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THE

NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED ;

OR,

AFRICA. AS SHE WAS, AS SHE IS, AND AS SHE
SHALL BE.

HER CURSE AND El E R CURE.

BY REV. HOLLIS READ,

AUTHOR OP “ GOD IN HISTORY “ INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE “ PALACE OP
TIIE GREAT KING ll COMMERCE AND CHRISTIANITY,” ETC.

ftcto §fork :

A. A. CONSTANTINE.

1 8 64.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by

HOLLIS READ,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of
New York.

Holman, Printer and Stereotyper,
Cor. Centre and White Sts.

- 1 ' k

PEEFACE.

The following pages owe tlieir origin to an irre-
pressible desire the writer has felt to contribute, at
this interesting crisis of their fate, something, if it be
the humblest share, to the deliverance of an unfortu-
nate race from an untold series of wrongs and degra-
dation. The long night of their affliction seems to be
drawing to a close, and the day of their redemption
draws near. They come bowing unto us. They come
with outstretched arms, beseeching us that we will
extend to them the helping hand in this then’ time
of need.

It is very generally conceded that the war now so
fiercely raging in our country has a very important
bearing on the great negro question. Whatever other
results it may leave behind it, an assurance is felt
that it will strike the death-blow to American slavery,
putting the whole system beyond the possibility of a
future resurrection. This once done, the question :
“ What shall be done with four millions of ex-slaves ?”
is one of the most practical and momentous that our
nation — or that philanthropy and religion — ever had to
decide. Not the welfare of 4,000,000 of emancipated

PREFACE.

slaves is alone concerned. Our duty here has a hear-
ing on our nation, on Africa, and on the -world, of
momentous interest. England — all Europe — is moved
to its centre, waiting in profound suspense, deeply
interested in the settlement of this great question.
King Cotton trembles on his throne ; yet hopes, in
the commotion, to enlarge his empire.

We have attempted to present Africa — her vast re-
sources and capabilities in soil, 'mines, and forests —
as a promising field, a field ready for the harvest,
inviting capital, enterprise, intelligence, skill, civiliza-
tion, and Christianity to come and ply their genial
agencies for renovation and elevation among the na-
tions of the earth ; and, more than all, extending the
welcome hand to her exiled sons, that they may
return to her shores, laden with all the good things,
which, in the land of their bondage, and in the school
of a rigorous discipline, they have acquired.

We expect a good future for Africa. We reason
here from what Africa and African races have been to
what they shall he. God has never left himself with-
out witness there. We take the presage, the promise,
the prophecy, the pledge of Providence, that that
long-neglected, suffering continent shall come up in
remembrance before God — that the long outcast pos-
terity of Ham shall yet share richly in the benedic-
tions of Heaven. Her rising star is seen in the world-
wide interest that is aroused in her behalf — is seen
through the clash of arms ; through the smoke of the

PEEFACE.

battle-field, and garments rolled in blood— is seen in
the peculiar religious character of the slaves ; in the
simplicity, godly sincerity, and importunity of their
prayers ; in their yearnings after freedom, and their
beseechings of the throne of Grace for their deliver-
ance. And it is seen in a corresponding readiness on
the part of Africa, and her native population, to
receive the Gospel.

Our hope for Africa lies in the prospect of a Chris-
tian negro nationality ; such as an enlightened com-
merce and an extensive scheme of colonization, and
Christian government, laws, and institutions, all bap-
tized in the spirit of Christianity, shall produce. We
rely on the unfailing favor of God to the oppressed,
that Africa shall yet arise, and shine, her glory being
come. We have, therefore, taken the occasion to
urge on philanthropists and Christians the duty to do
what lies in their power, by their prayers and benefac-
tions, and by all suitable means, to emancipate that
long-forgotton continent, and to give her a name and
a place among the nations of the earth.

In the following pages colonization is advocated,
not as an adequate remedy for slavery— though its
legitimate bearings on that whole system of bondage
and degradation are not to be overlooked — but as a
boon to the colored man, a privilege to every one who
is fitted to profit by it, and the most suitable and
hopeful agency by which to raise Africa from her
present debasement, and to assign her an honorable

PEEFACE.

place among the nations. We would most distinctly
concede the right of the negro to remain in this
country. It is his country as well as ours. Yet, we
would not the less earnestly and kindly urge on him
his privilege to go. Interest to himself, and duty to
his fatherland and to his race, urge him, even if it be
at a personal sacrifice, to go forth as the only agents
that can rescue a continent from the low depths of
social, civil, and moral debasement.

The reader may feel a temporary disappointment
that the writer has not committed himself more unre-
servedly to the new order of things which are seem-
ingly inaugurated by the present war. We doubt not
what shall be the end, but we dare not be too san-
guine of a speedy consummation. We have no expec-
tation of peace, which shall deserve the name of
peace, but in the extinction of slavery. The war will
not, can not, cease, till its cause — its curse-provoking
and war-invoking cause — be removed. Universal, un-
conditional emancipation we believe to be the first
and immediate solution of the negro problem. Yet
his final destiny, his attaining to a nationality, his
emerging into a full manhood, involve time, events,
changes, revolutions, which wait the sure, though
often mysterious movements of Providence.

We feel safe in connecting the highest and best
destiny of the colored man with his fatherland. If it
be in his heart, and fortuitous circumstances favor,
that he, like Israel of old, may quit the land of his

PREFACE.

vii

captivity, and return to the land of his fathers and
the land marked out by Heaven for his habitation, we
congratulate him as favored above his fellows. Ran-
somed by the mighty hand of God, they shall return
and come to their land with songs and everlasting
joy on their heads. “Rewarded double” for their
long and bitter captivity, they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Could the present volume have appeared with the
most befitting title, it would have been called the
Hand of God in Africa, and her Races ; for such,
indeed, is the book. We have watched this all-con-
trolling Hand in vain, if it be not now stretched out
over that long-neglected continent, and that long-
abused race. And we expect, from this time onward,
more distinctly to discern there the stately steppings
of Him who has gone forth to the conquest of the
world. H. R.

Elizabeth, N. J., 1864.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Africa but little known— Notices of Ancient Africa — Plan of the
Work — Africa as she Was, as she Is, and as she Shall Be ... . 13

CHAPTER II.

The Corse op Canaan — Who Uttered the Curse — Its Import — To
Whom Applied— How Fulfilled on Canaan — No direct applica-
tion to Cush, or the Negro Race — Their probable Future 36

CHAPTER III.

Africa as she Has Been, a presage of what she Shall Be — Agri-
culture— Commerce — Manufactures — Wars and Armies — Mu-
nitions of War 51

CHAPTER IV.

Africa as she Was — Learning, Arts, and Science — Government and
Jurisprudence — Mining and Engineering — Architectural Mon-
uments G3

CHAPTER V.

African Races— Pioneers and First Cultivators of the Arts and
Sciences — The Negro a Primitive Race — The Pure Negro Su-
perior to the Mixed Races — No Race ever so Far Advanced
under so Unfavorable Circumstances — A Blessing for Ham . . 79

CHAPTER VI.

Reasons why Ham shall yet be Blessed— His Connection with the

Promised Seed 97

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER VII.

What more Africa has done — Civil Governments among African
Races — Ethiopia — Nubia — Libya — Egypt — Phoenicia — Car-
thage— Meroe 112

CHAPTER VIII.

Africa as she Is — Natural Advantages and Commercial Facilities —
Cotton— Another Index of Hope 141

CHAPTER IX.

Africa as siie Is — More about Cotton and its Bearings on Africa
and on the World — Palm Oil, Rice, Coffee, Sugar, and other
Articles of Commerce — Geographical Position of Africa 156

CHAPTER X.

Can Africa produce Men — Specimens of Statesmen — Soldiers —
Scholars — Men of Science — Writers— Poets— Novelists — Men
of Wealth and Position . 178

CHAPTER XI.

The Curse of Africa— Portuguese Adventurers and Residents — -
Desolating Piracies— Jesuitism 206

CHAPTER XII.

The Slave-Trade, the dreadful Consummation of the Curse 217

CHAPTER XIII.

The Cure — Her Great Desert Reclaimed — Commerce aud Coloniza-
tion— Their Relation to Liberia, to the Colonists, and to the
whole Continent 230

CHAPTER XIV.

The Migrations of Mankind— Their Power— Colonization and the
Colonists 258

CHAPTER XV.

The Practicability of an Extensive Colonization — What has been
done 282

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVI.

Duty of the American People, of Slaveholders, and of the Colored
People of this Country 300

CHAPTER XVII.

Ought the Negroes to Emigrate — Prejudice— A Negro Nationality
—Their Destiny — Must be where they may be Men — Intima-
tions of Providence 315

CHAPTER XVIII.

Wherein more especially Lies our Hope for Africa — In the peculiar
Character of the Agency provided for her Renovation — No
Inveterate System of False Religion — The present War and its
Bearings on Africa 343

CHAPTER XIX.

The Future of Africa— A Higher Type of Civilization and Chris-
tianity— Hope in her protracted Afflictions — The great Negro
Problem of world-wide interest — What Prophecy, History,
Analogy, and the Signs of the Times warrant us to Expect —
Nothing to Fear from Emancipated Negroes — The West Indies
— Emancipation Day 370

CHAPTER XX.

The Interior of Africa — Recent Developments — Their Bearing on
the Future of Africa— British Trade — The Liberia College... 398

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER I.

Africa little known— Ancient Africa— Plan of the Work — Africa as she was,
as she is, and as she shall be.

In directing attention to Africa, I ask you to survey
a very extraordinary portion of tire globe.

Africa lias long been known as the neglected conti-
nent, a land never destitute of interest, and in many
respects a land of intense interest, and yet very much
of a forgotten land. But this neglected, forgotten land
is once more coming up in remembrance. “In a his-
torical view, Africa is deserving the minutest investiga-
tion, as one of the richest archives of former times and
of the ancient world. It guards, couched in myste-
rious characters, innumerable annals of man’s progress
from the earliest times down to the overthrow of the
Roman Empire.” No part of the world presents so
varied a history, none a history so extraordnary. It
has an ancient history of great interest, extending fur-
ther back than that of any other nation ; and a modern
history — unwritten for the most part, and the most for-
bidden and melancholy. When Greece was yet young,
and Rome was unknown — before Abraham was, or the
Jewish Commonwealth had a name, Africa could boast
of old and civilized kingdoms. When nations in Afri-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ca had made great advance in science and the arts, and
had excelled all modern nations in architecture, Europe
was languishing in barbarism, and America was un-
known.

No portion of the world presents a more singular
and interesting theme for study. The philosophic his-
torian, especially, will here find abundant materials for
endless speculations, and as abundant for the pro-
foundest contemplation. In no portion of the world
will he meet with so much to excite wonder, so much
to perplex, so much to interest.

Africa is a land of the most singular contrasts. No
where else do such extremes meet — fertility and bar-
renness— beauty and deformity — civilization and bar-
barism— light and darkness — human elevation and
human depression. Though one of the earliest known,
and the earliest civilized quarters of the globe, yet Af-
rica has remained for the last three thousand years the
least known, and the least civilized ; sometimes the
most blessed, but generally the most cursed of any
part of the world.

The continent of Africa, though probably the most
ancient field of geographical enterprise, is still the least
explored portion of the globe. “ Though once the nur-
sery of science and literature, the emporium of com-
merce, and the seat of an empire which contended with
Rome for the sovereignty of the world — the cradle of
the ancient church, and the asylum of the infant Sa-
viour, yet Africa still presents a comparative blank on
the map, as well as in the history of the world. Though,
according to Herodotus, it was circumnavigated by the
Phoenicians long before the Christian era, and its coast
was the first field of maritime discovery after the com-

AEKICA YET TO BE KNOWN.

pass had inspired seaman with confidence to leave
shores and landmarks, and stand forth on the bound-
less deep, yet to this day its interior regions continue
a mystery to the white man, a land of darkness and of
terror to the most fearless and enterprising traveler.
Although in no country has there been such a sacrifice
of men to the enterprise of discovery — of men the most
intelligent and undaunted — of men impelled, not by
gross cupidity, but by refined philanthropy — yet, not-
withstanding such suffering and waste of human life,
we are only acquainted with the fringes of that im-
mense continent, and a few lineaments at no great
distance from the shore.

“Africa once had her churches, her colleges, her
repositories of science and learning, her Cyprians and
bishops of apostolic renown, and her noble army of
martyrs ; but now the funeral pall hangs over her wide-
spread domains, while her millions, exposed to tenfold
horrors, descend like a vast funeral mass to the regions
of woe. Christendom has been enriched by her gold,
her drugs, her ivory, and the bodies and souls of men—
and what has been the recompense ?”*

But shall Africa always remain the same blank in
creation as she has heretofore ? She was not made for
naught. She is, no doubt, yet to be as remarkably hon-
ored and blessed as she has been remarkably debased
and cursed. Her history possesses, especially at this
time, just that kind of interest which can scarcely fail
to secure the attention of the observing, thinking, phi-
lanthropic, and Christian mind. Could the writer con-
vey to the mind of the reader the interest he has expe-

* MoffUtt’s Southern Africa.

1 G

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

rienced in the investigation of this portion of history,
quite sure would he feel of a respectful attention.

The sacred bard of Israel often calls Africa the land
of Ham ; and it seems very generally conceded that
this grand division of the earth was given by Noah to
his “ younger ” son. Yet the posterity of Ham seem
not to have confined themselves to Airica. Late re-
searches make it quite probable that Ham shared, at
least with his brother Shem , the southern portions of
Asia, extending through India and Siam, as far as
J apan. The monumental history of Egypt and of India
exhibit some remarkable resemblances. We trace the
footsteps of the same race in the primitive works of
Egypt, in the pyramids and temples of Ethiopia, and
in the excavated temples of Elephanta, Ellora, and
Kanarah in Hindostan. Strangely, indeed, has the ill-
fated race of Ham, for centuries, disappeared from
among the nations, and almost ceased to act any part
on the great theatre of human affairs. And as strange-
ly are they beginning to reappear. The black races
are beginning to loom again above the horizon, be-
low which they have been so long sunk, and may soon
play a no insignificant part among the nations of the
earth. Already have African races shared largely in
the philanthropic feelings of man, and they seem des-
tined soon to engross a much larger share of these
feelings.

In what I have to say of Africa, and things pertain-
ing to Africa, I shall speak of her as she ivas, as she
is, and as she shall be — Africa past, present, and future.
And whether her past, present, or future be before us,
we shall make her curse and her cure our prominent
theme.

AFRICA A MYSTERY.

Our design is to present the claims of that mysteri-
ous and long-suffering continent to the prayers, the
sympathies, and benefactions of all whom it may con-
cern. And deeply indeed does it concern the philan-
thropist and the Christian of every name and nation.
For a great wrong has been committed ; the wrong-
doers shall come up in remembrance before the righte-
ous Arbiter of nations. He will take part with the
oppressed. A great continent is to be reclaimed ; an
injured race, who have sat in darkness and the shadow
of death, are about to see a great light. The Lord
seems about to visit them in his mercy, and to reward
them double for all their afflictions.

Before speaking of the curse which mysterious
Heaven has been pleased to inflict on that truly mys-
terious continent, or of the remedy which Providence
seems to be designating as the cure of her protracted
woes, w'e shall say a few things concerning Africa her-
self.

1. Africa is very much of a terra incognita — a land
of mystery and romance — quite an enigma in the
world’s history. From century to century she has
remained the same mysterious and unknown land.
With a few illustrious exceptions, the mere chronicler
of historical events finds on this singular continent
little to admire or to register among the annals of the
nations ; while the Christian and the philosophic his-
torian find more to lament over, more to interest, and
more to perplex, than in any other portion of the
globe. Though she has for ages lain in sight of the
most civilized and refined nations of the earth, yet she
has, for the most part, remained uncivilized and un-
known. Up to the present day, we know little of Af-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

rica beyond lier outlines ; and even these outlines were
not known till the fifteenth century. It is true that
Pharaoh Necho had sailed round Africa more than sis
centuries before Christ ; and, ages earlier, its eastern
coast, and perhaps its western, had been navigated by
the ships of the wise King of Israel ; yet it remained a
land of darkness, and its people covered with gross
darkness. Prom generation to generation it has lain
a blank on the map of nations. More was known of
Africa two thousand years ago than at the present
time. It was one of the earliest inhabited portions of
the globe. There the scientific and industrial arts
first flourished ; there man, after the Deluge, first at-
tained to a high state of civilization ; and thence radi-
ated, both eastward and westward, the light of civili-
zation and learning. But now it is the least known
and the least civilized of any. While the world has
been advancing, Africa has been stationary or retro-
grading. While the resources of other portions of the
world have been developing, and their powers aug-
menting, Africa has been dwindling into nothingness.
So limited are her commercial relations, and so little
does she contribute to the improvement, happiness, or
productive industry of the world, that, if her circum-
jacent waters were to close over her, and her name
were blotted out from the catalogue of nations, and
all that pertains to her were sunk in the deep, she
would scarcely be missed. Faint and few would be
the tones of lament. Truth, science, commerce, the
arts, would in no appreciable degree be impoverished.
Nor woxdd religion and philosophy scarcely feel the
loss. Ignorance and barbarism reign almost without
interruption, from one end of that vast continent to

AFRICA LONG STATIONARY.

the other ; and, with just exceptions enough to keep
the world apprised of the capabilities of the land, and
of the sons of Ham, ignorance and barbarism always
have reigned. These exceptions have abundantly
shown, we believe, the capabilities of the Africans,
and of their soil, to reach the first rank among the
civilized, the learned, and the religious, and the designs
of Providence yet to elevate this unfortunate race, and
to realize their capabilities.

It is our design, in these pages, after having said
more of Africa herself, to present slavery and the
slave-trade as the withering curse, which has so long
kept Africa in her present degraded condition ; and
colonization and commerce as the remedy which shall,
more effectually and permanently than any other, the
Gospel excepted, bring relief to Africa, and blessings
to her sons. The present system of colonization from
this country will be brought forward, not so much as
a remedy of slavery, as of the slave-trade — not so
much the individual benefit of the colonists, as the
general benefit of the whole continent. Yet we believe
that the bearings of colonization on American slavery
are by no means insignificant, and that the benefit to
the colonist is immense.

What a wonderful continent is this rounded, smooth-
shored Africa, known from the earliest dawn of time, yet
so unknown ; the granary of nations, yet sterile and
fruitless as the sea ; swarming with life, yet dazzling
the eyes with its vast tract of glittering sand! No land
presents, either in its present aspects or its past history,
such singular contrasts ; such fertility and barrenness ;
such beauty and deformity ; so high a state of civiliza-
tion and so low a state of barbarism. Since Africa, the

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

mother of civilization, lias grown gray and been lan-
guishing under the decrepitude of age, mighty empires
in Asia and Europe have sprung into being, and passed
their youth, their manhood, their decline, and extinc-
tion. Unchanged, the land of Ham has v/itnessed the
rise and fall, during a long succession of ages, of the
Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek, and the Homan em-
pires. Asia has been again and again revolutionized ;
civilized Europe has, in the mean time, sprung into
existence, and the sun of some of its nations has long
since set ; England has grown, in the mean time, into
a colossal empire ; the youth, the manhood, and decline
of Home, though extending to some twenty centuries,
has interposed and passed away before the dim vision
of Afric’s sable sons ; a new world has been discovered
beyond the western ocean ; its forests reclaimed from
the dominion of wild men, and the empire of freedom
established. The world has been rapidly advancing.
In science, civilization, government, religion, there
has been a signal progress ; while Africa, the mother
of civilization, the cradle of science and the arts, has
been sitting solitary, languishing in decrepitude, and
not able to rise, by reason of weakness.

The past history of Africa we have seen wrapped in
a profound mystery. Her soil has been abundantly
fertile in some of the best and many of the worst of
human productions. There have mingled, for centuries,
the extremes of good and bad government ; of liberty
and despotism; of freedom and slavery; of learning and
ignorance ; of civilization and barbarism ; of the gross-
est darkness and the clearest light. History there
records some of her brightest ornaments and some of
her blackest deformities. There, in all the romance

HER MYSTERIOUS ANTIQUITY.

of an Eastern tale, a Hebrew slave becomes the ruler
of millions. Tliere, an outcast child, mysteriously
picked up by a king's daughter, becomes the deliverer
and leader of that equally mysterious people, who,
after their singular wanderings during forty years in
the deserts of Arabia, settle down amid the hills of
Palestine, and soon expand into one of the most extra-
ordinary nations that ever existed. The progenitors
of the Hebrew commonwealth were there schooled
and disciplined, and prepared for their national exist-
ence. Moses, the most extraordinary man that ever
lived, than whom no mere man has left so much of the
impress of his mind upon every succeeding generation,
was reared and schooled in Africa. In no other court
than Pharaoh’s could such a man have been reared.
In no other nation could the Hebrews have been quali-
fied to form that civil polity and that church organi-
zation which now, in the purposes and arrangements
of Providence, became needful in carrying on the great
work of human salvation.

There, too, was the home of Dido, of Hannibal ;
the scene of Scipio’s triumph and Jugurtha’s crimes.
There lived Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine ;
the romance of the Moors dwelt there ; the last breath
of Louis of France was drawn there. And there, .too,
is the home of the mysterious negro races, whose past
history has baffled the most philosophic speculations
of the historian, whose present condition is an anomaly
among the nations of the earth, and whose destiny is
evidently not yet revealed.

And not only has Africa been the home of the
scholar, the theologian, the philosopher, the states-
man, and the soldier ; not only was she the cradle of

22 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the arts and the nursery of the sciences, but in later
ages, in the first days of Christianity, she contributed
more than her proportion of the early agents for the
propagation over the earth of the new religion. How
many of these do you suppose were from Africa, or of
African descent ? More, undoubtedly, than you have
supposed. The names of some, and the localities or
native places of others, will enable us to judge on this
subject with some degree of correctness. Luke, the
beloved physician, was from Cyrene ; he was an un-
doubted African, by birth at least, if not by blood. If
Luke be not the same as Lucius of Cyrene, we then
have here another of the first teachers of Christianity,
from the same African region. Simon, the father of
Rufus and Alexander, was also a Cyrenian ; and, to
leave no ground for mistake as to his country, he is
called the Cyrenian (from Cyrene, a city in Lybia, in
Africa, west of Egypt). It was this black man, this
native of an African city, who was compelled to bear
the cross for the exhausted Sufferer as he went up
Calvary to be crucified ; a coincidence not to be over-
looked. Again: we meet, among the prophets and
teachers, at Antioch, one Simon, who was called Niger
(black). We have here, at 'least, one evangelist and
four of the early disciples and teachers of Chris-
tianity, who were Africans. And, as successors to
this first generation of disciples, Africa supplied
her full quota of Christian bishops and teachers.
Origen, Bishop of Alexandria, was an African. Ju-
lius Africanus, as the name seems most obviously
to import, was a native of the same country ; and
so we shall venture to assume that Athanasius and
Dionysius, celebrated Bishops of Alexandria, and

CHRISTIAN FATHERS OF AFRICA.

Cyprian, Bisliop of Cartilage, were of tlie crisped
hair and the thick lip.*

No doubt an African soil is capable of producing
mem It has been rich in such productions, and its
capabilities are not exhausted. Paul chose for his
traveling companion and his intimate friend, an Afri-
can ; Paul’s Master chose that some of the first and
brightest ornaments and most efficient agents and
teachers of the early Christian Church should be men
of the same kindred and color. Yea, the suffering
Jesus chose that he who should perform for him the
last act of kindness on earth, who should bear with
him his cross up the hill of Calvary, should be an Af-
rican. Oh! is there not a deep significance here?
Poor Africa was allowed to bear the cross ; and heavi-
ly, indeed, from century to century, has she borne the
cross. But shall she not wear the crown ? Shall that
humble act, done at such a time, be passed by and for-
gotten ? No ! Africa shall yet come up in remembrance
before her King, and she shall be rewarded double for
all her sorrows.

We have a guaranty in what Africa has done, for
what she may do. Native Africans have shown them-
selves masters, as already intimated, in every station
and avocation in life, in every art and science, in genius
and eminent talent, in qualities intellectual or physic-
al, and in moral and religious character. The past
history of Africa leaves no doubt of the abstract capa-

* And in Peter’s well-known assembly on the day of Pentecost there was
a large representation from Africa and the Stock of Ham ; men from Egj’pt
and the parts of Lybia about Cyrcne; Cretes and Arabians; to these we
may add “Arnobius, the African,” who, in the third century, wrote a copi-
ous and powerful defense of Christianity.

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

bilities of Africans to become the highest type of man.
Whether in warriors or statesmen, philosophers or
divines, Africa has shown herself equal to the exigen-
ces of any past age. This we may receive as a pledge
that she shall not be found wanting when her sons
shall be called to act in a more advanced age. Her
present degradation and the inferiority of her races
present no argument against her equality to any other
portion of the human family. Her present degradation
and evident inferiority is most obviously a result of
circumstances simply, of external causes, and not an
inherent and original incapacity ; a result, perhaps, of
the malediction of Heaven. It is, at least, the fulfill-
ment of some wise and inscrutable purpose of the King
of nations, and argues nothing as to what the same
race may become under other circumstances, and under
the benediction of Heaven.

We have called Africa the land of Ham, and we shall
undertake to show that, not only is this mysterious con-
tinent a land kept in reserve for some great future
realizations in the progress of the Redeemer’s king-
dom, but that there remains a blessing in reserve for
the poor down-trodden sons of Ham. Shem largely
and for a long time shared in the rich benedictions of
Heaven. Up to the advent of the mediatorial King,
the descendants of Shem were the favored race. Re-
ligion dwelt with them. Here were the patriarchs, the
prophets, the living oracles of God, the city and tem-
ple where God chose to place his name and reveal his
glory. Here were the revelations of Heaven by types
and shadows, dreams and visions. But since the ad-
vent of the great Reality, the embodiment of old truths
in the more practical form of Christianity, the ark has

SHEM WAS THE FAVORED RACE.

passed from the tents of Shem to the tabernacles of
Japheth. But is there no blessing for poor Ham?
Shall the curse of Canaan rest upon this unfortunate
family forever? We think we hear the voice of a
Father’s love speaking comfortably to this alienated
and long-forsaken son. Shall the ark rest forever with
Japheth? Shall not this other great branch of the
human family come up in remembrance before the
Lord, and he yet give them double for all their afflic-
tions ?

We have assumed that Africa has been reserved for
the development of a higher order of civilization and
a better type of Christianity than has yet been known.
Though this be not a proposition, in the nature of the
case, to be proved, yet by pursuing a historical argu-
ment, already casually introduced, we shall, we think,
make it appear exceedingly probable. The argument
is drawn very much from the capabilities, which Africa
has already evinced, to realize all that I have here inti-
mated. Exhibitions have already been made on an
African soil, and by Africans, which, I think, we are
warranted in receiving as a sort of first-fruits to a plen-
teous harvest.

I shall, therefore, ask you, in a subsequent chapter,
to go over some of those enchanted grounds, and take,
at least, a cursory glance of some of those monuments
of her ancient greatness. We shall, in such an excur-
sion, learn what Africa has been, and at the same time
find some substantial ground for our inference as to
what she shall be.

Of the interior of Africa we know very little. It has
always been an unknown land. Occasionally its vast
regions have been penetrated by the solitary traveler,

THE GEEAT NEGRO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

wl j o lias sent back a report. Still it lias remained an
unknown land. For aught we know, great empires
may have flourished there — opulent cities — commerce
— manufactures — the arts and science. We know just
enough about the interior of Africa to throw a sombre
romance over those vast unknown regions, and to make
us desire to know more. Yet Africa has been known
to the world from the earliest ages of the earth’s his-
tory ; and she has been the theatre of some of the most
thrilling events of its history. Yet, except a narrow
skirting upon her borders, we know scarcely more of
her than we do of the same track of territory on Mars-
or Yenus. Evidently Africa is a grand reservation
ground, kept back from acting any part on the great
theatre of human activity and development till, in the
fullness of time, she shall be needed.

What movements may have agitated her in the deep
recesses of her seclusion — what human activities may
have played some noble part there — what nations flour-
ished— what kings reigned — what battles fought — what
deeds of daring done — what noble deeds of love per-
formed— what virtues cultivated — we may never know.
All is as yet as if it had been done on the face of an-
other planet. And, perchance, the history of those
secluded regions shall never become a part of the
world’s history.

We might ask, indeed, why has Africa existed at all?
What good purpose has she yet served? Or what part
have the negro race yet played in the great drama of
human affairs? What part are they destined to play?
These are legitimate queries, more easily raised than
answered.

We, perhaps, hazard nothing in saying that no prin-

A GREAT RESERVATION.

cipal purpose has yet been accomplished in connection
with Africa or the negro race. Subordinate and inci-
dental purposes have been served, but no principal and
ultimate purpose. The most probable conjecture which
we can form of Africa and her inhabitants is, that they
are held in reserve for some great, and yet future pur-
pose. We may, perhaps, form no well-defined conjec-
ture as to what this purpose may be. Past develop-
ments on an African soil, and in African races, have,
however, given certain premonitions of what that con-
tinent shall yet become. Egypt and Carthage were
realizations of true human greatness. They were
pledges of future realizations — the first-fruits of a full
harvest. And where shall we look for nobler speci-
mens ? In Church and State ; in science and the arts ;
in all that goes to bless and ennoble humanity, Africa
has held out indications that she is not a whit behind
any other portion of the globe. Mo land has shown
greater capabilities of soil for the support of a vast
population ; none has indicated richer mineral wealth,
and no race has exhibited greater capabilities of a high
state of advancement, than certain African races. Af-
rican statesmen, philosophers, artists, warriors, divines,
have nobly compared with those of other nations.
Christianity has nowhere had brighter ornaments or
more able defenders than in Africa. We need but re-
peat names already referred to — the well-known names
of Cyprian, Bishop, of Carthage, Augustine, of Hippo,
or the truly illustrious prelates of Alexandria, or Ori-
gen, a presbyter of the same city. These were mighty
men for the truth ; and the world has, perhaps, no-
where else had better examples of Christian piety.

2. Africa is held in reserve for some f uture purpose.

28 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

A far-seeing Providence is wont to make such provis-
ions for the accomplishment of future purposes. Ages
often pass before these purposes transpire. God cre-
ated this globe of ours for the habitation of man, and
for the great and lasting purposes which he would
achieve for and through man ; yet for unknown ages
the earth remained “without form and void,” before it
received its human tenants, or its destined purposes
began to be accomplished. And how strangely since
have different portions of the world been held back
from accomplishing their destined end ! During in-
definite ages, the whole American continent remained
scarcely more than a roaming-ground for the Indian,
or a grazing-field for the buffalo. Indeed, large por-
tions of America, and also of the eastern continent,
seem, till quite a recent date, to have been under wa-
ter. There are unmistakable traces that the great
and fertile valley of the Mississippi, and also many
other large and, at present, beautiful alluvials, both in
the new and the old worlds, were once the bed of some
great inland sea or lake. As human affairs have ad-
vanced, as the wants of the world have demanded more
room, the domains of the sea have retired, and the
habitable parts of the earth have been enlarged. Na-
tive forests have then given way before the march of
civilization, and the wild tenants of the woods have
yielded their dominion of the ivilderness to civilized
man. The American continent has scarcely begun to
fulfill its appointed mission. Some forty millions (and
scarcely one half of these civilized men) hold posses-
sion of all North America — a territory sufficiently large
and productive to sustain, twice told, the entire popu-
lation of the globe. And South America, a territory

OTIIER GREAT RESERVATIONS.

capable of sustaining as many more, is scarcely more
tlian roaming-ground for twenty millions of people.
We expect that, in the fullness of time, these vast re-
served territories, and the eshaustless, yet, till now,
mostly unemployed resources of these countries, shall
be brought into requisition in the service of the great
King.

And not only are large- portions of the present dry
land thus held in reserve for future use (now mere
moral wastes), but large portions of dry land evidently
remain to be created. The habitable world is yearly
enlarging. Other large sections, yet to be the habita-
tions of vast multitudes of the human race, are to be
reclaimed from the ocean. Old Neptune is to yield up
yet more of his domains to the ceaseless aggressions
of civilization and Christianity. Bound in his adaman-
tine chains, ho waits the fiat of his God, when he shall
surrender them to the insatiate demands of an all-con-
trolling Providence, who, unhindered, works out the
stupendous problem of human salvation. When the
mandate comes, they will appear — appear the moment
they shall be needed. Coral insects, countless millions
of God’s mighty architects, are at work in the Pacific
Ocean, forming a new and vast continent. When, in
the progress of the Divine purposes, it shall be needed,
it shall appear. When sin shall so diminish and dis-
ease so abate its ravages — when death shall so lose his
dominion over man as to fill the world with a popula-
tion immensely greater than its present number of in-
habitants, a new western continent will be needed.
And it will be ready. It is in the course of a rapid
preparation. We shall then be able to answer the
question much more intelligibly than we now can, why

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

so large portions o£ the earth’s surface are covered with
water? Not because so large a portion of water is
necessary, either rightly to balance the earth, or to sup-
ply the clouds with vapor, or to facilitate intercourse
between the nations, but because God adopted this
method to hold in reserve territories which lie would
afterward use for human habitation.

Or, in like manner, we might have said our world, in
its past and in its present condition, is held in reserve
for a future purpose. All as yet has been preparatory.
Incidental and subordinate purposes have been fid-
filled ; but no direct and idtimate purpose. It has, for
the most part, been given up to waste and to desola-
tion— surrendered to Satan, the god of this world, that
it may first be seen what sin can do in so fair and rich
a world as this. With just exception enough to keep
all parties apprised of the claims and purposes of
the rightful King and Proprietor, the “god of this
world” has had all things in his own way. God has
fulfilled, in respect to this world, none of his final pur-
poses. He is preparing agencies, gathering resources,
accumulating materials for a grand and final consum-
mation. But the devil is allowed first to employ all
Ids agencies and appliances ; and when he shall have
signally and finally failed, the Lord will make bare his
arm — will take to himself his great power, vindicate
his own cause, and wrest from the hand of the usurper
the wealth, the power, the learning — all the rich and
varied resources of the world, and will employ them in
the furtherance of his own benevolent designs.

Africa is one of the most notable of these reserva-
tions. From century to century has she lain as a dark
cloud on the horizon of the world’s history. Many a

THE GOD OE THIS WORLD.

nation lias emerged from a kindred darkness and run
its destined career. Africa lias slept beneath the black
-drapery of her own protracted night. Solemn and
mysterious has been her sleep. But we look that she
shall yet awake ; that she shall rise in her giant
strength, put on her armor, and ivhen the day of the
world’s redemption shall come, she shall stand in her
lot, washed and clothed in the white robe.

3. But why has Africa been reserved? Why has a
continent of such extent, of such resources, of such
stupendous capabilities, been so long kept back?
What is the destiny of this mysterious Africa ? We
can speak with no prophetic ken ; we may be able to
form no probable conjecture ; yet the idea will cling
to us that the Hand which has formed nothing in vain,
has purposes to answer through the African continent,
which have as yet but feebly entered into the mind of
man, or been but faintly indicated by the course of
Providence toward that singular portion of the globe.
The aborigines of America, of Asia, and many islands
of the sea, seem destined to dwindle and disappear be-
fore the encroachments of a more civilized race. Ja-
phetli dwells in the tents of Shem. He takes posses-
sion, dispossesses the old occupants, and becomes
himself a permanent resident. But not so among the
sons of Hain. While they may dwell with the Anglo-
Saxons, serve them, and in their turn derive from them
most substantial benefits, yet neither the Anglo-Sax-
ons nor any other branch of the family of Japheth may
dwell in the tents of Ham. An impassable barrier is
set about Africa, a sanitary cordon drawn about her.
If the white man pass it, he will soon sicken and die.
The climate of Africa, in general, has, to a very great

TIIE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

extent, settled the question that Africa is not to be, like
North America, another vast area open to the expan-
sion of man in the Anglo-Saxon type. What then?
We look for a different destiny for Africa ; but what
shall it be ? Other races dwindle under oppression,
and end in extermination ; but there is no dwindling
of the African race. Though forty millions of her sons
have been feloniously extracted from her by the ruth-
less hand of slavery, and a vastly greater number by
the villainous means used to ensnare her people and
reduce them to bondage, yet there seems no tendency
to diminution. Place the negro where you will, and
he will multiply and fill the land.

The past history of Africa would seem to justify at
least the opinion that, whatever is to be her destiny,
that destiny is to be wrought out by herself, by her
own men and resources. She may not be an excep-
tion to the general rule that nations are advanced by
migrations, wars, commerce, civilization, and, more
than all, by pure religion ; yet, in the case of Africa, the
mode is, in many respects, reversed. Instead of an-
other and a more advanced race coming to her, her
sons are involuntarily carried to them, there to live in
“durance vile,” till permitted to return, through their
offspring, to bless their own happy land. Instead of
wars waged upon her by other nations, and the victors
unfurling there the standard of a higher national life,
she has waged the most ruinous wars on herself ; and
yet these wars have been made the first links, which,
though dark and bloody in the beginning, shall be
bright and blissful in the end. Africa has had a com-
merce, but it has been a commerce in the flesh and
blood of her own sons and daughters, and this traffic

A HIGHER CIVILIZATION.

lias engaged in its prosecution all the worst passions
of men ; yet tliis very traffic is being strangely over-
ruled by Him who brings good out of evil, to the great
good of this unhappy continent.

We shall assume — and hope to make the assump-
tion wear the face of probability — that Africa is re-
served for the development of a higher civilization and
a better type of Christianity than the world has yet
seen. There is nothing in the present condition of Af-
rica, and certainly there has been nothing in her past
condition, which makes such a supposition absurd ;
certainly no more absurd than it would have appeared
to an intelligent Egyptian, in the days of Sesostris, had
he been told that the illiterate wanderers of Greece, to
whom Cadmus was then attempting to make known
the letters of the Phoenician alphabet, should produce
a Plato, an Aristotle, and all for which Greece was so
justly famed. The present condition of the Grebo, the
Foulah, or the Berber, is not more hopeless than that
of the ancient Greek. Nor is there any thing in the
position of Africa, in her soil or climate, which pre-
cludes our supposition. Or, is it not quite as likely
that Africa will yet produce a higher order of civiliza-
tion, and a better type of Christianity ; that her sons
shall yet astonish the world, and bless the Church
with a rich inheritance of great and good men, and
with institutions which are the glory of any people, as
it was that the ancient Britons should do it ? Yea, it
is much more likely. Eor neither the Greeks nor the
Britons had ever shown, as the Africans have, their
capabilities of that higher civilization which they
afterward realized.

Yet Africa has a history — a history more varied and
2*

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

extraordinary tlian any other portion of the globe.
But the history of Africa differs, in its form, from that
of every other land. It is neither, except to a limited
extent, a written history, nor a traditionary one. It
is a monumental history. The history of Ethiopia, of
Nubia, Meroe, Egypt, and Carthage, is to be read in
the magnificent ruins which still bestrew those long-
neglected lands ; and which still rear their heads in
hoary grandeur over lands now desolate, but which
were once as the garden of the Lord.

Though ancient historians are not silent respecting
the great African kingdoms to which I have referred,
yet, from their pages we get, as is evident from the
monumental history of the same kingdoms, but a faint
picture of the extent, wealth, power, and grandeur of
those kingdoms. Such kingdoms are incidentally men-
tioned in Scripture. Indeed, we are indebted princi-
pally to the inspired Word, not only for our most au-
thentic accounts, but for nearly all we know of them.
The frequent mention we find in the Bible of Ethiopia,
Egypt, Lydia, and the allusions so often made to
their merchandise, commerce, arts, and architectural
works, furnish the best information we have respecting
these wonderful countries.

In attempting, therefore, to give some idea of what
has been done already in Africa, as indicating what may
again be done there, I shall derive proof from the fol-
lowing sources, viz. : The condition of agriculture among
the ancient Africans, fertility of the soil and produc-
tions ; their commerce and manufactures ; notices of
their wars and munitions of war, and armies ; progress
of learning, arts, and science ; progress in the science
of government and jurisprudence ; acquaintance with

AN INVETERATE PREJUDICE.

ruining and engineering; architectural monuments, and
religion and temples. ^

But before proceeding further, we need to disabuse
our subject of an inveterate and killing prejudice. The
moment we appear as the advocate of African amelio-
ration we meet with a damper, which comes as a besom
of destruction to all our hopes, and seems to render
abortive all our efforts. “ God is against us,” the pert
objector says; “heaven is against us — all the common
instincts of man are against us — the united prejudices
of all other races have consigned over to remediless ser-
vitude the entire progeny of poor old Ham.” If there
be upon them this irremediable “ curse ” of heaven, our
task is vain. There is no hope for devoted Africa.
But before we yield a point so vital to the highest in-
terests of so large a portion of our race, and a point,
which, if established, seems to cast so much dishonor
on the great Buler and Disposer of the nations, we
must be allowed to challenge some inquiry into the
fact and nature of this “ curse.”

On whom did this curse of Canaan fall ? What was
its import? And what application, if any, has it to
the negro race ? But we reserve these considerations
for the next chapter.

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER II.

The Curse of Canaan — Who uttered the curse ? — Its import ; to whom apply ?
— How fulfilled on Canaan — No application to Cnsh and the negro race —
Their probable future.

But out hopefulness meets at the very outset a sin-
gular rebuff. We are told that Africa is the hopeless
victim of a Divine malediction — of an incorrigible curse
■which precludes all hope. Her people are a doomed
race passed all recovery — at least, such is the hopeless
lot of the whole negro race. Ham, the objector claims,
was a black man, with thick bps, and crisped hair, and
as such was doomed to a condition of debasement and
oppression passed all redemption. But lest the general
malediction over so broad a surface of humanity should
not prove sufficiently local and special, the abettors of
the curse have more especially concentrated it on one of
Ham’s descendants, even on the graceless Canaan; that
he and all his posterity, down through all coming gen-
erations, should bear the mark of a most galling servi-
tude. “ A servant of servants should he be.”

Now if the whole negro race in particular, and all
African races in general, be consigned over by an in-
corrigible decree to a hopeless bondage — if so dark a
cloud has settled down upon them — we may bang our
harp upon the willows, and, in fell despair, sing the
dirge to all hope to a hapless race.

But this is too large an interest to yield without a
very serious demur. Shall an entire race — shall races
of men from century to century cry unto heaven for

THE CURSE OF CANAAN.

deliverance, and there be no deliverance for them?
Shall they dwarf their humanity and pine in hopeless
bondage, and gracious Heaven not have a word of con-
solation and hope for them ? We would not, without a
most earnest demur, accept so damaging a repulse to
all our hopes of a renovated and elevated manhood in
all its different races. We believe in the renovation
and exaltation of our common manhood to a vastly
nearer approximation to the original type. And we
do not believe the negro race shall be made an excep-
tion ; at least, we will not believe it till we shall have
examined that fearful malediction, and see if it is the
final heritage of the long-despised and oppressed negro.

“ And he said : Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of ser-
vants shall he be unto his brethren.” Gen. ix. 25.

Few passages of Scripture have been so sadly per-
verted, or perverted to abet so stupendous an evil.
Because Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, was cursed
by Noah as he awoke from liis wine, provoked by the
indignity which had just been done him by Canaan, the
idea has been caught up and cherished by the whole
pro-slavery fraternity that Ham and all his posterity
were brought under the curse, and, therefore, rightfully
doomed to a perpetual servitude — that it is right to
kidnap, buy, sell, and enslave all Africans, if not all
black men, because Noah, under the circumstances al-
luded to, said : “ Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of ser-
vants shall he be.” Tho whole system of modern sla-
very, including, of course, all the horrors of the slave-
trade, from the beginning to the present day, has been
justified, and, indeed, gloried in, as if it might claim a
Divine sanction. It has on this account been claimed
as a Bible institution. And, by inference, all who woirld

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

do away with the enslavement of the African race are,
forsooth, fighting against a well-known providential
arrangement. They are wise above what is written.

Does the passage quoted warrant any such interpret-
ation? The question opens a subject of a very grave
and practical character. Who uttered the curse ? What
is the import of the curse ? And to whom does it apply,
or who are the subjects of it? Having answered these
queries, we shall be prepared to consider how the male-
diction was fulfilled on Canaan and his posterity, and
how it has no application to the other branches of the
family of Ham — not even to Gush, the progenitor of the
negro race.

Who said “ Cursed be Canaan?” It is not written
that the Lord said it. It was the declaration of Noah ;
and under circumstances which render very suspicious
the claim of inspiration which is set up for it. The
circumstances were these : Noah, having taken too
freely of wine, fell asleep ; and during his sleep he suf-
fered certain indignities from his grandson Canaan, the
youngest son of Ham ; at which it would seem that his
son Ham so far connived as to report the same to his
brethren. On awaking and learning the disagreeable
position he had been in, Noah gave expression to his
chagrin and displeasure in the words of the curse in
question.

Now, we are by no means to suppose that every thing
that Noah did or said was inspired, or said and done
under Divine guidance. We should, on such a sup-
position, be obliged to accept as an inspired act the
unhappy instance of his inebriation. The truth, we
apprehend, is, Noah spoke as an irritated man ; and
predicted (not necessarily under inspiration) that such

THE IMPORT OE THE CURSE.

a young man — a young man who could do so foul a deed
— would fall under the malediction of Heaven. Sim-
ply, as is often said of any young man of had princi-
ples and practices, he will come to a bad end. He does
not possess a character that will secure the blessing of
Heaven, and his own consequent prosperity. It is not
the result of any supernatural foreknowledge or spirit
of prophesy, but the result of human sagacity, founded
on experience and observation.

It must here be borne in mind that God had already
blessed all the sons of Noah. Noah simply repeated
these blessings as applied to Sliem and Japheth, but
mentioned neither curse nor blessing in relation to
Ham. Sliem and Japheth were not blessed more, nor
Ham less, on account of these utterances of Noah on
this notable occasion.

Or admit, for a moment, that Noah spoke by inspira-
tion of the Almighty, and still it will follow that we are
greatly wanting in a Scripture warrant for the enslave-
ment of the whole Af rican race. This will appear as
we consider :

The import of the curse, and to whom it applies. We
are left in no doubt who should be the immediate sub-
ject of the malediction. It was not Ham and his pos-
terity that were now put under the ban of the curse ;
nor was it either of the sons of Ham, except the particu-
lar one named. The four sons of Ham were Cush, Miz-
raim, Phut, and Canaan. Cush was the father of the
thick-lipped and crisp-haired races, to which we give
the common name of negroes ; the second son, Miz-
raim, was the father of the Egyptians, and of kindred
nations in the eastern part of Africa ; while Canaan, the
fourth and youngest son, was the father of the Canaan-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ites, whose country stretched along the eastern shore of
the Mediterranean Sea. Their country, after they had
been destroyed or driven off, became the possession of
the chosen tribes of Israel. The different branches of
the Canaanites we know as Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites,
Girgasites, Hivites, Arkites, etc. These are the peo-
ple that fall under the curse of Noah. They were not
the descendants of Cush, but of Canaan. Most cer-
tainly they were not negroes.

If we would know the real import of the curse en-
tailed on Canaan, we must recur to the subsequent his-
tory of his posterity. No malediction seems imme-
diately to have followed the settlement of those nations
in the western part of Asia. They went out from
Shinar, and enjoyed for a long time a high degee of
worldly prosperity. Melchisedek, king of righteous-
ness and priest of the Most High God, to whom Abram
gave a tenth of the spoils, was a Canaanite. So was
Abimelech, of whom honorable mention is made. The
Sidonians, one of the earliest civilized nations; the
Phoenicians or Tyrians, who extended their commerce
and thefr arts over a great part of the known world ;
and the Carthaginians, the rivals of Rome, were all
the descendants of this same Canaan.

But they could not continue, because they feared not
the God of heaven. They were left to fill up the meas-
ure of their iniquity ; and then the fearful day of reck-
oning came. Abraham could not have possession of
the land of promise, because the “ iniquity of the Amo-
rite was not full.” But, in process of time, it was done.
The displeasure of heaven could endure no longer.
Like Sodom and Gomorrah, they were given over to
their own destruction. The difference was, the cities

CANAAN, NOT CUSH, CURSED.

of the plain were doomed to suffer tlie immediate wrath
of heaven, in a shower of fire and brimstone ; the other
were given over to war and bloodshed, till they should
be utterly overcome and destroyed. And from this
time they essentially disappeared from among the na-
tions and are known no more. Those were extermin-
ating wars. The miserable remnant that fled, lost all
national existence, and became the servant of servants
among their brethren. And so they have remained
until this day. Their place and memorial among the
nations are gone forever. And thus has the curse been
fulfilled.

Had we the history of those nations we should be
able, no doubt, to trace a more literal and particular
fulfillment of the prophecy. The Gibeonites, who were
of Canaanitish descent, and whose history we happen
to know, were literally subjected to slavery for life.
We must, at all events, take the singular dealings of
God with the Canaanites as a fulfillment of the curse
pronounced against them. It was the curse of war and
extermination.

But is the negro race involved in this curse? Not
at all. Not a word of it in the Bible. They are the
descendants of Cush, and not of Canaan. And no
curse is recorded against Cush and his descendants.
The Canaanites were Asiatics, and not Africans at all.
The remnant that escaped the general destruction and
fled to other nations, fled to Europe rather than to Af-
rica. And if, intent on pursuing them and entailing
on them the curse as the doomed race, we insist on the
Divine right to enslave them, we must search for the
objects of our curse, not among the black men of Afri-
ca, but among the white men of Europe, and, perhaps,

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

of America. For the same accursed Canaanites, espe-
cially in the branches known as Phoenicians and Car-
thaginians, formed colonies in nearly every nation in
Eastern and Southern Europe, not excepting Spain,
France, Ireland, and England. And their blood (not
black) may be running in some of our veins ; and if we
insist on the Divine right to enslave that race, on ac-
count of the curse of Canaan, we may find the argu-
ment coming a little too near home for our own con-
venience. It would fall on the European, rather than
on the African.

The curse in question does not fall on Cush, or on
any race that does now, or ever has, inhabited Africa.
And we have seen how severely, and in what shape, it
did fail on the posterity of Canaan. They became a
notoriously wicked race ; and having filled up the meas-
ure of their iniquity, and the Divine forbearance hav-
ving become, at length, exhausted, heaven abandoned
them to an accomplished destruction. In vain do we
now ask where is the Canaanite ? His name has per-
ished ; and scarcely a record has he, except a record of
his sin, and the sure and complete destruction which
followed.

By -what strange perversity, then, has modern cupid-
ity transferred the curse from Canaan to Cush, and
sought to entail on the African, or on the present pos-
terity of Cush, a curse which was pronounced on Ca-
naan in the days of Noah, and fulfilled on the different
branches of the Canaanitish family more than thirty-
three centuries (3,310 years) ago? This is certainly
being hard pushed for a warrant to enslave Africans,
or the children of Cush. Yet, far fetched and absurd
as it is, it is the great and the sole argument for in-

EXCUSE FOB THE SLAVE-TRADE.

flicting such servitude — the Divine sanction for the slave-
trade and all its unmitigated abominations, and for a
system of slavery and its untold injustice and wrong.
Yet, when we come to inquire after the reasons for such
a sanction, we find none at all.

And here it is worthy of inquiry, how it is that mod-
ern nations, interested in the slave-trade and the en-
slavement of the people of Africa, have fixed on this
form of the fulfillment of the curse. If they wall have
it, that the curse pronounced on Canaan, after having
first spent itself on that branch of the family of Ham,
passed from Canaan, the youngest son, to Cush, the
oldest, how is it that in its reproduction on the latter it
should so exclusively take the form of servile bondage ?
And how is it that they should be agreed, from genera-
tion to generation, to inflict the heavy curse on this
race ? We can explain it only on the supposition, that
the large classes, of men interested are driven to such
a subterfuge hi order to furnish an excuse for their ne-
farious trade. And why they are agreed to kidnap
and to reduce to perpetual bondage the descendants of
Cush, who were'not cursed, instead of the posterity of
Canaan, who were, we can assign no reason — except it
be the very cogent one, that the posterity of Canaan,
having already expiated their sins in their overthrow
and final extirpation, no longer afford the victims on
which to prey.

But here, very naturally, arises the inquiry, if the
negro race have not, in all past ages, been suffering
under some woeful curse, how happens it that they have,
up to the present day, been so signally degraded, ab-
ject, and downtrodden ? What aileth them ? How shall
we account for their singularly depressed condition ? So

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

protracted, and so unmitigated ? I do not know tliat
we are bound to do more than to resolve it into the same
mysterious Providence which controls the destinies of
nations, as he does those of individuals, putting up one
and casting down another, as it seemeth to him good.
He has reasons, and reasons the most substantial, found-
ed in the wisdom and benevolence of his nature, but
which he hid deep in the counsels of eternity. They
are high as heaven, what can we know ?

While we see nothing in the fact of the degradation
and long depression of these children of Cush to dis-
tinguish the dealings of Providence toward them as
peculiar, and unlike his dealings with any other people,
yet we see something in degree which is worthy of no-
tice. We know of no other people whose debasement
has been so protracted and so profound. We are left
very much in doubt whether the negro race has ever,
prominently and for any great length of time, figured
on the great theatre of nations. The Jews, the Assy-
rians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Homans, have all
had their elevations and their depressions, but they
never sunk so low as the Cushites have, and never re-
mained in their prostration so long.

The rejection of this race, or the setting it aside for
so long a time, is, therefore, only of a piece with God’s
dealings with other races. It is only more marked ;
and furnishes no argument for their final rejection.
Nor may we receive it as any token of God’s special
displeasure with that race, but rather as a guarantee of
their future gracious visitation and elevation. God is
wont to use, as his great agency in the work of human
progress, but one race at a time ; and we despair not
that, in the great revolutions which centuries realize,

A SUFFERING RACE.

tlie sceptre shall pass to the hands of the sable races
of Africa ; the thick okxid, which so long settled down
upon them, shall arise, and they shall loom up among
the nations, and shall become distinguished as the
favored race by which God will work in the final reno-
vation of the world, as they have heretofore been dis-
tinguished as the forgotten of man and forsaken of
Heaven. We shall undertake to show, as we proceed,
that this despised race are our Great Captain’s reserve.
He uses, and sets aside, as he pleases, one and then
another. And if he shall, as possibly he may, set aside
the present Anglo-Saxon race as the grand agency by
which he works, he may astonish the world and mag-
nify his own sovereign will and pleasure, and tarnish
all human pride, by lifting up the heads which have so
long hung down ; extorting from the lowest condition
of man, the honor which comes from above.

As I shall, in the progress of this volume, speak of
African races as seemingly suffering under the male-
diction of Heaven, I do not mean that which is techni-
cally known as the “ curse of Canaan.” I simply mean
that the whole race has, for many a long and dreary
century, been made to pass through a cloud strangely
dark, strangely mysterious.

I shall take occasion, in the following pages, to say
a word on the probable destiny of the posterity of
Cush, the father of the negro race. If there be resting
on them no irreversible curse — if Heaven has not de-
creed them outcasts from the commonwealth of civili-
zation, social elevation, and moral and religious ad-
vancement— outlaws in the great family of man — if, as
we shall elsewhere show, there be no lack of well-at-
tested examples of the capabilities of this race to reach

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

even a high, state of advancement in every department
of human progress, we see not why we should not an-
ticipate for them a future position which shall quite
redeem the race from the long-standing stigma which
has rested on them, and vindicate the ways of God in
his mysterious dealings with them. We discover in
the peculiarly docile and imitative character of these
people a brighter future awaiting them. It is well said
of them, they are a docile race, apt to imitate, quick
to seize, ambitious to achieve civilization. Whenever
brought into contact with Europeans, they copy their
manners, imbibe their tastes, and endeavor to acquire
their arts. Under all the circumstances of their servi-
tude in this country, which, in general, have not been
rigorous, they have vastly improved, and at this mo-
ment the Africo- American colonist at Cape Palmas is
as far superior to the native of the Coast as the white
man here is superior to the negro that serves him.
Yet the African has never been placed in circum-
stances to allow him a fair opportunity to vindicate
the claims we assert for him, of a manhood not inferior
to those who nowr lord it over him. He has never been
fairly brought in contact with civilizing influences, ex-
cept in the condition of a slave, or a condition scarcely
less menial. None but a people peculiarly imitative
and apt, and desirous of acquiring the habits, and con-
forming to the customs of civilized life, would ever
have advanced at all, as they are well known to have
done, in the “ durance vile” to which they have in this
country been so ruthfully subjected.

We see, in the very providence which brought them
to this country, a still surer presage that a brighter
destiny yet awaits them. No thanks to the slave-

IMPROVED UNDER SLAVERY.

trade ; no thanks to slavery, or to slaveholders or
slavedealers, that, first and last, some millions of the
besotted children of Africa have been torn away from
their homes and kindred, and, in their cruel bondage
in this country, have been brought under influences
which, with their peculiar aptitudes and idiosyncra-
cies, they are raised vastly above their original condi-
tion in Africa ; and, indeed, not a few compare favor-
ably, as we shall see, in vigor of character, enterprise,
intelligence, and, especially, in religious character,
with our own race. To no other nation could they
have been consigned with so good a hope of their own
lasting benefit. The fact that Providence chose to
school them for their future destiny amid the free
institutions of America — to induct them into the im-
munities and blessings of freedom while themselves
groaning under the thraldom of slavery — to subject
them to the rigorous discipline of a servile bondage,
would seem to indicate a future destiny of no ordinary
character. This has a significance not to be over-
looked.

And we would not pass unobserved the protracted
duration of this preliminary discipline. The bondage
of the negro race — to say nothing of the previous cen-
turies of their depression in their own country — lias
already been protracted to more than two centuries, a
period which synchronizes with a singular exactness
(perhaps exactly) with the duration of the bondage of
the Hebrews in Egypt. That discipline was neither
too rigorous, nor protracted a day too long, to fit the
chosen people for the mission assigned them. So may
future generations say of the race in question. Like
the oak whose growth is proportioned to its long-lived
maturity, we may anticipate for them a future that

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

sliall correspond in duration and magnitude with the
long and severe discipline of their growth.

This, indeed, as we shall show, is but analogous
with the growth and maturity of other peoples and
nations. How long was the Hebrew Commonwealth
travailing in pain, waiting her deliverance ? And how
was it with England, France, Germany ? We gather
confidence, that our own beloved Kepublic will not
meet an untimely end from the long and severe prepa-
ration of the materials of which our body politic was
constructed, a training first in England, then in Hol-
land, and finally in New England. And England was
yet longer in reaching her manhood. Her early child-
hood points back to a period long anterior to the land-
ing of Julius Csesar on the coast of Briton, even to the
misty age of the Druids.

But we have a more sure ground for our belief in
a long and good future for the Cushites. It is the sure
word of prophecy, the unfailing promises of Israel’s
God, which we may not pass unheeded. Oppression
has. been the peculiar form of burden which has been
laid upon the race. Hence the character of the prom-
ise of their deliverance ; and hence the peculiar judg-
ments that await them who will not “ undo the heavy
burdens, and let the oppressed go free.” “ Therefore,
thus saitli the Lord : ye have not hearkened unto me,
in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and
every man to his neighbor ; behold, I proclaim liberty
for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence,
and to the famine.”

“ Thus saith the Lord, the labor of Egypt, and the
merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of
stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be
thine ; they shall come after thee ; in chains they shall

PROMISE FOR ETHIOPIA.

come over, and they shall fall down unto thee ; they
shall make supplication unto thee.” Anc^. the same
cheerful obedience and ready return at the mandate
of their Lord is expressed in the 60tli chapter of
Isaiah. When the “ kings of Sheba and of Seba bring
their gifts” — when the “ multitude of camels shall
cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, and
all they from Sheba shall come, bringing gold and in-
cense, and showing forth the praises of the Lord” —
when all the “ flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to-
gether unto thee, and the rams of Eebaioth shall min-
ister unto thee, coming up with acceptance upon thine
altar, and glorifying the house of thy glory” — the
Avhole is represented as coming as a “ cloud” borne on
the wings of the wind — conspicuously, as a cloud
borne on in the face of all men, and so readily do they
come, that they seem as doves that flock to their
windows.

But the most direct and oft-repeated prophecy re-
mains to be mentioned : “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch
out her hands unto God.” She shall “ soon,” readily,
eagerly, without demur or hesitation, turn unto the
Lord; shall come as soon as called. When the prof-
fers of peace and pardon shall be made, these shall
most readily accept them, and, with willing feet, shall
hasten to the fold of the Great Shepherd. And so sud-
den shall be their acceptance of the Gospel, and their
turning unto the Lord, and such its influence upon the
unevangelized nations, that it is represented as the
signal of the world’s jubilee, in which all the kingdoms
of the earth shall join. When Ethiopia shall return
to her forsaken Lord, and her head, which has been
so long bowed down, shall be lifted up — when “ princes

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

shall come out of Egypt,” then shall follow the jubilee
song : “ Oh, sing praises unto the Lord, Selah, to him
that rideth upon the heaven of heavens, which were of
old ; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty
voice. Ascribe ye strength unto God.”

But we have yet another prognostic of a better day
for them. We meet it in the successful experiments
of the present day, to colonize Anglo-Africans — to form
them into a nationadity in their fatherland — to make
them moral, industrious, self-reliant, and self-gov-
erned. Such experiments have been in the process of
trial for some years past, and, it wall suffice for the
present, to affirm that they are so far successful as to
give courage to our hopes, and confidence to the pre-
dictions, that the day of Africa’s redemption draws
near — that a glorious future is still in reserve for them
who have so long been the downtrodden and the off-
scourings of the earth. Enough has already been ac-
complished abundantly to refute the idea that there is
any normal inferiority in the African race, which
should render their restoration from their long degra-
dation impossible, or their elevation to an equality
with other races impracticable.

Our argument is, that enough has already been
done through these colonies to indicate that the Afri-
can needs only the opportunity and the time , and he
will show himself a man ; a man, if not capable of the
same type of civilization, and the same order of Chris-
tian development, he wall show himself capable of a
type and order not inferior.

But we reserve what we would say on colonies as an
agency of negro advancement, to another place, and
come to consider Africa, as she has been.

AFRICA AS SHE HAS BEEN.

CHAPTER III.

Africa as she has been, a presage of what she shall be — Agriculture, com-
merce, manufactures— Wars, armies, munitions of war.

We are first to speak of Africa as slie has been. And
liere we can do little more tlian indicate, by a reference
to a few facts, wliat developments certain African 1 cLCCS
have made, and to suggest that these developments
are but examples and pledges of what Africa shall yet do.
We may, therefore, assert and hope to show that this
now despised continent, and some of its despised races,
have shown themselves not inferior to any other races in
all that goes to humanize, civilize, and aggrandize a
race. And the inference seems very legitimate, that
what any particular race has done, it may, under similar
circumstances, do again. And much more it may be
expected that the same race, under far more favorable
auspices, may again, at least, attain to a degree of ad-
vancement once reached by their forefathers. If in
Nubia, Abyssinia, Egypt, or Barbaria, a certain race
cultivated in a high degree the arts of civilized life, and
pursued learning, and possessed the higher virtues, we
may not doubt the capabilities of the same race to at-
tain to the same height again.

We will, therefore, in the present chapter, take a
brief survey of some things which have been done in
Africa and by Africans. Such a survey will enhance
the wonder, that a people capable of rising so high
should now be sunk so low ; and, also, indicate what may

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

yet be tlie destiny of that ill-fated continent. "We can
not go into lengthy details of the ancient history of Af-
rica, but shall rather fix on a few features which shall
abundantly sustain my position. We gather from sa-
cred history, that certain African nations had attained
to great eminence, in many things which go to aggrand-
ize a people, long before the period at which com-
menced our profane history. We have no well-authen-
ticated records of secular history which lead us back
beyond seven or eight centuries before Christ.

From the following sources we have frequent and
unmistakable hints, which lead to some just conclusions
as to what was the real progress of certain African
nations.

We have, ever and anon, intimations respecting the
state of agriculture and the fertility of tlie soil in the
eastern and northern countries of Africa, which clearly
indicate what was the state of advancement in those
countries. For a barbarous people are not an agricul-
tural people. The simple fact that Egypt and Ethio-
pia and the northern countries of Africa were remark-
ably fertile and productive countries, is a prima facie
evidence that agriculture in those countries was brought
to a high degree of improvement ; the fertility of a
country depending, in the arrangements of Providence,
very much on culture, Perhaps, in nothing have we a
more satisfactory evidence of the advanced condition of
the arts, and of civilization than in the great care tak-
en to improve the productiveness of the soil by means
of artificial irrigation. Canals, dikes, artificial7 lakes,
modes of raising water from the Nile, and the various
means of irrigating their lands, are the best possible
indications of the advanced state of agriculture among

ANCIENT CIVILIZATION.

tlie ancient Egyptians. The chain pump, which has
hut recently, like many other new inventions of modern
times, come into vogue among us, was well known, and
of common use among the Egyptians.

The famous Lake Moeris remains to this day — though
in a very diminished form — the most stupendous monu-
ment of the zeal and devotion of the ancient Egyptians
to agriculture ; and, also, a most wonderful monument
of art. The lake, which was 8,600 stadia (450 miles)
in circumference, and 300 feet deep, was excavated in
a dry and desert part of the country, for the purpose
of protecting the land from the excessive inundation of
the Nile, and at the same time reserving the superflu-
ous waters for irrigating the adjacent wastes, and, also,
for supplying the lack of water in the river during a
dry season. The lake communicated with the Nile by
an artificial channel, by which it received its supplies,
and by another channel it returned its waters to the
river, when needed. In the centre of the lake stood
two colossal pyramids, 200 cubits above, and as many
below, the water, and each surmounted by a colossal
statue. This stupendous work, if there were no other,
affords good evidence that, in the days of the Pharaohs,
no expense, no labor, was regarded as too great, pro-
vided it could secure to the agriculturist the benefits
of the Nile.

We have a good illustration of the extraordinary ca-
pability of the soil in North Africa, and the progress
made in agriculture, when held by the Carthaginians,
Though these Anglo-Saxons of Africa, as they have
been very significantly called, were essentially a mer-
cantile and commercial people, yet they by no means
neglected agriculture. On the contrary, “ the whole of

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

their territory was cultivated like a garden,” and well
did tlie soil repay the labor and skill bestowed upon it.
Historians speak, with admiration, of the “ rich pas-
ture lands carefully irrigated; abundant harvests;
plantations of fig and olive trees ; thriving and pop-
ulous towns, and the splendid villas of the Carthage-
nians.” No sooner was an African soil subjected to
the culture of these enterprising colonists, than the
desert was changed into the garden of the Lord. And
what has been, under like circumstances, may be again.

This is in striking contrast with the following de-
scription of the present condition of agriculture. A
late African traveler speaks of seeing men plowing
with a crooked stick, to which was harnessed a couple
of coios, by ropes attached to their horns. Yet, no
country so abundantly rewards the scanty toils of the
husbandman as Africa. Her generous soil, almost un-
solicited by the hand of culture, pours her copious
stores into the lap of the cultivator.

And such, indeed, is Africa at the present day.
Save her deserts, the same area of no other country is
capable of sustaining so great a population. Its spon-
taneous productions are amazing ; while, under a mea-
gre cultivation, it produces in the greatest abundance.
“ There is,” says an intelligent writer on Airica, “ prob-
ably no other equal expanse of territory which has so
large a proportion of its surface capable of easy culti-
vation.”

