the remonstrances of Government, Boombo gave no heed,
and his bloody career did not end until he was brought to this city a
prisoner. George Cain, of Grand Cape Mount, is also amenable to the
laws of Liberia ; and it is now well ascertained that he was the prin
cipal actor in all the disturbances created in the Littie Cape Mount
country. Boombo, it appears, acted under his direction.
At the last Court of " Quarter Sessions," Boombo was indicted for
"Bigh Misdemeanor" — the indictment set forth a general allegation and
three special counts. The first count charged the prisoner with violat
ing his obUgations and allegiance to the Government, and that he did
procure and make war upon and against one Dwarloo Bey and certain
other Goulah chiefs, occupying a portion of the territories of Grand
and Littie Cape Mount — that he murdered the inhabitants — carried
into captivity large numbers of the defenseless ; sacked, burned and
piUaged towns and viUages, and laid waste the country. The second
count charged, that Boombo violated, etc., as before, that he did pro
cure and make war upon and against one Weaver, a Dey chieftain —
crossing the Little Cape Mount river, and entering the Dey country
for that purpose ; that he murdered inhabitants, carried others into
captivity, and sacked, bumed, and pillaged towns and villages, and
laid waste the country. The thfrd count, charged that Boombo did
violate, etc., as before, and that he committed felony, by seizing and
carrying off merchandise from factories belonging to citizens of Mon
rovia. The Attorney-General, Wm. Draper, Esq., was assisted in this
case by David A. Madison, Esq., of Buchanan, Grand Bassa. D. T.
Harris, and J. B. Phillips, Esqufres, appeared for the prisoner, and
we are pleased to say that these gentlemen did all that honest and
patriotic men could do for a man under such circumstances. They
ably and eloquently defended the prisoner upon every point that for
mality and technicality would admit of, but as they could not argue
the lock off the door, and as the evidence, especiaUy that given by
prisoner's witnesses, was point blank against Boombo, the verdict was,
guilty of each count.
The sentence was — restitution, restoration, and reparation of goods
stolen, people captured, and damages committed ; to pay a fine of
S500, and be imprisoned for two years. When the sentence was pro
nounced the convict shed tears, regarding the ingredient of imprison
ment, in his sentence, to be almost intolerable. It is hoped that this
will prove a salutary example to all other chieftains under the juris
diction of this Government, that they may, henceforward, be convinced
of the determination and power of the Government to administer jus
tice in the premises. It is the belief of many, that Boombo's punish
ment, as per sentence, is too great, but we believe to the contrary.
Until rigorous measures are used to deter chieftains from carrying on
their predatory wars, there can not be any guarantee, but that some
part of our coast will always be in a state of savage warfare.

MEMOEIAL ON AFEICAN COLONIZATIOiT.

To the Honorable the General Assembly of ihe State of Ohio:
Your Petitioners would beg leave respectfully to call the attention
of your honorable body, to the wants of the Ohio State Coloniza
tion Society; and, in so doing, would offer a few remarks embodying
the reasons upon which they found their claims to assistance from
the State.
The conflict of Civilization and Barbarism — of power and intelli
gence with weakness and ignorance — has been productive of results
as diverse as the differences in the religious systems and moral
habits of the dominant parties. The Pagans of civilized Egypt,
Greece, and Rome, having no knowledge of the true God, or of
man's moral responsibility and immortality, treated their slaves,
whether made captive in war, born in their houses, or bought with
their money, as they did the lower animals — merely as cupidity,
fear, or pleasure dictated. The oppressions of merciless taskmasters,
the murder of infants, the assassination of Helots, the butcheries in
the gladiatorial arena, all bear terrible testimony to the fearful con
sequences of the conflict between the weak and the strong where
Pagan principles predominated.
Not so were the results of Hebrew civilization when brought into
contact with the surrounding barbarism. The Law of God was the
rule of action to the Hebrews. It enjoined, equally, the circum
cision of males, whether sons or servants, and the careful education
of all. So urgent was this duty, that it was made imperative on
parents, not only to teach the Law of God diligently, but to write it
upon the posts of the houses, and upon the gates, so as to be ever
kept in remembrance. Thus the contact of the civilized and the
barbarous, under Hebrew law, was meliorating, elevating, redeem
ing- — the result the richest blessing that a subject of the heathen
tribes could then attain.
In modern times, too generally, the contact of the civilized and
barbarous has been destructive of the latter. Take, as an example,
the Indians of the North American Continent and its adjacent
Islands. The Pagan principle of treatment was, mostiy, applied to
(250)

