Part 2

1. _Intellectual Condition of the Free Blacks._ Notwithstanding the privileges of education are nominally extended to them in the New-England, Middle, and some of the Southern and Western States, yet the prejudice which exists against their color serves to defeat, to a lamentable extent, the benevolent provisions of the law. In some cities and large towns, schools are maintained expressly for them. In Philadelphia, particularly, there are many distinct schools for colored children, some of which have at different times been taught by colored tutors, and much to their credit. “In these schools,” says a gentleman of that city, “where they have been under the superintendence of qualified instructers, forty years’ experience has proved, that they are no way inferior to the whites in the acquirement of learning.” In the country towns of the states above referred to, the children of the blacks are not unfrequently found in common schools with the whites. But their situation is frequently made so uncomfortable that most of the benefits of such attendance are lost. Still more unfrequently are they to be found at Academies or high schools even in New-England--and still more rarely do they find their way into Colleges. Mr. Russwurm, now in Liberia, is a graduate of Bowdoin College. Attempts were made some time since to establish a college exclusively for them in New-Haven, Conn. The plan, meeting with decided opposition from the inhabitants of that town, was finally abandoned. An attempt has been recently made to establish a high school for colored females in Canterbury, Conn. Vigorous and determined opposition has been manifested towards it by the inhabitants, so that its success is still doubtful. In many of the slave states, free blacks are not allowed to attend school, or to learn to read or write. Many of them, however, enjoy the benefits of sabbath school instruction, and commit to memory considerable portions of Scripture, &c. Yet a great majority are no doubt lamentably and grossly ignorant.

2. _Religious Privileges._ Except in large cities, where they are found in sufficient numbers to compose congregations by themselves, they attend public worship with the whites. But the unenviable distinctions which prevail even there, have a powerful influence in discouraging their attendance. In some parts of the country they enjoy the ministrations of preachers of their own color, and large numbers are said to be in communion with various churches.

3. _Moral Condition._ The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman of extensive information and philanthropy in the state of New York. “The fact, that out of 40,000 blacks in this state in 1825, but nine hundred and thirty-one were taxed, and but two hundred and ninety-eight were qualified to vote; and the further fact, that this population, according to its amount, furnishes ten-fold more of the inmates of our prisons and alms-houses, than our white population does, testify conclusively to the general improvidence, indolence, and abounding viciousness and misery of this unhappy portion of our fellow-men.”

The following tabular views, taken from the Report of the Prison Discipline Society, for 1827, exhibit, in regard to several states, the whole population at that time, the colored population, the whole number of convicts, the number of colored convicts, proportion of colored people to the whole population, and proportion of colored convicts.

+----------+----------+--------+--------+---------+-------- | | | Whole | No. of | Pro. of |Pro. of | White | Colored | No. of | Col. | Col. | Col. |Population|Population|Convicts|Convicts| People |Convicts +----------+----------+--------+--------+---------+-------- Massachusetts| 523,000| 7,000 | 314 | 50 | 1 to 74 | 1 to 6 Connecticut | 275,000| 8,000 | 117 | 39 | 1 to 34 | 1 to 3 New-York | 1,372,000| 39,000 | 637 | 154 | 1 to 35 | 1 to 4 New-Jersey | 277,000| 20,000 | 74 | 24 | 1 to 13 | 1 to 3 Pennsylvania | 1,049,000| 30,000 | 474 | 165 | 1 to 34 | 1 to 3 -------------+----------+----------+--------+--------+---------+--------

Or,

Proportion of the Proportion of the Population Colored Population sent to Prison. sent to Prison. In Massachusetts 1 out of 1665 1 out of 140 In Connecticut 1 out of 2350 1 out of 205 In New York 1 out of 2153 1 out of 253 In New Jersey 1 out of 3743 1 out of 833 In Pennsylvania 1 out of 2191 1 out of 181

The report further states, that “the returns from several prisons show that the white convicts are remaining nearly the same, or are diminishing, while the colored convicts are increasing; at the same time the white population is increasing in the northern states, much faster than the colored population.”

