Thoughts on African Colonization Part 17

But it powerfully tends to veil the existing and outrageous atrocity of negro slavery; and it corroborates against the people of color, whether enslaved or free, one of the most base, groundless, and cruel prejudices, that has ever disgraced the powerful, or afflicted the weak.

The following calculations may throw further light upon the subject.

The United States have about 2,000,000 slaves, and about 500,000 free colored people.

The American Colonization Society has existed for thirteen years, and has exported yearly, upon an average, about 150 persons.

Meanwhile the natural yearly increase has been 56,000 souls; and nearly a million have died in slavery!!

But it may be said, this is only the beginning--more may be expected hereafter.--Let us see.

The average price of transporting each individual is calculated at 30 dollars: suppose it to be reduced to 20, and then, as 56,000 must be exported yearly, in order merely to prevent increase, 1,120,000 dollars would be yearly requisite simply for transportation. Where is this vast sum to come from? Or suppose it supplied, still, in the ma.s.s of crime and wretchedness, as it now exists, there would be _no decrease_! Two millions of human beings every 30 years would still be _born_ and _die_ in slavery!!

But perhaps you wish to extinguish the crime in thirty years.

Then you must begin by transporting at least 100,000 yearly. In order to do this, you must have an annual income of upwards of 2,000,000 dollars; and if you have not only to transport, but also to purchase, you would probably want yearly, _twenty millions_ more!!

Where are you to get this?--

Or suppose it got, and still one generation would perish in their wretchedness; 2,000,000 of immortal souls--plundered by you of the most sacred rights of human nature; of rights _always the same_, and everlastingly _inalienable_, however plundered--would have perished _unredressed_, and gone to confront you at the bar of G.o.d.

And will He not make inquisition for blood? And what will it avail you to say, "Oh, we satisfied ourselves, and traversed land and sea, and spent thousands to satisfy others, that if we transported a few hundreds or thousands of our oppressed fellow-subjects to a distant country, yearly, with care, we might guiltlessly leave the remaining hundreds of thousands, or the millions, in slavery, and harmlessly indulge the invincible repugnance which we felt to a colored skin. We really thought it better, to exile our colored brethren from their native country, or to render their lives in it, intolerable by scorn, should they obstinately persist in remaining in it;--we really thought this better, than humbling ourselves before our brother and our G.o.d, and returning to both with repenting and undissembling love."

Is not such language similar to the swearer's prayer!!

Great Britain and the United States, the two most favored, and the two most guilty nations upon earth, both need rebuke. They ought to be brethren, mutually dear and honorable to each other, in all that is true and kind. But never, never, let them support one another in guilt.

People of Great Britain, it is your business--it is _your duty_,--to give to negro slavery no rest, but to put it down--not by letting the trunk alone, while you idly busy yourselves in lopping off, or in aiding others to lop off, a few of the straggling branches--but by laying the axe at once to its roots, and by putting your united nerve into the steel, till this great poison-tree of l.u.s.t and blood, and of all abominable and heartless iniquity, fall before you; and law, and love, and G.o.d and man, shout victory over its ruin.

Hearken--thus saith the Lord, "Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them." Prov. xxii. 22, 23.

LONDON, July 15, 1831. C. STUART.'[Y]

Sometimes the Society professes to be able to remove the whole colored population in less than thirty years! and the belief is prevalent that the project is feasible. Again it tells us--

'Admitting that the colonization scheme contemplates the ultimate abolition of slavery, yet that result could only be produced _by the gradual and slow operation of_ CENTURIES.' * *

'How came we by this population? By the prevalence for a century of a guilty commerce. And will not the prevalence _for a century_ of a restoring commerce, place them on their own sh.o.r.es? Yes, surely!' * * 'There are those, Sir, who ask--and could not a quarter century cease and determine the two great evils? You and I, my dear Sir, on whom the frost of time has fallen rather perceptibly, would say a century. And now, let me ask, could ever a century, in the whole course of human affairs, be better employed?'--[African Repository, vol. i. pp. 217, 347; vol. v. p. 366.]