“ Everywhere, in the soil, in the climate, and in the
situation of the country,” says one v.dio speaks of North
Africa, “ are seen scattered, with a liberal hand, the
elements of prosperity ; and it is manifest that the
plains which were once esteemed the granary of Rome,

HIGH STATE OF CULTIVATION.

might again, with the aid of modern science, be ren-
dered extremely productive in the luxuries, as well as
the necessaries, of life.”

We can scarcely credit what historians tell us of the
high state of cultivation which once adorned some por-
tions of Africa. Diodorus tells us that the country
about Carthage was covered with gardens and large
plantations, everywhere abounding in canals, by means
of which they were plentifully watered. A continual
succession of fine estates were seen, adorned with ele-
gant buildings, which indicated the opulence of their
proprietors. These dwellings, he says, were furnished
with every thing requisite for the enjoyment of man,
the owners having accumulated immense stores. The
land was planted with vines, with palms, and many
other fruit-bearing trees. On one side were meadows
filled with flocks and herds. In short, the whole pros-
pect displayed the riches of the inhabitants, while the
higher ranks had very extensive possessions, and vied
with each other in pomp and luxury.

This advanced state of agriculture very obviously
implies that much progress had been made in the me-
chanical arts and in the sciences. The implements of
husbandry, and the apparatus for the construction of
canals, dikes, and artificial lakes, and for raising water
from the Nile, are the productions of a people well
skilled in the use of metals and of the mechanical arts
— to say nothing of mining, engineering, and an ac-
quaintance with the mechanical powers.

But what a contrast now ! Those regions, once so
fertile, so beautiful, the dwelling-place of a great and
prosperous nation, are now little more than the roam-
ing ground of beggarly tribes. In no other part of the

56 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

world have the ravages of time been so deplorable and
complete, “obliterating nearly all the traces of im-
provement, and throwing down the noblest works of
art.” Amid the dreary wastes of the present day, the
traveler meets the ruins of ancient towns, where are still
to be seen the finest specimens of architectural skill,
and of that taste and luxury which distinguished Car-
thage in her later years. Fields, which once smiled with
the most luxuriant harvests, are now either deformed
by the encroachments of the deserts, or overgrown with
useless weeds and poisonous shrubs ; while baths, por-
ticoes, bridges, theatres, triumphal arches, have mould-
ered into ruins, or sunk under the hands of the barbar-
ous inhabitants. -

Should the day come when Africa’s vast resources
shall be drawn out and appropriated to the furtherance
of her best interests — the resources of her soil, of her
forests, her mines, and all the yet undeveloped riches
of the industry and thrift of her 150,000,000 of people,
what may Africa then be ?

The commerce and manufactures of certain African
States supply no doubtful evidence of the progress
by those States in civilization and natural greatness.
An ignorant and barbarous people can never be a great
commercial people. The skill, enterprise, science, and
general intelligence necessary to make a nation a com-
mercial people, must have already raised them above
a barbarous condition. And, then, commerce has up-
on any people a civilizing, elevating influence. No
sooner do a people begin to exchange commodities with
another people than they begin to exchange ideas.

Russel’s “ Barbary States.’

COMMERCE AND TRADING STATIONS.

Commerce implies an acquaintance with the me-
chanical arts, and all the skill needed to construct and
sail a ship ; and, what is more, it implies that a people
have arrived at a state of civilization and advancement
when, in the multiplication of their wants, they require
the productions of other lands ; and, when, too, in their
own domestic progress, they have exports to give in ex-
change for what they require from other lands. Such
a condition, of consequence, implies that considerable
progress has been made in manufactures and agriculture.

It is known that Ethiopia carried on an extensive
and lucrative trade with the land of Israel in the days
of Solomon ; and, if with Israel, undoubtedly with other
nations. Berenice, a port on the Bed Sea, was, at one
time, the great depot and thoroughfare of trade between
Europe and Asia. Carthage was another great com-
mercial emporium, and the Carthaginians were the
most daring seamen and the most enterprising mer-
chants of ancient times. She carried on an extensive
trade with Spain, Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily — with the
numerous istands of the Mediterranean ; with Asia Mi-
nor, Egypt, and Arabia ; with the western coast of Af-
rica and England — indeed, with the whole known world.
This led to the forming of trading stations, in modern
phrase called factories, where these enterprising mer-
chants, or their agents, for a longer or shorter time,
made their residence. Such stations seemed to have
existed on the coast of England ; for it is said, that
the Carthaginians exerted much civilizing influence on
the rude tribes of the British Isles ; an effect scarcely
to be looked for merely from the casual visits of a sea-
faring people.

The foreign traffic of Carthage very naturally led to
3*

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the colonizing policy which she is said to have exten-
sively pursued. Her colonies carried with them the
industry, enterprise, and virtue of the parent stock.
They were settled on the western coast of Spain, on
the western coast of Africa, and, probably, in most ox
the countries where Carthage trafficked. “ While Ham-
ilco,” says the historian, “ was employed in surveying
the western shores of Portugal and Spain, his brother
Hanno conducted an expedition toward the South, with
the view of planting colonies on the borders of Africa.
His fleet amounted to sixty large ships, having on
board 30,000 persons, who had consented to occupy
new lands at a distance from Carthage. These he dis-
tributed into six towns, which, of course, contained on
an average 5,000 inhabitants.” This one instance of
the colonizing policy of Carthage, which undoubtedly
is not a solitary case, indicates on what a stupendous
scale colonization was conducted by that people. Vi e
also learn that these Carthaginian colonies extended,
not only to the coast of Africa and of Spain, but south-
ward, into the interior of Africa. And wherever these
colonies were met, they were found to possess the ele-
ments ox civilization and of civil and moral improve-
ment.

“ The great trade which the Genoese maintained with
Cyrenica (in Africa), in the early times of their republic,
was one of the richest sources of its prosperity.”

Carthage prosecuted, too, a very extensive land trade
far into the east, west, and south of Africa. Wher-
ever there were mines — gold, silver, precious stones,
tin, drugs, spices, dates, salt, slaves — valuable products
of any kind, there the adventurous merchants of Car-
thage went, whether in England, Gaul, the Baltic, or

ANCIENT COLONIES IN AFRICA.

over tlie scorching sands of the great desert. No dif-
ficulties, however great, no dangers, however appalling,
could check the progress of these hold traffickers.

In the case of Carthage, we have a fine illustration
of what colonies were once able to do for Africa. Car-
thage was a colony ; and well did she show what a col-
ony could do, in connection with such natural resour-
ces and capabilities as are found in Africa. Consider-
ing the period when she existed, and the limited facili-
ties for national aggrandizement and permanent pros-
perity, Carthage was one of the most extraordinary
nations that ever existed. In many respects did the
Carthaginians resemble the Puritans of New England.
They did much for the regeneration of Africa.

Meroe, in Nubia, seems to have been a great com-
mercial depot and thoroughfare, to which an extensive
trade was kept up from the Indian Ocean, and thence,
down the Nile, to Egypt, and thence again to Carthage.
On this route are still to be met a chain of ruins from
the Indian Sea to the Mediterranean. As a rule, Axum
and Azab, between Arabia and the Meroe, and Thebes,
Mcmnonium, etc., united the Nile, Egypt, and Carthage.

The history of ancient ivars in Africa — armies —
conquests — renowned soldiers, affords another crite-
rion by which to judge of the greatness of those an-
cient States. The first great captain and conqueror
that figures in history was an African. The great
Sesostris, who sat on the throne of Egypt some 1500
years before the Christian era, was, undoubtedly, one
of the greatest military chieftains that ever lived. He
reduced the Abyssinians to the condition of tributa-
ries ; subdued the nations on either side of the Red
Sea ; advanced along the Persian Gulf, and, if we may

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

credit the history of those early times, he marched at the
head of an enormous army into India, crossed the Gan-
ges, having first subjected to his all-conquering sway
the then powerful and opulent Empire of Hindostan.
Turning his victorious sword then to another portion
of Asia, he subdued the Assyrians and the Medes. But
not content with the conquests of Asia, we find him
next driving his furious car of war into Europe, where
he ravages the Scythians. He wras the conqueror of
three continents.

Again : sacred history gives us an occasional glimpse
of the military strength of certain African kingdoms —
and these notices are the more to be valued, because
they are merely incidentally introduced. "When Sen-
nacherib invaded Jerusalem, and thence carried his
conquests into Egypt, he is said suddenly to have
turned bach when he heard that Tirkdkah, King of
Ethiopia, was coming against him. This was the
Sennacherib who so proudly defied Israel, and railed
on the God of heaven, and said : “As the gods of the
nations of other lands have not delivered their people out
of my hands, so shall not the God of Hezelciah deliver his
people out of my hands'1 So confident was he in his
numbers and in the military strength of his army, that
he feared neither God nor man. Yet, when he heard
that the mighty rider of Ethiopia was coming against
him — the great African — he fled before him. It must
have been a vast army, and, by no means destitute of
the munitions of war and of military discipline ; all
which presupposes a great and powerful nation, and
one considerably advanced in science and the arts.

We read, too, of Zerah, at the head of a thousand
thousand — a million — of Ethiopians, and 300 chariots,

VAST AFRICAN ARMIES.

coming against Asa, King of Judah. Possibly these
were Ethiopians from the east side of the Red Sea, i. e.,
from Arabia ; still the fact is significant of the same
general truth, the early and general advancement of
the race — their once controlling position among the
nations of the earth. These Ethiopians and Lubims,
with their “ very many chariots and horsemen,” are,
in another place, called a “ huge host,” which the
King of Judah overcame only because he relied on the
Lord.

And another similar fact : “It came to pass again
that (in the fifth year of Rehoboam) Sliishak, King of
Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, with 1,200 char-
riots, and three score (60) thousand horsemen, and the
people were without number that came with him out of
Egypt : the Lubims, the Shukhims, and the Ethiopians.
And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Ju-
dah, and came to Jerusalem.

Such armies and such appurtenances of tear indicate,
at least, a powerful and rich nation, as well as consid-
erable advancement in the arts and sciences.

But Northern Africa, at a later date, furnishes an
evidence of this sort yet more satisfactory. Carthage
reared one of the greatest generals that ever fought a
battle ; and for many years carried on a war, well-match-
ed, with great Borne herself. The great and brave
Hannibal first led an army across the Alps, and then
coped for eight long years with Rome on her territory,
and when Borne was at the zenith of her strength.
And had there been no Hannibal, the mightiest among
mighties, the names of Hamilcar, the father, and Asdru-
bal, the brother, of Hannibal, would have come down
to us as two of the greatest generals that ever blessed

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

or cursed a nation. Cartilage had her rival powers in
Africa ; and her chieftains had their rival chieftains.
Masinissa, King of Numidia, is spohen of as a valiant
general and an enlightened prince. Juba, Jugurtha,
Syphax, Micipsa, and scores of men not named, each
in his own way, all men of renown, some allied with
Carthage against Rome, others wooing the giant con-
queror to lay waste their own native Africa, but all, un-
der more favorable auspices and a better destiny, ca-
pable of the noblest daring in the defense of freedom.

AFRICA AS SHE WAS-See page 63.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ARTS.

CHAPTER IV.

Africa as sue iias been — Learning, arts, and science — Government and juris-
prudence— Mining and engineering — Architectural monuments.

A few more topics remain as illustrations of what
Africa has been, and as a presage of what she may be.
Among the many that might be adduced, we select the
following :

The progress made in ancient African States, in
literature, science, and the- arts, is equally significant of
the advanced condition of those States. In Africa, we
find the nursery of science and the arts. Greece re-
ceived the first elements of learning from the south side
of the Mediterranean, so did Rome, and so has mod-
em Europe. "When all Europe and Western Asia lay
sunk in deep darkness, there was light in Africa. And
when again, in the dark ages, the light of Greece and
Rome had suffered an eclipse, and darkness once more
settled down over Europe, there was fight in Africa.
The Saracens and Moors introduced learning into Eu-
rope, and did more to draw aside the vail of the dark
ages than any other people. Arabia and Africa seem
joined in sympathy and destiny. They are alike the
land of Ham. We shall, therefore, speak of them in-
discriminately.

The first permanent advance made by the world in
literature, and for the perpetuation of science, was the
invention of an alphabet. This we owe to Egypt. The
alphabet was a result of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

64 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Tlie first step toward writing was to form a picture of
the object; the second, to put a sign for a word ; the
third, and most important step, was to put a sign for a
sound. From this modified form of hieroglyphics the
transition was comparatively easy to alphabetical writ-
ing. Precisely at what time the alphabet began to be
used by the Egyptians, we do not know. Cadmus is
said to have brought into Greece sixteen letters of the
alphabet (all then in use) 1,519 years before Christ.
Learning, like the alphabet, traveled from Africa into
Europe, through the Phoenicians, another branch of the
family of Ham. We are also indebted for the working
of metals and the invention of glass to the Tyrians.
Again : we owe the mariner s compass to these same
Phoenicians ; and numerical figures to the Arabs, all
the descendants of Ham.

Or we might speak of authors and learned men. Here
we might enumerate a no contemptible list. We have
spoken of church dignitaries, bishops, and presbyters,
men of renown, who did honor both to religion and
literature. To the names of Cyprian, Athanasius,
Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and Augustin,
we may add Terrence, the theologian, and Juba the
royal scholar and historian. Tertullian was highly es-
teemed as a man of great genius and a complete mas-
ter of the Latin tongue. Cyprian, the renowned Bishop
of Carthage, and afterward the martyr, was a man of
such genius and learning as would have made him an
honor to any country. Augustin, Bishop of Hippo, was,-
too, a man of rare learning and intellectual industry.
The author of 230 separate treatises on theological sub-
jects, an exposition of the Psalms, and a great num-
ber of homilies ; his fame filled the whole Christian

LEARNED MEN AND LIBRARIES.

world. Few men have ever united such a variety of
great and shining qualities.

The devastation of time, in the destruction of libra-
ries especially, have deprived us of much of the direct
evidence of the existence of learned men in Egypt and
Abyssinia ; yet, we have no lack of an inferential evi-
dence. Egypt and Abyssinia could never have become
what they were, without learned men. In the days of
Moses, the term “ learning of Egypt” was proverbial.
The Greeks were wont to travel into Egypt, that they
might sit at the feet of the African Gamaliels and get
wisdom. No one might, in those times, make preten-
sions to learning who had not been taught in the
Egyptian schools.

In confirmation, it would be quite sufficient to refer,
for a moment, to the period in ^science and literature
called the Alexandrian, or the age of the Ptolomies. But
we may go back many centuries anterior to this, even
to the time of Osymandyas, one of the Pharaohs, who,
according to some, flourished 1,500 years before Christ,
others say 2,300. To this ancient king is ascribed the
honor of originating the first great library of Egypt,
and probably the first among the nations of antiquity.
And to him was, also, attributed the gigantic work of
Thebes, and the Mesononium in the city of an hundred
gates. And if this be but another name, as some sup-
pose, for Ozirin Menes, we find him described as the
“ inventor of arts, and the civilizer of a great part of
the world.” And, not only was he the renowned patron
of books, of learning, and of the arts and sciences,
but he was not the less renowned as a statesman and
a warrior. He raised, we are told, a “ prodigious army,
and overran Ethiopia, Arabia, and a great part of In-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

clia ; appeared in all the nations of Asia, and, crossing
the Hellespont, continued liis progress through a great
part of Europe.” This extraordinary man disseminated
the arts, built cities, and was universally revered as a
god. These things indicate a condition of science, of
the arts, of martial skill, and of human progress in
general, which are not to be found among a barbarous
people.

But if we descend through centuries to the age of
the Ptolomies, centuries during all of which Egypt re-
mained a magnificent kingdom, we shall meet a monu-
ment of human progress in the existence of the “ Alex-
andrian Library” which puts beyond a doubt the
advancement of that period, and advancement, too, in a
race since repudiated as not susceptible of any high
improvement. This famous library, in the two magnifi-
cent edifices which contained it, consisted of 700,000
volumes. In the most beautiful portion of the city of
Alexandria, known as the Bruciion, where stood the
royal palaces, and in the vicinity of the harbor, the
ancient traveler might have seen the “large and
splendid edifice belonging to the Academy and Mu-
seum.” In this building was deposited the larger por-
tion (400,000 vols.) of this celebrated library. The
remainder (300,000) were kept in the Sarapion, the
Temple of Jupiter Serapis. The larger portion was
burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar.
The smaller portion, in the Serapion, was preserved to
the time of Theodosius the Great, when the Temple of
Jupiter Serapis was destroyed, and the last of that
famous library perished. And with these libraries,
and several others of African origin that we shall
scarcely more than name, perished the annals, at least,

ALEXANDRIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY.

the written records, of the high state of civilization, and
social and civil progress once reached by the children
of Ham. And, with shame be it confessed, the de-
stroyers of these magnificent monuments of African
scholarship and philanthropy were Christian barba-
rians, and not the Arabs under Omar, as usually as-
serted. The archbishop, Theodosius, headed a crowd
of Christian fanatics, stormed and destroyed the splen-
did temple and its precious contents.

And in this connection we should not overlook the
renowned Museum of Alexandria, a sort of university,
or college of learned men, where scholars lived and
were supported, ate together, pursued their studies
and instructed others. This was the first academy of
the sciences and arts of which we have a knowledge—
not unlike the Royal Academy of Science at Paris, or
the Royal Society of London. And if to the Museum
and Library we add the no less famous “ Alexandrian
School,” in which poetry, philosophy, and all the high-
er branches of learning were pursued to an extent
never known before, and in some respects scarcely
reached since, we shall not fail to see how it was that
this African depot of literature and science became the
favorite resort of scholars from every other quarter of
the world, and the rallying point whither all who as-
pired to scholarship should betake themselves, to per-
fect what, in their own several localities, they had but
begun. After the lapse of more than twelve centuries,
the term “ the learning of Egypt” had a significance
unknown in the days of Moses.

Rut libraries, as indicative of learning, and philoso-
phy, and mental cultivation, were not confined to the
Egyptians. Other branches of the great African fam-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ily were, at different periods, scarcely behind their
kindred on the Nile. The Tyrians, a no insignificant
branch of the main family, had their literature, their
archives of history, their libraries, all of which are be-
lieved to have perished with the fleets and fortresses
of Phoenicia, in their overthrow by Alexander. In like
manner, Marius is said to have destroyed the Punic
chronicles at Carthage. A people so powerful and
civilized as were the Carthaginians, we may not sup-
pose for a moment, were without libraries, rich in the
varied learning of a great people. In Spain, the
Moors are said to have had, in the twelfth century,
seventy public libraries, of which that in Cordova con-
tained 250,000 volumes. And the Arabians had, in
Alexandria, a considerable library of Arabian books.

It is readily conceded that, of all civilized nations,
the Egyptians were the first to observe the course of
the stars. The zodiac of Dendera, now in Paris,
shows the progress which this people had made in as-
tronomy. Nor did they make less advances in phi-
losophy, poetry, mathematics, and belles-letters. And
not for a few centuries, like Babylon, Greece, or Rome,
did this branch of the Hamic family flourish as a great
nation and a highly civilized people, but she outlived
all the nations of antiquity. “ The monuments of
Egypt witnessed the rise and fall of Tyre, Carthage,
Athens, and Rome,” and yet they exist. When Plato
lived, they were venerable for their antiquity, and will
command the admiration of future generations, when,
perhaps, every trace of our cities shall have vanished.

The progress made by certain African States in the
science of civil government indicates again the advanced
condition of those States. Systems of government im-

-CARTHAGE, A KEPUBLIC.

ply tlie existence of wise statesmen, and institutions
of learning, and civil polity, which are never found,
except in an advanced stage of civilization. Carthage
was a republic, and enjoyed, perhaps, the most perfect
system of civil polity, which has fallen to the lot of
any nation before Great Britain. It was not such a
republic as we have in North America ; yet, in the
freedom of its institutions, in the vigor and elasticity
of its machinery, and its results on the masses of the
people, it was a government far in advance of any
other ancieixfc government, save the Jewish. Carthage
was once the formidable rival of Borne for universal
dominion. “ She took the lead,” as the historian says,
“ in all which exalts human nature, and confers the
highest blessing on society. Her provinces were opu-
lent and enlightened, including nearly the whole of
North and West Africa, the islands of the Mediterra-
nean, and the west of Spain. She could boast of
renowned sages and learned fathers of the Church
her towns did not suffer in comparison with the
most celebrated of antiquity, and her commerce
swept every sea.

There was undoubtedly a time when learning, com-
merce, the arts, good and wise government, manufac-
tures, and whatever goes to elevate man, and aggrand-
ize a nation, flourished in connection with a race,
which is now regarded as the evidence only of degra-
dation and barbarous ignorance. Civilization, with
all that comes in its train, descended the Nile. Ethio-
pia, Nubia, and Meroe, were great kingdoms before
Egypt was, and they contributed largely to make her
what she was.

Hippo, Utica, and Leptis were other colonies and

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

States formed on tlie northern coast of Africa by the
Phoenicians, and, in connection v/ith Carthage, en-
joyed, each, its long period of good government and
prosperity.

The architectural monuments of Eastern and North-
ern Africa stand as an enduring history of the former
greatness of those kingdoms. These monuments,
to some of which I shall refer, afford no doubtful
proof of the progress which had then been made in
mining and engineering, and to what perfection the
useful and ornamental arts had been carried. Did
we need any further evidence on this point than that
which is furnished by the monuments themselves, a
recent very singular discovery would supply the lack.
The Overland Chronicle (an English paper) speaks
of the recent opening of an emerald mine on Mount
Zabarak, near (or, as the Chronicle says, on an island
in) the Bed Sea. This ancient mine had been worked
in modern times, by the Pacha of Egypt, but its oper-
ations had been arrested in the latter years of the
reign of Mohammed Ali. A short time since, an En-
glish company obtained permission to carry on the
digging, which promised to yield them much profit.
Decently, E. Allen, their engineer, discovered at a
great depth, traces of a great gallery, evidently of ex-
treme antiquity. Here he found ancient instruments
and utensils, and a stone with hieroglyphic inscrip-
tions upon it. Belzoni, to whom the world is so much
indebted for its knowledge of the wonders of Egypt,
visited this mine, and gave it as his opinion, that it
had been worked by the ancient Egyptians, an opinion
confirmed by the late discovery. The configuration
of the gallery, and the nature and shape of the tools

MONUMENTAL HISTORY.

found in it, it is said, exhibit great skill in the art of
engineering. From tire inscriptions on tire stone, it
would seem that this mine of Zabarak began to be
worked in the reign of the great Sesostris (more than
1,500 B. C.)3 whom history describes as combining the
character of a great conqueror, with that of a prince
of vast enterprise in the arts of peace.

Indeed, were all written history silent respecting
the greatness and grandeur of the ancient kingdoms
of Africa, we should still have, in the monuments
which remain to this day, unmistakable traces of their
greatness'. There is probably in the minds of those
most conversant with the history of ancient Thebes,
Memphis, and Meroe, a very inadequate conception of
what those cities actually were. It is quite impossi-
ble we should know. Yet, notwithstanding the rav-
ages of 3,000 years, and the yet more fearful ravages
of barbarism and ignorance which they have encoun-
tered, splendid remnants of those cities still exist.
They stand forth, in defiance of time and vandalism,
the proud and undemolished monuments of a highly
civilized and intelligent people.

Allow me to refresh your minds respecting these
extraordinary relics of a by-gone age. In no other
way, perhaps, can we get so adequate an idea of what
Africa has once produced, and of what she may again
produce. I shall refer you but to a few specimens — a
pyramid, two or three temples, a sphynx, the laby-
rinth, a tomb, and colossal statues.

The Pyramids are believed to be the work of the
Shepherd Kings, who reigned some 2,000 years be-
fore Christ; and, consequently, those colossal piles
are nearly 4,000 years old. Had wre no other intima-

THE GEE AT NEGEO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

tion of the perfection to which the mechanical arts
had been carried, and the extent of the knowledge of
the mechanical powers, we should have it in the exist-
ence of these stupendous works. Only conceive of a
huge pile of masonry (as the great Pyramid of Cheops)
which employed one hundred thousand men twenty
years in building — 800 feet in height, and the same
in the length of the base, with various passages and
chambers — one at least 66 feet by 27. The material
of which this enormous structure is composed — the
huge stones of which it is built — the road constructed,
over which to convey the stones from the quarry, a
work which, of itself, consumed ten years’ labor — all
indicate a skill and enterprise, and acquaintance with
mining, engineering, the tempering of metals, and the
construction of tools and machinery, which belong
only to a highly civilized people.

Or take, as another specimen, the Temple of Den-
dera. We can not, perhaps, select a happier example
of the taste and skill of those ancient people in the
fine arts. Its columns, statues, sculptures, hiero-
glyphics, are the admiration of the world. All unite,
the most fastidious and refined, in extolling the tem-
ple and portico of Dendera. It will quite suffice here
to quote the enthusiastic language of Den on (of the
French scientific corps under Napoleon), by which he
gave expression to his admiration when he first saw
this wonderful temple :

“ I felt that I was in the sanctuary of the arts and
sciences. This monument seemed to me to have the
primitive character of a temple in its highest perfec-
tion. How many periods presented themselves to my
imagination at the sight of such an edifice! How

TEMPLE OE DENDERA.

many ages of creative ingenuity were requisite to
bring a nation to such a degree of perfection and sub-
limity in the arts ! And how many more of oblivion to
cause these mighty productions to be forgotten, and
to bring back the human race to the state of nature in
which I found them on this very spot? Never was
there a place which concentrated in a narrower com-
pass the well-marked memorial of the progressive
lapse of ages. What unceasing power, what riches,
what abundance, what superfluity of means, must a
government possess which could erect such an edifice,
and find within itself citizens capable of conceiving
and executing the design of decorating and enriching
it with every thing that speaks to the eye and the
understanding. Never did the labor of man show me
the human race in so splendid a point of view. In
the ruins of Dendera the Egyptians appear to me
giants.”

But let us go to Thebes, the hundred-gated Thebes
— the city of four thousand years ago— which was
twenty-seven miles in circumference, and still bears
indubitable marks of having been one of the most
magnificent cities that ever graced the face of the
earth. It could once send out from its one hundred
gates twenty thousand fighting men and two hundred
chariots. Babylon excepted, it was the earliest capital
in the world. Its destruction dates back beyond the
first foundation of any existing city. The glory of
Thebes belongs to a period prior to the commence-
ment of authentic history. The extent of its present
ruins, which reach about seventeen and a half miles
in circumference, and the “ immensity of its colossal
fragments offer to the eye so many astonishing ob-
4

74 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

jects, that one is riveted to the spot, unable to decide
whither to direct his step or fix his attention.”

The chief objects of interest at Thebes are the four
celebrated Temples of Karnac and Luxor, Meclinet
Abu and Memnonium ; the famous Tomb of Osyman-
dyas, the Temple of Iris, the Labyrinth, and the Cata-
combs. Indeed, the whole extent of eight miles along
the Nile, on either side, is described as covered with
magnificent portals, obelisks, decorated with the most
beautiful sculpture, forests of columns, and long ave-
nues of colossal statues. The position and magnifi-
cence of the four temples just named give us some
idea of the ancient grandeur of Thebes. Two of the
temples, viz., Karnac and Luxor, were on the east
side of the river Nile, distant about a mile and a half
from each other ; and twro on the west side, exactly
fronting them — the temple at Medinet Abu being
opposite Luxor, and Memnonium opposite to Karnac ;
and the four were joined by avenues which are lined
all the way by statues, pillars, and magnificent gate-
ways, and guarded by sphynxes.

Conceive for a moment the vast dimensions of the
temple at Karnac. The length of the principal temple
was 1,200 feet, and its breadth 420. But this superb
edifice, which, from the scattered ruins around, seems
to have been the principal fane of magnificent piles,
all devoted to its use, is surrounded by subordinate
temples, huge gateways, and colossal statues, for miles
in extent, through which lead avenues in every direc-
tion, guarded by rows of sphynxes of vast size, cut
out of single blocks of syenite. Probably all these are
but the ruins of buildings, which, in the prouder days
of Thebes, were consecrated entirely to the temple.

TEMPLES OF KAENAO AND LUXOR.

This edifice has twelve principal entrances, each of
which is composed of colossal gateways, besides other
buildings larger than ordinary temples.

The grand hall in the temple at Karnac casts into
the shade any other room ever yet constructed. This
apartment, believed to be the work of Osirei, the
father of the great Sesostris, and built near 3,500
years ago, is 329 feet long, and 170 feet wide, sup-
ported by 134 columns, twelve of which are 66 feet
high, and 21 feet in diameter, and the others 42 feet
high, and 9 feet in diameter.

Or fancy yourself approaching the temple at Luxor.
The first object that arrests your attention is a mag-
nificent gateway 200 feet in length, and still 57 feet
above the present level of the sand. In front of the
entrance stand two of the most perfect obelisks in
the world, each formed of a single block of red granite,
7 or 8 feet square, and 80 feet high. Entering through
such a gateway, on the wings of which are sculptured
the most extraordinary pictures of some famous battle
and victory, you pass into a portico of great dimen-
sions, from wThich a double row of columns, with lotus
capitals 22 feet in circumference, conduct you into a
court 160 feet long, and 140 wide, beyond which is
another portico of thirty-two columns, and then you
find yourself in the interior of the edifice.

Or cross the Nile, and visit the two corresponding
temples on the west bank, and, though the dimensions
are not quite so great, the architecture is yet more
beautiful. One of these temples is 500, and the other
600 feet in length — one contains six courts, and cham-
bers passing from side to side, with 160 columns,
30 feet high.

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Or we might here turn aside among the neighboring
ruins, to take a look at some colossal statues, which
here sit in gloomy solitude amid the present desola-
tions of the Valley of the Nile ; and we shall find no
end to our attempts to survey these objects of interest.
There stands the Labyrinth, with its 3,000 chambers,
1,500 above the surface of the ground, and 1,500 be-
neath ; with its almost infinite winding passages from
court to court, and from chamber to chamber ; the
ceiling and walls of marble richly ornamented with
sculpture, and around the courts, pillars of the most
exquisite white marble. In . another direction you
would meet the colossal Sphinx, which is to be seen
near the group of pyramids at Gizeh. This enormous
figure, with the head of a man and body of a lion,
one of the wonders even in that wonderful country,
is 150 feet in length, 63 feet high, though in a re-
cumbent posture, its paws thrown out 53 feet in front.
But before you had half contemplated this wonder of
architecture, your attention would be arrested by a
monument of antiquity no less wonderful, the Tomb
of Osymandyas ; or you would be tempted to visit
those wonderful regions of the dead, those extraordi-
nary excavations which served as the last resting
place of generation after generation of the vast mul-
titudes that peopled Thebes.

We are amazed at the magnitude of these ruins —
and more amazed when we think to inquire how such
massy piles were erected — how were such ponderous
stones ever conveyed from the quarry ; and, then, how
were they ever raised to their places? We meet
there shafts, columns, obelisks, 60 and 80 feet in
height and 12 feet in diameter, of a single stone. The

WHAT HAS BEEN, MAY BE.

colossus of Eamases II. is computed to weigh 887
tons. How was such a mass of rock conveyed to the
spot — and, then, how erected ?

Thus I have taken occasion to refer to the archi-
tectural monuments in the land of Ham, not so much
for the purpose of describing them — which in so lim-
ited space I could not, as for the purpose of showing
ivhat has been done in that benighted land ; and, for the
sake of the inference, viz., that what has been done, by
any particular race of men, or on any given soil, may
be done again. The most cursory glance over the
countries to which I have referred, evinces, at once,
that those lands were formerly peopled by a race or
races of men far advanced in science and the arts, in
civilization, and in all the useful and ornamental arts
of life. The number, magnitude, and elegance of
these monuments distinctly indicate the state of ad-
vancement to which this ancient race had arrived.
The Pjuamids, alone, in the Valley of the Nile, amount
to 172. And, besides these, there are temples, tombs,
obelisks, columns, magnificent gateways, sphynxes,
and architectural monuments of every description and
almost without number.

We, therefore, look for the regeneration of Africa,
for her emancipation from the thraldom and ignorance
into which she has now sunk. She has abundantly
shown her capabilities to rise, assert and maintain
honorable position among the nations, and to fulfill
her destined mission. When the day of her redemp-
tion shall come — when the fiat of Heaven shall pro-
nounce her long and dreary night passed, and the
dawning of her day come — we need have no fears that
Africa — poor, despised, degraded, forsaken, as she

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

now is — sliall rise in licr strength, and, in the face of
benignant Heaven, take her place among the nations,
set free from her bondage, and exonerated from the
curse. And the sons of Ham shall, in their turn, be
honored and blessed. When Ethiopia shall stretch
out her hands unto God, God shall receive her sons
into his favor, and in Heaven’s blessing they shall be
blessed indeed.

AFRICA, THE LAND OF HAM.

CHAPTER V.

African races — Pioneers anil first cultivators of the arts and sciences — The
negro a primitive race — The pure negro superior to the mixed races — No
race ever so advanced under so unfavorable circumstances — A blessing
yet for Ham.

It may be asked, were tlie memorials of human
greatness referred to in our last chapter monuments
of the skill and general advance of African races?
Were not the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, i. e., Ca-
naanites from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean
— and the Egyptians, perchance, of an Arabian stock.
Still, all we claim is true. They were the sons of
Ham. Africa is more especially the land of Ham ; yet
it detracts nothing from our position, that other
branches of the family of Ham should migrate thither,
and there display the capabilities of their race.

In a temporal point of view, the race of Ham was
the first favored race. In Asia and Africa, and per-
haps in America, and possibly in Europe, they took
the lead. Early after the Deluge we find them on
the plains of Sliinar, a highly civilized and an advanc-
ed race. The ruins of Nineveh, the architectural mon-
uments of Assyria, the magnificent Tower of Babel,
are vouchers for such an assumption. From this an-
cient and great centre of civilization and progress
among the descendants of Ham, on the plains of Shi-
nar, where flowed the Tigris and Euphrates, we can
distinctly trace the progress of human improvement.
One stream flowed eastward to the Indus, and thence

THE GBEAT NEGEO PROBLEM SOLVED.

over hither and further India and China ; and the
other, westward into Arabia and Africa. And a third
stream, not improbably, passed over the Mediterrane-
an and the Atlantic into central America and Mexico.
The latter supposition seems to find confirmation, not
only from the monumental evidence abundantly ex-
tant, at the present day, in that part of America, and
in the existing traditions, but has a recent confirma-
tion in some documents not long since brought to
light. In a late notice respecting the early history of
the aboriginal inhabitants of America, it is stated, that
M. de Bomburg has obtained two manuscripts, of
great value, written by Don Bamon de Ordonez, a na-
tive and priest of Chiapas. Some fifty years ago, Or-
donez devoted himself, for many years, to the study of
the antiquities of Mexico, and his opinions were the
result of much patient investigation. The grand point
brought to light in the manuscripts is, that Chiapas
and Mexico were first peopled by Asiatics, who came
thither by the way of the Mediterranean, across the
Atlantic. Their arrival was in early times, centuries
before the Christian era. They are said to have re-
mained some time at St. Domingo, and afterward
crossed over to Chiapas, where, M. de Bomburg says,
there are evidences of a settlement earlier than in
Mexico. The Spaniards, for obvious reasons, conceal
the fact of this early discovery and settlement of
America. They would rather monopolize all the glory
themselves.

The above opinion is abundantly sustained by the
Asiatic character of the splendid ruins of Central
America and Mexico. Antiquarians, and, indeed,
common travelers, discover striking resemblances in

ANCIENT NEGEO EACES.

the ancient temples, pyramids, and various archi-
tectural relics of Central America, and in those of
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Hindostan — resemblances not
easily to be accounted for, except on the hypothesis
that they are the work of nations having a common
origin. So striking is the resemblance between the
temples and many of the rites and instruments of the
superstition of India and of Egypt, that native Hin-
doos, when brought, as Sepoys, to join the British
army in Egypt, imagined that they had found their
own temples in the ruins of Dendera. So strongly,
indeed, were they impressed with the identity, that
they actually performed their devotions in these tem-
ples, according to the rites and ceremonies practiced
in their own country.

Recent investigations on the subject of races have
developed singular traces of the negro race through
all the countries of Southern Asia. And the same
conclusion is arrived at, by these writers, respecting
the ancient Egyptians. “Of their physical character,”
says Pritchard, “ the national conformation, prevailing
in the most ancient times, was 'nearly the negro form,
with woolly hair.” In a later age, as the nation ad-
vanced in civilization and mingled with other nations,
these characteristics became modified, and, in a great
degree, disappeared. Writers show a very striking
affinity between the ancient Egyptians and the people
of India, and show that both were strongly marked by
the characteristics of the negro race.

Oriental temples and other public edifices, as, also,
the images that are worshiped in these temples, most
clearly indicate to what race the original occupants
of those temples belonged. Among the Siamese, also,

THE GEEAT NEGEO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

their chief deities, called Buddha and Amida, “ are
figured nearly like negroes.” And so it may be af-
firmed of the Buddhists of all Southern Asia, com-
prising more than 300,000,000 of the human family,
their principal deity, Buddha, is represented -with

negro features and hair.

° . . I

Travelers in India speak of the ancient city of Nag-

poor, and of a ruined city, v/liose name is lost, near
the city of Benares, as “ adorned with statues of a
woolly-haired race.” And the writer of these pages
has witnessed, in the celebrated caves of Elephanta,
near Bombay, the same peculiarity. The sculptures
there are believed to display the oldest forms of the
Indian religion. The attributes of the three persons
of the triad (the Hindoo Trinity) are there exhibited
as united in one figure. Modern travelers do not fail
to notice the African appearance of those images,
particularly of their hair and features.

We feel constrained to admit that these edifices,
idols, and statues were the workmanship of a race very
like the negro ; and we may not suppose that a fairer
race would be likely to so honor a caste wlpch was
regarded as inferior. They were, undoubtedly, the
works of the “ Indo-Cushites,” the descendants of
Ham, “ the original type of the black races of men,
and the Ethiopians, whose migration extended from
the rising to the setting sun.” Hamilton Smith fully
adopts the opinion that the negro or woolly-haired
type of man was the most ancient, and the original
character of the inhabitants of Asia, as far north as
the lower range of the Himmalaya Mountains ; and
from the Indus to Indo-China and the Malay Penin-
sula, and even in the South Sea Islands.

COMMERCE AND TRADING STATIONS.

We may here avail ourselves of so high an authori-
ty in Oriental lore as Sir William Jones. He ob-
serves that “the remains of architecture and sculpture
in India, seems to prove an early connection between
that country and Africa.” He adds : “ The Pyramids
of Egypt, the colossal statues described by Pausanias,
and others, the Sphynx, and the Hermes Canis, which
last bears a strong resemblance to the Yaraha Avatar
(a Hindoo incarnation), indicate the style of the same
indefatigable workmen, who formed the vast exca-
vations of Canara (in Western India), the various
temples and images of Buddha, and the idols which
are continually dug up at Gaya, or in its vicinity.
These, and other indisputable facts, may induce
no ill-grounded opinion, that Ethiopia and Hindos-
tan were peopled or colonized by the same extraordi-
nary race ; in confirmation of which, it may be add-
ed, that the mountaineers of Bengal and Benhar can
hardly be distinguished in some of their features,
particularly in their lips and noses, from the modem
Abyssinians.

We would, therefore, seem to hazard nothing in the
conclusion that commerce and the arts, science and
learning, civilization and human improvement in gen-
eral, were first identified with, and developed through,
a race that has now for long ages been associated,
only with degradation and barbarous ignorance.
And we are equally justified in the conclusion which
an intelligent writer has drawn, that “the degrada-
tion of this race of men must be regarded as the result
of external causes, and not of natural, inherent, and
original incapacity.”

In the preceding paragraphs we have quoted free-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lj from a valuable work on the “ Unity of the Human
Races,” by the Rev. Thomas Smytlie, D.D., of Charles-
ton, S. C. And we are the more willing to give all
due credit to such authority, as it is testimony from a
source which strikes the mind rather singularly at the
present moment. Yfe hear nothing of Dr. Smythe’s
dissent from the current doctrine of the church and
clergy of the South, or of the Divine sanction of negro
slavery. In 1850, fully indorsing the opinions of
Pritchard, Clapperton, Pickering, and the best ethno-
logical writers, he says : “We may, therefore, as phil-
osophical inquirers seeking after truth, admit the full
force of any facts which may encourage the belief
that there was a time when the black race of man
were the pioneers, or, at least, the equals of any other
races, in all the arts and acquirements of man’s primi-
tive civilization.” Again : he says, “ there was a time
when learning, commerce, arts, and manufactures were
all associated with a form and character of the human
race now regarded as the evidence only of degrada-
tion, and barbarous ignorance.”

But times have changed. In 1861, a new gospel,
as touching the negro, obtains at the South. He
is no longer a man — has no rights — was born and
doomed, by an irreversible curse, to perpetual servi-
tude. The pulpit has been suborned in the interest
of the slaveholder. Men like Thomwell and Palmer,
whose praise was once in all the churches, have gone
at the bidding of the oppressor. They tell us, now,
that slavery is a “ Bible institution,” that it is com-
patible with the spirit of the Gospel — well pleasing to
Heaven — conducive to the greatest good of both op-
pressed and oppressor — negro slavery the only sure

INDIAN AND EGYPTIAN TEMPLES.

and rightful basis of a Republican Government.
Times change ; and men change with times.

But to return : the identity between the Indian and
Egyptian temples and monuments is not so striking as
that between the Indian and the Ethiopian and Nu-
bian. The temples of Nubia, for example, exhibit the
same features, whether as to style of architecture or
form of worship, as similar buildings do which have
been examined in the neighborhood of Bombay ; and,
especially, this resemblance discovered in those extra-
ordinary excavations hewn out in the solid body of a
hill or mountain, and formed into complete and vast
temples. The excavated temple of Guerfah Hassan
is said to remind one at once of the excavated tem-
ples at Elephanta, near Bombay, or the more extra-
ordinary ones at Ellora. And the same interesting
resemblances are, also, said to be found between
the temples of the Chinese and those of East Africa,
all indicating, again, that the skill and workmanship
which reared them descended from the same common
stock.

When we speak of temples hi Hindostan resembling
sacred edifices in Eastern Africa, we refer to the old
temples in India, which differ considerably from those
of more modern date. These old temples were evi-
dently the work of a race who no longer occupy that
country. The descendants of Shem have finally sup-
planted the sons of Ham, who once extended their
possessions, and covered with the works of their skill,
and enterprise all those fertile countries of Southern
Asia. In some of these ancient temples in India, we
meet with the unmistakable traces that the race of
Ham once flourished in those lands. The thick lips

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

and the crisped hair are met with on the figures found
in those temples.

To what extent the race of Ham were likewise the
pioneers and the first cultivators of the arts and
sciences in Europe, and the first to introduce the im-
provements of civilization and the blessings of a more
highly cultivated life, we may not be able to deter-
mine. True it is, that, so long as the names of Cad-
mus and Cecrops and Danaus are remembered, it will
not be forgotten that the art of writing, and the
rich treasures of Oriental wisdom, were transported,
through Phoenicia, from Africa into Europe. Not
only, then, did Europe and all European races, where-
ever found, receive their learning from the children of
Ham, but, as I said, the art of writing, which alone
can perpetuate and make learning practical.

We know, too, that, after the lapse of some centu-
ries, the Carthaginians, as they sallied forth from
their African home, became the merchantment of all
Europe. Their commerce extended to Gaul, Spain,
England, the Baltic, and to all the islands and ports
of the Mediterranean. And commerce is the great
civilizer. The Carthaginians could never exchange
commodities with those European nations without an
exchange of ideas. The sons of Japheth, therefore,
were greatly indebted to the children of Ham for their
civilization and early advancement.

Nor need we stop here. What Cadmus begun, and
the Carthaginians greatly favored, the Saracens,
some centuries later, advanced still further. They
kept alive, as before said, the flickering lamp of learn-
ing during the dark ages, and, through the magnifi-
cent empire which, for some centuries, they maintained

SONS ON HAM, PIONEERS.

in Spain, they revived learning in Europe, dissipated
the darkness of the dark ages, and did much to pre-
pare the way for the glorious Reformation.

We are, therefore, brought to the conclusion, that
the first great developments of the arts, science, gen-
eral knowledge, and human improvement, commenced
after the flood, on the plains of Shinar and in the race
of Ham — that by migrations or missions, we know
not how, streams flowed forth, both eastward and
westward ; the westward stream flowing through Ara-
bia, Ethiopia, Nubia, and Egypt, and thence, by the
way of Phoenicia, into Greece, Rome, and into Western
Europe ; and the eastern stream, through Persia and
Hindostan, into China, and some collateral branches
across the Atlantic into Central America — and that
these developments were confined to the descendants
of Ham. For whatever reason, wasting and degrada-
tion have since been, for a melancholy series of years,
entailed on this ill-fated race, they were the first, after
the repeopling of the earth, to make progress in em-
pire and the arts of civilized life, in intellectual ad-
vancement and great temporal prosperity.

Whether we are to regard the long-protracted de-
pression and degradation of the whole family of Ham
as a fruit of the curse pronounced on Canaan, stand-
ing a federal head in that family, has already been
considered. It would seem more probable that the
Canaanites would be the sole, as they are the particu-
lar, inheritors of the Divine malediction : “ A servant
of servants shalt thou be yet, in the history of Afri-
can races (the descendants of Ham, through other
branches than Canaan), we seem, as many affirm, to
have a general verification of the same curse, or

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

something very much like it. However accounted for,
true it is, that Africa has been a carcass preyed upon
by every unclean bird. A “servant of servants” has
she been — subjected, now for more than 3,000 years, to
the most remarkable series of rapine, plunder, cruelty,
carnage, and protracted deaths. There is no other
such example in all the history of our world. Exten-
sive races — a whole continent — subjected, for more
than thirty centuries, to the most appalling miseries,
until races, once noble and capable, as we have seen,
of a high state of improvement, are reduced to so low
a condition, that there are not wanting advocates of
the theory that expffis them from the family of man —
at least, denies their common origin with the white
races. But more of this when we come to speak of
the curse of Africa.

It is sufficient to add, that, except as a mere matter
of earnests, or first-fruits, there has been no true relig-
ious development among the black races of Ham. All
we have yet seen is a temporal elevation, such as
wealth, worldly wisdom, extensive empire, gorgeous
works of art, superb monuments of human greatness
and pride, magnificent cities, and much that elevates
the physical man. The true religion was perpetuated
in, and descended through, the posterity of Shem till
the coming of Christ. Its patriarchs, prophets, and
teachers — its victories, and conquests, and blessings
— were confined to this branch of the great family of
man. After this notable era in the annals of the
world, the sceptre of righteousness passed over to Ja-
pheth. And Christianity has since been almost exclu-
sively confined to this race. Are we to believe that
the third great branch — Ham, the younger son of

DIVINE COMPENSATIONS.

Noah — shall never become the favored race in respect
to what is, undoubtedly, the chief design in the Divine
mind in the creation of man ? Shall not they, .who
have waited long, and been trodden down, and oppress-
ed, and abused, above any other people that existed
— shall not they come up in remembrance before God?
No aspect of the Divine character is more clearly re-
vealed than that which makes him to take the part of
the oppressed and afflicted. He humbles them whom
he is about to honor. He binds up them he has tom.
He raises up them he has suffered to be cast down.

Were there no other hope for Africa, we should
hope on this ground. And if God does, as we believe,
observe some proper proportion between his frown
and his favor — between the bitter cup which a peo-
ple have been permitted to drink, and the returning
smiles of his face — we may expect Africa shall be
rewarded double for all her sufferings.

We shall, therefore, continue to believe Africa to be
a great reservation, where shall yet be garnered some
of the richest fruits of Divine mercy toward man — a
rich field, that shall, in due time, yield a luxuriant har-
vest and bring a rich revenue into the treasury of the
great King. Like their own great deserts, this sin-
gular race, so barren, at present, of all common inter-
est, so fruitless of all that goes to aggrandize a peo-
ple, seem, as I have shown, kept back for some great
future purpose — perhaps for the next great moral de-
velopment in our world — to be the next great medium
through which God will carry out his purposes among
men.

Late ethnological researches have brought out re-
sults, as touching African races, little expected, yet

90 THE GREAT NEGRd PROBLEM SOLVED.

muck to our present purpose. Pritchard, Smytlic,
Morton, and others, have shown, as far as the nature
of the case admits, that the negro race is a primitive
race of man — that they were the earliest civilized, and
the first civilizers of man — “ that there was a time
when the black race of man were pioneers, or, at least,
the equals of any other races, in all the arts, and ac-
quirements of man’s primitive civilization” — a time
when “ learning, commerce, arts, manufactures, and all
that characterizes a state of civilization, were asso-
ciated with the black race ; a race now associated only
with degradation and barbarous ignorance.” As evi-
dence of this, we can triumphantly point to the mag-
nificent kingdoms of Meroe, Nubia, and Ethiopia, and
to the no less stately monuments of art, as they stand
this day, the imperishable memorials of time, scatter-
ed along, from the pyramids cf Egypt, through all
Southern Asia, to Japan ; temples, statues, images,
cavern palaces, far surpassing any work of modern art.
These are the monuments of the skill and workman-
ship of a crisp-haired and a thick-lipped race. Wri-
ters of great learning and research hesitate not to say,
that the aborigines of Hindostan were a race of ne-
groes— at least, had the hair and features of the
negro.* Such a race is still found on an island in the
Bay of Bengal, on the mountains of India, and in the
interior of the Malay Peninsula — indeed, in just such
portions as we should expect to find them, on tlip sup-
position that they were the aborigines of those coun-
tries, and driven out and forced to flee before victo-
rious invaders, who afterward became permanent set-

* Of these, we may name Pritchard, Hamilton Smith, Morton, Ritter,
Trail, T. B. Hamilton, Sir William Jones.

THE NEGRO, A PRIMITIVE RACE.

tiers on tlie soil. It is a singular fact, that the idols
and hero gods of all those countries (I mean, the an-
cient gods as those of the Buddhists and Jains), have
the woolly hair and the thick lip. We can here have
no suspicion that the present dominant races in those
countries, or that other whiter race, would he ambi-
tious to give to their deities the negro features. Dr.
Pritchard, therefore, regards it as an “ established
fact, that a black and woolly haired race is among the
original inhabitants of Asia,” especially “ in countries
about India.” And the same writers agree that the
ancient Egyptians were of the same race — “ that the
national configuration prevailing in the most ancient
times was nearly the negro form, with the woolly
hair.” So, likewise, in the extreme east are found
indubitable traces of the negro race. In Japan are
stupendous and magnificent temples of very remota
antiquity, in which the idols are represented as negroes
with woolly hair.

And another fact, attested by the same class of
writers, and confirmed by Clapperton, and other trav-
elers among the negro tribes of the interior of Africa,
is, that the pure negroes are superior to the mixed races.
Among the pure races are found “ large and populous
kingdoms, with numerous towns, well-cultivated fields,
and various manufactures, such as weaving, dyeing,
tanning, working in iron and other metals, and in
pottery.

But, what is more, the same authorities assure us
that the pure negro tribes are morally superior to the
mixed races ; that they all believe in the first principles
of natural religion; in one universally powerful Being ;
in prayer and worship ; in rites and sacrifices ; in

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

priests and ministers ; in tlie immortality of tire soul ;
in a future state of rewards and punisliment ; in the
division of time into weeks ; and they have given a
more ready reception than any other people to reli-
gions, whether true or false, to idolatry, Mohammedan-
ism, and Christianity.

Such facts abundantly indicate the capabilities of the
race for a higher civilization. No race ever advanced
so far under so unfavorable circumstances. They were,
in their day, far in advance of all other races. And
no race, without the stronger element of Christianity,
ever made a greater progress. Nor are we without an
example of what the negro race is capable of doing
under the more powerful influences of Christianity.
At one period, Christianity mingled largely with other
elements for their advancement ; and nobly did they
improve under the auspices of the Cross, and noble
specimens were they of Christian piety. Africa sup-
plied the first “ Protestants.” “In North Africa,” says
the historian, “ Christianity flourished very much.”
The African Church more than once protested against
the insolence of the Bishop of Borne, before Borne
usurped the position she had now assumed.”

There is, it seems to me, nothing in the past history
of the negro race, nor in their present condition, that
militates against our assumption that they may yet
exhibit a higher civilization and a better type of
Christianity. Their present degradation is obviously
but a result of unpropitious circumstances.

But there are other considerations, that seem to
throw something into the scale of the same probability.
God is not accustomed to use any one people as the
medium of his grace, the instillments for carrying out

GOD WORKS BY SOME ONE RACE.

the purposes of his benevolence toward man, for any
very long period of time. The best portion of the
race which he ever has used can not long bear the
honor. They become proud, lightly esteem the honor
conferred on them, undervalue their privileges, abuse
the Divine forbearance, and finally provoke God to
humble them. Having, by their gross ingratitude for-
feited the Divine favor, God will no longer work with
and by them. He rejects them — at least, for a time —
brings them down, and leaves them to wasting and
desolation.

During a long period of time, as I have remarked
before, truth, righteousness, and the Church of the liv-
ing God were confided to the posterity of Shem. The
patriarchs, prophets, and ministers of religion— -the
agents, agencies, means, and appliances for the preser-
vation of religion in the world, and for its diffusion,
were, for many ages, confined to this branch of the
human family. And more especially was the seed of
Abraham selected as the depository and almoner of the
grace of God. He used this medium, till, in their
blindness and sin, they rejected his Holy One, and
crucified the Lord of life. From that hour the race of
Shem have, in a great degree, been set aside. The
ministers of Christianity, the almoners of the Gospel,
the Church of God, have been very much confined to
the family of Japhetli. And of all the branches of
Japheth’s numerous seed, no one has been made so
prominent an instrument of advancing the best inter-
ests of man as the Anglo-Saxon race. At the present
time, nearly all the ostensible and active agencies for
carrying out the provisions of the Gospel, and diffusing
its blessings, are confined to this race. Beyond the

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

limits where the English language is spoken, or the
English Missionary is preaching, and English power
is exercised and felt, you will find but little evangelical
religion, but little active philanthropy, or expansive
Christian benevolence, and but little religious or civil
liberty.

But are we more sure that the controlling influence
of the Anglo-Saxons over the world shall last, than
the man of David’s or Solomon’s day was that the
Jewish race should continue to hold their moral pre-
eminence in the world ? May not the day come when
this Anglo-Saxon blood shall, in turn, become as cor-
rupt and unworthy the Divine favor as the stock of
Israel ever did ? Is there less danger that they shall
become proud and heaven-provoking ? And if the day
shall come when God shall cease to use them as the
chosen medium by which to carry forward his work,
where shall we look for a substitute ? Already has the
sceptre passed from Sliem to Japhetli — and may it not
yet pass to Ham? Long and dreary has been the night
which has hung over this race. More than 4,000 years
has Ham been the “servant of servants.” From gen-
eration to generation has he dragged out a miserable
existence under the “curse.” Though the curse seems
to have descended primarily and temporally through
the lineage of Canaan — “Cursed be Canaan, a servant
of servants shall he be,” yet a curse would seem en-
tailed on the general race of Ham. To the Canaanites
it was death and extermination — punishment, signal
and immediate. To the other branches of the family
of Ham it was long and lingering — slavery, oppression,
degradation. The annals of history furnish no other
such example of a people so long and so sorely trod-

IS THERE NOT A BLESSING FOR HAM ?

den down and oppressed. Be it that they have, dur-
ing all this dark and protracted night, been but reaping
the reward of their iniquity, where is the people that
would receive more mercy if they only received ac-
cording to their deserts ? The descendants of Cush,
who peopled Arabia and Ethiopia, in Africa, and the
posterity of Phut and Misraim, who principally peo-
pled Africa, have deeply drunk of the bitter cup. With
the notable exception of a few kingdoms on the east
and north, almost the whole Hamic race have lain very
nearly dormant since the downfall of the empire found-
ed by Nimrod.

But is there no blessing for Ham ? Must he lie un-
der the curse forever ? Is his a doomed race, beyond
all reprieve? We think not. Yet we do not profess
to have that direct evidence in the matter which we
have in regard to some other races. Still we find an
indirect and circumstantial evidence, which affords a
comfortable conviction that Ham shall yet be blessed,
and blessed abundantly — that the day of his redemp-
tion shall come. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands
to God ; the long-entailed curse shall be removed. A
blessing is in reserve for him. God shall kindly visit
an oppressed, an outcast people.

There are indications, ever and anon, in the past
history of this degenerate son, which indicate a more
auspicious future. Already has he inherited a goodly
share of temporal blessing. The descendants of Ham
occupied the most beautiful and fertile portions of the
globe. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, the
Arabians, the aborigines of India, as also the Ethio-
pians, Nubians, Egyptians, and Carthaginians, were
all of the race of Ham. The Phoenicians were the an-

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

cicnt Canaanites. Though Africa seems from a very
early period to have been peculiarly the portion of
this son of Noah, yet they spread themselves abroad,
eastward and westward, from their original centre on
the plains of Slxinar, built the first cities, made the
t arliest advances in the arts and sciences, in govern-
ment, learning, navigation, and commerce. They
gave to the world the alphabet ; and numerical figures.
They enjoyed great temporal prosperity, but they
were without God, and, therefore, could not endure.
In Africa — Ham’s own land — the Carthaginians, a
branch of the Canaanitisli family, for a time flourish-
ed ; but they -were not seasoned with the salt of the
true religion, and therefore they were destined to
yield to an early decay. The race of Ham, like that
of Islimael, enjoyed great temporal prosperity and
political dominion ; but, in respect to spiritual bless-
ings, Ham has never, like Shem and Japheth, basked
beneath the benignant smiles of Heaven. We have
seen the sceptre of righteousness pass from Shem to
Japheth ; but shall Ham be forever forgotten? Shall
not the sceptre in turn pass to him ? Shall not the
curse be removed from Canaan, and he yet be allowed
to drink of the cup of salvation, and drink, too, as
freely of the cup of blessings as he has of the cup of
woe?

Such inquiries now demand our attention. We
hope we may make it appear quite probable that this
at present despised race are held in reserve for the
next great moral development in our world.

A SUFFERING RACE.

CHAPTER VI.

Reasons why Ham shall yet be blessed— His connection with the promised

seed.

Is there not a blessing in reserve for Ham? TVill
not God kindly visit him in his oppression, in his
protracted rejection? We believe it, because,

1. God is not wont, finally, to cast off a people so —
certainly not a whole race. It is much more in har-
mony with God’s way of working, that he should make
the African race, in the end, eminent instruments
in his hands for the furtherance of truth and right-
eousness in the world. No other nation has been so
long and so signally debased. No race drunk so
deeply of the vials of Heaven’s displeasure. AH na-
tions have seemed to combine to mix the cup of her
wrath. Africa has, for ages, been made the victim
of the worst passions of man. She has suffered a
strange series of unmitigated woes. God has permit-
ted it. But is there no limit to her sorrows? Is
worse than the mark of Cain upon her? Is hers a
doomed race, destined only to suffer? We think not,
and if we had no other reason for our opinion, this
would suffice, that God does take the part of the op-
pressed. He aHows them to drink the bitter cup to
the dregs, and lets others have rule over them, and to
vex their souls and grind them into the dust. Yet he
does not forget mercy toward them — nor vengeance
toward their oppressors. He wiH lift up their heads,
5

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

give tliem rule over them that hated them, and re-
ward them “double” for all the dishonor put upon
them. God wall surely take the part of the oppressed,
and put to shame the pride of man.

2. We are able to quote some particular instances,
well authenticated, of the merciful visitation of Heav-
en in behalf of peoples who had, for a long time, suf-
fered under the Divine malediction. We have an in-
stance in the Moabites. They had displeased God —
they came not to the help of Israel against his ene-
mies, and they were, in consequence, excluded from
the mercies and promises of God, through Israel, for
“ ten generations.” Yet God afterward put a great
honor on Moab. Though he did not use the nation,
as such, as an instrument in his work, yet he identi-
fied Moab in the purposes of his mercy, down to the
end of time. He chose that David and the illustrious
line of kings that followed — yea, that the great King
and Messiah — should, in one line of descent, come
from Moab. Ruth, the Moabitess, was the mother of
Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. In
the plenitude of his mercy, God remembered the
Moabites, and conferred on them a double honor. In
like manner, God graciously visited his people after
their captivity, and more signally yet will he visit his
people in their present dispersion and dismember-
ment as a church and nation, and make them a great
nation and a glorious church, and the most signal and
honored instruments in the conversion of the world.
“For their shame, they shall have double; and for con-
fusion, they shall rejoice in their portion ; therefore, in
their land they shall possess double ; everlasting joy
shall be unto them.” Prophecy, we believe, fully jus-

RAHAB, THE CANAANITISE "WOMAN.

tifies tlie expectation that Gocl will bless and honor
Israel more abundantly than lie lias ever yet done,
and make the people of his ancient election yet more
conspicuously the instruments of good to the wTorld.
Rich and precious promises remain yet to be fulfilled
in them.

And a yet more extraordinary instance of this oc-
curs in reference to the Canaanites, the very race on
whom the curse primarily and most signally fell.
Even the outlawed Canaan, “the servant of servants,”
on whose posterity was poured the most signal ven-
geance of Heaven, should have his name associated
with the promised seed ; or, rather, his blood was al-
lowed, too, to mingle in the favored stream from
which David and David’s Lord came. And here we
have another of those beautiful illustrations, that our
Lord will not suffer to go unnoticed and unreward-
ed the least kind act done to his people. Though
the Canaanites were notorious sinners and a doomed
people, God would not allow to pass unrewarded a
single right act. Rahab, called the “ harlot ” of Jeri-
cho, was a Canaanitish woman. She conferred a sig-
nal favor on the Israelites in their conquest of Ca-
naan. Confident that they would take possession of
the country, she entertained the messengers sent by
Joshua, and thereby very essentially favored the work
of the God of Israel. This same Rahab, doubtless,
became a worshiper of the true God ; is said to have
“ dwelt in Israel,” to have married Salmon, a priest of
Judah, and to have become the mother of Boaz, who
was the grandfather of Jesse, the father of David.

Thus our Lord did not disdain to admit into the
line of his mortal descent one stream from the very

100

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

race which had become obnoxious to the annihilating
curse ; as he had another from a source scarcely more
hopeful. Abandoned as Canaan was, God would not
wholly exclude him from a participation in the prom-
ised seed.

3. There has always been a remarkable connection
kept up between the promised seed and the race of
Ham. In what I shall say on this topic, I shall
identify Africa and Arabia as really the habitation of
the same race. Arabia is the land of Cush, though
many of the Cushites inhabit Ethiopia, in Africa.
Whatever might have been the civil connection be-
tween Africa and Arabia, in their early history, their
religious history, at least, became intimately connect-
ed after the time of Ishmael, and more especially yet
after the rise of Maliommedanism. And there is, at
this moment, a process going on at the bottom of the
Red Sea, which intimates that these two portions of
land shall have a yet nearer connection. The Red
Sea is yearly becoming less and less navigable, in con-
sequence of the growth of its coral rocks. This pro-
cess has only to go on, as most likely it will, and
Africa and Arabia will be joined by one vast plain,
and the two portions of the Cushites — Arabia and
Ethiopia — will be united.

As we trace down the history of God’s covenant
people, we shall see that, in all the developments of
mercy to man, there has been a singular regard paid
to the race of Ham — not so much in the way of ac-
tual blessing, as in a singular and perpetual remem-
brance. They are all along recognized, the finger
of mercy is pointed at them, yet they are strangely
passed by.

ISHMAEL, A COUNTERPART OE ISAAC.

101

Abraham, soon after the ratifying of the covenant,
is hastened down to Egypt, and there dwells for a
time — is brought into favor with the king, and is hon-
ored and enriched. What truths he there taught,
and what acquired — how salutary and extensive the
influence of his example — how much knowledge of the
true religion he left behind him, we are not told.
But most certain it is, that such a man did not long
reside in such a place, and hold so commanding a po-
sition among the people, without leaving behind him
some indelible traces of his footsteps.

We meet an instance of this singular connection
in the person of Ishmael, one of the most singular
characters that figures in sacred history. The son of
Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian, he unites in his
person a lineal union of the promised seed and an Af-
rican race — the chosen seed, with which God would
build Ms Church, and that dark, mysterious race of
which we are speaking. In Ishmael and his seed
wc meet a sort of counterpart of Isaac and his seed.
His posterity, like Isaac’s, became exceedingly numer-
ous— had a particular portion of the earth assigned
them — were divided into twelve tribes — and through
all ages remained a distinct people. We have in this
outcast branch of Noah’s family a darkly reflected im-
age of the true Church.

Or I might have named, in the outset, that remark-
able instance of piety, which was exemplified, some
600 or 800 years before Moses, in the man of Uz.
That remarkable man, Job, was an Arabian, and prob-
ably a Cushite. Nor do we suppose that Job’s was a
solitary instance of the power of the true religion in
the land of Cush. An instance of such exalted, en-

102

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lightened piety, in the princely character of Job, was
not likely to have existed alone. Job’s friends, they
that were near, as well as the three from a distance,
were, probably, more or less, worshipers of the true
God.

Again: by a mysterious chain of providences, Jo-
seph is made Governor of Egypt. A man of rare in-
tegrity and moral worth, one of the promised seed,
and, perhaps, as good an impersonation of the true
religion as the world had ever had, is exalted to stand
next the throne of a most powerful African prince.
He stood a teacher in high places, and no doubt his
voice was heard. Next, we find the same mysterious
providence bringing the whole visible church, and
settling them in that corner of Africa, and preserving
them there for more than two centuries. This was a
most extraordinary step, if regarded only in its bear-
ing on Africa. Here the tine worshipers of God pray-
ed, served their God, and exemplified the truth in the
face of the most enlightened, refined, and powerful
kingdom on earth. Nor did they do these things in
a corner. They were a city set on a hill — they were
beacon-lights to the nations of Africa.

We find this connection further preserved in the
person of Moses. Himself African-bom, and the
adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he takes to him-
self for a wife one of the daughters of Cush. Jose-
phus says, that Moses, before he was called, in Horeb,
to be the deliverer of God’s people out of Egypt, was
made commander of the forces of Pharaoh on an ex-
pedition against the Ethiopians — that, in the event of
that war, he was married to an Ethiopian princess,
daughter of the conquered king ; thus, in his early life,

HOSES’ ETHIOPIAN WIVES.

103

lie was joined in marriage to a Cushite of the genuine
African stock — a daughter of the race of Ham. Of
this woman we hear no more. It does not appear
he had a wife when he fled from his adopted country,
and took refuge in the land of Midian. Here he
contracted marriage with Zipporah, daughter of the
priest of Midian. This woman is also called an Ethi-
opian, or Cushite, of the same race, but resident on
the east side of the Red Sea. Here Moses lived for-
ty years and reared a family. Again : when Moses
was with the children of Israel in the wilderness, we
hear of a murmuring and sedition raised against him
by his nearest family friends, Aaron, his brother, and
Miriam, his sister, because he had married an “ Ethi-
opian woman.” Was this a cry against Zipporah,
whose marriage had transpired some forty years be-
fore ? Or was she long since dead, and he had mar-
ried another Ethiopian ?