In the eloquent language of Gerrit Smith, Esq., “having these statistics before us, and seeing that the policy of our laws concurs with our prejudices to debase this people, to deprive them of indispensable inducements to well doing, and virtually to close against them all avenues to honor and respectability,--how unphilosophical and ungenerous it is, to look away from these sufficient causes of their vile condition to fanciful and heartless speculations, about the inferiority of their natural endowments. It will be time enough for white men to accuse God of having given an inferior moral constitution to the negro, when they shall have spent as many centuries in enlightening, as they have in debasing him--when they shall have done as much to make him a man, as they have done to make him a brute.”

Having now considered, to some extent, the condition of the colored population in the United States, we come in the next place to inquire what can be done for them.

The object of the COLONIZATION SOCIETY, as expressed in its constitution, is “exclusively to promote and execute a plan of colonizing, (with their own consent) the free people of color residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem expedient.” It has, by profession and principle, nothing to do with the rights of slave-holders. It wishes for no interference with the tenure of slaves. The society regards these things solely as matters of legislation, and to be affected only in a legal way. They wish, in their organized capacity, only to remove the blacks, which are now free, and shall from time to time be made free by their masters. In doing this, and by other exertions, they hope, however, so to affect the interests and feelings of the slave-holders, that they will enlist in the enterprize, and rejoice to free themselves from all property in human flesh.

That the colonization scheme is tending to this result, and, if properly managed, is adequate to its accomplishment, is certain from many considerations. It cannot, indeed, accomplish the object at once. It would be unreasonable to expect that this, or any other society or system could, in the space of a few years, remove an evil which has been increasing for two centuries. But if colonization can do that in less than one half the time in which the evil has been growing to its present size, it ought not to be accounted visionary, or unworthy of confidence.

“Now,” says the Rev. John C. Young, President of Centre College, Kentucky, “the systematic and efficient operation of this society could in less than seventy years settle the whole of our colored population in Africa; and this great work could be accomplished without the necessity of imposing on any one a single cent of additional tax. The plan of operations by which this could be effected is simple and feasible. Let the emigration be every year enlarged by one thousand persons, until the number annually exported amounts to 50,000. Continue the annual exportation of this number for twenty years longer, and the whole race will have disappeared from the land. The effect of this process, (supposing it to be actually entered upon) is not a matter of guess-work, but of calculation.” [See note in Young’s Address.] It _can_ certainly be done; and if the operations of the society are permitted to go onward, and increase, as they have done, unobstructed by national calamities, and the wildness of fanatics, it _will_ be done.

But supposing all this cannot be effected through the influence of the Colonization Society, or that it were not desirable, as many think, to be done, yet we maintain that so much _can_ be done towards meliorating the condition of the colored population, both slaves and free, as to merit the hearty co-operation of every Christian and philanthropist.

The present actual tendencies of the colonization scheme, so far as abolition and the general interests of the blacks are concerned, receive a favorable character from the following considerations, which are presented as briefly as possible.

1. The colonization scheme exerts, and has exerted, a happy influence toward abolition, by directing the minds of people of all classes, including slave-owners, to the condition of the blacks. Before the plan of colonization was agitated, nothing, comparatively, had been done to meliorate the condition of this class, and no interest had been felt in their behalf. But when the plan which we speak of suggested itself to a few benevolent minds, an ardent feeling began to be roused in behalf of the negro. Inquiries were instituted; discussion commenced; and the public mind was excited to the calm but earnest consideration of the momentous subject in all its bearings. But for this Institution, the 3,000 free blacks, who are now rejoicing in the land of their fathers, under a government and laws chiefly of their own, would still be enduring poverty and wretchedness; and the slaves who have been emancipated would be still suffering in bondage.

Says the Hon. Gerrit Smith, in a recent letter on this subject, “The late demonstrations, in Virginia and Maryland, of patriotic and Christian interest in our colored population, are commonly ascribed to the Southampton insurrection. That insurrection may have been, and probably was, a proximate cause of them; but, in my judgment, Virginia and Maryland are vastly more indebted for the steps they have taken in the cause of universal freedom to the moral influence of the American Colonization Society than to all other causes. And, may not most of those, who now rail at the Society, be likewise indebted to the same influence for their fresh and augmented interest in the welfare of the black man? The tenacious slave-holder at the south lays all the blame of these things at the door of the Colonization Society, and this too, notwithstanding some abolitionists charge the Society with playing designedly into the hands of such slave-holders. And if such (he goes on to say) be the power of those moral influences now, when Liberia has a population of 3,000, what will it be when 50,000 of our blacks shall be gathered into that asylum? Whether or not this shall be the result of colonization, remains to be seen; but meanwhile it is certain that whatever of influence is _now_ exerted for the ultimate good of the blacks has been brought into exercise by the operations of our Institution.

