A lecture on African colonization. Including a brief outline of the slave trade, emancipation, the relation of the republic of Liberia to England, & etc. Delivered in the hall of the House of representatives of the state of Ohio

Front matter

o

0° ^ **.

A LECTURE

II. Table exhibiting the number of Slaves in the Free States from

YEARS.

1800 35,803 4,409

1.23+

Total number Actual decrease Decrease per cent, per annum

40,212

27,181 8,622

3.17+

18,001 9,180

5.04+

2,774 3 15,227

18.88 +

764 2,010

26.30+

The decrease of the slaves in the free States, after 1790, is not greater than the deaths in a population of such a class of persons.

* By a law of New York 10,000 slaves were emancipated in one day in 1827, thus decreasing the number of slaves, and increasing the free colored, as stated in this table.

Emancipation of Slaves in the United Stales.

Pennsylvania passed her emancipation act in 1780, and the other states soon afterward followed her example, but at what periods we are not at present informed.* It is probable that the free colored population was not increased by emancipations of the slaves remaining in the free states after 1790, because, as before stated, the decrease of these slaves did not exceed the mortality, excepting in 1827, when New York liberated all hers then remaining in bondage. Any increase of the free colored population, therefore, over their natural increase will have been produced by emancipations in the slave states.

The following table, taken in connection with table I, shows, that from 1830 to 1840 the increase of the free colored population was reduced to but a very small fraction over two per cent, per annum. Two per cent, per annum, therefore, may be taken as the ratio of the natural increase of the free colored population. The excess over two per cent. must, then, have been derived from emancipations.

III. Rate per cent, per annum of increase of Population of the United

States.

Years.

Whites.

Free colored

Siaves.

Free colored and Slaves.

All combined.

3.56

8.22

2.79

3.22

3.50

3.61

7.20

3.34

3.75

3.64

3.43

2.77

2.95

2.93

3.33

3.38

3.41

3.01

3.06

3.32

3.46

2.08

2.32

2.33

3.26

Average

3.48

4.73

2.88

3.06

3.41

"* Adopting this rule of computation, we find that the emancipations in the slave states, from 1790 to 1830, must have been 131,700. If to this we add one-half of the number who were free in 1790, or 30,000, it makes the total emancipations up to 1830 amount to 161, 700. The extent of the pecuniary sacrifice made to the cause of emancipation by benevolent men involved in slavery, will be better understood by estimating the number emancipated at $350 each, which gives a product of $56,595,000. This estimated value is low enough.

To this sum, however, should be added the number of slaves emancipated and sent to Liberia, which, up to 1843, amounted to 2,290. If to these are added the emancipated slaves sent out to

* We find the following statement in relation to the number of slaves in the United States at an earlier period, in a religious periodical. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, the whole number of slaves was estimated at 500,000, viz.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania,

3,500

4,373

6,000

15,000 7,600

10,000

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia,

110,000 16,000

502,133

14 Emancipation of Slaves in the United States.

Africa since that period, the number of which we cannot at present asceitain, we shall have more than another million of dollars to add to the above sum, thus making the amount sacrificed to the cause of emancipation but little short of Jiffy-eight millions of dollars.

But in granting the slave his freedom, it seemed to be decided bycommon consent, that the British statesman was right in asserting that Negroes could not become Republicans. The right of suffrage was not extended to them. The stimulus of entering into competition for the highest posts of honor was not afforded to the man of color to prompt him to great mental effort. Able to find employment only in the more menial occupations, his opportunities for intellectual advancement were poor, and his prospects of moral improvement still more gloomy. These results of emancipation in the northern states were watched with great interest by the philanthropic citizens of the slave states. The liberation of the slaves in the free states had fallen so far short of securing the amount of good anticipated, that the friends of the colored man became less urgent and zealous in their efforts to secure further legislative action, while the opponent of the measure was furnished with a new argument to sustain him in his course of hostility to emancipation, and was soon able to secure the passage of laws for its prohibition, under the specious plea that a large increase of the free colored population by emancipation could not be productive of o-ood either to themselves or to the whites.

