THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS NOURISHED BY FEAR AND SELFISHNESS.
The reader will find on the fifth page of my introductory remarks, the
phrase 'naked terrors;' by which I mean, that, throughout all the
speeches, addresses and reports in behalf of the Society, it is
confessed, in language strong and explicit, that an irrepressible and
agonizing fear of the influence of the free people of color over the
slave population is the primary, essential and prevalent motive for
colonizing them on the coast of Africa--and not, as we are frequently
urged to believe, a desire simply to meliorate their condition and
civilize that continent. On this point, the evidence is abundant.
'In reflecting on the utility of a plan for colonizing the free
people of color, with whom our country abounds, it is natural
that we should be first struck by its tendency to confer a
benefit on ourselves, by ridding us of a population for the most
part idle and useless, and too often vicious and mischievous.'
* * * 'Such a class must evidently be a burden and a nuisance to
the community; and every scheme which affords a prospect of
removing so great an evil must deserve to be most favorably
considered.
'But it is not in themselves merely that the free people of
color are a nuisance and burthen. They contribute greatly to the
corruption of the slaves, and to aggravate the evils of their
condition, by rendering them idle, discontented and disobedient.
This also arises from the necessity under which the free blacks
are, of remaining incorporated with the slaves, of associating
habitually with them, and forming part of the same class in
society. The slave seeing his free companion live in idleness,
or subsist however scantily or precariously by occasional and
desultory employment, is apt to grow discontented with his own
condition, and to regard as tyranny and injustice the authority
which compels him to labor.[P]
'Great, however, as the benefits are, which we may thus promise
ourselves, from the colonization of the free people of color, by
its tendency to prevent the discontent and corruption of our
slaves,' &c. * * 'The considerations stated in the first part of
this letter, have long since produced a thorough conviction in
my mind, that the existence of a class of free people of color
in this country is highly injurious to the whites, the slaves
and the free people of color themselves: consequently that all
emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits the
persons emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil, which
must increase with the increase of the operation, and would
become altogether intolerable, if extended to the whole, or even
to a very large part of the black population. I am therefore
strongly opposed to emancipation, in every shape and degree,
unless accompanied by colonization.'--[General Harper's
Letter--First Annual Report, pp. 29, 31, 32, 33, 36.]
'The slaves would be greatly benefitted by the removal of the
free blacks, who now corrupt them and render them
discontented.'--[Second An. Rep.]
'What are these objects? They are in the first place to aid
ourselves, by relieving us from a species of population pregnant
with future danger and present inconvenience.'--[Seventh
Report.]
'They are dangerous to the community, and this danger ought to
be removed. Their wretchedness arises not only from their
bondage, but from their political and moral degradation. The
danger is not so much that we have a million and a half of
slaves, as that we have in our borders nearly two millions of
men who are necessarily any thing rather than loyal
citizens--nearly two millions of ignorant and miserable beings
who are banded together by the very same circumstances, by which
they are so widely separated in character and in interest from
all the citizens of our great republic.'--[Seventh Annual
Report.]
'It may be safely assumed, that there is not an individual in
the community, who has given to the subject a moment's
consideration, who does not regard the existence of the free
people of color in the bosom of the country, as an evil of
immense magnitude, and of a dangerous and alarming tendency.
Their abject and miserable condition is too obvious to be
pointed out. All must perceive it, and perceiving it, cannot but
lament it. But their deplorable condition is not more obvious to
the most superficial observer, than is (what is far worse, and
still more to be dreaded,) the powerful and resistless influence
which they exert over the slave population. While their
character remains what it now is, (and the laws and structure of
the country in which they reside, prevent its permanent
improvement,) this influence must of necessity be baneful and
contaminating. Corrupt themselves, like the deadly Upas, they
impart corruption to all around them. Their numbers too, are
constantly and rapidly augmenting. Their annual increase is
truly astonishing, certainly unexampled. The dangerous
ascendency which they have already acquired over the slaves, is
consequently increasing with every addition to their numbers;
and every addition to their numbers is a subtraction from the
wealth and strength, and character, and happiness, and safety of
the country. And if this be true, as it unquestionably is, the
converse is also true; the danger of their undue influence will
lessen with every diminution of their numbers; and every
diminution of their numbers must add, and add greatly, to the
prosperity of the country.'--[Twelfth Annual Report.]
'Another reason is, the pressing and vital importance of
relieving ourselves, as soon as practicable, from this most
dangerous element in our population.' * * 'We all know the
effects produced on our slaves by the fascinating, but delusive
appearance of happiness, exhibited in some persons of their own
complexion, roaming in idleness and vice among them. By removing
the most fruitful source of discontent from among our slaves, we
should render them more industrious and attentive to our
commands.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report.]
