Footnote 20:
Officer of U. S. Navy, in Gurley’s Report. Vice President Benson also
bears the following testimony to an improvement in the character of
the natives.
“It is also gratifying to know that the natives are becoming
increasingly assimilated to us in manners and habits; their
requisitions for civilized productions increase annually; they are
seldom satisfied with the same size and quality of the piece of cloth
they wore last year—some of them habitually wear a pair of pantaloons,
shirt or coat, and others all of these at once: and of the thousands
that have intercourse with our settlements, and used to glory in their
greegree, and were afraid to utter an expression against it, very many
of them are now ashamed to be seen with a vestige of it about them,
and if a particle of it should be about them, they try to secrete it,
and if detected, it is with mortification depicted in their
countenances; they disclaim it, or make some excuse. There is also
manifestly, a spirit of commendable competition among them throughout
the country; they try to rival each other in many of the civilized
customs, a pride and ambition that I feel sure will never abate
materially, till they are raised to the perfect level of civilized
life, and flow in one common channel with us, civilly and religiously.
It is certainly progressing, and though some untoward circumstances
may retard its consummation, yet nothing shall ultimately prevent it.”
Footnote 21:
The details of mortality connected with the Baptist mission, have been
given full, as an example of the effects of the climate on white
missionaries.
Footnote 22:
Letter to the Colonization Herald, October, 1853.
Footnote 23:
“Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or
accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing
the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can
be supported. The power claimed never was in use here, or
acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause
returned is sufficient by the law; and therefore the man must be
discharged.”—_Close of Lord Mansfield’s decision in the Somerset
case._
Footnote 24:
Clarkson’s History of the slave trade.
Footnote 25:
Wadstrom, page 220.
Footnote 26:
Memoirs of Granville Sharp.
Footnote 27:
Wadstrom, page 221.
Footnote 28:
Wadstrom.
Footnote 29:
They had first gone to Nova Scotia, from whence they sailed to Sierra
Leone.
Footnote 30:
See my Lectures on African Colonization, and on the Relations of Free
Labor to Slave Labor, for the main facts in relation to the increase
of the Slave-trade.
Footnote 31:
It does not appear that the Nova Scotia fugitives sent their children
to these Schools.
Footnote 32:
Although these Nova Scotia free blacks,—or rather these American
fugitive slaves,—had gone to work so freely at first, in building
churches and establishing schools, nothing farther is heard of them,
in the history of missions, until the Wesleyans, 18 years afterwards,
undertook their spiritual oversight. Their failure in securing the
civil privileges for which they took up arms, seems to have placed
them in a position of antagonism to the English Church.
Footnote 33:
“Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.”
Footnote 34:
“Where are your charms?” said a Mohammedan chief, under whom part of
the Christian converts fought against the Dahomians. “You will all be
killed.” “We have no charms,” was the simple reply, “but our faith in
the Son of God, who died for sinners.” A watchful eye was kept upon
them in the field of battle, for it was said that Christianity was
making women of them; but they acquitted themselves like men: so much
so, as to gain the praise even of those who persecuted them; and the
result showed that it was possible to be brave, and yet Christian, and
to escape the risks of battle without amulets.—_Church Missionary
Intelligencer, Oct. 1853._
When, in the midst of the battle, another chief, addressing one of the
converts, exclaimed: “Ah, Kashi, if all fought like you, they might
follow what religion they like.”—“_Sunrise in the Tropics._”
Footnote 35:
Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1853.
Footnote 36:
Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.
Footnote 37:
Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1853.
Footnote 38:
Capt. Paul Cuffee, a wealthy colored man of Boston, in 1815, took out
38 emigrants to Sierra Leone.
Footnote 39:
The whole population on the present enlarged territory of Liberia, is
estimated at 300,000; but the partly civilized population, called
citizens, is only 80,000.
Footnote 40:
The native population, along the coast, are found to be more degraded
than those of the interior.
Footnote 41:
BISHOP AMES, at the anniversary meeting of our Missionary Society,
held in Cincinnati, 1853, paid the following just compliment to the
Republic of Liberia:—
“Nations reared under religious and political restraint are not
capable of self-government, while those who enjoy only partially these
advantages have set an example of such capability. We have in
illustration of this a well-authenticated historical fact: we refer to
the colored people of this country, who, though they have grown up
under the most unfavorable circumstances, were enabled to succeed in
establishing a sound republican government in Africa. They have given
the most clear and indubitable evidence of their capability of
self-government, and in this respect have shown a higher grade of
manhood than the polished Frenchman himself.”—_Methodist Mis. Adv._
Footnote 42:
Missionary Herald, January, 1854.
Footnote 43:
Missionary Herald, August, 1853.
Footnote 44:
See Moffat’s South African Missions.
Footnote 45:
Missionary Herald, for December, 1853, and January, 1854.
Footnote 46:
Missionary Herald, February, 1853.
Footnote 47:
Recent developments at Sierra Leone, have proved, beyond all question,
that certain persons, in that English Colony, have long been secretly
engaged in the slave-trade. There is reason to believe, however, that
these wars have been excited by the English scheme of restocking their
West India plantations by purchasing _emigrants_, at $10 per head,
from the African chiefs. See the letter of President Roberts, on this
subject, in Appendix.
Footnote 48:
American Missionary, March, 1853.
Footnote 49:
Barbarism is the ignorance of infancy prolonged into adult age. This
definition will convey a true idea of its relations to moral and
religious truth.
Footnote 50:
The German term for farmers.
Footnote 51:
Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, October, 1853.
Footnote 52:
Report of Annual Meeting, May, 1853.
Footnote 53:
Baird’s Retrospect, pages 400–2.
Footnote 54:
The comparative condition of the missions in West Africa, South
Africa, and the West Indies, according to Baird’s Retrospect for 1850,
was as follows:
W. Africa. S. Africa. W. Indies.
Missionaries, 93 214 283
Assistant Missionaries, 170 155 36
Native Assistants, 75 8 349
Communicants, 9,625 12,116 75,503
Schools, 152 60 160
Pupils, 13,631 20,102 11,042
Footnote 55:
In England.
Footnote 56:
United States.
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