the slave trade. Hitherto all efforts to stop the progress of this
abominable traffic have been unavailing. Notwithstanding the laws made
against it by various nations, and especially against the importation
of slaves into their territories, the work still goes on. It is
estimated that 50,000 were carried into foreign slavery the last year.
And this will continue to be the fact for years to come, unless more
effectual measures are taken than any that government can adopt. The
slave-stealers lie along the coast of Africa, and glide up and down
her rivers, ready to seize upon every man, woman and child, who come
within their reach. And this they will continue to do in spite of all
penal enactments. By resorting to false flags, and false decks, and
false passports, they effectually elude detection; or, if they are hard
pressed and cannot escape their pursuers, they throw their cargoes
overboard, and thus evade the law which requires that slaves shall be
actually found in the ship in order to justify a capture. When hard
pressed they will even head the negroes up in casks, and cast them
into the sea, that they may take them up again when the chase is over.
Now there is no conceivable way, while the world remains as it is,
by which this inhuman traffic can be suppressed, but by establishing
colonies on the coast of Africa. And this will do it. ‘This will draw a
cordon around the continent which the slave-trader cannot penetrate.’
All communication with the natives will be cut off, and if it is not
wholly so, the influence which the colonists will have upon them will
remove their disposition to sell their brethren and sisters into
bondage. The colony at Liberia has already done this to a great extent.
Says a recent British publication, when speaking of the influence of
the American Colony at Liberia, ‘Nothing has tended more to suppress
the slave-trade in this quarter, than the constant intercourse and
communication of the natives with these industrious colonists.
Wherever the influence of this colony extends, the slave-trade has
been abandoned.’ And we have other evidence to show that, for hundreds
of miles around Liberia, the slave-trade has ceased. Is it not plain
then that African colonization exerts, and if suffered to proceed
will continue to exert, a favorable influence for the suppression of
the slave-trade? Does not Divine Providence seem to point to this
as the only way to bring it to an end? Is not this the way by which
those sighs and groans, and agonies unutterable, which Heaven annually
witnesses on the coast of Africa, and in the middle passage, will be
brought to an end?
8. Colonization will have a favorable influence on the interests of
the negro by affording facilities for the introduction of civilization
and christianity into the continent of Africa. The introduction
of religion and the arts into Africa, as into every other heathen
country, is an object which should be near the heart of every
christian and friend of man. The whole continent is now filled with
the habitations of cruelty--the people are sitting in the region
and shadow of death. No gospel light has ever shone upon them; but
ignorance and superstition, and moral death, everywhere prevail. Now
the establishment of colonies on the coast, which are under the
influence of christian principle, will have a tendency to remove this
darkness from the natives around. It has begun to do this already. Many
of the natives around Liberia have desired to place themselves under
the protection of its government, and esteem it no small privilege if
they may be permitted to call themselves Americans. They are anxious
to place their children in the schools of the colonists, and many of
them through the instructions which they have there received have
become pious and devoted christians. Throughout the whole region,
bordering on Liberia, the natives appear to be disarmed of prejudice,
and ready to receive the instructions and adopt the principles of the
colonists. Now let this colony be enlarged--let the means of education
and christian knowledge be increased and extended to the neighboring
tribes--and multitudes of them would doubtless be converted to God.
If the colony at Liberia is successful, and receives the confidence
and support of the christian community, a college may shortly be
established there which, by the blessing of Heaven, will qualify men to
act as missionaries over the whole continent. Multitudes might there
be trained up, who, with all their advantages of color and adaptation
to the climate, will be vastly better qualified to preach the gospel
to their countrymen than any who could go from this country. What
encouragement then is there to urge forward the work of colonization!
For the sake of the poor natives alone, let the work go forward--let
colonies be established all along the coast--let churches and schools
be built up--circulate Bibles and tracts, and let the light of the
gospel shine--and the natives will feel its holy influence. One tribe
will receive the truth and communicate it to another, and they again
to another--knowledge will increase and multiply daily. Every gale
which sweeps from the western coast, will waft Messiah’s name farther
and farther into the interior, until that whole continent shall become
vocal with the high praises of our God.
Such are some of the favorable influences of the Colonization Society
on the general interests of the colored population. We might enumerate
many more, and say many things to obviate the objections which some
have urged against the Society, but time will not permit. We conclude
the argument, therefore, by urging all the friends of colonization
diligently to consider the testimony concerning this enterprise, and to
prepare themselves to vindicate it against the attacks of its enemies,
and to commend it to the confidence and support of the community. The
state of feeling at the present time towards the Colonization Society
requires that something should be done. Its enemies, though feeble,
are clamorous, and if nothing is done to check their influence,
may deceive some portion of the people. Let, then, the friends of
colonization awake and prepare themselves for a discussion, from which
they have everything to hope. The enterprise will go forward--the
colony at Liberia will be sustained, and the society will receive, as
it deserves, the universal and cordial gratitude and support of every
portion of the community.
