THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY DENIES THE POSSIBILITY OF ELEVATING
THE BLACKS IN THIS COUNTRY.
The detestation of feeling, the fire of moral indignation, and the agony
of soul which I have felt kindling and swelling within me, in the
progress of this review, under this section reach the acme of intensity.
It is impossible for the mind to conceive, or the tongue to utter, or
the pen to record, sentiments more derogatory to the character of a
republican and Christian people than the following:
'Introduced as this class has been, in a way which cannot be
justified, injurious in its influence to the community, degraded
in character and miserable in condition, _forever excluded_, by
public sentiment, by law and by a physical distinction, from the
most powerful motives to exertion,' &c. * * 'In addition to all
the causes which tend to pollute, to degrade and render them
miserable, there are principles of _repulsion_ between them and
us, which can _never_ be overcome.' * * 'Their bodies are free,
their minds enslaved. They can neither bless their brethren in
servitude, nor rise from their own obscurity, nor add to the
purity of our morals, nor to our wealth, nor to our political
strength.' * * 'Let us recollect that our fathers have placed
them here; and that our prejudices, prejudices _too deep to be
eradicated_ while they remain among us, have produced the
standard of their morals.' * * 'Nor will it be questioned that
their establishment on the African coast ... will confer on them
invaluable blessings which _in this country_ they can _never_
enjoy.' * * 'They _must be_ hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Do what they will, there is but this one prospect before
them.'--[African Repository, vol. 1, pp. 34, 144, 162, 176, 226,
317.]
'Shut out from the privileges of citizens, separated from us by
the _insurmountable_ barrier of color, they can _never_
amalgamate with us, but must remain _for ever_ a distinct and
inferior race, repugnant to our republican feelings, and
dangerous to our republican institutions.' * * * 'It is not that
there are some, but that there are so many among us of a
different physical, if not moral, constitution, who _never_ can
amalgamate with the great body of our population.'--[African
Repository, vol. ii. pp. 188, 189, 338.]
'In consequence of his own inveterate habits, and the no less
inveterate prejudices of the whites, it is a sadly demonstrated
truth, that the negro _cannot, in this country_, become an
enlightened and useful citizen. Driven to the lowest stratum of
society, and enthralled there for melancholy ages, his mind
becomes proportionably grovelling, and to gratify his animal
desires is his most exalted aspiration.' * * 'The negro, _while
in this country_, will be treated as an inferior being.' * *
'Our slavery is such, as that no device of our philanthropy for
elevating the wretched subjects of its debasement to the
ordinary privileges of men, can descry one cheering glimpse of
hope that our object can _ever_ be accomplished. The very
commencing act of freedom to the slave, is to place him in a
condition still worse, if possible, both for his moral habits,
his outward provision, and for the community that embosoms him,
than even that, deplorable as it was, from which he has been
removed. He is now a freeman; but his complexion, his features,
every peculiarity of his person, pronounce to him another
doom,--that every wish he may conceive, every effort he can
make, shall be _little better than vain_. Even to every talent
and virtuous impulse which he may feel working in his bosom,
obstacles stand in impracticable array; not from a defect of
essential title to success, but from _a positive external law,
unreasoning and irreversible_.' * * 'The elevation of a degraded
class of beings to the privileges of freemen, which, though
free, they can _never_ enjoy, and to the prospects of a happy
immortality.' * * 'They again most solemnly repeat to the free
colored people of Virginia their belief, that _in Africa alone_
can they enjoy that complete emancipation from a degrading
inequality, which in a greater or less degree pervades the
United States, if not in the laws, in the whole frame and
structure of society, and which in its effects on their moral
and social state is scarcely less degrading than slavery
itself.'--[African Repository, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26, 66, 68,
345.]
'But there is one large class among the inhabitants of this
country--degraded and miserable--whom none of the efforts in
which you are accustomed to engage, can materially benefit.
Among the twelve millions who make up our census, two millions
are Africans--separated from the possessors of the soil by
birth, _by the brand of indelible ignominy_, by prejudices,
mutual, deep, _incurable_, by an _irreconcileable diversity of
interests_. They are aliens and outcasts;--they are, as a body,
degraded beneath the influence of nearly all the motives which
prompt other men to enterprise, and almost below the sphere of
virtuous affections. Whatever may be attempted for the general
improvement of society, their wants are untouched.--Whatever may
be effected for elevating the mass of the nation in the scale of
happiness or of intellectual and moral character, their
degradation is the same--dark, and deep, and _hopeless_.
Benevolence seems to overlook them, or struggles for their
benefit in vain. Patriotism forgets them, or remembers them only
with shame for what has been, and with dire forebodings, of what
is yet to come.' * * 'It is taken _for granted_ that in present
circumstances, any effort to produce a general and thorough
amelioration in the character and condition of the free people
of color must be to a great extent fruitless. In every part of
the United States there is a broad and _impassible_ line of
demarcation between every man who has _one drop_ of African
blood in his veins and every other class in the community. The
habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices
which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, nor
_religion_ itself can subdue--mark the people of color, whether
bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
_incurable_. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
very lowest station in society; and from that station _he can
never rise_, BE HIS TALENTS, HIS ENTERPRISE, HIS VIRTUES WHAT
THEY MAY.... They constitute a class by themselves--a class out
of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which, none
can be depressed. And this is the difficulty, the invariable and
insuperable difficulty in the way of every scheme for their
benefit. Much can be done for them--much has been done; but
still they are, and, _in this country_, ALWAYS MUST BE a
depressed and abject race.'--[African Repository, vol. iv. pp.
