ADDRESS

BY THE CITIZENS OF MONROVIA, TO THE FREE COLOURED PEOPLE OF THE

UNITED STATES

As much speculation and uncertainty continue to prevail among the

free people of colour in the United States, respecting our

situation and prospects in Africa; and many misrepresentations

have been put in circulation there, of a nature slanderous to

_us_, and in their effects injurious to _them_; we feel it our

duty by a true statement of our circumstances to endeavor to

correct them.

The first consideration which caused our voluntary removal to

this country, and the object which we still regard with the

deepest concern, is liberty--liberty, in the sober, simple, but

complete sense of the word:--not a licentious liberty--nor a

liberty without government--or which should place us without the

restraint of salutary laws. But that liberty of speech, action,

and conscience, which distinguished the free, enfranchised

citizens of a free state. We did not enjoy that freedom in our

native country, and from causes which, as respects ourselves, we

shall soon forget forever, we were certain it was not there

attainable for ourselves, or our children. This then being the

first object of our pursuit in coming to Africa, is probably the

first subject on which you will ask for information. And we must

truly declare to you, that our expectations and hopes in this

respect have been realized. Our Constitution secures to us, so

far as our condition allows, "all the rights and privileges

enjoyed by the citizens of the United States," and these rights

and these privileges are ours. We are proprietors of the soil we

live on; and possess the rights of freeholders; our suffrages,

and what is of more importance our _sentiments_, and our

_opinions_, have their due weight in the government we live

under. Our laws are altogether our own; they grow out of our

circumstances; are framed for our exclusive benefit; and

administered either by officers of our own appointment, or such

as possess our confidence. We have a judiciary chosen from among

ourselves; we serve as jurors in the trial of others; and are

liable to be tried only by juries of our fellow-citizens,

ourselves. We have all that is meant by _liberty of conscience_.

The time and mode of worshipping God as prescribed in his word,

and dictated by our conscience, we are not only free to follow,

but are protected in following.

Forming a community of our own, in the land of our forefathers,

having the commerce and soil and resources of the country at our

disposal; we know nothing of that debasing inferiority, with

which our very colour stamped us in America. There is nothing

here to create the feeling on our part--nothing to cherish the

feeling of superiority in the minds of foreigners who visit us.

It is this moral emancipation--this liberation of the mind from

worse than iron fetters, that repays us ten thousand times over,

for all that it has cost us, and makes us grateful to God, and

our American patrons, for the happy change which has taken place

in our situation. We are not so self-complacent as to rest

satisfied with our improvement either as regards our minds or our

circumstances. We do not expect to remain stationary,--far from

it; but we certainly feel ourselves, for the first time, in a

state to improve either to any purpose. The burden is gone from

our shoulders; we now breathe and move freely, and know not (in

our present state) for which to pity you most, the empty name of

liberty, which you endeavour to content yourselves with, in a

country that is not yours; or the delusion which makes you hope

for ampler privileges in that country hereafter. Tell us; which

is the white man, who, with a prudent regard to his own

character, can associate one of you on terms of equality? Ask

_us_ which is the white man who would decline such association

with one of our number, whose intellectual and moral qualities

are not an objection? To both of these questions we

unhesitatingly make the same answer: there is no such white man.

We solicit none of you to emigrate to this country; for we know

not who among you prefers rational independence and the honest

respect of his fellow men, to the mental sloth and careless

poverty, which you already possess, and your children will

inherit after you, in America. But if your views and aspirations

rise a degree higher--if your minds are not as servile as your

present condition, we can decide the question at once; and with

confidence say that you will bless the day, and your children

after you, when you determined to become citizens of Liberia.

But we do not hold this language on the blessing of liberty, for

the purpose of consoling ourselves for the sacrifice of health,

or the suffering of want, in consequence of our removal to

Africa. We enjoy health after a few months' residence in the

country as uniformly, and in as perfect a degree, as we possessed

that blessing in our native country. And a distressing scarcity

of provisions, or any of the comforts of life, has for the last

two years been entirely unknown, even to the poorest persons in

this community. We never hoped, by leaving America, to escape the

common lot of mortals--the necessity of death to which the just

appointment of Heaven consigns us. But we do expect to live as

long, and pass this life with as little sickness as yourselves.

The true character of the African climate is not well understood

in other countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as

long lived, to say the least, as those of any other country.

Nothing like an epidemic has ever appeared in this colony; nor

can we learn from the natives, that the calamity of a sweeping

sickness ever yet visited this part of the continent. But the

change from a temperate to a tropical country is a great one; too

great, not to affect the health more or less,--and in the cases

of old people and very young children, it often causes death. In

the early years of the colony, want of good houses, the great

fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of

living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with,

greatly helped the other causes of sickness, which prevailed to

an alarming extent, and was attended with great mortality. But we

look back to those times as to a season of trial long past, and

nearly forgotten:--our houses and circumstances are now

comfortable, and for the last 2 or 3 years, not one person in

forty, from the Middle and Southern States has died, from the

change of climate.