Zipporah was, probably, a daughter, by descent, of
Abraham, by his second wife, Iveturali, and as she is
called a Cushite — Ethiopian (black), the inquiry is
forced upon us, whether Keturah were not of a kin-
dred stock with Hagar, i. e., of the Hamic race? Mid-
ian was a son of Keturah, by Abraham. This off-
spring, the sons and grandsons of Keturah, Josephus
says, Abraham “ contrived to settle in colonies ; and
they took possession of the Troglodytes, and the coun-
try of Arabia Felix, as far as it reaches the Red Sea.”
They would now naturally share and mingle with that
other great branch of the Abrahamic family, which, in
the person of Islimael, had so singularly united, as
we have seen, the promised seed and the lineage of
Ham.

104

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

According to Josephus, Ophren, the son of Midian
and the grandson of Abraham and Keturah, figured
greatly in the early history of Africa. It is related,
“that he made war against Libya and took it, and
that his grandchildren, when .they inhabited it, called
it from his name, Africa.”

Thus we have, in Abraham’s second marriage, an-
other connecting link between the two races in ques-
tion, perpetuated in their united history, but renewed
more strikingly in the marriage of Moses with the
daughter of the priest of Midian.

Nor is the connection of the chosen seed with Ham
broken off after the departure of Israel out of Egypt.
Solomon, an illustrious type of Christ, takes his favor-
ite wife from Egypt. She was “ black, but comely,”
he says ; of a genuine African race. The extraordi-
nary celebration of the nuptials of this marriage — its
being made the subject of one or more of the Psalms
designed to be used in exciting and guiding the devo-
tion of the Church in all after-time, and the occasion
of those extraordinary songs, called Solomon’s, in
which there is understood to be a deep spiritual
meaning, of profound interest to the Christian, gives
no mean significancy to this union. And a circum-
stance, which may here be allowed some significancy
in the connection alluded to, is the fact, so particu-
larly recorded, that “ Solomon built a palace for the
daughter of Pharaoh, after that he had finished the
house of the Lord.” This has been taken as typical
of the calling of the Gentiles and their union with the
Jewish Church. But may we not rather regard it as
typical, more especially, of the gathering in of a
church from among the outcasts of Ham ? After the

THE TRUE SEED AND ISHMAEL.

105

completion of tlie Temple — winch was a symbol of
the Church in the line of the promised seed — a house
is built for the daughter of Pharaoh — which we ven-
ture to take as a symbol of that spiritual house, which
shall yet rise among the black tents of Kedar.

The Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian princess visits
Jerusalem, to see the glory of Solomon, and to hear
wisdom from his bps. Philip and the Ethiopian Eu-
nuch kept up the connection between the two races
in theh day. Paul executes his first Christian mis-
sion, and performs the first acts of his illustrious min-
istry in Arabia, preaching to the sons of Ham. A
large representation of Peter’s assembly, at the time
of Pentecost, were from Africa. Some of the most
worthy of the Christian fathers, as prophets had done
before them, were preachers of righteousness in Afri-
ca. And not the least notable coincidence, the infant
Saviour was taken down into Egypt, as if, in some
strange and mysterious sense, to identify his mission
with that strange and mysterious continent. And we
have shown elsewhere, that one of the evangelists,
and, at least, four of the early disciples and teachers
of Christianity, were Africans ; that Christianity, in
the dew of her youth flourished on an African soil,
under the teachings of bishops and presbyters of a
singular renown.

Indeed, we may add, that the connection between
the descendants of Abraham and of Ishmael was
never broken off. The Jews, during their history,
were familiar with Egypt. They had never, from
Abraham to Paul, lost this connection. “ From 301 to
180 B. C., the period of the Ptolemies, it was a place
of shelter for them. In 153 B. C., Onias built a tem-
5*

106

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

pie at Leontopolis, which was long the rival of that at
Jerusalem. At Alexandria they had the most splen-
did synagogue, with its accompaniments of schools,
which existed in the whole world.”

But, what is yet more to our purpose, this singular
connection appears, not less remarkably, in the gen-
ealogy of our blessed Lord and Saviour. We have
seen how Moab, through the descendants of Buth,
who was a Moabitess, was allowed a lineal represent-
ation in the holy seed. Boaz, her husband, the fa-
ther of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David,
was, through the maternal line, of Canaanitisli de-
scent. Boaz was a lineal descendant of Pharez, the
son of Judah, whose wife was Tamar, a Canaanitish
woman. Here, again, we meet the same interesting
connection. Canaan, the most hopeless son of Ham,
in despite the “curse,” is allowed a representation in
the genealogy of Christ, the son of David, the son of
Jesse. Is there not hope, then, for the prescribed
race ? Have they not part and lot in Christ ? What
God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

Our conviction that the posterity of Ham shall yet
be honored and blessed, is further confirmed by the
promise made to Ishmael. Isaac was the promised
seed. The covenant, the promises, the church, sliotdd,
in order and form, descend through Isaac and his
seed, and, in this succession, should be made the first
and the great display of God’s grace to man. This
was the favored seed by election, yet not to the exclu-
sion of all other races. Did not God appoint the
other lineal branch of Abraham, the branch from Ish-
mael, as the reserved race, on which should come the
reserved blessing, or which should receive the residue

THE PROMISE TO ISHMAEL.

107

of tlie Spirit? While the blessings of the covenant
should descend through the line of Isaac, a promise
was given to Ishmael, and its blessings should de-
scend through his posterity. And, though primarily,
and perhaps chiefly, temporal, yet, is it all temporal ?
Is there not a spiritual inheritance yet to be realized
by Ishmael, and one much richer than the moonlight
one which Ishmael has already realized through the
crescent ? I think so.

When Abraham perceived that the covenant had
been confirmed in the line of his son Isaac, in the
fullness of a father’s heart, he immediately offered up
this prayer : “ Oh, that Ishmael might live before
thee.” The prayer was heard. “ God said : As for
Ishmael, I have heard thee ; behold, I will bless him,
and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him ex-
ceedingly : twelve princes shall he beget, and I will
make him a great nation.” There is a striking simi-
larity between the blessing pronounced on Isaac and
that on Ishmael. With the single and important
difference, that the covenant should be established
with Isaac, and the Messiah come in his line, and “ all
nations be blessed in him,” and thus Isaac should be
pre-eminently a blessing to others, the difference is by
no means so great as has been generally supposed.

Are the promises to Ishmael only of temporal bless-
ings ? So are those made to Isaac. Yet we feel no
difficulty in accepting the latter as promises of spirit-
ual blessings. Subsequent history and further revela-
tions warrant this application. Why, then, confine
promises made to Ishmael, couched in nearly the
same terms, to temporal blessings ? Save in the im-
portant particular referred to, it is difficult to discover

108

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the world-wide distinction which has been made be-
tween these two sons of Abraham. In other respects,
we can see more parallelism than contrast. They
have dwelt side by side, been alike kept distinct peo-
ples, alike the subjects of great temporal promises and
of great temporal afflictions, alike divided into twelve
tribes, alike preserved distinct and unannihilated
amid the wreck of empires and the dissolution of great
civil polities. The great distinction (besides the one
named) seems to be that the promises to Ishmael
are delayed. In the wise purposes of God, genera-
tions, centuries, are allowed to pass without their
fulfillment.

It is readily conceded that Ishmael has played the
prodigal son. He has taken the “portion” that fell to
him, and has “ devoured it with harlots.” But the
Father’s love to him is not annihilated, not exhausted.
It is only suspended. The precious promises made
to him are delayed. He shall return, shall come up
in remembrance in a Father’s love. His long cap-
tivity shall be turned ; the promises to him shall be
fulfilled. God hath said : “ Behold, I have bless-
ed him.” The fiat has gone out that “ Ishmael is
blessed.” “ Ishmael shall live before the Lord.”
Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God. Mer-
cy long delayed, blessings long withheld, shall not
fail. Poor Ishmael shall not be forsaken forever.
The bowels of a Father’s love yearn for a lost son.
He waits with open arms to receive the returning
prodigal. And as the poor, despised, sable son shall
return and be received with joy, and be put among
the children, and have put on him the best robe, and
the ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, there

A BLESSING FOB ISHMAEL.

109

shall be joy, because be that was dead is alive again,
be that was lost is found. They that were not a
people shall become a people.

But what connection has the destiny of Ishmael
with Africa ? Much, we believe. Ishmael is the
patriarch, the prophet, the priest, the Moses, of the
race of Ham, and Mohammed is their Messiah. And,
religiously at least, Africa, in connection with Arabia,
is the land of Ham. Africa and Arabia are, therefore,
closely connected in destiny with Ishmael. Though
the descendants of Ham, at an early period, were per-
mitted to dwell in the tents of Shem, as Japhetli since
has, in India, Burmah, and China, yet their home has
been Africa.

We look, therefore, that this long-neglected race
shall be visited ; that the long-deferred blessing shall
be realized ; the poor prodigal shall return ; and
though he shall not be a blessing, in the sense in
which Isaac has been, yet he shall be abundantly
blessed. And we may expect that the spiritual bless-
ing shall bear some proportion to the very liberal
temporal blessing which God promised, in answer to
Abraham’s prayer ; and, also, to the long-protracted
and severe afflictions to which the race has been sub-
jected. In those occasional developments, civil, intel-
lectual, artistic, and religious, already referred to, we
have seen certain first-fruits of this blessing, prognos-
tics of what shall be.

Africa’s great desert is but a fit emblem of the past
and present Africa herself. Morally, intellectually,
and politically, Africa, as a whole, has, from age to
age, been one great Sahara ; yet, like Sahara, she has
had her beautiful oases. As the historian attempts

110

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

to traverse lier burning, barren sands, his eye is ever
and anon charmed with these delightful spots. And
the analogy may not stop here. Like those great
ocean reservations of Providence which are beginning
to appear in the South Seas, but which have remained
hid beneath the waves till needed, and the fiat should
go forth for them to emerge (through the instrument-
ality of an infinitude of senseless animalcule:), Sahara
may be a great land reservation. When, through the
“ blessing,” Ham shall become enlarged, and need
more room, oasis shall reach oasis, and the whole
shall become a habitable and fruitful land. The spe-
cial causes which have operated to make those spots
fertile, may yet extensively operate to make the whole
so. Should the Great Architect extend water-courses
beneath the surface of these deserts, as he has through
other lands, they would exchange their present bar-
renness for fertility and beauty.

We indulge high hopes for Africa, hopes founded
on the general course of the workings of Divine Prov-
idence, hopes in her own resources ; partial develop-
ments having already given some just indication of
what these resources are. The capabilities of Africa, as
already shown, form a ground, too, of much hope, and
the promises of God of yet more. The ecstatic vision
of the latter-day glory which Isaiah saw, seems quite
to confirm the views here advanced. He saw God’s
ancient Israel restored to the Divine favor, and
clothed in more than its former glory. His fight
had come, and the glory of the Lord had risen upon
him. All nations come to his fight, and kings to the
brightness of his rising. The Gentiles come — they
gather themselves together, and form themselves

THE REDEMPTION OF AFRICA.

Ill

about and mingle with the ancient Zion. And who
are these that come ? They are called Gentiles, the
Kings of Tarshish, they that come from beyond the
seas, “the abundance of the sea,” the sons of Japheth.
But as the prophet becomes clearer and more specific
in his vision, there appear in the very foreground,
though scarcely discovered before, “multitudes” bring-
ing rich presents, and on whose banners are written
the high praises of their God. They come with accept-
ance on the altar. And as they arrive, a voice is
heard to say : “ I will glorify the house of my glory.”
But who are these that meet with such acceptance
before the altar ? who hold such a position in the
coming kingdom ? Bead the passage, and you will
see. “ The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Midian and Ephah ; all they from
Sheba shall come ; they shall bring gold and incense ;
and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together
unto thee ; the rams of Nebaiotli shall minister unto
thee. They shall come up with acceptance upon mine
altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.”

We can not mistake who these are, or whence they
come. They are from Sheba, Dedan, Midian, Ephah,
Kedar, all habitations of the children of Ham. Or we
should have known their localities from their camels,
their dromedaries, their flocks, their gold and frankin-
cense. Of this numerous division of the grand army
which the prophet saw come to pay their honors to
the King in Jerusalem, it is said, “ they shall show
forth the praises of the Lord.”

There is hope for Africa. The prodigal shall yet
return, clothed, and in his right mind.

112

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER VII.

What more Africa has done — Civil governments among African races—
Ethiopia— Nubia— Libya— Egypt— Carthage— Phoenicia— Meroe.

Our brief sketch of ancient races, and what they
have done, would seem incomplete if we did not take
a partial survey, at least, of the progress made by this
branch of the great family of man in nationality and
government. We have seen them pioneers in the dif-
ferent departments of human improvement — in agri-
culture, commerce, the arts, and in learning ; as, also,
in war, engineering, and mining. These things all
presuppose a corresponding advance in the science of
government and jurisprudence. We may, therefore,
expect to find well-organized States, laws, and insti-
tutions, wThich protect men in the pursuit of all that
goes to honor and bless a nation.

We wish to show, in this chapter, that, in the early
periods of the world, different portions of the Hamic
race made such advances, in their national capacity,
as to afford a very satisfactory evidence of wrhat they
are capable of accomplishing in this line of advance-
ment ; and a very satisfactory pledge of what we may
expect them to accomplish, in the same line, in their
future history. What part the negro races acted in
the great nationalities, and in the formation and ad-
ministration of governments which flourished in In-
dia, China, Babylonia, and Assyria, and throughout
all the countries of Southern Asia, in times reaching

CAPABILITIES FOE SUSTAINING A GOVERNMENT. 113

back to a period but little subsequent to the Mood, we
have not the means to determine. Reliable annals do
not reach back to those remote ages ; and we, there-
fore, must leave the • reader of the histories of those
ancient nations to form his own judgment of what
credit is due to this race for the no mean advance-
ment which they made in the things which go to make
great and powerful nations.

The reader must, however, bear in mind that some
of the oldest nationalities, of which we have any inti-
mation, existed in India, China, and the southern
portions of Asia ; and, also, even up to the present
day, we discover, in the old temples of those countries
and in the most ancient monuments of art, the unmis-
takable traces of the race in question. In those an-
cient temples are still met the images of gods there
worshiped, and statues of the men living and acting
in those remote ages of the world’s history, having
the thick lips and crisped hair, indicating that the
dominant race was the veritable progeny of Cush —
Ethiopians of the genuine stock. And what has re-
mained, unto this day, a perpetual testimony that
this same Ethiopian race did once flourish in those
countries, in all the glory we have supposed, is, that
remnants of the negro race are still found in the
mountains, deserts, and islands of India ; in positions
and in a condition just such as we should expect the
aborigines would be found in centuries after they
had been conquered and driven out from their nation-
al inheritance. They are, indeed, to this day regard-
ed as the aborigines of that country. This fact, con-
nected with the one alluded to, that the images of
their most ancient deities, and the statues of the men

114

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

wlio largely figured in that remote age, bore the indu-
bitable marks of the negro physiognomy, more than
suggests that nationalities once existed in those coun-
tries which were originated and sustained by that
race, and which abundantly vindicate their claims to
a measure of capability of which we see little or no
evidence at the present day, and which goes far to
cherish our expectation that that same race shall
again display capabilities that shall command the
respect of the world.

Or turn we to the Babylonian and the Assyrian
empires, and we again meet monuments of the enter-
prise, and skill, and power of the same Hamic race ;
and in a form yet more tangible. Nimrod, the found-
er of Babylon and the great Babylonian empire, was
a veritable son of Cush, the father of the great negro
family ; and Ninus, his son, profane history makes the
founder of Nineveh. It was the union of these two
kingdoms that formed the great and magnificent em-
pire of Assyria, Babylon still remaining the capital of
the united kingdom. It was at this period that
Nebuchadnezzar reigned in his great pride and glory ;
and now it was that the “Assyrian came down, like a
wolf, on the fold” of Israel, and laid waste and de-
stroyed kingdoms, not a few. What we claim here is,
that whatever of greatness and magnificence there
Avas in proud Babylon — whatever progress was there
made in the arts and sciences, in architecture and
trade, in the science of war and of government — what-
ever renowned statesmen and warriors, kings and
conquerors, that ancient kingdom produced — we may
claim as specimens of men and things which the
Hamic race is capable of producing ; and we chal-

THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

115

lenge, for the same race, a repetition of all and yet
more than they have yet done.

The Assyrian empire was one of the most ancient,
as well as the most powerful, in the world. From its
foundation, soon after the Deluge, it continued four-
teen and a half centuries, or, as some writers have it,
more than nineteen centuries. The simple fact of
such a prolonged existence is the best voucher we
can have that it had, in political wisdom and civil
institutions, in men and all needed resources, the
elements of a great nation.

But it is quite sufficient that we fix on two or three
points as satisfactorily indicating the national pro-
gress reached by the Assyrian empire. Capital cities,
works of art, armies, conquests, and conquerors afford
satisfactory criteria. None but a nation of the vastest
resources, of long-practiced skill and wisdom and of
well-trained statesmen, of brave soldiers and well-dis-
ciplined armies, could build such cities as Babylon
and Nineveh, and construct such palaces, temples,

(aqueducts, dikes, roads, canals, bridges, lakes, and
hanging gardens ; or make such conquests, or pro-
duce such remarkable men. Babylon and Nineveh
were two of the most extraordinary cities that ever
existed. Nimrod, who was the same as Belus, found-
ed Babylon more than twenty-two centuries (2,204)
before Christ, and made it the capital of the first
great empire of which we have any record. It stood
in the midst of an extensive plain, covered a surface
of 225 square miles — was an exact square of 15 miles
on each side, or 60 miles in circumference, and was
inclosed with a wall 87 feet in thickness, 350 feet high,
and was in compass 480 furlongs, or 60 miles — built

116

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

of large bricks, and cemented with bitumen, which
becomes harder than the bricks or stones which it
cements. On either side were twenty-five “ gates of
brass,” which were outlets to as many streets which
cut each other at right angles, and divided the city
into 676 squares, each of which exceeded half a mile
on every side, and was surrounded by houses, “ all
built three or four stories high, and beautified with all
manner of ornaments.” But we should find no end to
speaking of the palaces, temples, hanging gardens,
and the public works of every kind, which made this
metropolis the “ Great Babylon,” the glory of king-
doms, the beauty of the Chaldee’s excellency.

The Hanging Gardens and the Temple of Belus
stand out, even among the wonders of Babylon, as
the admiration of the world. We shall speak only of
the latter. It stood near the old palace, and was
known from all antiquity, and celebrated in every age
as the most wonderful structure ever built. A tower
of vast dimensions stood in the centre of it. Its foun-
dation was a square of a furlong on each side, or half
a mile in compass, and 660 feet, or the eighth of a
mile in height, exceeding that of the largest of the
Pyramids, which is but 480 feet high. It consisted
of eight towers, built one above another, gradually de-
creasing to the top, and was constructed of bricks and
bitumen. The ascent was on the outside, by means
of stairs, winding, in a spiral line, eight times round
the tower, from the bottom to the top. In the differ-
ent stories there were arched rooms, supported by
pillars ; and on the top was an observatory, supposed
to have been used for astronomical purposes. Yet its
design and chief use would seem to have been for a

THE GREAT QUEEN SEMIRAMIS.

117

temple. Its riches were immense, consisting of stat-
ues, tables, cups, censers, and other sacred vessels, all
of massive gold. Among these was a statue weighing
a thousand Babylonish talents, and 40 feet high. So
immensely rich, indeed, was this temple, that Diodo-
rus, the historian, estimates the whole at 6,300 talents
of gold, or £21,000,000, or $100,000,000. An incred-
ible amount.'15'

Babylon owed much to the skill and enterprise of
the great Semiramis. She planned and executed
many of its principal edifices. And having finished
these, she made a tour through the different provin-
ces of her empire, and wherever she went she left
monuments of her munificence, in many noble struc-
tures, which she caused to be erected either for the
convenience or ornament of her cities. “ She was the
best political economist of ancient times, and may
truly be styled the first utilitarian, for she applied
herself to the formation of causeways, the improve-
ment of roads, the cutting through of mountains,
and the filling up of valleys.” She constructed aque-
ducts, quays, and bridges. The one which spanned
the Euphrates, in the heart of the city, was a most
extraordinary structure.

Nor was Nineveh a less remarkable monument of
human skill and power. The design of its founder
was to make Nineveh the “ largest and noblest city in
the world, and to put it out of the power of those who
came after him, ever to build, or hope to build such
another.” Nor was he deceived, says the historian,
“for never did any city come up to the greatness and

* Rollin’s “ Ancient History,” vol. i., p. 137, Cincinnati edition.

118

THE GEEAT NEGKO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

magnificence of this.” It was 150 furlongs (18| miles)
in length, ancl 90 furlongs (11| miles) in breadth ; an
oblong square, with a circumference of 60 miles. It
is said in the Prophet Jonah, “ Nineveh was an ex-
ceeding great city, of three days’ journey,” that is,
its entire circuit. Its walls were 100 feet high, and
of sufficient thickness that three chariots might go
abreast upon them. The whole was fortified and
adorned with 1,500 towers, 200 feet high. “This was
the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in
her heart: ‘I am, and there is none beside me.’”

This same Ninus was as famous in the achievements
of war as in the arts of peace. He not only built the
greatest cities, and originated the most extraordinary
works of art, of all antiquity, and, perhaps, of any
age, but he made some of the most remarkable con-
quests. In seventeen years he conquered all the na-
tions from Egypt to India and Bactria. His army is
said to have “ consisted of 1,700,000 foot, 200,000
horse, and 16,000 chariots armed with scythes.” After
he had made the conquests alluded to, he returned to
Babylon, and with the famous Semiramis, now his
newly married queen, he gave himself anew to every
thing which could strengthen and adorn his empire.
A single allusion of Alexander the Great, in a speech
to his army, shows the estimate in which the prowess,
enterprise, and skill of that remarkable woman were
held, at that remote period. In alluding to her he ex-
claims : “ How many nations did she conquer! How
many cities , were built by her ! "What magnificent
and stupendous works did she finish! How shameful
is it that I should not yet have attained to so high a
pitch of glory!”

THE ETHIOPIANS.

119

But we have more direct and undoubted illustration
of what the Hamic race have done ; and not the race
of Ham in general, but the descendants of Cush, the
veritable negro race. The state or empire, which
may claim a very early, if not the earliest, existence in
Aii'ica, and, perhaps, the earliest after the Deluge, is
Ethiopia. And whatever claims the Sliemic race may
make, in later centuries, to Assyria, whose founders
and early rulers and people were of the race now pro-
scribed, no such claims were ever set up in respect
to the Ethiopians. They were negroes, the genuine
Cushites. In what we say here, we shall not be care-
ful to distinguish between the different portions of
Eastern Africa, known as Ethiopia, Abyssinia, Nubia,
Meroe, or Sennaar. They were occupied by essen-
tially the same people, known as Ethiopians, Cush-
ites, or negroes. We must not here ignore the fact,
that the ancients were accustomed to apply the term
Ethiopian to the black inhabitants of India, and to
the natives of interior Africa. The Ethiopians proper
— the black woolly-haired race, whose home was to
the south of Egypt — figure in ancient history as a na-
tion great and powerful in arts, in commerce, and
in arms.

It has been but too common to make Egypt the
“ cradle of civilization,” of the arts and sciences, and
whatever goes to make a nation great and powerful.
But more modern researches tend to award the palm
to Ethiopia. So reliable a historian as Niebuhr gives
it aa his opinion, that the hieroglyphic writing, and
“ all we afterward find as Egyptian civilization,” orig-
inated with the Ethiopians. Be that as it may, the
fact remains, “that, within the tropics, south of Egypt,

120

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

and stretching from tlie Red Sea westward, toward
the Desert, in what is maw the region of Nubia, Sen-
naar, Kordofan, there was, for centuries, a civilized
state of native Ethiopians, Cushites, the direct de-
scendants of Ham.”

We admire, without exhaustion, the ruins of cities,
temples, obelisks, pyramids, and all the various monu-
ments of aids and science, and military skill, which we
meet in Egypt, and do not hesitate to award a very
high state of civilization to the descendants of Miz-
raim, the Egyptian branch of the family of Ham ; and
we do not feel, when on the historic ground of Egypt,
that we need any stronger vouchers of the capabilities
of that race to reach and maintain themselves in as
high a level of human elevation as any other race.
Nor do we hesitate to accord to Egypt all the honor
claimed for her, of being the “cradle” of learning, of
civilization, and of progress in general, to Europe, as
she had been to Carthage and Phoenicia. She gave
them the alphabet, the numerical figures, a knowledge
of the arts and sciences. No one might pass for a
philosopher, or a man of learning or letters, who had
not “ gone down to Egypt,” and conversed with her
learned men, and consulted her libraries, and studied
in her academies. There was no other nation exist-
ing, where the plastic hand of Providence could mould
into an instrument for his use a Joseph, or fit for the
most extraordinary work ever committed to a single
man his leader, Moses, or educate his chosen Israel
for the glorious career which awaited them.

But Egypt had her cradle. Her architecture had
its types in the buildings of Nubia and Abyssinia.
“ The land of the Pharaohs was indebted to the Ethi-

ARMIES OF ETHIOPIA.

121

opians for the rudiments, and, perhaps, even for the
finished patterns, of architectural skill.” Karnac,
Luxor, and Medinet Abu are modern structures com-
pared vv’ith those discovered above the Cataracts.
Like the current of the Nile, 'which, in its overflow',
enriches the whole valley belowq the descending civili-
zation of Ethiopia built Memphis, and the hundred-
gated Thebes, and laid broad the foundation of
Egypt’s greatness.

Nor would our estimate of Ethiopia’s early advance-
ment be lessened, if we consider her military prowess.
It is said, she, at one period, extended her conquests
even to the Pillars of Hercules, which supposed the
subjection of all Western Asia, the south of Europe,
and the north of Africa. We meet in the sacred re-
cords two notices, in particular, of Ethiopian armies,
which give an idea of the military condition of that
people. Zerah, the Ethiopian, comes out against Asa,
King of Judah, with an army of a “thousand thou-
sand” (a million) of men. Again : Sennacherib was
coming up against Israel in great pride and confi-
dence of victory, but no sooner does he hear that Tir-
hakah, King of Ethiopia, was coming up to meet
him, than he precipitately retreated.

But we should quite overlook a main feature of
Ethiopia’s early greatness, if we did not allude to the
moral character of that people. We shall in this fea-
ture discover that the singular religious instinct, or
peculiar readiness and aptitude, of the negro race to
contract and cultivate a religious character, is not a
feature peculiar to the present generation of that peo-
ple. It was a characteristic of the same people 4,000
years ago. They are called in the ancient records,
6

122

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“the blameless Ethiopians,” whom Jupiter and all the
gods went to visit. Others term them the “ most just
of men” — “were distinguished among mankind for
their “ equity, sagacity, and general probity.”

It will suffice to transcribe here a single paragraph
from Heeren’s “Historical Researches “ Except the
Egyptians,” he says, “ there is no aboriginal people of
Africa with so many claims upon our attention as the
Ethiopians ; from the remotest times to the present,
one of the most celebrated, and yet the most myste-
rious, of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly
all the most civilized nations of antiquity the name
of this distant people is found. The annals of the
Egyptian priests were full of them ; the nations of in-
ner Asia, on the Euphrates and the Tigris, have in-
terwoven the fictions of Ethiopia with their own tra-
ditions of the conquests and wars of their heroes, and,
at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek
mythology. When the Ethiopians scarcely knew
Italy and Sicily by name, they were themselves cele-
brated as the remotest nation, the most just of men,
the favorites of the gods. The lofty inhabitants of
Olympus journey to them, and take part in their
feasts ; their sacrifices are the most agreeable of all
that mortals can offer. And when the faint gleam of
tradition and fable give way to the clear light of his-
tory, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished.
They still continue the object of curiosity and admira-
tion, and the pen of the cautious, clear-sighted histo-
rian often places them in the highest rank of knowl-
edge and civilization.”

The ancient and celebrated city and State of Meroe,
Herodotus says, was a community of negroes, who

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA’S VISIT. 123

made a most laudable progress in social, civil, and in-
tellectual cultivation. “They had a fixed constitution,
a government, laws, and religion.” They sent out
their colonies, one of which was none other than that
of the celebrated Thebes in Egypt. Meroe was the
centre of the great caravan trade between Ethiopia,
Egypt, Arabia, Northern Africa, and India.

And with this ancient State is associated one of
the most remarkable events of the reign of the wise
son of David. The famous Queen of Sheba (the
South) is believed to have been the Queeli of Meroe.
She was an Ethiopian princess, highly educated,
thoughtful, reflecting, as appears from the fact that
she came to “prove Solomon with hard questions.”
She was the ruler of a highly civilized and mighty
kingdom, as would seem to be indicated by her large
retinue, and the rich and abundant presents which
she brought. She came “with a very great company,
and camels that bore spices and gold in abundance,
and precious stones.” She had heard of the wisdom
of Solomon, how he was the wisest of mortals ; and she
had come to put his wisdom to the test. And she
had heard, too, of the magnificence of his court and
the glory of his throne ; yet, conscious of her own re-
gal greatness, she did not shrink from a comparison
with “ Solomon in all his glory.” And Solomon did
her the greatest possible honor. “ He told her all her
questions, and there was nothing which he told her
not.”

To say nothing of the profuse and rich presents
which the queen brought to Solomon — gold and pre-
cious stones, spices and olive-trees (“ and there were
none such seen before in the land of Judah”), Solo-

124

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

mon gave to her, “ all her desire, whatever she asked,”
and extended to her the most unrestricted confidence
and honor. He received her, as she might claim to
be — the representative of the only then existing nation
that could compare favorably with the kingdom of
Israel, when, under the reign of Solomon, it was at
the zenith of its glory.

But it is not less to our purpose, and a matter of
vastly higher interest, to know that Solomon’s exter-
nal greatness, wisdom, and glory, though duly admir-
ed and wondered at, as far exceeding all her expecta-
tions, for she said the half had not been told her, yet
these things did not constitute the chief, the moving,
object of her long and tedious journey. She had
heard of the “ fame of Solomon concerning the name
of the Lord.” Her visit was rather of a religious
character. She had heard of Solomon’s knowledge in
the truth and precepts of religion ; of his piety and zeal
in the worship of J eliovah ; and she came to seek the
light, and to propose questions which had perplexed
her mind on those important subjects. Under the in-
fluence of those peculiar religious instincts, which I
have said characterizes the Ethiopian more than any
other race, she sought, by this journey, to be instruct-
ed in the way of the Lord more perfectly. And more
especially did she realize this end of her undertaking.
For she left her native land a pagan ; she returned a
believer in, if not a hearty worshiper of, the true God.
She admired Solomon’s wisdom, and was amazed at
the “house he had built — at the meat of his table, and
the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his
ministers, and their apparel,” but it was the good
hand of the Lord, in all these things, that she admir-

WHENCE THE GLORY OP SOLOMON.

125

ed more. It was Solomon’s God — tlie truth and wor-
ship of the God of Israel — that she came to inquire
after. Here she discovered the source of all Solo-
mon’s prosperity. The truth taught this African
princess, now at Jerusalem, was the same as was re-
cently taught an African prince from the throne of
Great Britain. The prince sent to ask Queen Victo-
ria to tell him what was the source of the prosperity
of the British Empire — what had made her so great
and powerful a nation ? She sent him a copy of the
Bible, with a message, that he would find it all in
that book.

The Queen of the South discovered whence the
glory of Solomon. Hence she said : “ Blessed be
the Lord God that delighteth in thee, to set thee
on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God, be-
cause thy God loved Israel, to establish them for-
ever, therefore made he thee king over them to do
judgment and justice.” And well did she say : “Hap-
py are thy men, and happy are these thy servants
who stand continually before thee, and that hear thy
wisdom.” She rejoiced in that which she had found.
She chose the God of Israel to be her God ; and
henceforth she and her people adopted the religion of
Judah. And from this time onward, through all their
generations, the God of Israel has been worshiped,
with greater or less purity, in the land of this noble
queen.

And may we not accept the visit of this illustrious
woman as a delightful presage of the final restoration
to the favor of God, and of the ingathering into the
fold of the Great Shepherd of the long outcast chil-
dren of Cush. In the person of her renowned queen,

126

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Ethiopia did, at a period when tlie ancient church
was at the aclime of her glory, “ stretch out her hand
unto God.” And that truly illustrious prince and son
of the ancient church, and type of Christ, “ David’s
wiser son,” welcomed the “black but comely” stran-
ger into the bosom of the ancient Zion. May we not
accept this as the promise that all “ Ethiopia shall
soon” — shall readily, shall most gladly — “stretch out
her hands unto God,” that “ all they from Sheba shall
come ; they shall bring gold and incense ; and they
shall show forth the praises of the Lord.”

Nor are we without a parallel example in the reign
of a subsequent queen of that same country. What
the Queen of Sheba did in person, Queen Candace did
through her lord treasurer, who, already a proselyte
to the Jewish religion, went up to Jerusalem, a little
after the time of the crucifixion, perhaps at Pentecost,
to worship. Perchance, he had heard of Christ, and
would go and see him of whom Moses and the pro-
phets did speak. On his homeward journey he gave
himself to the study of the prophecies, to see whether
these things were so. Philip, at this point, met him,
and taught him the way more perfectly. How readily
did he receive the truth, yield assent, and accept
Christ as his Saviour! He was immediately baptized,
and goes on his way rejoicing — returns to his royal
mistress, and to the people of his own land and color,
and tells them what the Lord hath done for his soul.
Ethiopia receives the Christian faith ; and, though its
light has now for centuries burned but dimly, it has
never been extinguished. Thus, while the religion of
Judah was yet at its zenith, were the sable sons of
Cush made partakers of its healing waters ; and while

EGYPT, THE DAUGHTER OF ETHIOPIA. 127

Christianity was yet in its early dawn, did its healing
beams illumine the mountains of distant Ethiopia.
And shall we not hail this as a j oyful omen of that
approaching day when 41 princes shall come out of
Egypt,” and Ethiopia shall be gathered into the fold.

But let us go down into Egypt, and see what we
may find there to confirm our convictions of the early
and decided progress of the Hamic race. The Egyp-
tians were the descendants of Mizraim, the second son
of Ham. In going down to Egypt, we do but follow
the tide, if not of emigration of a portion of the race,
yet the tide of civilization and human progress.

In awarding to Ethiopia the honor of being the
pioneer nation in human advancement, we do not
necessarily award to her the honor of having finally
made the greatest advancement. She may have been
the legitimate mother ; yet, the daughter, cherished
by such maternal care, favored by such maternal ex-
ample, sent forth into the world with such a dowry —
indeed, with the skill and experience, and equipped
with the resources and appliances for social, moral,
and national progress, which such a nation as Ethio-
pia, in the day of her glory, could furnish, such a
daughter, we should confidently expect, would out-
strip her renowned mother. It is but meet that she
should do so. Hence we go to Egypt, expecting to
find the still remaining monuments of her glory more
gorgeous — the lady of the Nile more richly adorned —
more advanced in learning, science, art, and whatever
contributes to human progress. We have seen what
Thebes was — how human power and skill have never
exceeded the mighty strides she took, in the erection
of templet, obelisks, pyramids, the Labyrinth, and

128

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

catacombs of this very ancient city. It will quite suf-
fice for the present to say, that Ethiopia reproduced
herself in Egypt, in dimensions more gigantic, in
works more grand and imposing, in proportions more
thoroughly developed, and in a national influence
much more extended and lasting. In all important
indications and elements of human progress — in ar-
mies, conquests, national grandeur, architecture, learn-
ing, and science, the Egyptians. reached a point of ele-
vation which abundantly vindicates their claims to a
high order of capacity for social and national ad-
vancement, and to a high order, too, of intellectual
and moral culture.

Such claims are the more triumphantly vindicated
from the fact, that Egypt became the resort of the
learned from all other nations. No man in Europe or
Asia, might expect his pretense to scholarship to be
allowed if he had not been down to Egypt, and there
drawn wisdom from the fountain in the land of the
Pharaohs.

But we do not forget that Egypt possessed con-
spicuous advantages over Ethiopia, inasmuch as her
somewhat more recent expansion into life, and her
more intimate connection with the Israelitish nation,
and other historic nations, especially with Phoenicia,
Carthage, Greece, and Piome, gave her notoriety —
made her known in the world, and herself the sub-
ject of history, which her elder sister never enjoyed.
We can do no more than to ask the reader to take
Egypt as she was, with ail that was realized in her as
a nation, whether in respect to government, social re-
finement, civilization, or moral, and intellectual ad-
vancement— or in any thing or every thing Much goes

WHAT ANCIENT EGYPT WAS.

129

to aggrandize a nation — take tlie Egypt that was, as
a specimen of wliat this branch of the family of Ham
is capable of doing. And we believe what has been,
may, under equally auspicious circumstances, be done
by the same race again.

It does not seem needful to enter into any details
of Egyptian history, in order to establish our point.
It is enough to present that well-known and justly
celebrated nation as a whole, and claim it as a stand-
ing monument to the enterprise, industry, skill,
science, and wealth of its African builders and pro-
prietors. None but men — full-grown men — wise, in-
dustrious, energetic, persevering men— men standing
in the full consciousness and dignity of a well-devel-
oped manhood — none but such men could have rais-
ed, maintained, and commanded such armies, achieved
such victories, and extended their conquests to the
ends of the earth. And the moment we allow the eye
to pass over their architectural monuments, we are
amazed at these lasting testimonials of that wonder-
ful people. Centuries pass by — empires rise, and
flourish, and pass away — a new world emerges into
being, as if it rose from the ocean bed, and new states
are formed and expand into being, and the “ old
world,” whose nations have been born and attained
their manhood, and reached the decrepitude of age,
if not passed away — since these monuments of Egyp-
tian greatness were reared, and yet, many of them re-
main as unscathed by decay as if they were but the
work of yesterday. The mouldering hand of time
passes them by untouched, as if they, like the ever-
lasting hills, belonged to the things which can not be
moved.

130

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

And all this permanence and national durability,
and grandeur of achievement in all things that go to
constitute a great nation, imply the existence of a
government, which, for stability, strength, and politic-
al wisdom, is itself worthy of the admiration we so
readily accord to the wonderful works which were
achieved under the auspices of such a government.
What, in point of •civilization and general advance-
ment, Ethiopia was to Egypt, Egypt, in her turn,
became to Western Asia, to Northern Africa, and to
Europe. Her government was distinguished for its
humane and just laws. Indeed, the ancient histo-
rian (Rollin) says : “ The Egyptians were the first
people who rightly understood the rules of govern-
ment.”

At this late day we can but inadequately estimate
the influence on the different nations of the world,
which this more enlightened and advanced people
must have had. One of their kings (Osiris) is de-
scribed as the “ inventor of the arts, and the civilizer
of a great part of the world.” He raised a prodig-
ious army, and overran Ethiopia, Arabia, and a great
part of India; appeared in all the nations of Asia,
and, crossing the Hellespont, continued his progress
through the greater part of Europe. This extraor-
dinary man disseminated the arts, built cities, and was
universally revered as a god. In a most important
sense, Egypt was the mother of us all. God sent his
chosen people to be trained for their extraordinary
mission in Egypt ; and when disciplined and fitted for
the great work before them, he called them forth,
gave them enlargement, and established them in the
high places of the earth, and used them for many gen-

THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS.

131

erations as the almoners of Heaven’s beneficence to
man, and liis cliosen instrumentality for tlie moral
renovation of the world. The genius of human im-
provement went out from Egypt, laden with rich
benefits from the maternal fountain, and tarried not
till he had made the circuit of the nations.

And what is in delightful harmony with what we
have said, and worthy our serious regard, Chris-
. tianity, while yet in its germ in the person of the in-
fant Saviour, “came up out of Egypt.” The young
child and his mother were there until the death of
Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet, saying : “ Out of Egypt
have I called my Son.”

But let us pass on to the other two great promi-
nent branches of the family of Ham, the Phoenicians
and Carthaginians. We linger no longer in Egypt,
because she has a well-known history — a ready voucher
of all her past greatness.

We shall first speak of the Phoenicians, called, in
the Scriptures, Canaanites, and other strong nations
which Joshua overcame and destroyed, when he took
possession of Palestine. There were different branch-
es of the same great family. Ham was their progeni-
tor. There were at one time, and, it would seem, had
been for a long period of time, great and powerful
nations. They early lost a knowledge of the true
God — grew old and strong in their rebellion against
Heaven, till the long-suffering of God with them was
exhausted, and he gave them over to an accomplished
and final destruction. The malediction of Heaven
rested on them : “ Cursed be Canaan, a servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren.” The pos-

132

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

terity of Canaan were great and strong, and prosper-
ed for a time. But being, from the first, aliens from
Clod and bis covenant, and strangers to the prom-
ises, they waxed worse and worse in their departure
from Cod, filling up the measure of their iniquity, till
God gave them up to the unconditional destruction of
their enemies. The hosts of Joshua were commis-
sioned to exterminate them from the face of the earth.
And here the “curse” was consummated.

We turn rather to Phoenicia, in her better days,
when she was, in many respects, an illustrious exam-
ple to sustain our position. We descend, again, with
the current of human improvement, from the Nile to
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. We do
not know when to date the origin of this ancient na- -
tion. It dates to a period beyond which the light of
history reaches. Before Moses penned the first re-
cord of sacred history — before Abraham lived, Phoe-
nicia was a great and powerful kingdom. Two thou-
sand years before Christ, they were found among the
great nations of the earth. They made the most stub-
born resistance, and were the last to be driven out by
the Israelitish invaders. And centuries after the con-
quest by Joshua, it is recorded that the “Canaanites
would dwell in the land.” When the “ children of
Israel had waxen strong they put the Canaanites to
tribute, but did not utterly drive them out.”

A single declaration of Moses distinctly indicates
the advanced condition of this people. He informs
the Hebrews, that they should find, “ great and
goodly cities, and houses full of all good things, wells,
vineyards, and olive-trees.”

It does not appear that the commission to Israel to

SOLOMON AND THE KING OP TYKE.

133

exterminate the Canaanites included all its nations.
Different branches, as the Hittites, the Hivites, the
Jebusites, etc., were doomed,. as the unworthy occu-
pants of the land God had given to his chosen seed,
and were, by Divine command, to be driven out and
exterminated. Tyre, the magnificent capital of that
great nation, was not included in the immediate exe-
cution of the Divine malediction. We find Tyre flour-
ishing in great glory in the days of Solomon, and
thenceonward to its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.
It had already existed more than fifteen centuries.
Again it reappeared under the name of New Tyre,
and flourishes for nearly two and a half centuries
more.

And here we would not overlook the very signifi-
cant fact, that, in the most prosperous days of the
Hebrew Commonwealth, there existed a most interest-
ing alliance between Solomon and the King of Tyre.
By a very liberal contribution of men and materials
Hiram, King of Tyre, participated largely in the erec-
tion of the Temple on Mount Zion. May we not re-
ceive this, again, as another singular instance of con-
nection and co-operation between the chosen seed
and the race of which we speak, which betokens the
yet returning favor of God upon those whom he has
left as outcasts.

As we said of Egypt so we may say of Phoenicia,
simply the duration of such a state for nearly 2,000
years indicates that it possessed elements of great-
ness and durability, which rank it among the most
civilized nations of antiquity. Its government, laws,
institutions, political wisdom, wealth, and learning
could have been of no mean order. And must we not

134

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

suppose that, at least, in its earlier periods, it must
have contained the salt of a much higher order of
morality and religion than characterized its later
periods ? Else, would such a body politic been pre-
served ?

Again : the world is indebted to the Phoenicians for
some of the most useful inventions.- Among others,
we may name the art of writing, the manufacture of
glass, and the art of navigation. It is believed that
the alphabet was received from Egypt, yet the art of
writing is an invention accredited to the Phoenicians.
And the most ancient author (if we except Moses)
was a Phoenician. Sanchoniathon, a name not to be
admired, either for its euphony, or ease of utterance,
is believed to have, been cotemporary with Joshua,
who died 1427 B. C. Historical fragments of this
very early writer, translated from the Phoenician by
Eusebius, are said to remain to tills day. These go
to show that alphabetical writing was in use among
the Phoenicians ages before the Greeks had the
slightest acquaintance with it.

We are hence left to infer, not so much from the
details of existing history, as from certain data in the
shape of isolated facts, what was the real points of
advancement reached by this branch of the family of
Ham? Commerce, colonies, wars and conquests, and
the extent, beauty, and grandeur of their capital city,
and the great perfection they reached in the working
of metals and precious stones afford other data by
which to judge of the social and civil advancement of
a people.

The invention of the art of navigation was with
them something more than an abstract theory. The

THE PHOENICIANS THE FIRST NAVIGATORS.

135

Phoenicians were, properly, the first navigators — the
first great commercial people of which we have any
acquaintance. They not only conducted an extensive
and lucrative trade, on both sides of the Mediterra-
nean, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, but they pushed
their commerce through the Pillars of Hercules, form-
ed depots of trade in Spain, and along the western
coast of Africa. And tradition gives them the credit
of having crossed the Atlantic, and formed settle-
ments, and conducted commerce among the “Isles”
of the west, long before Columbus rediscovered this
western world. But the trade which this people car-
ried on, at this early day, with distant India, gives us
a yet higher idea of their thrift and enterprise. They
were, probably, the first who imported to the Medi-
terranean, and thence to Europe, the commodities of
India. Having secured commodious ports on the
eastern side of the Arabian Gulf, from which they
had regular intercourse with India, from thence their
India merchandise was conveyed to the nearest
port on the Mediterranean, and thence reshipped
to Tyre.

As is usual in the progress of a great and enter-
prising people, colonies followed close in the wake of
commerce. Among their first settlements were those
of Cyprus and Rhodes. They then passed into
Greece, Sicily, and Sardinia, and thence into the
southern parts of Spain and Portugal. Cadiz remains
as a monument of the commercial enterprise of this
people. The colonies which did them the greatest
honor, and which claim our more particular attention,
were those on the northern coast of Africa. Car-
thage was the most prominent of them. We shall

136

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

speak of this, again, as the next great development of
the Hamic family.

Cadmus, also, led a colony of Phoenicians into
Greece, and built Thebes in Boeotia, one of the most
celebrated cities of Greece ; the birthplace of Pindar,
Epanrinondas, and Pelopidas. He took with him the
alphabet, and a knowledge of those things which had
made his own nation great and powerful.

But Tyre, for so long the capital of this great Ca-
naanitish nation, the “ Queen of Cities, the Queen of
the Sea,” affords a yet more direct proof of her na-
tional greatness. We have in the “ sure word of
prophecy” (Ezekiel xxvii.), a most glowing descrip-
tion of this remarkable city. In her pride, she said :
“ I am of perfect beauty.” She is called the “ crown-
ing city,” “ whose merchants are princes, whose
traffickers are the honorable of the earth.” Every
thing for use, or ornament, or luxury, were found in
her market. And every known nation on the earth is
mentioned as her merchants or “ traffickers.” Prom
the extreme parts of India, Persia, and Arabia, from
Ethiopia and Egypt, on the south, to Scythia on the
north, all nations contributed to the increase of her
power, splendor, and wealth. She sat as queen,
“adorned with a diadem; whose correspondents were
illustrious princes ; whose rich traders dispute for
superiority with kings ; who sees every maritime
power either as her ally or her dependent; and -who
made herself necessary or formidable to all nations.”

“ The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy mar-
ket, and thou wast replenished and made very glo-
rious in the midst of the seas. Thy riches and thy
fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots,

CARTHAGE, A PHOENICIAN COLONY. 137

thy caulkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise,
and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all thy
company which is in the midst of thee” — such riches,
such resources, should all “ fall into the midst of the
seas in the day of her ruin.” And great should be
her fall. All the kings of the earth should mourn
because of her. “ Her favored situation ; the extent
and convenience of her ports ; the character of her in-
habitants, who were, not only industrious, laborious,
and patient, but extremely courteous to strangers, in-
vited thither merchants from all parts of the known
world ; so that it might be considered, not so much a
city belonging to any particular nation, as the com-
mon city of all nations, and the centre of their com-
merce.”

But we must advance yet another step. Westward
the sceptre of empire now moves. Ethiopia had re-
produced herself in Egypt ; Egypt, in Phoenicia ; and
now the latter reappears, in a new edition, amended
and enlarged, in Carthage.

Carthage was a Tyrian colony, founded on the
northern coast of Africa, by Elisa, a Tyrian princess,
better known by the name of Dido. Other Phoeni-
cian colonies had been planted at Utica, Leptis, Hip-
po, and Adramentum. Carthage was the chief. The
others, though independent States, were in alliance
with Carthage as one confederacy. Carthage, the
daughter of Tyre, succeeded to a large portion of the
trade originally possessed by the mother State. Nor
did this long satisfy her increasing power and un-
bounded ambition. Not satisfied with her trade with
India, Ethiopia, and Egypt, on the east, and with the
countries which border on the Mediterranean Sea on

138

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the north, she pushed her trade into the interior of
Africa, civilizing the barbarous tribes wherever she
went ; occupied Spain and Caul ; thence northward
to the Isle of Great Britain, on whose southern coast
she formed settlements ; and, as some say, advanced
to the Baltic, and, perhaps, to Scandinavia, and form-
ed colonies along the western coasts of Spain and
Portugal. While, southward, by the Atlantic, she
carried her commerce along the western coast of Af-
rica, at least, as far as the Gambia. And yet others
maintain that she crossed the Atlantic to America,
and visited the shores of the new world.

But we do not forget that war is the entering wedge
of commerce. To say that a nation is mighty in com-
merce, is to say she is, or has been, mighty in war.
The sword had prepared the way before her. So it
was with Carthage. Her commerce did but follow
her conquests. Yet, we need not rehearse the annals
of her wars. Her prowess in arms, her naval and mili-
tary resources, her generals, as they are seen in the
conduct of a single war, quite serve to establish our
position, as to the power and greatness of that Afri-
can kingdom. We refer to her wars with Rome. In
wealth, power, learning, and science — in commerce
and arms — she was for a long time the superior of
Rome. And when, for another period, perhaps as
long, she stood as the formidable rival of Rome. A
braver general than Hannibal never led an army.
And Rome, in the glory of her power, never met so
formidable a foe as Carthage.

But, what is more to our purpose still, Carthage
was a republic. The highest office in the Common-
wealth was that of the suffetes, called kings, but cor-

THE MOORS AND THE SARACENS.

139

responding to the consuls of Koine, or the judges of
the Hebrews. These were elected by the people;
and they presided in the Senate. Carthage had her
laws, her institutions, her judicatories and judges, all
framed in accordance with her character as a re-
public.

Did we need further illustrations of what the de-
scendants of Ham have done, in maintaining, for a
long series of years, great national power and grand-
eur, as a pledge of what they might do again, we
might find it among the Philistines, and other once
prominent nations, which play for a long time no in-
significant part in the great drama of human affairs.
But we would rather adduce, though we can no more
than name, the Moors and Saracens as yet more il-
lustrious examples. The Saracenic empire, which
extended from the Atlantic to India, and embraced a
broad belt half round the globe, was, in its origin and
animus, Arabian, the original inhabitants were the
descendants of Ham ; the more recent race were half-
blood, the descendants of Ishmael. It was one of the
most magnificent empires that ever existed. In a
single century it extended its sceptre over Tartary,
India, Persia, and over all the countries thence to the
Atlantic. Damascus, Alexandria, and Constantinople
fell before it. It quite overran Africa, and established
a strong nationality in Spain.

While the western world was buried in the darkest
ignorance, the Moors of Spain, “ lived in the enjoy-
ment of all those arts which beautify and polish so-
ciety. Amid a constant succession of wars, they cast
a new lustre on Spanish history,” through the arts of
peace. Schools were founded and numerous public

140

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

libraries invited' the curiosity of the studious. Let-
ters were patronized — geometry, astronomy, and phys-
ics were studied — “ Cordova became the centre of po-
liteness, taste, and genius.” During two centuries
their court continued to be the resort “ of the profess-
ors of all polite arts, and such as valued themselves
upon their military and knightly accomplishments.”
The Mosque of Cordova vied, in size, beauty, and
grandeur, with those of Damascus and Jerusalem.
And the world-renowned Palace of Alhambra stands,
in the grandeur of its ruins, a lasting memorial to the
wealth, taste, and general advancement of its African
authors.

SHE IS — See page 141.

PREVALENCE OP THE PATRIARCHAL RELIGION. 141

CHAPTER VIII.

Africa as she is— Natural advantages and commercial facilities — Cotton —
. Another index of hope.

We have spoken of the negro as a primitive race
of man, widely extending its vast population, and
being the representative of learning, civilization, the
arts, and government over all the southern countries
of Asia, and the eastern and northern parts of Africa.
And we are able to trace the footprints of the off-
spring of Ham along the southern coasts of Europe,
and in Central America. They were evidently a
highly civilized people at a very early period after the
Deluge. The oldest specimens of architecture, the
excavated temples of India, paintings, temples, orna-
ments of various sorts, the workmanship of that an-
cient race, exhibit a surprisingly high state of civiliza-
tion. Looking into Egypt, we meet, in her earliest
monuments of art, the same indications of advance-
ment, and, what is more, we discover evident traces of
the same people.

And it is an interesting fact (if, as stated, it be a
fact), that there is no evidence in all these relics that
idolatry and polytheism were known till the age of
the Pharaohs. This seems to indicate that the primi-
tive condition of man was, not only civilized, but that
men, in those remote ages, had not yet forsaken the
true God. The patriarchal religion then prevailed,

142

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ancl men, according to tlie liglit that slione in those
early ages, worshiped God in spirit and in truth.
Should further revelations in the undeveloped history
of those ancient races confirm our half-formed con-
viction, that negro races were in the early ages of the
world not without the knowledge and practice of the
true religion, it would hut well accord with what we
know to he still the peculiar religious susceptibilities
of those races at the present day ; and, at the same
time, encourage our hopes of their future moral im-
provement. Morally, as well as physically, Africa
and her races, may he again what she once was, and
much more.

Having spoken of Africa as she was, I come now to
speak of her as she is.

It is, however, scarcely more than a single aspect of
Africa as she is that I shall touch upon in the pres-
ent chapter. I mean the natural capabilities and re-
sources of that continent, and its commercial advan-
tages. I think I shall he able to make it appear that
Africa, even in her present neglected condition, gives
indications of possessing resources which are both
fitted and destined to answer purposes vastly more
noble than have yet been realized there.

Researches in Africa have made us but partially ac-
quainted with her vast interior. Our acquaintance is
very much confined to the sea coast, and we are by
no means sure that we are able, from such an ac-
quaintance, to form any thing like a just appreciation
of the natural resources of that great continent. Our
acquaintance with the interior, so far as it goes, is
extremely favorable. The climate, soil, productions,
mineral and animal wealth, are spoken of in the most

NATURE OP THE COUNTRY.

143

glowing terms. We are encouraged to look into tlie
interior of Africa for some of tlie finest countries in
the world. We can not believe that such countries
will be allowed always to lie desolate ; but rather that
the great Euler of nations has purposes yet to answer
in Africa, quite commensurate with the gigantic re-
sources of the land.

A recent missionary traveler (and these are the
best travelers in the world from whom to get correct
and useful information), who penetrated some 250
miles into the interior, from Liberia, passing through
some thirty villages of the Goulahs, Deys, Queahs,
and Condoes, speaks of the country in the following
terms :

“ Such a country as we passed through, in that mis-
sionary tour, I have not seen surpassed in either of
the West India Islands, which I have visited from
Trinidad to Tortola, and the Virgin Islands. It is an
elevated, mountainous country. Eanges of moun-
tains, running most generally parallel with the line
of coast, from northwest to southeast, rise up before
the delighted eye of the traveler, convincing him that
he is no longer in the land of burning sands and dele-
terious swamps, such as are encountered in proximity
with the shores, but in quite another region. And
such are the gradual undulations of its surface as
would greatly facilitate the objects of agriculture.
There are few, if any, very steep acclivities ; nothing
like the bold, precipitous mountains of our Eastern
States. Beautifrd and extensive valleys lie at the
base of these mountains, which gently slope down to
the level country lying between them.

“It is a well-watered country. During the eight

144

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

hours’ travel which we were frequently obliged to
perform in a day, we never walked more than two
hours, or two and a half at a time, without coming to
some beautiful streams of cool and very pure water,
either as tributary of the St. Paul, or some other of
the many smaller rivers which intersect that African
Canaan. And here it may be proper to add, that
my attention was directed to an examination of the
adaptation of these streams to the purposes of ma-
chinery, sites for mills, etc., and I hesitate not to af-
firm, that, within the Goulah Country especially, any
number of the most eligible situations may be found,
where, at any time during the year, good water-power
may be obtained for any of the purposes which an
enterprising community, agriculturists and mechanics,
may require. My journey was performed in the very
middle of the dry season, and yet we found plenty of
water in the different streams.

“ It is well timbered. Through an extensive forest
of miles in extent which lay on our return route, I
was so struck with the gigantic trees, of immense
height, which reared their towering heads, and united
their luxuriant foliage in forming above us one dense
and rich canopy, that I called the attention of the
colored ministers of the Liberia Annual Methodist
Conference, who accompanied me, to this evidence
of the richness of the country, which God had giv-
en to the Africans, and to which their exiled brethren
were invited by so many powerful considerations. I
measured several trees, and my journal, kept at the
time with scrupulous exactness, records 23, 24, 25 feet
as the circumference of many of them within 6 feet
of the ground. And the variety and superior quality

AN EXCEEDINGLY FERTILE SOIL.

145

of the wood found in these forests, and, indeed, all
along the borders and around the settlement of Li-
beria, from Grand Cape Mount to Cape Palmas, can
not be excelled anywhere within the torrid zone.
From a species of poplar, soft, and adapted to all
purposes for which the white pine is used in America,
up to the teak, a variety of mahogany, a beautiful
species of hickory, very abundant at Cape Palmas,
the iron wood, the brimstone, susceptible of polish
for furniture, of surpasing beauty, and many others,
an almost endless supply may be found.

“It is an exceedingly fertile soil. The immense
undergrowth of shrub and vine, interwoven around
the giants of the forest, so thick, so impenetrable, is
the best proof of this. The grains, roots, fruits, and
vines of the tropics all concentrate here, and may be
raised with an ease, rapidity of growth, and abund-
ance, almost incredible. I have stood erect under
the branches of a cotton-tree, in a Gouiah village,
as they spread forth from the main trunk, laden with
bolls, and supported by forked sticks to prevent their
being broken down by their own weight, and found,
on measuring, that the tree covered a space of 10 feet
in diameter. On examining the staple, as the ripened
bolls burst into maturity, it was found as good, and
equal, in the fineness of its fibre, to the cotton of any
country.”

Such is the testimony which has always been given
of the natural resources of the interior of Africa. All
ancient accounts of this continent abundantly confirm
this assertion.

Bating her great deserts, no country in the world is
capable of sustaining so great a population to the

146

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

square mile. The strength of her soil is amazing.
No soil is capable of such gigantic productions. "We
can scarcely credit the account of travelers when they
come to speak of the luxuriant growths o| an African
i soil. They seem to be romancing. Yet, the accounts
are from such men, and so harmonize, that we are
compelled to give them credit. The Rev. Mr. Thomp-
son, of the Mendi Mission, says : “ A general feature
of the soil is its great fertility. In the wild state, the
land is covered, either with an almost impenetrable
‘bush,’ or grass, which speaks defiance to the traveler.
No one who has not seen an African bush, or forest,
can form an idea of its weight, size, density, and im-
penetrableness. Besides a forest of trees, timber,
from 1 foot up to 30 feet in diameter, a complete jun-
gle of underbrush, vines and thorns, and grass, fill up
beneath, so that to walk or press your way through it
is impossible, till a road is cut. The prairies are cov-
ered with grass, as thick as it can stand, from one
fourth to an inch in diameter, and from 12 to 20 feet
high. You may think I exaggerate, but I have seen
and walked through, or rather on, such grass ; for a
path is made by breaking it down. I myself measur-
ed a tree 108 feet in circumference.” Mr. Thompson
speaks, too, of the great strength of the soil, the
amazing rapidity of vegetation, and the astonishing-
luxuriance of vegetable productions, and the great va-
riety of the soil, clayey, sandy, mixture of clay and
sand, loomy, rocky, alluvial.

Africa has, of course, a great variety of climate,
and productions as varied as soil and climate. The
northern portions are temperate, the centre lies in the
torrid zone, and, consequently, produces the tropical

AFRICAN PRODUCTIONS.

147

fruits, vegetables, grains, gums, minerals, metals, and
animals in great abundance. Corn, wheat, sweet po-
tatoes, oranges, pine-apples, plantain, bananas, and
many other kinds of fruit and berries ; peanuts, gin-
ger, arrow-root, tobacco, castor-oil bean, opium, indi-
go, bread-fruit, monkey apple, etc., grow abundantly,
and without much culture, except to keep down the
grass. Then there are the cassada, three kinds of
yam, three kinds of cocoa (one hill of which some-
times fills a half bushel), tomatoes, ground cherry,
lima beans, which live and bear from year to year,
egg-plant, varieties of pepper, okra, kola, limes, etc.,
with many others.

It has been proved, says another writer, that two
crops of corn, sweet potatoes, and several other vegi-
tables, can be and are raised in a year. They yield
a larger crop than the best soils in America. One
acre of rich land, well tilled, says Gov. Ashman, will
produce $300 worth of indigo ; half an acre may be
made to grow half a ton of arrow-root ; four acres
laid out in coffee plants, will, after the third year, pro-
duce a clear income of tv^o or three hundred dollars ;
half an acre of cotton-trees, yielding cotton of an
equal, if not of superior, length and strength of staple
and fineness and color to fair “ Orleans,” will clothe
a whole family; and one acre of canes will make the
same number independent of all the world for sugar.
The dyes, in particular, are found to resist both acids
and light, properties which no other dyes we know of
possess.

Yet another writer says : “ Africa possesses, almost
universally, a soil which knows no exhaustion.” Mun-
go Park speaks of the country as “ abundantly gifted

148

TIEE GEEAT NEGEO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

and favored by nature.” Evidently nothing is needed
but skill and industry, to enable Africa to support a
larger population, on the same territory, than any
other country. With but a small portion of her soil
under cultivation, Africa supports some 150,000,000 of
people. “ Millions of acres lie uncultivated.” When
these boundless wastes shall be brought under culti-
vation (all fertile as the richest garden) what a vast
population maybe sustained! “Eour acres of land
will maintain a family of six persons.” But the pro-
ductions of the soil are but a part of the means of
sustenance in that land. “ Their rivers,” says a trav-
eler, “ abound in fish. Their sheep and goats are fine
and fat. They have plenty of fowl, also wild hogs,
wild ducks, and geese. In the Sherbro Country there
is plenty of fish and oysters.” “ The Gold Coast,”
says another, “ and all tropical Africa, is capable of
affording incalculable advantages, if the inhabitants
can be incited to industry. It is enriched beyond the
credibility of those unacquainted with it. Its hills are
stored with various metals and minerals, and its val-
leys are blessed with a fertility scarcely to be exceed-
ed by any country under the same latitude.” “ It is
very remarkable, that tropical Africa will be found,
on examination, to possess the richest soil of the
whole continent.”

We must bear in mind, that these are the produc-
tions and gigantic growths of Africa in her almost
waste and wild state. Cultivation is doing as little
for an African soil as it is for her people. Their
crooked stick for a plough, drawn by cows, by means
of ropes attached to their horns, may be taken as a
befitting emblem both of the state of agriculture and

AFRICA, THE GRANARY OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 149

the social advancement of Africa. If Africa, with her
thousands of miles of deserts, and her vast extent of
almost impenetrable jungle, overtopped with the most
gigantic forests, can, with the present extreme indo-
lence of her people, support 150,000,000 (probably
200,000,000) of inhabitants, what might she not, un-
der a high state of cultivation, and by means of an
intelligent and industrious people, and under the
smiles of propitious Heaven ?

A French traveler, of the last century (Poncet, a
Jesuit missionary), who spent much time in Abyssin-
ia, sjneaks in the most glowing terms of the fertility of
that part of Africa, when subjected to good cultiva-
tion. “ There is,” says he, “ scarcely a country on the
globe so thickly peopled, or the soil so rich and pro-
ductive as the territory of Ethiopia. All the valleys
and sides of the mountains nearly to their tops, are,
for the most part, subdued and moulded by the hand
of cultivation, and the plains are mantled by aromatic
plants, which shed around them a delightful fra-
grance, and which generally grow to a size nearly
four times as large as the same species in the soils
of India. Streams flow through this country in every
direction. They profusely water every plain and val-
ley of Abyssinia ; and their banks are garnished with
an exuberant covering of the most beautiful flowers.
The forests abound with the orange, the lemon, and
pomegranate, which load the air with their enlivening
perfumes. There are, also, roses, diffusing an odor
far more delicious and aromatic than any of the
most delightful that are found among us.”

Africa was once called “ the granary of the Roman
Empire.”

150

THE GEEAT NEGBO TEOBLEM SOLVED.

Napoleon Bonaparte, and the no less shrewd Tal-
leyrand, were not unmindful of the extraordinary ca-
pabilities of this singular continent. They thought
to make Africa to France what she had once been to
the Roman Empire. Napoleon is said to have had
his eye fixed on Africa, at one time, not only to make
it the granary of France — a no insignificant object,
when he was draining France of her sturdiest sons
for his armies, but he looked thither for a supply of
France with tropical productions, when, in those rev-
olutionary times, she was excluded from the West
Indies, and made dependent on England for the pro-
ducts of either the East or West Indies.

Talleyrand is said to have digested a plan for rais-
ing, on the northern coast of Africa, and through the
labor of the natives, cotton, coffee, sugar, and all the
commodities which were usually brought to Europe
from the tropical regions of either hemisphere. This,
like many other plans of the far-reaching mind of Na-
poleon, and of his yet shrewder minister, failed only
because the toils and hazards of the wars into which
his ambition or necessity chew liim left no opportu-
nity for their execution. “ The thoughts of the Em-
peror were withdrawn from the colonization of Africa,
until it was too late to make the attempt.”

The African trade has always been an object of de-
sire by every commercial nation ; partly for the ac-
tual products of her soil, her mines, and her forests,
but the rather because of the prospective benefits of
a traffic with her. Keen-eyed commerce has not fail-
ed to discover undeveloped resources in Africa, which
can not fail to enrich and aggrandize the people that
shall secure this trade, and in proportion as these re-

GENOA AND HEE TRADE WITH AEEICA.

151

sources have been drawn out, the trade has been lu-
crative. It is interesting to observe, that, whenever a
commercial nation has directed her attention to a
trade with Africa, the demand thus created for Af-
rican products has most readily and abundantly
created the supply ; and the quantity of exports
which have in these instances been carried from that
land, enable us to form some just judgment, as to the
extent to which commerce might be carried, were cul-
tivation encouraged, and governments such as to in-
vite a safe and open traffic.