PRESENT STATE OF THE COLONY.
The following letters from a respectable emigrant, will farther show
the present condition of the settlements:
FROM LIBERIA.--We are happy to announce the arrival at
Liberia of the ship Jupiter, Captain Peters, which vessel sailed from
Norfolk at the close of October last, and for whose safety serious
apprehensions were entertained. Capt. Peters called at the Cape de
Verds, and at several places on the African coast, before he touched
at Monrovia, at which port he arrived on the 7th of March. The Rev.
Melvin B. Cox, the gentleman sent out by the Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, was a passenger in this ship, and was in
good health on the 8th of March, the date of our last advices.
Some of our readers will probably recollect that in December last we
noticed the departure from Norfolk of the brig Roanoke, Capt. Hatch,
for Monrovia. In this vessel an interesting colored family, named
Reynolds, from Onondaga county, were passengers. The Onondaga Standard,
of the 20th May, contains two letters from Mr. Reynolds, which are
subjoined. The letters corroborate the favorable accounts which have
been given of Liberia.
MONROVIA, LIBERIA, MARCH 1, 1833.
MR. COPP:--SIR: Mindful of your request that I should
inform you of my safe arrival, and how I am pleased with the country,
I improve the opportunity presented by return of Roanoke to write a
short letter. We had a pleasant passage of 42 days from land to land,
and by the attention of Capt. Hatch, were rendered quite comfortable.
Not one of my family were sea-sick a day; and by the favor of God our
health still continues, though we do not expect to escape a visit of
the fever-and-ague, which scarcely ever passes by new comers without a
call.
I find, as was represented at home, that religion is flourishing, and
Christians active. There is at present some little excitement among
sinners at Caldwell and Millsburg. We have Baptists, Methodists,
and Presbyterians here, and all seem engaged. At present I remain
at Caldwell, and shall continue to until the fever leaves me. It is
very pleasantly situated on the St. Paul’s, and might, under suitable
agricultural improvement, speedily equal in beauty any of the river
towns in America.
The land about Caldwell is rich and readily subdued; the only source
of evil hitherto, I think, arises from neglect of agricultural
improvement. The fruits are various; the orange and lime are found
wild, and only need the same care to make them abundant, as is bestowed
on the apple in New York. Lemons and papaw, and cassia and plantain,
&c. are also abundant. Pine-apples cover whole fields, growing
wild. The Lima bean and Cotton, when planted, continue to bear, I
am informed, for several years. I have seen coffee, and cotton, and
indigo, wild and abundant--also, pepper of two kinds. Water-melons and
cucumbers and grapes are found in some gardens:--thus you perceive we
have abundance of fruit to reward the laborer. A farmer on the St.
Paul’s river told me that, from one quart of _Indian Corn_, he raised
three barrels in one year. There are many cattle and hogs and fowls
here, and when more attention is bestowed on the land, rich pasture
lands will be abundant. I am informed that one hundred miles inland,
the cattle are large and numerous.
With a deep sense of gratitude to yourself and the other friends who
assisted me to come to this land of privileges, I desire to tender you
all my sincere thanks.
Yours, most respectfully,
WILLIAM REYNOLDS.
_The following is to a colored friend._
MONROVIA, MARCH 1, 1833.
I write a few lines by Roanoke, to urge you to come out to Liberia. The
country exceeds what I anticipated while in America. It is rich, and
abounds in tropical fruits--it yields a large return to the laborer.
The climate is delightful, and the heat not near so oppressive as in
our summers and harvesting. The sea-breeze blows here every day, and
at night I find a blanket adds to my comfort. A man can get a living
and make money here in various ways as in the United States, by trade
or farming, &c. I am intending to try farming. If you come at all come
soon; the earliest settlers, we think, will have the best chance. My
family is all well, and send their respects to you. Remember me to all
inquiring friends.
Yours, &c.
WILLIAM REYNOLDS.
* * * * *
We shall fortify our discussion of the subject matter of the preceding
pages, by the addition of a few authentic documents, which will throw
light on some points of importance. From the Monthly Colonizationist,
we take the following description of the PRESENT STATE OF THE
COLONY:--
_The Colony._
The cause of African colonization never was more prosperous or more
promising than at the present moment. In all its departments this is
the case; it is so abroad, and it is so at home.