'What is the free black to the slave? A standing perpetual
incitement to discontent. Though the condition of the slave be a
thousand times the best--supplied, protected, instead of
destitute and desolate--yet, the folly of the condition, held to
involuntary labor, finds, always, allurement, in the spectacle
of exemption from it, without consideration of the adjuncts of
destitution and misery. The slave would have then, little
excitement to discontent but for the free black.'--[Fifteenth
Annual Report.]
'The evils which arise from the communication of the free people
of color with our slaves, must be obvious to every reflecting
mind; and the consequences which may result from this
communication at some future day, when circumstances are more
favorable to their views, are of a more alarming character. Sir,
circumstances must have brought us to the conclusion, if our
observation had not enabled us to make the remark, that it is
natural for our slaves, so closely allied to the free black
population by national peculiarities, and by relationship, to
make a comparison between their respective conditions, and to
repine at the difference which exists between them. This is a
serious evil, and can only be removed _by preventing the
possibility of a comparison_.
'By removing these people, we rid ourselves of a large party who
will always be ready to assist our slaves in any mischievous
design which they may conceive; and who are better able, by
their intelligence, and the facilities of their communication,
to bring those designs to a successful termination.'--[African
Repository, vol. i. p. 176.]
'The labors of the Colonization Society appear to us highly
deserving of praise. The blacks, whom they carry from the
country, belong to a class far more noxious than the slaves
themselves. They are free without any sense of character to
restrain them, or regular means of obtaining an honest
livelihood. Most of the criminal offences committed in the
southern States are chargeable to them, and their influence over
the slaves is pernicious and alarming.' * * * 'What is the true
nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African
race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that
there are so many among us of a different caste, of a different
physical, if not moral, constitution, who never can amalgamate
with the great body of our population. In every country, persons
are to be found varying in their color, origin and character,
from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or
apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the
general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of
our population bears so large a proportion to the residue of
European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension,
especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project,
therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element
in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary,
deserves deliberate consideration.'--[African Repository, vol.
ii. pp. 27, 338.]
'Made up, for the most part, either of slaves or of their
immediate descendants; elevated above the class from which it
has sprung, only by its exemption from domestic restraint; and
effectually debarred by the law, from every prospect of equality
with the actual freemen of the country; it is a source of
perpetual uneasiness to the master, and of envy and corruption
to the slave.' * * 'To remove these persons from among us, will
increase the _usefulness_, and improve the moral character of
those who remain in servitude, and _with whose labors the
country is unable to dispense_. That instances are to be found
of colored free persons, upright and industrious, is not to be
denied. But the greater portion, as is well known, are a source
of malignant depravity to the slaves on the one hand, and of
corrupt habits to many of our white population on the other. The
arts of subsistence with many of them, are incompatible with the
security of property.' * * * 'I am a Virginian--I dread for her
the corroding evil of this numerous caste, and I tremble for the
danger of a disaffection spreading through their seductions,
among our servants.' * * * 'Are they vipers, who are sucking our
blood? we will hurl them from us. It is not sympathy alone,--not
sickly sympathy, no, nor manly sympathy either,--which is to act
on us; but vital policy, self-interest, are also enlisting
themselves on the humane side in our breasts.'--[African
Repository, vol. iii. pp. 10, 67, 197, 201.]
'All must concur in regarding the present condition of the free
colored race in America as inconsistent with its future social
and political advancement, and, where slavery exists at all, as
calculated to aggravate its evils without any atoning good.
Among those evils, the most obvious is the restraint imposed
upon emancipation by the laws of so many of the slaveholding
States: laws, deriving their recent origin from the obvious
manifestation which the increase of the free colored population
has furnished, of the inconvenience and danger of multiplying
their number where slavery exists at all.' * * * 'By the success
of this scheme, our country will be enriched. The free blacks
constitute a material spoke in that wheel which is crushing down
the wealth of our land. The moment we carry this plan into
vigorous prosecution, we shall call many of our countrymen to a
state of comparative wealth. The removal of the annual increase
of our colored population, would give to our mariners a
considerable scope of employment, whilst the trade of the Colony
would be a source of profit.' * * 'It places the attainment of
the grand object in view, that is, to withdraw from the United
States annually, so many of the colored population, and provide
them a comfortable home and all the advantages of civilization
in Africa, _as will make the number here remain stationary_.'
* * * 'Let us recur to the principle abovementioned--that every
black family occupies the room of a white family. On this
principle we are lost, if we suffer the colored population to
multiply, unchecked, upon our hands; because they will increase
faster than the whites, and will crowd them out of all the
Southern country. But on the same principle we are saved, if by
any means of colonization, we can retard the increase of the
blacks, and gain ground on them in the South. That we can do
with ease, if our people will unite in prosecuting the scheme.