117, 118, 119.]
'The distinctive complexion by which it is marked, _necessarily_
debars it from all familiar intercourse with the more favored
society that surrounds it, and of course denies to it _all hope_
of either social or political elevation, by means of individual
merit, however great, or individual exertions, however
unremitted.' * * 'It is deemed unnecessary to repeat what has
already been said, of the character of the population in
question, of its _hopeless degradation_, and its baneful
influence, in the situation in which it is now placed.' * * *
'The colored population of this country can _never_ rise to
respectability and happiness here.' * * 'It was at an early
period seen and acknowledged, that neither the objects of
benevolence nor the interests of the nation could be materially
benefitted by any plan or measures that permitted them to remain
within the United States.' * * 'They leave a country in which
though born and reared, they are strangers and aliens; where
severe necessity places them in a class of degraded beings.' * *
'With us they have been degraded by slavery, and STILL FURTHER
DEGRADED _by the mockery of nominal freedom_. We have
endeavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to
self-respect, or to the respect of others. _It is not our fault
that we have failed_; it is not theirs. It has resulted from a
cause over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.
_Here_, therefore, they must be _for ever debased_: more than
this, they must be _for ever useless_; more even than this, they
must be FOR EVER A NUISANCE, from which it were a blessing for
society to be rid. And yet they, and they only, are qualified
for colonizing Africa.' * * * 'Whether bond or free, their
presence will be _for ever a calamity_. Why then, in the name of
God, should we hesitate to encourage their departure? 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.'--[African Repository, vol. v. pp. 51, 53, 179, 234,
238, 276, 278.]
'Is our posterity doomed to endure for ever not only all the
ills flowing from the state of slavery, but all which arise from
incongruous elements of population, separated from each other by
_invincible prejudices_, and by natural causes?' * * 'Here
_invincible prejudices_ exclude them from the enjoyment of the
society of the whites, and deny them all the advantages of
freemen. The bar, the pulpit, and our legislative halls are shut
to them by the irresistible force of public sentiment. No
talents however great, no piety however pure and devoted, no
patriotism however ardent, can secure their admission. They
constantly hear the accents, and behold the triumphs, of a
liberty _which here they can never enjoy_.' * * 'It is against
this increase of colored persons, who take but a nominal freedom
here, and _cannot rise_ from their degraded condition, that this
Society attempts to provide.' * * 'They may be emancipated; but
emancipation _cannot elevate their condition_ or augment their
capacity for self-preservation.--Want and suffering will
gradually diminish their numbers, and they will disappear, as
the inferior has always disappeared, before the superior race.'
* * 'Our great and good men purposed it primarily as a system of
relief for two millions of fellow men in our own county--a
population dangerous to ourselves and _necessarily degraded
here_.' * * 'The free blacks, by the moral necessity of their
civil disabilities, are and _must for ever be a
nuisance_--equally, and more to the owner of slaves, than to
other members of the community.'--[African Repository, vol. vi.
pp. 12, 17, 82, 168, 295, 368.]
'Incorporated into our country as freemen, yet separated from it
by odious and degrading distinctions, they feel themselves
condemned to a hopeless and debasing inferiority. They know that
their very complexion will _for ever_ exclude them from the
rank, the privileges, the honors, of freemen. No matter how
great their industry, or how abundant their wealth--no matter
what their attainments in literature, science or the arts--no
matter how correct their deportment or what respect their
characters may inspire, they can never, NO, NEVER be raised to a
footing of equality, not even to a familiar intercourse with the
surrounding society.' * * 'To us it seems evident that the man
of color may as soon _change his complexion_, as rise above all
sense of past inferiority and debasement in a community, from
the social intercourse of which, he must expect to be in a great
measure excluded, not only until prejudice shall have no
existence therein, but until the freedom of man in regulating
his social relations is proved to be abridged by some law of
morality or the gospel.... Is it not _wise_, then, for the free
people of color and their friends to _admit_, what cannot
reasonably be doubted, that the people of color must, in this
country, remain for ages, _probably for ever_, a separate and
inferior caste, weighed down by causes, powerful, universal,
inevitable; _which neither legislation nor christianity can
remove?_'
'Let the free black in this country toil from youth to age in
the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let him store his mind with the
most valuable researches of science and literature--and let him
add to a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure,
undefiled, and "unspotted from the world"--it is all nothing: he
would not be received into the very lowest walks of society. If
we were constrained to admire so uncommon a being, our very
admiration would mingle with disgust, because, in the physical
organization of his frame, we meet an insurmountable barrier,
even to an approach to social intercourse, and in the Egyptian
color, which nature has stamped upon his features, a principle
of repulsion so strong as to forbid the idea of a communion
either of interest or of feeling, as utterly abhorrent. Whether
these feelings are founded in reason or not, we will not now
inquire--perhaps they are not. But education and habit and
prejudice have so firmly riveted them upon us, that they have
become as strong as nature itself--and to expect their removal,
or even their slightest modification, would be as idle and
preposterous as to expect that we could reach forth our hands,
and remove the mountains from their foundations into the
vallies, which are beneath them.'--[African Repository, vol.
vii. pp. 100, 195, 196, 231.]