That some powerful cause operated in checking emancipations after 1810, and that it again received a new impulse from 1820 to 1830, is undeniable. The number emancipated in the slave states, during the several periods, as is determined by the rule before adopted, was as follows :

From 1790 to 1810 some of the most powerful minds in the nation were directed to the consideration of the enormous evils of slavery, and the effects of their labors are exhibited in the number of emancipations made during that period. The decline of emancipations after 1810, we believe to be due to the cause assigned above — the little benefit, apparently, which had resulted from the liberation of the slaves, and the consequent relaxation of effort by the friends of emancipation.

The impulse given to emancipation between 1820 and 1S30, it is believed, was caused by the favorable influences exerted by the Colonization Society, which enjoyed a great degree of popularity during this period. But from 1830 to 1840, the period when the Society had the fewest friends, the increase of the free colored

*The 10,000 emancipated in New York being deducted, will leave 23,7?2 in this period.

Emancipation of Slaves in the United Slates. 15

population was reduced to only two per cent, per annum, showing that emancipations must have nearly ceased, or that the deaths among our free colored people are so nearly equal to the births, that some decisive measures are demanded, by considerations of humanity, to place them under circumstances more favorable than they at present enjoy.

It may be well in this place to call attention to the fact, that while the natural increase of our free colored population cannot exceed two per cent, per annum, that of the slaves, notwithstanding the numerous emancipations, has been three per cent, per annum, excepting in the first period, when the disparity in the sexes produced by the slave trade might produce a greater mortality than would afterward occur ; and iu the last period, between 1830 and 1840, during which the great revulsions in business, producing an immense number of bankruptcies in the south, caused thousands of embarrassed debtors to remove their slaves to Texas, beyond the reach of their creditors. The slaves thus removed, not being included in the census of 1840, caused a reduction in the ratio of our slave increase. See table III.

Thus we find, that in the earlier periods of our history, the promptings of philanthropy and the influence of Christian principle produced a public sentiment which controlled legislation, and broke the chain of the slave. And where legislation failed, it operated with equal power on the hearts of men, and produced the same salutary effects. But while emancipation was found to have produced to the white man the richest fruits, it was observed, with painful feelings, that to the colored man it had been productive of little else than the "Apples of Sodom."

These results of emancipation led to anxious inquiries in relation to the disposal of the free colored population. It was all-important, in the judgment of the friends of the colored man, that he should be placed under circumstances where the degradation of centuries might be forgotten, and where he might become an honor to his race and a benefactor to the world. The conviction forced itself upon their minds, that a separate political organization — a Government of his otvn, where he would be free in fact as well as in name — was the only means by which they could fully discharge the debt due to him, and place him in a position where his prospects of advancement would be based upon a sure foundation.

These remarks bring us to the consideration of the third branch of our subject.

III. The provision to be made for the people of color when liberated.

A separate political organization was decided upon, and Colonization, at a distant point, beyond the influence of the whites, considered the only means of future security to the colored man. To select the field for the founding of the future African Empire was not such an easy task. The history of the Indian tribes had proved, but too forcibly, that an establishment upon the territory of the United States

16 Colonization to Liberia.

would soon become unsafe, in consequence of the rapid and universal extension of the white population. The unsettled state of the South American Republics was considered as offering still less security. Europe had no room for them, nor desire to possess them. England had already removed those cast upon herself and her Canadian possessions, by the casualties of war, back again to Africa, and founded her Colony of Sierra Leone. The only remaining point was Africa. Its western coast was of most easy access, being but little further from us than Havre or Liverpool. The condition of its native population offered many obstacles to the establishment of a colony. But the inducements to select it as the field of the enterprise in contemplation were also many. It was the land of the fathers of those who were to emigrate. It was deeply sunk in both moral and intellectual darkness. The lowest rites of Pagan worship were widely practised. Human sacrifices extensively prevailed, and even cannibalism often added its horrors to fill up the picture of its dismal degradation. And, as though the Spirit of Evil had resolved on concentrating in one point all the enormities that could be invented by the fiends of the nether pit, the slave trade was added to the catalogue, to stimulate the worst passions of the human heart, and produce developments of wickedness and of cruelty, at the bare recital of which humanity shudders. Except at a few points, no ray of moral light, to guide to a blissful eternity, had yet penetrated the more than midnight moral darkness which had for ages shrouded the land. The deadly influence of the climate, together with the interference of the slave trade, had hitherto defeated the success of missionary effort, and there seemed to be no hope for the moral renovation of Africa but through the agency of men of African blood, whose constitutions could become adapted to the climate, and who could thus gain a foothold upon the continent, repel the slave traders, and introduce civilization and the gospel.

