The money expended on these various objects has necessarily been
considerable; but, in comparison with the expense which similar
objects in this country cost European governments, it will be found
not merely moderate, but trifling. Less than has been effected towards
the extension of our limits, I could not attempt: and I am certain that
where the direction of every other establishment on the coast, except
the Portuguese, would regard itself not only authorized, but _obliged_,
to pay away thousands, I have in countless instances spent not a
_dollar_. But that species of economy which sacrifices to itself any
object essential to the success of this undertaking, I am as little
able to practice as the board is to approve.
The natives of the country, but particularly of the interior,
notwithstanding their habitual indolence, produce, after supplying
their own wants, a considerable surplus of the great staple of this
part of Western Africa, rice. The moderate rate at which this grain is
purchased by such as deal directly with the growers, and the various
uses of which it is susceptible in the domestic economy, easily place
the means of supplying the first necessities of nature in the reach of
every one. Rice, moreover, always commands a ready sale with transient
trading vessels or coasters; and forms a useful object of exchange for
other provisions and necessaries, between individuals of the colony.
To this succeeds, as next in importance, the camwood of the country,
of which several hundred tons every year pass through the hands of
the settlers, and serve to introduce, in return, the provisions and
groceries of America; and the dry goods and wares, both of Europe and
America, which, from the necessary dependence of the members of every
society on each other, come soon to be distributed, for the common
advantage of all.
The ivory of Liberia is less abundant, and less valuable, than that
of other districts of Western Africa. It, however, forms a valuable
article of barter and export, to the settlement; and the amount
annually bought and sold, falls between five and eight thousand dollars.
No less than FIVE schools for different descriptions of learners,
exclusive of the Sunday schools, have been supported during the year,
and still continue in operation. The youths and children of the colony
discover, for their age, unequivocal proofs of a good degree of mental
accomplishment. The contrast between children several years in the
enjoyment of the advantages of the colony, and most others of the same
age, arriving from the United States, is striking, and would leave
an entire stranger at no loss to distinguish the one from the other.
Should emigration, but for a very few months, cease to throw the little
ignorants into the colony, from abroad, the phenomenon of a child of
five years, unable to read, it is believed, would not exist among us.
The first successful essay in the construction of small vessels, has
been made the past year. I have built, and put upon the rice trade,
between our factories to the leeward, and cape Montserado, a schooner
of ten tons burthen, adapted to the passage of the bars of all the
navigable rivers of the coast. The sailing qualities of this vessel
are so superior, that before the wind, it is believed, few, or none
of the numerous pirates of the coast, can overtake her. She makes
a trip, freighted both ways, in ten days; and commonly carries and
brings merchandise and produce, to the amount of from four to eight
hundred dollars each trip. Another craft of equal tonnage, but of very
indifferent materials, has been built by one of the colonists. The
model of the St. Paul’s (the public boat) was furnished by myself; but
she was constructed under the superintendence of J. Blake, who has thus
entitled himself to the character of a useful and ingenious mechanic.
One of the most obvious effects of this colony, has already been to
check, in this part of Africa, the prevalence of the slave-trade. The
promptness and severity with which our arms have, in every instance,
avenged the insults and injuries offered by slave ships and factories
to the colony, have, I may confidently say, banished it for ever
from this district of the coast. Our influence with the natives of
this section of the coast, is known to be so great as to expose to
certain miscarriage, any transaction entered into with them for slaves.
But there is a moral feeling at work in the minds of most of our
neighbors, contracted, doubtless, by means of their intercourse with
the colony, which represents to them the dark business in a new aspect
of repulsiveness and absurdity. Most are convinced that it is indeed
a _bad business_, and are apparently sincere in their determination to
drop it for ever, unless compelled by their wants to adventure a few
occasional speculations.
In the punishment of offences, the most lenient maxims of modern
jurisprudence have been observed, by way of experiment on human nature,
in that particular modification of it exhibited by the population
of this colony. The result has been, _so far_, favorable to the
policy pursued. The passion to which corporeal and other ignominious
punishments address their arguments, is certainly one of the least
ingenuous of the human constitution.
EXTRACTS FROM A MEMORIAL FROM THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR
TO THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE.
We have hitherto beheld, in silence, but with the intensest interest,
the efforts of the wise and philanthropic in our behalf. If it became
us to be silent, it became us also to feel the liveliest anxiety and
gratitude.
The time has now arrived, as we believe, in which your work and our
happiness may be promoted by the expression of our opinions. We have
therefore assembled for that purpose, from every quarter of the city,
and every denomination, to offer you this respectful address, with all
the weight and influence which our number, character, and cause, can
lend it.
We reside among you, and yet are strangers; natives, and yet not
citizens; surrounded by the freest people and most republican
institutions in the world, and yet enjoying none of the immunities of
freedom.
It is not to be imputed to you that we are here. Your ancestors
remonstrated against the introduction of the first of our race, who
were brought amongst you; and it was the mother country that insisted
on their admission, that her colonies and she might profit, as she
thought, by their compulsory labor. But the gift was a curse to them,
without being an advantage to herself. The colonies, grown to womanhood,
burst from her dominion; and if they have an angry recollection
of their union and rupture, it must be at the sight of the baneful
institution which she has entailed upon them.