2. The Colonization Society exerts a happy influence on the interests of the black population, by weakening the prejudice of the whites against them. Some of the doctrines and measures advanced and pursued in different parts of the country are, in our opinion, calculated to strengthen this prejudice.

That the Colonization Society in its operations has a contrary effect, appears from the circumstance that before this scheme commenced, little or no interest was felt for the blacks, except by a few individuals. Prejudice ground them in the dust; and, had their condition remained unaltered, would have continued to oppress them to the end of time. No sympathy was felt for them in their suffering and wretchedness. Indeed, it did apparently no good to sympathize. It was like weeping for the souls of the lost. Men will not feel when feeling is without effect. At any rate, this was true in the case of the blacks. They were despised, not because they were degraded merely; but because respect could do them no good. But when the plan of colonizing them presented itself, the case immediately altered--a way was open by which the black could be benefited, and the hearts of all who understood the plan prompted them to action. As soon as people saw that something could be done to ameliorate the condition of this wretched race, they were ready and willing to do it; and this feeling has gained strength with the increase of light, and with the success of the enterprize--and may we not expect that it will continue to gain strength as the colony on the coast of Africa increases in magnitude and importance, and as the practicability of the scheme of benevolence in question is with every successive day made more and more certain? It must increase. But some may say, and they have said, that this interest in behalf of the blacks, so far from being an evidence that the prejudice is diminishing, results directly from prejudice; and that if men would show respect for the blacks, or any interest in their behalf, they must treat them as they do themselves. Now this objection supposes two things. First, that the plan of colonization is one of positive evil to the blacks, not only in tendency but design. This assertion requires no argument. Finley, and Mills, and Ashmun, did not lay down their lives to sustain an Institution, which they thought would either directly or indirectly prove an injury to the blacks. Christians do not now pray for the success of this Institution because they hate the blacks, and wish in this way to do them evil. Heaven forbid that any one should charge them with such a crime! What, Christians pray and contribute for the support of the Colonization Society because they hate the blacks! Charity that endureth all things alone can endure this.

But again, the objection supposes that for us to respect our fellow, and do unto him as we would have him do unto us, we should consider his circumstances in every respect the same as our own. It supposes that our duty to the blacks requires us, in order to do him the greatest possible good, to treat him in all particulars, as we ourselves need to be treated--that we are not to consider age, character, color, constitution, nor any other circumstance or condition of life as making any difference, but that we must regard him, without qualification, just as _we_ are. Now this could not be true of any two white men in the country, much less of the whites and blacks, whose condition, in every respect differs most widely. Nor do the Sacred Scriptures require this. They suppose that we are to regard the difference of condition between ourselves and others. We are to do to others as we would that they should do to us in like circumstances, it being remembered that the circumstances of no two persons in the world are alike. If, therefore, we treat the negro in a manner which we suppose will promote his highest temporal and eternal good, we are not to be charged with acting under the influence of prejudice, because we do not treat a white man in the same manner. The circumstances of the two are so wide apart, that what would be a blessing to the one, would be ruinous to the other. We think it would be better to carry the negro to Africa and colonize him _there_, (with his own free will, of course) under a climate suited to his constitution, and under laws and institutions calculated to make him wise and happy, than to keep him here under the withering influences which are operating against him. Are we therefore under the influence of prejudice? If we are, it is a prejudice which duty prompts us exercise. But we have bestowed more attention to this objection than it deserves. Nothing can be plainer than that the colonization scheme has had a great influence in weakening this prejudice against the blacks, and creating an interest in their behalf, which must, in the nature of things, continue to increase until the whole race shall be restored to an equality with the whites.

3. Colonization exerts a favorable influence on the interests of the blacks, by improving their character and elevating their condition, so as to remove objections from the minds of those who oppose them.