Every family taken from the blacks, will add also a family to
the whites, and make an actual difference of two families in our
favor. This exchange will leave fewer blacks to remove, while
it will increase our ability to remove them. Self-interest and
self-preservation furnish motives enough to excite our
exertions.' * * 'By thus repressing the rapid increase of
blacks, the white population would be enabled to reach and soon
overtop them. The consequence would be security.'--[African
Repository, vol. iv. pp. 53, 141, 271, 276, 344.]
'The existence of a class of men in the bosom of the community,
who occupy a middle rank between the citizen and the slave--who
encountering every positive evil incident to each condition,
share none of the benefits peculiar to either, has been long
clearly seen and deeply deplored by every man of observation.
The master feels it in the unhappy influence which the free
blacks have upon the slave population. The slave feels it in the
restless, discontented spirit which his association with the
free black engenders.' * * * * 'But, there is yet a more
important and alarming view, in which this subject necessarily
presents itself to the mind of every Virginian. A community of
the character that has been described, with this additional
peculiarity, that it differs from the class from which it has
sprung, only in its exemption from _the wholesome restraints of
domestic authority_, is found in the midst of a numerous and
rapidly increasing slave population; and while its partial
freedom, trammelled, as it is, by the necessary rigors of the
law, is nevertheless sufficiently attractive, to be a source of
uneasiness and dissatisfaction to those who have not attained to
its questionable privileges, its exemption from the prompt and
efficient inquisition appertaining to slavery, makes it an
important instrument in the corruption and seduction of those,
who yet remain the property of their masters.' * * * 'Who would
not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black
population? Who would not participate in any efforts to restore
those children of misfortune to their native shores, and kindle
the lights of science and civilization through Africa? Who that
has reflection, does not tremble for the political and moral
well-being of a country, that has within its bosom, a growing
population, bound to its institutions by no common sympathies,
and ready to fall in with any faction that may threaten its
liberties?' * * * 'The existence of this race among us; a race
that can neither share our blessings nor incorporate in our
society, is already felt to be a curse; and though the only
curse entailed on us, if left to take its course, it will become
the greatest that could befal the nation.
'Shall we then cling to it, and by refusing the timely expedient
now offered for deliverance, retain and foster the _alien
enemies_, till they have multiplied into such greater numbers,
and risen into such mightier consequence as will for ever bar
the possibility of their departure, and by barring it, bar also
the possibility of fulfilling our own high destiny?' * * 'The
object of this Society is two-fold; for while it immediately and
ostensibly directs its energies to the amelioration of the
condition of the free people of color, it relieves our country
from an unprofitable burden, and which, if much longer submitted
to, may record upon our history the dreadful cries of vengeance
that but a few years since were registered in characters of
blood at St. Domingo.' * * 'It is the removal of the _free_
blacks from among us, that is to save us, sooner or later, from
those dreadful events foreboded by Mr Jefferson, or from the
horrors of St. Domingo. The present number of this unfortunate,
degraded, and anomalous class of inhabitants cannot be much
short of half a million; and the number is fast increasing. They
are emphatically a mildew upon our fields, a scourge to our
backs, and a stain upon our escutcheon. To remove them is mercy
to ourselves, and justice to them.'--[African Repository, vol.
v. pp. 28, 51, 88, 278, 304, 348.]
'All admit the utility of the separation of the free people of
color from the residue of the population of the United States,
if it be practicable. It is desirable for them, _for the slaves
of the United States_, and for the white race. The vices of this
class do not spring from any inherent depravity in their natural
constitution, but from their unfortunate situation. Social
intercourse is a want which we are prompted to gratify by all
the properties of our nature. And as they cannot obtain it in
the better circles of society, nor always among themselves,
they resort to slaves and to the most debased and worthless of
the whites. Corruption, and all the train of petty offences, are
the consequences. Proprietors of slaves in whose neighborhood
any free colored family is situated, know how infectious and
pernicious this intercourse is.' * * * 'Who, if this promiscuous
residence of whites and blacks, of freemen and slaves, is for
ever to continue, can imagine the servile wars, the carnage and
the crimes which will be its probable consequences, without
shuddering with horror?' * * 'It were madness to shut our eyes
to these facts and conclusions. This rapid increase of the
blacks is as certain as the progress of time. The fatal
consequences of that increase, if it be not checked, are equally
so. Something must be done. The American Colonization Society
proposes a remedy--the removal to Africa of the blacks who are
free, or shall hereafter become so, with their consent.' * *
'The colored population is considered by the people of Tennessee
and Alabama in general, as an immense evil to the country--but
the free part of it, by all, as the greatest of all evils....
