man on the topics of education, and of the great prevalency of
ignorance among us: Said he, "I know that our people are very ignorant
but my son has a good education: he can write as well as any white
man, and I assure you that no one can fool him," etc. Said I, what
else can your son do, besides writing a good hand? Can he post a set
of books in a mercantile manner? Can he write a neat piece of
composition in prose or in verse? To these interrogations he answered
in the negative. Said I, Did your son learn, while he was at school,
the width and depth of English Grammar? to which he also replied in
the negative, telling me his son did not learn those things. Your son,
said I, then, has hardly any learning at all--he is almost as
ignorant, and more so, than many of those who never went to school one
day in their lives. My friend got a little put out, and so walking off
said that his son could write as well as any white man.--Most of the
coloured people, when they speak of the education of one among us who
can write a neat hand, and who perhaps knows nothing but to scribble
and puff pretty fair on a small scrap of paper, immaterial whether his
words are grammatical, or spelt correctly, or not; if it only looks
beautiful, they say he has as good an education as any white man--he
can write as well as any white man, etc. The poor, ignorant creature,
hearing this, he is ashamed, forever after, to let any person see him
humbling himself to another for knowledge but going about trying to
deceive those who are more ignorant than himself, he at last falls an
ignorant victim to death in wretchedness. I pray that the Lord may
undeceive my ignorant brethren, and permit them to throw away
pretensions, and seek after the substance of learning. I would crawl
on my hands and knees through mud and mire, to the feet of a learned
man, where I would sit and humbly supplicate him to instil into me,
that which neither devils nor tyrants could remove, only with my
life--for the Africans to acquire learning in this country, makes
tyrants quake and tremble on their sandy foundation. Why what is the
matter? Why, they know that their infernal deeds of cruelty will be
made known to the world. Do you suppose one man of good sense and
learning would submit himself, his father, mother, wife and children,
to be slaves to a wretched man like himself, who, instead of
compensating him for his labours, chains, handcuffs and beats him and
family almost to death, leaving life enough in them, however, to work
for, and call him master? No! no! he would cut his devilish throat
from ear to ear, and well do slaveholders know it. The bare name of
educating the coloured people, scares our cruel oppressors almost to
death. But if they do not have enough to be frightened for yet, it
will be, because they can always keep us ignorant, and because God
approbates their cruelties, with which they have been for centuries
murdering us. The whites shall have enough of the blacks, yet, as true
as God sits on his throne in heaven.
Some of our brethren are so very full of learning that you cannot
mention any thing to them which they do not know better than
yourself!!--nothing is strange to them!!--they knew every thing years
ago!--if any thing should be mentioned in company where they are,
immaterial how important it is respecting us or the world, if they had
not divulged it; they make light of it, and affect to have known it
long before it was mentioned, and try to make all in the room, or
wherever you may be, believe that your conversation is nothing--not
worth hearing!! All this is the result of ignorance and ill-breeding;
for a man of good breeding, sense, and penetration, if he had heard a
subject told twenty times over and should happen to be in company
where one should commence telling it again, he would wait with
patience on its narrator, and see if he would tell it as it was told
in his presence before--paying the most strict attention to what is
said, to see if any more light will be thrown on the subject; for all
men are not gifted alike in telling, or even hearing the most simple
narration. These ignorant, vicious, and wretched men, contribute
almost as much injury to our body as tyrants themselves, by doing so
much for the promotion of ignorance amongst us; for they, making such
pretensions to knowledge, such of our youth as are seeking after
knowledge, and can get access to them, take them as criterions to go
by, who will lead them into a channel, where, unless the Lord blesses
them with the privilege of seeing their error, they will be
irretrievably lost forever, while in time!!