When Genoa was enjoying her commercial su-
premacy, her people carried on an extensive and lu-
crative trade with Africa. The trade which they car-
ried on with Cyrenaica was, in the early times, one of
the richest sources of her prosperity. So important
had this trade, at one time, become (1267), and so
great was the intercourse between Genoa and Cyre-
naica, that the Senate of Genoa deemed it important
to institute a college at Genoa, for the study of the
Saracenic language.

Again: we may arrive at some just estimate of the
productions of Africa, from the importance which
Great Britain evidently attaches to the African trade.
Not only are companies organized with large capital
to carry on that trade, but the Government is expend-
ing large sums, and sparing no pains, to secure to
herself the rapidly increasing commerce of that con-
tinent. She liberally patronizes enterprising trav-
elers into Africa, spends enormous sums in keep-
ing up a large and efficient squadron on the coast —
£100,000,000 within the last few years ; then, again,
we see her pouring forth an immense sum on the

152

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

celebrated “Niger Expedition,” and determines to lose
no advantage to gain to herself a trade, prospectively,
at least, so lucrative. These efforts and expenditures
are, no doubt, based on intelligent and safe calcula-
tions of the real importance of an anticipated com-
merce, and we may receive them, no doubt, as afford-
ing some safe intimation of what the resources of
Africa shall be when developed.

The great staples of Africa, which are chiefly to
form her future commerce, and which afford, at pres-
ent, a no inconsiderable trade, are cotton, rice, coffee,
and sugar; to which may be added, grains, hides,
drugs, palm oil, indigo, gums, ivory, gold, and iron.
In some of these articles foreign nations are already
carrying on a considerable trade, especially Great
Britain. But, for the most part, no more is done than
just to indicate what are the hidden treasures of the
land, and what shall be the importance of that conti-
nent, when her resources shall be revealed. Perhaps,
I hazard nothing in the assertion, that Africa, under
a proper cultivation and a development of her resour-
ces, is quite capable of supplying the whole world
with those tropical products which are now brought
from the East and West Indies, and at a much cheap-
er rate.

The prospect already is, that Africa will soon be-
come the greatest cotton-growing country in the
world. Its climate and soil seem to be peculiarly
adapted to the cotton crop. The cotton-tree, which
in our Southern States must be planted every spring,
lives, in Africa, nine or ten years, and bears as many
crops of the finest quality. There is, perhaps, not a
more sure prognostic of the approaching dawn of Af-

COTTON WILL BE KING.

153

rica’s civilization and speedy regeneration than ap-
pears in the late successful attempts to cultivate this
one article of commerce. Its bearing on the general
interests of Africa must be influential and truly hap-
py. The most important desideratum in order to the
amelioration of the condition of Africa has been the
want of a legitimate commerce. England, the great
commercial nation, and, at present, the great renovat-
ing nation, is the most deeply interested in the com-
merce of Africa, and, more especially, in the article
of cotton. Companies have already been formed, hi
England, with large capital, and agencies established
on the coast of Africa, for the cultivation of this arti-
cle. And well may the friends of Africa, watch with
the intensest interest, the success of these agencies.

I shall be the more particular on this topic, inas-
much as it is likely to exert an influence on the des-
tinies of the world, which all do not yet foresee. It
will, to a considerable degree, change the course of
commerce. At least, it will open a new channel be-
tween Europe and the continent of Africa. It will
do much to bring Africa within the pale of civiliza-
tion. It will, more effectually than any thing else, call
forth the rich, though latent, resources of Africa in
the production of other articles of commerce, besides
the one in question. It will do more to suppress the
nefarious traffic in flesh and blood than all the armed
squadrons of all Christendom ; and it will do more
than all the emancipation schemes on the face of the
earth to annihilate, root and branch, American Slave-
ry. If England can procure her supply of cotton
from Africa, instead of from India and America, and
procure it much cheaper, it will strike a deadly blow

154

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

to tlie whole system of slavery. Slave labor, in many
parts of the South, already unprofitable, would soon
be made so profitless, that the planters would be com-
pelled to give up the system in self-defense. When
omnipotent interest shall thus interpose, the days of
slavery are numbered, and especially when we take
into the account, that what is said in respect to cot-
ton, is measurably true of coffee, sugar, and other
products of our Southern States.

We shall, therefore, inquire, with some interest,
what prospects there are that African cotton will, ere
long, become a great staple in the commerce of Eng-
land ? What is doing, on the part of England, to war-
rant any such expectation ?

The movement of last year, on the part of the British
Government, through the Board of Trade, is worthy
of some special attention. During the last year, Capt.
Shaw was sent to Western Africa to superintend an
expedition, fitted out by several eminent mercantile
and manufacturing firms in England, for the purpose
of testing, by actual experiment, the possibility of
procuring a supply of cotton from the west foast of
Africa. He was the bearer of a letter from Lord Pal-
merston to President Koberts. President Roberts’
reply, with certain samples of cotton, the produce of
districts of the Gold Coast, which were submitted by
the Board of Trade to the Chamber of Commerce at
Manchester, with a request that they should report as
to the qualities and market value of the same, is wor-
thy of some special notice. President Roberts very
justly remarks : “ This expedition, my Lord, is destined
to produce important and salutary results, especially
with respect to the future welfare of Africa, not only

COTTON AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 155

by increasing lier commercial importance, but, also, as
a means of introducing more rapidly tlie habits of civ-
ilization, and the blessings of Christianity among the
barbarous tribes of this country. There can be no
question as to the success of the enterprise, particu-
larly in Liberia, if properly managed. Cotton, of as
good quality as in the United States, can be raised
here, and in large quantities, indeed to almost any
extent.”

The report of the Manchester Chamber of Com-
merce on these specimens of cotton, was exceedingly
favorable. They speak, especially, of the quality of the
African cotton. As to fibre, it supplies, at the present
time, a very important desideratum. They say : “ As
it respects the usefulness of this cotton, nothing could
be more desirable than the quality which these sam-
ples represent. We do not need any large increase of
the finest qualities of cotton ; our most pressing want
is of such qualities as enter into the manufacture of
the coarsest and heaviest of our fabrics, and this want
the cottons now under review are admirably adapted
to supply. Our trade could not receive any greater
boon than a large import of them, if sent to us free
from seeds, leaf-stems, and other extraneous matters ;
while a correlative result would arise in Africa, if such
an intercourse with this country could, by any means,
be established.”

156

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER IX.

Africa as she is — More about cotton, and its bearing on Africa and on the
world — Palm oil, rice, coffee, sugar, and other articles of commerce— Geo-
graphical position of Africa.

The reports of Capt. Sliaw, and other agents sent
to Africa to make actual experiment of the cotton-
growing qualities of an African soil, are exceedingly
encouraging. Capt. Shaw, who was sent out from
Liverpool, reports, after a single year, that he is
about to send home a cargo of cotton. It is found
that the cotton plant is indigenous to the soil — that a
luxuriant crop will mature in less than five months,
and the same plants continue to bear year after year.

A letter, dated Freetown, Sierra Leone, published
in the Manchester Guardian, says : “ You will, I am
sure, be glad to learn that a large number of natives
are now preparing their lands for planting cotton this
year, and I have twenty men at work preparing forty
acres of land, about a mile distant from Freetown, for
cotton plantation. Every week applications are made
to us for cotton seeds to plant during the approaching
rains. Some of that which you gave me has been
supplied to a few American missionaries in Sher-
bro Country. They have planted it, and intend to
ship the products to England. There is little doubt
that a very large quantity of cotton will be raised this
year, both in the colony of Sierra Leone, and in the
adjoining country.”

Thirty varieties of cotton have been found growing

COTTON GROWING ENCOURAGED.

157

spontaneously in West Africa, some equal to tlie finest
quality of American growth.

An English writer very justly remarks : “ That the
extension of a legitimate commerce, on the coast of
Africa, will do more to suppress the slave-trade than
all that our squadron has effected ; that the cultiva-
tion of cotton, as an article of barter, might be exten-
sively carried on under becoming arrangements, and
that the samples of cotton received from Dahomey
have been of the most encouraging kind.”

Attempts are now making, in the kingdom of Daho-
mey, for the growing of cotton, which promise great
success. The Danish settlements there have been
ceded to the English, who are consummating their
plans, through the British Chamber of Commerce, for
the raising of cotton in Africa. For this purpose
John Duncan has been appointed British Consul at
Whydah, the principal port of Dahomey. He is
charged to encourage the culture of cotton, to en-
gage the natives in the same enterprise, furnish them
with seeds, and in all possible ways to promote the
object of his mission to Africa. And it is not a little
interesting that he has been able to report, not only
success in his own personal efforts, but no sooner was
his intention known, that he would purchase cotton ol
the natives, than it was brought to him from all quar-
ters. The natives need but a market, and they will
bring out the resources of the soil without stint.

I have already referred to the importance which
the people of Great Britain attach to their com-
merce with Africa. This shows the thorough convic-
tion which they have of the value and abundance ol
the products of an African soil. The following re-

158

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

marks of Lord Palmerston go far to sustain tlie same
opinion. They are, undoubtedly, based on safe data.
His lordship says, in a recent speech in Parliament :

“No part of the globe offers more scope for the
commercial enterprise of this country than the inte-
rior and the coast of Africa.

“ We have a demand for the things she produces,
and she stands in want of the goods that we can sup-
ply. In many other parts of the world, where there
is a larger population to consume what we can ex-
port, there is a want of commodities to offer in return.

“ Our trade with China has been limited, to a cer-
tain degree, by want of the commodities to exchange
for our products. But, in Africa, commodities for
barter abound. There is hardly any thing of value
which can not be procured there, to offer in exchange
for the goods that we can supply. Cotton might be
grown on the western coast in infinite quantity, and of
the best quality. And, recollecting how precarious is
the source of supply which we now derive from the
United States of America — recollecting how the grow-
ing manufactures of America, herself, are now annu-
ally absorbing more and more of the cotton which she
produces — and recollecting what a vast amount of our
own population depend upon the manufactures from
that raw material for daily bread, it becomes matter
of the most extreme importance that we should seek
out other sources of supply. Palm oil, an article also
of great value, and much used, is found in abundance
in that country ; there are also coffee, ivory, gold — in
fact, hardly any thing of value and utility that might
not be produced, or found, in Africa, and that might
not be received in return for our exports.

CONNECTION OP COTTON AND SLAVERY.

159

“ I say, therefore, it is an object of great national
importance, that, by an end being put to the slave-
trade, we should be enabled to enter into commercial
intercourse with the vast population of that region.”

These sentiments are encouraging, whether consid-
ered in reference to the annihilation of the slave-trade,
or the attention which the commerce of this country
is attracting in England.

Truly, Africa presents an inviting field for commer-
cial enterprise ; and no people better understands its
importance than the English.

As would also appear from Lord Palmerston’s re-
marks elsewhere, England then carried on a com-
merce with Africa, to the amount of £5,000,000 annu-
ally— now, more than double that amount.

The connection between cotton and slavery is well
established and very intimate. With many persons,
the first objection to the abolition of slavery, is the
supposed increase in the price of cotton cloth which
would result from it. What if Africa, by furnishing
an abundant supply of cotton, should remove this ob-
jection, and pave the way to emancipation ! Such a
thing is among the possibilities, perhaps among the
probabilities. In relation to the matter, Dr. Irving, a
missionary to Africa, has written to Dr. Shaw the an-
nexed remarks. The letter is published in the pro-
ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society :

“ In December, 1853, 1 was ordered on service to Ab-
beokoota, with Commander Eoote, then senior officer.
There I was much struck with the superior appearance
of the people, and their great capabilities, the produc-

Itiveness of the soil, the variety of objects which might
lead to an extensive and lucrative commerce with

160

THE GEEAT NEGEO PROBLEM SOLVED.

England, more especially that of cotton, which is in-
digenous, and carefully cultivated by the Yarubas.
These comprise a population of nearly three million
souls, clothed entirely in cloths manufactured by
themselves. On my return to England, I represented
these things to the Church Missionary Society, and
many of the samples of African productions I brought
home, excited great attention among manufacturers
and others. The cotton proved to be of the very
quality required for the purposes of manufacture.
Among them was, also, an entirely new kind of silk,
respecting which, several eminent merchants in Lon-
don are very anxious for further information. I volun-
teered to go out and examine the country between the
Niger, Bight of Benin, and Lander’s route, between
Badagry and Boussa, a country, excepting at one or
two points where our missionaries had been the
pioneers, never yet visited by white men. My offer
has been accepted, and I start as agent for Yaraba,
with the sanction of Sir James Graham and Lord
Clarendon. The necessary instruments for making
observations have been forwarded to me.”

We have referred to an expedition fitted out from
Manchester, for the purpose of testing the cotton-
growing capabilities of Africa. We are now able to
present the report of this Association :

“ The Manchester Commercial Association has re-
ceived intelligence of the successful result of some ex-
periments in cotton cultivation, at Cape Coast Castle,
in Africa. A year and a half ago, some of the members
of this Association subscribed upward of XI, 500, to-
ward an experiment of this kind. The money was
sent to agents (generally merchants) at Cape Coast

A COTTON PLANTATION. 161

Castle. A site was selected, about five miles inland, on
tlie banks of a small stream, and tlie process of plant-
ing tlie indigenous cotton shrub was commenced. The
plant is perennial, and grows to a considerable size, the
stalk being, in many cases, several inches in diameter.
The seeds are kidney-shaped, and they lie matted
together in the pod, very much like the Brazilian spe-
cies. From time to time, the most favorable accounts
have come to hand. So long since as October last, it
was announced that thirty acres of ground had been
cleared, and then bore 19,600 ‘ trees,’ all of which
were ‘ fresh and healthy, and seemed to be growing
fast. They are almost covered with unripe pods, blos-
soms, or buds, and, in two or three weeks after having
had the benefit of the October rains, they will look
better than they do now. In two or three months,
many of those first planted will realize a good crop.’
So wrote the agent ; and as an earnest of the truth of
his expectations, there were received in Manchester
last week, five bags or bales of cotton, each weighing
150 pounds, and a sample parcel weighing thirty or
forty pounds, all the produce of one farm mentioned.
The cotton has been examined, and found very closely
to resemble Brazilian, or rather Egyptian. It is of
extremely good color, and fair, short staple ; has been
well cleaned (without injury) by saw-gin, and is worth
fully sixpence per pound. The cost of its production
and transit to Manchester, is said not to have ex-
ceeded three pence per pound, a result strongly con-
firmatpry of the assertion that cotton cultivation in
Africa may be rendered remunerative. As to the dis-
position of the native Africans, they have been found,
in this instance, to accept work on the farm with abso-

162

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lute avidity, not only on account of the readiness with
which the wages asked were paid, hut, apparently, with
an intense desire to imitate or assist Europeans ;
and they evinced pride in being brought into con-
nection with the whites. Men, as many as were re-
quired in the clearing and preparatory operations,
worked diligently and regularly for two dollars a
month ; women, for a dollar and a half, and stout lads
for half a dollar, without rations in any case. Accord-
ing to the last accounts respecting the farm, men
have rarely been employed since the ‘ trees’ have been
planted, the labor of women and children being found
quite sufficient for all ordinary purposes. The hands
worked eight horns a day, and seemed thoroughly con-
tented with themselves and their masters. The exam-
ple became contagious soon after the experimental
farm Avas cleared ; for, so long since as October last,
several European residents had started plantations
on their own account, and on one lot alone there were
20,000 flourishing trees. The average yield has been
found to be most satisfactory.. Now, those who have
hitherto conducted the experiment so nobly origin-
ated by a few gentlemen in Manchester, are desir-
ous that regularly trained persons should be sent
out to superintend the several plantations which must
ere this be- in existence. The originators are most de-
sirous to see the resources of the Cape Coast Castle
district more fully developed ; and, we think, we have
stated enough to show that, while extended operations
could not fail to be highly advantageous to the trade
of this district, they would certainly return remunera-
tive profit for any investments.”

We dwelt longer on the capability of Africa to sup-

COTTON AND AMERICAN SLAVERY.

163

ply cotton — even to supply, if need be, the whole
world — because of the immediate and very important
bearing it has on the coining destiny of America, and
of the States of Europe. Most undoubtedly, the life
and soul of American slavery is to be found in the
cultivation of the cotton plant. The demand for
slaves, the price of slaves, the extent and duration of
slavery, keep pace with the demand for cotton. The
measure in which France and England have been co-
partners with us in the use of slave labor, show how
deeply they have been partakers of the great Ameri-
can sin; and should they be made to drink yet more
deeply of the cup of Heaven’s displeasure, we need
not think any strange thing has happened. Such
are the common, as they are the righteous, retribu-
tions of God.

We have spoken of the capability there is in the
soil and climate of Africa to supply cotton to any con-
ceivable amount, and we know there is, in successful
operation, a commerce between England and the
western coast of Africa, quite sufficient to transport a
full supply to Europe ; and we have just seen, in a re-
port of one of the African Companies, that every de-
sirable facility is afforded in the form of cheap and
ready labor of native Africans. “ They have always
been found to accept work with absolute avidity —
men for two dollars a month, women for one dollar
and a half, and stout lads for half a dollar, without
rations in either case.”

The bearing which all this must have upon Ameri-
can slavery, upon the African slave-trade, and upon
the general amelioration of the condition of Africa,
can not be mistaken. Whether American slavery

164

THE CHEAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

shall die a death of violence, through this dreadful
war, may still remain, in the minds of many, a matter
of doubt. Yet fewer will doubt that its days are num-
bered— that its final demise is only a question of time.
Africa’s soil is growing, and fast bringing to maturity,
the remedy which shall eradicate the disease, root
and branch. The question of a cure is solved in the
number of bales of cotton raised and transported to
Europe. That number completed, and slavery has its
death-blow ; and with slavery goes that most barbar-
ous and inhuman of all traffics, which makes “ mer-
chandise of the bodies and souls of men.” And what,
as an entering wedge to prepare the way for all civil-
izing and Christian agencies, will not a legitimate
commerce do for Africa? The awfully demoralizing
influences of the slave-trade ceasing to be, industry
will be encouraged, enterprise will spring up, and
commercial relations with nations more enlightened
and civilized will do much to disinthrall her people
from their ignorance and superstition, and raise them
from their degradation.

Be it that cotton is king. We acknowledge his
majesty. And, as we see him about to remove the
place of his throne, from his adopted land to his
native soil in Africa, we follow him with a hearty
“ God save the king.” May he reign there, not to
trample under foot, and to forge manacles for, a help-
less race; but reign in mercy and in might, till he
shall proclaim liberty to the captives, undo the heavy
burdens, break every yoke, and let the oppressed go
free.

But will the removal of the cotton market to Africa
or to India so surely strike the death-blow to the

INDIA AS A COTTON FIELD.

165

great system of involuntary servitude in America ?
Some fear it, more liope it ; all expect it. Says tlie
Westminster Revieto : “ There is no doubt that the loss
of a greater part of our cotton market will be the
ruin of the slave system of the United States, and the
very efforts which have been made by the South to
save that hateful institution from destruction, by
forcing our manufacturers to seek other sources of
supply, will operate more powerfully in extinguishing
it than any measure which could have been taken, for
its suppression, by the Federal Government, under
the inspiration of a hostile President. It was mainly
by our cotton-trade that the slave-trade was sup-
ported ; and when this support is weakened, as it in-
evitably must be, the slave-trade will become propor-
tionably insecure and the whole system of American
slavery be among the things that were.

Though Africa presents the most hopeful source of
a future supply of cotton, yet she is but one of the
sources toward which England is looking for such
supply. “ India embodies all the constituent qualities
necessary to become the first cotton-producing coun-
try in the world.” Already means are being vigor-
ously employed to develop her resources, with the
“hope,” as an English writer says, “that she may, ere
long, rival America, both in the quantity and quality
of her produce, in the English market.” India has
under cotton cultivation, nearly four times the area
cultivated in the United States ; yet, on account of
an inefficient cultivation, its resources are but miser-
ably developed. The Bombay Presidency alone (the
smallest of the four divisions) is said to contain
43,000,000 acres of land, admirably adapted to the

166

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

growth of cotton, greater "by one-tenth than the whole
extent of cotton lands in the United States. If one-
fourth of this area were so cidtivated that it should
produce even a moderate crop per acre (say 100 lbs.
of clean cotton), it would give 1,075,000,000 lbs., equal
to the whole quantity consumed at present by Great
Britain.

We shall speak, in its place, of the determined ef-
forts which England is making in other countries
than Africa (India is but one of half a score) to sup-
ply her demands for cotton, and thus forever free her-
self from a dependence on the fields of slaveholders.
It is sufficient here simply to quote the opinion of a
late traveler in England. He can state, he says, from
personal knowledge, that it is the “ unanimous, hearty,
and earnest determination of England to depend no
longer on the South for the chief supply of cotton.”

“ The entire people are thoroughly in earnest on
this subject. Parliamentary and philanthropic Socie-
ties are now earnestly engaged in providing for the
anticipated crisis. Commercial men are now actively
engaged in stimulating the supply of cotton from
other countries. The Southern monopoly of the cot-
ton-trade is broken up forever. Among the agencies
now at work, lately formed to promote the import of
cotton from other countries into England, the follow-
ing will show that secession has defeated its own ob-
ject— i. e., the supremacy of Southern commerce :

The British Cotton Company, Manchester.

The Manchester Cotton Company, Manchester ;
capital, $5,000,000 ; Chairman, Thomas Barzley, Esq.,
M. P. for Manchester. Sphere of operations, India,
Australia, etc.

ENGLISH COMMERCE AND AFRICA. 167

Tlie East India Cotton Company, London; capi-
tal, $1,250,000.

Tlie Jamaica Cotton Company, London ; capital,
$100,000 ; Chairman, Samuel Gurney, Esq., M. P.

The Coventry Cotton Company, Coventry ; capi-
tal, $250,000.

These are among the first results of the alarm
now felt as to the cotton supply in England. There
are, in addition to these, two Societies, with wide
reach, which will soon tell powerfully upon the ques-
tion. One is the Cotton Supply Association, of Man-
chester, which is now actually stimulating cotton pro-
duction in India, Australia, Africa, the West Indies,
and other tropical regions. The other is the African
Aid Society, of London, formed to aid American free
blacks to emigrate to Africa and the West Indies,
where they may engage in cotton culture. Its object
is nearly identical with that of the Colonization So-
cieties, superadding the idea of cotton culture as an
immediate work for the free blacks.

“ The determination is to deliver England from de-
pendence upon the South. African cotton can be de-
livered at Liverpool for four and a half pence, which is
much cheaper than American, and of an average qual-
ity. Let the merchants connected with the Southern
trade not forget these facts. In any event of this war,
secession has opened the eyes of the British, and the
South has lost the monopoly of the cotton-trade.
Among ‘the numerous mistakes which Southern poli-
ticians have made in forcing the South into an atti-
tude of rebellion against the Government, none will
tell more directly against their future interests than
that in relation to cotton. They supposed that “ Cot-

168

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ton was king,” and tliat all nations would bow down
before it. This is a fatal mistake. Various attempts
Lave been made to turn the attention of the British
consumers to other fields of cotton supply, with little
success, however, until within a year or two.

“ The contest now is virtually against the attempts
of the British to obtain cotton from Africa, India, and
the West Indies. When in England, the writer had
full opportunity to inform himself upon this question,
from the British point of view. He can state, from
personal knowledge, that it is the unanimous, hearty,
and earnest determination of the British nation to de-
pend no longer on the South for the chief supply of
cotton.

“ Lord John Bussell has officially requested the
British Consuls to stimulate cotton culture through-
out the British tropical dominions.”

But we pass on to other articles of African produc-
tion, and nest :

Palm oil is mentioned by his lordship as an article
of export of great value, and, doubtless, it is destined
soon to be an article of vastly more importance than
it is at present. As other resources for the obtain-
ing of oil fail, as fail they are beginning to, the
civilized world will be obliged to look to Africa for
their supply. And there is good reason to believe
that Africa 'will be able to supply this great and in-
creasing demand for an indefinite time to come.

Palm oil is produced by the nut of the palm-tree
which grows in the greatest abundance throughout
Western Africa. The demand for it, both in Europe
and America, is daily increasing. The average im-
port into Liverpool of palm oil, for some years past,

PALM OIL AND AFRICAN LARD.

169

has been at least 30,000 tons, valued at £800,000
sterling.

But I introduced this item rather for the purpose
of calling attention to the recent discovery and manu-
facture of a new article of African production, called
Herring’s Palm Kernel Oil, or African Lard, which
promises to be an article of great value.

The common palm oil is obtained from the exterior
part of the nut, while the kernel of the nut has hith-
erto been cast aside as worthless. Recently, a ma-
chine has been invented, by which a beautiful oil,
quite superior, both hi quality and appearance, to the
palm oil, has been obtained. When in its liquid state
it is transparent as water ; and in taste, when used,
as it may be, for cooking purposes, it is not excelled
by the best lard.

After being made and set by, it assumes a consist-
ence like that of hard butter, and has to be cut out
with a knife or spoon ; its appearance, in this state, is
very beautiful, presenting such richness, clearness,
and adaptedness to table purposes, that one would
not suppose it to be a product of Africa, or the inte-
rior part of the palm nut ; nor would it be supposed
that this oil is obtained from the same tree from
which palm oil is, for there is as much disparity, both
in their appearance and taste, as there is between lard
and butter.

It is said that the kernel of the nut will produce as
much of this superior oil, as the nut itself will of the
common oil.

Coffee is another article of commerce, which is pro-
duced, perhaps, with as great facility, and as abund-
antly, as cotton. It is, says a writer, produced so
8

170

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

abundantly in some parts, tliat 200 pounds can be
purchased for a dollar. A single tree in Monrovia
yielded four and a half bushels in the hull at one
time, which, on being shelled and dried, weighed
thirty-four pounds. And it must here be borne in
mind, that the coffee-tree, in Africa, continues to pro-
duce from thirty to forty years, and yields two crops
a year.

Rice, with a little cultivation, is said to equal, in
some parts of Africa, the fertility of the imperial
fields of China, and sugar-cane grows with “ unrivaled
magnificence.” These two very essential articles of
commerce may evidently be produced to almost any
extent that human shill can be brought to bear on the
cultivation. No soil is capable of a greater variety,
or of more abundant productions. The following ad-
ditional list comprises a few of those already made
articles of commerce :

Ivory is procurable at all points, and constitutes
an important staple of commerce.

Cam-wood, and other dye-woods, are found in great
quantities in many parts of the country. About thirty
miles east of Bassa Cove is the commencement of
a region of unknown extent, where scarcely any tree
is seen except the cam-wood.

Gums of different kinds enter largely into commer-
cial transactions.

Dyes of all shades and hues are abundant, and
they have been proved to resist both acids and light.

Pepper, ginger, arrow-root, indigo, tamarinds, or-
anges, lemons, limes, and many other articles which
are brought from tropical countries to this, may be
added to the list. Indeed, there is nothing in the fer-

SOIL AND MINEEALS OF AFBICA.

171

tile countries of the East or West Indies which may
not be produced in equal excellence in Western Africa.

The soil is amazingly fertile. Two crops of corn,
sweet potatoes, and several other vegetables, can be
raised in a year. It yields a larger crop than the
best soil in the United States. One acre of rich land,
well tilled, says Governor Ashman, will produce three
hundred dollars’ worth of indigo. Half an acre may
be made to grow half a ton of arrow-root.

Or, we may pass from the productions of her soil to
the richness of her mines. Gold dust has been an
article of commerce from Africa since the days of
Herodotus. The source of most of this gold is the
Kong chain of mountains, from whence it is washed
down by the mountain streams. When these moun-
tains shall be explored, and their mines worked by
modern skill and science, another source of unlimited
wealth will be opened in the heart of Africa. Kick,
and extensive beds of iron ore have also been discov-
ered in the interior, and the natives are beginning to
learn the art of working it. Iron is found in an un-
commonly pure state. It can be beaten out into mal-
leable iron without the process of smelting. Africa is
exceedingly rich in minerals, precious stones, and
metals. It seems quite probable that Africa, which
once produced that profusion of gems and the precious
metals which, in the days of Solomon, so beautified and
enriched Jerusalem, shall again bring her “ gold and
incense,” when, numbered among the renovated na-
tions, she shall “ show forth the praises of the Lord.”

Gold is found at various points of the coast. It
is obtained by the natives by washing the sand which
is brought down by the rivers from the mountains.

172

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

An exploration of the mountains will, probably, re-
sult in the discovery of large quantities of the metal.
It is calculated that England has received, altogether,
$200,000,000 of gold from Africa. Liberia is adjacent
to the “ Gold Coast.”

Or, turn we to the forests of Africa, and we meet
the same exhaustless stores of wealth. Dye-woods,
timber for ship-building, cabinet work, and for every
purpose needed, everywhere abounds in her immense
forests, and will, ere long, form a most lucrative com-
merce.

And, not only are these forests themselves an ex-
lxaustless source of wealth, but those huge trees and
thick jungles shelter vast herds of animals, which
offer to commerce scarcely a less profitable traffic.
The wealth derived annually from a single animal,
the elephant, is immense. Droves of 700 or 800 are
sometimes seen at the same time. The number scat-
tered over the continent, says a traveler, is countless.
As they all have tusks, and some of these weigh 120,
130, and 140 pounds each, the quantity of ivory which
Africa may produce is almost without limit.

Y/e know little of the real resources of Africa till
we penetrate into her interior. Accounts of late
travelers have confirmed the suspicion, that the great
unknown interior would open up a new history for
Africa. The interior is no longer looked upon as a
“ desert waste.” Some years ago Becroft, the bold
and intelligent English traveler, showed that it is ac-
cessible to navigation and trade, that the climate is
as healthy as that of the tropics generally ; that there
are regions of beautiful and fertile country, affording
opportunities for legitimate commerce of indefinite

NATURE OE THE COUNTRY.

173

extension. This adventurous traveler explored the
river Niger within forty miles of Timbucto. He has
thrown light on thousands of miles of richly fertile
and wooded country, watered by that great stream ;
and upon the ivory, vegetable tallow, peppers, indigo,
cotton, wool, palm oil, dye-woods, timber- woods,
skins, and a great variety of produce, which invite
the trade.

Writers on Africa quite agree that the coast is the
least interesting and inviting, and the least healthy
portion. As far as European and American travelers
have penetrated, which is, from the west only to the
extent of some 200 or 300 miles, and from the south
some 500 miles, they give the most glowing picture of
its fertility and beauty, and the salubrity of its atmos-
phere. “ Most happily,” says one, “ for a tropical re-
gion, the mountains or hills approach to within a
short distance from the sea-shore, but have not the
lofty and rugged character of those of South America.
They abound with limpid streams, furnishing every
facility for manufacturing, and are covered with state-
ly forests. It is not improbable that this may be the
character of the country for many hundred miles back
of the republic of Liberia ; and if such should be
found to be the case, it will form one of the most
magnificent abodes of man on earth. Even the por-
tion already known is of sufficient extent to form an
empire as large as France ; and there is no reason
why it may not, in two or three centuries, become as
enlightened and populous, as it will unquestionably
be better governed.”

And not only is the soil of the interior represented
as excellent and the country beautiful, but, what we

174

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

scarcely expected, tlie climate is described as delight-
ful and salubrious. Rev. Mr. Thompson, in his ac-
count of a late tour into the interior, speaks of the
climate as delightful : “ No such oppressive heats as
you have in July and August ; nights cool and bracing
— the rainy season cool and something like October
in America. At this distance from the low lands, and
with such a high rolling country, with no stagnant
lakes or swamps, no wide river bottoms, no sluggish
streams, or overflowing of country, I see no reason
why it would not be as healthy a country as any,
when once cleared up, settled, and cultivated, as are
the Eastern States. I firmly believe it. I see no
natural cause of sickness here any more than in any
new uncultivated country. Could land be bought in
this country, I should try hard to buy a good tract
for an earthly home for me and mine as long as God
shall continue us here, and for others who might wish
to enjoy it, and for a nucleus or radiating point for
spreading the Gospel through all this country.

“ A thorough Christian colony in this interior, with
their horses, oxen, ploughs and harrows, axes, scythes,
houses, barns, and mills, wagons, roads, fences, farms,
and waving fields, joined with the rich blessings of
education, the influence of a holy example, a pure
life, a just government, and apostolical zeal to save
the souls of the heathen, would, I believe, be just the
means in the hands of God to put in operation influ-
ences that would, in a century, transform Africa, and
make it naturally and morally a ‘ new world.’ ”

“ The country in the interior,” says Mr. Thompson,
“ is not flat • and low, like that nearer the coast, but
high, hilly, beautifully rolling, and very fertile. Un-

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OP AFRICA.

175

der white men’s cultivation it would be as the ‘garden
of the Lord.’ But African agriculture is very meagre,
being done only with a large knife, or a tool some-
thing like a light cleaver.”

But we must not overlook, in this survey, the geo-
graphical position of Africa. Africa occupies, upon
the globe, a central position. Embedded in the ocean
between Europe, Asia, South America, and the Ant-
arctic continent, she is more favorably situated for
an extensive commerce than any other portion of the
globe. Not only has she the material for the support
of a vast population, and an immense commerce with
every part of the globe, but her maritime facilities
give her every possible advantage. On the north,
through the Mediterranean, she is within a few hours’
— at most, within a few days’ — sail of all the principal
marts and emporiums of Europe. With Asia she
may enjoy nearly the same facilities of communica-
tion ; and a few days’ sail brings her merchantmen
into every principal port of America.

Nor is Africa wanting in the facilities for an internal
* trade and navigation. A great portion of Eastern
Africa is drained by the Nile and its branches ; and
large portions of the interior and the eastern slope of
the Kong Mountains are drained by the Niger and its
branches, while all that fine and fertile country be-
tween the Kong mountains" and the Atlantic is inter-
sected by the Senegal, 1,000 miles in length ; the
Gambia, 700 ; the Bio Grande, Bio Numez, Bokelle,
Camaranca, Mesurado, Cavally, Bio Yolta, etc., from
300 to 400 miles in length. Eleven degrees further
south, we meet the Congo, an immense river, which
has been navigated 400 miles. “ Besides the larger

176

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

rivers, tlie wliole coast is thickly indented with inlets,
or arms of the sea, extending into the country, and
almost invariably receiving at their terminations small
rivers, which may be navigated for some distance by
flat-bottomed steamboats, and which will float down
the timber of the forests, and afford sites for mills and
manufactories. The riches of the whole Atlantic
slope can, therefore, be poured, with perfect facility,
into the lap of commerce.”

Such being the natural advantages and resources
possessed by Africa, and such the facilities for making
these real and permanent advantages, we may well
pause here and ask, what shall be the future destiny
of Africa ? Shall she always remain as she has been,
scarcely more than a blank and a blot on the map of
the world? or, has she yet a destiny to work out
which shall abundantly vindicate the wisdom and be-
nevolence of God, in endowing her soil with such fer-
tility, and her forests and her mines with such riches?
We fully believe that Africa is reserved for a great
and a good destiny, which is yet scarcely begun to be
developed. We believe it, because a wise Providence
does nothing in vain — does nothing without a wise
and benevolent plan. He does not make prepara-
tions, except in view of an end. He does not provide
resources — prepare a great system of means, except
in reference to a result. Hut no great civil, moral, or
religious end, has yet been answered in reference to
Africa. With just exception enough, as I have shown,
to indicate her capabilities, she has been a “desert
waste.” And her people, though they have, at times,
shown themselves capable of reaching the higher
grades of civilization and human aggrandizement, and

THE DESTINY OF AFRICA.

177

as statesmen, soldiers, scholars, and Christians, realiz-
ing the great ends of human life in a way inferior to
no other race, yet, as a race, they have done nothing
adequate to their capabilities.

We think, therefore, that we are warranted in the
conclusion that, a great and good destiny yet awaits
Africa — a destiny commensurate with her capabilities.

178

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER X.

Can Africa produce men? — Specimens of statesmen — Soldiers — Scholars- -
Men of science — Writers, novelists, poets — Men of wealth, position.

No one will, perhaps, question that Africa does
really possess all the natural advantages needful to
raise her to an equality with either of the other conti-
nents. The wonderful fertility of her soil, the rich-
ness of her mines, and the superabundance of the
natural resources which, if but developed, fail not to
enrich a nation, have been shown to be quite equal
to a high degree of national aggrandizement. And
testimonials have been produced that African 'races
have attained to honorable eminence among the na-
tions oi the earth. But can these do the same again?
While such names as Sesostris, who drew kings at
his chariot wheels, and left monumental inscriptions
of his greatness from Ethiopia to India — while such
names as Euclid, Homer, Plato, Terrence, the refined
and accomplished scholar, Honno, Hamilcar, his son,
and Hannibal, are found in the annals of the Hamic
race, we do not lack vouchers for the past or prece-
dents for the future.

But, have these races the social, intellectual, and
moral capabilities of reproducing their former great-
ness ? Our appeal, here, must be to facts, and we
will here confine our inquiry principally to the negro
race — the repudiated, down-trodden, despised negro.
Are negroes capable of rising to any such level as we

AFRICANS DETERMINED TO RISE. 179

have supposed ? Do we meet with individual in-
stances among the present generation of Cushites
which encourage such an expectation ?

Common candor here demands that, in the speci-
mens we shall adduce of the progress and achieve-
ments of the black man of the present day, we do not
exact of him an absolute equality. If, after so many
ages of uniform, systematic,- unremitting degradation,
and the almost entire lack of the means and opportu-
nities of improvement, we meet with a few who have,
in spite of mountain obstacles thrown in their way —
obstacles which very few of our own race* ever sur-
mounted—if, in the absence of all encouragement —
yea, if in the face of every conceivable discourage-
ment— if, in the absence of the means and opportuni-
ties of raising themselves from the low and depressing
depths of degradation to which the system of Ameri-
can slavery has reduced them, a few are found to rise,
to1 assert their manhood, to make themselves men —
not to the high level of the Anglo-Saxon standard, but
to an ordinary level of mediocrity, we should be obliged
to concede to them capabilities of improvement, which,
it is doubtful, we may find in any other race.

Our Anglo-Saxon race, once quite as low and help-
less as the poor Ethiopians, whose cause we plead,
showed no such elasticity, flexibility, or improvability
till after the heavy yoke had been broken from their
necks for some centuries. But, we may claim for
Young Africa something more than that meagre, me-
diocre advancement which, in the circumstances, is
all we have any right to expect, viz., a superiority
above the great mass of their own depressed and
down-trodden brethren. We mean to claim for them

180

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

capabilities of competing with white races. We shall,
for this purpose, produce a few specimens from the
multitude that lie before us, to show that there are
lying almost dormant, beneath the superincumbent
rubbish of centuries, elements which, though long
suppressed, ever and anon loom up, and vindicate
their claims to stamina of character and intellectual
resources not inferior to other races. Africa still pro-
duces men.

A colored writer and ex-slave has greatly facilitat-
ed my purpose, by collecting some scores of instances
of the “ black man’s” genius, achievements, and capa-
bilities of raising himself to positions altogether cred-
itable to him, as a member of the great fraternity of
man. I shall select from this collection, and greatly
abridge, as few as will suffice to illustrate my point —
enough to show that, notwithstanding the crushing
pressure of ages, men of the crisped hair and thick
lips have become statesmen, scholars, soldiers ; brave,
accomplished, successful ; men of science ; writers,
poets, novelists, dramatists ; men of business and
wealth ; men of good social position ; and Christians,
illustrating, in an eminent degree, the religion pure
and undefiled — the spirit of the meek and lowly One.

1. Let us see what occasional examples of states-
manship we may discover in her modern sons, as illus-
trations of what they can do, and as a prognostic of
the rising star of Africa. But, here our expectations
should be very limited. No field has now for centu-
ries been afforded for their development in this direc-
tion. They have enjoyed no nationality of their own,
if we except Hayti and Liberia. Liberia has already
reared statesmen that do honor to the name. Ex-

CAN AFRICANS BECOME SOLDIERS ?

181

President Roberts rose from the condition of a slave
in the Old Dominion, self-educated, and passed
through every stage of political life, till he reached,
and filled with all honor, the highest office in the Re-
public. His state papers — the whole course of his
administration — presents to the world a man who
would have done himself credit in the senate of his
native land. In saying this, we do but confirm an
opinion entertained -of the ex-President by his nu-
merous friends in England and America. Nor does
Liberia lack men in her senate, in her courts of jus-*
tice, or in the presidential chair, abundantly compe-
tent to fill every civil office. But,

2. Does the present generation cf this proscribed
race produce soldiers adequate to defend their rights
and enlarge their borders, as their future progress
may require ? Braver, more successful generals never
led an army than the men who arose, some of them
from the ranks of slavery, in the revolutionary strug-
gles of St. Domingo. The armies of Napoleon were
forced to yield before them. We need only repeat the
names of Toussaint L’Ouverture, Rigaud, Dessalines,
Christopher, and Petion. It will be quite sufficient
that we speak of the first as scarcely more than a rep-
resentative man.

Aroused from the ominous dream v>f ages, the slaves
of St. Domingo demanded their freedom. At first,
they were as an enraged mob without a leader. All
seemed waiting with hope that some black chief would
arise adequate to the emergency. Nor did they hope
in vain. A chief afiose in the person of a slave, by
the name of Toussaint. He was the grandson of the
King of Adra, one of the most powerful and wealthy

182

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

monarchs of tlie west of Africa. By his own energy
and perseverance lie had learned to read and write,
and was held in high consideration by both planters
and slaves. Of his character as a general, we may
quote the testimony of his enemy, who said : “ Tous-
saint, at the head of his army, is the most active and
indefatigable man of whom we can form an idea ; we
may say, with truth, that he is found wherever instruc-
tions or danger render his presence necessary.”

“ Veneration for Toussaint,” says his historian,
was not confined to the boundaries of St. Domingo.
It ran through Europe. In France, his name was fre-
quently pronounced in the senate with eulogy. No
one can look back on his career without feeling that
Toussaint was a remarkable man. Without being
bred to the science of arms, he became a valiant sol-
dier, and baffled the skill of the most experienced
generals that had followed Napoleon. Without mili-
tary knowledge, he fought like one bred in the camp.
Without means, he carried on a war. He beat his
enemies in battle, and turned their own weapons
against them. He laid the foundation for the eman-
cipation of his race and 'the independence of the
island. From a slave he rose to be a soldier, a gen-
eral, and a governor, and might have been King of St. .
Domingo. His very name became a tower of strength
to his friends, and a terror to his foes. Toussaint’s
career, as a Christian, a statesman, and a general, will
lose nothing by a comparison with that of Washing-
ton. Each was the leader of an oppressed and out-
raged people — each had a powerful enemy to contend
with, and each succeeded in founding a government
in the New World.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 183

“ When impartial history shall do justice to the St.
Domingo revolution, the name of Toussaint L’Over-
ture will be placed high up on the roll of fame.”

3. “ Ethiopia is stretching out hey hands” to contri-
bute a no contemptible share to the science, the liter-'
ature, and the intellectual advancement of our coun-
try. Though, for the most part shut out from our
schools, academies, and higher seminaries of learning,
and subjected to a most unreasonable and damaging
prejudice, which would seem enough to cast an “ im-
passable gulf” between them and all intellectual im-
provement, yet, in spite of these most formidable dis-
abilities, we meet, among this class of our citizens,
writers, men of science, orators, philosophers, profes-
sional men, men even of superior talents and acquisi-
tions, who have been able to extort the but too reluct-
antly conceded commendation of their white country-
men ; but who have enjoyed the more cheerfully
extended meed of praise from the British Isles.

As a writer, I should, in justice, first cite William
Wells Brown, author of the “ Black Man,” which has
so liberally supplied me with specimens from which
to select. William was a slave in Kentucky — made
his escape to Canada — was without education, which
lie supplied by the most praiseworthy industry and
perseverance — traveled, as a lecturer, extensively
through the United states ; and traveled and lectured
yet more extensively in Europe. “ During which
time,” he says, “ I wrote and published three books,
and lectured in every town, of any note, in England.”
Among his works we notice “ Clotelle,” “ Three Years
in Europe,” “Sketches of Places and Persons Abroad,”
and “Miraldo, the Beautiful Quadroon.” And, we

184

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

may add, tlie real service done to liis kin in the publi-
cation of the “ Black Man : Iris Antecedents, Genius,
and Achievements.” Of Mr. Brown’s character, as a
writer, we need only quote two or three opinions of
English papers.

Speaking of his “ Three Years in Europe,” the Bev.
Dr. Campbell, in the British Banner, says : “ We have
read this book with an unusual measure of interest.
Seldom have we met with any thing more captivating.
There is in the book a vast amount of quotable mat-
ter. A book more worthy the money has not, for a
considerable time, come into our hands.” The Lon-
don Times says : “ He writes with ease and ability,
and his intelligent observations upon the great ques-
tion to which he has devoted and is devoting his
life, will be read with interest, and will command
influence and respect.” The Eclectic Review says :
“ Though he never had a day’s schooling in his life,
he has produced a literary work not unworthy of a
highly educated gentleman.” The Literary Gazette
responds : “ The appearance of this book is too re-
markable a literary event to pass without a notice.
Altogether, Mr. Brown has written a pleasing and
amusing volume, and we are glad to bear this testi-
mony to the literary merit of a work by a negro au-
thor.” Speaking of Mr. Brown as “charming” his
British audiences “ with his eloquent addresses,” the
Scotch Independent says : “ Yvre have just received his
“ Three Years in Europe,” and it is as a writer that
lie creates the most profound sensation. He is no
ordinary man, or he could not have so remarkably
surmounted the many difficulties and impediments
of his training as a slave.”

CRUMMELL, 'WILSON, AND DOUGLASS.

185

In this connection we should mention such writers
as Alexander Crummell, Frederick Douglass, and Wil-
liam J. Wilson. “ Such men,” says a British journal,
“ will lose nothing by a comparison with the best edu-
cated and most highly cultivated of the Anglo-Sax-
ons.” A full-blooded negro, of tall and manly figure,
a graduate of Cambridge University, England, a mind
stored with the richness of English literature, and well
versed in classic lore, Mr. Crummell may be presented
as one of the best and most favorable representatives
of his race. He is an Episcopal clergyman and Pro-
fessor in the Liberia College, and author of a valuable
work on Africa. Frederick Douglass is too well
known as a strong man, a vigorous writer, an effective
speaker, an earnest reformer, and an uncompromising
advocate of universal freedom, to need comment here.
We shall, however, for the double purpose of giving a
true portraiture of the man, and, at the same time, of
returning a very sensible answer to a very senseless
“ hocus-pocus, hypocritical canting of a certain class
of blatant politicians ;” who triumphantly ask: “What
shall be done with the slaves, if emancipated?” give
his reply to the question. His answer is characteris-
tic of the man, and of the writer :

“ What shall be done with four millions of slaves, if
emancipated? Our answer is: Do nothing with
them ; mind your business, and let them mind theirs.
Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune.
They have been undone by your doings ; and all they
now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is
just to be let alone. They suffer by every interfer-
ence, and succeed best by being let alone. The negro
should have been let alone in Africa — let alone when

186

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the pirates ancl robbers offered him for sale in our
Christian slave markets — let alone by courts, judges,
politicians, legislators, and slave-drivers — let alone al-
together, and assured that they are to be thus let
alone forever ; and that they must make their own
way in the world, just the same as any and every
other variety of the human family. We only ask to
be allowed to do for ourselves. Let us stand upon
our own legs, work with our hands, and eat bread in
the sweat of our brows. If you see him plowing
in the open field, leveling the forest, at work with a
spade, a rake, a hoe, a pickaxe, or a bill — let him
alone ; he has a right to work. If you see him on his
way to school, to the ballot-box, or to church, don’t
meddle with him, nor trouble yourselves with any
questions as to what shall be done with him. Don’t
pass laws to degrade him ; nor shut the door in his
face, nor bolt your gates against him.

“ What shall we do with the negro, if emancipated?
Deal justly with him. He is a human being, capable
of judging between good and evil, right and wrong,
liberty and slavery. He is, like other men, sensible of
the motives of rewards and punishments. Give him
wages for his work, and let hunger pinch him if he
don’t work. He knows the difference between fullness
and famine, plenty and scarcity. But will he work?
Why should he not ? He is used to it, and is not
afraid of it. His hands are already hardened by toil,
and he has no dreams of ever getting a living by
any other means. ‘ But would you turn them loose ?’
Certainly ! Our Creator turned them loose, and why
should not we. ‘ But would you let them all stay
here ?’ Why not ? What better is here than there ?

ALEXANDER DUMAS AND NEGRO AUTHORS.

187

Will they occupy more room as freemen than as
slaves ? Is the presence of a black freeman less
agreeable than that of a black slave? You have
borne the one more than 200 years — can’t you bear
the other long enough to try the experiment ?”

Yet <we must not forget that this letting alone —
this throwing them upon their own self-reliance — does
not excuse our kind and timely interposition in their
transition from bondage to freedom. They have long
been defrauded of their very manhood, of all the
means and appliances by which to sustain that man-
hood. When we shall have restored them, not only
to the possession of themselves, but to a self-sustain-
ing position, we may then “ let them alone.” Restore
what we have taken away, and leave them to take
care of themselves.

But we are to speak of poets, male and female ;
philosophers and orators ; novelists and dramatists,
and all of the ebon hue. And who should we place
at the head of the sable worthies but the celebrated
novelist, dramatist, and accomplished scholar and gen-
tleman, Alexander Dumas. In the maternal line, he was
removed only in the second degree from an unadul-
terated negro of Congo. His grandmother was a ne-
gress from Congo. His father (and this adds one to
our military list) was the well-known “ negro general”
in the army of the first Napoleon. “Dumas is now
sixty-three years of age, and has been a writer for the
press thirty-eight years. During this time he has
published more novels, plays, travels, and historical
sketches, than any other man that ever lived.” A man
of great genius, and fertility of imagination, and mas-
terly power of expression, no writer fills a more

188

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

prominent place in the literature of his country, and
none has exercised a more potent influence upon its
recent development than this son of this negro gen-
eral, Alexander Dumas, of Paris.

But we must pass by such names as Charles L.
Reason, and George B. Yoshon, professors in the
New York Central College ; and Placido, who, while
yet a slave, had a volume of poems published in Eng-
land, which were much praised for talent and scholar-
ly attainment ; and James M. Whitefield, the Buffalo
barber, “ noted for his scholarly attainments, gentle-
manly deportment,” and poetical genius ; and many
others, whom we can not so much as name, but who
have done themselves honor, and literature good ser-
vice, both in poetry and prose, and given the most in-
dubitable vouchers that literary taste, linguistic at-
tainments, and historical researches, have no prejudice
against color, but rather that they who seek them as
silver, and search for them as for hid treasures, shall
not search in vain. Passing by these, we select our
examples where the reader may least expect to find
them. We pass by the poets that we may introduce
the poetesses. And here we call up the names of
Phillis Wheatley, Francis Ellen Watkins, and Char-
lotte L. Eorten.

Phillis, when a child of seven or eight years, was
torn from her African home, and imported (1761) to
Boston, and became the slave of Mrs. Wheatley. She
early showed a singular genius ; and, encouraged by
her mistress, learned to read, and acquired the ordi-
nary branches of education with astonishing rapidity :
became a good Latin scholar, and “ translated one of
Ovid’s tales, which was no sooner in print in America,

FE31AEE POETS AND WRITERS.

189

than it was republished in England, with eloquent com-
mendations from the Beviews.” In January, 1773, she
published a volume of thirty-nine poems, dedicated
to the Countess of Huntington. Emancipated at the
age of twenty-one, she sailed for England, where “ she
was received, and admired, in the first circles of Lon-
don society.” Her poems were now collected and
published in a volume, with a portrait and memoir of
the authoress.

A writer, of her own color, in a beautiful sketch of
this extraordinary girl, says : “ A sold tiling, a bought
chattel, at seven years, she mastered the English lan-
guage in sixteen months, carried on an extensive epis-
tolary correspondence at twelve years ; composed her
first poem at fourteen ; became a proficient Latin
scholar at seventeen ; and published, in England, her
book of poems, dedicated to the Countess of Hunting-
ton, at nineteen ; and sailed for England, where she
received the meed due to her learning, her talents,
and her virtues, at twenty-two.”

“Francis Ellen Watkins is a native of Baltimore,
where she received her education. She has been be-
fore the public some years as an author and public
lecturer. Her “Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,”
“ show a reflective mind, and no ordinary culture ; her
essay on £ Christianity,’ is a . beautiful composition.
Many of her poems are soul-stirring, and all are char-
acterized by chaste language and much thought.”

Charlotte L. Forten, “unable, on account of her
color, to obtain admission into the schools of her na-
tive city” Philadelphia), was educated at the Higgin-
son German School, in Salem, Massachusetts. “ Here
she soon received the respect and esteem of her fel-

190

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SORTED.

low-pupils.” Near the close of her term the princi-
pal of the school invited the pupils, each, to write a
poem, to be sung on the last day of their examination.
Among fifty or more competitors, Charlotte bore
away the palm. A most respectable and intelligent
audience very generously accorded honor to whom
honor was due. We give a single stanza of her fare-
well address :

“ Forth to a noble work they go :

Oh, may their hearts be pure,

And hopeful zeal and strength be theirs
To labor and endure,

That they an earnest faith may prove
By words of truth and deeds of love.”

“Aside from having a finished education, Miss For-
ten possesses genius of a high order. An excellent
student, and a lover of books, she has a finely cultiva-
ted mind, well stored tvith incidents drawn from the
classics. She evinces talent, as a writer, for both
poetry and prose.” In the one, her “ Glimpses of
New England,” and in the other, “ The Angel’s Visit,”
do her honor, showing that the gifts of nature are of
no rank or color.

4. Or go we to the rostrum, the stage, or the studio
and we still meet the “ labor of Egypt, and the mer-
chandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans.” If in re-
search of a portrait painter, go to Boston and inquire
for Edwin M. Bannister, or William H. Simpson. Both
these individuals have raised themselves from very
obscure beginnings, and gained a very praiseworthy
eminence in their profession, in spite of the most for-
midable obstacles in the way of their early education.
Mr. Bannister’s barber’s shop was his studio, till the
force of his genius compelled an acknowledgment of

ARTISTS AND THE AFRICAN ROSCIUS.

191

his merits. “ He is a lover of poetry and the classics,
and is always hunting up some new model for his
gifted pencil and brush.” He has a picture repre-
senting “ Cleopatra waiting to receive Marc Antony,”
which is said to be beautifully executed.

Mr. Simpson is, too, a colored artist in Boston —
still young, of unmixed blood — who has already gain-
ed a reputation in his profession, which many have
labored a lifetime in vain to secure. “ His portraits
are admired for their lifelike appearance, as well as
for the fine delineation which characterises them.”
The patronage he is receiving in Boston is very flat-
tering. His portrait of John T. Hilton, which was
recently presented to the Masonic Lodge, “is a splen-
did piece of art.” Indeed, no higher praise is needed
than to say that a gentleman in Boston, distinguished
for his good judgment in the picture gallery, wishing
to secure a likeness of the Hon. Charles Sumner, in-
duced the senator to sit to Mr. Simpson for the por-
trait. The artist is said to have been signally suc-
cessful.

In Drury Lane and Covent Garden, London, you
may see upon the stage the “ African Boscius,” alias
Ira Aldridge. He was born in Senegal, Africa, but,
when quite young, brought to America and educated
as best he could be, in the face of an inveterate preju-
dice. His father, an African prince, who had escaped
to this country in consequence of a rebellion, having
himself received an education, designed to educate his
son for the ministry. For this purpose he removed
him to Scotland, where he entered the Glasgow Uni-
versity, and graduated with honor. On leaving college ■,
he chose the stage, and “ shortly appeared in a num-

192

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ber of Shakspearian characters in Edinburgh, Glas-
gow, Manchester, and other provincial cities,” and
soon after appeared in London, where he was dubbed
the “African Roscius.”

5. But let us knock at the door of the learned pro-
fessions and see if the sons of Ethiopia will give us
a response here. Is she represented in the ranks of
the ministry, of the law, and of medicine ? The
sacred office, we are quite sure, is in no danger of
being dishonored by such men as Dr. James W. C.
Pennington, late pastor of the Shiloh Church, in New
York City ; Wm. Douglass, of Philadelphia ; Rogers,
of Newark ; not to overlook the young, eloquent, and
promising John Stella Martin, and Bishop D. A. Payne.
We select these without pretending to know that,
either in ability or fidelity, piety or usefulness, we
should concede to them any pre-eminence over scores
of others of their colored brethren. Tie find their
names convenient for reference. Could we recall their
names we could mention not a few, who, though yet
bound in the flesh, are free in the spirit ; who have
been taught of the Spirit, and whose lips are touched
with a coal from the upper altar. Some of these
preachers at the South, who own not their bodies, but
God owns and blesses their souls, are represented as
truly eloquent and successful preachers.

But we will not pass over the names mentioned so
hastily. Dr. Pennington was born a slave, of unmixed
blood, on a farm in the State of Maryland. By trade
a blacksmith, with no opportunities for learning, and
ignorant of letters till he made his escape to the
North. Through intense application and industry, he
repaired the deficiency — at length turned his atten-

PENNINGTON, GABNETT, AND DOUGLASS. 193

tion to Theology, ancl became a useful and efficient
preacher of the Gospel. He was several years pastor
of a church in Hartford — visited Europe three times,
preaching and lecturing extensively and with great ac-
ceptance— received the degree of Doctor of Divinity,
at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and on his
return, Avas settled as pastor over the Shiloh Church,
in New York. “ The doctor has been a good student,
is a ripe scholar ; is considered a good Latin, Greek —
and German scholar, and is deeply versed in Theolo-
gy.” Few men, of any nation or color, have reached
his present status in the face of so formidable difficul-
ties.

The successor of Dr. Pennington, in the Shiloh
Church, liev. Henry H. Garnett, was, in like manner,
bom a slave. He has gained the reputation of a
“ courteous and accomplished man, an able an elo-
quent debater, a good writer, an evangelical and ac-
ceptable preacher — and, in every sense of the term, a
progressive man.” “ One of the most noted address-
es ever given by a colored man in this country, was
delivered by Mr. Garnett, at the National Convention
of colored Americans, at Buffalo, in 1843. None but
those who heard that, can have an idea of the tremen-
dous influence which he exercised over the assembly.”

William Douglass was a clergyman of the Episco-
pal Church, and for a number of years rector of St.
Thomas Church, Philadelphia. “ He had a finished
education — was well versed in Latin, Greek, and He-
brew— possessed large and philanthropic Ariews, but
was extremely diffident. Mr. Douglass was a general
favorite with the people of his own city, and especial-
ly the members of his OAvn society. He was a talent-
9

194

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

eel writer, and published, a few years ago, a volume of
sermons, which were filled with gems of thought and
original ideas.”

Elymas Payson Rogers was a Presbyterian clergy-
man, and pastor of a church in Newark, N. J. “ He
was a man of education, research, and literary ability
— not a fluent and easy speaker, but logical, and spoke
with a degree of refinement seldom met with. He
possessed poetic genius of no mean order. His
poem on the ‘ Mission Compromise,’ contains brilliant
thoughts and amusing suggestions.” Mr. Rogers was
of unmixed race. With a most praiseworthy zeal
and self-denial, in 1861, he volunteered to visit Africa,
as a pioneer to the settlement of a colony in the inte-
rior. lie was attacked with a fever, and died in a
few days. No man was more respected by all classes
that knew him.

John Stella Martin was born, a slave, in Charlotte,
North Carolina, in 1832 — was both slave and son to
his owner. At the tender age of six years, the boy
and his mother and sister were taken from the old
homestead, at midnight, carried to Columbus, Ca.,
and exposed for sale. The boy was separated from
his mother and sister, and became the property of a
stranger. At the age of eighteen, on the death of his
master, he was sold ; at twenty, resold ; and, at twen-
ty-five, made his escape and fled to Chicago. Next
we hear of him as a popular lecturer, and next as a
preacher. Of a lecture he gave in Coldwater, Michi-
gan, the following notice appeared in the weekly
paper :

“ Our citizens filled the court-house to hear J. S.
Martin speak for his own race, and in behalf of the

REV. JOHN STELLA MARTIN.

195

oppressed. The citizens admired, and even were
astonished at his success as a public speaker. He is
a natural orator, and, considering his opportunities, is
one of the most interesting and forcible speakers of
his age, and of the age. Indeed, he is a prodigy. It
would seem impossible that one kept in ‘ chains and
slavery,’ and in total ignorance, till within a few
months, could so soon attain so vast a knowledge of
the English language, and so clear and comprehensive
a view of general subjects. Nature has made him a
great man. His propositions and his arguments, his
deductions and illustrations, are new and original ;
his voice and manner are at his command, and pre-
possessing ; his efforts are unstudied and effectual.
The spirit which manifests itself is one broken loose
from bondage, and stimulated with freedom.”

Next we hear of Mr. Martin as the popular and suc-
cessful pastor of a church in Buffalo ; and next, as the
pastor of Joy Street Church, Boston, where he has
been preaching “with marked success,” for tliree
years. And, last of all, we read in a New York paper
of a late date :

“ Arrived in England. — Rev. J. Stella Martin, the celebrated young
colored minister, of Boston, U. S., well known for his eloquent orations on
the American crisis, delivered in Erg’aud some eighteen months ago, arrived
at Liverpool by the Asia, on th° 20th. We understand he has been invited

I to take the pastorate of a church in the suburbs of London.” — Star.

We have spoken of Frederick Douglass as a writer.
This “fugitive slave” is still better known as a lec-
turer and preacher. “ His advent as a lecturer,” says
one, “ was a remarkable one. White men and black
men had talked against slavery, but none had ever
spoke like Frederick Douglass. Throughout the
North, the newspapers were filled with the sayings of

196

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the ‘eloquent fugitive.’ He often traveled with others,
but they were all lost sight of in the eagerness to hear
Douglass. He is polished in language and gentle-
manly in his manners. His voice is full and sonorous.
His attitude is dignified, and his gesticulation is full
of noble simplicity — always master of himself. Few
persons can handle a subject with which they are
familiar better than he.” Professor W. J. Wilson
says of him : “In his every look, his gesture, his
whole manner, there is so much of genuine, earnest
eloquence, that they leave no time for reflection.”

We would next call up Bishop D. A. Payne. Not
quite satisfied with the tender mercies of the “ patri-
archal institution” in Charleston, S. C., he betook
himself to the North — at length completed a regular
course of theological study, at Gettysburg, Pa. — soon
he became distinguished as a preacher in the Metho-
dist Church, in Baltimore, and was, some years since,
elected Bishop, and is now located in the State of
Ohio.

“ Bishop Payne is a scholar and a poet ; having
published a volume, in 1850, which was well received,
and gave him a place among literary men. His
writings are characterized by sound reasonings and
logical conclusions, and show that he is well read.”
Devotedly attached to his clown-trodden race, the
bishop recently put forth a very noteworthy address
to “ The Colored People of the United States.” If we
may take this as the voice of their leaders to the
captive hosts, when on the eve of their deliverance,
we have no reason to fear their exodus from the house
of bondage shall be otherwise than peaceful toward
us, and profitable to themselves. I shall quote a few

BISHOP PAYNE’S ADDRESS AND PRAYER. 197

paragraphs to show, first, what is the word of com-
mand— what the fatherly advice of the bishop at
this impending crisis of their destiny ; and, secondly,
to show something of the character of the prayers
that are, at this moment, going up into the ears of the
Lord God of Sabbaoth :

“ A crisis is upon us which no one can enable us to
meet, conquer, and convert into blessings for all con-
cerned, but that God who builds up one nation and
breaks down another.”

And in view of this crisis — in the face of the hopes
and fears that alternately elevate or depress his suf-
fering people, the bishop exclaims : “ Let every heart
be humbled, and every knee bent in prayer before
God. Throughout all this land of our captivity, in
all this house of our bondage, let our cries ascend per-
petually to heaven for aid and direction.

“To your knees, I say, O ye oppressed and en-
slaved ones of this Christian republic, to your knees,
and be there. Before the throne of God, if nowhere
else, the black man can meet his white brother as an
equal, and be heard.

“ Haste ye, then, oh, hasten to your God ; pour the
sorrows of your crushed and bleeding hearts into his
sympathizing bosom. It is true, that on the side of
the oppressor there is power — the power of the purse,
and the power of the sword. That is terrible. But
listen to what is still more terrible : on the side of the
oppressed there is the strong arm of the Lord, the
Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — before
his redeeming power the Wo contending armies, hos-
tile to each other and hostile to you, are like chaff
before the whirlwind.

198 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“ Eear not, but believe. Ho that is for you is more
than they who are against you. Trust in him— hang
upon his arm — go, hide beneath the shadow of his
wings.”

The address concludes with a very characteristic
prayer. We shall take this as a beautiful epitome of
the sighs and groans, the prayers and supplications,
with strong crying and tears, which are continually
ascending to the God of the oppressed throughout
the length and breadth of the land of their bondage.
Like the bondmen in Egypt, and the more earnestly
as the day of their redemption draws near, “ they sigh
by reason of their bondage, and they cry.” And is
not their cry to come up unto God “ by reason of
their bondage?” And does not “God hear their
groaning ?” But the prayer :

“ O God ! Jehovah-jireh ! wilt thou not hear us ?
We are poor, helpless, unarmed, despised. Is it not
time for thee to hear the cry of the needy — to judge
the poor of the people — to break in pieces the op-
pressor.

“ Be, oh, be unto us what thou wast unto Israel in
the land of Egypt, our counselor and guide — our
shield and buckler — our Great Deliverer — our pillar
of cloud by day — our pillar of fire by night !

“Stand between us and our enemies, O thou angel
of the Lord! Be unto us a shining light — to our ene-
mies confusion and impenetrable darkness. Stand
between us till the Bed Sea be crossed, and thy re-
deemed, now sighing, bleeding, weeping, shall shout,
and sing, for joy, the bold anthem of the free.”

But we have given too much space to the cloth.
The other learned professions have had their honored

NEGRO CELEBRITIES.

199

representatives. Here we can no more than name
Langston, the eloquent “black lawyer” of Oberlin,
Ohio, and Robert Morris and John S. Rock, successful
lawyers in Boston.

And among them who are an honor to the medical
profession we may name James McCune Smith, of
New York City, and James Derham, of New Orleans.
Dr. Smith, an able writer and general scholar, has, for
the last twenty-five years, been a practitioner in New
York, where he has stood eminent in his profession.
Dr. Derham, an imported negro, by his own genius
and energy raised himself to be one of the ablest
physicians in New Orleans. Dr. Rush says of him:
“ I found him very learned. I thought I could give
him information concerning the treatment of diseases ;
but I learned more from him than he could expect
from me.”

We had intended to devote a paragraph, at least, to
Benjamin Banneker, the “negro philosopher,” and
another to Sir Edward Jordon, who, a colored man,
passed from the condition of a clerk to that of the
able editor of a journal, a member of the Assembly,
and to the honor of knighthood. Nor did we intend
to pass, with so brief a notice at least, representatives
of the class who have raised themselves, by their
industry and perseverance, to position and wealth.
Such is Robert Purvis, a wealthy and highly intelli-
gent gentleman, who resides near Philadelphia. But
there remains one personage to whom we must not
give the go-by so easy. It is Joseph Jenkins, of Lon-
don, who, for genius, versatility of talent, and indom-
itable perseverance, has, in this or any generation,
few of his like, either white or black.