Here, then, was a field for the action of the freed-men of the United States. Here was a theater upon which to exhibit before the world the capacities of the colored race. Here, too, could be solved the problem of the value of the republican form of government. And, above all, here could be fully tested the regenerating, the elevating, and the humanizing power of the gospel of Christ.

In commencing the settlement of a colony of colored persons on the coast of Africa, two objects were to be accomplished :

1. To improve the condition of the free colored people of the United States.

2. To civilize and christianize Africa.

To these objects the friends of the colored man devoted themselves. The first emigrants were sent out in 1820. The pecuniary means of the society were never very great, and its progress in sending out emigrants and in building up the colony has necessarily been slow. From the first it met with violent opposition from the slave traders on the coast of Africa, who, by creating the impression upon the minds of the natives that the colonists would prevent their further connection

Colonization to Liberia. 17

with the slave trade, and thus cut off their chief source of acquiring wealth, inflamed the minds of the chiefs, and prompted them to make war upon the colonists. Soon after the settlement of the colony, the native warriors, one thousand strong, attacked the emigrants, who numbered but thirty-five effective men. But a kind Providence shielded them from the infuriated savages who assailed them, and enabled that handful of men to defeat their foes, in two successive assaults, separated from each other by several weeks of time, and, finally, to establish themselves in peace in all their borders.

Additional emigrants, from year to year, were sent out. Missionaries labored, with more or less faithfulness, in establishing schools and in preaching the gospel. The natives, in a few years, became convinced that the colonists were their true friends, and that the adoption of civilized habits would secure to them greater comforts than could be obtained by a continuation of the slave trade. Their children were sent to school with those of the colonists. A moral renovation commenced and progressed until, in the course of twenty-six years from the landing of the first emigrants at Monrovia, the colony attained a condition of strength warranting its erection into an Independent Republic. Accordingly, in July, 1847, its independence was declared, and a population of 80,000 adopted the constitution and laws and became members of the Republic. Its newly-elected President, J. J. Roberts, a man of color, in his recent visit to England, France and Germany, was treated with great respect, and found no difficulty in securing the acknowledgment of the independence of the Republic of Liberia by the two former governments.

But it may be said, that, after all, but little has been done, compared with the means expended, in this effort to make provision for the free colored people, and for the introduction of a Christian civilization into Africa. A more striking view of the results will be brought out by contrasting the products of the labors of the American Colonization Society with some of the other efforts which have been made to rescue Africa from the wrongs inflicted upon her.

England, mighty in power, and possessing the means of executing magnificent enterprises, has expended, as already stated, more than one hundred millions of dollars for the suppression of the slave trade and the civilization of Africa. But her labors and her treasures have been spent in vain. Her gold might better have been sunk in the ocean. The monster, hydra-like, when smitten and one head severed from the body, has constantly reproduced two in its place ; and, at this moment, as before shown, it is prosecuted with greater activity than for many years.

It must be remembered that these efforts of Great Britain have been made during the period of the existence of the American Col onization Society, and in seeming contempt of its pigmy efforts. For years previous to the independence of Liberia, and while England was aiming at making Africa a dependency of her Crown, she, on several occasions, manifested a disposition to cripple the energies of our colony. And so extensive were the agencies she seems to have

18 Colonization to Liberia.

employed, that it is now matter of wonder that she had not succeeded in wholly crushing the colonization enterprise, and securing to herself the control of that richest of all the tropical portions of the world. But all her efforts at checking the progress of this heaven-born enterprise have been as fruitless as those adopted by her in reference to the slave trade, or for civilizing Africa. The fact stands acknowledged before the world, that Great Britain, after the expenditure of more than one hundred millions of dollars, has failed in suppressing the slave trade on one mile of coast beyond the limits of her colonies, while our colonization efforts have swept it from nearly four hundred miles of coast, where it formerly existed in its chief strength.