They feel severely the effects of the deleterious influence
which the free negroes exert upon the slaves--and they look,
moreover, into futurity, and there they behold an appalling
scene--in less than one hundred years, (a short time, we should
hope, in the life of this republic,) 16,000,000 of blacks.'
* * * * 'Since the recent revolution in the island of St. Domingo,
which has placed it in the hands of the African race, it was
thought by some that there an asylum might be found for this
part of our population. But to that place there were also
serious objections, which would prevent its adoption to any
considerable extent. The nearness of that Island to our southern
borders, and the evil consequences that might result from
embodying the free persons of color in the vicinity of those
parts of the United States, where slaves are so numerous,
forbade the friends of humanity to provide a home for them in
that Island.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. pp. 17, 23, 68, 77,
226.]
'The existence, within the very bosom of our country, of an
anomalous race of beings, the most debased upon earth, who
neither enjoy the blessings of freedom, nor are yet in the bonds
of slavery, is a great national evil, which every friend of his
country most deeply deplores. They constitute a large mass of
human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence upon society--the
objects of a low debasing envy to our slaves, and to ourselves
of universal suspicion and distrust.' * * 'If this process were
continued a second term of duplication, it would produce the
extraordinary result of forty white men to one black in the
country--a state of things in which we should not only cease to
feel the burdens which now hang so heavily upon us, but actually
regard the poor African as an object of curiosity, and not
uneasiness.' * * 'Enough, under favorable circumstances, might
be removed for a few successive years--if young _females_ were
encouraged to go--to keep the whole colored population in
check.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. pp. 230, 232, 246.]
'The existence of such a population among us is a most manifest
evil. And every year adds to its threatening aspect. They are
more than a sixth of our population! Their ratio of increase
exceeds that of the whites. They have all the lofty and immortal
powers of man. And the time must arrive, when they will
fearlessly claim the prerogatives of man. They may do it in the
spirit of revenge. They may do it in the spirit of desperation.
And the result of such a mustering of their energies--who can
look at it even in distant prospect without horror? Almost as
numerous are they now, as our whole population when this nation
stood forth for freedom in a contest with the mightiest power of
the civilized world. And if nothing is done to _arrest their
increase_, we shall have in twenty years four millions of
slaves; in forty years eight millions; in sixty years sixteen
millions, and a million of free blacks;--seventeen millions of
people; seven millions more than our present white
population;--enough for a powerful empire! And how can they be
governed? Who can foretel those scenes of carnage and terror
which our own children may witness, unless a seasonable remedy
be applied? The remedy is now within our reach. _We can stop
their increase_; we can diminish their number.'--[Rev. Baxter
Dickinson's Sermon delivered at Springfield, Mass. in 1829.]
'We have a numerous people, who, though they are among us, are
not of us; who are aliens and outcasts in the land of their
birth. A people whose condition is degraded and miserable; who,
so far from adding to our national strength, are an element of
weakness, and detract from the amount of human effort. A people,
whose condition, while it excites our commiseration, must awaken
our fears.' * * 'Those persons of color who have been
emancipated, are only nominally free; and the whole race, so
long as they remain among us, and whether they be slaves or
free, must _necessarily_ be kept in a condition full of
wretchedness to them and full of danger to the whites. This view
of the subject is rendered the more alarming by the rapid
increase of this portion of our population.'--[Second Annual
Report of the New-York State Colonization Society, pp. 4, 34.]
'We would ask, whence have the troubles, which have taken place
among the slaves of Louisiana, originated? Trace the causes, and
we will invariably find them to have proceeded from the
suggestions and officious interferences of the free blacks.
Their very existence in our limits, enjoying supposed
independence, excites the envy and dissatisfaction of the
slaves. The latter naturally inquire, why is it, that persons of
the same color, are permitted to possess more privileges than
they do?... We know the danger to which we are exposed from such
a class of beings living in the very heart of our population,
and increasing greatly every year.'--[An advocate of the Society
in the New-Orleans Argus.]
'Among us the free negroes are multiplying rapidly; both
conscience and religion, as well as propagation, increase them,
and, unless instant and decisive steps are taken to prevent
their increase, you will soon have 50,000 _determined and
vengeful enemies_ in the heart of your country, protected there
by the constitution, forsooth, by which it seems we are
forbidden to expel the free negroes, or to prevent farther
importations of this deadly pest in the persons of
slaves.'--[Louisville Focus.]