'And can we not find some spot on this large globe which will
receive them kindly, and where they may escape those prejudices
which, in this country, must _ever_ keep them _inferior_ and
_degraded_ members of society?'--[Third Annual Report.]
'A population which, even if it were not literally enslaved,
_must for ever remain_ in a state of degradation no better than
bondage.' * * 'Here the thing is impossible; a slave cannot be
really emancipated. You may call him free, you may enact a
statute book of laws to make him free, but you cannot bleach him
into the enjoyment of freedom.' * * 'The Soodra is not farther
separated from the Brahmin in regard to all his privileges,
civil, intellectual, and moral, than the negro is from the white
man by the prejudices which result from the difference made
between them by the God of nature. A barrier more difficult to
be surmounted than the institution of the caste, cuts off, and
while the present state of society continues _must always_ cut
off, the negro from all that is valuable in
citizenship.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]
'Let the arm of our government be stretched out for the defence
of our African colony, and this objection will no longer exist.
There, _and there alone_, the colored man can enjoy the motives
for honorable exertion.'--[Ninth Annual Report.]
'In the distinctive and indelible marks of their color, and the
prejudices of the people, an _insuperable_ obstacle has been
placed to the execution of any plan for elevating their
character, and placing them on a footing with their brethren of
the same common family.'--[Tenth Annual Report.]
'Far from shuddering at the thought of leaving the comfortable
fireside among us, for a distant and unknown shore yet covered
by the wilderness, they have preferred real liberty there, to a
mockery of freedom here, and have turned their eyes to Africa,
as the only resting place and refuge of the colored man, in the
deluge of oppression that surrounds him.'--[Eleventh Annual
Report.]
'The race in question were known, as a class, to be destitute,
depraved--the victims of all forms of social misery. The
peculiarity of their fate was, that this was not their condition
by accident or transiently, but _inevitably_ and _immutably_,
whilst they remained in their present place, by a law as
infallible in its operation, as any of physical nature.' * *
'Their residence amongst us is attended by evil consequences to
society--causes _beyond the control of the human will_ must
prevent their _ever_ rising to equality with the whites.' * *
'The Managers consider it clear that causes exist, and are
operating to prevent their improvement and elevation to any
considerable extent as a class, in this country, which are
fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity,
BUT OF ANY HUMAN POWER. _Christianity cannot do for them here,
what it will do for them in Africa._ This is not the fault of
the colored man, _nor of the white man, nor of Christianity; but
an ordination of Providence, and no more to be changed than the
laws of nature_. Yet, were it otherwise, did no cause exist but
prejudice, to prevent the elevation, in this country, of our
free colored population, still, were this prejudice so strong
(which is indeed the fact) as to forbid the hope of any great
favorable change in their condition, what folly for them to
reject blessings in another land, because it is prejudice which
debars them from such blessings in this! But in truth no
legislation, no humanity, no benevolence can make them
insensible to their past condition, can unfetter their minds,
can relieve them from the disadvantages resulting from inferior
means and attainments, can abridge the right of freemen to
regulate their social intercourse and relations, which will
leave them _for ever a separate and depressed class_ in the
community; in fine, nothing can in any way do much here to raise
them from their miseries to respectability, honor and
usefulness.'--[Fifteenth Annual Report.]
'That no adequate means of attaining this great end existed,
short of the segregation of the black population from the
white--that an IMPASSIBLE BARRIER existed in the state of
society in this country, between these classes--that whatever
might be the liberal sentiments of some good men among us, the
blacks were marked with an _indelible note of inferiority_--they
saw placed high before them a station which here they _could
never reach_, and by a natural reaction they fell back into a
position where self-respect lent them no stimulus, and virtuous
principles and actions lost more than half their motive--that in
fact they were a branded and degraded caste--the Pariahs of the
United States, and destined _as long as they remained with us_
to be hewers of wood and drawers of water--that the increase of
this population in a greater ratio than the whites, was
calculated to excite just apprehension--that no one could say
that when a few more millions should be added to their numbers,
the example of Hayti might not rouse them to an effort to break
their chains; and he would ask what man could contemplate,
without shuddering, all the complicated atrocity and bloody
revenge of such a revolt?' * * '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.'--[Second
Annual Report of New-York State Colonization Society.]
'Many of those citizens who ardently wish for the removal of
such of the free colored population, as are willing to go, to
any place where they could enjoy, _what they can never enjoy
here_, that is, all the advantages of society,' &c. * * 'That
the free colored population in this country labor under the most
oppressive disadvantages, which their freedom can by no means
counterbalance, is too obvious to admit of doubt. I waive all
inquiry whether this is right or wrong. I speak of things as
they are--not as they might, or as they ought to be. They are
cut off from the most remote chance of amalgamation with the
white population, by feelings or prejudices, call them what you
will, that are ineradicable. Their situation is more unfavorable
than that of many slaves. "With all the burdens, cares and
responsibilities of freedom, they have few or none of its
substantial benefits. Their associations are, and must be,
chiefly with slaves. Their right of suffrage gives them little,
if any, political influence, and they are practically, if not
theoretically excluded from representation and weight in our
public councils." _No merit, no services, no talents can elevate
them to a level with the whites._ Occasionally, an exception may
arise. A colored individual, of great talents, merits, and
wealth, may emerge from the crowd. Cases of this kind are to the
last degree rare. The colored people are subject to legal
disabilities, more or less galling and severe, in almost every
state of the Union. Who has not deeply regretted their late
harsh expulsion from the State of Ohio, and their being forced
to abandon the country of their birth, which had profited by
their labors, and to take refuge in a foreign land? Severe
regulations have been recently passed in Louisiana, to prevent
the introduction of free people of color into the State.