200

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Our author introduces Joseph as he met him for
the first time in Cheapside, London. He was then
the earnest distributor of hand-bills in the service of
a barber. A few days after he saw the same indi-
vidual in Chelsea, sweeping a crossing. Here, too,
he was equally as energetic as when met in Cheap-
side. Some days later, Mr. Brown, while going
through Kensington, heard “rather a sweet, musical
voice singing a familiar psalm, and, on looking round,
was not a little surprised to find that it was the
Cheapside bill-distributor and the Chelsea crossing-
sweeper.” He was now singing hymns and selling
religious tracts. Next he appears at the Eagle Sa-
loon, acting the part of Othello, in Shakspeare’s
tragedy, the observed of all observers. As he entered,
he was greeted with “ thunders of applause, which he
very gracefully acknowledged.” Tall, with a good
figure and an easy carriage, a fine, full, and musical
voice, he was well adapted to the character of Othello.
He soon showed that he possessed great dramatic
power and skill. The effect upon the audience was
indeed grand. The Othello of the evening was known
to them as Selim, an African prince. When the cur-
tain fell, the prince -was called out, when he was
received with deafening shouts of approbation, and a
number of bouquets thrown at his feet, which he
picked up, bowed, and retired.

Next, our Othello — our African prince— is met in
the pulpit of a mission chapel in the suburbs of Lon-
don— the earnest, eloquent, and disinterested preacher ;
disinterested, because he will receive no compensation
for Ms services. Here he showed himself the eloquent
and accomplished preacher. Imagine the astonish-

JOSEPH JENKINS, OF LONDON.

201

ment of our narrator, when, of a Sabbath evening, in-
cidentally entering the aforesaid chapel, he discovered
in the preacher the identical bill-distributor of Cheap-
side, the crossing-sweeper of Chelsea, the tract-seller
and psalm-singer of Kensington, and the Othello of
the Eagle Saloon.

But who is this man of so singular versatility of
genius? Whence came he, and by what combination
of auspicious or fortuitous circumstances did he be-
come such a man? He shall tell his own story.

The service ended, the narrator and the preacher
are introduced. They had several times met before,
and under circumstances widely different. As they
walked together on their way to their respective lodg-
ings, Mr. Jenkins gratified the excited curiosity of his
companion by a brief narrative of his previous history.
“You think me rather an odd fish, I presume,” said
he. “Yes,” I replied. “You are not the only one
who thinks so,” he continued. “Although I am not
as black as some of my countrymen, I am a native of
Africa. Surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery, ^
and situated between Darfour and Abyssinia, two
thousand miles in the interior of Africa, is a small
valley going by the name of Tcgla. To that valley
I stretch forth my affections, giving it the endearing
appellation of my native home and fatherland. There
I was born, and there received the fond looks of a
loving mother. My father being a farmer, I used to
be sent out to take care of the goats. As I was the
eldest of the boys, my pride was raised in no small
degree when I beheld my father preparing a farm for
me. In the mean time, I had the constant charge of
the goats, and, being accompanied by two other boys,

9“

202

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

who resided near mj father’s house, we wandered
miles from home, by which means wc acquired a
knowledge of the different districts of our country.

“ It was while in these rambles with my companions
that I became the victim of the slave-trade. We were
tied with cords and taken to Tegla, and thence to
Kordofan, which is under the jurisdiction of the Pacha,
of Egypt. Prom Kordofan I was brought down to
Dongola and Korti, and thence down the Nile to
Cairo, and, after being sold nine times, I was taken
by an English gentleman, who brought me to this
country and put me into school. But he died before
I finished my education, and his family, feeling no
interest in me, I had to seek a living as best I could.
I have been employed to distribute hand-bills for a
barber in Cheapside in the morning, go to Chelsea and
sweep a crossing in the afternoon, and sing psalms and
sell tracts In the evening. Sometimes I have an en-
gagement to perform at some of the small theatres, as
I had Avhen you saw me at the Eagle. I preach for
this little congregation over here, and charge them
nothing, for I want that the poor should have the
Gospel without money and without price. I have
now given up distributing bills; I have settled my
son in that office. My eldest daughter was married
about three months ago, and I have presented her
husband with the Chelsea crossing, as my daughter’s
wedding portion.” “Can he make a living at it?” I
eagerly inquired. “Oh yes; that crossing at Chelsea
is worth thirty shillings a week, if it is well swept,”
said he. “ But what do you do for a living for your-
self ?” I asked. “ I am the leader of a band,” he con-
tinued, “and we play for balls and parties, and three

EXAMPLES OE BABE ENTEBPBISE.

203

times a week at the Holborn Casino.” “ You are
determined to rise,” said I. “ Yes,” he replied;

“ Upward, onward, is m3' watchword.

Though the winds blow good or ill,

Though the sky be fair or stormy,

This shall be my watchword still.”

Here is a man, of unmixed blood, a negro of the
primitive stock — brought from the interior of Africa —
having received neither good nor bad from the civil-
ized world — left to struggle with all the disadvantages
of poverty — a stranger in a strange land; and yet he
not only acted well his part in some position or avoca-
tion, which is a sufficient commendation for any one
individual, but he distinguished himself in half a
dozen positions or avocations, and some of these of a
character to show a high order of talent. We may
justly hold up this case as an irrefragable argument
that Africa — that Ethiopia, the land of the negroes,
and the early cradle of civilization and of Christianity,
has not lost its capability to produce men. As we
have said of the exhaustless physical resources of
Africa which lie unused, waiting for the plastic he nd
of civilized man to come and appropriate them to the
purposes of human advancement, so we may say of
the vast mental and moral resources which yet lie dor-
mant, waiting the sounding of that trumpet which shall
proclaim to the millions of Africa a resurrection from
centuries of mental ancl moral death. The examples
we have cited we may take as pledges of the capabili-
ties of the race — as precursors of what shall follow.

But while we claim such cases as we have adduced,
as illustrations of what African races are capable of
producing, and what we are warranted in expecting

204

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

from them, we do not present these as new and
strange developments in the race. What is, is what
has been; and what has been, is what, we expect, shall
be again. We quote Joseph Jenkins as a man who
displayed a most remarkable versatility of genius, and
in one short life made very remarkable attainments ;
and we have brought in illustration men who passed
their earlier years in a crushing servitude ; yet in mid-
dle life we find them scholars, writers, well versed in
literature, history of the classics; lawyers and physi-
cians, well read in the studies of their professions ; or
divines, who, in acquisitions in theology, in philosophy
and metaphysics, in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, com-
pare well with their brethren of a more favored race.
Yet we do not present these as any thing new under
the sun. The fact that Dr. Pennington, ex-President
Eoberts, or Professor Crummell have made their
present attainments and reached their present posi-
tions, although the morning of their lives was made
bitter in the “ Iron Furnace,” is not more strange than
that Henry Diaz, the black commander in Brazil,
should “be extolled, in all the histories of that coun-
try, as one of the most sagacious and talented men
and experienced officers of whom they could boast;”
or that the modern Hannibal, an African, should have
gained, by his own exertion, a good education, and
rise to be a lieutenant-general and director of artil-
lery under Peter the Great ; or that Don Juan Latino,
a negro, should become teacher of the Latin language
at Seville; or that Antony William Amo, a native of
Guinea, should take the degree of Doctor of Philos-
ophy at the University of Wittemberg; or that James
J. Capetein, fresh from the coast of Africa, should be-

APTITUDE OP THE COLORED RACE.

205

come master of tlie Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chal-
daic languages; or that James Derham, as already
mentioned, an imported negro, should be considered
one of the ablest physicians in New Orleans. We
might extend the catalogue — there is no lack of mate-
rials. Blumenbach boldly affirms of the negro : “there
is no savage people who have distinguished them-
selves by such examples of perfectibility and capacity
for scientific cultivation.” Edward Everett, in a pub-
lic address before the Colonization Society, at Wash-
ington, 1853, speaks unhesitatingly of the “aptitude
of the colored race for every kind of intellectual
culture.”

Mr. Everett cites instances which had fallen under
his notice, especially during his connection with Cam-
bridge University, and utterly repudiates the idea that
there is any general inferiority of the African race.
He says : “ They have done as well as persons of
European or Anglo-American origin would have done-
after three thousand years of similar depression and
hardship. The question has been asked, ‘Does not
the negro labor under some incurable, natural inferi-
ority?’ In this, for myself, I have no belief.”

206

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XI.

The curse of Africa — Portuguese adventurers and residents — Desolating
piracies — Jesuitism.

The capabilities ancl resources of Africa, both to
produce men and to realize all the great purposes of
civilized life, have, perhaps, been made sufficiently to
appear. Yet all the great and good things that have
heretofore come of Africa seem rather as exceptions
— anomalies — as sweet waters from a bitter fountain,
as good fruit from a corrupt tree. Indeed, it must be
conceded that these things are but little more than
exceptions from the long-established order of degra-
dation and suffering which has been the common in-
heritance of that mysterious land. And so protract-
ed, and sore, and afflictive have been her sufferings,
that we need not marvel that other races have, for
centuries, looked upon her as being the doomed sub-
ject of some dire malediction of Heaven. Nor is it
strange that men should, unthinkingly, for the want of
another solution of the great problem, fix on the
“ curse of Canaan,” as the solution sought.

While we can discover no good authority for ex-
tending the curse pronounced by Noah on the young-
est son of Ham to the entire Hamic race — indeed, not
deeming it altogether clear that God cursed even Ca-
naan— yet, rve are constrained to concede that the
dealings of Providence toward Africa and her race
have been exceedingly mysterious. If under no Di-

THE CURSE OF AFRICA.

207

vine malediction, why then have they been left to be
so strangely preyed upon by every unclean bird? The
most malign agencies have been permitted to act
against them. They have for a very long period, and,
no doubt, for reasons which we know not now, but, as
her history develops, we shall know hereafter, been
given up to rebuke and scourging by some of the
most malignant powers of sin. As in the world in
general, so in Africa in particular, sin has been al-
lowed its perfect woi’k — to take root, to expand, to
mature and bring forth its poisonous fruits. God
would first have the universe see what sin can do —
what, with all the wealth and resources, and power,
and pride, and ambition of the world, the “ prince of
this world” can achieve — then what Christ and holi-
ness can do.

Not till it has been made to appear how certainly
sin, if allowed unrestrained dominion, works desola-
tion and final ruin, does He, that has the power over
sin, interpose his almighty arm, and arrest its deadly
ravages, and say : Hitherto slialt thou come, and no
further. And the reflecting observer can scarcely
have overlooked that a people or nation which God
designs especially to exalt, he first especially hum-
bles ; and more usually does he humble them for a
long time, as well as bring them very love It is in
this way that he magnifies his mercy, and exalts his
power, and prepares a people to fulfill a great and
good mission in the world, and prepares the world to
accept their mission as heaven appointed.

We shall try Africa by such criteria, and see what
of the hand of God we can discover in all his singular
dealings with her. The following chapter shall be

208

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

devoted to tlie dark phases of Africa’s history — the
curse which has so loug been the portion of her cup.

How far Africa may have been the subject of the
direct malediction of Heaven 1 do not attempt to de-
termine. I have shown elsewhere that neither the
negro race, nor any African race, was the subject of
the “ curse of Canaan.” That curse, whatever it was,
extended not beyond the posterity of Canaan ; which
people ceased to exist long centuries ago, and which,
indeed, does not seem ever to have been an African
race, either while they enjoyed a nationality, or after
their dispersion.

Nor need I stop to inquire what reasons there may
be lying far back in the annals of the early progeni-
tors of the African races, why such a sore and pro-
tracted series of afflictions have been entailed for
forty or fifty centuries on that ill-fated continent.
Certain it is that she has been left to suffer the most
mysterious succession of calamities. No wonder that,
to many, the withering curse pronounced on Canaan
(a son of Ham), has seemed to have had a more literal
and dreadful fulfillment in the race of Ham generally,
than in the race of Canaan in particular. “A servant
of servants shaft thou be.” Most signally did the dif-
ferent tribes of the Canaanites suffer the righteous
judgments of Heaven in the days of Joshua ; and the
suffering remnant that escaped, no doubt, in their
miserable dispersion, suffered the literal fulfillment
of the curse. But the other branches of the family
of Ham, which, with their great progenitor at their
head, peopled Africa, seem to have been the more
special and perpetual inheritors of a curse. Yet we
would scarcely hazard an opinion here. We know lit-

THE PORTUGUESE THE FIRST WOE.

209

tie of the secret reasons of God in his dealings either
with nations or individuals. Of Providential dispen-
sations we can but very inadequately distinguish
which are disciplinary, or which retributive. Those
eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell were not
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. Irre-
spective of merit or moral character, God often sorely
abases those whom he is about signally to honor.

We would, therefore, choose to speak of Africa sim-
ply as she stands before us in the annals of her singu-
lar history. And here the voice of her wailing salutes
our ears, especially from four different channels. The
destroying angel, which, in more modern times, has
laid her waste, has appeared: 1. In the form of a large
and corrupt class of voracious Portuguese adventurers
and residents, who prowled on her coasts, as so many
ravening beasts, after the discoveries of the latter part
of the 15th century. 2. In the shape of the desolat-
ing piracies of that same period, and as nearly con-
nected, too, with the same class of reckless and aban-
doned adventurers. 3. The curse of Jesuitism. 4.
The yet more dreadful and protracted curse of the
slave-trade. Each of these particulars demand a
separate consideration.

All four of these deadly plagues of Africa are of
Portuguese origin, and, to a great extent, inflicted
afterward by the Portuguese. Of all the nations that
have cursed Africa, the Portuguese have been the direst
curse.

I. These marauding adventurers committed their
merciless depredations on Africa during two centuries
•—from about the year 1440, when Antonio Gonzales
seized and first made slaves of the natives, to 1642,

210

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

when the Dutch took possession of their principal forts ;
soon after which their power in Africa was broken by
the growing influence of the Dutch, the English, and
the French. There is, perhaps, not a blacker page in
history than that which records the atrocities of the
Portuguese in Africa.

Though it does not apear that the Portuguese ever
established an extensive government in Africa, yet
they erected forts, strongly fortified themselves there,
and quite controlled the western coast. So univer-
sally predominant was their influence, that, in the
course of the IGth century, says the historian, the
Portuguese became the common language of business,
and was everywhere generally understood by such
natives as had intercourse with foreigners.

Of the character of the Portuguese on the coast,
and their influence on the natives, some idea may be
formed from what has already been said. Africa be-
came a cage of every unclean bird — corrupt and cor-
rupting each other, each generation seeming to wax
worse and worse — “a place of banishment for crimi-
nals convicted of various outrages, violence, and rob-
bery ; a place where fugitives from justice sought and
found a refuge ; a place where adventurers, who hated
the restraints of law, sought freedom and impunity.”
“ No wonder, therefore,” says a writer who had been
there, “that the histories of those times give an ac-
count of unparalleled violence and inhumanities per-
petrated at the place by the Portuguese, while under
their subjection, not only against the natives and such
Europeans as resorted thither, but even among them-
selves.” Bad as the native character originally was,
Portuguese influence rapidly added to its atrocity.

ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND FRENCH INFLUENCE. 211

This is abundantly evinced by the series of wars
which commenced among them about this time. The
Portuguese, says another writer, were men of the
“basest behavior,” cruel, revengeful, and corrupt above
all men he had ever known. And the representatives
of other European nations, though not sunk so low in
the scale of moral turpitude as the Portuguese, it is
affirmed were the most miserable excrescences of civil-
ization and Christianity. The Spaniards, for their
shameless atrocities, were detested, even by the na-
tives. “ The influence of English, Dutch, and French,
on the natives, was, in some respects, different from
that of the Portuguese; but, whether it was, on the
whole, better, is a question, says one, of some diffi-
culty.” The Dutch are accused of gaining the favor
of the negroes by teaching them drunkenness and
other vices; that they “became absolute pirates, and
seized and held several places on the coast, to which
they had no right but that of the strongest.”

The English had their regular traders and their
privateers engaged on the coast of Africa. Of the
former it is said: “only a part seemed to have been
comparatively decent,” while the latter are described
as “loose privateering blades, who, if they could not
trade fairly with the natives, could rob.”

Deeply, indeed, has Africa been left to drink the
dregs of human bitterness. Her land is full of fero-
cious beasts; but harmless are these compared with
the giant beasts of prey in human form which she has
had to encounter. For centuries she has been made
the boiling cauldron into which has been poured the
burning streams of iniquity— the scum and offscouring
of all the western nations. The only marvel is that

212

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

in the native African character there is a single re-
deeming trait remaining — that her people are not
totally corrupt, totally abandoned and sunk in the
depths ox human degradation past all recovery. Per-
haps no other people could have outlived the torrents
of iniquity which, wave after wave, have been suffered
to pass over them. ■»

But I have no more than begun to speak of Africa’s
wrongs — of the burning curse which she has been left
to suffer. I shall therefore present as the nest aspect
of the same appalling subject,

II. The singular concatenation of evils inflicted on
Africa by the numerous hordes of pirates which in-
fested the coast during the last half of the 17th and
the first half of the 18th centuries. Particularly after
the partial breaking up of the buccaneers in the West
Indies, in 1G88, and still more after their suppression
in 1697, they spread themselves over the whole extent
of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the coast of
Guinea became a principal haunt, and Sierra Leone a
yet more favorite resort. No part of the coast is said
to have suffered so severely as the part now known as
Liberia, and its vicinity. The river Mesurado was
called Bio Duro, on accoimt of the unheard of cruel-
ties practiced there. These hordes of abandoned men,
“restrained by no moral principle, by no feeling of
humanity, by no sense of shame,” perfectly versed in
all the vices of civilization, landed wherever and
almost whenever they pleased upon the whole coast,
with armed forces which the natives had no means of
resisting, and compelled the inhabitants to “become
the partners of their revels, the accomplices or dupes
of their duplicity, or the victims of their violence.”

JESUITISM AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.

213

No people, perhaps, were ever, since the world began,
subjected to so dreadful a training in moral depravity.
The influence of the pirates was for a long time over-
powering along nearly the whole coast, and, wherever
met, they were the most rapacious, remorselessly fero-
cious, and licentious race that ever disgraced sea or
land. When not at sea, they committed the most re-
morseless depredations on shore.

Thus, again, rolled over the suffering sons of Ham
another burning tide of iniquity, with scarcely a re-
maining vestige of virtue. For theft, licentiousness,
cannibalism, the offering of human sacrifices, and all
sorts of abominations connected with the most abject
ignorance and sottishness, there was, if historians may
be credited, not elsewhere their equal. But their cup
was not yet full. Two woes had passed, and two
more, not less desolating, were to come. They were
now prepared for conversion to Rome’s Christianity,
and,

III. The Jesuits came to consummate what the
Portuguese and pirates had begun. A late writer, an
officer on board one of our ships on the African coast,
speaks of the “ waxing and waning of the fortunes of
the Jesuits in proportion to the prosperity or depres-
sion of the slave-trade.” He speaks particularly of the
Portuguese province of Angola, the capital of which
was Loanda. Nowhere in Africa lias the apostacy of
Rome had a ranker development ; and nowhere do
we find a more nefarious mart of slaves. While the
slave-trade was at its zenith, Loanda was a place of
great opulence ; the Mother Church was in the glory
of all her abominations. Her Jesuits had a congenial
field, her priests occupied palaces— grand and mag-

214

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

nificent churches, convents, and nunneries” were met
on every side, and wealth, and grandeur, and Church
prosperity kept pace with the awful strides of the ne-
farious traffic in human flesh. But with the decay of
the slave-trade, the place has quite fallen into delapi-
dation. Those “splendid temples,” he says, “ are now
the habitations for the moles, or workshops for con-
victs guilty of the foidest crimes.” “The fraternity is
now unrepresented by a living man.”

We can scarcely gauge the dimensions of a curse
which should identify Christianity with that most
abominable and devastating trade. Christianity is
emphatically the hope of the world. But that system,
called Christianity, which was introduced into the
capital of the Portuguese province, in Africa, was
more to be feared than the terrible faith of the Ara-
bian prophet, or the most cruel system of Paganism.
It was a religion of money and of blood. It was with-
out truth, without a Sabbath, and without mercy. It
brought with it no truth-telling Bible, no sacred rest
of the Sabbath, no pure moral influences. We can
scarcely conceive how a people could suffer a greater
moral disaster than the introduction among them of
so bad a counterfeit of Christianity. Spare the “stay
of bread” and the stay of water, and you may poison
whatever else you please. The religion of Jesus is
the Bread of life. Mutilate, corrupt, poison this, and
you have doomed the immortal spirits of a people to
a never-ending perdition. It was a blighting curse
when this form of false Christianity unfurled in Africa
her blood-stained banners.

Would that the fact might be blotted from the an-
nals of the world’s history, that the only Christianity

KOMISH MISSIONARIES AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 215

tlien known to those benighted tribes was a Christi-
anity that indicated and had a most guilty complici-
ty with the atrocious slave-trade! From the first, the
Romish missionaries are declared to have counte-
nanced the traffic. But soon they were justly charge-
able with more than a mere toleration. “ They par-
ticipated in the traffic themselves — they gave the full
force of their example to countenance all the enormi-
ties which were inseparably connected with it.” Per-
sons convicted of celebrating the rights of the native
religion were, by them, sold to the first slave-ship
that appeared. Vessels engaged in the traffic “ could
always depend on the missionaries to give them mate-
rial aid in making up their compliment of slaves.
Nor were these holy fathers too scrupulous, occasion-
ally, to sell their own domestics to such captains or
supercargos as had done them favors. In return for
a flask of wine, given him to celebrate the sacrament,
Merolla gave the Portuguese captain a negro slave.”
Indeed, the missionaries seem to have felt that there
was no serious harm in consigning any number of the
inhabitants of the country to foreign servitude, “ pro-
vided only that they were baptized, and not permitted
to fall into the hands of heretics.” Sad and humili-
ating, indeed, is the picture which Christianity is
made to present in that land of darkness and spiritual
death. It showed not the soul of an angel, but the
soul of a demon — not the spirit of liberty, but of
bondage — not the spirit of peace and purity, of love
and righteousness, but it breathed the soul of all
abominations, of all the cruelties and atrocities con-
centrated in the odious traffic.

This traffic has now long been the giant curse of

216

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Africa. It has, from century to century, passed as a
withering sirocco over that poor land. Three woes
are passed, never to return ; but the fourth is yet
pouring out the vials of its wrath upon her in almost
unmitigated fury. The atrocious slave-trade shall
form the subject of our next chapter.

TUB SLAVE-TRADE.

217

CHAPTER XII.

The curse of Africa— The slave-trade the dreadful consummation of the

curse.

IY. The slave-trade is tire climax of evil which lias
befallen the land of Ham. No pen will ever be able
to delineate its disgusting details — no human concep-
tion fathom the depths of its iniquity. Forty millions
of the sons and daughters of Africa have been feloni-
ously extracted from her soil, and reduced to a wretch-
ed foreign bondage ; while it is said, that nine-tenths
of the resident population of Africa are slaves to the
other tenth.

It is quite impossible that I should, in so limited a
space, give you any thing like a complete delineation
of this monster curse ; yet I may draw a picture suffi-
cient for our purpose. We are at present chiefly con-
cerned with the influence which this traffic has had on
Africa, especially the degrading influence. If no other
influences had been at work to debase the children of
Ham, this alone is quite sufficient.

Did it fall within the range of our present plan, we
might rehearse the harrowing talo of the cruelties of
the capture, the detention on the African coast, and
the “middle passage.” In the whole history of human
atrocities, there is not another such chapter. Let us
look at a few of these appalling facts.

It is well known that very decisive measures have
been taken by some of the Christian governments,
10

218 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

especially by Great Britain and the United States, to
suppress the slave-trade. Hundreds of millions of
pounds liave been expended for the support of the
preventive squadron on the coast of Africa, and, no
doubt, good has been accomplished. Yet it has quite
failed of its main end. Keen-eyed avarice has man-
aged so far to elude the sternest vigilance of the
squadron, that the trade is said actually to have in-
creased during this same period — and not only to
have increased, but to have been earned on with
vastly more rigor. Since the traffic has been illegiti-
mate and been branded as piracy, it has been con-
ducted in a manner greatly to increase its cruelties.
The comparatively commodious vessels then used in
the trade were at once exchanged for the fast-sailing
“American clippers,” than which vessels of no form
afford so miserable accommodations for slaves. Hun-
dreds are packed like so many herrings in a space so
cramped as not even to allow of a comfortable sitting
posture.

It is estimated that 200,000 human beings are still
reduced to bondage annually by this nefarious traf-
fic ; and this is but the smaller number of those who
are sacrificed to this cruel Moloch. In the seizure of
every 1,000 a still greater number are made victims of
slaughter. Almost the only cause of war in Africa is
for the capture of slaves, and these wars are the most
barbarous and exterminating of all wars. A native
chief contracts to supply a slave-dealer with 100 or
500 slaves. He makes an incursion into a neighbor-
ing tribe — surprises the inhabitants of some peaceful
village — burns their houses over their heads, that, in
their flight, they may seize on the young and strong

THE BARBARITIES OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.

219

for slaves, while all the aged and young children are
slaughtered. In the accounts of these “ skirmishes,”
as they are called, we are informed that 20,000,
40,000, and sometimes 00,000, or 100,000, are victims
of slaughter. But those who meet death in the com-
mon fate of war are the favored victims. A fate a
thousand times worse awaits them who escape the
slaughter. Those who are not seized at once flee to
the mountains and hide themselves in caves, whither
the barbarous soldiers pursue them, and fire their
muskets in the caverns; and if they can not induce
them to quit their places of concealment, they build
fires at the entrance of the caverns, and either suffo-
cate the negroes, or compel them to surrender. At
other times, the mountain to which the refugees have
fled is surrounded and all access to the springs of
water cut off, and nothing remains to these wretched
beings but death in the most horrid shape, or slavery
ten-fold more to be dreaded. In some instances the
whole adult population is massacred, and only the
children are reserved for sale. One writer says: “I
should think, if my information be correct, that, in
addition to the 7,000 or 8,000 taken captive, at least
15,000 were killed in defense, or by suffocation, at the
time of being taken.”

But the waste of human life in the seizure is but
one item in the whole account. The mortality during
the detention on the coast before sale and shipment
is terrific. The bodily wrongs and deprivations to
which they are subjected, added to the excruciating
agonies of mind which such a condition induces, are
the fruitful source of malignant diseases which sweep
off multitudes. In many instances not less than fifty

220

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

per cent, must again be deducted for this item of
mortality. Not more than two out of three of all
seized are ever put on board the slave vessel. The
maimed, the diseased, the insane, the blind — all who
have become, from any cause, unsalable, are abso-
lutely murdered. At the great slave marts it fre-
quently happens, too, that the market is overstocked,
“in which case the maintenance of these wretched
beings falls on the Government.” The king orders an
examination to be made, and the infirm, sickly, and
unsalable are removed to a separate factory (1,000 of
these miserable objects have been seen at one time),
whence they are conveyed, pinioned, to the banks of
a river, where, a weight being appended to their
necks, they are rowed into the middle of the stream,
and thrown into the water and left to perish. The
King of Loango, who has been known to boast that
he could load eight slave ships a week, did not hesi-
tate to cause the prisoners taken in his predatory ex-
cursions to be murdered, if, on their arrival at the
coast, there was no market for them. To save himself
the trouble and expense of their support, “they were
taken to the side of a hill, a little beyond the town,
and coolly knocked on the head.”

But all these sufferings are but preliminary to the
horrors of the “ middle passage.” These sufferings
beggar all description. “ Never,” says the immortal
Wilberforce, “can so much misery be found condensed
in so small a space as in the slave ship during the
middle passage.” The most appalling accounts have
been written, and yet, from the nature of the case, but
little of the horrid reality is known. Those unparal-
leled deeds of darkness are suffered to come to the

DEMORALIZATION OP THE SLAVE-TRADE.

221

light as little as possible. We blush to own a rela-
tionship with these monsters in human form, and
would not, if not compelled, believe men capable of
acts of unrelenting humanity befitting only apostates
of the nether world. But it is no part of our business
to rehearse these atrocities, but simply to point to
them as marks of the withering, burning curse which
has fallen so heavily on poor Africa — an awful drain
on her of 500,000 annually.

Our business is rather with the influence which this
atrocious trade has exerted on Africa. We shall here
see cause to wonder, not why Africa is sunk so low,
(but why she has not sunk lower. We can not look
amiss to discover the baneful influence of this trade.
Morally, mentally, socially, in reference to domestic
relations and happiness, as well as physically and
commercially, Africa has suffered incalculable wrongs.
And —

1. The deadliest blow is doubtless the moral devas-
tation which that trade has inflicted. It has not left
a single moral principle uninvaded. The whole tend-
ency of the principle and practice is to annihilate,
root and branch, the last vestige of moral feeling.
The natives have been, by this trade, brought in con-
tact with the most profligate and abandoned class of
men on the face of the earth, while the traffic itself is
he most demoralizing. Speaking of the moral deso-
ation inflicted on Africa, by this trade, an intelligent
writer says : “ All moral virtue has been extinguished
n the people, and their industry annihilated by this
me ruinous cause. Polygamy and domestic slavery,
t is well known, are as universal as the scanty means
>f the people will permit. And a licentiousness which

222

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

none, not even the worst part of any civilized commu-
nity on eartli can parallel, gives a liellisli consumma-
tion to the frightful deformity imparted by sin, to the
moral aspect ox these tribes.” This is the picture
we have drawn of the moral condition of tribes which
once occupied the country now known as Liberia, and
I may add Sierra Leone.

An intelligent and excellent English minister was
once called to visit a man then on his death-bed, who
had been for many years engaged in the African slave-
trade. He had been commander of a swift and suc-
cessful ship, but had been often compelled to throw
his poor captives to the sharks and the sea, to save
his vessel from the cruisers, or to lighten it in the
storm ; and had passed through the various terrible
scenes incident to the prosecution of that infamous
traffic. And now he was dying ; in the full maturity
of his powers, and in the midst, if we remember
rightly, of pecuniary prosperity and social comfort.
The minister spoke to him of repentance. “ Repen-
tance,” was his reply, “ I can not repent ! You have
seen many sorts of men, Sir, and, perhaps, you think
you have seen the most wicked and desperate among
them. But I tell you that you don’t know any thing
about an African slave-trader. His heart is dead.
Why, Sir, I know perfectly well — I understand it fully
— that I shall die in spite of every thing ; and I know
that I shall go to hell. There is no possible salvation
for me. It is perfectly impossible but that I shall be
damned. And yet, it don’t move me in the least. I
am just as indifferent to it as ever I was in my life.”
And so he died; with despair perfected into insensi-
bility and death ; the very fires of Divine wrath, as

SOCIAL AND MENTAL DEGRADATION.

223

they flashed upon his face, not starting a sigh or a
pulse of emotion. His heart was “ dead !”

2. The mental degradation inflicted by this trade is
awfully disastrous. To say nothing of the debasing
influence which such a traffic must necessarily have
on the minds of a people, which must be degrading
beyond conception — truly brutalizing, whether we
consider the traffickers or those who are preyed upon
by those human vultures, education, all mental im-
provement, schools, institutions of learning, must be
almost entirely precluded. The horrid state of things
induced by the slave-trade takes away all incitements
to intellectual progress. It makes the condition of
the Africans like that of the brute animals, in which
the stronger prey on the weak. The one cultivates
the ferocity of the tiger, and pounces on his prey
without feeling or mercy ; the other is like the hunted
hart on the mountains, who never feels himself safe
from a bondage a hundred-fold worse than death.

3. The influence of the slave-trade on the social re-
lations of Africa is likewise disastrous beyond com-
putation. It destroys all society. It annihilates, at a
blow, all confidence, and, of consequence, sunders the
chain which binds society together. It cherishes the
most debasing fear, jealousy, distrust, and hatred on
the one side, and the most brutal avarice and unfeel-
ing barbarity on the other. It engages in its behalf
the worst passions humanity is heir to ; and, conse-
quently, it can produce nothing but the bitterest
fruits. Property, happiness, life, are utterly insecure.
There is no stimulant to industry, no security for any
thing. A man may by his honest efforts acquire a
property, or go on prosperously for a while in rearing

224

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

up a family, but no sooner lias the one or the other
become large enough to tempt the cupidity of some
neighboring chief, than a quarrel is instigated, the
peaceful dwelling is seen in flames, the father and
mother are killed, the salable children are dragged
away to be sold to the slave-dealer, and the property
seized. “ In such a case,” as Wilberforce says, “ the
same longings which are called forth in the wild
beast by the exhibition of his prey,” instigate the un-
feeling avaricious chief to seize on his defenseless
neighbor, who, in his turn, lives in a state of continual
suspicion and terror. Park, in his journal says :
“ Slavery has produced the most baneful effects, caus-
ing anarchy, injustice, and oppression to reign in Af-
rica, and exciting nation to rise up against nation,
and man against man ; it has covered the face of the
country with desolation.” And all these evils, and a
thousand more, have Christian nations inflicted on
Africa, in exchange for which she has received ardent
spirits, tawdry silks, gewgaws, and beads. What a re-
turn for such a sacrifice ! The heart’s blood of Africa
for trinkets, rum, and tobacco ! The curse of the
slave-trade has become doubly dyed in the curse of
rum.

4. As already intimated, the slave-trade is a fell
destroyer of all domestic relations. It comes as a
perfect blight and leaves all in ruins. Not only may
the hand of ruthless violence come any moment on a
household — their dwelling be consumed over them,
and death or slavery annihilate them in an hour —
member torn from member in a manner more agoniz-
ing than the pangs of death — but jealousy and distrust
and fear reign in such terror throughout the land,

THE PHYSICAL DEGRADATION.

225

that the domestic relations are scarcely more than a
name. So callous, so destitute of “ natural affection,”
so perfectly sordid and brutal does this traffic make a
people, that a father sells his child, or a child a
parent. We are in little danger of exaggerating the
demoralizing influences of the slave-trade.

5. But there is one other general respect from
which we will, for a moment, look at this form of
Africa’s curse. It is more especially in a physical
point of view — the bearing ■ on commerce, manufac-
tures, education, agriculture, population, and all pe-
cuniary interests. Governor Ashman speaks of large
sections of country, once fertile and under a high
state of cultivation, but since completely depopulated,
and reduced to a desert by the slave-trade. Nothing
could so effectually annihilate the agriculture of a
country. Her fertile soil is left to yield no more than
the least minimum of a supply of the necessities of a
barbarous people. Commerce is confined almost en-
tirely to the trade in slaves. Y/herever the slave-
trade still prevails, or has prevailed, it almost com-
pletely annihilates all legitimate commerce, and
spreads its blighting influence over every honest
calling in life. There are, under such circumstances,
no incitements to industry, no motives to accumulate
property — to build houses, cultivate farms, and gather
the comforts of life about one. There is no security
for property. One may sow, but another may reap
dov/n the fields of him that sowed while the sower
may be toiling, in unrequited labor, in some foreign
land, and watering another soil with the burning tears
of an unpitied slavery. Africa is just what any land
would be, where there is no security for property,
10*

226

THE GEEAT NEGEO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

happiness, and life. Man may vegifcate and suffer
there, but he can not live and thrive.

No other race of people on the whole face of the
earth has ever been subjected to such a concatena-
tion of debasing circumstances. We have seen how,
for the last four centuries especially, Africa has been
a carcass preyed upon by every voracious and unclean
bird. What a most abandoned, marauding class of
Portuguese begun, the hordes of pirates who nest in-
fested the African shores carried forward with a loy-
alty to the Prince of the power of darkness, perhaps,
never surpassed, backed by as loyal a set of Jesuits
as ever served the devil in saints’ attire. Then fol-
lowed the climax and consummation of Africa’s male-
diction all concentrated in one. The slave-trade was
but the realization and the perfection of all those
monstrous iniquities which had heretofore been prac-
ticed on poor Africa. It was a land and a sea piracy,
concentrating their vengeance, and refining their cruel-
ties, and compounding their inhumanities, for one
grand onslaught on the doomed race. And how has
this demon of avarice, of cruelty, of all inhumanity,
glutted his insatiable maw ! He has annually de-
voured half a million of victims, under circumstances
the most shameless and appalling, until a number
greater than the present population of that continent,
have been feloniously extracted from Africa, or have
miserably perished in the seizure, the detention, the
“ middle passage,” and the “ seasoning.”

An intelligent writer on Africa draws the following
woeful picture in these her darkest days — how her
condition waxed worse and worse, till the voice of
Wilberforce was heard, and the strong arm of the

A WOEFUL PICTURE OF AFRICA.

227

British, lion was reached out to smite the monster
trade of the sadly demoralizing influence of slave-
traders on the native population. He says :

“For four centuries, or five, if we receive the French
account, they have been in the habit of constant in-
tercourse with the most profligate, the most licentious,
the most rapacious, and in every respect the vilest
and most corrupting classes of men to be found in the
civilized world — with slave traders, most of whom
were pirates in every thing but courage, and many of
whom committed piracy whenever they dared — and
with pirates in the fullest sense of the word. Before
the year 1600, the influence of these men had been
sufficient to displace the native languages in the
transaction of business, and substitute the Portu-
guese, which was generally understood and used in
their intercourse with foreigners ; and since that time,
the Portuguese has been, in like manner, displaced by
the English. By this intercourse, the natives were
constantly stimulated to crimes of the deepest dye,
and thoroughly trained to all the vices of civilization,
which savages are capable of learning. During the
most fearful predominance of undisguised piracy,
from 1688 to 1730, their demoralization went on,
especially upon the windward coast, more rapidly
than ever before, and became so intense, that it was
impossible to maintain trading houses on shore ; so
that, on this account, as we are expressly informed, in
1730 there was not a single European factory on that
whole coast. Trade was then carried on by ships
passing along the coast, and stopping wherever the
natives kindled a fire as a signal for traffic. And this
continued to be the usual mode of intercourse on that

228 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

coast, wlien tlie British Parliament, in 1791, began to
collect evidence concerning the slave-trade. Nor
were factories re-established there, till the slave-trade
and its attendant vices had diminished the danger by
depopulating the country.”

We call these accumulated, long-protracted, unmiti-
gated sufferings of Africa her “ curse.” Whether this
be the realization on the race of Ham_of the curse
pronounced by Noah on Canaan, as a member of the
Hamic family, we do not affirm. It may be retribu-
tive, it may be disciplinary, it may be simply prepar-
atory to the manifestations of the Divine mercy and
goodness which shall yet be made in favor of this
race. The Great King of nations, whose way is in
the sea, and his path in the great waters, and whose
footsteps are not known, has dealt in a very singular
manner with this continent, or rather with this race.
We can not fathom his purposes — we would speak with
no undue positiveness of the future destiny of Africa.
Yet we may form some safe conjecture from the past,
of what the future shall be. There is an analogy in
God’s working. If, in one instance he exalts them
he abases, we look that he should do it again. If we
find him taking part with the oppressed — lifting up
the head that hangs down, magnifying his power by
giving strength to the weak, and bringing succor to
the helpless, we call this his way of working, and
expect its recurrence under similar circumstances.

Here lies our ground of hope for Airica. There is
much in the providential history of Africa’s past
which seems to demand a brighter future. In the
drama of her past history, lights and shades have not
been proportionately mingled, as is the wont of Provi-

PROVIDENTIAL COMPENSATIONS.

229

dence, in his dispositions of human affairs. Other
scenes, brighter, grander than the past, seem needful
in order to preserve the harmony of the Divine work-
manship. Not only in the Divine arrangements must
mercy mingle with judgment, but mercy must in the
end triumph over judgment. The pillar of fire and
the cloud have not been hid from this great branch of
the family of man, but hitherto the dark side has been
turned toward them, and they have stumbled and
fell. Shall not the light side be yet turned toward
them, and they no longer stumble and fall, but lift up
the drooping head, and rejoice in the returning smiles
of Heaven ?

In my next, I shall undertake to prescribe a remedy
for the long-continued and multiplied ills of Africa.
Deep and deadly as is the wound, there is, we believe,
a cure.

230

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XIII.

The cure— Her great desert reclaimed— Commerce— Colonization — Their
relations to Liberia — The colonists and the whole country.

We have spoken of Africa as the mysterious and
unknown land — a land held by a wise and all-seeing
Providence in reserve for some great future purposes
—probably for the exhibition of a higher state of civ-
ilization, and a better type of Christianity than the
world has yet seen. I have referred you to the past
history of Africa, especially to her monumental his-
tory, presenting what Africa has been as a pledge of
what she shall be. Again : the negro race has been
presented as a primitive race of man- — -the earliest
civilized — the race in which learning and the arts first
flourished — who first organized civil governments,
bruit cities, and formed great empires. We trace this
race as the probable authors of the most ancient
works of art in all the south of Asia, in Africa, and
Central America. Though, physically, the race of
Ham has been thus singularly favored, yet, morally, a
strange and mysterious curse has hung over that
whole race. We have, therefore, ventured to suggest
that, in like manner as the descendants of Shem and
Japheth have, each in their turn, been the chosen
race, in which the true religion has been preserved
and did flourish — hi Shem until the coming of Christ,
and in Japheth since — so shall poor, oppressed, long-
forgotten Ham come up in remembrance, and last,
though not least, share in the rich benedictions of

HER HOPE IN HER DEGRADATION. 231

Heaven. That great continent, so prolific in natural
resources — with such untold riches lying dormant in
its soil, forests, and mines, and a people so beautifully
susceptible, as past history has shown, of the highest
grade of civilization and of religion in its highest
spiritual type — shall, under some yet future dispensa-
tion of Divine grace, play an important part in the
great work of human progress and of the world’s sal-
vation. Nothing is more sure than that God will es-
pouse the cause of the afflicted — lift up the head that
is bowed down — break the bonds of the captives. He
will take the part of the oppressed. And if he will,
as he promises, make the day of his gracious visita-
tion light and cheering, in proportion to the depth
and gloom of the darkness that has preceded — if the
light and joy shall be in proportion to the sorrow —
what may we not expect for Africa ? For more than
fifty centuries a dark and impenetrable cloud has set-
tled down upon Africa, ever and anon skirted on its
borders by the gleaming up of brilliant lights. It has
been most emphatically the land of darkness and
groans, the land of oppression and death. Our hope
of Africa’s exaltation lies in the depth of her present
degradation.

Africa’s great desert, as before hinted, is a fit em-
blem of the present and past civil and religious con-
dition of that continent. With the exception of a few
smiling oases amid these arid wastes, here lies a vast
territory (in its extreme length from east to west
3,000 miles, and 1,000 in breadth), the most perfect
desolation that mars the beauty of this earth. Barren
wastes, drifting sands, hideous serpents, and ferocious
beasts, and every thing but beauty, and loveliness, and

232

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

fertility, meet find liold revel on tliis great waste of
creation. - Here is a territory as large as Europe,
and capable, under other auspices, of containing as
mighty and opulent kingdoms as Europe now has,
which is, at present, as complete a waste as if it were
sunk in the bottom of the sea. And such physically
is, and such has been, Africa. But shall it always re-
main so? We think not. We have hope for these
great desert wastes, that they shall yet smile in all the
luxuriance of Oriental beauty and magnificence — that
they shall be covered with a fertile soil, and teem with
a numerous population — those immense plains be cov-
ered with magnificent cities, smiling villages, and the
emporiums of trade — and schools of learning, and all
the arts and ornaments of civilized life, shall bless
those now hopeless and desolate regions.

In like manner we expect Africa, the great moral
desert of the world, shall yet be as the garden of the
Lord — her broad surface be covered with civilized
nations — liberty there find a new field, and religion
a new and interesting development. Like the great
Sahara, her type, she has had her oases — kingdoms,
cities, institutions of learning, monuments of arts and
science, all indicating what may be yet realized on
that soil — and may I not say, what shall be.

But you may ask what reason I have to expect that
Africa’s great natural desert shall ever be reclaimed
from the dominion of desolation, and be numbered
among the habitable, fertile, populous, portions of the
earth ? And then, that, in like manner, Africa herself
shall be morally renovated? The second question
has been in a manner answered. The first admits of
an answer which may not be void of interest.

HER DESERTS SHALL BLOSSOM.

233

Nothing is wanting in order to reclaim these des-
erts which would not, in the lapse of time, be realiz-
ed by a sufficient supply of water. This is manifest,
I think, in the case of the existing oases which are
met in different parts of the great Sahara. These,
doubtless, have their origin in the supply of water iu
that portion of the desert. Water, even in sand, pro-
duces some vegetation. This decays, and at length
(with other accretions) produces a soil, which contin-
ues to spread from the fountain or spring as a centre,
till a fertile spot of miles or leagues is formed. And
so luxuriant does vegetation at length grow there, that
travelers speak of trees, on these islands in the great
waterless ocean, seventeen feet in circumference.

Would not a similar result be gained by the same
means in any part of that great desert ?

We then have an obvious intimation here how all
those vast African deserts may yet become fertile
regions, and support as great a population as any
other portion of the earth. Should it please the
Great Aa’cliiteet of our world to perforate these great
deserts with internal water-courses, as he has other
portions of the earth, it would put into operation
causes which would at once begin to transform the
now boundless wastes into fertile and beautiful fields,
and spread over these wide domains busy towns and
flourishing kingdoms. He that sendeth his springs
into the valleys, and maketh them run among the
hills, that they may give drink to every beast of the
field, and habitation among the branches of its sturdy
trees, to the fowls of heaven, can, when it shall please
him, and when, iu the fulfillment of his benevolent
purposes, he shall need a larger area of available sur-

234

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

face on tlie earth, and after (and perhaps before) he
shall have used other great reservations •which have
heretofore lain waste, he can, and probably will, con-
vert this great roaming ground of the Bedouin Arabs
into pleasant and fertile habitations of man. He will
give unto it the glory of Lebanon and the excellency
of Carmel and Sharon. He shall water the hills from
his chambers ; the earth shall be satisfied with the
fruit of his works. He shall cause the grass to grow
there for the cattle, and herb for the service of man,
that he may bring forth fruit out of the earth. And
there shall the trees of the Lord be full of sap, and
the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.

Thus does God make room when and where he
pleases for the accomplishment of his great and be-
nevolent purposes, either by changing a desert into a
habitable land and a fruitful country, or by reclaiming
a new continent from the ocean, or by employing the
most insignificant insects to construct a new world in
the midst of the Pacific. But to return from our wan-
derings.

The withering curse of Africa, we have seen, is the
slave-trade. In proportion to its prevalence, it blasts
every hope of improvement. It annihilates every
generous feeling, suppresses all liberty, stifles educa-
tion, depopulates the land, and spreads a perfect
moral desolation over its people. It paralyzes all
industry, saps the foundation of all virtue, and shuts
out the remotest possibility of a people’s prosperity.
Such is the curse. But is there a cure ? Can Africa
be redeemed from the curse? Is there a remedy
which can reach her case?

There is but one sovereign cure for all human woes

HOPE FOR AFRICA, AHD HOW?

235

— but one sure regenerator of corrupt humanity— but
one restorer of the ruins of the fall. It is a pure and
undefiled religion. No nation with a false religion
can be a free, enlightened, prosperous, and permanent
nation. There is, therefore, no hope for Africa, except
in the introduction and prevalence there of a pure
Christianity. But Christianity works through a sys-
tem of means. We must remove obstacles — we must
secure the means. We have seen the slave-trade to
be the Avitliering curse. This must first be removed.
There is no hope for Africa while she is made the
victim of this evil.

We have said that we believe in the regeneration of
Africa. But how shall this be? By what means shall
the long-depressed and suffering sons of Ham be lifted
from their degradation, and take their place among
the favored races?

The time draws near, we believe, for the renovation
of Africa. As prognostics of this we see the regener-
ating race — the race which God at present chooses
to use as the regenerating race — are turning their
faces toward Africa, and cogitating plans for its re-
generation. No portion of the world is at present
exciting so much interest in England and America,
and this interest is evidently yearly increasing. In-
deed, the great heart of humanity is beginning to
throb for poor Aarica. The pulse of the world’s pity
is quickened — the heart’s blood warms at the thought
of the unmitigated and protracted Avrongs of that suf-
fering continent. There is a feeling daily gathering
strength and determination that Africa’s wrongs shall
be avenged. The voice of' humanity forbids the longer
continuance of the past series of outrages which have

236

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

been practiced on her. This voice is heard in no un-
certain accents in the British Parliament and in the
American Congress, and has been echoed from the
high places of nearly all the nations of Christendom.
Some of the greatest minds that represent these na-
tions are employed in behalf of Africa. Benevolence,
too, philanthropy, enterprise, commerce, the researches
of science, are, as never before, engaged to benefit
Africa. This long-forgotten continent has strangely
come up into remembrance, and is largely sharing the
pity and benevolence of the world. There is, too, a
strong expectation abroad in the world — I may call it
a presentiment — that the day of Africa’s gracious
visitation is near, and that her future destiny shall be
as singular and mysterious as her past history has
been. Strangely, indeed, has she been permitted to
relapse into a state of the lowest degradation — per-
haps to emerge into a higher life. This is the day of
her rebuke — the day of her protracted “captivity.”
But the Lord may turn her captivity, and restore her
to his favor.

We do not doubt that Christianity must be the final
and efficient cause of this renovation. We have con-
fidence in nothing else. We present all other agen-
cies as merely instrumental and preparatory to the
great and all-sufficient agency, the Gospel. They are
the messengers that go before and prepare the way.
The Gospel is the mighty arm that shall conquer and
subdue — that shall create all things anew. Yes,
Africa must be evangelized. Her moral deformity,
blacker than the ebon color of her skin, must be washed
in that fountain open for the cleansing of Judah and
Jerusalem. But there are secondary causes conducive

‘ HOW SHALL AFRICA BE RENOVATED? 237

to this one great end. We are, at present, more par-
ticularly concerned with these. The slave-trade must
be destroyed. The vast natural resources of the con-
tinent must be drawn out ; the people must be en-
lightened; social relations must be formed; a pro-
ductive industry must be created and engaged to
ameliorate the condition of the people. These ends
must be gained before the children of Ham can be
elevated — or rather as the means of their elevation.
But how shall these ends be gained ? Principally in
two ways : 1. By a legitimate and enlightened com-
merce. And, 2. Especially by Christian colonies.

Three points are here regarded as settled : 1. If
Africa is to be regenerated, it should be done through
herself — by drawing out and employing her own re-
sources, and through the agency of her own people.
2. That the settling of efficient Christian colonies on
her coast is the only effectual and permanent method
of suppressing the slave-trade. 3. That colored men
only can with safety settle on the coast of Africa.
There is much in the nature of the case and more in
the providential aspect to indicate that Africa shall,
under God, be her own regenerator. But we will di-
rect our attention for a few moments to the two prin-
cipal instrumentalities through which help is likely to
come to Africa.

I. Commerce. — The misery of Africa heretofore has
been, that she has had no legitimate commerce. A
legitimate commerce will do much to suppress the
slave-trade, to call out the resources of the country, to
excite the industry of the people, to promote the civil-
ization of the natives, and to prepare the way for the
introduction of Christianity. Africa has always been

238

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

in want of the products of other lands. But unfortu-
nately, the first commercial nation with which she be-
came acquainted (Portugal) taught her that the flesh
and sinews of her sons and daughters were the only
exports that Christian nations wished in return for
the imports brought her. Other Christian nations
followed in the bloody wake of Portugal, making no
demand for legitimate articles of commerce, but only
for slaves. The supply answered to the dreadful de-
mand. And soon the native conscience became suffi-
ciently obtuse, and the native, mind sufficiently brutal-
ized, to supply these human chattels in any quantity
demanded. Till quite recently (and not now, except
to a limited extent), the natives of Africa were not
aware that even Great Britain and America wished
to exchange their goods for other commodities than
slaves. The natives, as soon as they learn that other
nations are ready to trade with them in other articles,
are not slow to provide those articles. They show
themselves desirous to conduct a different trade. Is
cotton, ivory, gold-dust, palm oil, coffee, rice, sought
in exchange for what they want, they are eagerly sup-
plied. So extensive has the commerce of Great Brit-
ain already become with Africa, that “ slave-dealers
complain,” says Lord Palmerston, “ that the British
are spoiling their trade.” And I may safely affirm,
that, in proportion as a lawful commerce is introduced
into any portion of the coast of Africa, the slave-trade
is diminished. The motives to it are very much ta-
ken away ; and, besides this, commerce brings a bar-
barous nation out from the darkness in which they
have involved themselves, and introduces them to the
civilized nations, and makes them ashamed of their

COMMERCE AND THE SLAVE-TRADE.

239

inhumanities. They are unconsciously compelled to
an amelioration of their condition.

We have alluded to the interesting fact, that com-
merce provokes the industry of a people, and cre-
ates for itself the resources for an enlarged and
continued traffic. By creating a demand, it secures a
supply. We have seen with what readiness the na-
tives of Africa responded to the demand made by
English commerce for cotton, coffee, palm oil, etc.,
clearly indicating that as soon as sufficient time shall
be allowed to elapse to provide a supply of the arti-
cles demanded by foreign commerce, and capable of
being supplied by that country, there will be no lack
of a supply. The necessity which Africa has felt for
a traffic in slaves will, of course, be done away ; and
a few years’ intercourse with the improved class of
foreigners that will, as the abettors of a lawful traffic,
frequent her shores, will quite destroy the disposition
to pursue such a trade. We may, therefore, indulge
the most sanguine hopes that the days of the slave-
trade are numbered — that causes are at work which
will most effectually and forever annihilate it.

While I speak with great confidence of the efficacy
of a legitimate commerce to blot out the slave-trade,
I am not unmindful of, nor do I undervalue, the very
laudable efforts of Great Britain, France, and Ameri-
ca to suppress the trade by an armed force. Millions
of money and many valuable lives have, within a few
years, been expended on the African coast for this
purpose. And I believe the united naval forces of
those nations were never employed in so worthy a
cause. Nor have they, as some are fond of asserting,
failed of the object. Though they have, no doubt, in

240

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

some respects, aggravated the cruelties of the trade
by making the trade contraband, and for this reason
imposing on the wicked traffickers the necessity of
greater secrecy, and oftentimes of vastly increased
cruelties, yet this is very far from showing that they
have rendered no service to the cause. The least
they have done (and this is much) is, they have recap-
tured thousands of those wretched beings, who were
being dragged into a bondage worse than death, and
restored them to their native land ; they have broken
up many a slave factory on the coast ; and, more than
all, they have produced a moral impression on the
world at large against this whole traffic, which is
worth a thousand times more than all it has cost.
The presence of these naval forces are expressions
of the will of nations, and help to brand in deeper
disgrace the horrid traffic in flesh and blood. As
a matter of force, the strong arm of naval power
may put down the slave-trade ; but needful as this is,
the traffic, if suppressed, will not stay suppressed un-
less other efficient means be employed. The moment
the strong arm of military power be withdrawn, all
things would return into the same channel. Military
force may gain the victory, but commerce and other
kindred means will perpetuate it. No naval force on
the earth can put down a traffic that pays so good a
profit. The cravings of avarice v/ill devise means to
elude the utmost vigilance. A profit of 400 or 500
per cent, will brave any blockade ever laid. A mem-
ber in the British Parliament stated, that a man
could be bought on the coast of Africa for twenty
pounds, conveyed to Cuba for six pounds ten shil-
lings, and sold on his arrival there for one hundred

ENGLISH COMMERCE WITH AFRICA.

241

pounds, thus leaving a clear profit to the slave-dealer
of seventy-three pounds ten shillings, or about $365.
In vain will be all the attempts permanently7 to de-
stroy this trgde, unless a substitute be introduced. A
legitimate commerce is this substitute.

Time is too short ever fully to repay Africa for the
wrongs she has suffered on account of the slave-trade.
It is an indellible wrong.

It has been abundantly shown that the natural
resources of Africa are sufficient to form the basis
of an extensive commerce. Already England has
a commerce with Africa of $28,000,000 annually ;
$210,000,000 worth of gold-dust has been brought to
England from Africa. And all this, while in not a
single article have the exports from Africa but just
begun to be cultivated. Nothing is more evident than
that, there can not be a shadow of an excuse for the
slave-trade in any7 lack of commodities with which to
carry on an exchange with other nations. No more is
needed than to draw out the exhaustless riches of
that land, and she will need no other exports. We
have the declaration of Lord Palmerston, as far-see-
ing and philanthropic a statesman as England can
boast, and one who seems fully awake to the import-
ance of African commerce, and who clearly compre-
hends the beneficial results which would accrue to
England from such a commerce, we have his lord-
ship’s declaration, that “ No part of the globe offers
more scope for the commercial enterprise of England
than the coast of Africa.” When once the energies of
the people shall be engaged in supplying the material
for and prosecuting an extensive commerce, an end
will be put, most effectually, to the slave-trade.

242

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

But this is contemplating commerce only in the
lower grade of its influences. It has a higher prov-
ince— a higher sphere of influence — a transforming
power on the social, civil, and moral habits and inter-
ests of nations, which raises it far above the mere
pounds and pence of a barter of commodities. It is
commerce that builds cities — that accumulates wealth
and provides capital for carrying on great and benefi-
cial enterprises — that furnishes the facilities for a
higher order of education — that concentrates the num-
bers and means needful to carry out great public and
philanthropic schemes. The influence of cities on a
nation is immense.

Trading stations, factories, trading communities,
illustrate what I mean. The Tyrians and Phoeni-
cians, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, were
such. These trading stations formed the medium be-
tween Egypt and Greece, and became the channel
through which the arts, the sciences, and the civiliz-
ing and elevating influences and institutions of the
former found their way into the latter. Through this
channel the alphabet, as we have seen, traveled from
Africa in Europe, and first, in the rising State of
Greece, laid the foundation of her literary and scien-
tific greatness. Commerce is not only the great civi-
lizer of nations, but literature and science are vastly
indebted to it — and religion not the less so. Give Af-
rica a commerce such as she is capable of sustaining,
and you have done vastly more than to annihilate the
slave-trade. You have at once opened the channel
for the introduction of all that can bless her.

We have a remarkable illustration of the influence
and expansibility of a trading community, in the his-

POWER OE A TRADING COMPANY.

243

tory of the East India Company. A company of
traders go out to India under the broad wing of
commerce. They establish themselves on the Gan-
ges, simply as a trading company. But what expan-
sion of their plans — what enlargement of the sphere
of their influence and power, till boundless wealth and
dominion were included in their wide grasp ! And
not only has the result been a vast empire, but com-
merce has here, again, as is her wont, become the
medium through which has flowed into India, through
many a fertilizing stream, the best riches of Europe.
European science, a Christian literature, the princi-
ples of Christian governments and jurisprudence, the
printing press, the priceless book of Divine truth,
translated into the dialects of the country, the merci-
ful and civilizing day of sacred rest, books, free
schools, and institutions for the higher branches of
learning; and, above all, there has plentifully flowed in
through this same channel, the benign influences of
Christianity, a boon infinitely richer than all the pre-
cious treasures which avarice or honest gain has car-
ried away. But for the influence of commerce and its
natural expansion into a great civil power, not a
Christian mission could have existed in the country —
not a female school had been established till this day
—not a translation of the Bible made into a language
of the country, but all had remained as for centuries
before — one unbroken cloud of darkness, ignorance,
superstition, and death.

We do not think the expectation unreasonable, that
trading communities (likely to be formed) on the
coast of Africa, should exert a similar influence.

Already the growing commerce with Africa is mak-

244

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ing its influence felt. We are, no doubt, indebted to
this for the increased interest and sympathy which is
felt for Africa. She is by this means brought into
notice — her cry is heard — her groans are pitied — the
warm heart of humanity throbs — the bowels of Chris-
tendom yearns to bring relief to the suffering.

We are able here to refer to British trading compa-
nies, recently established, which are omens of great good
to Africa. One which lately came into successful opera-
tion, called the “West Africa Company,” demands a
special notice. Taking this as a representative of the
roused energies and the combined efforts of Great Brit-
ain to evolve, for her own interest, and evidently to
bless Africa, the commercial resources of that continent,
we may quote a few paragraphs from a late circular of
that company. We shall get, at least, a hint, that such
well-organized agencies will not exist many years before
England will declare herself independent of slavehold-
ers’ cotton, and slavery will be left, minus its profits,
and King Cotton will be “relieved from his command.”

While our dreadful war lingers, and the South are
fighting to desperation, and to their own destruction,
for the perpetual enslavement of the black race, and half
of us at the North are vacillating between everlasting
right, and a great and disgraceful wrong, and sordidly
and ignominiously calculating which is the best policy,
to do right, or to do wrong — to let the oppressed go
free, that we may, as a nation, receive the benediction
of heaven, or to forge tighter their chains, and risk the
awful retribution threatened against them that oppress
the poor and helpless — while thus essaying to dodge the
right, and to dare the wrong, cotton seeds are germin-
ating in a genial soil— cotton plants are taking root in

THE WEST AEEICA COMPANY.

245

Africa, in India, in Turkey, in Brazil, and Australia, and
maturing beneath the sunshine of approving heaven, and
arid will soon set whirling again every spindle in Eng-
land, with a power and velocity that shall whirl into
an ignominious oblivion the last vestige of American
slavery. But what of the “ West Africa Company ?”

“ The object of the company is to establish trading
stations, factories, and depots on the coast of Western
Africa, and by means of organized agencies, to bring
down and collect for shipment at such stations the valu-
able products of the interior ; to import goods, and in-
troduce machinery for cleaning and pressing cotton, and
for other purposes ; and generally to enter into commer-
cial relations with the native traders, by means of bar-
ter, traffic, or otherwise ; and thereby to open up, in
exchange for British manufactures, a practically illim-
itable market for cotton and other products, and to
secure their transmission to the ports of the United
Kingdom.

“ The capabilities of Africa to meet the commercial re-
quirements of Europe are evidenced in the variety of its
productions, and the increasing extent of its trading op-
erations ; and it has long been a matter of surprise that
the encouragement of native industry should have been
left to associations of a philanthropic character, or to a
few merchants intent upon the enormous profit which
exclusive dealings with the natives incontestably afford.

“The cultivation of the cotton plant, and the employ-
ment of African labor on its native soil, have already
been sufficiently tested. There is abundance of labor
seeking employment, a fertile soil well adapted for its
growth, and a population actively alive to wdiat will
benefit themselves. No expensive or uncertain experi-

246

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

raents are required to test the ability or the will of the
natives to supply this country with cheap and good cot-
ton. The testimony of the officers of the Niger expedi-
tion concurs with and confirms the evidence of Dr. Liv-
ingston, and other African travelers, that indigenous
cotton is growing in abundance throughout vast dis-
tricts, covering many thousands of miles of territory,
and only waits to be gathered. Some tribes of the na-
tives are largely engaged in manufacturing cotton into
clothing for their own use. It is calculated that more
than 200,000 pieces of these cloths are annually ex-
ported from Africa into the Brazils. In fact, only buy-
ers on the spot are wanted to take from the natives
what they have to offer, giving in exchange manufactur-
ed goods suitable to their requirements.

“ In a letter from Dr. Balfour Bakie, in command of
the Niger expedition, to the Secretary of State for For-
eign Affairs, which Lord Russell caused to be inserted
in the London Gazette of August 29, 1862, he emphatic-
ally urges his lordship ‘ to call attention, in England,
to the peculiar eligibility of this portion of Central Af-
rica (Bida Nusse) as a cotton-field.’ Again, speaking
of Sudan, and the Yoruba Country, he proceeds to say :
‘ Here cotton is already in abundance, and cultivated
by a people able and willing to work, and accustomed
to its habits and rearing; nothing is required but in-
creased demand, means of purchase, cleaning, and ship-
ment. The rest would speedily follow.’

“ Another practical authority, Mr. Clegg, of Manches-
ter, who has an establishment at Abeokuta, states : ‘For
very many years my instructions have been to cease buy-
ing cotton when more than a halfpenny per pound is the
seed, and my young Africans have again and again writ-

COST OT AFRICAN COTTON.

247

ten to say that at that price far more was brought to
them than they could buy.’

“ Mr. I. Lyons McLeod, Hon. Secretary to the African
Aid Society, in a letter to the Times, March 28, 1861,
writes: ‘It is a well-attested fact, that from Western
Africa (shipping port Lagos), cotton in abundance may
be purchased at 2d. per lb., and, allowing for exorbitant
overcharge for cleaning, freight, etc., it may be sold
from the same locality in Liverpool at 4.^d. per lb.
This cotton is equal in quality to New Orleans at 6£d.
per lb., proving beyond doubt that from Western Afri-
ca, which is nearer to our shores than the cotton dis-
tricts of America, we may obtain the same amount of
cotton for £20,000,000 for which we are paying the
slaveholders of the United States £80,000,000. In
Western Africa — Yoruba Country, and along the valley
of the Niger’ (the localities above referred to by Dr.
Balfour Bakie), ‘ the natives are ready to supply any
amount of cotton for Manchester and Glasgow manufac-
turers.'

“These testimonies appear to demand the most serious
attention and consideration at the present crisis.

“There is abundant evidence to show that India can
not for many years supply the quantity or quality re-
quired. The Egyptian supply is the only one which
might be supposed likely to compete with that imported
from West Africa; but the Egyptian cotton imported
into England has never hitherto reached 200,000 bales
in any one year, and if doubled (which it can not be for
two or three years), it will not suffice to make up the
deficiency created by the reduced supplies of ordinary
Americans. Besides, the average price of Egyptian
cotton has been 8d. per lb. for several years. African

248

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

cotton, equal to middling Orleans, can be delivered in
Liverpool at a cost to the importer of fourpence half
penny per lb. In the seed, in Africa, it may be pro-
cured in unlimited quantities at about one halfpenny per
lb. ; cleaned cotton about threepence. Payments being
made in barter, the profits on the goods reduce the cost
price of the cotton considerably.

“ It is not the intention of the West Africa Company
to become cultivators of cotton ; the company will sim-
ply be purchasers of cotton, which will be brought down
to their stations by native traders, and thence shipped
to the ports of the United Kingdom.

“ Several well-known firms, having used African cotton
in their manufactories, are able to report favorably of
its qualities for working.

“The company will not, however, depend on cotton
alone for realizing a good dividend on the capital em-
ployed. The interchange of commodities will be wid-
ened to the largest possible extent, so as to include
every other product of Africa, which will pay an en-
hanced value in this country. These products, which
consist chiefly of palm oil, shea butter, gold-dust, ivory,
hides, indigo, copper, ground-nuts, pepper, arrow-root,
gums, dye woods, ostrich feathers, timber for ship build-
ing, and other articles of commerce equally suitable to
the requirements of our markets, will also be made the
media of trade, so as to suit the industry and keen trad-
ing instincts of the various classes of native producers.
The fact that the production of palm oil, shea butter,
and other valuable articles, is in excess of the local de-
mand, can be shown by the latest and most indubitable
authorities. The Rev. Samuel Crowther, writing to the
Church Missionary Society lately, states : ‘At the Delta

THE KIND AND AMOUNT OE TRADE.

249

of the Niger alone, millions worth, in red oil and black
oil from the kernels of the palm nut, rot away annually
for want of inducements to collect them.’

“ From an official report received through the Board
of Trade, it appears that in 1850 upward of 220,000
tons of these kernels, from which oil of the value of
£3,789,000 might have been extracted, were actually
thrown away on the coast. The amount thus lost rep-
resents in actual value a sum of upward of a million
sterling, more than all the tallow exported from Russia
in that year ; and when it is considered that the tallow
was paid for in cash, and that the bulk of the trade with
Africa may be carried on by barter of the manufactures
of Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, the Potteries, and
Sheffield, it is impossible to overrate the benefits which
will accrue to this country by developing the resources
of Western Africa.