In regard to the Colony,--which, after all, is at once the best
evidence of the progress of the Parent Institution, and the surest
test of its principles,--the authentic and indisputable accounts which
reach us from every quarter, must be admitted as sufficient to satisfy
all reasonable and candid minds, not only of the actual prosperity of
the present settlements, but of the practicableness of the colonial
scheme on the larger and nobler scale always anticipated, more or
less, by the advocates of the cause. Instances of mismanagement, as
well as misfortune, doubtless have occurred; it would be indeed a
new thing in the history of colonization, as well as in the conduct
of all other systems whose progress depends on the labor of men, if
there had not been such instances. But, not to mention that these
misfortunes were mostly in their nature such as cannot be repeated,
and such as, in all events, only past experience has been necessary
to prevent for the future,--and not to insist on the credit fairly
due to the Society, for frankly acknowledging the mistakes we allude
to, and for always manifesting a readiness to submit to instruction,
and to act vigorously and promptly in the correction of errors,--who,
among the foes of the Institution, will at the worst, undertake to
deny that a degree of success has, on the whole, attended its efforts
on the African coast, to which, in the language of Mr. Cresson, “the
annals of Colonization may be triumphantly challenged for a parallel?”
Since the date of this declaration of our able friend in England, the
population of the Colony has been increased by more than one half,
nearly eight hundred emigrants having been carried out during the year
immediately preceding the first of January last. Other accessions
to its establishments, during the same period, are among the most
important which have taken place. Very satisfactory arrangements have
been effected by the Colonial Agent for the settlement of Grand Bassa,
a tract of country which, in regard to its climate, soil, situation,
and productions of all kinds, is proved to be inferior to no other
district on the whole coast: a valuable territory on the western banks
of the St. John’s river, with four large islands within the river,
additional to the immense tract purchased by Mr. Ashmun, have not only
been peaceably obtained of the natives, but the latter have pledged
themselves,--such seems to be their anxiety to trade and associate with
the Liberians,--to erect suitable buildings, at their own expense, for
the accommodation of the first emigrants. At the time we are writing,
this promising settlement is doubtless already commenced.
It farther appears that possession has also been obtained of a large
tract of land at Grand Cape Mount, a point on the coast about as
far north from the main settlement, at Monrovia, as Grand Bassa is
south. The exports of the natives have heretofore been from $60,000
to $70,000 per annum. The fine territory now ceded, is situated at a
short distance from the sea, on the shore of a lake, about twenty miles
in length, navigable for small vessels, and into which flow several
rivers, affording important facilities for commerce with the interior.
The chiefs of the country, who are thought to be more advanced in
civilization than any others south of Sierra Leone, have granted an
unquestionable title to this land, on the sole condition that settlers
shall be placed upon it and that schools shall be established for the
benefit of native children.
Some of these chiefs, having obtained the rudiments of an English
education in Liberia, expressed earnest desires that the benefits of
instruction should be afforded to their countrymen; and the young
men declared their purpose of submitting to the laws of the Colony,
and their willingness to make further grants of land, to any extent
desired, whenever the terms of the present negotiations shall have been
fulfilled. The spot selected for a settlement is said to be healthy,
and the soil capable of producing almost every thing of value that
grows within the tropics.[1]
[1] See the Sixteenth Annual Report, 1833.
The agriculture of the Colony was never so thrifty as at the present
time. Heretofore it has been to some extent neglected, as is always
the case with new colonies; but the most vigorous measures have been
recently adopted by the managers for its encouragement and permanent
prosperity, and these efforts are attended with great success. To the
cultivation of coffee, especially--of which the finest quality abounds
spontaneously in this latitude--the attention of several of the most
respectable colonists has been turned; and 20,000 coffee-trees have
been planted by a single individual (a colored gentleman.) and farms
of the recaptured Africans, at their two beautiful little villages
near Caldwell, are in so prosperous a state that “they not only raise
sufficient for their own consumption,” says the Colonial Agent, “but a
considerable surplus for the market.” At one of these villages the same
gentleman speaks of observing a tract of one hundred acres planted with
cassada, interspersed with patches of Indian corn and sweet potatoes.”
The commerce of the Colony, in 1831, greatly exceeded that of any
former year; within that period, forty-six vessels visited the port
of Monrovia, and the exports were nearly $90,000. But from the last
Report we learn that, while fifty-nine vessels had visited the port
during the year preceding last May, the exports during the same period,
(consisting chiefly of camwood, ivory, palm-oil, tortoise-shell and
gold,) amounted to $125,549 16--of imports, to $80,000--and the
merchandise and produce on hand on the 1st of January, 1832, to
$47,000. New avenues have been recently opened with the interior
tribes. Caravans from a considerable distance have visited the country.
The Dey people, who number from six to eight thousand, occupying the
coast immediately north of Monrovia, have in treaty agreed to allow a
free passage to the Colony through their territories. There is now a
commercial connexion extending from our settlement even to the borders
of Foota Jallo.