Whenever they appear, they are to be banished in sixty days. The
strong opposition to a negro college in New-Haven, speaks in a
language not to be mistaken, the jealousy with which they are
regarded. And there is no reason to expect, that the lapse of
centuries will make any change in this respect. THEY WILL ALWAYS
UNHAPPILY BE REGARDED AS AN INFERIOR RACE.'--[Mathew Carey's
'Reflections.']
'Instances of emancipation have not essentially benefitted the
African, and _probably never will_, while he remains among us.
In this country, public opinion does, _and will_, consign him to
an inferiority, _above which he can never rise_. Emancipation
can NEVER make the African, while he remains in this country, a
real free man. Degradation MUST and WILL press him to the earth;
no cheering, stimulating influence will he here feel, _in any of
the walks of life_.'--[Circular of the Massachusetts
Colonization Society for 1832.]
'With us color is the bar. Nature has raised up barriers between
the races, _which no man with a proper sense of the dignity of
his species desires to see surmounted_.' * * 'What effects does
emancipation produce without removal? A discontented and useless
population; having no sympathies with the rest of the community,
_doomed by immoveable barriers to eternal degradation_. I know
that there are among us, those of warm and generous hearts, who
believe that we may retain the black man here, and raise him up
to the full and perfect stature of human nature. That degree of
improvement can never take place except the races be
amalgamated; and amalgamation is a day-dream. It may seem
strong, but it is true that "a skin not colored like our own"
will separate them from us, _as long as our feelings continue a
part of our nature_.'--[Speeches delivered at the formation of
the Young Men's Auxiliary Colonization Society in New-York
city.]
'These [subsistence, political and social considerations] they
can _never_ enjoy here.' * * 'You may manumit the slave, but you
cannot make him a white man. He still remains a negro or a
mulatto. The mark and the recollection of his origin and former
state still adhere to him; the feelings produced by that
condition, in his own mind and in the minds of the whites, still
exist; he is associated by his color, and by these recollections
and feelings, with the class of slaves; and a barrier is thus
raised between him and the whites, that is between him and the
free class, which he can never hope to transcend.' * * 'A vast
majority of the free blacks, as we have seen, are and _must be_,
an idle, worthless and thievish race.'--[First Annual Report.]
'Here they are condemned to a state of _hopeless_ inferiority,
and consequent degradation. As they _cannot_ emerge from this
state, they lose, by degrees, the hope, at last the desire of
emerging.'--[Second Annual Report.]
'The existence in any community of a people forming a distinct
and degraded caste, _who are forever excluded by the fiat of
society and the laws of the land_, from all hopes of equality in
social intercourse and political privileges, must, from the
nature of things, be fraught with unmixed evil. Did this
committee believe it possible, by any acts of legislation, to
remove this blotch upon the body politic, by so elevating the
social and moral condition of the blacks in Ohio, that they
would be received into society on terms of equality, and would
by common consent be admitted to a participation of political
privileges--WERE SUCH A THING POSSIBLE, even after a lapse of
time and by pecuniary sacrifice, most gladly would they
recommend such measures as would subserve the cause of humanity,
by producing such a result. For the purposes of legislation, it
is sufficient to know, that the blacks in Ohio _must always
exist as a separate and degraded race_, that when the leopard
shall change his spots and the Ethiopian his skin, then, BUT NOT
TILL THEN, may we expect that the descendants of Africans will
be admitted into society, on terms of social and political
equality.'--[Report of a Select Committee of the Legislature of
Ohio.]
'No possible contingency can ever break down or weaken the
impassable barrier which at present separates the whites from
social communion with the blacks. Neither education, nor wealth,
nor any other means of distinction known to our communities, can
elevate blacks to a level with whites, in the United
States.'--[American Spectator.]
'However unjust may be the prejudices which exist in the whites
against the blacks, and which operate so injuriously to the
latter--_they are probably too deep to be obliterated_; and true
philanthropy would dictate the separation of two races of men,
so different, WHOM NATURE HERSELF HAS FORBIDDEN TO MINGLE INTO
ONE; but of whom, while they remain associated, _one or the
other must of necessity have the superiority_. For the future
welfare of both, we trust that the project of colonizing the
Africans, as they shall gradually be emancipated, although a
work of time, may not be altogether hopeless.'--[Brandon (Vt.)
Telegraph.]
'The character and circumstances of this portion of the
community fall under every man's notice, and the least
observation shows that they _cannot_ be useful or happy among
us.'--[Oration by Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.]
'It is of vast importance to these people, as a class, that
their hopes and expectations of temporal prosperity _should be
turned to Africa_, and that they should not regard our country
as their permanent residence, or as that country in which they
will _ever_, as a people, enjoy equal privileges and blessings
with the whites.'--[Rev. Mr Gurley's Letter to the Rev. S. S.
Jocelyn.]
'To attain solid happiness and permanent respectability, they
should now remove to a more congenial clime.... To raise them to
a level with the whites is AN IMPOSSIBILITY.'--[New-Haven
Religious Intelligencer.]