I must close this article by narrating the very heart-rending fact,
that I have examined school-boys and young men of colour in different
parts of the country, in the most simple parts of Murray's English
Grammar, and not more than one in thirty was able to give a correct
answer to my interrogations. If any one contradicts me, let him step
out of his door into the streets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or
Baltimore, (no use to mention any other, for the Christians are too
charitable further south or west!)--I say, let him who disputes me,
step out of his door into the streets of either of those four cities,
and promiscuously collect one hundred school boys or young men of
colour, _who have been to school_, and who are considered by the
coloured people to have received an excellent education, because,
perhaps, some of them can write a good hand, but who notwithstanding
their neat writing, may be almost as ignorant, in comparison, as
horses. And, I say it, he will hardly find (in this enlightened day,
and in the midst of this _charitable_ people) five in one hundred, who
are able to correct the false grammar of their language. The cause of
this almost universal ignorance amongst us, I appeal to our
school-masters to declare. Here is a fact, which I this very minute
take from the mouth of a young coloured man, who has been to school in
this state (Massachusetts) nearly nine years, and who knows grammar
this day, _nearly_ as well as he did the day he first entered the
school-house, under a white master. This young man says--"My master
would never allow me to study grammar."--I asked him why? "The school
committee," said he, "forbid the colored children learning
grammar--they would not allow any but the white children to study
grammar."
It is a notorious fact that the major part of the white Americans
have, ever since we have been among them, tried to keep us ignorant
and make us believe that God made us and our children to be slaves to
them and theirs. _Oh! my God, have mercy on Christian Americans!!_
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Which is the reason the whites take the advantage of us.
[11] See his Notes on Virginia, page 213.
ARTICLE III.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE PREACHERS OF THE RELIGION
OF JESUS CHRIST.
RELIGION, my brethren, is a substance of deep consideration among all
nations of the earth. The Pagans have a kind, as well as the
Mahometans, the Jews and the Christians. But pure and undefiled
religion, such as was preached by Jesus Christ and his apostles, is
hard to be found in all the earth. God, through his instrument, Moses,
handed a dispensation of his divine will to the children of Israel
after they had left Egypt for the land of Canaan, or of Promise, who
through hypocrisy, oppression, and unbelief, departed from the faith.
He then, by his apostles handed a dispensation of his, together with
the will of Jesus Christ, to the Europeans in Europe, who, in open
violation of which, have made _merchandize_ of us, and it does appear
as though they take this very dispensation to aid them in their
infernal depredations upon us. Indeed, the way in which religion was
and is conducted by the Europeans and their descendants, one might
believe it was a plan fabricated by themselves and the _devils_ to
oppress us. But hark! my master has taught me better than to believe
it--he has taught me that his gospel as it was preached by himself and
his apostles remains the same, notwithstanding Europe has tried to
mingle blood and oppression with it.
It is well known to the Christian world that Bartholomew Las Casas,
that very notoriously avaricious Catholic priest or preacher, and
adventurer with Columbus in his second voyage, proposed to his
countrymen, the Spaniards in Hispaniola, to import the Africans from
the Portuguese settlement in Africa, to dig up gold and silver, and
work their plantations for them, to effect which, he made a voyage
thence to Spain, and opened the subject to his master, Ferdinand, then
in declining health, who listened to the plan; but who died soon
after, and left it in the hands of his successor, Charles V.[12]--This
wretch, ("Las Cassas, the Preacher,") succeeded so well in his plans
of oppression, that in 1503, the first blacks had been imported into
the new world. Elated with this success, and stimulated by sordid
avarice only, he importuned Charles V. in 1511, to grant permission
to a Flemish merchant to import 4000 blacks at one time. Thus we see,
through the instrumentality of a pretended preacher of the gospel of
Jesus Christ our common master, our wretchedness first commenced in
America--where it has been continued from 1503 to this day, 1829. A
period of three hundred and twenty-six years. But two hundred and
nine, from 1620--when twenty of our fathers were brought into
Jamestown, Virginia, by a Dutch man-of-war, and sold off like brutes
to the highest bidders; and there is not a doubt in my mind, but that
tyrants are in hopes to perpetuate our miseries under them and their
children until the final consummation of all things. But if they do
not get dreadfully, deceived, it will be because God has forgotten
them.