People, now arriving, have comfortable houses to receive them,

will enjoy the regular attendance of a Physician in the slight

sickness that may await them; will be surrounded and attended by

healthy and happy people who have borne the effects of the

climate, who will encourage and fortify them against that

despondency, which alone has carried off several in the first

years of the colony. But, you may say, that even health and

freedom, good as they are, are still dearly paid for, when they

cost you the common comforts of life, and expose your wives and

children to famine and all the evils of poverty. We do not

dispute the soundness of this conclusion neither--but we utterly

deny that it has any application to the people of Liberia. Away

with all the false notions that are circulating about the

barrenness of this country. They are the observations of such

ignorant or designing men, as would injure both it and you. A

more fertile soil and a more productive country, so far as it is

cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth.

Its hills and its plains are covered with a verdure which never

fades--the productions of nature keep on in their growth through

all the seasons of the year. Even the natives of the country,

almost without farming tools, without skill, and with very little

labour, make more grain and vegetables than they can consume, and

often more than they can sell.

Cattle, swine, fowls, ducks, goats and sheep, thrive without

feeding--and require not other care than to keep them from

straying. Cotton, coffee, Indigo, and sugar cane are all the

spontaneous growth of our forests; and may be cultivated at

pleasure to any extent, by such as are disposed. The same may be

said of rice, indian corn, guinea corn, millet, and too many

species of fruits and vegetables to be enumerated. Add to all

this, we have no dreary winter here, for one half of the year, to

consume the productions of the other half; nature is constantly

renewing herself, and constantly pouring her treasures, all the

year round, into the lap of the industrious. We could say on this

subject more; but we are afraid of exciting too highly the hopes

of the _imprudent_. It is only the industrious and virtuous that

we can point to independence and plenty and happiness in this

country. Such people are nearly sure, to attain in a very few

years, to a style of comfortable living, which they may in vain

hope for in the United States. And however short we come of the

character ourselves, it is only a due acknowledgment of the

bounty of Divine Providence, to say that we generally enjoy the

good things of this life to our entire satisfaction.

Our trade and commerce are chiefly confined to the coast, to the

interior parts of the continent, and to foreign vessels. It is

already valuable, and fast increasing. It is carried on in the

productions of the country, consisting of rice, palm oil, ivory,

tortoise-shell, dye-woods, gold, hides, wax, and a small amount

of coffee; and it brings us in return the products and

manufactures of the four quarters of the world. Seldom indeed is

our harbour clear of European and American shipping; and the

bustle and thronging of our streets show something of the

activity of the smaller seaports of the United States.

Mechanics of nearly every trade are carrying on their various

occupations. Their wages are high, and a large number would be

sure of constant and profitable employment. Not a child or youth

in the colony, but is provided with an appropriate school. We

have a numerous publick library, and a Courthouse,

Meeting-houses, School-houses, and fortifications sufficient, or

nearly so, for the colony in its present state.

Our houses are constructed of the same materials, and finished in

the same style as in the towns in America. We have abundance of

good building stone, shells for lime and clay of an excellent

quality for bricks. Timber is plentiful and of various kinds, and

fit for all the different purposes of building and fencing.

Truly we have a goodly heritage, and if there is any thing

lacking in the character or condition of the people of this

colony, it never can be charged to the account of the country. It

must be the fruit of our own mismanagement or slothfulness or

vices. But from these evils, we confide in Him to whom we are

indebted for all our blessings, to preserve us. It is the topic

of our weekly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty God, both in

publick and private; and he knows with what sincerity, that we

were ever conducted to this shore. Such great favours in so short

a time, and mixed with so few trials, are to be ascribed to

nothing but his special blessing. This we acknowledge. Judge then

of the feelings with which we hear the motives and the doings of

the Colonization Society traduced--and that too, by men too

ignorant to know what that society has accomplished; too weak to

look through its plans and intentions; or too dishonest to

acknowledge either. But without pretending to any prophetic

sagacity, we can certainly predict to that society the ultimate

triumph of their hopes and labours; and disappointment and defeat

to all who oppose them. Men may theorize and speculate about

their plans in America. But there can be no speculation here. The

cheerful abodes of civilization and happiness, which are

scattered over this verdant mountain; the flourishing

settlements which are spreading around it--the sound of

Christian instruction, and scene of Christian worship, which are

heard and seen in this land of brooding pagan darkness; a

thousand contented freemen, united in founding a new Christian

Empire, happy themselves, and the instruments of happiness to

others--every object, every individual, is an argument, is

demonstration of the wisdom and the goodness of the plan of

Colonization.

Where is the argument that shall refute facts like these? and

where is the man hardy enough to deny them?

_The American Baptist Magazine_, Vol. VIII, pp. 50-53.