'In Liberia--the land of their forefathers, they will be
restored to real freedom, which they have never yet enjoyed, and
which it is folly for them to expect they can ever enjoy among
the whites.'--[Norfolk Herald.]
'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a
noise in me.' Are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Can pagans,
or savages, or devils, exhibit a more implacable spirit, than is seen in
the foregoing extracts? It is enough to cause the very stones to cry
out, and the beasts of the field to rebuke us.
Of this I am sure: no man, who is truly willing to admit the people of
color to an equality with himself, can see any insuperable difficulty in
effecting their elevation. When, therefore, I hear an
individual--especially a professor of Christianity--strenuously
contending that there can be no fellowship with them, I cannot help
suspecting the sincerity of his own republicanism or piety, or thinking
that the beam is in his own eye. My bible assures me that the day is
coming when even the 'wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the wolf and the young lion and the
fatling together;' and, if this be possible, I see no cause why those of
the same species--God's rational creatures--fellow countrymen, in truth,
cannot dwell in harmony together.
How abominably hypocritical, how consummately despicable, how
incorrigibly tyrannical must this whole nation appear in the eyes of the
people of Europe!--professing to be the _friends_ of the free blacks,
actuated by the purest motives of benevolence toward them, desirous to
make atonement for past wrongs, challenging the admiration of the world
for their patriotism, philanthropy and piety--and yet (hear, O heaven!
and be astonished, O earth!) shamelessly proclaiming, with a voice
louder than thunder, and an aspect malignant as sin, that while their
colored countrymen remain among them, they must be trampled beneath
their feet, treated as inferior beings, deprived of all the invaluable
privileges of freemen, separated by the brand of indelible ignominy, and
debased to a level with the beasts that perish! Yea, that they may as
soon change their complexion as rise from their degradation! that no
device of philanthropy can benefit them here! that they constitute a
class out of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which,
_none can be depressed_! that no talents however great, no piety however
pure and devoted, no patriotism however ardent, no industry however
great, no wealth however abundant, can raise them to a footing of
equality with the whites! that 'let them toil from youth to old age in
the honorable pursuit of wisdom--let them store their minds with the
most valuable researches of science and literature--and let them add to
a highly gifted and cultivated intellect, a piety pure, undefiled, and
unspotted from the world, _it is all nothing_--they would not be
received into the _very lowest walks of society_--admiration of such
uncommon beings would mingle with _disgust_!' Yea, that 'there is a
broad and impassible line of demarcation between every man who has _one
drop_ of African blood in his veins and every other class in the
community'! Yea, that 'the habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of
society--prejudices which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor
_education_, nor RELIGION itself can subdue--mark the people of color,
whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation _inevitable_ and
_incurable_'! Yea, that '_Christianity_ cannot do for them here, what it
will do for them in Africa'! Yea, that 'this is not the fault of the
colored man, NOR OF THE WHITE MAN, nor of Christianity; but AN
ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE, _and no more to be changed than the_ LAWS OF
NATURE'!!!
Again I ask, are we pagans, are we savages, are we devils? Search the
records of heathenism, and sentiments more hostile to the spirit of the
gospel, or of a more black and blasphemous complexion than these, cannot
be found. I believe that they are libels upon the character of my
countrymen, which time will wipe off. I call upon the spirits of the
just made perfect in heaven, upon all who have experienced the love of
God in their souls here below, upon the christian converts in India and
the islands of the sea, to sustain me in the assertion that there _is_
power enough in the religion of Jesus Christ to melt down the most
stubborn prejudices, to overthrow the highest walls of partition, to
break the strongest caste, to improve and elevate the most degraded, to
unite in fellowship the most hostile, and to equalize and bless all its
recipients. Make me _sure_ that there is not, and I will give it up, now
and for ever. 'In Christ Jesus, all are one: there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female.'
These sentiments were not uttered by infidels, nor by worthless
wretches, but in many instances by professors of religion and _ministers
of the gospel_! and in almost every instance by reputedly the most
enlightened, patriotic and benevolent men in the land! Tell it not
abroad! publish it not in the streets of Calcutta! Even the eminent
President of Union College, (Rev. Dr. Nott,) could so far depart,
unguardedly I hope, from christian love and integrity, as to utter this
language in an address in behalf of the Colonization Society:--'With us
they [the free people of color] have been degraded by slavery, and
_still further degraded by the mockery of nominal freedom_.' Were this
true, it would imply that we of the free States are more barbarous and
neglectful than even the traffickers in souls and men-stealers at the
south. We have not, it is certain, treated our colored brethren as the
law of kindness and the ties of brotherhood demand; but have we outdone
slaveholders in cruelty? Were it true, to forge new fetters for the
limbs of these degraded beings would be an act of benevolence. But their
condition is as much superior to that of the slaves, as happiness is to
misery. The second portion of this work, containing their proceedings in
a collective capacity, shows whether they have made any progress in
intelligence, in virtue, in piety, and in happiness, since their
liberation. Again he says: '_We have endeavored_, but endeavored in
vain, _to restore them either to self-respect, or to the respect of
others_.' It is painful to contradict so worthy an individual; but
nothing is more certain than that this statement is altogether
erroneous. We have derided, we have shunned, we have neglected them, in
every possible manner. They have had to rise not only under the
mountainous weight of their own ignorance and vice, but with the
additional and constant pressure of our contempt and injustice. In
despite of us, they have done well. Again: '_It is not our fault that we
have failed_; it is not theirs.' We _are_ wholly and exclusively in
fault. What have we done to raise them up from the earth? What have we
_not_ done to keep them down? Once more: 'It has resulted from a cause
over which neither they, nor we, can ever have control.' In other words,
they have been made with skins not colored like our own,' and
_therefore_ we cannot recognise them as fellow-countrymen, or treat them
like rational beings! One sixth of our whole population _must_, FOR
EVER, in this land, remain a wretched, ignorant and degraded race,--and
yet nobody be culpable--_none but the Creator_ who has made us
_incapable_ of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us!