“As there is no currency in the country, trade is con-
dusted by means of barter, so that a market for English
productions will be opened at every point from which
the company draws its supplies of raw materials; a
profit both ways will thus be obtained by the company,
viz., upon the goods sold in Africa, and vice versa upon
the cotton, palm oil, etc., imported and sold in the Eng-
lish markets.

“ The West Africa Company will commence operations
under peculiarly favorable circumstances, owing to the
fact that their agencies on the west coast of Africa are
already organized ; and competent acclimatized per-
sons, native merchants and others, at Abeokuta, Elmina,
Lagos, Cape Palmas, and in the Niger River, are ready
to act in behalf of the company the moment it com-
mences business.

11*

250

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“ From the foregoing statements, aken together with
the fact that this company will possess unusual facilities
for successful mercantile operations, owing to its large
capital and connections, it is confidently expected that
its transactions will produce very handsome dividends.
Persons having a knowledge of the African trade will
readily understand that to name what would be a prob-
able rate of interest on the capital worked, would, to
the uninitiated, bear the stamp of exaggeration. The
directors, however, feel assured that the company will
eventually assume such dimensions as to invest it with a
most important character ; and that the development of
the resources of Africa will do more than any thing
else to hasten the extinction of the foreign slave-trade,
an event not more desirable to philanthropy than to
commerce.”

Were it needful, we might speak of the “ African 'Aid
Society,” and the “ Cotton Supply Association,” as or-
ganizations of a kindred character, all designed to dyaw
out the resources of Africa, and to establish an extensive
and lucrative commerce with her. Another company,
known as the “ Manchester Commercial Association,”
report very gratifying success in their experiments of
cotton cultivation at Cape Coast Castle. Having spoken
of the feasibility of the cultivation to any extent that
should be demanded, the report continues :

“ The cotton has been examined, and found very
closely to resemble Brazilian, or rather Egyptian. It is
of extremely good' color, and fair short staple ; has been
well cleaned (without injury) by saw-gin, and is worth
fully 6 d. per pound. The cost of its product and transit
to Manchester is said not to have exceeded 3d. per
pound ; a result strongly confirmatory of the assertion

NATIVES WILLING TO WORK.

251

that cotton cultivation in Africa may be rendered remu-
nerative. As to the disposition of the native Africans,
they have been found in this instance to accept work on
the farm with absolute avidity, not only on account of
the readiness with which the wages asked were paid,
but apparently with an intense desire to imitate or assist
Europeans ; and they evinced pride in being brought
into connection with the whites. Men, as many as were
required in the clearing and preparatory operations,
v/brlted diligently and regularly for two dollars a
month ; women for a dollar and a half ; and stout lads
for half a dollar, without rations in any case. Accord-
ing to the last accounts respecting the farm, men have
rarely been employed since the ‘ trees’ have been planted,
the labor of women and children being found quite suffi-
cient for all ordinary purposes. The hands worked
eight hours a day, and seemed thoroughly contented
with themselves and their masters. The example be-
came contagious soon after the experimental farm was
cleared ; for so long since as October last, several Eu-
ropean residents had started plantations on their own
account, and on one lot alone there were twenty thou-
sand flourishing trees. The average yield has been
found to be most satisfactory. Now those who have
hitherto conducted the experiment so nobly originated
by a few gentlemen in Manchester, are desirous that
regularly trained persons should be sent out to superin-
tend the several plantations which must ere this be in
existence. The originators are most desirous to see the
resources of the Cape Coast Castle district more fully
developed : and we think we have stated enough to
show that while extended operations could not fail to
be highly advantageous to the trqde of this district,

252

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

they would certainly return remunerative profits for any
i n vestments.’'’ — Liverpool Times.

I do not know that I can do the reader a better ser-
vice than to lay before him an abstract of the third
annual report of the “ British Cotton Supply Associa-
tion.” It reveals some extraordinary facts, showing the
energy and research of the association, determined to
obtain a full supply of cotton in the future, without de-
pendence on the product of slave labor. Though her
increased consumption is very large, England already
obtains nearly one-third of her supply from other places
than the United States. And the prospect of a future
supply is yet more encouraging. They state that there
is not an inhabited cotton country in the world, to
which their attention has not been directed. The fol-
lowing localities are reported as hopeful sources of a
future supply :

“ Through the influence of the British consuls, the cul-
tivation of cotton in Turkey has been commenced under
great promise. The Home Minister in Greece has in-
troduced it into many departments ; and in the island
of Cyprus an estate of 80,000 acres has been devoted to
it. Cotton seed has been distributed among the farmers
of the fertile valley of the Meander, in Asia Minor, with
full instructions for planting and gathering the crop.
Of Egypt, the committee report ‘ that they expect to
increase the growth from 100,000 bales, to the large
figure of 1,000,000.’ In Tunis, the bey is using great
exertions with his subjects to cultivate the 1 great
staple.’ In Western Africa, at Sierra Leone, and Sher-
bro, cotton-gins have been introduced, and a profitable
trade in the native cotton commenced. In Liberia and
along the Gold Coast every exertion is being made,

NEW COTTON FIELDS OPENING.

253

with every prospect of success. At Accra and Cape
Coast Castle are Agricultural Societies which make
cotton culture their specialty. A great quantity of cot-
ton is raised in the adjacent countries. The Accra
Agricultural Society have engaged with a Lincolnshire
firm to purchase this cotton, which they buy in the seed,
at less than a cent a pound. This cotton, cleaned, is
worth in Liverpool fourteen cents a pound.

From the interior an agent of the association reports
that a large export trade will soon be realized, and that
he saw 70,000 people busy in its growing, spinning, and
weaving. The prospect is, that, in the numerous towns
which stud the coast, cotton marts will soon be estab-
lished, and furnish a large quantity.

“AtElmina, Benin, Old Calabar, and the Cameroone,
a good beginning has been made by distribution of seed
and cotton-gins. At Lagos a hopeful trade has been
opened. Along the line of the river Niger it is pro-
posed to establish trading stations. It is reported that
immense quantities which can be bought for six cents,
clean, on the Niger, is worth sixteen cents in Liverpool.

*• In South Africa, the Government of Natal is stimula-
ting the cotton culture. Numerous farmers there are
planting it, and, as an illustration of their success, one
of them reports ‘ that he has on hand 100,000 lbs.’

“ In Eastern Africa, in the rich valley of the Shire, an
European colony is being established for raising cotton.

“ From the Feejee Islands the committee have received
the most wonderful specimens of cotton growing wild
there, and reproducing, for from ten to fifteen years !
The samples are so valuable as to range from thirteen
to twenty-four cents per pound ; they say 1 that from no
other part of the world has such a collection of gradua-

254

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ted qualities been received.’ It is calculated tlmt from
half the area of these islands might be raised 4,000,000
bales per annum.

“Australia has entered into the cultivation, and will
soon export freely. Samples of the best quality have
been received. But the committee say, from ‘ won-
drous India’ are they receiving the most flattering re-
ports ; and this year it is estimated that her exports
will reach 1,000,000 bales. In British Guiana the culti-
vation has also been undertaken, with the most encour-
aging prospects.

“In Jamaica, the ‘British Cotton Company’ report
flattering progress. So much for England.

“ In Havana, Cuba, great efforts are being made, and
a new company has been established, called the 1 Anglo-
Spanish Cotton Company,’ with a capital of $4,000,000,
for raising cotton.

“ It is evident from these facts, to the intelligent
mind, that ‘ King Cotton’ does not sit so firmly on that
throne, before which so many bow and worship, as many
may imagine or desire ; and it is certain that the day is
not distant when the manufactories of Europe will draw
their largest supply of cotton from the sources named.
And that the American manufacturer will also be im-
pressed with the belief (so soon as his sympathies for
the interests of the Cotton States shall be refused and
severed), as are the European manufacturers, that cheap
labor should produce cheap cotton, and that in no other
parts of the world can labor be found upon the right
soil and in the right climate to compete with Africa
and the East Indies, where more than 300,000,000 are
waiting employment. To those parts of the world will
the Northern States soon be led to look, by the energies

DIVORCE OP COTTON AND SLAVERY.

255

and example of England, to supply their wants of cot-
ton; and asked to join with the other 'civilized powers’
of the earth in the protection and employment of free
labor, and the suppression of those institutions antagon-
istic to the same.

“ In this view, it is quite within the probabilities of
the future that the Legislature of the State of Georgia,
which ignores those immutable laws which govern trade,
may deem it expedient to repeal that ‘enlightened act’
which she so recently passed, to wit :

“ ‘That no citizen of the State of Georgia, under a
penalty of a fine of $2,000, shall be allowed to sell a
bale of cotton or a barrel of apples to any person north
of Mason and Dixon’s Line.’

“And it is, also, quite probable that she will realize
the necessity, with the other Cotton States, of employing
cheaper labor than she now employs, or will be forced
to ask that protection on her cotton and rice which is
now given to the sugar of Louisiana.”

The prospect now appears fair, at least, that English
manufacturers will never again need to suffer them-
selves to be dependent on the lordly planter and the
unrequited toil of the negro, for a supply of the indis-
pensable material. A single year will so increase'the
proportion of a supply from other sources as to give
some fair promise of a speedy relief from her present
undesirable, if not guilty, complicity with American
slavery ; and do much to seal the final doom of the
“ institution,” which has for more than two centuries
been a foul stigma on our otherwise fair escutcheon.

As nearly related to commerce, I may not pass un-
noticed the contemplated line of steamships from the
United States to the coast of Africa, in its bearing on

256

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

the emancipation of Africa from her present evils. This
will open a quick and frequent communication between
the two countries, and we can scarcely be too sanguine
as to its beneficial results on Africa. It would serve a
• three-fold purpose in reference to suppressing the slave-
trade; it would more than serve the purpose of our
present squadron there; it would extend the commerce
of Africa, by bringing America into a healthful competi-
tion with England, and thereby greatly developing the
native resources of Africa; and it would afford facilities,
and hold out inducements to the colonization of our
colored people. Hitherto America has received but the
scanty gleanings of a commerce with Africa; and in
return, Africa has enjoyed as scantily the benefits she
might realize from America. A new commercial mart
will be opened on the one side, and the most healthful
moral and political influences will flow in from the
other. The committee to which the subject of such a
line of steamers was referred reported favorably, and it
is to be ardently hoped that Congress will accede to
the plan. It is a measure full of hope for Africa, while
it opens a rich field of enterprise to American com-
merce, and a yet richer hope of freedom and enterprise
to the people of color in the United States. It is confi-
dently believed that, if a quick and pleasant passage by
steam vessels was provided, multitudes of free negroes
could be induced to go who are now unwilling. The
two countries, moreover, would be brought into a nearer
proximity. Africa would become known to America,
and her wants and her woes would draw out the tear of
sympathy, and America would become known to Africa.
Colonists would pass and repass — the exiled, suffering
race of Ham in America would visit the land of their

MOTIVES TO EMIGRATION.

257

fathers, and report to their brethren in bonds of the
goodness of the land. And when they there see thick
lips speaking wisdom among senators, and the crisped
hair basking in the sunshine of liberty, the ambition of
the black man will be fired that he may realize in his
child, at least, what he sees and admires in his race
in his fatherland. In no other way will prejudices
against African colonization be so effectually removed,
and in no other way will there be so healthful a stimu-
lant created to induce the free people of color to emi-
grate to their native land. Would we share with Great
Britain in a lucrative and extensive trade? Would we
extinguish the slave-trade? Would we, in the most
effectual Avay possible, bless Africa with our civil and
religious institutions to her very centre? We must
bridge the Atlantic with a line of steamers so as to
throw open that great land of darkness to the light of
liberty, learning, and Christianity.

258

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XIV.

The cure — The migrations of mankind — Their power — Colonization and the
colonists.

II. Christian Colonies. — Another efficient means of
Africa’s regeneration is the planting of Christian colo-
nies on her coast. Though I name this second in order,
it is really the first in importance. There is scarcely a
more interesting chapter in the records of Providence
than that which relates to the migrations of mankind.
The influence of these migrations on the destinies of the
world has been vastly greater than the superficial reader
of history is aware of. They have often, in ages gone by,
quite changed the whole face of human affairs. God is
wont to improve men, as he does animals or plants, by
change of place. He breaks up old associations — brings
a people under new influences — removes them from old
ones. Abraham was called from the land of the Chaldees,
a land of idols. Israel first migrates to Egypt, for their
civil and perhaps for their religious benefit; and then
they migrate from Egypt (the purpose being accom-
plished which took them thither) to Canaan, for their
yet greater benefit, that they might there begin their
national existence — there organize the Church on a
more favorable basis than had ever been before. We
have seen, in the instance of the Carthaginians, the
wide spread influence of one great migration into Africa.
They were for generations the Anglo-Saxons of the con-
tinent. They were in their day the renovating race.

THE MIGRATIONS OF MANKIND.

259

We are now, we believe, on the eve of . another great
influx into Africa. It is now the return of her own
sons — first enslaved, then civilized and Christianized,
and finally liberated from their bondage, and prepared
to rear, in their fatherland, a nationality of a higher
type than Africa has ever yet known.

The sti'ong arm of Providence, as often as he has
need, transplants whole masses of men — takes them up
from one nation or continent, and puts them down in
another, having fitted them to do a work and to carry
out his purposes there. We have seen how civilization
traveled into Greece through colonies from Egypt and
Phoenicia ; and how Europe was indebted to Greek colo-
nies for the arts and sciences and civilization ; and how
the extraordinary progress made among the northern
nations of Africa was the fruit of the colonizing policy
of Phoenicia, and finally of Carthage. “ The dawnings
of Roman civilization and greatness received their chief
impulses from Greek emigrants on the coast of Italy.”
Spain was settled by the Carthaginians, and “ Mar-
seilles in France was an offshoot from Greece.” The
Romans in turn extended their laws, their civilization
and their language to their remotest provinces through
the colonies which she sent thither. So again was the
whole Roman empire at length revolutionized by the
vast Gothic migrations which poured in upon her from
the north. Or, more remarkable still, we see the teem-
ing tribes of Arabia spreading themselves eastward and
'westward, and quite changing the whole aspect of
human affairs. The western stream rolls along on both
sides of the Mediterranean as far as the Pillars of Her-
cules, quite transforming the nations on either side ; the
other sweeps in resistless torrent over the southern por-

260

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tions of Asia, into Hindoostan, and to the remotest East.
Turbaned tribes of Arabia come like so many swarms
of locusts, and devour every green tree. They over-
threw governments, changed laws, and themselves took
possession of the soil. To say nothing of that other
overwhelming torrent which at a later date flowed out
from "Central and Eastern Asia, and run westward,
prostrating the kingdoms of all Central Asia, China,
Russia, Hindoostan, at one time ; and Persia, Syria-,
Asia Minor, as far as Constantinople, on the one side of
the Mediterranean, and over all north of Africa on the
other. Such were Mogul and Tartar migrations in their
days. Their descendants still hold possession of the
Greek empire.

Extensive and influential as ancient migrations were,
modern systems of colonization are more so. The pres-
ent is most emphatically the migrating age, and it is
doing more than ever before to change the aspect of the
world. Four principal streams are now bearing their
living burdens over a great part of earth’s surface, each
to fulfill his destined mission. One stream sets eastward
from Europe into India and the East, freighted with in-
telligence, science, a higher type of civilization than is
known there, and a pure, elevating, heart-transforming
religion. The next stream is directing its course west-
ward from Europe over the Atlantic into America. It
carries with it, for the most part, ignorance, poverty, su-
perstition, a base counterfeit of Christianity, and all the
beggarly elements of civil and religious despotism —
mostly vile ingredients, or, at best, some precious metal
with much dross, all borne over the Atlantic to be cast
into the crucible of our burning democracy, that its
“ hay, wood, and stubble” may be burned out, and its

MIGRATIONS TO AND FROM AMERICA.

261

pure gold appear. And toward our west goes yet
another stream, starting from the Atlantic shore, and
coursing its way across the entire continent — beyond
the Mississippi, beyond the Rocky Mountains, till it
meets the land of gold and the placid waters of the
Pacific, carrying with it the industry, the enterprise,
the intelligence, education, virtue, and religion of the
Atlantic States — yea, laden with the rich inheritance of
the Pilgrim Fathers. And, lastly, another stream is
rolling back over the Atlantic from these United States
to Africa. It is freighted with the sable sons of Ham.
They are returning, with songs of joy, to their own
fatherland — to the sunny clime of their sires — to the
. palm-tree and the vine Avliere their fathers dwelt in
peaceful simplicity before the destroyer came. They
are captives set free. Their bosoms begin to heave
with a glow of conscious manhood. New hopes — new
aspirations fill their souls. They are going to a land
where they may be men, and rear their sons for a des-
tiny never thought of by their fathers.

But whence came this stream of Ethiopian hue ? How
came the fountain from which it flows to be in this land
of liberty ? This forces before our vision another
stream of involuntary migration — and it is a stream
more bitter than death. It takes its rise in Africa ;
amid shrieks and cries enough to pierce a stone — amid
blood and carnage ; wars, the most barbarous and ex-
terminating ; burning villages ; flying inhabitants, and
manacled captives dragged into slavery ; families for-
ever .torn asunder, and atrocities of too deep a dye for
aught but demons to commit. You trace this black,
turbid, bloody stream, through the ‘‘middle passage” of
the shadow of death, all the way vocal with sighs and

262

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

groans that pierce all but a demon’s heart, and all ani-
mate with an anguish that nowhere else wrings the hu-
man heart, till it empties itself, after awful deduction of
mortality, into the great reservoir of human wrongs
and sufferings, called slavery. And here, strange to
tell, in this furnace of their affliction, there walks one
like unto the Son of man. Their burdens are lightened,
their heavy yoke is often eased by the consolations of
our blessed religion, which, in a kind Providence, meets
them here. In this weary land they find the balm of
Gilead — as their sickening souls sink within them, they
meet here the great Physician. In the troubled waters
of this Bethesda many wash and are clean. From this
great Stygian pool there is flowing back to Africa that
purer stream which we were just now tracing. They
are returning to the land of their fathers, with a bright
presage of good to themselves, and laden with a greater
good, eventually, to that whole continent.

There is little room for doubt that African coloniza-
tion is destined to be a mighty lever by which to raise
Africa from her present state of degradation. The re-
sults which we expect from this colonization, aside from
opening an effectual door for the introduction of the
Gospel, are principally three : The suppression of the
slave-trade ; the benefit of the African continent ; and
the benefit of the colonists. Nor is its bearing on the
abolition of slavery to be overlooked. Though its in-
fluence as an emancipation instrument, at first, seems in-
significant, yet it is not so. It emancipates, it is true,
but by the score or the hundred, and the objector asks—
How long, at this rate, it will take to manumit three mil-
lions of slaves? But he must bear in mind that, nar-
row as this egress from bondage is at present, it is

COLONIZATION A REMEDY.

263

nearly or quite the only safe and expedient one. It is
yet to be shown that emancipation, under any other cir-
cumstances, has improved the condition of the negro in
America. Are the negroes at the North or the South,
or the newly formed colony of Canada, in a better con-
dition, whether for this world or the next? A man
freed to remain in this country is not half freed. He
scarcely has more incitements to industry, or more to
rouse his aspirations for a higher condition, than he had
before. He can not rise here. The indomitable force
of circumstances has decreed it. Or, perhaps, nearer
the truth, to say, that God, in his providential arrange-
ments, has decreed it. And, however, much any class
of men, in their wisdom or benevolence, may wish to
have it otherwise, they can not change it. And we,
therefore, have no alternative but the migration of the
colored man back to his native clime and soil, or his
miserable dwindling and degradation among us. And
the inadequacy of the present colonizing policy to com-
pass the desired end lies only in the limited condition
of its means ; and the want of acquaintance with the
advantages of the scheme, or the unrighteous prejudice
which has been excited against it. Let our General
Government and our different State Legislatures aid in-
dividual and philanthropic enterprise in opening a fre-
quent, easy, and cheap communication with Africa, and
at the same time increasing a hundred-fold the pecun-
iary means of colonization societies; and let no pains
be spared to make African colonies all they should be,
and to disabuse the mind of our colored people concern-
ing them, and we should then see, if even the colossal
structure of slavery will not crumble under the power
of these combined efforts. As strong a tide of emigra-

264 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tion would set in from tin’s country to Africa as now
flows hither from Europe.

We spoke of three principal influences resulting from
the planting of Christian colonies on the coast of Afri-
ca, the check it imposes on the slave-trade, the benefit
of the African continent, and the benefit of the colonist.
We have in the colonies which already exist on the
western coast of Africa, a beautiful illustration of each
of these points.

Liberia, rather than Sierra Leone, is the kind of colo-
ny from which we more especially hope for the renova-
tion of Africa. Sierra Leone colonized, not men who
had been for years acquainted with and considerably
imbued with the spirit of liberal institutions, and who
are to a considerable extent educated and Christianiz-
ed, as is the case in Liberia, but captured slaves princi-
pally, who have just been dragged by the ruthless hand
of violence from the lowest depths of ignorance and
degradation. Many of these remain in the colony
(which is said to number 45,000 or 50,000 souls), where
they are brought under Christian influences — taught
the rudiments of useful learning — brought into the pale
of civilization — and, through church, educational, and
industrial appliances an incalculable good is conferred
upon them. And that colony, no doubt, is (in despite
of all the bitter waters that may mingle with it) a foun-
tain destined to send out many a healthful stream into
the surrounding desert, to make glad that solitary laud.
Yet the constitution and character of the Liberia colo-
nies serve best our purposes for an illustration.

We regard the relation of Liberia to Africa very
similar to that which the American republic holds to
the broad land between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

LIBERIA AND COLONIZATION.

265

III relation to social, civil, and religious institutions, she
seems charged with some important mission to that
whole continent. And,

1. Taking Liberia as our model, what grounds have
we to expect the suppression of the slave-trade from an
efficient system of colonization ? As far as colonies
hold and govern territory, which, in the case of Liberia,
is 600 or 700 miles on the coast, the inhuman traffic is
suppressed. The power of the government is employed
to put down the trade. Their little naval force is kept
on the alert for this purpose. The example of the gov-
ernment and the citizens, goes to discourage and re-
strain all such traffic ; and, there is an exclusive social
and moral influence that is exerted by such a colony,
which is felt much beyond their own narrow bounds.
It is a fact of great interest, that the slave-trade has
been suppressed on more than one half of the whole
western coast of Africa. Of the 2,000 miles north of
the equator, there remains but two points where slaves
can be purchased. “ Colonization, in some form, has
extinguished the traffic on about one half of the west-
ern coast of Africa.” Besides the well-known colonies
of the Americans at Liberia, and the British at Sierra
Leone, European nations, especially the British, which
are opposed to the slave-trade, have forts or colonies of
some sort, at different points on the coast, as at the
mouth of the river Gambia, at Cape Palmas, and on the
coast sou tli of Cape Palmas, for some hundreds of
miles. This coast is said to be thickly set with forts,
and trading posts belonging to different nations of Eu-
rope, mostly British, which exclude the slave-trade as
far as Popo, a distance of about 700 miles. Along this
coast are many thousand native Africans living under
12

266

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

British jurisdiction. “In all cases this colonization has
been rendered possible by the employment of men of Af-
rican descent,” the most efficient and successful instru-
ments have been emancipated slaves.

One fact here is worthy of special notice. Slave-
dealers from the first have felt that the Liberians were
enemies to their traffic ; and no spirit has more uni-
formly characterized the colonists at Liberia than an
uncompromising hostility to the slave-trade ; and noth-
ing is clearer than that they have waged an extermin-
ating Avar against it. Most of them have themselves
felt the galling of the chains, and they are, to the heart’s
core, the sworn foes of the traffic. Hence the difference
in this respect between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The
whole influence of the Liberians, to the Avhole extent to
which it reaches, is point blank against the slave-trade.
The influence of the colony at Sierra Leone is scarcely
felt at all. The reason no doubt lies in the fact that the
Liberians are the best kind of anti-slavery Americans —
Anglo-Saxonized republicans, and pledged, in life or in
death, to hate oppression. The people of Sierra Leone
are recaptured Africans, the offspring of ignorance, sot-
tishness, and despotism, but just beginning to breathe
the vital air of a higher state of existence. An intelli-
gent gentleman, writing from Liberia, says :

“ It is now universally admitted that settlements such
as Liberia present the most effectual barrier to the slave-
trade ; that, so far as their influence extends, the trade
is wholly destroyed. In proportion, therefore, as the
republic of Liberia increases in strength and influence;
in proportion as it extends its territory, and acquires
strength to protect and suppress illicit traffic, in the
same proportion will slavery be suppressed, and the ne-

LIBERIA AND ITS INFLUENCE.

267

cessity of keeping cruisers in the vicinity of the settle-
ments be decreased.”

2. We present colonization as a cure of bleeding
Africa, because of the rich and lasting benefit it is fitted
to confer on the whole African continent. Already
Liberia extends over a considerable territory, and every
year it is enlarging by purchase. Over this territory
extends a republican government, free institutions, the
habits and the fruits of industry, schools, and the be-
nign influences of Christianity. President Roberts, in
a late message to the Legislature of Liberia, after
speaking of the very salutary influence already exerted
by the colonists (about 7,000 or 8,000 only) over the
native population, says the native Africans, already
embraced in the colonies, is not less than 200,000
(about a nucleus of 8,000 American colonists) ; that
they “are improving more rapidly at present than at
any previous time; there are more instances of labori-
ous industry every returning year that “ the chiefs of
several tribes within our jurisdiction have recently ex-
pressed to inc an earnest wish to have missionaries and
schools established among their people, who, they say,
are anxious to receive them ; and there is nothing to
prevent the sending of missionaries, and the establishing
of schools, except the want of the pecuniary means.”
The President speaks, too, of the applications of other
native chiefs, “asking the protection of that govern-
ment, and to be received within its jurisdiction by an-
nexation of the whole of their territory to the republic.”
He then urges on the Legislature the adoption of the
most efficient measures, by means of education, the in-
dustrial arts, and especially the diffusion of a pure reli-
gion, to bring these native tribes, in the shortest possible

268

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

time, under the influence of the enlightened and Chris-
tian government of Liberia. We look on this republic,
dropped by the hand of Providence on the border of
that great continent, as the little leaven hid in the
measures of meal. A thousand influences are working
unseen, which will yet transpire. Not only the 200,000
who are inclosed within the boundaries of these salutary
influences are benefited by them, but a great part of
Western Africa, far into the interior, is benefited. One
such well-regulated colony as Liberia is a tangible illus-
tration of what are the legitimate fruits of good govern-
ment, of education, industry, and honest, moral life, and
a pure religion. Such an example can not but exert a
considerable influence. The native tribes have a tangi-
ble illustration of what industry and sobriety will do to
develop the resources of the soil and to promote the
useful arts, and thereby surround a people with the
comforts and elegances of life ; and of what education
and a sanctifying religion will do to elevate, refine, and
truly bless a people.

In Liberia, the native tribes have before them an ex-
emplification of what may be realized in their own race.
They see men of their own hue and idiosyncrasy living
in well-built and commodious houses, reared by their
own hands, worshiping the true God in well-constructed
temples raised by their own skill and industry, gather-
ing in bounteous harvests from their own well-tilled
farms, and reclining under the shadow of a government
constructed by themselves ; laws framed by senators of a
black skin, and executed by men of their own hue ;
and justice dispensed by judges who need no crisped
wigs ; and an army and navy officered by men of the
same color ; with a complete learned corps of editors, au-

COLONIES TO THE INTERIOR OE AFRICA.

269

thors, teachers, preachers, and men of all the learned
professions, of the same ebon skin. Such an exhibition
of advancement in his own race will supply a stimulant
to the native mind, that he may imitate what he sees
possible in men of his own kind. He will not long be
satisfied to live a brute, when he sees it possible for him
to live as a man. He will no longer barter the flesh
and blood of his own kind, when he has learnt that his
soil, his mines and forests produce articles of barter
equally acceptable to foreign nations.

An important desideratum now is, the establishment
of colonies in the interior of Africa, where there is a
better soil, a better climate, and a better class of people.
Such a scheme of colonization, though exceedingly prom-
ising of benefit to Africa, could not be entered upon by
the limited means which any Colonization Society lias
at command at present. It must be a colonization on a
large scale — hundreds of families would need to be com-
bined in such a migration to make it efficient. A few
families would probably be overwhelmed by the setni-
bax-barous natives, and pi-ove of no avail. When Con-
gress and State Legislatures shall put their hand to this
work as it deserves, we may expect that the Anglo-Sax-
onized sons of Ham will spread themselves over the wide
plain, and the rich and beautiful mountain valleys, and
the great interior; and that there agriculture, and the
arts, and the institutions of learning, freedom, and re-
ligion shall flourish.

A London paper says : “Liberia, of ten years’ growth
[in her national existence] is worth more [to the cause
of civilization and human advancement in Africa] than
all that has been effected by the European race in Afri-
ca in twenty-two centuries.” This entei’prise has, in all,

270

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

cost the friends of benevolence and philanthropy, includ-
ing the purchase of 20,800 acres of land, $2,250,000, a
sum not sufficient to support the British squadron on the
coast of Africa a single year. And I might here quote
a valuable testimony of Sir Charles Hotham, commander
of her British Majesty’s naval forces on the coast of
Africa. He says: “So long as the people of Liberia
observe their present system of government, both hu-
manity and civilization are deeply concerned in its pro-
gress. It is only through their means we can hope to
improve the African race.” This testimony is the more
valuable on account of the source from which it comes.
The people of Great Britain are at this time especially
interested to promote their own interests on the coast
of Africa, and would not be likely to make any gratui-
tous acknowledgments in favor of any American enter-
prise there. Africa is now the point toward which
England is now particularly directing her attention for
new colonial and commercial aggrandizement. And Sir
Charles is a high functionary of that Government to
protect and favor English interests there, and to carry
into execution their future plans.

The “New Republic” is deservedly exciting of late
much attention in England. Statesmen, as well as phi-
lanthropists, are inquiring into the character of that
government, and especially into the causes that have
contributed to give Liberia an influence against the
slave-trade, and in favor of African civilization and
evangelization so different from any other colony on the
coast. A committee was not long since raised in the
British House of Lords, to inquire into the condition of
Liberia — the causes of its prosperity and influence in
Africa, and for the suppression of the slave-trade. The

SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES OF LIBERIA.

271

replies tp the following questions, put to the Rev. Mr.
Miller, in his evidence before this committee, are much
to our present purpose:

“Why does Liberia exercise such a wonderful influence
in suppressing the slave-trade in its neighborhood, while
the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish
colonies exercise none whatever? Because Liberia is
inhabited by a class of intelligent, Christianized Ameri-
can negroes, who have a mortal hatred of the accursed
slave traffic, whilst the colony of Sierra Leone is inhab-
ited by recaptured Africans, who are little removed from
the state of barbarism and savageness in which they
were found when taken out of the slavers by the British
cruisers.

“ Why does Liberia present the most successful example
of a black settlement prosperous beyond measure, and
likely to become a great empire, on which, during its
existence of twenty-five years, only £250,000 have been
expended, while the colony of Sierra Leone, on which
millions of pounds have been lavished for more than
fifty years, shows no signs of improvement, and little
prospect of future prosperity? The reason is, that, in
the first, the blacks govern themselves, and are conse-
quently stimulated to every kind of improvement, while
in the latter the whites are the rulers, between whom
and the colored people there is no sympathy or cordial-
ity of feeling; the whites sicken and die, and those
that live are glad to get back to England as soon as
possible.7’

Or I might here adduce the very valuable testimony
of Capt. A. H. Foote, of the American Navy, and com-
mander of the brig Perry, off" the coast of Africa.
Though he went to Africa with unfavorable impressions

272 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

of Liberia, he speaks in the most glowing terms of the
colony. He regards Liberia as the most efficient agency
now in operation for the suppression of the slave-trade,
and the only practical agency by which to civilize and
evangelize Africa. And more confidently does he assert
it to be the interest of the colored man in America to
migrate thither.

Indeed, we may with propriety here ask, if the agen-
cies and instrumentalities embodied in a community like
Liberia be not suited to renovate Africa, where shall we
look for our agents and instruments? White colonists
and missionaries can not live there. The providence
of God is very decisive that Africa must be regenerated,
if at all, by the agency of colored men. In asserting
this, Bishop Payne says: “During the twelve years of
this mission’s existence (American Episcopal), twenty
white laborers, male and female, have been connected
with it. Of these there remain in the field, at the
present moment, myself — the only clergyman, my wife,
aud Doctor Perkins, three in all.” And the history of
other missions is perhaps not more favorable. A few
live; but such is the mortality as to indicate that Africa
is no home for the white man. At whatever cost, he
has, in the incipient stages of the work for Africa’s
renovation, a very important work to do; yet the main
agency should be of the colored man. But where shall
we find such instruments? They are to come out of
“great tribulation” — out of American slavery. This
class of men, oppressed and abused as they have been,
are a hundred years in advance of any other class of
Africans anywhere else to be found. God has met them
in their captivity, and blessed the anguish of their
bodies to the joy of their souls, and here, in the school

WHY THE NIGER EXPEDITION FAILED.

273

of affliction, fitted many of them to return and bless
their fathers’ land.

The conception in the mind of the noble Buxton, of
the Niger expedition, was a grand one; yet it failed.
Vast sums of money and many valuable lives were ex-
pended for an object which was truly a great one; yet
it accomplished next to nothing. But shall its noble
objects never be accomplished? Undoubtedly they
shall. But not by white men. An expedition fitted out
from Liberia, manned by the agriculturists, artisans, and
savans of the ebony race, may accomplish more than
ever Buxton dreamed of. Time shall accomplish what
prematurely failed. All the pleasing hopes of English
philanthropists, of a flourishing commerce on the Niger
— of a civilized and Christian population cultivating the
fertile plains and rich valleys of the interior — marts of
trade and opulent cities with their institutions of learn-
ing and their sacred temples pointing the weary pilgrim
to the skies, may yet be abundantly realized through the
agency of a race whose the land is, and who seem des-
tined to redeem it from its present waste.

Or we might, with the same propriety, ask what is to
be the destiny of the present colored race of America —
where is he to find a home and a resting-place, if not in
Africa? His best condition here is that of slavery;
and shall we be satisfied that he have no better? Must
we look upon his bondage as his permanent condition ?
There is no fair hope of a better in this country Free
him, and still you scarcely more than change his posi-
tion in name. lie is now in a position where it is law-
ful and possible for him to rise, but where it is almost
certain that he will not rise. There is no hope, if there
be a possibility, that two races so completely distinct
12*

274

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

should live on terms of equality. They must, as two
distinct races, have two countries, two governments, and
distinct* classes of institutions. Shall we yield them
America, or shall they take Africa — the home of their
fathers, and that land which God gave to Ham, whose
children they are?

The condition of the freed colored people is becoming
every year more and more embarrassing. The Slave
States are adopting every possible means, by legislation,
public sentiment, and daily practice, to rid themselves
of a population which have become exceedingly undesir-
able to them. They are consequently driven into the
Free States. But here their presence is looked upon as
more undesirable, if possible, than in the Slave States.
Consequently, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and I know
not how many other States, have passed laws excluding
the free negroes from their respective States; and States
in the South, acting on the same policy, arc passing laws
prohibiting the emancipation of slaves at all, unless the
slaves be removed beyond the bounds of the United
States or territories. The tendency of the last is to
discourage emancipation, if there be not a cheap and
easy mode of colonization to Africa; and of the first, to
impoverish, dishearten, and make vagabonds of the free
people of color, and then to drive them, as a nuisance,
into such States as have no laws to exclude them —
which States, in self-defense, will feel obliged to pass
such laws. And, then, whither shall they flee? To
Canada? But there they can not live. The experiment
has been tried, and signally failed. The negro is a
tropical plant, and can not thrive in Canadian snows.
The destiny of the colored race in this country seems to
be approaching a crisis. He must either groan out a

THE TESTIMONY OF COLONISTS.

275

miserable existence as a slave, or go to Africa and be a
man, or draw out the most miserable vagabond life, with
no place on the bosom of mother earth to lay his head
till he sleep in his obscure grave. There is hope for the
race only in Africa.

And if these stubborn influences were not in opera-
tion, there are others no less sure that are working out
the same result. The laboring Irish, Germans, and
others, from Europe, are pouring into our land in inun-
dating multitudes, and are occupying the position and
doing the services which formerly fell to the colored
people. They are, therefore, in another sense, driven
from our country.

3. Colonization in its bearings on the colonists them-
selves. The best testimony we can have on this point
is their own. Are they happy? Are they prosperous ?
Do they feel that they have bettered their condition by
a removal to Africa ? Or would they gladly return to
the land from which they went? We have their testi-
mony. They speak no equivocal language. A man
from Congo, being asked if he did not wish to return to
his own country replied : “ No, no ; if I go back to my
country, they make me slave. I am here free ; no one
dare trouble me. I got my wife — my lands — my chil-
dren learn book — all free — I am here a white man — me
no go back.”

The Rev. W. W. Findlay, Methodist and colonist at
Liberia, writes : “ I do thank God ; I would not leave
this for any country that I have ever seen ; for here I
have my liberty. I have been in Canada, and fourteen
States of the Union, but Liberia I like better than
any.”

Another colonist gives utterance to the satisfaction

276

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lie feels in his present condition, in language like the
following : “ Thousands of poor colored men are fool-
ish enough to remain in the United States, sighing fer
privileges they will never possess there, and many are
foolish enough to abuse the colonization scheme which
has placed us in possession of rights they will never en-
joy in that country. I know by experience the depress-
ing influence of the white man. Such was its effect on
me, that I failed to improve my mind as I might have
done, if the slightest hope of future usefulness could
have been indulged. But every high and noble aspira-
tion appeared to me, in that country, consummate folly,
and I was thus induced to be satisfied in ignorance,
there being no prospect of rising in the scale of being.
But h.ow altered is my condition in this country ! Here,
honors of which I never dreamed have been conferred
on me by my fellow-citizens, and I have been treated as
an equal by gentlemen from the United States ; and
what makes me truly happy is the kind feelings I can
entertain for the white man. The good effects of free-
dom on many who came off plantations are quite visible.
Many fill responsible offices under Government, and
perform their duties in a manner creditable to them-
selves and the country.”

“Liberia,” says another colonist, “is, in my estima-
tion, pre-eminently congenial both to the physical and
mental constitution of the colored man. Liberia, in-
deed, seems to have a transforming influence upon the
minds of those who return to her shoi’es, by rousing up
those latent powers of the mind which slavery has kept
inert. Here, then, is the home of our race; here we
find ourselves no longer doomed to look upon men of
every grade and complexion as our superiors ; here we

OTHER COMPETENT WITNESSES.

277

daily see ignorance, superstition, and vice disappear be-
fore us like the mist which rolls up the mountain-side
before the rising glory of the morning sun ; here talent
can attain the summit of perfection. If this be the true
state of Liberia, who would not say — Let the man of col-
or go to his native clime, where he will be free from op-
pression, the bane of human happiness?”

Another says : “ I am thankful to my heavenly Parent
for the inestimable blessing of casting my lot in a pleas-
ant place, and that I can now say, my ‘ heritage’ is a
good one. We enjoy the rights of citizenship. Colo-
nization, we owe it to thee!”

Or we may turn from the testimony which the colonists
themselves give as to the benefits which they feel that
they derive from their residence in Liberia, to the testi-
mony given by other competent witnesses concerning
them. “A larger proportion of the population of Libe-
ria,” says one, “ are professors of religion than can be
found in any other nation on the face of the earth.”
This speaks volumes for their moral condition, and, by
way of inference, for their condition in every respect.
And this is the section of country which, thirty years
ago, was covered with the habitations of cruelty — and
which, some years earlier, contained some of the worst
slave marts on the coast of Africa. Another report
says : “ The progress of this colony has indeed been
wonderful in all that concerns its material interests —
but what shall we say of progress in all that relates to
their moral and religious interests? Impartial visitors
represent this progress to have been still more remarka-
ble.” And the same unvarying testimony is borne by
all classes of visitors to that oasis in the desert — by
ministers, missionaries, naval officers, and private adven-

278

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

turers. There is a larger number of schools and
churches, and a smaller number of dram-shops and
places of amusements, than are anywhere else to be
found among the same amount of population. Capt.
Foote speaks of what he found to be the prevailing sen-
timent of the colonists. Though they are subjected more
or less to the inconveniences, hardships, and privations
incident, to the settlement of a new country, he says :
“ The colonists generally prefer their present position
to that which they held in the United States.”

Here I may introduce the testimony of an intelligent
colored man, who has studied well the subject of Afri-
can colonization, and seems to have much at heart the
welfare of his colored brethren. He says : “ I have
been unable to get rid of the conviction, long since en-
tertained and often expressed, that if the colored peo-
ple of this country ever find a home on earth for the
development of their manhood and intellect, it will first
be in Liberia, or in some part of Africa.” * * * “ Our
servile and degraded condition in this country, the his-
tory of the past, and the light that is poured in upon
me from every source, fully convinces me that this is our
true, our highest, and happiest destiny, and the sooner
we commence this glorious work the sooner will light
spring up in darkness, and the wilderness and solitary
place be glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the
rose.”

I might here quote another English testimony.
Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal says of African coloniza-
tion : “ It needs no other defense of its policy than to
point to the spirit which has all along animated the
black people who emigrated to Africa. One sentiment,
viz., that it is worth while to encounter all possible

AFRICA CLAIMS OUR SYMPATHIES.

279

hardships and dangers on a foreign strand for the sake
of perfect freedom, appears in the whole conduct of
these men.” * * * “We view it as the point of the
wedge by which a Christian civilization, if ever, is to be
introduced into Central Africa.”

The view that has now been taken of Africa ought :

1. To engage our prayers and sympathies in behalf
of that great, interesting, and truly unfortunate conti-
nent, and to secure our benefactions. Africa may de-
mand this at our hands, as a matter of Christian char-
ity. She is a suffering, destitute land. No land so
dark, and so much needs the sun of righteousness to
arise upon it. No land so debased, and so much needs
the renovating power of truth. No land so full of the
habitations of cruelty — a land of bondage, where there
is no “ flesh in man to feel for man, and so much needs
the ever-blessed Gospel that preaches the acceptable
year of the Lord — that unbinds the heavy burden — that
opens the prison doors, and lets the captives go free.” If
there be a people on the whole face of the earth which
may claim above all others the gracious interposition of
Christian benevolence, that people is the long down-
trodden sons of Ham ; and if the Gospel is especially a
heaven-sent boon to the “poor;” if it contemplate, as
some of its richest trophies, those whom it shall redeem
from the lowest depths of human suffering and sin, we
may surely expect its choicest realization, when “ Ethio-
pia shall stretch out her hands unto God.” Fervent,
then, be the prayers, profound the sympathies, bountiful
the benefactions, when poor suffering Africa be the
object !

Humanity demands, in self-defense, that we open wide
the door of access to Africa. Pity pleads that we spare

280

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

them from annihilation, by giving them a home in their
native Africa. Where else can they go ? Is there a
spot within the limits of our country where there is any
fair prospect that they may live, and be blessed? Other
experiments are being tried. Will they succeed ? We
shall see.

2. If our views are correct as to what is a suitable
and hopeful remedy for the wants and woes of Africa,
schemes of colonization have claims on us, as philanthro-
pists and Christians, inferior to no other claims for be-
nevolent and philanthropic action. There is no hope
for Africa, but in the religion of the cross ; and we have
shown, and the history of modern missions has shown,
that there is no fair hope of the introduction of Chris-
tianity into Africa except through the door of Christian
colonies on her coast. All attempts to introduce the
Gospel otherwise have heretofore failed. If this be the
channel designated by the finger of God, through which
he will send the healing waters of the river of life over
those great arid deserts, we must accept the Divine ap-
pointment, and make our feeble efforts to bless Africa
harmonize with the Divine plan. God has (as has been
shown elsewhere) remarkably prepared his instrument-
alities for the moral renovation of Africa. In the
depths of a cruel servitude he has been fitting a class
of men for the very tvork in question. They are, with
the native African himself, bone of his bone, and flesh of
his flesh, and the only class of agents, as far as we know,
that can extensively live in Africa, and labor for its re-
demption. It is the business of colored societies to seek
out these men, to transport them to Africa, and thus put
them in a position to do their destined work. Until
Providence, therefore, shall point out some other mode

THE DUTY OF EVERY FRIEND OF AFRICA.

281

of blessing that continent, and choose some other instru-
mentality, the duty of every friend of the African race
and of Africa, seems plain. He.must allow the institu-
tions whose special object it is to bless Africa and her
races, to hold a prominent place in his prayers, his sym-
pathies, and his alms.

282

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XY.

The practicability of an extensive colonization— What has been done— The
desirableness of colonization, and the testimony of colonists.

We have spoken of colonization as the cure of Afri-
ca— at least, as the appointed channel through which
the blessings of civilization and Christianity are
likely to flow in upon that great continent. There
is among the wise and the good an opinion, yearly
gaining strength, that this is the method through
which God will deign to bless and renovate Africa.
An intelligent and shrewd writer* on Africa, and one
who has resided in Liberia, and taken a deep interest
in her affairs, says : “ I believe that God intends that
the moral and intellectual elevation of the benighted
tribes of Africa is to be effected chiefly by her own
returning civilized and Christianized children, bring-
ing with them and introducing among the ignorant
and degraded aborigines habits of civilized life and
the glorious Gospel of salvation.” Mysteriously has>
God overruled the connection with, and dependence
of, the negro race upon the whites in this country, to
the furtherance of the physical, intellectual, moral,
and religious improvement of Africa. It is believed
that enough has already been done to indicate the
line of Divine Providence in respect to Africa, and to
give some assurance of what the course of the Divine
procedure shall be in time to come.

* Dr. J. W. Lunginbeel.

PRACTICABILITY OF COLONIZATION.

283

After wliat has been said of the value of coloniza-
tion on the coast of Africa, and its bearing on the fu-
ture destiny of the whole continent, some inquiries
may arise, which we would not pass over in silence.
Is the colonization of Americanized Africans on the
coast of Africa practicable to any such extent as to
bring relief to the great mass of free colored people in
our country, or to achieve any general and lasting
good to the continent of Africa and the African race ?
What has been effected already, as a voucher of what
may be expected of colonization ? What is the duty
of the American people — of every philanthropist and
Christian in our wide domain? What the relation
and duty of slaveholders in respect to the African
race among us, and in general ? And what the duty
and interest of the sons of Ham, who are found scat-
tered over our land, whether free or yet in bondage ?
Each of these queries demand a few moments’ atten-
tion.

1. The practicability of the present scheme of colo-
nization. Can it be made extensive and efficient
enough to serve the desired purposes? We think it
can. These purposes are the extinction of a large
slave-trade, the transportation of the portion of the
people of color from America to Africa, and the plant-
ing of such colonies in Africa as shall essentially and
extensively benefit that continent. It has been alto-
gether fashionable in certain quarters, of late years,
to decry all present schemes of colonization, as alto-
gether inadequate to accomplish any such purposes.
I met aii elderly gentleman not long since, who is still
in active life, though he treads hard on the verge of
his three-score years and ten, who told me, that when

284

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lie first left liis home in New Jersey, to seek his for-
tune in the city of New York (sixty years ago), the
only ferry-boat that plied from the Jersey shore to
the great emporium of the empire State run from
Elizabethport. This was an awkward sail-boat, called
a “ Perianger,” which made but one trip a day, and car-
ried from three to fifteen persons at a time. Indeed,
it was thought to be a good business when it found
itself loaded with a dozen passengers at a single trip.
A few dozen a day comprised the whole amount of
travel from the State of New Jersey, from Philadel-
phia, and the South. Suppose some keen-eyed seer
could then have made to cross the field of his vision
the moving multitudes which are now, after but sixty
years, hourly pouring into the great city, from the
same quarter. He could scarcely have conceived the
present ample accommodations for their rapid transit
every hour. Our young adventurer, when ten years
old, was taken by a friend to Albany. Providing
themselves with all the needfuls for the voyage, they
set sail in a sloop, and not till they had, with many
incidents of storm and calm, head-winds and oppos-
ing currents, made full thirteen days and nights, did
they arrive at the place of their destination.*

It does not require so great a stretch of credulity,
or of hopefulness, to conceive that the facilities of
communication with Africa should be so increased as

* The same gentleman says he has been on the said terry-boat when she
was thirty-six hours making her distance from Elizabethport to New York.
Contrary winds would compel them to put into Staten Island in the morning,
along whose coast they would make their way during the day, as far as
Mother Van Buskirk’s tavern, on the northwest corner of the island. Here
they would put in for the night and wait a favorable change of wind for the
morning.

IRISH EMIGRATION TO AMERICA.

285

to convey thither some two or three millions of peo-
ple, as it did then, that the teeming multitudes that
come to and from New York should find the present
ample and comfortable accommodation for locomo-
tion. Europeans, all classes included, have for some
years past, migrated to this country, at the rate of
about half a million a year. This they do, for the
most part, as a matter of individual enterprise. Im-
pelled by the conviction that they can here better their
condition in life — though generally extremely poor,
they find the means of getting here. There is nothing
impracticable in the idea that as broad and deep a
stream of emigration should flow from America to Af-
rica as now pours in upon us from Europe. Let as
strong a conviction pervade the entire mind of our
African population as prevails in Ireland that their
own best interest demands their removal to Africa,
and let all available facilities be employed, and all
parties do their bounden duties on the subject, and
there would be no difficulty in sending to Africa half
a million of emigrants a year. All who ought, in
right, and to whom it would be a privilege to go,
might be sent out in less than five years. Or, sup-
pose, as Mr. Webster does in the speech quoted in
our last chapter, that 100,000 be sent out annually,
the work would soon be done, and done quite as fast
as the highest interests of all concerned would admit.
For so large a number could not be found prepared
to migrate ; or, if prepared, the colonies would not be
prepared to receive so large accessions.

Colonization to any extent necessary, in order to
transplant in a very few years all the population now
residing in this country that are fitted to go, or who

286

THE GBEAT NEGEO PEOBLEM SOLVED.

can be benefited by such a change and are willing to
go, is practicable in the course of a very few years.
Let the mind of this unfortunate people be disabused
in respect to the advantages to be derived by their re-
moval to Africa ; let them evert themselves to secure
the means to go to the land of their fathers as the
Irish do to come to this country ; let individual efforts
be made — let the North make as great pecuniary sac-
rifices to send the blacks to Africa as the South, at
one period, showed themselves ready to, to free their
slaves that they might be sent ; let colonization socie-
ties co-operate with, and be liberally aided by, State
and national benefactions, to forward one of the
noblest efforts of modern days, and there can be no
doubt of the successful result. Ethiopia would soon
be seen to stretch out her hands to God in praise to
Him who worketh all things after the counsels of his
own will, and in gratitude to all, far and near, who
shall have contributed to redeem them from a state
of miserable bondage and degradation, and to raise
them up and make them sit in heavenly places.
Nothing more is needed but to give extension and ef-
ficiency to present schemes of colonization, and the
desired object would be accomplished. Let the
American Colonization Society receive from the hands
of private charity $500,000, instead of $50,000 ; let a
line of national steamers bridge the Atlantic from
some southern port to Liberia, through which a quick
and frequent intercourse would be kept up between
the two countries, both to bring our colored popula-
tion acquainted with the advantages of Liberia, and
to afford them a cheap and easy passage thither ; let
private enterprise be encouraged, so that hundreds of

HOW THE SCHEME Mj*lY BE EFFECTED.

287

colored people would emigrate to Africa through their
own efforts, aided, if need be, by their own private
friends ; let State legislatures and the General Gov-
ernment make those liberal appropriations which they
can well afford to make, whether it be regarded as an
act of justice to the blacks, or as the interest of the
whites, or in respect to the promotion of a stupendous
scheme of philanthropy toward Africa ; let the church
of the living God exert the power of her puissant arm,
through her prayers and benefactions, to raise Africa
from her present abasement, by means of her regen-
erate sons restored to the bosom of their abused, lac-
erated mother, and we shall hear no more of the im-
practicability of present schemes of colonization.
There is no impracticability, except that which has
been created in the lack of pecuniary means, which,
in all right, ought to be forthcoming ; and in a wicked
prejudice, which has been gendered in the breast of
the colored man against African colonization. Aside
from these two, obstacles, we have reason to believe
that the African race now found in America can be
removed to Africa much faster than Africa would be
prepared to receive them. Were all hands and all
hearts combined to consummate this work before this
generation should pass, we might expect the barbar-
ous slave-trade would be suppressed, slavery become
extinct, and a work of civilization and evangelization
begun in Africa which should soon pervade the whole
continent. The scheme is practicable.

2. Our next inquiry relates to what has already
been done in the way of colonization on the coast of
Africa. Can we point to any realization of the
scheme which warrants the hope that colonization

288

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

shall produce any such fruits as has been intimated ?
We think we can.

Within the short space of forty years, and with the
small aggregate sum of $2,000,000, the present colon-
ies of Americanized Africans have been planted on
the western coast of Africa. The time, when com-
pared with the usual length of the infancy of nations,
is quite insignificant ; and the money expended in the
enterprise is not more than individual enterprise
sometimes employs in commerce or trade — not more
than a fifth of the amount expended in the construc-
tion of the Hudson River Railroad. And what has been
accomplished ? What have the friends of colonization
to show as the work of a single generation, and as the
result of the small expenditure I have named? They
can show, on the coast of Africa, a civilized, independ-
ent Christian nation, living under a constitution and
laws modeled after our owd , yet administered by the
ebony sons of Ham — the printing press, in a prosper-
ous tide of operation, sending its streams of living
light even into Africa’s dark interior — the means of
education, schools and academies, not less abundant
or inferior to those enjoyed by any other people, and
a college in a hopeful state of progress. They can
show a population of some 7,000 or 8,000, who have
been transported here from the land, and many of
them from the shackles, of slavery, there made men ;
and some 200,000 native Africans over whom the
broad aegis of a free government is extended, and who
are enjoying, through the colonies with which they
are incorporated, the blessings of free institutions,
and of a pure religion, and taking valuable lessons
daily in all the industrial arts of civilized life, which

FIIUITS OF COLONIZATION.

289

have been introduced through the colonies. The
slave-trade has been suppressed directly through
these colonies along the coast for 700 miles, and indi-
rectly, no doubt, to a much greater extent. A health-
ful commerce has been created with European na-
tions, which, of itself, is a substitute and remedy for
the slave-trade, and a fruitful source of prosperity to
the nation. The industry, shill, and enterprise of the
colonists have already, to a considerable extent, de-
veloped the natural resources of the soil, and thus
laid the foundation for the future prosperity of Africa,
and set an example to the native tribes which as they
shall in time follow, it shall transform the entire phys-
ical condition of the African continent.

The seeds of civilization and of our holy religion
are sown there— have taken root and are beginning to
bear fruit. A great work is begun — the foundation
laid — the tug of war past — the burden and heat of the
day endured. The Church, the Sabbath, and the
Bible, the embodiment of Christianity, are there —
the mightiest elements of reform ever thrown into the
deep and broad pool of human corruption. In not
less than thirty churches the Word of God is preached
every Sabbath day. Christian education, too, and the
press, the other two mighties (though they attain not
to the three mightiest), are doing their work.

But we have no occasion to confine ourselves to
progress in Liberia. Africa is begirt with philanthro-
pic and Christian agencies. Africa is on every side
invaded by these benign influences. The combined
influence of colonies, commerce, and Christian mis-
sions is telling delightfully upon that dark continent.
“ Bright Christian lights now begin to blaze up, at
13

290

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

intervals, along a line of sea-coast of more than 3,000
miles, where unbroken night formerly reigned. The
everlasting Gospel is now preached in Kumari, and
Abomi, the capitals respectively of Ashantee and
Dahomey, two of the most barbarous kingdoms on the
face of the earth. Christian missions are now being
established all over the kingdom of Yoruba, a land
once wholly given up to the slave-trade, and blood-
shed. Along the banks of the far interior Niger,
Christian lights are springing up. At Old Calabar,
a place renowned in former times, not only for being
one of the chief seats of the foreign slave-trade, but
for unparalleled cruelties and barbarities of its people,
the Gospel is not only preached, but the Spirit of
God is poured out upon the debased people. On the
heights of the Sierra del Crystal mountains, the Gos-
pel has been preached to a people who had not only
never before heard it, but who, themselves, were un-
known to the Christian world until within a few
years.” *

Enough has been done (to say nothing of South and
East Africa) to give a most pleasing assurance that
the “ time is not far distant when the light of the Gos-
pel shall reach the darkest and the most remote cor-
ner of that great continent.”

Yes, we may expect the ingathering, at no distant
day, of a great spiritual harvest. Nor is all this
future. Already we see the first fruits, as a sure
pledge of what shall come. We glean from the same
source the following items : Within the last twenty-

* The “Princeton Review’’ as quoted in “Liberty’s Offering,” by. E. W
Blyden.

SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, AND BOOKS.

291

five years more than one hundred Christian churches
have been organized in that country ; and upward of
15,000 hopeful converts have been gathered into those
churches. Nearly 200 schools are in full operation in
connection with these various missions, and not less
than 16,000 native youths are receiving a Christian
training in those schools, at the present moment.
More than twenty different dialects have been studied
out, and reduced to wilting, into many of which large
portions of the sacred Scriptures, as well as other re-
ligious books, have been translated, printed, and cir-
culated among the people ; and, doubtless, we may
with safety assume that some knowledge of the
Christian salvation has been brought by direct or in-
direct means within the reach of at least 5,000,000 of
immortal beings, who have never before heard of the
blessed name of the Saviour.

But we are, for obvious reasons, more especially
concerned to present Liberia as a realization of what
Africans can do for themselves and for their colored
race. The hope of Africa we seem to see bound up in
the destiny of the Anglo- Africans of America. Look-
ing upon them as the qualified and appointed agents
of her renovation, we regard Liberia as the most
hopeful door of entrance into those dark domains of
spiritual death.

We may, therefore, name as another most hopeful
feature, that a larger proportion of her population are
church members than is to be met in any part of the
United States, and a larger proportion of the children
attend school, unless, possibly, New England be ex-
cepted. Liberia is, indeed, on the coast of Africa, a
reproduction of New England — destined to do for

292

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

that continent what the Plymouth colony has done
for North America.

V/e are unwilling to dismiss this topic without call-
ing attention to the exceedingly interesting position
which the little State of Liberia at present holds.
"We refer here, not only to her relation to Africa and
the slave-trade, but to American slavery, the free peo-
ple of color in this country, and to our white popula-
tion. Philanthropy and Christian benevolence has not
four graver problems to solve than these : How shall
Africa be brought within the pale of civilized and
Christian nations ? How the slave-trade be effectually
and permanently suppressed? How American slavery
be done away, so as to be the most advantageous to
the enslaved ? And, How our free people of color be
rescued from a condition already truly wretched, and
becoming every year worse,, and soon must become
intolerable? Liberia has an interesting relation to
each of these objects. "We have alluded to her as the
radiating point of influences, principles, and institu-
tions which are able to renovate all Africa, and which,
in proportion as they shall be planted in that soil,
shall eradicate the vile traffic in human flesh. We
would speak now rather of the relation of Liberia to
the other objects named.

Causes were said to be at work, before the outbreak
of the present slaveholders’ war, which some supposed
would, in the course of a few years, bring slavery in
this country to an end. If no other cause was in
operation, it was believed that slavery was becoming
so unprofitable that the strife with the master would
soon be, not how he should hold his slaves, but how
he should free himself of them. Already had the tide

FREE LABOR THE CHEAPEST.

293

of Irish and German laborers threatened to supplant
the negro, North and South ; and it was becoming too
obvious that free labor is the cheapest.

A large planter in Louisiana was heard to say : “ I
can make more money off my plantation by cutting
it up into small farms, erecting little cottages, and
renting them to these families of emigrants, they
bringing to my sugar-house so much cane annually
for the rent, thus relieving me from all the vexations,
responsibilities, and expenses of providing for 150
slaves, that must be fed and clothed, and taken care
of when sick, whether the crop fails or not ; and the
time is not far distant,” added he, “ when these ex-
periments will be made, to the entire satisfaction of
every southern man, thereby rendering slavery a pe-
cuniary burden too grievous to be borne — and which
must be thrown off.” This, we are told, is but a
specimen of changes going on in the public mind at
the South.

The Rev. Dr. Sautelle, who, some years ago, travel-
ed extensively at the South, met among a certain
class of planters the same stat9 of feeling. Speaking
of the changes which had taken place, he says: “Only
let them progress silently and steadily a little longer,
and let things take their natural course, under the
guidance of God’s superintending providence, and
ere long the anxious cry will be heard from the South,
not, how shall we keep, but how shall we get rid of
our slaves? Who will take them off our hands?
Where is there a place provided for them? And,
wonderful as it may seem, while God has been work-
ing these changes in the South, he has, at the same
time, been working in the hearts of Christians and

294

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

philanthropists, inciting them to prepare for the slave
a home in the land of his fathers, and paving the way
for a return to it. How delightful to recognize the
hand of God in all this !

“With the eye turned to Liberia, and the heart
lifted up to God, we are ready to exclaim : ‘ There is
hope for the slave !’ ‘ There is hope for Africa !’

‘ There is hope for our own country !’ ”

Recent events would seem but too clearly to indi-
cate that the above views were, at best, but partial and
limited, most readily yielding to the now prevalent idea
of the “Divine right” of slavery, and to the conse-
quent determination to hold on to it at all hazards.

The fact that the existing war has produced a com-
plete revulsion of all such favorable feeling on the
part of slaveholders, detracts nothing from our posi-
tion that Liberia holds out a hope and a home to the
exiled sons of Ham, not the less hopeful than she did
before their oppressors rose, in their great wrath, and
inaugurated this wicked war, with the avowed pur-
pose of perpetuating, and, if possible, nationalizing
negro slavery, and making it the corner-stone of their
confederacy. We do not believe that the “ slave mas-
ter’s rebellion ” will in one jot or tittle turn aside, or
hinder for a day, the great and good purposes which
God has to accomplish through these exiled sons of
Africa. The war may precipitate universal emancipa-
tion, and embarrass the work, by what may seem to
us, too great haste. Or it may seem to retard the
work by raising new and difficult issues, yet, we may
be sure the end shall not be frustrated.

We do not feel that we are in danger of overrating
the desirableness, that every facility and encourage-

THE NATURAL HOME OF THE BLACK MAN. 295

merit should be afforded our negro population, that
they should secure a home and a nationality in Africa.
Neither the character nor the condition of the free
blacks in our country, is such as to give us a very
strong hope that the emancipation of our slave popu-
lation would greatly better their condition, if they
must remain in this country, and be obliged to com-
pete with the white race. The hope that the two
races may live and thrive together, and, on any com-
fortable footing of equality, is a hope against hope —
a hope against all experience — an attempt to join
what God has put asunder.

Some, who have most strenuously opposed African
colonization, are beginning to regard it as the only
hope of the poor African. And we can not here but
devoutly admire the gracious Providence which has,
precisely at the right time, provided such an asylum
for an exiled race. There, in their fatherland, they
may find a home, forever secure from the all-monopo-
lizing, all-absorbing foe, the white man ; it is then-
own land ; protected by a double wall, fever and
death, as a flaming fire, from the old competitors of
the seed of J apheth ; the only country in the world
where the white man can not follow him, and the
country designated by the finger of God as the asy-
lum and home of the sons of Ham. There, he may
sit under his own vine and fig-tree, with none to mo-
lest ; and there he may rear up his children as men,
and not as chattels to be bought and sold.

Did we need further testimonials to the real worth
of the republic of Liberia, as an agency to be used by
Providence for the emancipation of Africa, we might
produce them by the scores. Naval officers, ship

296

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

captains, free adventurers, missionaries, intelligent
colored men, wlio have gone there to examine the
country, and its prospects in reference to the removal
of their families thither, all speak essentially the same
language. John, a respectable and intelligent colored
man from Elizabeth City, N. C., who has recently re-
turned from Liberia, where he had been to examine
for himself, and if he liked it, to return for his family,
and such of his friends, as, from his report, might be
induced to accompany him, after spending six weeks
in the country, makes a report, which is “in every
respect favorable.” He is completely disarmed of
his prejudices, and is about to go to Liberia with his
family and fifty emigrants.

Commodore Lavallette, in a letter to the Philadel-
phia Inquirer, says : “ I have visited Bassa Cove, and
all other settlements of the emigrants on the coast of
Liberia. I find them prosperous and happy ; and I
believe, if it were generally known to the colored
population of the United States that Liberia offered
to them a home possessing incalculable advantages,
and the means of transporting them were provided,
few of them would remain in our country.”

A writer in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, who
seems to know whereof he affirms, speaks in language
no less decided. Passing by the comparative view
which he takes of the obvious results of either the na-
val squadrons on the coast of Africa, or the abolition
movement, or the colonization scheme, he says : “ An
humble and almost unnoticed association of emanci-
pated negroes from the United States has been doing
real work, by quietly planting itself along the African
coast, and causing, wherever it set its foot, the slave-

OPINIONS OP COLONIZATION. 297

trade to disappear. Strange to say, it lias done this,
not as a primary object, but only secondary and inci-
dental to a process of colonization, the prompting
causes of which were of a different, and, as some
might think, partly inconsistent nature. Whatever
were the motives of the Colonization Society, the con-
sequences of their acts are such as to give them no
small ground for triumph. For any thing that we can
see, their settling of Liberia has been the most unex-
ceptionably good movement against slavery that has
ever taken place. Perhaps, it has not been the worse,
but rather the better, for that infusion of the wisdom
of this world, which has discommended it so much to
the abolitionists.

“It occurs to us that the Colonization Society
needs no other defense for its policy than to point to
the spirit which has all along animated the black peo-
ple who have emigrated to Africa. One sentiment,
that it was worth while to encounter all the possible
hardships and dangers on a foreign strand for the
sake of perfect freedom, appears in the whole conduct
of these men. They appear to have been generally
persons of decided piety, and the missionary spirit is
conspicuous at every stage of their proceeding. Not
less important, as a testimony to the same effect, has
been the energetic contention which the colonists
have kept up against the slave-dealing propensities of
the native princes. These men felt, from the first,
that the Liberians were enemies to that traffic which
gave them their most valued luxuries, and here lay
the great difficulty which the settlers had to encoun-
ter. Their early history is a series of martyrdoms
visited upon them by the slave-trade.”

13*

298

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“ On the whole,” says the same writer, “ Liberia is
a thriving settlement, and its destiny appears to be
one of no mean character.” He calls it the point of
the wedge by which a Christian civilization, if ever, is
to be introduced into Central Africa.

An emancipated slave, writing from Liberia to his
former master in Hanover, Va., says : “ This country
bids fair to be one of the greatest countries in the
known world. We, with our feeble means, are grow-
ing coffee, sugar-cane, ginger, arrow-root, and cotton,
in the greatest abundance, and in no far distant day
will raise every necessary for our domestic comfort.
You will tell all the people of color, who have it in
their power, to come to this country, and be free ; now
is the time for them to come and give us their aid in
restoring lost Africa to her former greatness . and
glory.” .