(251)
them by the civilized intruder, and their destruction was the conse
quence of their refusal to minister to his cupidity. A few excep
tions now happily prevail. The Hebrew rule, in its more expanded
form under Christianity, has been applied to some of the Indian
tribes, who are rising intellectually and morally under the teachino-s
of the Christian Missionary. Take another example. The African^s,
torn from their country and reduced to slavery, have but too often
been subjected to the Pagan rule, destruction following as an inevi
table result. One instance of that kind, only, need be referred to.
There were imported into the British West Indies, from Africa,
1,700,000 slaves, of whom and their descendants only' 660,000
remained for emancipation. This result was not due to their subjec
tion to slavery, as was argued by Mr. Buxton. Slavery is not
necessarUy destructive of human life. Hebrew servitude was not
so, neither has American slavery been so. This is proved by the
fact that less than 400,000 Africans were landed in the territory
now constituting the United States, from which we had, in 1850, a
population of 3,638,808 persons of African descent. That is to
say: "In the United States, the number of Africans and their
descendants is nearly eight or ten to one of those that were
imported, whilst in the British West Indies there are not two per
sons remaining for every five of the imported."* Thus, our colored
population, on 400,000 imported, has increased more than three
millions and a quarter, while that of Great Britain, on 1,700,000
imported, has diminished a million. Surely, men who could so far
violate the laws of humanity, as to produce such results as occurred
in the West Indies, must have been actuated by mercenary motives
alone, and could only have treated their slaves on the Pagan prin
ciple, in aU its fearful disregard of human life. How far the slave
holders of the United States have adopted the Pagan instead of the
Hebrew system, in the treatment of their slaves, we shall not
attempt to determine. That much instruction, however, has been
imparted to them, directly or indirectly, is proved by the intellectual
progress they have made; and that their general treatment has been
comparatively humane, is evident from tbe fact that their increase
has equalled that of the best conditioned people in the world. Were
the Hebrew rale adopted entire, in reference to our slavery, doubt
less aU the evils complained of in the system would disappear, and,
in time, the system itself be dissolved.
The point to which we wish mainly to direct attention is this:
The Hebrew rale, founded in the Law of God, is obviously the one
by which the people of Ohio should be governed in their treatment
of the colored people. The provision made by the State for the
education of this class of our population, is a close approximation to
this rule. The school law makes as liberal a provision for the edu
cation of colored children, in most cases, as it does for the whites.
The law is philanthropic and should be sustained. The common

» Compendium of the United States Census, 1850, page H.