Horrible--horrible! If this be not an impeachment of Infinite
Goodness,--I do not say intentionally but _really_,--I cannot define it.
The same sentiment is reiterated by a writer in the Southern Religious
Telegraph, who says--'The exclusion of the free black from the civil and
literary privileges of our country, depends on another circumstance than
that of character--a circumstance, which, as it was entirely beyond his
control, so it is unchangeable, and will for ever operate. This
circumstance is--_he is a black man_'!! And the Board of Managers of the
Parent Society, in their Fifteenth Annual Report, declare that '_an
ordination of Providence_' prevents the general improvement of the
people of color in this land! How are God and our country dishonored,
and the requirements of the gospel contemned, by this ungodly plea!
Having satisfied himself that the Creator is alone blameable for the
past and present degradation of the free blacks, Dr. Nott draws the
natural and unavoidable inference that 'here, therefore, they must be
_for ever debased, for ever useless, for ever a nuisance, for ever a
calamity_,' and then gravely declares (mark the climax!) 'and yet THEY,
[these ignorant, helpless, miserable creatures!] AND THEY ONLY, are
qualified for colonizing Africa'!! 'Why then,' he asks, '_in the name of
God_,'--(the abrupt appeal, in this connexion, seems almost
profane,)--'should we hesitate to encourage their departure?'
Nature, we are positively assured, has raised up impassable barriers
between the races. I understand by this expression, that the blacks are
of a different species from ourselves, so that all attempts to generate
offspring between us and them must prove as abortive, as between a man
and a beast. It is a law of Nature that the lion shall not beget the
lamb, or the leopard the bear. Now the planters at the south have
clearly demonstrated, that an amalgamation with their slaves is not only
possible, but a matter of course, and eminently productive. It neither
ends in abortion nor produces monsters. In truth, it is often so
difficult in the slave States to distinguish between the fruits of this
intercourse and the children of white parents, that witnesses are
summoned at court to solve the problem! Talk of the barriers of Nature,
when the land swarms with living refutations of the statement! Happy
indeed would it be for many a female slave, if such a barrier could
exist during the period of her servitude to protect her from the lust of
her master!
In France,[W] England,[X] Spain, and other countries, persons of color
maintain as high a rank and are treated as honorably as any other class
of the inhabitants, in despite of the 'impassable barriers of Nature.'
Yet it is proclaimed to the world by the Colonization Society, that the
American people can never be as republican in their feelings and
practices as Frenchmen, Spaniards or Englishmen! Nay, that _religion_
itself cannot subdue their malignant prejudices, or induce them to treat
their dark-skinned brethren in accordance with their professions of
republicanism! My countrymen! is it so? Are you willing thus to be held
up as tyrants and hypocrites for ever? as less magnanimous and just than
the populace of Europe? No--no! I cannot give you up as incorrigibly
wicked, nor my country as sealed over to destruction. My confidence
remains, like the oak--like the Alps--unshaken, storm-proof. I am not
discouraged--I am not distrustful. I still place an unwavering reliance
upon the omnipotence of truth. I still believe that the demands of
justice will be satisfied; that the voice of bleeding humanity will melt
the most obdurate hearts; and that the land will be redeemed and
regenerated by an enlightened and energetic public opinion. As long as
there remains among us a single copy of the Declaration of Independence,
or of the New Testament, I will not despair of the social and political
elevation of my sable countrymen. Already a rallying-cry is heard from
the East and the West, from the North and the South; towns and cities
and states are in commotion; volunteers are trooping to the field; the
spirit of freedom and the fiend of oppression are in mortal conflict,
and all neutrality is at an end. Already the line of division is drawn:
on one side are the friends of truth and liberty, with their banner
floating high in the air, on which are inscribed in letters of light,
'IMMEDIATE ABOLITION'--'NO COMPROMISE WITH OPPRESSORS'--'EQUAL
RIGHTS'--'NO EXPATRIATION'--'DUTY, AND NOT CONSEQUENCES'--'LET JUSTICE
BE DONE, THOUGH THE HEAVENS SHOULD FALL!'--On the opposite side stand
the supporters and apologists of slavery in mighty array, with a black
flag on which are seen in bloody characters, 'AFRICAN
COLONIZATION'--'GRADUAL ABOLITION'--'RIGHTS OF PROPERTY'--'POLITICAL
EXPEDIENCY'--'NO EQUALITY'--'NO REPENTANCE'--'EXPULSION OF THE
BLACKS'--'PROTECTION TO TYRANTS!'--Who can doubt the issue of this
controversy, or which side has the approbation of the Lord of Hosts?