In his inaugural address, President Roberts says :
“ You have successfully warred against that curse of
all curses, the detestable slave-trade, and by your ex-
ertions have aided in effectually driving from these
shores those monsters in human shape who once in-
fested this coast ; you have relieved thousands from
innumerable distresses, consequent upon the ravages
of cruel wars instigated by heartless slave dealers,
and, with other thousands, brought them within the
pale of civilization. And, above all, from Liberia has
gone forth the light of Christianity, penetrating the
very depths of heathen superstition and idolatry, so
that in every direction may be seen the sons of the
forest giving earnest heed to the story of the cross.”

Again, the governor says : “ And no country pre-
sents to them a more inviting field for industrious en-

A FIELD INVITING INDUSTEY.

299

terprise than the land of their ancestors ; no country
possesses greater natural resources than this — rich in
minerals of the greatest value, and a soil unsurpassed
in fertility and productiveness. Indeed, nothing is
required in Liberia to make her powerful and her citi-
zens respectable, wealthy, and happy, but cheerful
hearts and willing hands.”

300

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XVI.

Duty of the American people ; of slaveholders; of the colored people of this

country.

We can by no possibility, if we would, dodge the
question — What shall be done with the negro? We
have had too much to do with him already to hope for
exemption now. We must, volentes nolentes, have much
to do with him yet. For pride and gain, with cruelty
and barbarous inhumanity, we have brought him into
his present position, and God will hold us responsible,
not only to deliver him from bondage, but to recom-
pense him for the wrong.

The singular apathy of our Government and of the
American people to press forward every feasible scheme
of colonization at this critical juncture may be the occa-
sion of another negro nationality, which we may not
altogether relish — a nationality in our own country.
Every consideration of fitness, of interest, of duty, would
seem to urge their settlement in their fatherland. While
we are relucting, Providence is moving. He is break-
ing every yoke, setting the captives free ; and now as
freemen they must have a name and a place, a country
and a home ; and if we, as their constituted guardians
and protectors, do not hasten to give them the helping
hand, and guide them back to the land of their fathers,
the heart that pities them, the hand that is stretched out
for their succor, will take from us and give to them
some portion of a country which they have earned by

OUR THREE-EOLD OBLIGATION.

301

their unrequited toil, and watered for long and weary
years with the tears of anguish. But we pass to inquire :

3. What duty do the American people owe to Africa,
and the present scheme of African colonization ? Much,
every way ; but chiefly because of the wrongs which, as
a people, we have inflicted on Africa. Our obligation is
three-fold : we are debtors as Christians, as philanthro-
pists, and as wrong-doers. Africa is a great pagan con-
tinent, and, as Christians, we are bound to send there the
Gospel. Her people must be told of a Saviour ; and as
intelligent Christians, and obedient, willing servants of
our Divine Master, we must watch the movements of
Providence, and work where he works, and in the man-
ner indicated by the Divine working. Some nations are
converted through missionary operations, some purely
through providential agency. War in one instance
opens the way for the introduction of the Gospel ; peace,
in another. One people are brought to an acquaintance
with Christianity by receiving Christian colonies into
her bosom, and learning of them ; another, by means of
her people, either voluntarily, or otherwise, going to a
Christian people, and dwelling with them, so as to learn
of them what be the truth in Jesus. In the establish-
ment and extension of Christianity, the Great Head of
the Church has pursued no one course to the exclusion
of others. It is wisdom on the part of the Christian to
discern the mode of the Divine proceeding in any given
case ; and it is obedience to make his prayers, labors,
and benefactions harmonize with the Divine mode of
operation.

God is successfully introducing the Gospel, and estab-
lishing his Church in Africa through Christian colonies.
We must accept this way of working, and work with it.

302

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

It is therefore our duty, as Christians, to favor, by
every means in our power, the present scheme of colo-
nization, as the appointed means of evangelizing Africa.
We are debtors to her, not only in the sense that all
who have the Gospel are bound by a Divine injunction
to give it to those who have it not, till all nations shall
be evangelized, but we are under some special obliga-
tion to Africa. We have been confederate with them
who have spoiled Africa, and are therefore laid under
some special obligation to make her such a return as
shall in a special sense bless her. We can never wash
the deep blood-stains from our skirts, yet we may be-
come to her the almoners of Heaven’s richest gift to
man. Though we may never repay the wrong we have
done, we may staunch her bleeding wounds ; we may
pour into her lacerated heart the balm in Gilead ; wtc
may bring to her aid the Great Physician.

While, therefore, it is undoubtedly the duty of our
General Government and of our State Legislatures to
make liberal appropriations to send to Africa every
colored man who is willing and fitted to go, and to do
every thing which money and influence can do to make
the condition of the returned African comfortable to
himself, and useful to his kindred, and the duty of the
whole American people to favor, by every means in their
power, so worthy an enterprise, it is most evidently the
duty of the professed Christian to make Africa the ob-
ject of especial interest. But what shall he do ? He
must watch the finger of Providence, and work in the
■way indicated thereby. Through Christian colonies
there a wide and effectual door has been opened, through
which Christianity and all its rich concomitant blessings
may be made to flow in upon that desert land.

LIBERIA COLLEGE AND INFLUENCE.

303

But I shall not repeat here what has already been, on
this subject, either directly or impliedly said. It is
enough to add, that a vast continent — a teeming popula-
tion of 150,000,000 pagan souls, are now, in the provi-
dence of God, fairly laid at the feet of the Church of
Christ. The time for their gracious visitation seems to
have come. Access is open to them, and thousands of
agents are prepared for the work. No pains should be
spared — no sacrifices thought too expensive by which to
carry out purposes so philanthropic and benevolent as
the rescue of Africa from her present state of bondage
and spiritual death.

I shall at present speak of but one feature of the
scheme which, in my humble estimation, is at this time a
very important desideratum in the hoped-for renovation
of Africa. I mean a provision for establishing, in this
country, a literary institution where intelligent, enter-
prising colored young men may obtain a thorough edu-
cation. A paramount duty which we owe to our colored
population, and one clearly indicated by the providence
of God, is the preparation of this people, in the shortest
possible time, to return to their fatherland, that they
may there accomplish the mission assigned them. Pro-
vision is being made for the endowment of such an insti-
tution in Liberia. The Liberian College is already in
successful operation. This is as it should be ; but such
provision in Africa can not meet the demand for a simi-
lar institution in America. If the exodus of the African
race from this country were already accomplished, or on
the eve of a speedy accomplishment, the case would be
different. Schools and higher institutions of learning in
Liberia can not be too highly valued. They will meet
a very important demand there. Without such institu-

304

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tions, well sustained, colonization will quite fail of its
objects. They are indispensable both to the permanence
and prosperity of the colonies, and to the greater benefit
of the native tribes.

But the greatest good of Africa equally demands simi-
lar institutions in this country. The first and chief
desideratum is, not how we shall send the greatest pos-
sible number of blacks to Africa, but rather how those
who may be sent shall be qualified, and how the mass
of our colored population in this country shall be
qualified, at an early day, to migrate to and fulfill their
destined mission in Africa. It would be quite possible
to inundate Liberia with a class of emigrants which
should curse, rather than bless, her. A suitable prepara-
tion, in this country, of the people of color is a vital
feature in our scheme for renovating Africa. The rising
generation in Liberia, and the young who may migrate
thither, should doubtless be educated in Liberian
schools. Yet a college and schools in Liberia, though
important in their place, do not meet the necessities of
the case in this country. The importation to her shores
of ignorance and vice can not possibly benefit Africa,
nor can the ignorant and vicious derive any advantage
from transportation. Colonization is desirable only in
proportion to the preparedness of the proposed colonists
to emigrate.

Preparation in this country, then, is vital to the
whole scheme. Before our African population should
be fitted for their exodus and their profitable coloniza-
tion on the coast of Africa, they must have their Moses
and Aaron, their scribes and priests, their skillful labor-
ers and cunning artificers. The utility and efficiency of
such colonies depends on the social, civil, and moral

HOW SHALL IT BE DONE ?

305

resources which, as a body politic, they may possess.
These resources they must carry with them, or they will
fail to fulfill their mission. Our colored population
must therefore be educated. Very few of them are yet
fitted for the enjoyment of liberty. The mass must be
elevated and enlightened. But what is no less import-
ant, there must be a class among them of more highly
educated men. Such a class of colored men is needed
more, perhaps, for the purpose of acting on the African
race in this country, and preparing them to emigrate,
than for the sake of going themselves to Africa.

But how shall this be done? Is there any fair hope
that any considerable number — a number by any means
adequate to the demand, shall be educated in our pres-
ent institutions of learning? Practically few of our
higher schools are open to the colored man. But if
open — if he may enter, if he please, and graduate at
one of our colleges, is the mere permission to do so
much better, in the circumstances of the case, than a
practical prohibition? The permission amounts to just
about as much as the permission of the Romish hierarchy
does, when they allow the mass of the laity to own and
read the Bible. The disabilities in the case quite neu-
tralize the permission. Few of our colored people can
meet the expense of a liberal education, whatever school
may be accessible to them, and a still smaller number
are able to surmount the difficulties which they would
most certainly meet in such an attempt. But give them
an institution of their own, provide for them a cheap,
and in most cases- a gratuitous education, and how dif-
ferently they would feel and act. Young men of native
talent would soon be collected there, and bleeding Afri-
ca would soon not be without a class of her own edu-

306

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SORTED.

cated sons, who should supply with educated meu, and
a ministry of a higher order, her own exiled sons in this
country, and act as their leaders in preparing them for
that other and better country beyond the floods, and be-
come their companions and their guides thither.

They who desire and pray for Africa’s speedy renova-
tion can not do a better thing, or more effectually com-
pass their object, than by the establishment in this coun-
try of a high school and college for the education of
such of our colored population as shall be found to have
the talents and enterprise to seek an education. In no
other way, perhaps, could they so permanently and exten-
sively benefit that waiting continent.

Our home duties to this people, are at this moment
greatly increased by the events of the present war.
Tens of thousands are now thrown upon us. They are
fugitives from oppression. They stand at our doors
asking aid, present protection, advice, and guidance.
They come poor, ignorant, destitute of employment,
and homeless. They are used to work — are willing to
work — expect to work, but lack the place, the patron-
age, the opportunity. They are in a transition state —
passing from the house of bondage to the land of prom-
ise. It is their wilderness state ; and we must be to
them the manna from heaven, the water from the rock,
and a defense from the enemy. God has risen up to
break every yoke, and to let his captives go free ; and
we, as his people, must see to it that we be found in
hearty and happy co-operation with our God.

The mass of this people should undoubtedly, for a
considerable time, remain with us. They are not yet
fitted for their nationality. Many are not willing to go.
Adequate means are not yet available to transport them

DUTY OF ALL SLAVEHOLDERS.

307

hence, and to settle them abroad ; and our African colo-
nies could not at once bear so great an influx of popula-
tion. The more immediate and temporary destiny of
the mass is to remain in this country as laborers, not as
slaves, but as free men. They need the training of an
honorable and compensated labor. We need the labor.
They should be left in their own “sunny South,” with
every encouragement which industry, honesty, and so-
briety can hold out, to make themselves men in every
honorable pursuit of life, and to prepare themselves in
the shortest possible time, for their own higher and bet-
ter condition in their fatherland.

4. We come to inquire next, What is the duty of the
slaveholding portion of our population in respect to Af-
rica and African colonization? We should not stop
here to raise any question as to the moral character of
slavery, and the blameworthiness of the slaveholder.
Be it enough, that they have in their possession an un-
fortunate people, toward \ydiom they hold some peculiar
relations, and whom they have it in their power greatly
to bless, and through whom they may confer incalcula-
ble blessings on Africa. No class of men, perhaps, on
the whole face of the earth have it in their power, at
the present time, to do so stupendous a work of philan-
thropy and Christian benevolence as the present gen-
eration of American slaveholdei’s.

Africa is fast becoming the great field for missionary
enterprise. Americanized Africans, trained in the rigid
school of slavery, are, as we have seen, undoubtedly to
be the chief agents in bringing Africa within the pale
of civilization and Christianity. To prepare these
agents for their destined work, and to transplant them
to their destined field of labor, is peculiarly the work

308

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

of the southern slaveholder. Every American citizen,
and every philanthropist and Christian the world over,
has an interest here, and should liberally bear any share
of the burden which may fall to him. But it is pecu-
liarly the work of the South, and much of it can be
done only there. After the South should have qualified
their slaves for removal, and emancipated them, the
North may transport them to the promised land, and
settle them, and give the facilities to execute there their
destined mission. But this is but a small part of the
whole work. The people of the South will have done
the greater share before. I speak, for the moment, for-
getting the unhappy conflict between the two sections
of our country. I speak of things as they should be,
and as I hope in God they ere long will be, and not as
they unhappily are.

Never did a people have it in their power to do a
nobler work. It is, first, a work of justice, the redress
of a wrong, the restoration tp a race of what is dearer
than life. And, then, it is a work of mercy and benevo-
lence. While it will give liberty to the captives of a
temporal bondage, it will confer on a wretched conti-
nent an infinite good.

It is most cheerfully conceded, that a portion of our
slaveholding population were nobly doing their duty
in this respect. They were doing much, and making
great sacrifices, as we have shown elsewhere,* to pre-
pare their slaves for freedom, and then to emancipate
them and send them to Africa, where they might enjoy
the blessing of a new life, and do much to confer the
same blessings on the suffering race of Ham. What

* “ Hand of God in History,” chap. xvi.

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE.

309

the few were doing, the many ought to do. A whole
heathen continent lies at their feet — a continent teem-
ing with immortal souls, and abounding in all sorts of
natural resources — capable of becoming one of the
richest and most beautiful provinces of Immanuel’s
empire. Christians at the South hold in their hands
the agents — have the training of the men, who, under
God, are to achieve the redemption of that great
continent, and subject it, with all its resources, to the
rule of the great King.

There were men at the South, and we hope are
still, who feel this solemn weight of responsibility
pressing upon them, and who will nobly meet it.
There are more who have no just appreciation either
of the duties that in this respect devolve upon them,
or of the honor and privileges which, through their
providential position, they may enjoy; but through a
cold-blooded avarice, and reckless of all providential
intimation, determine to keep their slaves the victims
of their selfishness. To such we would raise the voice
of kind entreaty and of caution. How sad, that they
who, in the arrangements of a wise and gracious
Providence, stand in the most interesting relation to
Africa, and have it in their power to do her an inesti-
mable good, while at the same time they should confer
a priceless individual good on their own slaves, should
choose to act the part of oppressors rather than bene-
factors! But all success and a rich reflex blessing be
on the heads of those noble men and women, who, with
praiseworthy sacrifice in time and money and care,
are doing so much to prepare their colored people for
their freedom, and, then, at a yet greater sacrifice, are
restoring them to the bosom of their motherland. No

310

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

class of men are doing a better or a greater work.
May Heaven smile on them!

The above paragraph was written before the out-
break of this dreadful rebellion, and we choose to let
it stand as a pleasant monument of the past, rather
than to mar the picture by the indelible stigma of the
the present.

5. Finally, we would say a word to the sons- and
daughters of Ham who are scattered up and down
through the length and breadth of our land. Africa is
their natural home, and both duty and interest urge
their speedy return thither. Could it be shown that the
condition of the slave or the free black in this country
is not likely to be benefited, personally, by a removal to
Africa, still strong reasons urge him to remove. To
say nothing of the duty he owes to his fatherland and
to his native race, he owes it to his children to deliver
them from the thousand disabilities of their position
in this country, and to place them in circumstances of
hope in another land. The condition of the colored
man in this country is, to make the best of it, a hope-
less condition, and every day it is becoming worse.
They that advise them to remain in this country are
bad friends. They advise them to act against their
best interests. Their right to remain and enjoy a
happy equality with the whites may be undisputed,
and the disabilities under which they live may be
founded in unrighteousness; yet such is their condi-
tion, and such in the nature of the case will it most
certainly remain, that it is only cruelty to the colored
man to prolong his stay here. He may go where he
may be a man — where he may rear his children as
freemen — where they shall have stimulants to indus-

THE CONFLICTS OF RACES.

311

try, and may aspire to the highest and best condition
of manhood. Some of their best friends,'* though
long strenuously opposed to every scheme of removing
the blacks from this country, have recently come out
in favor of colonization on the coast of Africa. There
is no hope that the two races shall prosper together in
this land. One will and must have the ascendency.
And which shall it be? God has, by a series of most
signal providences, designated these United States as
the habitation and theatre of action for the white man,
and as signally has he pointed out Africa as the home
of the black man. Such is her physical condition,
especially in respect to climate, as virtually to exclude
the white races. He has reserved one continent as
the land of Ham, where he will display toward that
long-forsaken race the greatness of his power and the
riches of his grace.

Many of that unfortunate race have been wickedly
wrested from their native home, and doomed to a
foreign bondage. Yet this very bondage, as we have
seen, forms one of the most interesting chapters in
their providential history. Their restoration to their
native home shall be as life from the dead, to the
putrid corpse of Africa. Why, then, will they linger
in a land where slavery, with all its wrongs, and op-
pressions and depressions, is their best condition?
In Africa, alone, is there hope for the colored man.
Say what we will, do what we can, and their condition
is a hopeless one. They can not rise— they can not
prosper here. Try as you will, you can not rear

* See the late address of James G. Burney to the colored people of the
United States.

312 THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

thrifty, fruitful plants beneath the thick foliage of a
wide-spreading tree, not till you bring them out and
allow them to breathe heaven’s natural air, and bask
in the rays of an unobstructed sun, and be exposed
to the genial showers, will they grow and prosper.
Every interest, every hope, of the negro is over-
shadowed by the predominance of the white races.

It is, therefore, the only hope, the highest interest,
and, consequently, the imperative duty of the colored
man to return, if possible, to his own native Africa.

But all this may pass as the opinion of an outsider.
Let us then hear what men, who, as a race and as in-
dividuals, are personally interested, say. I quote
from a multitude of like kind the following testimo-
nials of residents in Liberia, who have exchanged
their condition in America for their present home
and position in Africa. It was at a public meeting-
held by citizens of Monrovia, for the purpose of de-
claring and making known to the world their free sen-
timents and opinions concerning African coloniza-
tion. This interesting meeting was addressed by
several citizens of the colony, under a deep sense of
obligation to the Colonization Society ; and with an
enthusiasm and eloquence worthy of the cause they
had assembled to promote. Said one : “ I arrived in
Africa on the 24th of May, 1823. My object in
coming was liberty, and under the firm conviction
that Africa is the only place, in existing circumstan-
ces, where the man of color can enjoy the inestima-
ble blessings of liberty and equality, I feel grateful
beyond expression to the American Colonization So-
ciety for preparing this peaceful asylum.”

Said another : “ I thank God that ever he put it into

TESTIMONIES OP COLONISTS.

313

the hearts of the Colonization Society to seek out this
free soil on which I have been so honored as to set
my feet. I and my family were horn in Charleston,
S. C., under the appellation of free people ; but free-
dom I never knew, until, by the benevolence of this
society, we were conveyed to the shores of Africa.
My language is too poor to express the gratitude I
entertain toward the American Colonization Society.”

Said a third : “ I came to Liberia in 1832. My
place of residence was the city of Washington, D.
C., where I passed for a free man. But I can now
say that I was never free until I landed on the shores
of Africa. I further state, that Africa, as far as I am
acquainted with the world, is the only place where the
people of color can enjoy true and rational liberty.”

Said a fourth : “ I beg leave to state that my situa-
tion is greatly altered for the better by coming to Af-
rica. My political knowledge is far superior to what it
would have been had I remained in America 1,000
years. I therefore seize this chance to present my
thanks to the American Colonization Society for ena-
bling me to come to this colony, which they have so
benevolently established.”

The following resolutions, among others, were then
passed, as expressive of the sense of the meeting :

“ That this meeting entertain the warmest gratitude
for what the American Colonization Society has done
for the people of color, and for us particularly ; and
that we regard the scheme entitled to the highest con-
fidence of every colored man.

“ That this meeting regard the colonization as one
of the highest, holiest, and most benevolent enter-
prises of the present day. That, as a plan for the
14

314

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

melioration of tlie condition of the colored race, it
takes the precedence of all that have been presented
to the attention of the modem world. That in its
operations, it is peaceful and safe — its tendencies be-
nevolent and advantageous. That it is entitled to the
highest veneration and unbounded confidence of every
man of color. That what it has already accomplished
demands our devout thanks and gratitude to those
noble and disinterested philanthropists who compose
it, as being, under God, the greatest earthly benefac-
tors of a despised and oppressed portion of the human
family.

“ Whereas, it has been widely and maliciously cir-
culated in the United States of America, that the in-
habitants of this colony are unhappy in their condi-
tion and anxious to return : Resolved , That the
report is false and malicious, and originated only in a
design to injure the colony by calling off the support
and sympathy of its friends ; that, so far from having
a desire to return, we should regard such an event the
greatest calamity that could befall us.”

OUGHT THE NEGROES TO EMIGRATE?

315

CHAPTER XVII.

Ought the negroes to emigrate? — Prejudice— A negro nationality — Their
destiny— The intimations of Providence.

We liave spoken of the practicability of a scheme
of colonization which shall be broad enough to trans-
port the whole colored population of America to the
fatherland, and settle them there in comfort. But is
it expedient that they should go ? Is it for their in-
terest— is it for ours ? And if once transferred there,
are they capable of self-culture, of self-protection, and
support? Have they the capabilities to form and
sustain a negro nationality — to so conduct matters of
state, of church, of education, and jurisprudence, as
to make their independent condition any real im-
provement on tlicir long-protracted servile condition ?
Has their education, their training and discipline,
during their long bondage, been such as to warrant
any such expectations? And all these things being
granted, ought the colored people of this country to
be urged to leave the land of their birth and adop-
tion, and even voluntarily to exile themselves to a
country which is to them a foreign land ? And if
they are willing and wish to go, is it good policy in us
to have them go ? Do we not need them all here as
laborers, not as slaves, but as free men ?

Such queries give rise to a variety of considerations
which we shall do well to canvass.

As touching these several points, four things must

316

TI-IE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

be assumed. The race in question, if they will ever
rise from their present depressed condition, and at-
tain to the position we have supposed : 1. Must be
able to disenthrall themselves from the inveterate pre-
judice which, in this land, like a deadly incubus,
crushes them to the earth. 2. They must secure to
themselves a negro nationality. 3. They must go
where they can be men, and not chattels or tools ;
only associated with property. 4. It is important
that they should, as an undying incentive to energy
and perseverance, be inspired with the conviction
that the finger of God is pointing them to that land —
that they have a great mission to fulfill there — that
the strong hand of Providence is stretched out to
bring them to their promised land — that the land is
kept in reserve, waiting for its rightful occupants —
that they are the heaven-appointed agents for the ac-
complishment of Heaven’s purposes toward that long
forsaken continent. A brief consideration of these
points will be a sufficient answer to our queries.

1. The prejudice. We may denounce it as an un-
reasonable prejudice — a wicked prejudice. But it is
a stubborn fact ; indelible, ineffaceable as the color of
the Ethiopian’s skin. Bight or wrong, for more than
two centuries it has existed in this country, unabated,
unmitigated by time. We are not discussing the
right or wrong of it, but the stubborn fact. Of this
the negro but too well knows its power. Few, if any,
have been able to overcome it. It should be removed
— it should not exist. But it does exist ; and it will
exist. The negro, therefore, has only to yield to the
hard pressure and succumb to the subordinate condi-
tion which it, as a general condition, implies ; or he

NATIONALITIES OF DIVINE APPOINTMENT.

317

must shake off the incubus, and cast in his lot among
the jieople of his own nation and color, where he can
stand up in the pride and independence of his own
manhood. And is not this as heaven would have it ?
Time it is, that God “ hath made of one blood all na-
tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth
and equally true, that he hath “ determined the
bounds of their habitation.” God sacredly regards
nationalities, and does not smile upon that violence
which ruptures the distinctive branches into which he
has been pleased to divide the one great family of
man. « Whether the distinctive mark of each branch
be the color of the skin, or the contour of the face, he
would have the nationality respected.

What marvel, then, if we meet with an instinctive
something, call it prejudice, if you please, which jeal-
ously guards these national boundaries. The Hebrews
met it in Egypt, and have met it now for the last
eighteen centuries, and, it is this that has preserved
them a distinct people for the great and good pur-
poses which Heaven designs. Though in no other
case, perhaps, so marked as between the Caucasian
and the negro, yet the prejudice exists toward the
Chinese, the Malays, the North American Indian.
Nationalities are of Divine appointment ; and, these
appointments are made with special reference to his
chosen people — his Church, and the progress of the
work of redemption. We have the record: “When
the Most High divided to the nations them inherit-
ance, -when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel.” — Deut. xxxii. 8.

No people may lightly esteem their nationality.

318

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Their life-mission is to be executed through this na-
tionality. I was about to say, that it was the ne-
gro’s right to remain in this country, but his interest
to unite his destiny with his brethren in Africa. Bet-
ter to say it is his right only in a subordinate sense.
As the land of his birth, the land of his toil and his
sufferings, he has a right to remain as he is. As
touching his relations to his human oppressors, he has
the best right to stay. He has enriched the land by
his toils ; he has watered the soil with his tears. He
has rights. But a higher interest, a higher duty, de-
mands that he forego these rights. His God, his kin-
dred according to the flesh, the claims of nationality,
present a higher duty, a louder call, and bid him
hasten his escape from a land of oppression and in-
corrigible prejudice, to the land of hope, where, unem-
barrassed, he may arise and assert his manhood — en-
joy the smiles of Heaven, and, by blessing himself,
bless his race.

Is it, then, expedient, is it right, and their duty to
migrate to Africa? Undoubtedly it is. Interest,
duty, the unerring finger of God, all seem pointing in
that direction. An unmistakable, unremitting preju-..
dice seems to say : “ This is the way, walk ye in it.”
Whether it is for our interest as Americans to have
them leave us, is quite another question ; and one that
might receive quite a different answer. While I can
see reasons enough why, for their own sake, they
should go, I see no reason why we should wish them
to go — why we should thrust them out, save the rea-
son assigned by the Egyptians why they should hast-
en away the Israelites. A righteous retribution had
become top severe for endurance ; and they wished

A DEADLY PREJUDICE AND HATE.

319

those who had been the innocent occasion of it should
be removed out of their sight. The}' yielded to the ne-
cessity, hoping to escape a further judgment. On any
other ground, it is not easy to see why we should wish
their departure. Of all laborers they are the best adapt-
ed to the fields of their former toil — they are needed
there — and our interest would dictate that they remain.

We are amazed at the deep-rooted prejudice against
the whole negro race which the present war has devel-
oped. The thoughts of many hearts are revealed. It
is more than a prejudice. It is with a large party a
hate, a Satanic determination to keep the whole race in
question crushed beneath the same iron heel of slavery
which has kept them crushed for the last two centuries.
It repudiates all idea of a common brotherhood in the
race — all idea of right for the negro — all opportunity, if
not all capability, of rising above his present low level.
It is a feeling evoked, strengthened, and confirmed, by
the present war. Whatever view we may take of the
war, as seen from a northern standpoint, the instigators
of it at the South do not disguise the fact that it is a
war urged for the vindication and perpetuation of the
enslavement of the African race. Principles had been
promulgated and urged on the public attention at the
North, which, if persisted in and successful, would peril
the existence of the “ peculiar institution.” It was to
meet this, and forever to crush the hope of any future
attempt to abolish the system of human bondage, that
the war was waged ; and for the same reason it is prose-
cuted with a desperation and madness, which none but
a people reared in the atmosphere of human servitude
could wage.

Our amazement is not so much that southern slave-

320

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

holders display such an inveterate determination to
keep the victims of their pride and avarice in a perpet-
ual and hopeless bondage ; for they profess nothing bet-
ter ; and their leaders of public opinion, grave divines,
and sapient statesmen have fortified them in the dread-
ful delusion. But our astonishment is, that so large a
party at the North should manifest, in no mistakable
manner, sympathies with the slaveholder, and preju-
dices against the negro race, which would, if possible,
forge their chains stronger than ever.

Our conclusion from all this is, that prejudice is too
strong to admit of any fair hope that the two races may
ever live together and prosper on the same field of ac-
tivity. Their separation is, not only expedient, but in-
dispensable to the prosperity of the African race. We
conclude then,

2. That there is no well-founded hope for the colored
men of our land but in a negro nationality. “ The
bounds of his habitation must be determined.” Would
they successfully achieve, as a race, the great struggle of
national life, they must have a “ basis.” They must
have a home — a local habitation, where the family and
school — where social influences and motives to acquire
property and position — shall act upon them. They must
have rights, social and religious, to stimulate them to
activity and respectability. They must be where they
shall feel the power of society and the incentives of pa-
triotism. It is not enough that they are subjects of a
government, and acquire the wholesome discipline of
obedience. It must be their own government, of which
they shall be an integral part — not only be competent
to vote, but to be voted for — eligible to any office for
which they may be deemed competent.

THEY MUST HAVE A NATIONALITY.

321

Liberia holds out the offer of such a nationality. No
one, perhaps, will question that the negro has no fair
prospect of rising, except by securing for himself the
rights and privileges of a nationality. He can never
develop his manhood while deprived of such rights and
privileges. You may emancipate him from slavery,
and make him own himself, but if you do not give him
the opportunity to use himself, body, mind, and soul, in
the various relations in which they are made to be used,
you have gone but a little way toward conferring any
real benefit on the man. Facts do but too stubbornly
show that the larger number of negroes who have from
time to time, been emancipated in this country, and left
to seek their fortune as best they could, have not been
able to make for themselves a better position than they
left in their servitude. They secured the consciousness
of being free, and that is about all. But give them so-
cial, civil, and religious rights — give them a nationality
of their own, and, then, if they will not rise, and thrive,
and expand into being, and vindicate their claims to a
status among the nations, we will hand them over to
the tender mercies of their traducers.

But do they, at the present moment, indicate, by any
aptitudes, qualifications, or capabilities — or does the
providence of God, by his present dispensations, indi-
cate any such destiny for these sons of Ham? Have
we anyffair ground for the hope that they shall become
a great, and good, and prosperous, and highly useful na-
tion— getting good to themselves, and imparting a
greater good to the benighted tribes of that unfortunate
continent? I think we have, and I shall state some of
the grounds of such a hope.

Admiral Foote, than whom few men are better versed
14*

322

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

in the question before us, said in a recent public ad-
dress : “There never can be peace in the world until
the status of the negro is defined. Where shall he live?
How shall he be instructed ? What shall be his social
position? What are his capacities? What his rights,
natural and civil ? These are questions that agitate
the world. Statesmen, as well as philanthropists, are
engaged in solving this problem.” The flippant may
ridicule, the profane may sneer, the demagogue may
rant, but the “nigger question” is the great question of
the age. As well might Pharaoh and his host have
ignored the Hebrew question of their day. God was
in it, and he had a great and a far-reaching purpose to
accomplish through it. The deliverance of the captive
Hebrews was the first great necessary step to their es-
tablishment and expansion into one of the most import-
ant nationalities that ever existed.

Does the material exist — does the present generation
of Anglo-Africaus in this country possess capabilities
and qualifications, suited to build up and sustain such a
nationality in Africa as shall essentially benefit them-
selves and bless Africa ? From their past training and
education what encouragement do we derive that they
may constitute such a state as we have supposed? We
have already adduced instances not a few to show that,
in spite of the most formidable disadvantages, colored
men have become statesmen, scholars, writers, and men
of wealth and position — that they are respectably repre-
sented in the learned professions, and lack not artists,
poets, and orators. The only marvel is, that they have
made laudable progress under so forbidding circumstan-
ces. We may safely say, that, as far as we know, no
people apply themselves to learning, when they do have

ONLY NEED THE OPPORTUNITY.

323

the opportunity, Avith so much eagerness, or, according
to their opportunities, make a more rapid progress, than
this very race, as examples already quoted abundantly
attest. No class of children and youth show a more
hearty desire to learn, or, under the same circumstances,
make a more satisfactory proficiency. Most interesting
examples are now constantly being reported of the
large class of negroes that are, at the present moment,
continually falling into our hands, called “contrabands.”
Their eagerness to be taught, and the progress which
they make, adults as well as children, fully verify the
remarks I have made.

We are quite justified, then, in the conclusion, that all
they need is the adequate opportunity to fit them to oc-
cupy the position we have supposed. But it is rather
to their religious training and fitness to which I would
direct attention. Do we see any special presage for
good here ?

While the negro is not lacking, as we have seen, in
the development of the intellectual and physical ele-
ments needful to the building of a nationality of his
own, yet more especially does his fitness appear in the
development of his religious susceptibilities, indicating
the character of the mission lie is to execute on the
broad field of the African continent. If we mistake not
the divinely appointed agents for the conversion of Af-
rica to Christianity, are Americanized negroes. This
we infer, more especially, from the singular religious
history of this people during the last fifty years, when
taken in connection with their no less singular religious
proclivities. The first dawning of hope to the Ameri-
can negro appeared near the beginning of the present
century, in the abolition of the slave-trade, followed in

324

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

a few years, as a natural and happy sequence, by the
successive emancipation of the blacks in the West In-
dies, and throughout nearly every civilized nation.
This gave them an impulse onward and upward — cast
the first decisive ray of hope over the dark waters of
their servitude, and bid them rise and assert their
rights as men. The most distinctive sign of a sure
resurrection appeared in the development of the relig-
ious elements — the mightiest, surest element by which
to work out a people’s renovation.

Previous to the period I have named, “ the negro
race had been left in a state of almost absolute spiritual
neglect.” Along the whole line of the west coast of
Africa, not a mission had been commenced, not a tem-
ple of Christianity pointed its spire to the skies. In
America and in the West Indies the masses of the col-
ored population were in a state of heathenism, though
surrounded by Christian institutions. Indeed, their op-
pressors were not yet well decided whether they were
susceptible of religious improvement, or had immortal
souls.

Africa’s degradation had now reached a crisis. From
this point a marked reaction followed. Henceforward
her suffering sons, aroused from their long and deep
slumber, showed a singular disposition to receive and
be profited by religious instruction ; and, as corre-
sponding with this, there sprung into existence about
the same time a disposition, equally strange and unpre-
cedented, to come to the rescue of this long-benighted,
degraded race. This feeling soon clothed itself in the
overt act, and at length became embodied in certain
philanthropic and benevolent societies, the design of
which is the evangelization of the enslaved and the re-

THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY FOR AFRICA.

325

cently emancipated ; and through them, the evangel-
ization of Africa. We refer to such associations as
“ The Ladies’ Negro Education Society” of England ;
a society in the island of Barbadoes, under the patron-
age of the governor and bishop ; a society in England,
under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the leaders of the Church and of the State ; our
own Colonization Society, and Missionary Societies of
every name and nation. These are but the movings of
the great heart of Christianity toward the long-be-
nighted and down-trodden sons of Africa.

And, in correspondence with this again, slaveholders
in America, who had heretofore scarcely thought more
of providing religious teachings for their slaves than for
their horses, now begin to erect chapels, build school-
houses, employ teachers and preachers ; and themselves
and families often contributing to, and participating in,
the noble work. And in beautiful harmony with this,
the Spirit of God, poured out from on high, has accom-
panied these teachings, simple as they oftentimes are ;
and never, perhaps, in the history of Christianity, was
the same amount of means made effectual to the produc-
tion of so great results, and this, whether numbers are
brought into the account, or the character, the spiritu-
ality, of the converts ; never has the same amoufit of
means, and means characterized by so moderate intel-
lectual power, savingly and permanently effected so
large a proportion of a community, or been followed by
so high an order of genuine spirituality.

We have seen various statements of the number of
southern slaves in connection with Christian churches.
We give the following from the Educational Journal , of
Forsyth, Ga. :

326

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Connected with the Methodist Church South,

are 200,000

Methodist North, in Virginia and Maryland.. 15,000

Missionary and Hard-Shell Baptists 175,000

Old-School Presbyterians 12,000

New “ “ (U. Synod) supposed 6,000

Cumberland 20,000

Protestant Episcopalians 7,000

Campbellites or Christian Churches 10,000

All other sects combined 20,000

Total colored membership, South 465,000

It is a safe calculation,” remarks the same journal,

“ to say that three for every one connected with the
churches attend Divine service on the Lord’s Day. In
the extreme Southern States there are more, for the
owners and overseers require them, in many instances,
to turn out to preaching. Then 465,000 multiplied by
3, gives us 1,395,000 slaves in attendance on Divine ser-
vice in the South every Sabbath.”

No missionary scheme acting in any quarter of the
globe presents any thing like such results. All the mis-
sionary societies of all branches of the Evangelical
Christian Church do not exhibit so large a list of con-
verts during the same time.

But what kind of Christians are they? We do not
speak of their intelligence, of their social influence, or of
their pecuniary ability. Yet we often marvel at the
intellectual attainments which they actually acquire
while yet in slavery. It is the spiritual caste of their
religion that we now inquire after. What is the char-
acter of these half million of slave Christians as to gen-
uine heart-felt piety ?

THE TYPE OF THEIK PIETY.

327

Wc may here quote, as a fair specimen of the many
testimonials we have from the same quarter, the “testi-
mony of a pastor” of one of their churches at the South :
“ In the church I serve,” he says, “ there are some of the
most beautiful specimens of Christian character I ever
saw. Often have I witnessed the calm, intelligent, tri-
umphant death-bed scene, and said in my soul : I shall
not be fit to sit at the feet of these in heaven.” Those
who have been present at their services in their own
churches at the South, bear the most willing testimony
to the peculiar fervency of their prayers — to the godly
simplicity of their worship— to the pathos, humility, and
single heartedness of their religion. There is about it a
meekness and lowliness of mind ; a renunciation of self ;
a drawing near to, and a casting one’s self upon, God ;
an obedient, dependent, and filial spirit, which we are
sure bears a nearer resemblance to the apostolic religion
— bears more indubitable marks of a heavenly origin,
than any form of religion with which we are acquainted.
It takes hold on God. It engages the hand and heart
of God in its behalf. The High and Holy One that
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, dwells with
him that is of a contrite heart and a humble spirit.

Mighty agencies, terrific agencies, are engaged at the
present moment to carry forward the war which this
great African question has originated in our land.
Armies, navies, military strategy, vast pecuniary re-
sources, are engaged. But there is an agency at work
infinitely mightier than they all. We meet it in the filial
and undying reliance of the abused ones on Israel’s God.
We meet it in their humble, importunate prayers, and
strong cries and tears, as in the iron furnace they sigh
for deliverance. Their oppressors may defy northern

328

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

steel, and northern men and money ; but in their negro’s
prayers they are sure to meet a power which is alto-
gether too hard for them. They take hold on the om-
nipotent arm ; and he that resists shall perish.

Here lies our hope, here the power, that shall deliver
them from their present thraldom, and make them a great
and good nation in their native Africa ; and make
them, in turn, the great and paramount agency for the
civilization and evangelization of that great continent.
We think we see substantial grounds for such a hope in
the singular susceptibilities, and readiness in the colored
man to cultivate a religious character ; in the singular
disposition manifested by white Christians to bring re-
ligious teachings within their reach ; and the no less
extraordinary manner in which the Spirit has been
poured out from on high and given efficacy to these
teachings.

But a query here arises, which we would not suppress.
It relates to the apparent inadequacy of the means to
the result. We are wont to expect spiritual results
only in proportion as the appointed means of grace arc
applied, in proportion to the amount of truth presented
and enforced on the heart and conscience. In the case
before us, we meet with this disparity strikingly promi-
nent. Our negroes at the South are generally without
the Bible, and without the ability to read if they had
the book ; much of the preaching and religious teaching
which they enjoy is of a very meagre character, impart-
ing but very little knowledge of the truth. And their
opportunities for verbal instruction, owing to their asso-
ciations being allnost entirely confined to persons as
ignorant as themselves, are scanty and few ; and if these
advantages were multiplied and- of a high order, their

THEY ARE DIRECTLY TAUGHT OF GOD.

329

lack of time and opportunity — -their peculiar condition,
as slaves, chattels, tools — would, we should suppose, very
much hinder the due improvement of the means of
spiritual profiting. Yet, as a most interesting matter
of fact, they have an amount of religious knowledge —
have a Christian experience, thorough, shrewd, discrim-
inating— which far transcends any thing we are led to
expect in the circumstances. In the matter of a humble,
heartfelt, experimental religion, they have a depth of ex-
perience, a drawing near to God, and a childlike famil-
iarity and confidence, which give no doubtful evidence
that they are, indeed, taught of God. Constrained to ac-
knowledge that these outcasts among men, but honored
of God, have drunk deep in Divine philosophy, many an
intelligent white Christian does not disdain to sit at
their feet, and be taught the wonderful things of God.
But whence have these men letters, never having
learned ?

We seem shut up to the conclusion, that men in this
condition are taught by a direct and special revelation
from God. The class in question would seem to furnish
abundant evidence that they are thus taught. The idea
is brought out in an extract before me, taken from a
paper by Dr. Floy, a Methodist clergyman of New York.
The interest of the subject will excuse the length of the
extract. He says :

“ tie finds in South Carolina the most extraordinary
knowledge of Divine things among the slaves. They are
ignorant, they are not much taught ; and he is clearly of
the opinion that they have not derived this knowledge,
either from reading the Bible, or from the oral instruc-
tion of Christians. Itc asks how they get it ; and he
answers the question by saying that ho believes God re-

330

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

veals it to them. I believe so too. But does lie reveal
it to everybody that does not know it? No; not to
those that can find it out for themselves. But take a
mind, and let it hunger and thirst after righteousness ;
let a mind that is in darkness be pressing toward moral
truth, and yearning for it, without the power of obtain-
ing it, and then I believe that God will reveal that
truth to him.

‘‘Now the African mind is essentially a religious
mind, and it has had culture enough to know that there
is a heaven, and that there is a Jesus Christ that died
for men. It understands the great outlines of truth, and
yearns toward it, and feels after it ; and I see nothing
in philosophy or religion that renders it difficult to be-
lieve that to souls that have no light of God’s Word,
from which they are shut out by penal enactments, that
liave little or no religious instruction, and that are
blindly groping to find God, he does send light enough
to let them know which way to walk. Is it harder for
God to teach a poor African than a poor old Jew, like
Isaiah ? Is it harder now for God to teach some old
Dinah than, in olden times, it was for him to teach a
Hannah? And if there is a good purpose for it, I do
not know why he should not do in these later times what
he did in earlier days.

“ But, it is said, ‘ The canon is closed, and we are not
to add to, or take away from, the Word of God.’ Who
pretends to add to God’s Word, or to take away from
it ? I do not say that God makes the Bible longer.
What I say is, that there is no evidence that he does not
still reveal the truth to a man that is dying for it.

“ This is not, however, to foreclose moral education.
It is not to discourage the use of our faculties. These

HOW GOD CONDESCENDS.

331

revelations, these inspirations, at any rate, are not for
you, nor for mej they are for those around about the
gate of heaven who are willing to work and to suffer,
but who have not the means of helping themselves, and
who cry : ‘ Lord, send a beam of light to guide our
souls to thee.’ I believe that God carries emancipation
to the souls of men by the Holy Ghost shed abroad.

“ And I believe that God ministers his truth to some
persons who are not in servitude. I believe that poor
sailors on the deck, and ignorant men in the outskirts
of society, whose circumstances are such that they can
not themselves obtain a knowledge of God, often have
him revealed to them. I believe that some vicious crimi-
nals, that are neglected and cast away, have given to
them in their dying moments the illumination of God’s
Spirit.

“ Times of need are plod’s throne. He sits in the
times of need of the poor human soul, and out of his
great beneficence and grace sends forth royal decrees of
emancipation : Not to every man, but according to his
own good pleasure.”

Have we not shown that there is ample material, and
material of the very best kind, of which to form a negro
nationality in Africa ? And does it not follow, as an
obvious sequence, that every man of this class, who is
fitted for such a noble work, and who is so circum-
stanced that he can go, should immediately put on the
harness, repair to the arena of action, and contribute his
quota to the great work. This being conceded, we shall
press the argument in yet another form :

3. If our colored friends would ever rise from their
present degradation, they must go where they can be
men. We have conceded their right to remain in this

332

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

country ; but would persuade them of their interest to
go. We have alluded to the insuperable disability
which precludes the l-ise of the negro in this land. Call
it prejudice against color ; call it the tyranical inter-
dict of a wicked public opinion ; call it what you will, it
is a law which no legislation can repeal. It is the vir-
tual disfranchisement of the Free, no less than of the
Slave States. With a single and almost accidental ex-
ception, not a man of them, so far as my knowledge ex-
tends, holds any civil office, from the St. John’s to the
farthest West.” Do you say this is a cruel proscription ?
It is admitted. But so it is. Such is their actual con-
dition, and such it has been for two centuries. Suppose
they remain among us, can they calculate on any such
change in public sentiment as shall secure for them a
fair competition with their white neighbors ? Such is a
forlorn hope. Experience is against it. The controll-
ing tendencies are all the other way. The whole history
of the world is against it. No two races, differing so
much as the Caucasian and the African do, ever dwelt
together in the enjoyment of equal consideration, rights,
and privileges. So long as these marked distinctions
exist, one or the other will have the ascendancy.
Nothing but amalgamation can prevent it, and who, in
his senses, will plead for that ?

By giving different constitutions and complexions to
great branches of the human family, God evidently in-
tended they should be kept separate. The unhappy
state of things in the United States has grown out of
the enormously wicked infringement of this Divine al-
lotment. The black man ought never to have been
brought to America. They do not belong here. God
gave them a better home in Africa.

MAKE THEM FREE AND TRY THEM.

333

But here they are, and it is a question of stupendous
moment, what shall be done with them? Our interest
replies, emancipate them from their involuntary servi-
tude, and let them remain here as free laborers. We
need them. They are better adapted than any other
class of laborers to all the southern sections of our
country. Selfishness would retain them. — not as slaves,
but as freemen — not as equals, but as a menial class of
laborers ; for above this, as a class, they can never rise.
Philanthropy, humanity — the only hope we can see for
poor Africa — the only reasonable expectation we can
indulge for the proscribed race among us, is that they
should be disenthralled from their present disabilities,
and, by opening to them the privileges and incentives of
a nationality, put them in a position to display to the
world whatever of manhood they possess.

It will give force to the argument to give it in the
words of an intelligent writer and a thoroughly educa-
ted colored man who lias resided twelve years in Africa,
and has carefully studied the capabilities of the negro
for improvement — has had ample opportunity to witness
what, in the incipient stages of his nationality, he has
already accomplished, and what he is in a fair way to
accomplish. He has had ample opportunities, too, to
become acquainted with the resources of the country,
with the facilities there furnished and the opportunities
there offered for the growth and expansion of his man-
hood. I refer to the Rev. Edward W. Blyden, profes-
sor in the Liberian College.

In a recent address, in this country, he advocates the
colonization of his colored brethren on the coast of Af-
rica as the only scheme for their real elevation. lie
will not accept, as the true friends of his kindred, those

334 " THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

whose whole zeal is exhausted when they see them de-
livered from the bonds of servitude, but do not give
them a home, a name, and a nation of their own. “Many
of the strong advocates for the abolition of slavery,” he
says, “ manifest no special desire to see negroes form
themselves into an independent community. In fact,
many of them do not believe that the negro is fit for
any other than a subordinate position. They expect
that after slavery is abolished, and the country rescued
from that foul blot on its character, the negro will find
his position among the free laborers of the land. They
never think of assigning him any other part than that of
the Gibeonite. He is to be, though free, always the ob-
ject of pity and patronage, to be assisted and held up,
never to stand alone. They do not conceive how na-
tionality and independence can be at all objects to us.
They suppose that after they have given us meat for
food, houses for shelter, and raiment to cover us, there
is nothing else that we desire, or arc fit to enjoy.
These men do not know us, or they would understand
that we have souls as well as they. They would know
that our hearts are made of the same material as theirs ;
that we can feel as well as they ; and that the words
‘ nationality’ and : independence’ possess as much charm
and music for us as for them.”

On the other hand, the founders of the Liberian re-
public, and the patrons of colonization, he says : “ show
a truer appreciation of us, in aiding us to deliver our-
selves from all this overshadowing and dwarfing patron-
age, and to enjoy a field of action where we have the
whole battle to wage for ourselves, and where thousands
this day feel themselves happier in the resources of
their own individual industry — limited as those resour-

PROF. CRUMMELL’S TESTIMONY.

335

ces may be— than they could possibly have felt in all
the provisions which could havfe been made for them, if
they had remained in this country.

“ The founders of Liberia looked upon the negro as a
man, needing, for his healthful growth, all the en-
couragement of social and political equality. They
provided for him, therefore, a home in Africa, his own
fatherland. And while a partial and narrow sympathy
was pouring out its complaints and issuing its invec-
tives against their operations, they were sowing the
seeds of African nationality, and rearing on those bar-
barous shores the spectacle wtc now behold of a thriving,
well-conditioned, and independent negro State.”

Mr. Blyden does but utter the sentiment of every in-
telligent Liberian. Rev. Mr. Crummell, professor in
the same college, bears a like testimony to the trans-
forming and elevating influences of the Liberian nation-
ality on his native race. “When I went to Liberia,” he
says, “ my views and purposes were almost entirely mis-
sionary in their character, and very much alien from any
thing civil or national ; but I had not been in the coun-
try three days when such was the manliness I saw exhib-
ited, so great was the capacity I saw developed, and so
many were the signs of thrift, energy, and national life
which showed themselves, that all my governmental in-
difference at once vanished ; aspirations after citizenship
and nationality rose in my bosom, and I was impelled to
go to the magistrate, take the oath of allegiance, and thus
become a citizen of Liberia. For myself and my chil-
dren, Liberia shall be my country and my home.” Again
he says : “ In every department of life and labor in Libe-
ria, there are unmistakable evidences of growth. I feel
the assurance to affirm here, that, in every quarter, the

336

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

most casual observer can perceive strength, confidence,
self-reliance, development, increase of wealth, and great
hardiment of character.” But we had not done with
our last witness. Mr. Blydcn shall be heard through.
He adds :

“ The superior advantages which our position in
Liberia gives us have never been fully set forth in all
the culogiums of colonization papers. They can never
be expressed. As soon as the black man of soul lands
in Liberia, and finds himself surrounded by his own
people, taking the lead in every social, political, educa-
tional, and industrial enterprise, he feels himself a dif-
ferent man. He feels that ho is placed in the high atti-
tude of an actor, that his words and deeds will now be
felt by those around him. A consciousness of individual
importance, which he never experienced before, comes
over him. The share which he is obliged to take in the
affairs of the country brings him information of various
kinds, and has an expanding effect upon his mind. His
soul grows lustier. He becomes a more cultivated and
intellectual being than formerly. His character re-
ceives a higher tone. Every sentiment which his new
position inspires is on the side of independence and
manliness. In a word, he becomes a full man — a
distinction to which he can never arrive in this
country.

“ When I say that the negro can never attain in this
country to the distinction of true manhood, I say so de-
liberately and from a heartfelt conviction. I am aware
that there are many who are enduring their disabilities
in this land with great fortitude, in view of the future.
Their tranquil hearts, drilled into a most undignified con-
tentment, are cherishing a better prospect, and reposing

HER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE..

337

on the sure anticipation’ of happier days in this land of
their thraldom. They hope that the growth of free in-
stitutions and the progress of Christian sentiment will
eradicate the intolerant prejudice against them. Such
advance and progress may have that effect, but by that
time the negro will have passed away, victimized and
absorbed by the Caucasian.”

And here it is but justice to allow the new republic
to be the expounder of her own purposes of nationality.
A single paragraph from her Declaration of Independ-
ence indicates what were the designs of her founders —
what they expect to accomplish for the colonists ; and
what is the character of the influence wre may expect
they will exert on the native tribes beyond them. In
the following declarations we discover, as a leading
idea, the purpose to develop, through their national or-
ganization, a noble manhood :

“ Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding op-
pression.

“ In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the
pleasing hope that we would be permitted to exercise
and improve those faculties which impart to man his
dignity — to nourish in our own hearts the flame of hon-
orable ambition, to cherish and indulge those aspira-
tions which a beneficent Creator had implanted in
every human heart, and to evince to all who despise,
ridicule, and oppress our race, that we possess with
them a common nature, are with them susceptible of
equal refinement, and capable of equal advancement in
all that adorns and dignifies man.”

4. But there remains one other aspect in which we
would contemplate the idea of a negro nationality in
Africa, and the duty of our colored population in rela-
15

338

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tion to it. It is the providential aspect. Are there
grounds for the conviction that the finger of God is
pointing them to that land ? — that they have a great
mission to fulfill there — that the strong hand of Provi-
dence is stretched out to bring them to their promised
land — that that land is kept in reserve, waiting for its
rightful occupants — that they are the heaven-appointed
agents for the accomplishment of Heaven’s purposes
toward that long-forsaken continent.

1. There has been a note-worthy preparation on the
part of Africa. Ethiopia is stretching out her hands for
aid. Most wonderfully has the hand of God wrought,
during the last fifty years, to prepare that continent to
receive the rich boon of civilization and a pure Chris-
tianity. From various motives, travelers, explorers, ad-
venturers, have been moved to bring Africa out from the
dense, dark cloud that has so long enshrouded her, and
to make known to Christian nations her woes and her
wants, that they in turn should be moved to come to her
relief. Christian travelers have here done a great and a
good work. They are the best explorers of an un-
frequented country, for the double reason that we have,
in the character of the men and in the motives which
prompt their travels, a guarantee of trustworthy ac-
counts ; and that they are not transient travelers or
simply sojourners in the land, but residents, who have
free intercourse with the people in their own native
tongue, and every facility for a thorough acquaintance
with the manners, customs, religion, and general re-
sources of the country and its people. Scientific ex-
plorers have done a service scarcely less valuable.
Governmental expeditions for discovery, have forced
their way up the great rivers of Africa, and exposed to

EAGERNESS TO RECEIVE THE GOSPEL.

339

the view of the other nations the resources of her in-
terior. Commerce lias followed in their wake, and been
as the strong arm of Providence to prepare Africa to
receive into her wounded bosom the “ oil and the wine”
which the good Samaritan waits to pour in.

And what is yet more worthy of our admiration and
gratitude, is the wonderful readiness to receive the Gos-
pel. Like Cornelius and his “kinsmen and friends,”
they are “ waiting” — “ to hear all things commanded of
God.” We have the concurrent testimony of all mis-
sionaries to the 'readiness, the eagerness, of the native
Africans to receive the Gospel If the missionary is but
a transient traveler in their tribe, they entreat him to
come and take up his abode among them. They hold
out every inducement in their power. They employ
strategy to retain him. Ethiopia thus stands in the
posture of outstretched arms, hungering for that bread
which came down from heaven. But,

2. Do we discover any movements of Providence cor-
responding to this ; preparing the agencies and the
agents to meet such a state of preparedness on the part
of Africa ? Most undoubtedly we do. We have seen
what an irrepressible desire for instruction has, within
the last generation, sprung up even among our slave
population ; and how that, in spite of disadvantages
that would seem insuperable, many have risen, not only
to respectability, but to eminence, and fitted themselves
to be just the kind of agents which Africa is prepared to
appreciate and be profited by. Africa stands in a wait-
ing posture to receive them — with outstretched arms to
welcome them to her embrace. She is famishing for the
bread of life ; and her Americanized sons are the only
almoners on earth fitted to supply her need. The mis-

340

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

sion is theirs, heaven-ordained ; theirs, because heaven
has adapted them alone to it.

The opinion expressed above is abundantly confirmed
by a recent traveler in the South, who states a “ few
facts,” as the result of his observation, which mark the
signs of the times on this subject: “ In no period since
the existence of slavery has there been such attention
paid to the religious instruction of slaves as in the last
ten years ; and in no part of the world have there been
gathered richer fruits to encourage the laborer. It is
also worthy of special notice that, while our country gen-
erally has been suffering a spiritual death, the colored
population of the Southern States have been sharing
largely in the gracious influences of God’s converting
Spirit. Now, if we connect these facts with the forego-
ing, and mark their coincidence — the instruction that is
now being given them — the outpouring of the Spirit, and
converting them to God, together with the brightening
prospects of Liberia — what other interpretation can be
given to all this, but that God, in his own way and in his
own time, is raising up and preparing missionaries,
school-teachers, and statesmen for that infant but grow-
ing republic, that is beginning to attract the attention
and admiration of the civilized world ? During my
present tour, I have taken especial pains to obtain infor-
mation respecting the amount and extent of religious
instruction among the slaves ; and it is truly surprising
and cheering to witness the almost universal feeling and
interest on this subject, and the extent to which they
have carried out their plans, in establishing schools and
churches, and obtaining missionaries and teachers for
the sole benefit of the colored people. Some of the
church edifices, that are neat and costly, are owned by

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND OTHER AGENCIES. 341

the slaves themselves, with regularly organized churches,
large and orderly congregations, where they enact their
own laws, have their own pastor, and worship in their
own way.”

And the same din of preparation is heard — the same
training of agents for the renovation of Africa — the
same yearning to bless their fatherland in the emanci-
pated thousands of the West Indies, and among the re-
captured Africans taken to Sierra Leone. These last,
“ civilized and Christianized, feel all of a sudden an ir-
resistible desire to return to the land of their birth.
They charter vessels, and a large number go down the
coast a thousand miles and more, bearing the Gospel to
Abbeokuta.”

3. And in correspondence with all this, and outside
of all, we meet mighty auxiliary agencies which Provi-
dence has furnished, by which to bring into action and
to make effectual the facilities and resources I have
named. Philanthropy and Christian benevolence were
never more effectively roused than at the present mo-
ment in respect to Africa. Already (and this all within
a few years) is Africa begirt with Christian missions.
Nearly every Missionary Society is represented. On the
west, the south, and the east, this efficient agency is at
work, and every year does but deepen the interest felt
in Africa.

No question is of so momentous import as that which
relates to the negro. It is the great question of the
day. It shakes England to her very centre. It agi-
tates all Europe. It lias burst on the American Union
like a thunderbolt, and, with a furor that knows no
bounds, threatens its dissolution. Nations, not a few —
nations, great and mighty, seem likely to become actors

342

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

in the great drama, and arbiters of the fate of Africa.
Never before did the world witness the mighty move-
ments of Providence so concentrating on one great
arena as we now do in relation to Africa. Commerce is
turning thither her keen eye, and extending her puissant
arm toward that long-neglected land, developing her
resources, demanding industry, evoking enterprise, and
giving sure promise that thrift, light, knowledge, civil-
ization, nationality, and Christianity shall follow in her
wake.

Never did a people have stronger inducements to de-
cisive and energetic action. Would they be men and
not things — free men and not chattels— citizens and not
a race of menials, they must go where alone the oppor-
tunity of asserting and maintaining their manhood is
offered. And would they not prove recreant to the
noble mission given them to fulfill, not to a tribe, but to a
continent, toward which the unerring finger of God is
pointing, they must, in obedienee to the heavenly behest,
go to them who are ready to perish. Never did a peo-
ple have spread out before them so extensive, so invit-
ing, and so promising a field.

GROUND OF HOPE FOR AFRICA.

343

CHAPTER XVIII.

Wherein more especially lies our hope for Africa — In the peculiar character
of the agency provided for their renovation — No inveterate system of
false religion to encounter — The present war and its bearings on Africa.

We have said there is hope for Africa. We come
now to inquire after the reasons of such a hope. To
many, it seems a hope against hope, that a people so long
debased, so long preyed upon by every evil man or
devil could invent, and who have so long lain helpless
under such an accumulation of evils, should at length
emerge and shake herself from the dust of her debase-
ment, and sit among the nations clothed and in her right
mind. Shall she, who hath “lain among the pots, be as
the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her
feathers with yellow gold.”

But on what, especially, do we predicate our hopes
for Africa? As already said, we have a confident hope
for the amelioration of that benighted land, through
the colonies which are directing their course thither.
These streams of a kindred humanity, improved and
elevated by a hard culture under Anglo-Saxon disci-
pline, are thus flowing back to bless the fatherland.
They go richly laden with some of Heaven’s best bless-
ings. They carry with them the English language,
which is the language of liberty, the language of civili-
zation, of progress, of the arts and sciences, of Protest-
antism, and, more than all, it is the language of an evan-
gelical Christianity. They carry with them a civiliza-

344

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tion of a higher grade than xlfrica, as a whole, ever
yet knew, and of a vastly higher grade than she knows
now. They go endowed with a practical knowledge of
the business of every-day life — with industry, common
education, and many of them with that higher grade of
education which will not fail to give a controlling in-
fluence to the right formation of social, civil, and na-
tional character. And, better than all, they carry with
them Christianity ; and Christianity of that peculiar
type which obtained its growth, vigor, and spirit in cir-
cumstances of a humiliation and debasement, which
gives it more of a dependence on God, humility, lilial
trust, patience, lowliness of mind, love, and forbearance,
than is often met among those whose religion has been
cultivated under circumstances widely different.

From such colonists we hope much — especially when
we recall what we have seen to be true of the peculiar
field on which they are to act. We here refer more es-
pecially to the readiness of the tribes beyond them to
receive the Gospel — to acquire the habits and to appro-
priate the advantages of civilization, and to become in-
corporated in the same body politic with the colonists
— to adopt their manners, customs, and religion, and to
come under their benign influence.

Again : we see hope for Africa in the extended and
rapidly extending commerce which is being pushed into
every harbor on the coast, and up every river into her
rich interior. Wo see in this the no distant extinction
of the slave-trade, her deadliest bane ; the quickening
of her enterprise and industry, and the consequent de-
velopment of her soil, her mines, her forests, and rivers ;
the growing intelligence and elevation of her people
through the intercourse which trade with the more

OTHER GROUNDS OF HOPE.

345

civilized nations will promote ; the accumulation of
wealth, which gives character and prestige, as well as
ministers to general well-being, and is the precursor
and the messenger that prepares the way for the angel
having the everlasting Gospel to preach — opening the
way for its introduction, and providing the means for
its support and extension to pagan tribes beyond. We
have seen commerce already working a mighty revolu-
tion in Africa, and we are in no danger of disappoint-
ment that its auspicious beginnings shall deceive our
hopes of yet more comprehensive results. Its influence
is not likely to abate till it work out the social and
civil renovation of the whole continent.

Other grounds of hope for Africa we meet in the
peculiar character of the agency which Providence has
raised up and prepared for this work ; in the pecu-
liar type of Christianity which the African seems capa-
ble of ; in the success which has already attended
Christian missions in that country, and the promise of
yet greater success ; in the remarkable readiness of the
native Africans to receive Christian teachings — yea,
their eagerness to be taught. Again : the fact that no
systematic, time-honored, and inveterate form of idola-
try or false religion so preoccupies their minds and
engrosses their hearts as to present obstacles the most
formidable to the reception of the Gospel. And again :
have we not some fair ground to hope that a people,
who have themselves so recently escaped, some from the
galling bonds of servitude, and all from the scarcely less
cruel and oppressive thraldom of caste and prejudice,
will, while yet in the spring-time of their national exist-
ence, be impelled, b}r every generous and benevolent
motive, to impart the rich boon they have received, till
15*

346

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tribe after tribe, and nation after nation, shall be
brought under the same happy influences, and all Africa
shall be saved ? To some of these points we have
already referred. We would now corroborate our asser-
tions by the testimony of persons who have personally
seen and known the things whereof they affirm.

No barbarous people were ever civilized and evangel-
ized by foreign aid alone. Others must begin the work
— Christianity must be carried to them and its institu-
tions established. But the details of the work, its bur-
dens and consummation must be by the people them-
selves. In the British Isles, centuries elapsed in the
slow process of preparing the men that should fabricate
their then future, but now present nationality. Indeed,
centuries were required to bring them up to the point
where the New England colonists, or the colonists from
this country to Liberia, begun. In their training for
their work, the founders of Liberia were not unlike the
Pilgrim Fathers, or the founders of the Hebrew Com-
monwealth. In character, training, and experience they
were centuries in advance of the founders of States,
which have, after a protracted period, risen to emi-
nence. In relation to government, liberty, free institu-
tions, and right educational views, Liberia is this day
in advance of almost every nation of continental Europe.
They have not yet reached the point where they begun.
Why, then, should we not hope for Africa?

The same hope we predicate again on the peculiar
type of Christianity which we have seen to characterize
our black Christians, and that higher order of civiliza-
tion which the most intelligent writers on the race, con-
cede them to be capable of. The Itev. J. L. Wilson,
for eighteen years a missionary in Africa, aud late Sec-

IN THE INFANCY OF CIVILIZED LIFE.

347

retary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions,
does but speak the language of such writers as Pritch-
ard, Smythe, and Morton when he says : “ The Afri-
can, when brought under the benign influence of Christi-
anity, exemplifies the beauty and consistency of his re-
ligion more than any other human being on the face of
the earth. And the time may come when they may be
held up to all the rest of the world as examples of the
purest and most elevated virtue.'’

A kindred sentiment is expressed by the Westminster
Review . We quote it rather for the sake of a quota-
tion it contains of an American writer, which is pecu-
liarly apposite to our subject. We must bear in mind,
as he remarks, that “Africa has never yet been seen
fairly exposed to civilizing influences except in the con-
dition of a servant — the only condition, it may be added,
in which he could well be placed in contact with civili-
zation at all. His character is believed to be rather
that of the infancy of civilized, than the maturity of
savage, life. As to his intellect, it appears to be quick
and ready, but not strong ; imitative, but not original.
It is wanting in the daring, enterprising, stern, perse-
vering qualities with which the European mind is en-
dowed. The two races are not less distinctively marked
in moral attributes. The European is vehement, ener-
getic, proud, tenacious, and revengeful ; the African is
docile, gentle, humble, grateful, and commonly forgiv-
ing. The one is ambitious and easily aroused ; the other
meek, easily contented, and easily subdued. Christianity
itself has not yet infused its milder influence thoroughly
into the stubborn elements of the Caucasian race.”

In connection with these general reasonings, the Re-
view quotes a passage from an American work, entitled

348

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“ Some Lectures ou Man,” delivered by the author in
Cincinnati in 1839. The work alluded to is a profound
philosophical production, by Alexander Kimmont, who
died in Cincinnati before his book was published The
book is but too little known. The following passages
are quoted by the Westminster :

“ When the epoch of the civilization of the negro
family arrives in the lapse of ages, they will display in
their native land some very peculiar and interesting
traits of character, of which we, a distinct branch of the
human family, can at present form no conception. It
will be— indeed, it must be — a civilization of a peculiar
stamp ; perhaps we may venture to conjecture, not so
much distinguished by art as by a certain beautiful na-
ture ; not so marked or adorned by science, as exalted
and refined by new and lovely theology — a reflection of
the light of heaven more perfect and endearing than
that which the intellects of the Caucasian race have
ever yet exhibited. There is more of the child, more
of unsophisticated nature, in the negro race than in the
European .

“ The peninsula of Africa is the home of the negro,
and the appropriate and distinct seat of his future glory
and civilization— a civilization which we will not fear
to predict will be as distinct in all its features from that
of all other races as his complexion and natural tem-
perament and genius are different. If the Caucasian
race is destined, as would appear from the precocity of
their genius and natural quickness and extreme aptitude
for the arts, to reflect the lustre of the Divine wisdom, or,
to speak more properly, of the Divine science, shall we
envy the negro if a later, but far nobler, civilization
await him — to return the splendor of the Divine attri-

A PECULIAR CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.