(252)
schools, with their adjuncts, the school libraries, should be left
intact as the great element of intellectual and moral progress to
both blacks and whites. Thousands will , thus be made intelligent,
who otherwise would be doomed to comparative ignorance. The
establishment of District Libraries corresponds to the writing ofthe
statutes and the commandments of God upon the door-posts and
gates of the Hebrews, .since it lays open the sources of knowledge
to all.
But here arises a practical question. The taxation for the sup
port of the schools falls mainly upon the whites. How far wiU
they bear the extension of this charity? Would the citizens of the
State assent to a proposition to receive and educate the great body
of the free colored population of the other States? Could they bear
the burden that such a measure would impose? It is believed they
could not be persuaded to extend their charities so broadly. And,
yet, there are causes in operation which are practically producing
such a state of things. Look at the facts. The surrounding States,
slave and free, have not only fiiiled to make adequate provision for
the education of their free colored people, but have adopted a course
of legislation recently, which is adverse to allowing them to remain
within their limits. Even before the adoption of this policy by tho
other States, the tide of immigration of the blacks flowed so rapidly
into Ohio, that it gave her an increase of that population amounting
to ue&r\-^ forty -six per cent, in the ten years ending with 1850.
The actual increase made to her population, in that ten years,
amounted to two thousand more than the total increase of colored
persons in all the six New England States since the year 1 800.*
The immigration of the colored people into Ohio, since 1850,
must have increased more rapidly than at any former period. This
belief is founded on the following facts: The legislation of Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, forbidding citizenship to the free
colored people in these States, has gone into effect, mostly, since
1860. The slave States, too, since that date, have been making
their laws, relating to this class of their population, more stringent
than formerly, expecting thereby to drive them to the free States.
As Ohio not only opens her ^rms widely to receive all the colored
people who may be banished from the other States, but makes ample
provision for their education when they arrive, the inducements for
them to concentrate among us are very strong. Indeed there is no
other point where they can expect so hearty a welcome.
There is another fact to be noted. Many of the free States have
made appropriations of money to encourage Colonization to Liberia.
This is understood by the colored people at large, as an expression of
sentiment unfavoi-able to their ultimate admission to an equality witii
the whites. They have been led to believe that such an equality is
attainable in the midst of the whites; and, hence, as Colonization
promises them full political privileges only in Africa, the majority
* See Compendium of U. S. Census, 1S50.

( 253 )
of the blacks have an unbounded hatred of the system, and are de
serting the States which give it their patronage. This leads them to
prefer emigrating to States supposed to be hostile to Colonization,
and pledged to promote what they are led to regard as the colored
man's best interests. The Ohio Legislature passed a bill throuo-h its
lower House, a few years since, to aid African Colonization; but it
was defeated in the Senate, by being laid over among the unfinished
business of tbe session. All subsequent attempts to pass the bill
having foiled, the colored people consider the policy of the State as
settled adversely to Colonization, and that Ohio has become their
"Land of Promise."
All these stimulants to the immig^tion of colored men into the
State are now in active operation, and the demands upon our educa
tional funds will be increased in a corresponding degree, so as to
require an increased taxation for the support of this charity. Atten
tion is called to this point, because the main argument employed to
defeat the Colonization Bill, was an alleged want of power in the
Legislature to tax one class of the population for the benefit of an
other. The passage of the present school law settled this principle,
as it taxes the whites, largely, for the benefit of the colored people.
We would, then, respectfully inquire, if it be constitutional so to
legislate as to attract additional colored immigrants to the State, to
receive its charities, why it should not be equally so to aid those
born in the State to emigrate to Liberia, where they can educate their
own chUdren and no longer be a burden here ?
Your honorable body will readily understand the importance of
taking action on this subject. We have a constantly increasing black
population drifting in upon us from the slave States. We can not,
if we would, roll it back whence it comes, or turn its tide to the
right or to the left of our borders. Impassable barriers are every
where erected to prevent its flow into other States. Ohio is the
interior sea into which its waves must continue to rash, until a
broader and deeper outlet is created for its escape to some wider
ocean. We plead not for any relaxation of the efforts making for
the intellectual and moral culture of the colored people of the State.
We would urge the augmentation rather than the diminution of the
educational fecilitiea now afforded them, since an increase of intel
ligence will but prepare them for engaging in wider fields of enter
prise, and tend more rapidly to develope the capacities of the race.
This is the more essential, as their capacity for elevated mental and
moral culture is called in question. Colonizationiste have based all
their action on the belief in the unity of ihe human race, and the
natural equality of the whites and blacks. But the doctrine of the
inferiority of the African to the Caucassian is becoming popular,
and is urged as an objection to emancipation. Whether true or false,
this doctrine is gaining ground, and its advocates insist that it re
ceives confirmation from the results of emancipation itself. The
free blacks, residing among the whites, give themselves up to
pleasure and to servile employments, rather than to the practice of