'It is not the work of a day nor a year, it is not a work of one time, nor of two, nor of three, but it is one which will now commence, _and may continue for ages_.'--[A new and interesting View of Slavery. By Humanitas, a colonization advocate.

Baltimore, 1820.]

Wild enthusiasts in the cause may respond--'The Society never expected to accomplish much single-handed: it is about to enlist the energies of the General Government--and doubtless Congress will appropriate several millions of dollars annually for the purchase and colonization of the slaves.'

But are they sure, or is it probable, that Congress will make this appropriation? And if it should, what can they do without the consent of the people of color to remove? That consent can never be obtained. Is it, then, proposed to buy the slaves of their masters, as if the claim of property were valid? It were better that the money should rust at the bottom of the deep!--better to buy bank-notes, and convert them to ashes! To purchase slaves would only serve to make brisk the slave-market. Their value would immediately rise in all the slave States; especially in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, where they are now comparatively worthless--_and there would be an end to voluntary emanc.i.p.ation_: for who would sacrifice his 'property,' when he might obtain an equivalent for it? Slave traders and slave owners would be zealous to prevent any lack of miserable objects for the bounty offered by government: if the natural increase were not sufficient, they would be careful to make the importation from Africa exceed the exportation to that ill-fated continent. Such a purchase would be directly patronising the slave trade, at home and abroad, and bribing masters to keep their slaves for the highest bidder. Besides, it would be a gross violation of the great fundamental principle, that 'man cannot hold property in man.'

I know it is easy to make calculations. I know it is an old maxim, that 'figures cannot lie:' and I very well know, too, that our philanthropic arithmeticians are prodigiously fond of FIGURING, but of doing nothing else. Give them a slate and pencil, and in fifteen minutes they will clear the continent of every black skin; and, if desired, throw in the Indians to boot. While they depopulate America, they find not the least difficulty in providing for the wants of the emigrating myriads to the coast of Africa: we have s.h.i.+ps enough, and, notwithstanding the hardness of the times, money enough. O, the surpa.s.sing utility of the arithmetic!

it is more potent than the stone of the philosopher, which, _when discovered_, is to trans.m.u.te, at a touch, base metal into pure gold!

In one breath, colonization orators tell us that the free blacks are pests in the community; that they are an intemperate, ignorant, lazy, thievish cla.s.s; that their condition is worse than that of the slaves; and that no efforts to improve them in this country can be successful, owing to the prejudices of society. In the next breath we are told what mighty works these miserable outcasts are to achieve--that they are the missionaries of salvation,[Z] who are to illumine all Africa--that they will build up a second American republic--and that our conceptions cannot grasp the result of their labors. Now I, for one, have no faith in this instantaneous metamorphosis.[AA] I believe that neither a sea voyage nor an African climate has any miraculous influence upon the brain. I believe that ignorant and depraved black men, who are transported across the ocean, will be ignorant and depraved black men on reaching the coast of Africa. I believe, also, that they who are capable of doing well, surrounded by barbarians, may do better among a civilized and christian people.

It is stated in a Circular put forth by the Society last year, that 'from the _actual experience_ of the Society, it has been found that $20, _or less_, will defray the whole expense of transporting an individual to the Colony.' This is a very deceptive statement. The receipts of the Society from 1820 to 1830, amounted to $112,841 89; the expenses during the same period were $106,457 72; balance on hand, $6,384 17. Nineteen expeditions had been fitted out, and 1,857 emigrants,[AB] _including re-captured Africans_, landing on the sh.o.r.es of Africa--averaging annually, for the ten years, about 186 persons, or since the organization of the Society, about 124 persons. 'The emigrants,' the Board of Managers inform us, in a recent address to Auxiliary Societies, 'for the last three years, average about 227, while the expenses, _exclusive of transportation, and temporary subsistence of the new colonists_, exceed TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS'!! In the very last number of the African Repository, (for April, 1832,) the Vice-Agent at Liberia, A. D. Williams, writes to the Rev. R. R. Gurley as follows:--'I think the price, say $35, fixed by the Board for the transportation of each emigrant, _is entirely too low_: it should be at least $40, if not $45.' Why, then, does the Society attempt to impose upon public credulity, by stating that only $20 are requisite for every individual transportation, when the actual cost has been more than thrice, and is likely to be more than double that amount?[AC]

The Society has succeeded in making the people believe that the establishment of a colony or colonies on the coast of Africa is the only way to abolish the foreign slave trade: on this account it has secured an extensive patronage. Here is another fatal delusion. I shall show not only that it has not injured this trade in the least, but that the trade _continues to increase in activity and cruelty_. Let us look at its own admissions.