In the African Repository for September, 1831, there is an elaborate
defence of the Colonization Society, in which occurs the following
passage:--'It has been said that the Society is unfriendly to the
improvement of the free people of color while they remain in the United
States. _The charge is not true._' I reiterate the charge; and the
evidence of its correctness is before the reader. The Society prevents
the education of this class in the most insidious and effectual manner,
by constantly asserting that they must always be a degraded people in
this country, and that the cultivation of their minds will avail them
nothing. Who does not readily perceive that the prevalence of this
opinion must at once paralyze every effort for their improvement? For it
would be a waste of time and means, and unpardonable folly, for us to
attempt the accomplishment of an impossible work--of that which we know
will result in disappointment. Every discriminating and candid mind must
see and acknowledge, that, to perpetuate their ignorance, it is only
necessary to make the belief prevalent that they 'must be for ever
debased, for ever useless, for ever an inferior race,' and their
thraldom is sure.
I am aware that a school has been established for the education of
colored youth, under the auspices of the Society; but it is sufficient
to state that none but those who consent to emigrate to Liberia are
embraced in its provisions.
In the Appendix to the Seventh Annual Report, p. 94, the position is
assumed that 'it is a well established point, that the public safety
forbids either the emancipation or _general instruction_ of the slaves.'
The recent enactment of laws in some of the slave States, prohibiting
the instruction of free colored persons as well as slaves, has received
something more than a tacit approval from the organ of the Society. A
prominent advocate of the Society, (G. P. Disosway, Esq.,) in an oration
on the fourth of July, 1831, alluding to these laws, says,--'The public
safety of our brethren at the South requires them [the slaves] to be
kept ignorant and uninstructed.' The Editor of the Southern Religious
Telegraph, who is a clergyman and a warm friend of the colonization
scheme, remarking upon the instruction of the colored population of
Virginia, says:
'Teaching a servant to read, is not teaching him the religion of
Christ. The great majority of the white people of our country
are taught to read; but probably not one in five, of those who
have the Bible, is _a christian_, in the legitimate sense of the
term. If black people are as depraved and as averse to true
religion as the white people are--and we know of no difference
between them in this respect--teaching them to read the Bible
will make christians of _very_ few of them. [What a plea!] ...
If christian masters were to teach their servants to read, we
apprehend that they would not feel the obligation as they ought
to feel it, of giving them oral instruction, and often
impressing divine truth on their minds. [!!] ... If the free
colored people were generally taught to read, _it might be an
inducement to them to remain in this country_. WE WOULD OFFER
THEM NO SUCH INDUCEMENT. [!!] ... A knowledge of letters and of
all the arts and sciences, cannot counteract the influences
under which the character of the negro _must_ be formed in this
country.... It appears to us that a greater benefit may be
conferred on the free colored people, by planting good schools
for them in Africa, and encouraging them to remove there, than
by giving them the knowledge of letters to make them contented
in their present condition.'--[Telegraph of Feb. 19, 1831.]
Jesuitism was never more subtle--Papal domination never more exclusive.
The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who holds that ignorance
is the mother of devotion! who would sequestrate the bible from the eyes
of his fellow men! who contends that knowledge is the enemy of religion!
who denies the efficacy of education in elevating a degraded population!
who would make men brutes in order to make them better christians! who
desires to make the clergy infallible guides to heaven! Now what folly
and impiety is all this! Besides, is it not mockery to preach
repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to the benighted blacks,
and at the same time deny them the right and ability to 'search the
scriptures' for themselves?
The proposition which was made last year to erect a College for the
education of colored youth in New-Haven, it is well known, created an
extraordinary and most disgraceful tumult in that place, (the hot-bed of
African colonization,) and was generally scouted by the friends of the
Society in other places. The American Spectator at Washington, (next to
the African Repository, the mouth-piece of the Society,) used the
following language, in relation to the violent proceedings of the
citizens of New-Haven: 'We not only _approve the course_, which they
have pursued, but we _admire the moral courage_, which induced them,
_for the love of right_, (!) to incur the censure of both sections of
the country.'
As a farther illustration of the complacency with which colonizationists
regard the laws prohibiting the instruction of the blacks, I extract the
following paragraph from the 'Proceedings of the New-York State
Colonization Society, on its second anniversary:'
'It is the business of the free--_their safety requires it_--to
keep the slaves in ignorance. Their education is utterly
prohibited. Educate them, and they break their fetters. Suppose
the slaves of the south to have the knowledge of freemen, they
would be free, or be exterminated by the whites. This renders it
necessary to prevent their instruction--to keep them from Sunday
Schools, and other means of gaining knowledge. But a few days
ago, a proposition was made in the legislature of Georgia, to
allow them so much instruction as to enable them to read the
bible; which was promptly rejected by a large majority. I do not
mention this for the purpose of _condemning the policy_ of the
slaveholding States, but to lament its _necessity_.'
Elias B. Caldwell, one of the founders, and the first Secretary of the
Parent Society, in a speech delivered at its formation, advanced the
following monstrous sentiments:
'The more you improve the condition of these people, the more
you cultivate their minds, the more _miserable_ you make them in
their present state. You give them a higher relish for those
privileges _which they can never attain_, and turn what you
intend for a blessing into a curse. No, if they must remain in
their present situation, _keep them in the lowest state of
ignorance and degradation_. The nearer you bring them to the
condition of _brutes_, the better chance do you give them of
possessing their apathy.'