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the self-denying endurance of the toil necessary to success in me
chanics and agriculture. This state of things is everywhere oDserv-
able. With some honorable exceptions, they rarely attempt to com
pete with the white man in productive industry. Ihisistraeot
those in the enjoyment of political equality, as well as of those where
this boon is withheld. Frjideeick Douglass, Gbbrixt Smith and
abolitionists generally, lament this state of things. The failure ot the
free colored people of the North, in this respect, after seventy years
of freedom.* ena,bles the South to point to the result as affording an
argument against emancipation. Their argument is strengthened,
they conceive, by the results in the West Indies. The Coloniza-
tionist dissents from this judgment, and claims that the colored man
must have a fair field for the trial of his capacities. He insists that
the blacks are not to be judged by any thing that has occurred under
the circumstances mentioned, as they are overshadowed by the white
man in the United States, controlled by foreign lawgivers ia tiie
French and English West Indies, and oppressed by an ignorant semi-
barbarian in . Hayti. Give the colored man a nationality, continues.
the Colonizationist, before you judge of his capacity for compe
ting with the more highly cultivated races. Select your field, then,
says the opposer of the Unity doctrine, I am willing to test, the ques
tion, and if the negro fails again, talk no more to us forever about
his equality with the white man. Thus has Liberia become the
colored man's state of probation, in which he is to fix his destiny as
it regards an equality with the Caucassian. If he faUs there, if the.
little beacon light kindled by liiat republic should be extinguished,
and darkness again cover the African continent, alas! for the hopes
of the Negro race!
Your memoralists, in view of all these considerations, would
respectfully ask your honorable body to pass a law appropriating
means sufficient to enable the Ohio State Colonizalion Society to send
its emigrants from the State to Liberia. We found our claims to
assistance from the State on such grounds as these: that it is not the
purpose of the people of Ohio to tax themselves for the education
of the free colored people of the surrounding States: that so long as
Ohio stands pledged against Colonization, so long will the colored
people continue to emigrate into her bounds, as to their "land of
Canaan:" that an appropriation in aid of Colonization, by your
honorable body, would discourage immigration, as it would be
received by the colored people as an indication that civil and social
equality was not to be expected here, but that the people of Ohio
preferred to promote the establishment of a nationality for them in
Africa: that on the passage of such a law, the neighboring States,
instead of contenting themselves with legislating for the expulsion
of their colored population, would be forced to make provision for
their colonization in Liberia: that an extensive emigration of the

*It is soventy-six yeara since Massachusetts emancipated her slaves uncon
ditionally.

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more enlightened free colored people to Liberia, by adding to her
industrial population, would aid, proportionally, in developing the
resources of that country, extending the area of civilization and
Christianity, and elevating the colored race: that as two races dif
fering so widely as to prevent their amalgamation by marriao-e, can
never live together but as superiors and inferiors, the removal of
our colored people to Liberia will afford them incentives to virtuous
action they never felt before: and that the contact of Civilization
and Barbarism in Africa, will not be destructive of the native inhab
itants, but tend to their redemption, because the government of Li
beria discards the Pagan principle of action, and adopts the Hebrew
rule, in the expanded form it has assumed under Christianity.
In conclusion, your memorialists would submit to the judgment
of your honorable body, whether justice to all concerned does no's
demand that the policy of the State, in reference to Colonization,
should now be definitely settled. Other States are contributing
from $2,000 to $10,000 a year in aid of emigration to Africa. For
the present your memorialiste do not need a large amount, but if
the State decides on Colonization as its settled policy, an increased
liberality -will be needed. SAMUEL W. FISHER, Chairman,
DAVID CHRISTY, Cor. Secretary,
of Board of Directors of 0. S, Col. Sodety.
Cyscessxti, "iSaxcla. 1, 1866.

YALE UNIVERSITY

91 lb