Before the Society commenced operations the character of the negro was degraded to a level with the brutes. They were even called brutes, and books were written to show that they were not human. But since the days of colonization such thoughts and feelings have been laid aside. Men have begun to recognize the negro as a man, and treat him as such; and he himself has become conscious of his power. Says a writer in the Christian Spectator, “Not Hayti has done more to make the negro character respected by mankind and to afford the means of making the _negro_ conscious of his manhood, than Liberia has already accomplished. The name of Lott Carey is worth more than the name of Boyer or Petion. It has done, it is doing more to rescue the African character from degradation, than could be done by a thousand volumes against prejudice.” And thus the writer goes on to say, “it has done, and is doing more to accelerate the abolition of slavery than could be done by a ship-load of such pamphlets and speeches as some that we might mention. Elevate the character of the free people of color--let it be seen that they are men indeed--let the degrading associations that follow them be broken up by the actual improvement of their character, as a people, and negro slavery must rapidly wither and die.

4. Colonization exerts a favorable influence on the general interest of the blacks, especially by directing the thoughts of slave-holders to the subject of emancipation, as well as actually securing, in many cases, the emancipation of slaves. Of this we have abundant evidence. Almost every week we hear of some slave, or a number of slaves, who have been emancipated. We hear also of many persons who are willing to give freedom to their slaves, providing they can be removed from the soil. There are multitudes of this description in Kentucky; and in Missouri a large proportion of the slave-holders are willing and desirous of doing this. A letter from a gentleman in St. Louis, says, “A great change has taken place here within ten years on the subject of slavery. The advocates of perpetual bondage are very few. The slaves are, in many instances, an expense to their owners; and the Colonization Society is looked to as the only hope of ridding the land of the burden.” The same may be said of numbers in the other slave-holding states. On this subject, the writer above alluded to remarks, “This is not conjecture. The friends of colonization in their arguments can read off a catalogue of instances in which emancipation has already resulted from the progress of this work. We know that on the other hand it is said that the arguments and statements of colonizationists prevent emancipation. But the proper proof of this assertion would be to bring forward the particular facts. Tell us of the individuals who have in fact been effectually hindered from setting their slaves at large by what they have read in the African Repository, or by what they have heard from the agents of the Society. We say, then, that colonization is bringing the power of example to bear on public sentiment at the south in regard to slavery. Each single instance of emancipation is indeed a small matter, when compared with the continued slavery of two millions; but every such instance, occurring in the midst of a slave-holding community, is a strong appeal to the natural sentiments of benevolence and justice in all who witness it.” It must be felt, it _is_ felt, by all who hold their fellow-men in bondage.

5. African colonization will exert a most happy influence on the general interest of the negro, particularly in reference to the abolition of slaves, by bringing free labor into competition with that of slaves. Many people in this country begin already to feel that slave labor is unprofitable; and if their circumstances were such that they could employ free labor, they would certainly do it. Self-interest alone would prompt nearly all the slave-holders in Missouri and Kentucky, and multitudes in Virginia and Maryland, to do this if they could. And not a few in the more determined slave-states are ready to acknowledge the comparative worthlessness of slave-labor, (for self-interest must be brought to bear upon the interest of emancipation) and they will be ready to release their slaves. Slavery will cease as soon as men shall be persuaded that it is unprofitable. Now this will be the tendency of colonization. It will multiply the products of tropical regions, above what can be done in slave-holding countries, and show to the latter, by actual demonstration, the unprofitableness of the system. On this subject the writer in the Spectator says, “We are confident that the most rapid and most effectual method to bring free labor into competition with slave labor, and thus to drive the products of the latter out of every market, is to establish on the soil of Africa a free and civilized commonwealth, whose institutions shall all be fashioned after American models, and whose population shall be pervaded and impelled by the spirit of American enterprize. This is the work which the American Colonization Society is prosecuting with all its resources. The friends of slavery may dream that this work is to secure and perpetuate that miserable system; but if any of them do thus imagine, they err as widely in that as they do in supposing that the repeal of the protective tariff will relieve them of their embarrassments. The free-trade principles, for which they are now contending, are the principles which will, by and by, bring all slave-holders to the alternative of universal emancipation, or universal bankruptcy.”