'Will not the people of the United States be induced to do
something to remove their colored population? I refer to their
condition, whether bond or free. They are wretched and
dangerous, and should be removed. And the danger arises, not
because we have thousands of slaves within our borders, but
because there are nearly two millions of colored men, who are by
necessity any thing rather than loyal citizens.'--[Address by
Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
'It is not now a novel or a debateable proposition, that slavery
is a great moral and political curse. It is equally clear that
its multitudinous evils are greatly increased by the existence
among us of a mongrel population, who, freed from the shackles
of bondage, yet bear about them the badge of inferiority,
stamped upon them indelibly by the hand of nature, and are
therefore deprived of those rights of citizenship, without which
they must necessarily be a degraded caste--depraved in morals
and vicious in conduct, and _exercising a mischievous and
dangerous influence over those to whom they are nominally
superior_. Their mere existence among the slaves is sufficient,
of itself, to excite in the bosoms of the latter a feeling of
dissatisfaction with their own condition, apparently worse,
because of the coercion to labor which it imposes; but
essentially better, because of the comforts which that labor
procures, and of which the idle and dissolute habits of the free
negro almost invariably deprive him. The slave, however, is not
capable of reasoning correctly, if he reasons at all, on these
truths. He envies the free negro his idleness, and his freedom
from restraint, with all its attendant disadvantages of poverty
and disease, crime and punishment--and hence, he will sometimes
indulge the delusive dream of effecting his own emancipation by
the murder of those who hold him in bondage. Take away from him
this cause of dissatisfaction, and this incentive to
insurrection, and then these "impracticable hopes," which now
sometimes flit before his imagination, will no longer embitter
his hours of labor, and urge him to the commission of those
horrid deeds of massacre, which, though they may glut a
momentary revenge, must result disastrously, not only to the
slaves engaged immediately in their perpetration, but to all
that unfortunate race. Our true interests require that they
shall remove from among us--and no longer be a source of
disquietude to the whites, _of envy to the slaves_, and of
degradation to themselves.'--[Lynchburg (Va.) Virginian.]
'For the most conclusive reasons this removal should be to
Africa. If it be to the West Indies, to Texas, to Canada, then,
how strong and various the objections to building up, in the
vicinity of our own nation, a mighty empire, from a race of men,
_so unlike ourselves_? But, if the removal be to Africa, then it
is to a _happy distance_ from us and to their father land....
Then let it aid in removing that population, which, under its
peculiar relation to the whites, and under its degrading social
and civil disabilities, is a most fruitful source of national
dishonor, demoralization, weakness and _horrid
danger_.'--[Memorial of the New-York State Colonization
Society.]
'The males removed should be persons between 16 and 17 years of
age; the females between 13 and 14. Now as a number would be
annually removed equal to the whole increase, and as that number
would be composed of individuals, of such ages that their
removal would affect the future increase of the race in the
greatest possible degree, I believe that their numbers would not
only not increase, but would diminish. And the number removed
might be increased as the proportion of white persons in the
State became greater, until the removal reached a point at which
all the males who attained the age of sixteen, and all the
females who attained the age of fourteen, in any given year,
would during that year be removed.'--[Petersburg (Va.) Times.]
'They are well calculated to render the slaves sullen,
discontented, unhappy and refractory--and the masters
suspicious, fearful of consequences, and disposed to enhance the
rigor of the condition of their slaves, in order to avert the
dangers that appear to impend over them from the promulgation of
the anti-slavery doctrines; thus, in this case, as in so many
others, the imprudent zeal of friends is likely to produce as
much substantial injury as the animosity of decided enemies
could accomplish.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
'Hatred to the whites is, with the exception in some cases of an
attachment to the person and family of the master, nearly
universal among the black population. We have then a foe,
cherished in our very bosoms--a foe willing to draw our
life-blood whenever the opportunity is offered, and, in the mean
time, intent upon doing us all the mischief in his
power.'--[Southern Religious Telegraph.]
Does the reader wish for any additional proof that the governing motive
of the American Colonization Society is fear--undisguised, _excessive_
FEAR? Language is altogether inadequate to express my indignation and
contempt, in view of such a heartless and cowardly exhibition of
sentiment. There is a deep sense of guilt, an awful dread of
retribution, manifested in the foregoing extracts; but we perceive no
evidence of contrition for past or present injustice, on the part of
those terror-stricken plotters. Instead of returning to those, whom
they have so deeply injured, 'with repenting and undissembling love;'
instead of seeking to conciliate and remunerate the victims of their
prejudice and oppression; instead of resolving to break the yoke of
servitude and let the oppressed go free; it seems to be their only
anxiety and aim to outwit the vengeance of Heaven, and strengthen the
bulwarks of tyranny, by expelling the free people of color from our
shores, and effecting such a diminution of the number of slaves as shall
give the white population a triumphant and irresistible superiority!
'_Check the increase!_' is their cry--'let us retain in everlasting
bondage as many as we can, _safely_; but the proportion must be at least
ten millions of ourselves to two millions of our vassals, else we shall
live in jeopardy! To do justly is not our intention; we only mean to
remove the surplus of our present stock; we think we shall be able, by
this prudent device, to oppress and rob with impunity. Our present
wailing is not for our heinous crimes, but only because our avarice and
cruelty have carried us beyond our ability to protect ourselves: we
lament, not because we hold so large a number in fetters of iron, but
because we cannot safely hold more!'