The Pagans, Jews and Mahometans try to make proselytes to their
religions, and whatever human beings adopt their religions, they
extend to them their protection. But Christian Americans not only
hinder their fellow creatures, the Africans, but thousands of them
will _absolutely beat a coloured person nearly to death, if they catch
him on his knees, supplicating the throne of grace_. This barbarous
cruelty was by all the heathen nations of antiquity, and is by the
Pagans, Jews and Mahometans of the present day, left entirely to
Christian Americans to inflict on the Africans and their descendants
that their cup which is nearly full may be completed. I have known
tyrants or usurpers of human liberty in different parts of this
country take their fellow creatures, the colored people, and beat them
until they would scarcely leave life in them; what for? Why they say,
"The black devils had the audacity to be found _making
prayers and supplications to the God who made them!!!_"
Yes, I have known small collections of coloured people to have
convened together, for no other purpose than to worship God Almighty,
in spirit and in truth, to the best of their knowledge; when tyrants,
calling themselves _patrols_, would also convene and wait almost in
breathless silence for the poor coloured people to commence singing
and praying to the Lord our God, and as soon as they had commenced the
wretches would burst in upon them and drag them out and commence
beating them as they would rattle-snakes--many of whom, they would
beat so unmercifully, that they would hardly be able to crawl for
weeks and sometimes for months.--Yet the American ministers send out
missionaries to convert the heathen, while they keep us and our
children sunk at their feet in the most abject ignorance and
wretchedness that ever a people was afflicted with since the world
began. Will the Lord suffer this people to proceed much longer? Will
he not stop them in their career? Does he regard the heathens abroad,
more than the heathens among the Americans? Surely the Americans must
believe that God is partial, notwithstanding his Apostle Peter,
declared before Cornelius and others that he has no respect to
persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh
righteousness is accepted with him.--
"The word," said he, "which God sent unto the children of
Israel, preaching peace, by Jesus Christ, (he is the Lord of
all.")[13]
Have not the Americans the Bible in their hands? Do they believe it?
Surely they do not. See how they treat us in open violation of the
Bible!! They no doubt will be greatly offended with me, but if God
does not awaken them, it will be, because they are superior to other
men, as they have represented themselves to be. Our divine Lord and
Master said
"all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
do ye even so unto them."
But an American minister, with the Bible in his hand, holds us and our
children in the most abject slavery and wretchedness. Now I ask them,
would they like for us to hold them and their children in abject
slavery and wretchedness? No says one, that never can be done--you
are too abject and ignorant to do it--you are not men--you were made
to be slaves to us, to dig up gold and silver for us and our children.
Know this, my dear sirs, that although you treat us and our children
now, as you do your domestic beasts--yet the final result of all
future events are known but to God Almighty alone, who rules in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and who
dethrones one earthly king and sits up another, as it seemeth good in
his holy sight. We may attribute these vicissitudes to what we please,
but the God of armies and of justice rules in heaven and in earth, and
the whole American people shall see and know it yet, to their
satisfaction. I have known pretended preachers of the gospel of my
Master, who not only held us as their natural inheritance, but treated
us with as much rigor as any Infidel or Deist in the world--just as
though they were intent only on taking our blood and groans to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked and ungodly, seeing their preachers
treat us with so much cruelty, they say: our preachers, who must be
right, if any body are, treat them like brutes, and why cannot
we?--They think it is no harm to keep them in slavery and put the whip
to them, and why cannot we do the same!--They being preachers of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, if it were any harm, they would surely preach
against their oppression and do their utmost to erase it from the
country; not only in one or two cities, but one continual cry would be
raised in all parts of this confederacy, and would cease only with the
complete overthrow of the system of slavery, in every part of the
country. But how far the American preachers are from preaching against
slavery and oppression, which have carried their country to the brink
of a precipice; to save them from plunging down the side of which,
will hardly be effected, will appear in the sequel of this paragraph,
which I shall narrate just as it transpired. I remember a Camp Meeting
in South Carolina, for which I embarked in a Steam Boat at
Charleston, and having been five or six hours on the water, we at last
arrived at the place of hearing, where was a very great concourse of
people, who were no doubt, collected together to hear the word of God,
(that some had collected barely as spectators to the scene, I will not
here pretend to doubt, however, that is left to themselves and their
God.) Myself and boat companions, having been there a little while, we
were all called up to hear; I among the rest, went up and took my
seat--being seated, I fixed myself in a complete position to hear the
word of my Saviour and to receive such as I thought was authenticated
by the Holy Scriptures; but to my no ordinary astonishment, our
Reverend gentleman got up and told us (colored people) that slaves
must be obedient to their masters--must do their duty to their masters
or be whipped--the whip was made for the backs of fools, &c. Here I
pause for a moment, to give the world time to consider what was my
surprise, to hear such preaching from a minister of my Master, whose
very gospel is that of peace and not of blood and whips, as this
pretended preacher tried to make us believe. What the American
preachers can think of us, I aver this day before my God, I have never
been able to define. They have newspapers and monthly periodicals,
which they receive in continual succession, but on the pages of which,
you will scarcely ever find a paragraph respecting slavery, which is
ten thousand times more injurious to this country than all the other
evils put together; and which will be the final overthrow of its
government, unless something is very speedily done; for their cup is
nearly full.--Perhaps they will laugh at, or make light of this; but I
tell you Americans! that unless you speedily alter your course, _you_
and your _Country are gone!!!!!!_ For God Almighty will tear up the
very face of the earth!!!! Will not that very remarkable passage of
Scripture be fulfilled on Christian Americans? Hear it Americans!!