But why is it that there is such a marked difference in the results ? Why is it that the Colonization Society, with a yearly income sometimes of only $10,000 and rarely ever reaching $50,000, should have, in twenty-six years, annihilated the slave trade on 400 miles of coast, and secured the blessings of freedom to 80,000 men, formerly slaves, and have succeeded in binding, by treaties, 200,000 more, never again to eno-age in the traffic in their brethren, — while Great Britain, with all her wealth and power, has accomplished nothing?

We will not undertake to answer these questions. It cannot always' be discerned by men why the Ruler of the Universe often defeats the best devised human schemes, which to them may seem certain of success, and prospers those which, to human foresight, were the least promising. We need only remind you that Great Britain has relied, almost exclusively, upon the employment of physical force to accomplish her purposes, while the Colonization Society has depended, as exclusively, upon moral means. The agencies it has employed have been the humble mechanic, the husbandman, the school-master, the missionary and the Bible. And, though often thwarted in its purposes by those who felt interested in its overthrow, yet, relying upon moral means, and never resorting to force but yi self-defense, it has signally triumphed and put to shame the wisdom of men and the power of kingdoms. Its operations have proved that the schoolmaster, the missionary and the Bible possess a moral power infinitely more potent than coronets and crowns.

These results go very far toward proving the truth of the proposition, announced in the outset, — that the Gospel of Christ is the medium through which God operates in bringing mankind into subjection to his will, and that a reliance upon any other means for the moral redemption of the nations of the world, must prove an utter failure.

In view of all these results, we are fully warranted in maintaining that the Colonization Society, in its measures for benefitting the colored people, has done an incalculable amount of good, and demands our confidence and our support, and that it is justly entitled to the paternity of three measures which have been productive of the greatest good to Africa :

1. The procuring of the first legal enactments declaring the slave trade piracy.

Colonization to Liberia.

2. The total extinction of that cruel traffic from near 400 miles of the coast of Africa.

3. The establishment of an Independent Christian Republic on that continent.

There is another feature of this question, of the disposal of the free colored population of the United States, which demands attention, and is of the utmost importance in selecting for them a home. The northern latitudes of the United States do not furnish a suitable home for men of African descent. The evidence of this fact is furnished by their own movements when left free to act. The census tables supply the testimony upon this subject.

By referring to table III, it will be seen that the ratio of the natural increase of the free colored population is tivo per cent, per annum. The knowledge of this fact furnishes the key to determine the increase or decrease, by emigration, in any state or group of states.

IV. Free colored population in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts

Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont.

TEARS.

13,126

17,317

19,488

21,248

21,331

22,634

4,191

2,171

1,760

1,303

Increase per cent.

3.19

1.25

0.90

0.03

0.61

Slaves in do.

3,886

1,340

In the prosecution of the investigation of the question before us, the effect of climate upon the African constitution, we find that previous to 1790, the desire of the manumitted slave to escape from the scenes of his oppressions had given to the six New England states a free colored population of 13,126. From 1790 to 1800 the census tables show that the line of emigration was still northward, and augmented their ratio of increase more than one-third over the natural rate. But during the -next forty years, ending with 1840, their ratio of increase, as shown in table IV, was rapidly diminished, and fell so far below the ratio of their natural increase, that, from 1820 to 1830, with a free colored population of 21,248, they had an increase in these ten years of only eighty three persons. The aggregate for the whole period stands thus: In 1810 they had a free colored population of 19,488, and in 1840 but 22,634, being an increase of only 3,146; while their natural increase, if retained, would have augmented their numbers to 33,648. This diminution must have been caused by emigration back again toward the south, because we find that New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had a corresponding increase during this period, with the exception of the last ten years, when they also lost a portion of their natural increase.