Ye crafty calculators! ye hard-hearted, incorrigible sinners! ye greedy
and relentless robbers! ye contemners of justice and mercy! ye
trembling, pitiful, pale-faced usurpers! my soul spurns you with
unspeakable disgust. Know ye not that the reward of your hands shall be
given you? 'Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the needy from
judgment, and to take away the right from the poor, that widows may be
their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in
the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far?
to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your
glory?'--'What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the
face of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.'--'Behold, the hire of
the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept
back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are
entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Repent! repent! _now_,
in sackcloth and ashes. Think not to succeed in your expulsive crusade;
you cannot hide your motives from the Great Searcher of hearts; and if a
sinful worm of the dust, like myself, is fired with indignation at your
dastardly behaviour and mean conspiracy to evade repentance and
punishment, how must the anger of Him, whose holiness and justice are
infinite, burn against you? Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God? You may plot by day and by night; you may heap
together the treasures of the land, and multiply and enlarge your
combinations, to extricate yourselves from peril; but _you cannot
succeed_. Your only alternative is, either to redress the wrongs of the
oppressed _now_, and humble yourselves before God, or prepare for the
chastisements of Heaven. I repeat it--REPENTANCE or PUNISHMENT must be
yours.
There are several points upon which I wish to fasten the attention of
the reader:
1. The inhumanity and craftiness of these propositions for the removal
of the free people of color.
It will be seen that the conspirators have taxed their ingenuity to the
utmost, to ascertain the exact number of emigrants which must be
transported annually, the amount of money that must be raised, the
persons that must be selected, the number of vessels that must be
employed, &c. &c. It is their determination, if the necessary means can
be obtained, to transport the annual increase of our colored population;
but in this calculation we find no allowance made for unwillingness or
resistance on the part of those who are the objects of their
supervision. It is taken for granted that all will be induced to go into
exile, or must be made willing compulsorily. Nothing else is
contemplated but their entire expulsion. In order to insure a reduction
of this 'alarming increase,' and effectually to check the fruitfulness
of generation, even the unmanly and scandalous proposition is made to
remove principally those of both sexes who are just come to the age of
puberty! The system of _espionage_, established by Napoleon to prevent
the possibility of a successful conspiracy, was not more detestable and
observant than is this violent and unnatural project. 'If young
_females_ were encouraged to go'!--why, then they could not propagate
here! Infamous calculation!
2. The principal object avowed for the removal of the free people of
color, is, their corruptive and dangerous influence over the slave
population.
It is demonstrated, then, beyond disputation, that this removal will
infuse new strength into the tottering system of slavery, tighten the
grasp of the masters upon the throats of the slaves, lull them into a
profound and quiet sleep, postpone the hour of emancipation, and enhance
the security and value of slave property. The terror of mind which calls
for this separation cannot be benevolence, and the combination which
seeks to effect it cannot merit support. It were folly to hope that the
owners of slaves will ultimately emancipate them, from conscientious
motives. In the first place, they affect to be innocent in holding their
victims in servitude; secondly, they are assured by their colonization
brethren that they are not guilty of oppression, but, on the contrary,
are watchful guardians; and lastly, they are obstinate in shutting their
eyes upon the light, and kindle into a rage on being arraigned for their
tyrannous conduct. Our only ground of hope, then, is in increasing the
difficulty of holding their slaves, in multiplying the causes of their
apprehensions, in destroying the value of slave labor, and in making
their situation full of disquietude and distress. Such a course is not
inconsistent with benevolence--such a course we are obligated to pursue,
as we value the present and everlasting welfare of the oppressor and the
oppressed, and desire to have a conscience void of offence toward God
and toward man. It may--it _must_ be effected by a scrupulous abstinence
from the productions of slavery; by encouraging planters to cultivate
their lands by the hands of free laborers; by educating our free colored
population, and placing them on an equality with ourselves; and by
constantly exhibiting the criminality of holding rational and immortal
beings in servile bondage. Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to
liberate our enslaved countrymen.
3. Consider the inevitable consequence of these reiterated and malignant
statements, with regard to the habits and designs of the free people of
color.