'We regret to say, that the slave trade appears to be carried on to a great extent, and with circ.u.mstances of the most revolting cruelty.' * * * 'The French slave trade, notwithstanding the efforts of the government, appears to be undiminished. The number of Spanish vessels employed in the trade is immense, and as the treaty between England and Spain only permits the seizure of vessels having slaves actually on board, many of these watch their opportunity on the coast, run in, and receive all their slaves on board in a single day.' * * 'By an official doc.u.ment from Rio de Janeiro, it appears that the following importations of slaves were made into that port in 1826 and 1827.

'1826, landed alive, 35,966 ... died on the pa.s.sage 1,905 '1827, landed alive, 41,384 ... died on the pa.s.sage 1,643

'Thus it would seem, (says the Boston Gazette,) that to only one port in the Brazils, and in the course of two years, _seventy-seven thousand three hundred and fifty_ human beings were transported from their own country, and placed in a state of slavery.'--[African Repository, vol. i. v. pp. 179, 181.]

'It is not by legal arguments, or penal statutes, or armed s.h.i.+ps, that the slave trade can be prevented. Almost every power in Christendom has denounced it. It has been declared felony--it has been declared piracy; and the fleets of Britain and America have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Still, in defiance of all this array of legislation and of armament, slave s.h.i.+ps ride triumphant on the ocean; and in these floating caverns, less terrible only than the caverns which demons occupy, from sixty to eighty thousand wretches, received pinioned from the coast of Africa, are borne annually away to slavery or death. Of these wretches a frightful number are, with an audacity that amazes, landed and disposed of within the jurisdiction of this republic.'--[Idem, vol. v. 274.]

'Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made to suppress the slave trade, by means of solemn treaties and laws declaring it to be piracy; and notwithstanding the attempts to exterminate it by the naval forces of the United States and Great Britain, the inhuman traffic is still pursued to as great an extent as at any former period, and with greater cruelty than ever.'--[African Repository, vol. vi. p. 345.]

'The slave trade, which many suppose has been every where abolished for years, there is reason to believe is still carried on to almost as great an extent as ever. It has been recently stated in the papers, that an a.s.sociation of merchants at Nantz, in France, had undertaken to supply the island of Cuba with thirty thousand fresh negro slaves annually! And in Brazil, it is well known, that for several years past, the importations have even exceeded this number.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 248.]

'Africa, for three long centuries, has been ravaged by the slave trade. Notwithstanding all that has been done to suppress that traffic, notwithstanding its formal abolition by all civilized nations, it is carried on at the present hour, _with all its atrocities unmitigated_. The flags of France, Portugal, Brazil, and Spain, with the connivance of those governments, afford to the slave trader, in spite of laws and treaties and armed cruisers, a partial protection, of which he avails himself to the utmost. And with what cruelty he carries on his war against human nature, every year affords us ill.u.s.trations sufficiently horrible.'--[Christian Spectator for September, 1830.]

'This horrible traffic, notwithstanding its abolition by every civilized nation in the world, except Portugal and Brazil, and notwithstanding the decided measures of the British and American governments, is still carried on to almost as great an extent as ever. Not less than 60,000 slaves, according to the most moderate computation, are carried from Africa annually. This trade is carried on by Americans to the American states. And the cruelties of this trade, which always surpa.s.sed the powers of the human mind to conceive, _are greater now than they ever were before_. We might, but we will not, refer to stories, recent stories, of which the very recital would be torment.'--[Seventh Annual Report.]