But this tendency of colored men to avoid northern latitudes is quite as fully proved by a comparison of the northern parts of New

20 Influence of Climate on Colored Men.

York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with their southern portions, as it is exhibited in the case of the New England States, when compared with those further south. Take, for example, a few of the counties in the north-east of Ohio. In 1840, Geauga had only 3 persons of color, Ashtabula 17, Lake 21, Portage 39, Summit 42, Medina 13, Lorain 62, Trumbull 70, and Cuyahoga, including the city of Cleveland, 121, in all 388. Now look at a few of the counties bordering the slave states and in the more southern part of the state. Belmont, in 1840, had 724, Gallia 799, Highland 786, Brown 614, Ross 1195, Franklin 805, and Hamilton 2546.

This contrast, which might be extended much further, reveals the fact, that any one of the last named counties, in the southern portion of the state, had nearly double, and several of them more than double the number of colored persons that the whole eight northern counties above named included.

But to give a more forcible illustration of the truth of our proposition, allow me to extend this contrast between the northern and southern counties of Ohio, so as to include the whole free colored population of the state. By drawing a line east and west across the state, so as to divide its territory into about equal parts, giving an excess of counties, as now divided, to the north, the result is, that in 1840, the 38 northern counties, now divided into 42, included only 2,360 persons of color, while the 40 counties of the southern half embraced a colored population of 15,000. And if we deduct Stark, Columbiana and Harrison on the east, and Mercer on the west, from the northern counties, they will have left, in the 36 remaining counties, a free colored population of only 1372, or a little more than half the number in Hamilton county. I append the list of all the counties, that it may be accessible to those who may wish to prosecute this investigation.*

After making all due allowance for the alledged defect of energy in the colored man, as accounting for his not seeking a residence in the north ; and what has still more influence on his mind — the greater indulgence which he finds from the planter of the south, now settled in our more southern counties, than he does from the northern man who is a stranger to his habits, — there is, we affirm, ample testimony to prove, that the northern latitudes of the United States do not furnish a suitable climate for men of African blood, and that they are conoregating as far south as circumstances will permit. This fact, we insist, proves conclusively the necessity of securing a tropical home for colored men.

But in addition to all the foregoing details, which prove the inadaptation of northern latitudes, to the African, we have, very recently, the fact revealed to us in a late census of Upper Canada, that in that province, where we had been a thousand times assured that from 20, 000 to 25,000 runaway slaves from the United States had found refuge, there were, in 1847, barely 5,571 colored persons in the

*See Note, page 21.

Influence of Climate on Colored Men.

colony. In this statement, however, which includes the whole twenty districts, there may be an error in one of them which may vary this result.

But I cannot dismiss this part of our subject without a few remarks. The citizens of our northern counties often charge us, of the southern, with being destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity and benevolence, because we are disposed to discourage the further immigration of colored men into the state, and because we advocate a separation of the races by colonization. And this they do with an apparent seriousness that warrants us in concluding that they believe what they say. Perhaps if we had only three to a county, like old

The following statement, referred to on the previous page, gives the colored population of Ohio in the several counties, commencing at the northern and southern extremities, as presented in the census of 1840.

Ashtabula .......

Lake

... 122

... 614

... 63

Scioto 206

Gallia

... 148 . . . . 799

... 28 ... 315

Pike

. . . . 329

. . . . 786

. • . . 254 . . 341

. . . . 377

. . . 1195

. . 46

... 55

. . . . 269 . . 13

. . . . 68

Perrv 47

Fairfield 342

Pickaway 333

Fayette 239

■Greene 344

Clark 200

Montgomery 376

Preble , . 88

Darke 200

Miami 211

Shelby 262

Logan 407

Champaign 328

Madison 97

Franklin 805

Licking 140

Muskingum 562

Guernsey 190

Belmont 742

Jefferson 497

Geauga Cuyahoga Trumbull .

Erie . . .

Huron . .

Sandusky Ottawa Seneca . .

Wood . .

Lucas . .

Henry . .

Williams .

Paulding .