It perhaps sufficiently indicates the moral condition of the Colony,
that three churches have been erected during the past year; and that
there are now six day schools for children, and one evening school
for adults, comprising in all two hundred and twenty-six pupils. Two
female schools, taught by well-qualified teachers, whose salaries are
paid by ladies of Philadelphia, are attended by ninety-nine pupils.
Among the re-captured Africans, also, a school is about to commence,
under the patronage of the same ladies; and a Sunday school already
exists. Towards the foundation of a high school, $2,000 have been
recently given by Mr. Sheldon, of New York, and $400 by the Hon. C.
F. Mercer, of Virginia. The Massachusetts State Society, at its last
annual meeting, voted to appropriate $400 per annum, for the salary
of a competent male instructer at Liberia, and half that sum for a
female. This is well. It is more important to establish thoroughly the
moral and intellectual character of the Colony, and especially of the
rising generation, than even to extend the settlements themselves. The
managers have taken a view of this subject, which merits the warmest
sanction of all the friends of education, the friends of republicanism,
the friends of freedom and truth. Whatever be the _number_ of the
emigrants, let their _character_ be such, or let it be made such, as
may serve fitly for the foundation-stone whereon, in after times, shall
rest the firmest liberties of that continent, and the noblest glory of
this. Slow though the building of the edifice may be,--and so has been
the growth of every empire under heaven,--let it be sure, and let it
be strong. No man will inquire, a century hence, how many colonists
were carried out in any given twelve-mouth. Let it be built for the use
of posterity, and for the praise of history. Let it be raised as the
pyramids were raised, and it shall stand as the pyramids have stood.
The light of orient civilization shall shine again, like the sunrise,
upon its sides; and the last rays of freedom’s western orb, many an age
hence, when our own republic may live but in name, shall still “linger
and play on its summits.”
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.--The following letter, from an
accomplished and intelligent gentleman in North Carolina to a
distinguished gentleman in the city of Boston, is contained in the
Columbian Centinel. It exhibits a specimen of the sentiments which
generally, if not universally, prevail on this subject throughout the
southern states, and may enable some of our infatuated agitators to
perceive the folly and madness of their course:--
SALISBURY, ROWAN COUNTY, N. C., MAY 29th, 1833.
Dear Sir,--I shall offer no other apology for troubling you with a
letter at this time, than the importance of its subject matter. I have
chosen to address you as being a distinguished philanthropist; and on
more than one occasion, a great sufferer in the cause of real humanity;
and, from the past history of your life, I feel confident that I
was not so deceived in the high estimate I formed of your character
during our too short acquaintance, that I need fear you have turned a
visionary.
It is frequently asserted in many of our southern newspapers, that
there exists in the northern and eastern sections of our country,
a disposition to interfere with slavery. This I have confidently
denied on the strength of conversations I had with distinguished
gentlemen when in your section; and on the authority of Mr. Webster’s
gratifying assertion, that there prevails at the north such a feeling
on this subject as the south would wish. More than two years since,
in New England, I heard Garrison, whom I looked upon as a misguided
enthusiast, and literally, a monomaniac, on the condition of the
negroes in America; and I was happy to find that he was discountenanced
by the sober and really benevolent portion of the community. I begin,
however, to doubt, if I have not been somewhat in error. Something,
I know not well by what class, nor as yet to what extent, surely is
agitated among you. I am not a miscellaneous reader of newspapers, and
I receive none from New England, so that my information is limited to
extracts occasionally made into more southern journals. Among these,
I was greatly struck by the following paragraph taken from the Boston
Commercial Gazette: “At the last quarterly meeting of the New England
Anti-Slavery Society, the following resolution was adopted unanimously.
Among the gentlemen who advocated the adoption was Mr. Amasa Walker,
the candidate of the Anti-Masons for Congress.
‘Resolved, That the principles and measures of the New England
Anti-Slavery Society, are consistent with every duty which we owe to
our country, and that benevolence to the masters not less than to
the slaves, requires us to advocate the doctrine of IMMEDIATE
ABOLITION.’”
Here is the germ, I fear, (and I tremble while I think on it,) of what
will work the dissolution of our glorious Union. For the moment that
interference with the condition of our slaves is seriously attempted
by any considerable party in the non-slave-holding states, that moment
this Union is at an end. A determination not to suffer the free states
to intermeddle in any manner, with the condition of the slaves, unites
in the most perfect unanimity every political party, every religious
sect, every class of society in the slave-holding states. And I pledge
myself for the accuracy of the opinion, that not even an _attempt_ to
settle the question growing out of the agitation of slavery, would be
made on the _floor of Congress_.