First, it deters a large number of masters from liberating their slaves,
and hence directly perpetuates the evils of slavery: it deters them for
two reasons--an unwillingness to augment the wretchedness of those who
are in servitude by turning them loose upon the country, and a dread of
increasing the number of their enemies. It creates and nourishes the
bitterest animosity against the free blacks. It has spread an alarm
among all classes of society, in all parts of the country; and, acting
under this fearful impulse, they begin to persecute, believing
self-preservation imperiously calls for this severe treatment. The
legislative enactment of Ohio, which not long since drove many of the
colored inhabitants of that State into Upper Canada, was the legitimate
fruit of the anathemas of the Colonization Society. A bill has been
reported in the same legislature for preventing free people of color
from participating in the benefit of the common school fund, in order to
hasten their expulsion from the State! Other States are multiplying
similar disabilities, and hanging heavier weights upon their free
colored population. The Legislature of Louisiana has enacted that
whosoever shall make use of language, in any public discourse, from the
bar, the bench, the pulpit, the stage, or in any other place whatsoever
shall make use of language, in any private discourses, or shall make use
of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the
colored population, shall suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less
than three years, nor more than twenty-one years, or DEATH, at the
discretion of the court!! It has also prohibited the instruction of the
blacks in Sabbath Schools--$500 penalty for the first offence--DEATH for
the second!! The Legislature of Virginia has passed a bill which
subjects all free negroes who shall be convicted of remaining in the
commonwealth contrary to law, to the liability of _being sold by the
sheriff_. All meetings of free negroes, at any school-house or
meeting-house, for teaching them reading or writing, are declared an
unlawful assembly; and it is made the duty of any justice of the peace
to issue his warrant to enter the house where such unlawful assemblage
is held, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free
negroes. A fine is to be imposed on every white person who instructs at
such meetings. All emancipated slaves, who shall remain more than twelve
months, contrary to law, shall revert to the executors as assets. Laws
have been passed in Georgia and North Carolina, imposing a heavy tax or
imprisonment on every free person of color who shall come into their
ports in the capacity of stewards, cooks, or seamen of any vessels
belonging to the non-slaveholding States. The Legislature of Tennessee
has passed an act forbidding free blacks from coming into the State to
remain more than twenty days. The penalty is a fine of from ten to fifty
dollars, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to two years.
Double the highest penalty is to be inflicted after the first offence.
The act also prohibits manumission, without an immediate removal from
the State. The last Legislature of Maryland passed a bill, by which no
free negro or mulatto is allowed to emigrate to, or settle in the State,
under the penalty of fifty dollars for every week's residence therein;
and if he refuse or neglect to pay such fine, he shall be committed to
jail and sold by the sheriff at public sale; and no person shall employ
or harbor him, under the penalty of twenty dollars for every day he
shall be so employed, hired or harbored! It is not lawful for any free
blacks to attend any meetings for religious purposes, unless conducted
by a _white_ licensed or ordained preacher, or some respectable white
person duly authorised! All free colored persons residing in the State,
are compelled to register their names, ages, &c. &c.; and if any negro
or mulatto shall remove from the State, and remain without the limits
thereof for a space longer than thirty consecutive days, unless before
leaving the State he deposits with the clerk of the county in which he
resides, _a written statement of his object in doing so_, and his
intention of returning again, or unless he shall have been detained by
sickness or coercion, _of which he shall bring a certificate_, he shall
be regarded as a resident of another State, and be subject, if he
return, to the penalties imposed by the foregoing provisions upon free
negroes and mulattoes of another State, migrating to Maryland! It is not
lawful for any person or persons to purchase of any free negro or
mulatto any articles, unless he produce a certificate from a justice of
the peace, or three respectable persons residing in his neighborhood,
that he or they have reason to believe, and do believe, that such free
negro or mulatto came honestly and bona fide into possession of any
such articles so offered for sale! A bill has been reported to the
Legislature of Pennsylvania, which enacts, that from and after a
specified time, no negro or mulatto shall be permitted to emigrate into
and settle in that State, without entering into bond in the penal sum of
_five hundred dollars_, conditioned for his good behavior. If he neglect
or refuse to comply with this requisition, such punishment shall be
inflicted upon him as is now directed in the case of vagrants. Free
colored residents are not to be allowed to migrate from one township or
county to another, without producing a certificate from the Clerk of the
Court of Quarter Sessions, or a Justice of the Peace, or an Alderman!
The passage of a similar law has been urged even upon the Legislature of
Massachusetts by a writer in the Salem Gazette!
All these proscriptive measures, and others less conspicuous but equally
oppressive,--which are not only flagrant violations of the Constitution
of the United States, but in the highest degree disgraceful and
inhuman,--are resorted to, (to borrow the language of the Secretary in
his Fifteenth Annual Report,) 'for the more complete accomplishment of
the great objects of the American Colonization Society'!!