So, then, the American Colonization Society advocates, and to a great
extent perpetuates the ignorance and degradation of the colored
population of the United States!
In a critical examination of the pages of the African Repository, and of
the reports and addresses of the Parent Society and its auxiliaries, I
cannot find in a single instance any impeachment of the conduct and
feelings of society toward the people of color, or any hint that the
prejudice which is so prevalent against them is unmanly and sinful, or
any evidence of contrition for past injustice, or any remonstrance or
entreaty with a view to a change of public sentiment, or any symptoms of
moral indignation at such unchristian and anti-republican treatment. On
the contrary, I find the doctrine every where inculcated that this
hatred and contempt, this abuse and proscription, are not only
excusable, but the natural, inevitable and incurable effects of
constitutional dissimilitude, growing out of an ordination of
Providence, for which there is no remedy but a separation between the
two races. If the free blacks, then, have been 'still further degraded
by the mockery of nominal freedom,' if they 'must always be a separate
and degraded race,' if 'degradation must and will press them to the
earth,' if from their present station 'they can never rise, be their
talents, their enterprise, their virtues what they may,' if 'in Africa
alone, they can enjoy the motives for honorable ambition,' the American
Colonization Society is responsible for their debasement and misery; for
as it numbers among its supporters the most influential men in our
country, and boasts of having the approbation of an overwhelming
majority of the wise and good whose examples are laws, it is able, were
it willing, to effect a radical change in public sentiment--nay, it is
at the present time public sentiment itself. But though it has done
much, and may do more, (all that it can it will do,) to depress,
impoverish and dispirit the free people of color, and to strengthen and
influence mutual antipathies, it is the purpose of God, I am fully
persuaded, to humble the pride of the American people by rendering the
expulsion of our colored countrymen utterly impracticable, and the
necessity for their admission to equal rights imperative. As neither
mountains of prejudice, nor the massy shackles of law and of public
opinion, have been able to keep them down to a level with slaves, I
confidently anticipate their exaltation among ourselves. Through the
vista of time,--a short distance only,--I see them here, not in Africa,
not bowed to the earth, or derided and persecuted as at present, not
with a downcast air or an irresolute step, but standing erect as men
destined heavenward, unembarrassed, untrammelled, with none to molest or
make them afraid.
FOOTNOTES:
[V] Walker's Appeal.
[W] Why is it that the free people of color are now, in almost every
part of our country, threatened with banishment from State to State, and
with hunting from city to city, until there shall be no place for the
soles of their feet in this their native land? Is it because they are in
reality, as slaveholders tell us, an inferior race of beings? No, my
friends: their consistent conduct, their polished manners, and their
great respectability, wherever they have enjoyed the advantages of
equality of education and equality of motives, proclaim the contrary.
The true cause of this almost universal prescription is to be found in
the melancholy fact that we have been guilty of the most atrocious
injustice to their forefathers and to themselves. We would therefore now
banish the evidence of our guilt from before our eyes: for whom a man
has injured, he is almost sure to hate. Some of the finest men I met
with, during a residence of three years in London and Paris, were the
offspring of African mothers. There no distinction is made in any grade
of society, on account of color. I have repeatedly seen black gentlemen
sitting on the sofas, conversing with the ladies, at the hospitable
mansion of that universal philanthropist, LAFAYETTE; and there were no
persons present who appeared more respectable, or who were more
respected.--[Address of Arnold Buffum, President of the New-England
Anti-Slavery Society, delivered in Boston, Feb. 16, 1832.]
[X] In England, it is common to see respectable and genteel people open
their pews when a black stranger enters the church; and at hotels,
nobody thinks it a degradation to have a colored traveller sit at the
same table. We have heard a well authenticated anecdote, which
illustrates the different state of feeling in the two countries on this
subject. A wealthy American citizen was residing at London for a season,
which time the famous Mr Prince Saunders was there. The London breakfast
hour is very late; and Prince Saunders happened to call upon the
American while his family were taking their morning repast. Politeness
and native good feelings prompted the lady to ask her guest to take a
cup of coffee--but then the _prejudices of society_--how could she
overcome _them_? True, he was a gentleman in character, manners and
dress; but he had a black skin; and how could white skins sit at the
same table with him? If his _character_ had been as black as perdition,
the difficulty might have been overcome, however reluctantly; but his
_skin_ being black, it was altogether out of the question. So the lady
sipped her coffee, and Prince Saunders sat at the window, occasionally
speaking in reply to conversation addressed to him. At last all retired
from the breakfast table--and then the lady, with an air of sudden
recollection, said, 'I forgot to ask if you had breakfasted, Mr
Saunders! Won't you let me give you a cup of coffee?' 'I thank you,
madam,' he replied, with a dignified bow, 'I am engaged to breakfast
with the PRINCE REGENT this morning!'
We laugh at the narrow bigotry of the Mahometan, who feels contaminated
if a Christian shares his dinner, and who will not give his vile carcass
burial, for fear of pollution. Is our prejudice against persons of color
more rational or more just? The plain fact is, our prejudice has the
same foundation as that of the Mahometan--both are grounded in pride and
selfishness. A law has lately passed in Turkey, imposing a fine upon
whoever shall call a Christian a dog. _Let us try to keep pace with the
Turks in candor and benevolence._--[Massachusetts Journal and Tribune.]