'Notwithstanding the vigilance of the powers now engaged to suppress the slave trade, I have received information, that in a single year, in the single island of Cuba, slaves equal in amount to one half of the above number of fifty-two thousand have been illicitly introduced.' * * 'Mr Mercer submitted the following preamble and resolutions:--Whereas, to the affliction of the Christian world, the African slave trade, notwithstanding all the efforts, past and present, for its suppression, still exists and is conducted _with aggravated cruelty_, by the resources of one continent, to the dishonor of another, and to an extent little short of the desolation of a third,'

&c.--[Tenth Annual Report.]

'It is painful to state, that the Managers have reason to believe that the slave trade is still prosecuted, to a great extent, and with circ.u.mstances of undiminished atrocity. The fact, that much was done by Mr Ashmun to banish it from the territory, under the colonial jurisdiction, is unquestionable; but, _it now exists, even on this territory_; and a little to the north and south of Liberia, it is seen in its true characters--of fraud, rapine, and blood! In the opinion of the late Agent, the present efforts to suppress this trade must prove abortive.'--[Thirteenth Annual Report.]

'Some appalling facts in regard to the slave trade have come to the knowledge of the Board of Managers during the last year.

_With undiminished atrocity and activity_ is this odious traffic now carried on _all along the African coast_. Slave factories are established _in the immediate vicinity of the Colony_, and at the Gallinas (between Liberia and Sierra Leone) not less than nine hundred slaves were s.h.i.+pped during the last summer, in the s.p.a.ce of three weeks.'--[Fourteenth Annual Report, 1831.]

'In defiance of all laws enacted, it is estimated that no less than _fifty thousand_ Africans were, during the last year, (1831,) carried into foreign slavery. During the months of February and March of the same year, two thousand were landed on the island of Cuba.'--[Circular published by the Ma.s.sachusetts Colonization Society for 1832.]

Here, then, is the acknowledgment of the Society, that it has accomplished _nothing_ toward the suppression of the slave trade in fifteen years! Nor has the settlement at Sierra Leone effected aught in thirty years! Nor have the untiring labors of Wilberforce and Clarkson, for a longer period, produced any visible effect! The accursed traffic still continues to increase--and why? Simply _because the market for slaves is not destroyed_. Break up this market, and you annihilate the slave trade. Keep it open, and you may line the sh.o.r.es of Africa and America with naval s.h.i.+ps and armed troops, and the trade will continue.

No proposition in Euclid is plainer. So long as there is a brisk market for goods, that market will be supplied. The a.s.sertion has been made in Congress by Mr Mercer of Virginia, (one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society,) that these horrible cargoes are smuggled into our southern states to a deplorable extent. In 1819, Mr Middleton, of South Carolina, declared it to be his belief 'that 13,000 Africans were annually smuggled into our southern states.' Mr Wright of Virginia estimated the number at 15,000!!!--[_Vide_ Seventh Annual Report--app.]--This number is seven times as great as that which the Colonization Society has transported in fifteen years![AD] By letting the system of slavery alone, then, and striving to protect it, the Society is encouraging and perpetuating the foreign slave trade!

FOOTNOTES:

[Y] 'We think the annual increase, as computed by Capt. Stuart, too low by 10 or 15,000. The estimate also of the expense of transportation is much below the actual cost. Besides, there is no provision made for the support of these helpless beings after their arrival in Africa, until they could provide for their own wants. Double the cost of transportation would be required for their subsistence till they could maintain themselves, without making any provision for implements of husbandry, mechanics' tools, &c. &c. without which they would all perish, even without the help of a pestiferous climate. But yet the table shows at one view the utter futility of the whole scheme of African Colonization. Slavery can no more be removed by these means than the waters of the Mississippi can be exhausted by steam engines. And the removal of slavery is the great consummation to which all benevolent efforts for benefitting the African race in this country, should ultimately tend. All schemes that do not promote this end will prove futile, and will end in disappointment. The axe must be laid to the root of the corrupt tree. It is a system that admits of no palliation, no compromise.'--['Herald of Truth,' Philadelphia.]

[Z] 'Every emigrant to Africa is a _missionary_ carrying with him credentials in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free inst.i.tutions'!!--[Speech of H. Clay--Tenth Annual Report.]--Why does not Mr Clay increase this band of _missionaries_, by sending out some of his own slaves? Is he consistent?