I appeal to the candor and common sense of the reader, if this grievous
persecution be not justly chargeable to the Society? It is constantly
thundering in the ears of the slave States--'Your free blacks
contaminate your slaves, excite their deadliest hate, and are a source
of _horrid danger_ to yourselves! They must be removed, or your
destruction is inevitable!' What is their response? Precisely such as
might be expected--'We know it; we dread the presence of this class;
their influence over our slaves weakens our power, and endangers our
safety; they must, _they shall_ be expatriated, or be crushed to the
earth if they remain!' It says to the free States--'Your colored
population can never be rendered serviceable, intelligent or loyal; they
will only, and always, serve to increase your taxes, crowd your
poor-houses and penitentiaries, and corrupt and impoverish society!'
Again, what is the natural response?--'It is even so; they are offensive
to the eye, and a pest in community; theirs is now, and must inevitably
be, without a reversal of the laws of nature, the lot of vagabonds; it
were useless to attempt their intellectual and moral improvement among
ourselves; and therefore be this their alternative--either to emigrate
to Liberia, or remain for ever a despicable caste in this country!'
Hence the enactment of those sanguinary laws, to which reference has
been made: hence, too, the increasing disposition which is every where
seen to render the situation of the free blacks intolerable. Never was
it so pitiable and distressing--so full of peril and anxiety--so
burdened with misery, despondency and scorn; never were the prejudices
of society so virulent and implacable against them; never were their
prospects so dark, and dreary, and hopeless; never was the hand of power
so heavily laid upon their limbs; never were they so restricted in
regard to locomotion and the advantages of education, as at the present
time. Athwart their sky scarcely darts a single ray of light--above and
around them darkness reigns, and an angry tempest is mustering its
fearful strength, and 'thunders are uttering their voices.' Treachery is
seeking to decoy, and violence to expel them. For all this, and more
than this, and more that is to come, the American Colonization Society
is responsible. And no better evidence is needed than this: THEIR
PERSECUTION, TRADUCEMENT AND WRETCHEDNESS INCREASE IN EXACT RATIO WITH
THE INFLUENCE, POPULARITY AND EXTENSION OF THIS SOCIETY! The fact is
undeniable, and it is conclusive. For it is absurd to suppose, that as
the disposition and ability of an association to alleviate misery
increase, so will the degradation and suffering of the objects of its
charities.
The assertion that the free blacks corrupt the morals of the slaves, is
too ludicrous to need a serious refutation. Corrupt the morals of those
who are recognized and treated as brutes, and who know as little of the
laws of God as of the laws of the land! Immaculate creatures! The system
of slavery is constantly developing new excellencies: it is, we now
perceive, the protector of virtue, the enemy of vice, and a purifier of
the soul!
But something more indiscreet and preposterous than this, is advanced
for our admiration. We are gravely assured, first, by a New-England
clergyman, that, generally, the condition of the free man of color 'is
one in comparison with which the condition of the slave is _enviable_;'
and, secondly, by the last distinguished convert to the Colonization
Society--the Hon. Mr. Archer of Virginia--'the condition of the slave is
_a thousand times_ the best, [the disparity is wonderful!]--_supplied_,
_protected_, instead of _destitute_ and _desolate_'![Q] Let us draw a
brief comparison. The limbs of the free black are fetterless; he is
controlled by no brutal driver; he bleeds not under the lash; he is his
own master; his wife and children cannot be torn from his arms; he
enjoys the fruits of his own labor; he can improve his own mind, make
his own bargains, manage his own business, go from place to place, and
assert his own rights. The situation and privileges of the slave are
exactly the reverse. Reader, are they 'enviable'--'a thousand times the
best'--in comparison with those of the former? I do not mean to say that
there are no instances in which the slave fares as well as the free man
of color; but the argument of these apologists implies that a state of
slavery is superior to a state of freedom, or it is worthless.
4. It appears, from the quotations that have been given, that the only
reason why the free blacks are not colonized in the 'far West,' or in
Canada, or Hayti, or Mexico, is, because their proximity to the slave
States might prove detrimental. If they could be sent to any or to all
these places, without any danger to ourselves, why then all objections
would cease. This confession places the hypocrisy of this Society in
bold relief. It pretends to be anxious to evangelize benighted Africa,
and stop the slave trade; but only assure it that the blacks may be
safely colonized nearer home, and Africa might still continue to grope
in darkness, and the slave trade to increase in enormity, and its bowels
of compassion would speedily cease to yearn!--Hence it is that the rapid
enlargement of the Wilberforce Settlement in Upper Canada so disturbs
the repose of the advocates of African colonization; and many of them
would rejoice at its overthrow.
FOOTNOTES:
[P] How very strange that the slave should 'regard as tyranny and
injustice the authority which compels him to labor' without
recompense!!!
[Q] Paupers and criminals are supplied and _protected_. How invidious to
treat them so generously, and leave honest, hard-working men exposed to
destitution and abandonment! They ought to be sent to the poor-house or
penitentiary forthwith.