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:--and be which
is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy,
let him be holy still."[14]
I hope that the Americans may hear, but I am afraid that they have
done us so much injury, and are so firm in the belief that our Creator
made us to be an inheritance to them forever, that their hearts will
be hardened, so that their destruction may be sure.--This language,
perhaps is too harsh for the American's delicate ears. But Oh
Americans! Americans!! I warn you in the name of the Lord, (whether
you will hear, or forbear,) to repent and reform, or you are
ruined!!!!!! Do you think that our blood is hidden from the Lord,
because you can hide it from the rest of the world by sending out
missionaries, and by your charitable deeds to the Greeks, Irish, &c.?
Will he not publish your secret crimes on the house top? Even here in
Boston, pride and prejudice have got to such a pitch, that in the very
houses erected to the Lord, they have built little places for the
reception of colored people, where they must sit during meeting, or
keep away from the house of God; and the preachers say nothing about
it--much less, go into the hedges and highways seeking the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and try to bring them in, to their Lord and
Master. There are hardly a more wretched, ignorant, miserable, and
abject set of beings in all the world, than the blacks in the Southern
and Western sections of this country, under tyrants and devils. The
preachers of America cannot see them, but they can send out
missionaries to convert the heathens, notwithstanding. Americans!
unless you speedily alter your course of proceeding, if God Almighty
does not stop you, I say it in his name, that you may go on and do as
you please for ever, both in time and eternity--never fear any evil at
all!!!!!!!!
[Hand->] ADDITION.--The preachers and people of the United States
form societies against Free Masonry and Intemperance, and write
against Sabbath breaking, Sabbath mails, Infidelity, &c. &c. But the
fountain head,[15] compared with which all those other evils are
comparatively nothing, and from the bloody and murderous head of
which, they receive no trifling support, is hardly noticed by the
Americans. This is a fair illustration of the state of society in this
country--it shows what a bearing _avarice_ has upon a people, when
they are nearly given up by the Lord to a hard heart and a reprobate
mind, in consequence of afflicting their fellow creatures. God suffers
some to go on until they are ruined for ever!! Will it be the case
with our brethren the whites of the United States of America? We hope
not--we would not wish to see them destroyed, notwithstanding they
have and do now treat us more cruel than any people have treated
another, on this earth since it came from the hands of its creator
(with the exception of the French and the Dutch, they treat us nearly
as bad as the Americans of the United States.) The will of God must
however, in spite of us, _be done_.
The English are the best friends the colored people have upon earth.
Tho' they have oppressed us a little, and have colonies now in the
West Indies, which oppress us _sorely_,--Yet notwithstanding they (the
English) have done one hundred times more for the melioration of our
condition, than all the other nations of the earth put together. The
blacks cannot but respect the English as a nation, notwithstanding
they have treated us a little cruel.
There is no intelligent _black man_ who knows any thing, but esteems a
real English man, let him see him in what part of the world he
will--for they are the greatest benefactors we have upon earth. We
have here and there, in other nations, good friends. But as a nation,
the English are our friends. [<-Hand]
How can the preachers and people of America believe the Bible? Does it
teach them any distinction on account of a man's color? Hearken,
Americans! to the injunctions of our Lord and Master, to his humble
followers.