Van Wert Mercer . .

Allen . .

Hancock .

Hardin . .

Marion • .

Crawford .

Richland .

Wayne Holmes Stark . .

Carroll . .

Harrison .

Tuscarawas

Coshocton

Knox . .

Delaware .

Union . .

Morrow

Mahoning

Auglaize

Defiance

163 71 38 63 76 78

Influence of Climate and Foreign Emigration.

Geauga, we, too, might be disposed to catch them for pets, to amuse our children, as we do mocking birds and paroquets. But with us the novelty of seeing a colored man has long since passed away, and we no longer make pets of them, on account of color, but treat them precisely as we do other men. The upright and industrious we respect and encourage. The immoral and degraded we wish anywhere else than in our households or as near neighbors.

V

Free colored population in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

YEARS.

13,953

29,340

55,668

74,742

101,103

118,925

15,387

26,328

19,074

26,361

17,822

Increase per cent.

11.02

8.97

3.42

3.54

1.76

Slaves in do.

36,484

34,471

26,663

17,856

2,732

But in addition to climate, the colored man has another formidable adversary to contend with. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, as before stated, and as the figures in table V show us, had accessions to their colored population much beyond the natural increase on their original numbers up till 1830. But from 1830 to 1840 these states also commenced repelling their free colored population, and their ratio of increase was reduced considerably below two per cent, per annum — Pennsylvania, however, still having a ratio of 2. r %\, showing that she had not been as much affected as the other two states, though between 1820 and 1830 her ratio had been reduced to per cent, per annum.

VI. Free colored population of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia

YEARS.

1820 | 1830

24,718

47,979

77,633

89,817116,141

128,781

23,261

29,654

12,640

Increase per cent.

9.41

6.13

1.55] 2.93

1.08

Slaves

405,350

457,584

508,197

537,060,576,043

530,087

VII. Free colored population of North Carolina, South Carolina, and

Georgia.

YEARS.

7,174

11,247

16,621

23,205

29,950

33,761

4,073

5,374

6,584

6,745

3,811

Increase per cent.

5.67

4.77

3.96

2.90

1.27

Slaves

470,407

613,148

778,533

853,799

Influence of Slavery and Foreign Emigration. 23

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, also repulsed nearly one half of their natural increase between 1830 and 1840, as exhibited in tables VI and VII, showing that the emigration from the northern states was not passing in that direction.

VIII. Free colored population of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama

YEARS.

1790 475

18 10

1,050

3,030

6,353

11,044

14,880

1,980

3,323

3,691

3,836

Increase per cent.

12.10

18.85

10.96

7.35

3.47

Slaves

15,247

53,927

618,849

Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, though for a time, receiving large accessions of free colored people emigrating, probably, from Virginia and North Carolina, westward into their bounds, seem also to have checked it, between 1830 and 1840, to a considerable extent. But as more energetic measures have since been adopted to repel all immigration, extending even to the selling of the intruders into slavery, as was the case last year in Kentucky; the census of 1850 will no doubt exhibit a reduction of the ratio of these states, also, to the natural rate of increase, if not below it.

Louisiana, alone, of all the larger slave states, has maintained a uniform increase of her free colored population. Her position on the Mississippi affords great facilities to enterprising colored men, wishing to escape from the rigors of northern winters, to penetrate her territory.

IX. Free colored population of Louisiana

YEARS.

1830 1840

7,585

10,960

16,710 25,502

3,375

5,750, 8,792

Increase per cent.

4.44

5.24 5.26

Slaves

34,660

69,064

109,588 168,452

In the slave 'states, the prejudices and the rigid laws in relation to their free colored people, will account for the losses which they have sustained. But in New York and New Jersey, some other cause must have exerted a repelling influence, or there would not have been such a desertion of that region by colored men. This cause will, we believe, be found to exist in the foreign emigration into our country. The foreign emigrant, escaping from the tyranny of the despotisms which have so long crushed his energies, and where he had been accustomed to work for a mere subsistence, is overjoyed, on reaching this country, to receive a rate of wages for which the colored man is unwilling to labor. He is thus the most