How much you regret its existence among you, is shown by the severe
laws you have enacted against the slave-trade, and by your employment
of a naval force for its suppression. You have gone still further. Not
content with checking the increase of the already too growing evil,
you have deliberated how you might best exterminate the evil itself.
This delicate and important subject has produced a great variety of
opinions; but we find, even in that diversity, a consolatory proof of
the interest with which you regard the subject, and of your readiness
to adopt that scheme which may appear to be the best.
Leaving out all considerations of generosity, humanity, and benevolence,
you have the strongest reasons to favor and facilitate the withdrawal
from among you of such as wish to remove. It ill consists, in the first
place, with your republican principles, and with the health and moral
sense of the body politic, that there should be, in the midst of you,
an extraneous mass of men, united to you only by soil and climate,
and irrevocably excluded from your institutions. Nor is it less for
your advantage in another point of view. Our places might, in our
opinion, be better occupied by men of your own color, who would
increase the strength of your country. In the pursuit of livelihood,
and the exercise of industrious habits, we necessarily exclude from
employment many of the whites, your fellow-citizens, who would find it
easier, in proportion as we depart, to provide for themselves and their
families.
But if _you_ have every reason to wish for our removal, how much
greater are our inducements to remove! Though we are not slaves, we
are not free. We do not, and never shall, participate in the enviable
privileges which we continually witness. Beyond a mere subsistence, and
the impulse of religion, there is nothing to arouse us to the exercise
of our faculties, or excite us to the attainment of eminence.
Of the many schemes that have been proposed, we most approve of
that of _African colonization_. If we were able, and at liberty
to go whithersoever we would, the greater number, willing to leave
this community, would prefer LIBERIA, on the coast of Africa. Others,
no doubt, would turn them towards some other regions; the world is
wide. Already established there, in the settlement of the American
colonization society, are many of our brethren, the pioneers of African
restoration, who encourage us to join them. Several were formerly
residents of this city, and highly considered by the people of their
own class and color. They have been planted at cape Montserado, the
most eligible, and one of the most elevated sites on the western coast
of Africa, selected in 1821; and their number has augmented to five
hundred. Able, as we are informed, to provide for their own defence and
support, and capable of self-increase, they are now enjoying all the
necessaries and comforts, and many of the luxuries of larger and older
communities. In Africa we shall be freemen indeed, and republicans,
after the model of this republic. We shall carry your language, your
customs, your opinions and christianity to that now desolate shore,
and thence they will gradually spread, with our growth, far into
the continent. The slave-trade, both external and internal, can be
abolished only by settlements on the coast. Africa, if destined to be
ever civilized and converted, can be civilized and converted by that
means only.
We foresee that difficulties and dangers await those who emigrate, such
as every infant establishment must encounter and endure; such as your
fathers suffered, when first they landed on this now happy shore.
The portion of comforts which they may lose, they will cheerfully
abandon. Human happiness does not consist in meat and drink, nor in
costly raiment, nor in stately habitations; to contribute to it even,
they must be joined with equal rights, and respectability, and it often
exists in a high degree without them.
That you may facilitate the withdrawal from among you of such as
wish to remove, is what we now solicit. It can best be done, we think,
by augmenting the means at the command of the American Colonization
Society, that the colony of Liberia may be strengthened and improved
for their gradual reception. The greater the number of persons sent
thither, from any part of this nation whatsoever, so much the more
capable it becomes of receiving a still greater. Every encouragement
to it, therefore, though it may not seem to have any particular portion
of emigrants directly in view, will produce a favorable effect upon
all. The emigrants may readily be enabled to remove, in considerable
numbers every fall, by a concerted system of individual contributions,
and still more efficiently by the enactment of laws to promote their
emigration, under the patronage of the state. The expense would not be
nearly so great as it might appear at first sight; for, when once the
current shall have set towards Liberia, and intercourse grown frequent,
the cost will, of course, diminish rapidly, and many will be able to
defray it for themselves. Thousands and tens of thousands poorer than
we, annually emigrate from Europe to your country, and soon have it
in their power to hasten the arrival of those they left behind. Every
intelligent and industrious colored man would continually look forward
to the day, when he or his children might go to their veritable home,
and would accumulate all his little earnings for that purpose.
We have ventured these remarks, because we know that you take a kind
concern in the subject to which they relate, and because we think they
may assist you in the prosecution of your designs. If we were doubtful
of your good will and benevolent intentions, we would remind you of
the time when you were in a situation similar to ours, and when your
forefathers were driven, by religious persecution, to a distant and
inhospitable shore. We are not so persecuted; but we, too, leave our
homes, and seek a distant and inhospitable shore: an empire may be
the result of our emigration, as of their’s. The protection, kindness,
and assistance which you would have desired for yourselves under such
circumstances, now extend to us: so may you be rewarded by the riddance
of the stain and evil of slavery, the extension of civilization and the
gospel, and the blessings of our common Creator!
WILLIAM CORNISH,
Chairman of the meeting in Bethel church.
ROBERT COWLEY,
Secretary of the meeting in Bethel church.
JAMES DEAVER,
Chairman of the meeting in the African church, Sharp street.
REMUS HARVEY.
Secretary of the meeting in the African church, Sharp street.
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