[16]"And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,
"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world. Amen."
I declare, that the very face of these injunctions appears to be of
God and not of man. They do not show the slightest degree of
distinction.
"Go ye, therefore," (says my divine Master) "and teach all
nations," (or in other words, all people) "baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."
Do you understand the above, Americans? We are a people,
notwithstanding many of you doubt it. You have the Bible in your
hands, with this very injunction. Have you been to Africa, teaching
the inhabitants thereof the words of the Lord Jesus?
"Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost."
Have you not, on the contrary, entered among us, and learnt us the art
of throat-cutting, by setting us to fight, one against another, to
take each other as prisoners of war, and sell to you for small bits of
calicoes, old swords, knives, &c. to make slaves for you and your
children? This being done, have you not brought us among you, in
chains and handcuffs, like brutes, and treated us with all the
cruelties and rigour your ingenuity could invent, consistent with the
laws of your country, which (for the blacks) are tyrannical enough?
Can the American preachers appeal unto God, the Maker and Searcher of
hearts, and tell him, with the Bible in their hands, that they make no
distinction on account of men's colour? Can they say, O God! thou
knowest all things--thou knowest that we make no distinction between
thy creatures to whom we have to preach thy Word? Let them answer the
Lord; and if they cannot do it in the affirmative, have they not
departed from the Lord Jesus Christ, their master? But some may say,
that they never had or were in possession of a religion, which makes
no distinction, and of course they could not have departed from it. I
ask you then, in the name of the Lord, of what kind can your religion
be? Can it be that which was preached by our Lord Jesus Christ from
Heaven? I believe you cannot be so wicked as to tell him that his
Gospel was that of _distinction_. What can the American preachers and
people take God to be?--Do they believe his words? If they do, do they
believe that he will be mocked? Or do they believe because they are
whites and we blacks, that God will have respect to them? Did not God
make us as it seemed best to himself? What right, then, has one of us,
to despise another and to treat him cruel, on account of his colour,
which none but the God who made it can alter? Can there be a greater
absurdity in nature, and particularly in a free republican country?
But the Americans, having introduced slavery among them, their hearts
have become almost seared, as with an hot iron, and God has nearly
given them up to believe a lie in preference to the truth!!! and I am
awfully afraid that pride, prejudice, avarice and blood, will, before
long, prove the final ruin of this happy republic, or land of
liberty!!! Can any thing be a greater mockery of religion than the way
in which it is conducted by the Americans? It appears as though they
are bent only on daring God Almighty to do his best--they chain and
handcuff us and our children and drive us around the country like
brutes, and go into the house of the God of justice to return Him
thanks for having aided him in their infernal cruelties inflicted upon
us. Will the Lord suffer this people to go on much longer, taking his
holy name in vain? Will he not stop them, PREACHERS and all? O
Americans! Americans!! I call God--I call angels--I call men, to
witness, that your DESTRUCTION _is at hand_, and will be speedily
consummated unless you REPENT.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] See Butler's History of the United States, vol. 1, page 24. See
also, page 25.
[13] See the Acts of the Apostles, chap. x. v.--25--26.
[14] See Revelation, chap. xxii. v. 11.
[15] Slavery and oppression.
[16] See St. Matthew's Gospel, chap, xxviii. v. 18--19--20. After
Jesus was risen from the dead.
ARTICLE IV.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE COLONIZING PLAN.
My dearly beloved brethren:--This is a scheme on which so many able
writers, together with that very judicious colored Baltimorean, have
commented, that I feel my delicacy about touching it. But as I am
compelled to do the will of my master, I declare, I will give you my
sentiments upon it. Previous, however, to giving my sentiments, either
for or against it, I shall give that of Mr. Henry Clay together with
that of Mr. Elias B. Caldwell, Esq. of the District of Columbia, as
extracted from the National Intelligencer, by Dr. Torrey, author of a
series of "Essays on Morals, and the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge."
At a meeting which was convened in the District of Columbia, for the
express purpose of agitating the subject of colonizing us in some part
of the world, Mr. Clay was called to the chair, and having been seated
a little while, he rose and spake in substance, as follows: Says
he--[17]