349

butes of mercy and benevolence in the practice and ex-
hibition of the milder and gentler virtues ? * * * *

The sweeter graces of the Christian religion appear
almost too tropical and tender plants to grow in the
soil of the Caucasian mind ; they require a character
of human nature of which you can see the rude linea-
ments in the Ethiopian to be implanted in, and grow
naturally and beautifully withal.”

We quote yet another writer, who alludes to one ele-
ment in the religion of the negro, and, indeed-, in his
civilization, which is too characteristic to be passed
unnoticed. It is music. There is a softening, a subdu-
ing influence — a devotion — an absorption of soul — a lift-
ing up of the heart to God — in the sacred songs of this
people, which has not failed to arrest the attention of
all serious persons who have had the privilege to attend
on their worshiping assemblies, and which, I am sure, is
met in the same degree nowhere else. The writer
says :

“The tastes and tendencies of the African mind in
that region seem, however, to tend (as it does in this
country) toward music and the softer arts, rather than
toward the scientific and stronger developments of in-
tellect. If this be the ultimate tendency of African
tastes and developments, then it may be a very desirable
and beautiful civilization which that country will ulti-
mately attain ; but one which will never counteract the
domination of the Gothic, or, as it is now called, the
Anglo-Saxon superiority. It is only the scientific devel-
opment of the human mind which can ever wield power.

“Africa is probably destined to receive a civilization
as soft and luxurious as ancient Asia ; but raised to a
far higher level by the genius of Christianity. Chris-

350

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

tianity is itself mild, peaceful, and softening, and may
therefore ultimately find in Africa, and in eastern climes, -
a soil congenial and peculiar to itself. Amid the world’s
overturning and revolutions, it may happen that Europe
will be darkened and defiled by a gross infidelity, while
America and Africa may become the residence of the
purest and brightest Christianity ! Such a revolution
would be no more marvelous than that Babylon and
Tyre have become ruins, and returned to barbarism.
The world is but a complex scene of ruin, revolution,
and restoration. The day is dawning for Africa, and
even the blackness of her night will pass away before
the renewing influence of Christian civilization.”

The strong religious tendencies of the colored race —
perhaps stronger in the slave than in the free negro —
appear in the fact so well known, that, when employ-
ed at their labors, they alleviate their hard bondage
with their sacred songs. Or if you overhear their con-
versation, as they are assembled in groups after their
labors have closed, you will discover religion is the
topic. No people are so readily moved by religious
motives.

And there has been within a few years past an “ un-
usual solicitude everywhere manifest in the negro race
— a stirring up in the spiritual desires and yearnings of
this race such as was never before witnessed.” From
every side, says an intelligent colored writer, we hear
the earnest cry from yearning hearts for Christian light.
There is no quarter of the globe where the children of
Africa are gathered together, but where we see this
trait of character more discovered than any other.
Religious susceptibility and moral dispositions are the
more marked characteristics.of the negro family. Where

EAGERNESS FOR INSTRUCTION.

351

the white man goes he first builds a bank, or a trading-
house. The first effort of the black man is to erect a
meeting-house.

“ During the last few years there has been a more than
usual — a most marked expression of these features of
character. We have the testimony of West Indian pas-
tors, missionaries, and teachers to the eager craving of
the African peasantry for instruction. In America the
gravest hinderances can not repress this desire ; and
among the free black population I can testify, from per-
sonal acquaintance and observation, that this, the re-
ligious solicitude, is the master principle of that people.”
And of Africa, he says : “ I doubt much whether, if ever,
the history of missions has discovered such a wide-spread
and earnest seeking for Christian knowledge as is seen
among the pagan tribes on that suffering coast. A mis-
sionary on his way down the coast lands at a certain
spot. The news of a God-man, as they term him, hav-
ing come, flies like lightning through the neighborhood.
Three kings visit him ; several chiefs bring him their
sons, and desire him to take them under his care for in-
struction ; numbers of the people assemble, all express-
ing their sorrow that he will not abide with them and
teach them. When Mr. Freeman went some two hund-
red miles into the interior to visit the King of Ashantee,
the whole kingdom was thrown into excitement. Thou-
sands of troops attended him on his approach to the
sable monarch, and in the midst of the grossest super-
stition and most cruel rites, the ambassador of Christ
was received with the most marked respect ; and full
permission was given him to establish Christian institu-
tions in the capital of the kingdom. All along the coast
where missions are established, kings and princes and

352

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

great men are bringing their children forward to be
trained in our holy faith.” *

Parents come with their children from the far interior ;
and so numerous are these requests, that the missionaries
are frequently obliged to decline receiving them. The
missionary, wherever he goes, is sure to get a large,
patient, inquiring auditory. Sometimes “ the chief of a
tribe refuses an escort through a neighboring town, lest
the missionary should stay with the other people, and
not come back to him and his people.” At times it is
both ludicrous and tearful to hear of a missionary being
kept captive by a heathen king, for fear, should he
suffer him to depart, he might never return. Only last
year the people of a village formed a strategy to keep a
traveling missionary to themselves. They attempted to
bribe the boatmen to go away, so that he would be
obliged to remain with them. And such is the desire
for the Gospel which comes from every quarter. Surely,
is there not hope for Africa? Ethiopia is already
stretching out her hands unto God. She is famishing ;
she feels her need ; she begs the bread of life at our
hands. Shall we say her, nay ?

Nor is the day of Africa’s redemption afar off. It
seems to draw near, vast and extensive as the work may
be, indications are that it shall be a rapid one. Since
the abolition of the slave-trade the improvement of this
race has been remarkably accelerated, and the intima-
tions are that the evangelization will be equally rapid.
We have such an intimation, I think, in the noted pre-
diction : “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands
unto God.” Not by the long and protracted progress

* “ The Future of Africa,” by Rev. Alexander Crummell, p. 303-4.

HOW GOD HASTENS HIS WORK.

353

by which other people have been renovated and brought
into the pale of Christianity, but she shall come readily,
suddenly, unexpectedly. She shall yield a ready re-
sponse to the kindly invitations of the Gospel — shall
eagerly embrace its gracious overtures as soon as made.
Not only “ soon,” in point of time, shall they embrace,
with outstretched arm, the unfading riches of Christ,
but most promptly and gladly shall they hear the voice
of the Son of man, and come forth from the long slumber
of spiritual death.

May we not expect God will make a short work with
Africa ? The preparation has been a long and dreary
one. Not “four hundred years,” like as preceded the
outgoing and the uplifting of the children of Israel, but
for 4,000 years have these devoted sons of Ham been
kept in the iron furnace of preparation, with only an
occasional gleaming up of the light through the thick
darkness ; just enough to keep the world apprised of
the existence of such a race, and of their capabilities to
rise and act their past in the world’s great drama, when
the curtain shall rise. But how events were hastened
when God arose with outstretched arm for their de-
liverance ! In a few months — perhaps only a few weeks
— and a most remarkable series of events took place in
Egypt, resulting in the overthrow of Pharaoh and his
army, in the “ spoiling of the Egyptians,” and the tri-
umphant deliverance of Egypt’s bondmen. Yet, their
deliverance was not followed by their immediate settle-
ment in the promised land, and the consummation of
their nationality. Forty long and wearisome years,
years of conflict, war, privation, temptation, and mani-
fold trials, were appointed them before they should
realize the high destiny which awaited them. To the

354

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

superficial observer — to all who had not an unwavering
faith in Israel’s God, more than thirty-nine of these
forty years seemed lost, worse than lost ; for Israel now
seemed removed further from the realization of their
hopes than on their immediate release from bondage.
The most formidable part of their work now seemed be-
fore them. Great and mighty nations were to be over-
come, and dispossessed of their lands before Israel could
enter. Yet in a few weeks it was all done — more ap-
parently done in these few weeks than in the forty
previous years.

And may we not trace a parallel in that great nation
of bondmen of whom we are speaking? Long and weary,
and, to all human ken, hopeless have been the years —
the centuries — of severe preparation. Most rigorous
has been their discipline — painfully protracted their
anguish and ignominy. But how easy, how speedy and
triumphant their deliverance when the mighty arm of
God is stretched out for them ! A thousand years are
with God as one day. In a day he may do the work of
a thousand years. He is graciously responding to the
earnest yearnings of a depressed people.

Another ground of the hope we indulge of the speedy
renovation of Africa, and her conversion to Christianity,
we find in the absence of any ancient, well-organized,
venerated system of false religion, preoccupying the
minds of the people, and constituting the most formid-
able obstacle to the introduction of Christianity. There
is idolatry, there is superstition enough there. Yet, as
our missionary author says, “ there is no well-defined
system of false religion which is generally received by
the people. There are a few leading notions or out-
lines of a system that prevail in all parts of the country,

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AFRICANS.

355

but all the details necessary to fill up these outlines are
left to each man’s fancy, and the answers given to in-
quirers are almost as various as the characters of the
persons to whom they are submitted.” So far from in-
dulging pride or confidence in their religion, and forti-
fying themselves in it as a barrier against the reception
of the true religion, the natives manifest “ an extreme
reluctance to make known their superstitious notions.”

Like all ignorant people, the Africans are exceedingly
superstitious. The leading, prominent form of their
religion is fetichisin and demonolatry. A fetich is lit-
tle else than a charm or amulet, carried about the per-
son, or set up in a convenient place, to guard against
some evil or to procure some good. One is to guard
against sickness ; another against drought ; a third
against the disasters of war ; or, to protect against fire,
or pestilence, or witchcraft ; to secure good luck in
some way, or to escape evil.

Strictly speaking, the Africans have no system of
idolatry, or image worship. They believe in the exist-
ence of one supreme God and in a future state. Yet
they have no correct idea of the character and attri-
butes*) f God. Having made the world, they believe God
retired into some corner of the universe, and left the
affairs of the world to the control of evil spirits.
Hence the chief object of their religious worship is to
conciliate these evil spirits, and to deprecate their dis-
pleasure, All they really have that deserves the name
of religion is what seems to be some fragmentary
vestiges which have been preserved of Judaism, or
rather of the patriarchal religion, which ages of igno-
rance and superstition have never quite obliterated.

Is it not obvious, then, that, when compared with the

356

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

old pagan countries of Asia, there are few hinderances
in the way of the evangelization of Africa — less rub-
bish is to be removed? No inveterate system of false
religion lias grown with the growth, and strengthened
with the strength, of the nation's depravity ; and be-
come, as it were, a part and parcel of the mental and
moral constitution of the people. The soil is compara-
tively unincumbered with noxious growth, and is wait-
ing to receive the good seed. And may we not expect a
ready reception, and a speedy and abundand harvest?
Already the reapers seem to say : “ the fields are Avhite,
ready to harvest.”

Again : we discover hope for Africa through the dark
cloud of war, which now hangs over our beloved coun-
try. Amid the thunderings and lightnings which in
terror gleam out from this cloud — amid the carnage of
the battle-field and the wide-spread desolations of the
conflict, we descry a presage for good to that afflicted
race. The dreadful war that is now raging we believe
is more effectually working out the great negro prob-
lem than all the arts of peace could do. As the pages
of the faithful historian shall record the annals of the
present period, the “ slaveholders’ rebellion” will, no
doubt, mark one of the most remarkable eras, not in the
history of America alone, but, perhaps, especially in the
history of Africa. We can not explain in a word what
we believe will be the bearings, and what the results, of
this wicked rebellion and dreadful war upon the future
of Africa. All that it shall do, and precisely what it
shall do, to bring succor to that benighted continent —
to deliver her from her present degradation — to lift her
up and give her a name, and a place among the nations,
we shall not pretend to say.

CAUSE OE THE GREAT REBELLION.

357

A brief review of the cause, the character, and the
probable results of the present war, will indicate the
connection it has with the welfare and final destiny of
the negro. And first :

The cause and character of the war. All will con-
cede that, directly or indirectly, southern slavery is the
cause. Whatever the North may agree to install as its
cause, and the object for which they fight ; the South,
that inaugurated the war, and ought to be allowed to
know for what, have no hesitation of giving it the most
open and vigorous prosecution as a war for slavery.
It is for the support of its institutions, and for the
wrongs or fancied wrongs they have suffered in connec-
tion with the system, that they have risen up in deadly
combat. When stripped of a few adventitious circum-
stances, as of trade or tariff, or fancied abuse, it will
go down to posterity as the slaveholders’ revolt, for
slavery’s sake, against a government that never did the
malcontents any thing but good — a war the most un-
natural, suicidal, and brutal, waged, to all intents and
purposes, to defend and perpetuate negro slavery.

We should need to go far back to detect the ulterior
workings of the final cause of the war. A strong an-
tagonism to human bondage has been working in the
mind of Christendom for the last century, gathering
strength with each revolving year. The light of the
nineteenth century ; the course of human events ; the '
onward march of an irresistible Providence ; the
latent workings of liberty in the great mind of the
civilized world ; the pulsations of the great heart of
humanity; and the outspoken conviction of all Christen-
dom, have decreed that man shall be free ; and, es-
pecially, have they decreed that man shall no longer

358

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

buy and sell his brother, and thereby disown his man-
hood, and reduce him to a mere chattelship.

It has been a long conflict — an “ irrepressible con-
flict,” which has at length gathered strengh and reached
a crisis. The wise and patriotic framers of our Consti-
tution felt the incongruity of incorporating a system of
human bondage into an instrument which should stand
before the world as the magna charter of our liberties.
Yet, in the hope of its early extinction, they extended
to it a present toleration. Hence the “ compromises of
the Constitution.” The northern portion of the origin-
al confederacy continued to treat the institution of
slavery as the framers of the Constitution evidently in-
tended it should be treated, and, consequently, State
after State became free. The southern portion pursued
an opposite course, and established and perpetuated
slavery ; and have, at length, found a priesthood who
have canonized it as of Divine right.

These two antagonistic elements have been in active
conflict (though suppressed), and gathering strength for
more than four-score years, and have now burst forth
into open hostility. The one strikes for freedom ; the
other wages an uncompromising war for the extension
and perpetuation of slavery. For a long time it was a
war of opinion, of the ballot-box, of the pulpit and the
rostrum— at length the appeal is to the sword ; and we
Avait in aAvful suspense the result. Will the just, the
good, the merciful God smile upon and bless a confeder-
acy confessedly founded on negro slavery as its corner-
stone ; or, by giving success to our arms, will he vindi-
cate our cause, and establish us such a nation as, in his
providence, he indicated he would establish in this west-
ern world ?

WHENCE THE FEARS OF THE SOUTH.

359

Apprehensions for the security and the perpetuation
of slavery, arising from the more determined conviction
of the North and an equally strong conviction on the
part of the Avhole civilized world that every system of
human bondage ought to be done away, gradually led,
not only to drawing tighter the bonds of the system,
making that to be good which they once conceded to be
evil, but the same apprehensions, united with a strong
self-interest and feudal pride, rapidly fostered a senti-
ment of hostility to the North. Hence the determined
uprising of the South for the defense of their darling in-
stitutioh and for its extension and nationalization.

The conviction prevailed throughout the entire South
that the institution of slavery was no longer secure in
the hands of men who recognized neither its Divine
right, nor its economic or humane policy. Hence it be-
came a necessity, with all such as felt slavery to be a
necessity, that the administrative power of our govern-
ment should be in their hands. They did not feel that
their institutions were safe in other hands. Such a feel-
ing has, in a measure prevailed at the South from the
beginning, but it has from year to year gained strength,
till at length it is demonstrated in an open resistance to
the ballot-box ; and we are plunged into a dreadful war
because a fair majority declared in favor of a northern
President. Of the seventy-two years from the inaugu-
ration of George Washington to the inauguration of
Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States,
southern men had occupied the Presidential chair fifty-
two years ; and two or three of our northern Presidents
were “ northern men with southern principles,” extend-
ing an unduly liberal patronage to the South. And not
even this undue proportion measures the share of gov-

360

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ernmental power and patronage, which, in other respects,
have been accorded to southern men. Such undue bal-
ance of power have they deemed it needful that they
should hold in our National Legislature and in the Presi-
dential mansion in order to preserve intact and in-
violable the peculiar institutions of the South.

But even this would no longer do. The opposing tide
from the North, backed by the united sentiment of the
whole civilized world, still rolled on. It seemed to
carry in it the portentous decree of universal emancipa-
tion, and it must and should be resisted, and as no
other Government on earth would lend its support to the
system, the Government of the United States should.
Hence the uncompromising determination to force their
own Government to a nationalization of slavery, and
hence the necessity felt that the friends and supporters
of slavery should hold the Government of the country at
their own control. This seemed to them a matter of
life and death. Had the election four years previous
terminated in the election of a non-slaveholding candi-
date, war was then equally inevitable, though with a
four years’ less vengeance.

Our present conflict is eminently a war for human
freedom ; for the emancipation of man from the thral-
dom of his fellow-man. It is the last great strike for
liberty. If unsuccessful, it shall proclaim liberty to the
captives and the opening of the prisons to them that are
bound. If successful ; if they who offer to the world as
a “ model republic” for the times — a republic founded
on negro slavery as its corner-stone — shall succeed, then
we are thrown back into a barbarous age ; the tide of
human progress is averted and turned back a century,
and hopelessly may we look soon again to see the fair

THE WAR THE CAUSE AND THE END OF SLAVERY. 361

form of Liberty rise and attain its present stately pro-
portions.

Such being the causes and such the character of the
present war, we may very properly institute the inquiry
as to the results— -rather its bearing on Africa and the
Africans. We have called it the “ Slaveholders’ Rebel-
lion."’ We believe it will, in the end, be the slaves’
emancipation.

War, we must bear in mind, is one of the dread agen-
cies of Providence used, more commonly than any other
form of agency, to break down and move out of the way
the great hinderances to human progress. It is the
millstone to grind to powder the great systems, organ-
izations, and confederacies which the arch enemy of man
erects as the strongholds of his empire. Modern wars
are, perhaps, more especially overruled for such a pur-
pose. What may we expect as the issue of the present
war? If waged for the purposes we have alleged, we
may expect it will have much to do in solving the great
problem of the negro’s destiny. There is, indeed, a very
confident expectation that this war will not end but in
the entire emancipation of our whole slave population.
Though not entered upon by our Government with such
an intent, and though there has been the greatest re-
luctance on the part of both the Government and people
of the North to make the war a war of emancipation, yet
the conviction is everywhere and every day gathering
strength that it will be so ; that it must be so ; that
Heaven has decreed it, and therefore it must be. In
every form and mode, unmistakable utterance is given
to the feeling that the day of redemption to our captives
draws nigh ; the year of jubilee is at hand. A shrewd
writer of the day, signing himself “ a Veteran Ob-
16

362

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

server,” maybe taken as a representative of the senti-
ment. “We may dodge the point,” says lie, “ as much
as we can, but slavery is the cause of the war, and the
war will be the commencement de la fin to slavery. The
time has come when the problem of the day, beyond all
others will be : What shall we do with the negro ?”

And not only at home and abroad has a strange im-
pression possessed the mind of the friends of freedom
that the day of general emancipation is at hand — that the
present war shall secure a consummation so devoutly to
be wished, but there is also, throughout the dark do-
mains of slavery, the same longing hope and confident
expectation that the tocsin of liberty will so be heard
through all their fields and cabins, and the long-op-
pressed tribes shall rejoice that the day of their redemp-
tion has at length come.

How these things shall be we may not be able to say ;
but that such is the purpose of God in the war, and that
such shall be the result to the slave, we can not doubt.
Whatever disasters may first betide, and try our faith,
and humble our pride, and rebuke our extravagance and
self-dependence and boasting, we fully believe the issue
of the war will be such as abundantly to vindicate, in the
eyes of the world, the strength, stability, and superiority
of our free institutions, to wipe away the stigma that has
rested upon us, and to proclaim a year of jubilee to all
that are still bound.

But what bearing has this on Africa? Much, we
think. We expect it shall inaugurate a new era of de-
velopment in connection with the whole African race.
The enslavement and general debasement of that race is
one of the great facts of history. Great results have
already been brought out of it, and what has been is,

HOW GOD EXALTS THE LOWLY.

363

probably, but the beginning of the end. So important an
item as their singular transfer to, and their long bond-
age in, America, can not but have a connection with
their future history of stupendous interest. What it
shall be we can scarcely more than conjecture. Marvel-
lous it would seem that a race should undergo so long,
rigorous, and remarkable a discipline, yet for no ade-
quate purpose. God is not wont so to work. Judging
from the character and the amount of the preparation,
we should expect a correspondingly far-reaching and
lasting a result.

The shrewd observer of human affairs, 3,300 years
ago, might have predicted with some degree of cer-
tainty, from the peculiar dealings of Providence, in
conveying the children of Israel into Egypt, subjecting
them to bondage there, giving them there a peculiar ex-
perience and training, from the deliverance he wrought
for them in the land of Ham, and the judgments he
afflicted on their enemies and oppressors ; from such
things as these it might have been predicted that the
future history of that people would be signalized in a
manner corresponding to their singular training. This
is precisely what we expect, at least of that portion of
the African race which have served in “ durance vile,” in
America. Their bondage here has been their school-mas-
ter, to train them for the position they are yet to occupy
among the nations of the earth — for their nationality,
whenever that shall be — and to train them for the
Church and the peculiar type of Christianity and civil-
ization which they are to illustrate. No people at the
present day present a more interesting study for the
philosophic historian, and none a more interesting field
for honest conjecture.

364

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Possibly it may strike the reader that we have over-
stated the longing of the enslaved for their freedom.
It has been extensively claimed by their masters, and
reiterated by northern sympathizers with their masters,
that they are generally quite contented with their lot,
and really have 710 yearnings after freedom, and if left
unbiased, would scarcely accept it if offered. We have
represented them as earnestly desiring freedom — as mak-
ing it from year to year the burden of their prayers — as
waiting for the outstretched arm of God for deliverance
— like the bondmen of Pharaoh, as “ sighing by reason
of their bondage” — as “ crying,” and God hearing their
“groaning.” We are happy to be able to confirm what
we have said, by a living witness — or, rather, through
him, to let the bondmen now set free, speak for them-
selves. The Rev. L. C. Lockwood, after “a year’s ex-
perience among the ex-slaves,” has furnished an exceed-
ingly interesting article on the capacity of these people
for freedom. We quote, as apposite to our present pur-
pose, the head, entitled : “ The desire of the slave for
freedom a preparation for it.”

“Even slavery can not quite crush out that instinct-
ive love for freedom which is an inseparable part of
manhood. It was the writer’s privilege, after initiating
the Emigrant Aid movement in New York City, to ac-
company the pioneer band to Kansas ; and during my
stay at Kansas City I had communications with a slave
seventy-five years of age, who was provided for by a
kind master, and permitted to spend the remainder of his
days in leisure, at home or abroad. 1 inquired of him if
he would accept his freedom at that age, provided his
master would give it to him. ‘ Oh yes,’ said he ; ‘I
would be glad to have it.’ ‘ Why, you might find diffi-

THEIR OUTGUSHINGS OF PRAYER.

365

culty now in providing for yourself?’ ‘Oh, master,
freedom is sweet.” Ay, freedom is sweet ; for it seems
to one like a badge of humanity, as distinguishing the
man from the brute ; and therefore the spirit that
prompts one to make sacrifices to obtain it, betokens a
fitness for it.

“ At Fortress Monroe I found that the slaves had for
many years possessed an increasingly intense and pray-
erful desire for freedom, and strong faith in the coming-
blessing.

“ The prayers of the ex-slaves all show that they have
been familiar with earnest outgushings for deliverance.
I wish all my readers could have been melted, as I and a
number of soldier-friends and others were, by the simple
petition of Mary Banks : ‘ Good Master,’ she cried,
‘ please take a gentle peep down into these low grounds,
where sorrows grow and every pleasure dies, and see
your suffering children and hear their groans ; and oh,
look upon those far, far, far away ; and if we never meet
again here, may we meet where parting is no more.
Please, Master, please, please,’ uttered in plaintiff wail,
in which all joined with indescribable effect. And they
all told me that freedom had been the burden of their
prayers, and especially for fifty years past. Ethiopia
has thus been stretching out her hands to God for help.
And they had prayed in faith. They knew not that
they would live to see the day, but that day they were
assured would come. They had a deep impression that
they were the second children of Israel. And many of
their songs were inspired by the spirit of liberty. I give
one, sung by the slaves fifty years ago, arranged by my-
sclf and Rev. II. Highland Garnett, pastor of the col-
ored Presbyterian church in New York City, who says

363

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

lie heard his father and grandfather sing it when he was
a boy in Maryland :

Stolen we were from Africa,

Transported to America.

CHORUS :

There’s a better day a coming, '

Will you go along with me?

There’s a better day a-coming,

Go, sound the jubilee.

See wives and husbands sold apart !

Their children scream — it breaks my heart !

(Still faith said)

There’s a better day a-coming, etc.

They’ll never see old Virginia more,

They’re sold away to Georgia’s shore.

There’s a better day a-coming, etc.

Good Lord ! good Lord ! when shall it be
That we, poor souls, shall all be free ?

There’s a better day a-coming, etc.

Our father’s toiled and passed away,

But we shall live to see the day.

There’s a better day a-coming, etc.

(And some have lived to see it.)

In eighteen hundred and thirty-three,

’Tis said the people will be free.

chorus :

Lord, break the tyrant’s power ;

Come, go along with me ;

There’s a better day a-coming,

Go sound the jubilee !

“ In the last stanzas, the slaves’ faith simply went
ahead of time thirty years. It was sixty-three, instead
of thirty-three. This jubilee hymn was one of the slaves’
Marseillaises. Sometimes, to deceive the ears of any

THE WATCH-NIGHT OF FREEDOM.

367

white listener that might, be within hearing, the last
stanza, as I was told, was sung in this wise :

“ la the eighteenth verse of thirty-three,

’Tis written the people shall be free.”

But the slaves themselves understood it, and caught its
enthusiasm.

There is another liberty song, that I brought north a
year ago, and had published by Horace Waters, entitled
“ Let My People Go,” a song more familiar to many,
beginning :

“ The Lord by Moses to Pharaoh said,

Oh, let my people go !

If not, I’ll smite your first-born dead,

Then let my people go.

Oh, go down, Moses,

Away down to Egypt's land,

And tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go.”

“ This song, sung by the slaves for thirty or fifty years,
has now rung in the ears of the nation, and its spirit
has touched the heart of Abraham Lincoln, and he has
said : “ I will let the people go.” And for that act all
lovers of liberty must say : “ God bless Abraham Lin-
coln !” When the President’s proclamation of Septem-
ber 22d was issued, they considered it a signal answer
to the prayers of generations, and they had faith in it.
And in anticipation, they appointed a watch-night for
New Year’s Eve, to watch the old year of slavery out
and the new year of freedom in. And at the hour of
twelve, in imitation of their West India brethren, they
resolved to receive the boon of freedom on their knees,
as the gift of God, though through the administration
of man, and then pour forth their souls in thanksgiv-

368

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ing till morning, and keep New Year’s Day a jubilee.
Though dispirited somewhat by the exception of Fortress
Monroe, Norfolk, and vicinity, in the Proclamation of
the first instant, they do not falter in their faith in re-
gard to the ultimate issue. They give full credence to
the sentiment that

“ Right is right, since God is God,

And right the day will win ;

To doubt would be disloyally,

To falter would be sin.”

On no one thing do we predicate so strong a hope for
the no distant disinthrallment of these captives, as in
their “ strong cries and prayers to God” for their deliver-
ance. Arguments and armies and navies may do some-
thing for their emancipation ; but all these are impotent
compared with the simple-hearted, sincere, childlike, out-
gushing prayers of these bondmen. There is in them a
feeling, a pathos, a fdial taking hold on God, which is
all prevalent. Surely God has heard their “groaning,”
is come down to deliver them out of the hands of their
oppressors, and he “will bring them to a good land, and
large,” and one, if not “ flowing with milk and honey,”
yet a land abounding in all the rich resources of nature,
where they may dwell, every man under his own vine
and fig tree, a man and not a thing.

You concede they desire to be free, and doubt not pray
very earnestly for it ; but are they fitted for freedom?
Is not slavery their best condition ? Will they work as
freemen? Are they capable of caring for themselves?
What shall we do with them, if free? We have an-
swered, by saying : “ Let them alone.” Give them work.
Give them an equal chance for life. Remove all imped-
iments to tl;eir onward and upward progress, and see

HOW GOD CONDESCENDS.

369

whether they will work and live, or sit idle and die. If
they refuse to work, leave them to learn of the wise
man of Tarsus, who says : “ If any will not work, neither
shall he eat.’? Simply subject him to the same law of
demand and supply which rules in every other case.
There is nothing like the pinchings of hunger to nerve
the muscles for work. The negro, we fancy, simply fol-
lows the laws of reluctant nature— not negro nature, but
human nature — when he only works when he has an im-
pelling motive. We are not prepared to concede that
all the motives held out by freedom — motives to rear
and rightly to educate a family ; to vindicate tlve right
and capability to be free, and to gather about him pre-
sent comforts and provide for future wants — are not as
operative and effective with the negro as with the white
man. Who believes that motives such as these could
not secure his thrift and industry quite as effectually as
the compulsion or lash of the “ overseer ?” He did work
as a slave ; why should he not as a freeman ?

16*

370

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XIX.

The future of Africa — A higher type of Christianity and civilization — Hope
in her protracted afflictions — The great negro problem of world-wide
interest — What prophecy, history, analogy, and the signs of the times
warrant us to expect — Nothing to fear from emancipated slaves— The
West Indies — Emancipation Day.

W e have already spoken of the peculiar readiness of
the native Africans to receive the Gospel. We cite a
few instances more, as nothing is so truly indicative of
that high religious charactergwhicli we believe belongs
to the future of Africa. The unprecedented facility
with which they seize upon the truth is truly an au-
spicious omen of the rich spiritual future which re-
mains in reserve for that people. Such yearnings, such
outstretching of the hands for spiritual treasures, are
not the innate movings of man’s fallen nature. They
are the inspirations of the Almighty, not the vain up-
heavings of an oppressed soul, but the moving on the
face of the dark waters of the .ever-blessed Spirit, be-
tokening a new life, the new spiritual creation which
shall emerge from the thick darkness of the past. God,
her God, seems to be saying: “Let there be light!”

A missionary traveler, the Rev. Mr. Wilson says :
“ Indeed, the very demand for our labor obstructs our
progress. We can not go far into the interior without
passing over communities that say they have the first
right to us, and who can not see why we should pass
them to go to others. They ask if the people beyond
are of more value, or have more need than they. In
one case, two missionaries were traveling in the inte-

• /

AFRICA AS SHE SHALL BE-See page 370.

THEIR EAGERNESS FOR MISSIONARIES.

371

rior, and stopped at one village, and called the people
together, and preached, and gave as good an idea as
they could of the Gospel and of their views in publish-
ing it. And having finished, they asked the chief what
he thought of the subject. He was silent for a while.
Then he lifted up his eyes to a forest, and said : ‘ Sup-
pose a man was lost there, and in the darkness of
night, and you should go to him with a light, and offer
to guide him home, do you suppose he would refuse ?
Suppose he were hungry, and you should offer him
bread ; would he refuse to eat ? ’ and further than this
he answered not a word. And yet this man repre-
sents the condition of millions.”

The Rev. Beverly R. Wilson, a colored Methodist mis-
sionary, stationed of late at Sinou, brings from thence
cheering intelligence as to the desire of the interior
tribes to have education and the Christian religion es-
tablished among them. There is a wonderful move-
ment, he remarks, in this direction. All along, interior
from the coast, for scores of miles, the heathen seem
agitated with desire. Messengers are flocking to the
Christian settlements, specially commissioned by kings
and head men, begging for teachers and missionaries
to be sent immediately to them. Their petitions are
reiterated and importunate, admitting of no denial.
Again and again they came to him, with the injunction
not to return until they should succeed in their em-
bassy ; and in one, at least, touching instance, when
the messenger had been sent back with painful decla-
rations of his inability to gratify them, in a few days
he was returned with positive injunctions not to come
home, but to sit down at Mr. Wilson’s until he should
obtain from him a teacher or a missionary.

372

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

And of the same purport is the testimony of Rev.
I. J. Bowen. He hails from Yoruba, and has traveled
more extensively in the interior than almost any mis-
sionary. The Africans, he says, are the most docile
and friendly people on the globe. To the missionary
they are doubly interesting, because of the intense
eagerness with which they often listen to the Gospel.
No missionary has been, even for a few days, in an in-
terior town without preaching to deeply interested
people ; and no one has preached for two or three
months without gaining some converts. He has known
cases of those who believed under the first sermon,
and has met with people from the remote interior who
believed in Christ and renounced idolatry from hear-
ing missionaries only a few times nearer the coast.

Mr. Bowen’s testimony is the more valuable, as it
brings to light some facts respecting the interior and
from the centre of the Great Desert, which to most
people are new and of surprising interest. He found
there a condition of life, and a people of a character,
not even suspected to exist on that outcast continent.
When these are made to appear before us, we instinct-
ively feel that Africa has the elements within herself
for as glorious a future as the most sanguine are dis-
posed to claim for her. As essential as are her Ameri-
can-trained agents, her “ black Yankees,” to work out
her renovation, she has a well-capacitated agency with-
in herself, which ere long shall come into play. In a
recent lecture in New York, Mr. Bowen states, that the
Great Desert, instead of being a vast desolation, as is
generally supposed, is extensively inhabited, contain-
ing two great republics, having a literature among
the oldest in existence, planted by the Saracens seven

THE EENOVATION OE AFEICA.

373

hundred years ago, while the arts and sciences pos-
sessed at a remote age are still retained. The natives
of the interior are large and muscular, the men being
seldom under five feet ten inches in height, and gener-
ally over six feet, with Roman noses, thin lips, and a
decidedly European cast of countenance. The woolly
hair is universal, but the thick lips and flat noses are
peculiar to the more degraded tribes on the sea-coast.
They are distinguished for their sterling honesty,
kindness, and affection, as well as for the qualities
constituting force, stability, and endurance of char-
acter.

While traveling among them, Mr. Bowen was in the
habit of instructing them first in the precepts of Chris-
tianity, and afterward in some of the arts of civilized
life ; and it frequently happened that on meeting na-
tives months and even years afterward, they would
inform him that from the time of hearing him, they
had thrown away their idols and worshiped the Chris-
tian’s God. Some of the tribes have retained through
many centuries valuable religious truths derived from
some unknown source. Strange as it may seem, there
are Christian Africans scattered over the continent,
who worship Jesus as God, calling him Yazu.

A spirit of improvement and reform is now pervad-
ing the tribes of Africa, and could they be brought
under civilizing and Christianizing influences, they
would develop powers that would astonish the world.
The labors of missionaries have already resulted in
great good, and the power of idolatry and Moham-
medanism are waning before the teachings of the Gos-
pel. Let the Christian missionary hasten to enter and
occupy this land, so full of promise, and the prophecy

374

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

will speedily be fulfilled : “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch
out her hands unto God.”

This intense desire to receive the Gospel, and the
very ready response they give to its teachings, we may
receive as a no doubtful prognostic of the future moral
condition of Africa. But this idea finds a more satis-
factory confirmation in the peculiar caste of Christian-
ity which seems there developing itself. We have
said, but have been at no pains to establish the asser-
tion, that we might expect in the future of the negro a
higher type of Christianity and a better order of civil-
ization than the world has heretofore witnessed. This
we have inferred principally from the peculiar religious
instincts of the people, and the facility with which
they receive religious teachings.

The religious instinct of the negro is everywhere
noticeable. He seizes the good seed of the Word with
an avidity common to no other race ; and his rude soul
offers a ready soil to its acceptance. As in coming
ages the spirituality of our religion shall become yet
more developed, the negro races, if we mistake not,
will be found the happiest illustrations. Their moral
susceptibilities, or their susceptibilities to exemplify
the more purely moral element of our religion, seem
quite peculiar to themselves. There is, as we have
said, in the negro a simplicity, a pathos, a lifting up
of the soul to God, a bringing of heaven and earth to
meet, which we discover in the religion of no other
people. They will understand what I mean better
than I can express it, who have had the privilege to
join in their worship, and especially to lift up the
heart with them in prayer and the song, in some
church of the colored people at the South. Such a

THE REAL LITE AND VIGOR OF A NATION.

375

scene not only illustrates tlie point in question — the
susceptibility of the negro for a higher order of spirit-
ual life, and a religion of a type better suited to that
future and higher condition of Christianity which we
hope and pray for — but it brings to our minds a de-
lightful evidence of the great condescending love of
God, in vouchsafing to them so richly of Heaven’s
treasures, as a compensation to the lonely and hum-
ble, to the outcast and down-trodden.

1. Our expectation, that coming generations shall
witness in Africa nationalities of a higher order than
have heretofore existed, is predicated chiefly on the
fact of the religious susceptibilities of her people
being of a high order. The life, the vigor, the only
reliable element of strength and permanency in a
nation, is her religion. And that life is healthful,
wholesome, useful, and long continued, in proportion
to the character of that religion. Righteousness alone
exalteth a nation. No nation can live and permanently
prosper in which truth, that is, a correct idea of God
and of duty, does not enter. It is as true of a nation
as it is of an individual, that in Him is life. Com-
merce, wealth, refinement — laws, institutions, great
men, are but the adjuncts of a great nation ; these
may exist, and yet a nation may crumble into nothing-
ness and be no more. Could riches, power, extent of
territory have saved a nation from dissolution, Babylon
would have been saved. Could commerce avail to
spare a great nation from an untimely end, Carthage
would have survived until the present day. And
Greece and Borne would have outlived the devasta-
tions of time, if power or luxury or learning could
have spared her from going the way of all kingdoms.

376

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

These nations had the elements of permanency no
further than they had the elements of truth and
righteousness. They perished, because God was not
in them.

If this be so, we see not why a nation, if fully im-
bued with these elements of life — life in Him, who
giveth all life — should ever decay or perish. This
seems to be the purport of the promise to Israel. If
he would keep his covenant with his God, he should,
as a nation, live forever. “ Know, therefore, that the
Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand genera-
tions.” Fidelity on the part of the people, love, obe-
dience, loyalty toward God, were the sole and sure
conditions of then- continuance as a nation for a thou-
sand generations, that is indefinitely.

But all ancient nations, you say, did decay and die ;
and all subsequent nations have followed the law of
rise, growth, and dissolution. And why shall not ex-
isting and future nations yield to the same law ? The
reason is obvious. A new element of power and pre-
servation is now introduced into the life of nations —
an indestructive element, which is the elixir vitce of
the body politic, as it is the immortality of the indi-
vidual’s spiritual existence. We mean the mighty ele-
ment of Christianity. A nation, fully permeated with
this leaven, is as permanent as time, as imperishable
as the everlasting hills. The nation, whose govern-
ment, laws, civil institutions, commerce, social habits,
and science, are under the all-controlling influence
of Christianity, and whose leading minds and com-
mon minds are subjected to the same benign con-

• THE GUARANTEE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 377

trol, has its seed within itself, that it shall live
forever.

But did not the nations of antiquity live to a good
old age, and flourish, though destitute of the Christian
element? We are hy no means sure that they flour-
ished a whit beyond the measure of the patriarchal
religion, which entered into their origin. It was some
centuries after the Deluge before the power of this
religion was exhausted. Indeed, indelible traces of it
appear unto this day. Every system of modern Pa-
ganism, in its very perversions, bears the marks of the
original truths of which it is a perversion. It remains
to be shown if Assyria, Babylon, Carthage, did not
lose all there was in them of time greatness, power, and
real worth, and verge onward to decay, in proportion
as they lost a knowledge of, and ceased to be influ-
enced by, those great radical truths which descended
to them from the patriarchs. The only reliable guar-
antee for an abiding, vigorous national life is to be
sought in the power of a true religion.

This being so, we are confirmed in our confidence
that the negro nationality, which we see rising on the
western coast of Africa, has the stamina to be a great
and enduring nationality ; and this greatness and en-
durance we predicate on the peculiar religious suscep-
tibilities which we have seen the African to be pos-
sessed of, and the development among the race of a
high order of Christianity. If their national life shall
be a true reflection of their spiritual life, we may an-
ticipate for them a degree of prosperity and perma-
nence which has not heretofore fallen to the lot of
any people. The strength of their religious character
will determine the value of their civil position.

378

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

God propitiated, God on tlieir side, his favor se-
cured by an active and permanent obedience, and
they will not fail to be owned and honored of Heaven.
But if, like Israel, they shall forget the God of their
fathers, and turn aside after strange gods — if the
power of a living religion shall cease to permeate their
laws, their institutions, their learning, and their busi-
ness avocations — and their every-day life, their glory
will depart — they will be shorn of the locks of their
strength, and become weak as other men.

2. We see light for Africa, a pleasing promise for
her future, in the very thick dark cloud which has so
long hung over her. It is light through her darkness ;
enlargement through manifold sufferings ; elevation
through sore depression. The long endurance and
suffering of Africa — the severe ordeal through which
she has been made to pass, warrants the expectation
of the corresponding favor of Heaven. It is no more
true of individuals than of nations, that “whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth;” and he abases them that
he wall exalt. When he has brought a people or a
nation very low, or continued the depression for a
long time, he will make his mercy abound toward
them in proportion as he has afflicted them. So God
has done, and so he will do in time to come.

Nations have their birth-pangs, their throes, and
painful straggles, which precede their national exist-
ence. Oftentimes these are protracted and severe,
and seem more like death-struggles than birth-pains ;
yet they usher in, and are preparatory to, a long and
prosperous life.

We need recur but for a moment to the early
history of a few well-known States to confirm what

THE BIRTH-PANGS OF NATIONS.

379

has been intimated. What commotions and wars, and,
perchance, famines and pestilences — what struggles
for life and mountain-like hinderances — had to be met
and overcome by the Assyrian, the Egyptian, and the
Ethiopian empires, no historical mirror reflects!
Analogy suggests they were subjected to the altern-
ations of hope and fear — that they travailed in pain
many long years before they stood forth before the
world in their national manhood.

The oldest State, of which we have authentic records,
is the Hebrew Commonwealth. The great founder of
this State was called of God, and given every possible
assurance of the high and long-continued prosperity
which should bless his descendants. Yet, more than
four centuries elapse before they are even organized
as a nation, and take possession of the promised land.
And what hardships and hard fighting, and dis-
heartening rebuffs, afterward betide ! The Canaanite
still dwelt in the land ; and more than another period
of four centuries elapse before the kingdom, under
Solomon, in peace and prosperity, reached its full
manhood. Neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob had, in
their respective generations, a fixed habitation or a
national prestige. Four hundred years was the nation
travailing in pain waiting to be delivered, and four
centuries more was she struggling in her childhood
and minority. ■*

Or take Christianity as a kingdom : and what a
rigorous and prolonged pupilage did she undergo !
If we go back to the beginning of Christianity and
contemplate the preparatory work which gave it birth,
and then inaugurated it as a great power in the world,
we should needs go back to the “ promise ” in Eden.

380

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

and bring into the account the entire history of the
four thousand years which preceded the Incarnation —
all the events and revolutions — all the wars and com-
motions— all the blessings of peace and the curses of
war — the good and the bad, as overruled by the Al-
mighty Hand to the furtherance of that great scheme.
And since the Advent, has followed a conflict of cen-
turies— already more than eighteen — centuries of per-
secutions, wars, an unremitting struggle against the
general current of this world — a conflict with the pow-
ers that be ; with the manners, customs and spirit of
the world — an uncompromising warfare with mighty
confederacies of false religions.

Nor does Christianity yet stand forth in the strength
of manhood. It is yet in a state of pupilage, has all
this time been preparing through manifold suffering
for a glorious career, but is yet scarcely entered upon
it: “is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.” Every
pang is a progress.

Another great power arose in the world in the six-
teenth century. It was the Reformation. This notable
event has been very justly denominated “ a vast effort
of the human mind to achieve its freedom.” Though it
burst upon the ’world at the appointed time, yet it
had been preparing a thousand years. It was her-
alded— it was wrought out by wars and commotions ;
by civil strifes ; by the incessant straggle of Christian
communities to stem the torrent of invading floods of
error and wickedness ; by all sorts of conflicts, civil,
social, and religious, which often seemed to be bringing
only disaster and dissolution, but which were really
conducing most effectually to that great intellectual

EARLY NATIONAL STRUGGLES.

381

emancipation and religious deliverance, and advance-
ment which wc call the Reformation.

“The sagacious eye of the world’s wisdom could
not but have seen that mighty events were struggling
in the womb of Providence. The Reformation was a
necessary consequence of what preceded. Internal
fires were burning, the earth heaving, and soon there
must come vent. Had not the irruption been in
Germany, it must soon have been elsewhere. Plad
not Luther led, it must ere long have been conducted
by another.” *

In like manner, we may speak of England and the
English. You fix on a point far back into the misty
morning of that great empire ; and from this point of
sheer barbarism trace, step by step, the progress of that
people ; through wars, conquests, and defeats ; through
all their civil struggles, and hard battling against igno-
rance, prejudice, and corruption ; all the alternations
of freedom and despotism ; all struggles, revolutions,
and Teachings after deliverance from thraldom ; from
the ponderous foot of- despotism raised to crush them :
it was in this rough, untilled soil that England took
root, and grew to a sightly tree, and sent forth her
branches till she has overshadowed the whole world ;
so that the sun never sets where Britannia bears not
rule. How sterile and stormy ; often how unpropi-
tious, protracted, and hopeless was her beginning,
her history is the faithful voucher.

And need I more than allude to the early history of
our Pilgrim Fathers — to the rigorous discipline they
passed through in England ; to their training in Ger-

* “ God iu History,” vol. i., p. 77.

382

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

many ; to tlieir hardships, and indomitable persever-
ance in New England ; to perils in the wilderness, and
cruel conflicts with savages. And when they had
securest a home, and a sanctuary, and a country, they
were at length compelled to assert and defend their
liberties through a seven years’ disastrous and ex-
hausting war.

Nor is the victory yet won. Liberty still cries for
her final emancipation. She is yet in bonds with
them that are bound. Our glorious revolutionary
struggle broke the yoke of civil thraldom, but left the
chains of social and domestic bondage still to fester
in human flesh, and to chafe the immortal mind, till
at length they have culminated in the lurid flames of
war. And now a contest, harder and hotter than ever
before, is making the last great strike for liberty.
And may we not look that Liberty shall ere long
emerge from the cloud of war and the dense smoke of
the battle-field, fairer than before, more resplendent,
and pledged for a loftier flight. And then, having
been nurtured in the school of adversity, she shall
pass from the gristle of youth into a more mature
manhood.

Or the same idea finds an illustration in the work
of modern missions. In how many instances, as in the
case of Greenland and the South Sea Islands, do wind
and tide — the whole course of nature and of sin, the
waywardness of the heathen, the insalubrity of climate,
and defection among brethren, all seem to preclude
the hope of success ; and when the missionary is about
to yield in despair, the tide turns. God appears for
him, and the work of years seems done in a day. And
now they see that all those long, dreary years of

ROME AND HER ROUGH BEGINNINGS.

383

■waiting, were but tlie winter season of hope, effectually
preparing the issues of spring ancl the fruits of
autumn.

Or we might, at the outset, have cited the origin of
imperial Rome. The Bard of Mantua has sung the
wars, the wanderings, the struggles of the noble
/Eneas ; the toils and strifes before the earliest founda-
tion of Rome could be laid. Troy must be founded —
must rise, flourish, be besieged and destroyed, that a
chosen remnant, who should escape, might, after untold
perils by sea and by land, be driven to the Italian
shore, and there found the mighty Rome. And the
great Carthage was little more than the stepping-stone
to Rome’s final greatness. Of iEneas, the immediate
founder of Rome, and of his wanderings and toils,
Yirgil sings :

“ Seven long years the unhappy wandering train
Were tossed by storms, and scattered through the main ;

Such time, such toil, required the Roman name,

Such length of labor for so vast a fame.”

But why so extend our illustration ? It is that we
may concede the same in our expectations of Africa.
Long and dreary has been her night ; cruel her op-
pressions ; profound her degradation. “ Deep calleth
to deep : ” the depth of her humiliations to the depth
of the Divine compassion. And will not He, whose ear
is always open to the cry of the lowly, hear ? And
will he not come to their succor ? “ Whom he lovetli,

he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth.”

We think we see in the very peculiar dealings of
God with Africa a presage and a promise of a future,
which shall be as distinguished for the Divine favor,

384

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

as the past has been for Divine malediction. Whom
God has especially abased, he will especially exalt.
“ God’s method,” says a popular writer, “ is one of
antagonism and conflicts. Every step of progression
in this world is a birth-pang. Every step of develop-
ment has been by throes.” The first and chief ground
of hope, then, we find in the long, low, and extreme
oppression of the African. Herein they have the un-
failing promise of God, the guarantee of Heaven, that
the down-trodden shall yet sit in the high places of
the earth. God will surely lift up the heads that hang
down “ give them rule over them that hated them,”
and “ reward them double ” for all the dishonor which
has been put upon them. God will surely take the
part of the oppressed, and put to shame the pride of
the oppressor.

But we have something yet more direct: we have
promises, and the sure word of prophecy. “ Behold
Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia ; this man was born
there. The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethio-
pia and of the Sabians, men of stature shall come
unto thee, and they shall be thine.” “ Princes shall
come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out
her hands unto God.” Isaiah says : that Midian and
Ephah and Sheba shall come, “ bringing gold and in-
cense,” to “ show forth the praises of the Lord.” And
the tents of Kedar and of Nebaioth shall be repre-
sented too. And do we not seem to have a pledge for
the evangelization of Africa in the early conversion,
and reception into the Christian church, of the eunuch
of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia ; and a yet surer pledge
in the interesting fact that the infant Saviour seeks in
the land of Ham an asylum from persecution ? When

AN AFRICAN CARRIES THE CROSS.

385

lie comes to receive liis kingdom, will lie not remember
the land of his affliction? Identified in liis first suffer-
ing, so shall she be when he shall come in his glory.

Nor are we here without another delightful pledge.
Who is it that I see approaching the Man of Nazareth
at the moment of his extremest humiliation ? The
scenes of Getlisemane are passed ; the indignities of
the Jewish sanhedrim and the scourging before Pilate
have been endured ; and now, when he is ready to sink
from exhaustion and extreme suffering, they lay on
him the cross, and compell him to bear it up the hill
of Calvary. But as he sinks beneath the load, who
is this that appears — receives the burden, and relieves
the Sufferer in the time of his extremest need? It
was Simon the Cyrenian, the African. His last suffer-
ings on earth, as well as his first, were thus singularly
identified with the land of Ham. The right hand may
forget its cunning, the woman may forget her sucking
child, but tell me not that that Babe of Bethlehem,
that Man of Calvary, will ever forget the race who
were thus engraven on his heart at the moment of his
profoundest humiliation ? In their afflictions he will
most surely feel afflicted, and will not leave them in
their time of need.

3. Again : the signs of the times are significant in
relation to Africa. The great negro problem is of
world-wide interest. England feels it to her very
centre. France is moved by it in some of her most
vital interests. All Europe is deeply concerned in its
solution, and it is shaking from centre to circumference
all that was, and all that is, the United States of
America. No question, at the present moment, pos-
sesses, with all classes in our country, a more absorb-
17

386

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ing interest. Is tlie negro tlie cause of the war ? Are
we fighting for him ? Shall he be free ? Ought he to
be free? If freed what shall be done with him?
What shall be his future destiny? They that hate the
negro, hate him more cordially. They would bind him
in chains never to be broken. They invoke all the
sanctions of their religion to their aid. They call on
their God to bind faster the chains of the bondmen.
Slavery is made a constituent part of their theology —
a part of their training for the sacred office and a sine
qua non in the teachings of the sanctuary. He that
speaks not according to these oracles can have no
place at their altars.

On the other hand the friends of the negro have re-
doubled their interest. They have discerned the
mighty hand of God stretched out in his behalf.
They fear to take part against him. There is among
all such a singular harmony as touching the negro’s
future destiny. They write ; they print ; they wait,
work and pray ; they would enter any open door
where their influence might be felt, or their co-opera-
tion be effective, in working out that destiny. Not
only do current events seem to foreshadow the idea I
have supposed, but discerning minds, who have direct-
ed their attention to Africa and the Africans, seem
singularly impressed with the conviction, that a good
time is coming to that long-neglected land. I shall
cite the opinions of a few who have had the most
favorable opportunities to form a judgment, and these
will serve to confirm our expectation of an auspicious
future for that race. Says one, “ though chains and
slavery yet fill the ears and appal the hearts of many,
yet there is a very general conviction that some great

A NEW NATIONAL LIFE TO ARISE.

387

development of Providence with regard to the African
race may be approaching. Never could slavery have
existed so long amid such influences of Christianity as
prevail in this country, and such efforts of the southern
people to abolish it, were it not that God intends to
use these enslaved ones as the instruments of good to
the African race.”

After this manner discourses another good author-
ity : “ The African race has peculiarities yet to be un-
folded in the light of civilization and Christianity,
which, if not the same as those of the Anglo-Saxon,
may prove to be morally of even a higher type. The
Anglo-Saxon race has been intrusted with the des-
tinies of the world, during its pioneer period of
struggle and conflict. To that mission its stern, in-
flexible, energetic elements are well adapted. But as
a Christian, I look for another era to arise. On its
borders, I trust, we stand; and the throes that now
convulse the nations are, to my hope, but the birth-
pangs of an hour of universal peace and brotherhood.*
When Africa shall, in turn, “ figure in the great drama
of human improvement,” says the same author, “ life
will awake there Avith a gorgeousness and splendor of
which our old western tribes faintly have conceived.
In that far-off land of gold, and gems, and spices, and
waving palms, and wondrous flowers, and miraculous
fertility, will awake new forms of art, new styles of
splendor ; and the negro race, no longer despised and
trodden doivn, will, perhaps, show forth some of the
latest and most magnificent revelations of human life ;
certainly they will in their gentleness, their lowly

* “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” By Harriet Beecher Stowe.

388

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

docility of heart, their aptitude to repose on a superior
mind and rest on a higher power, their childlike sim-
plicity of affection, and facility of forgiveness. In
all these they will exhibit the highest form of the
peculiarly Christian life ; and, perhaps, as God cliasten-
etli whom he lovetli, he hath chosen poor Africa in
the furnace of affliction to make her the highest and
noblest in that kingdom which he will set up when
every other kingdom has been tried and failed : for
the first shall be last and the last first.”

The last prognostic that Africa is about to enter
upon a new glorious future, we seem to see in the late
Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln; a
trumpet which gives no uncertain sound. It pro-
claimed liberty to the captives. And the fact that
they are, for reasons we c,an not see, kept back from
an immediate and joyful response by one great and
simultaneous movement from the house of their bond-
age, should not for a moment impair our confidence
that the God of the oppressed will vindicate his ways,
and in the end, and at no distant day, the more tri-
umphantly set his captives free.

Already do we see the kind hand of God in the delay.
Had there been, as we hoped, a simultaneous exodus
of four millions of the emancipated, it would have
imperiled the whole work, if not been a disastrous
defeat. We think we are safe in affirming that eman-
cipation has been, and is likely to be, quite as rapid as
the best interests and the final welfare of the emanci-
pated would allow. Pew had anticipated the diffi-
cidties of the transit of four millions of souls from a
state of bondage to a state of freedom — how much
preparatory work must be done before they slioidd be

JUBILEE MEETING OF EX-SLAVES.

389

fitted for their new position — how the aid of Govern-
ment and the charity of the nation must be taxed, to
clothe, feed, school, and evangelize them, and fit for
liberty and self-support those hitherto dependent and
helpless myriads. We are sure they have come quite
as fast as we have been able to meet them, and faster
than we have adequately met them.

The National Ereedmen’s Relief Association and
other kindred Institutions are doing much to meet
this imperative demand. They are doing a great and
a most praiseworthy work, and deserve a ready and
liberal co-operation. By schools and colportage, and
the direct preaching of the Gospel, as well as by large
benefactions to meet the bodily wants of the destitute
multitudes that seek an asylum within our borders,
they are largely contributing to the work in hand,
and challenge the aid of every patriotic and liberal
mind.

We can in no way so well illustrate how the slaves
received the announcement of their freedom, and how
they really feel, as by quoting a notice which recently
appeared of a jubilee meeting of ex-slaves onNewYear’s
Eve, 1863. We accept the record as an item of our
nation’s history, which, we believe, will never dis-
appear from our annals. Yea, it shall be transmitted
to future generations as the great event of our age :

“At seven o’clock in the evening of Thursday, Dr.
Nichols send a bellman round to the contraband quar-
ters, to let them know that he would read the Procla-
mation of Emancipation to them at the camp. Several
hundred came together, and they first sang a hymn,
lined out by an old negro, who is called by all his
friends in the camp ‘John the Baptist.’ One of the

390

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

pro-slavery journals alluded to, which have endeavored
to extract amusement from the ‘ negro meetings,’ con-
tains the following striking paragraphs. Speaking o^
the hymn, it says:

“‘It was “lined out” by “ John de Baptis. ” He
seemed to be the recognized leader of the contrabands
in their religious exercises, and altogether a good deal
of a character. He is perhaps sixty years of age, with
rugged features not unintelligent, grizzled locks, and a
somewhat martial bearing from his erect carriage and
the military overcoat worn by him. The hymn, or
“ hirne,” was sung in full chorus, the women, who were
mostly congregated by themselves, keeping time by
that wide-swaying motion familiar to those who have
witnessed a negro camp-meeting, and the venerable
leader, as he sung, extending his arms over the crowd
in a sort of wild enthusiasm.’

“ And again :

“ ‘ An old colored woman then took up the theme,
and raised their so popular hymn, “ Go Down Moses”
(keeping time with head, hand, and foot), which piece
was sung with a fervor that indicated that there may
be truth in what has been intimated, that this piece is
the negro Marseillaise, or National (if not revolution-
ary) Hymn.

“ ‘ It was quite evident through the exercises of the
day and night that the negroes regard the condition
of the Israelites in Egypt as typical of their own con-
dition in slavery, and the allusions to Moses, Pharaoh,
the Egyptian task-masters, and the unhappy con-
dition of the captive Israelites, were continuous ; and
any reference to the triumphant escape of the Israel-
ites across the Eed Sea, and the destruction of their

the slave’s jubilee peayeb. 391

pursuing masters, was certain to bring out a strong
“ Amen.” ’

“ Perhaps the most striking scene in the whole per-
formance was when Dr. Nichols explained to the poor
creatures what States, and even counties in States,
were rendered free by the Proclamation. For in-
stance, when he told them that North Carolina was
free, quite a number manifested their delight by
raising their black arms and shouting. When certain
counties in Virginia were spoken of as under the Pro-
clamation, men and women would spring to their feet
and exclaim, ‘ Dat’s me !’ ‘ Dar’s whar I’se cum
from !’ ‘ Bress God ! Oh, bress de God for dat !’

“After the reading of the Proclamation, William
Beverly, a contraband, led in prayer, and some of his
expressions were infinitely touching. Here are some
of the sentences :

“ ‘ Let thy blessing rest on every thing belonging to
the United States President, who has bestowed such
gifts on us this night. We were bound as slaves.
Chains on our hands. We have seen our people
bound in chains, and carried away. Some got mothers
in foreign lands. Some got fathers in foreign lands.
Jesus! bless the President. Lay down with him this
night, I pray God ; rise in the morning with him !
God bless the Union army wherever it may be. God
Almighty, go with our people ; lead us along in this
dark, howling wilderness ! Make us good. We pray
for Our brothers still in the South. Jesus, stan’ by
dem ! Lord, be with dem in the most particular mo-
ment. Lord Almighty, make us willing to obey the
United States President as much as do the soldiers as
come to break our chains. We were bruised and

392

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

dragged about. Let us lay down our lives for those
who break slavery chains from our necks. Let de war
be pushed on. Bress deni who have just run away
and cum here — and bress all.’

“ These words were from the bps of a man made free
by the Proclamation. Who can read them and accuse
him afterward of wanting in genuine appreciation of
the gift bestowed upon him by the ‘ United States
President ? ’ The grateful expressions of the prayer
will touch any heart not made of stone.

“ The songs sung by the contrabands added much to
the intensity of the scene. And old man, with a deep,
hollow voice, struck up the song, ‘I’m a freeman now;
Jesus Christ has made me free !’ and in five minutes
three hundred voices were joined with his in chorus.
A woman led off with a new song, ‘ There will be no
more task-masters,’ and in a very few moments the
contrabands caught music and words, and sang with
powerful effect.

“ I have given but a fragmentary sketch of a scene
worthy of Mrs. Stowe’s pen, and the most joyful scene
of New Year’s Day in all the land. The Proclamation
may be set down by white editors as a mere bit of
paper, without effect, but the slave does not think so.
He is upon his knees, thanking God and the President
for it. To him New Year’s Day was Emancipation
Day !

“ The day was fit for the promulgation of a decree of
emancipation. There was not a cloud in the sky, and
the temperature was that of October. It seemed as
if Heaven smiled upon the act, and Heaven will smile
upon it hereafter.

Is emancipation safe? Will not these freeclmen

THE JUBILEE EN ANTIGUA.

393

deluge tlie land in blood, wrap it in flames ?” No ;
never lias there been any thing of the sort in the his-
tory of the negro. And it is not in his nature to do it.
The notice just quoted does but bear testimony in
harmony with the record of Emancipation Day in the
West Indies. Facts demolish all fears here. Let us
see how it was in Antigua. The negro had no revenge
to take there. He has none here.

“ On the night of the 31st of July, 1834, with the
first stroke of the bell, as it tolled the hour of twelve,
nearly 30,000 slaves in the island of Antigua became
on the moment free. How this sudden transition
was received, whether with fire and blood or not, the
following extract from Thorne and Kimball’s ‘ West
Indies ’ will show :

“ ‘The Wesleyans kept “ Watch-night ” in all their
chapels. One of the missionaries gave us an account
of the watch meeting at the chapel in St. John’s. The
spacious house was filled with candidates for liberty.
All was animation and eagerness. A mighty chorus
of voices swelled the song of expectation and joy ;
and, as they united in prayer, the voice of the leader
was drowned in the universal acclamations of thanks-
givings, and praise, and blessing, and honor, and
glory to God, who had come down for their deliver-
ance. In such exercises the evening was spent, until
the hour of twelve approached. The missionary then
proposed that when the cathedral clock should begin
to strike, the whole congregation should fall on their
knees, and receive the boon of freedom in silence.
Accordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the
crowded assembly prostrated themselves. All was
silence, save the quivering, half-stifled breath of the
17 *

394

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

struggling spirit. ..Slowly the tones of the clock fell
upon the waiting multitude. Peal on peal, peal on
peal, rolled over the prostrate throng, like angels’
voices, thrilling their weary heart-strings. Scarcely
had the last tone sounded, when lightning flashed
vividly, and a loud peal of thunder rolled through the
sky. It was God’s pillar of fire ! His trump of ju-
bilee ! It was followed by a moment of profound
silence. Then * came the outburst ! They shouted
“ Glory ! Hallelujah !” They clapped their hands,
they leaped up, they fell down, they clasped each
other in their free arms, they cried, they laughed,
they went to and fro, throwing upward their unfettered
hands. High above all, a mighty sound ever and anon
swelled up. It was the utterance of gratitude to God,
in broken negro dialect.

“ In the days of slavery it had always been customary
to order out the militia during the Christmas holidays,
when the negroes were in the habit of congregating in
large numbers to enjoy the festivities of the season.
But the December after emancipation, the Governor
issued a proclamation that “ in consequence of the
abolition of slavery” there was no further need of
taking that precaution. And it is a fact, that there
have been no soldiers out at Christmas from that day
to this.”

A correspondent describes his visit to the “ contra-
bands,” five hundred of whom he found quartered in
a long stable, each group over a fire cooking rations.
He says :

“ It is amusing to hear the discussions among the
men on the subject of their present distressed con-
dition. One says : ‘ Bredren, we’s come to de Bed

NO FEAR OF INSURRECTION.

395

Sea, dat is jes where we am : de ’Giptians is behind
us, de river is afore us. Now what we wants is de rod ;
dat is, de prayers of Christians, to take us over de
river. Unbelief is great, but God will speak by-and-
by through Massa Linkum, and say, “ Go forward ” —
den we’ll march. We must have patience.’ ”

It will gladden the hearts of these humble men to
know that, at length, God has spoken through Mr.
Lincoln, saying : “ Let my people go.” May God have
them in his holy keeping !

There does not seem the least occasion to fear a
servile insurrection. One of the most remarkable
features of the war is the patient waiting of the
negro. He is hoping, praying, agonizing for his
liberty, fully conscious that the boon awaits him.
Yet still he waits — trusting God and biding his time.
Nowhere else at the present moment do we meet a
more implicit belief, a profounder, a more simple
faith. And whatever else may come out of the pres-
ent war, sure we may be that the God of battles will
hear the cries of his afflicted ones, and bring deliver-
ance.

We think we discover in these things the most en-
couraging premonitions of the future highly favored
destiny of this singular people. God is engaged for
them — man is engaged for them. And shall not,
philanthropy and religion — the church and the minis-
try— shall not we, as individuals, contribute our mite of
influence, time, or substance to speed these millions of
captives, not only to the desired goal of freedom, but
to the fulfillment of their high commission as Heaven’s
chosen agents to scatter the dark cloud that hangs
over Africa, to begirt it with the light of heaven, and

396

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

to convert its great moral desert into the garden of
the Lord. Let ns only be careful that, on this great
question of the day, we be found on the side of the
Lord. They know not what they do, who throw
a single straw in the way of the emancipation of this
people, and their transference to their fatherland just
as fast as the providence of God shall indicate it to be
practicable. Yea, more, let us see to it that our pray-
ers, influence, and benefactions shall contribute as
efficiently as possible to the carrying out of this great
and beneficent scheme.

But woe to them that set themselves to hinder this
work ! God is in it ; the best, the most humane and
benevolent portion of humanity is in it. And shall
puny man resist ? His recompense of reward is be-
fore him. Let him remember Pharaoh and his host :
Egypt desolated by ten plagues and the Egyptians
“ spoiled.” Let him remember the Bed Sea, and the
chariots and horsemen buried beneath its waves. Let
them fear, for God will surely take the part of the
oppressed ; he will surely visit them that are afflicted
and long time cast down. Though he chasten, he will
not forsake them.

And not the good and benevolent only, not the
haters of oppression and the lovers of liberty alone
are favoring this great result ; but bad men are un-
consciously and indirectly doing the same. Our sorry
sympathizers with the oppressor — the rage and mad-
ness of the oppressors themselves, are made to favor
the very result which they so madly deprecate. Un-
conscious of its application in our present conflict,
"Watts expresses the idea in the following simple
stanza :

THE SOLUTION OF OUR PROBLEM.

397

“ When God, in his own sovereign ways,

Comes down to save the oppressed,

The wrath of man shall work his praise,

And he’ll restrain the rest.”

Finally, what is tlie conclusion of tlie whole matter?
What the solution of our problem ? We find a solution
in the universal emancipation of the negro race from
bondage ; in the singular training of that race while
yet in bonds — especially in their religious culture,
fitting them to be the very agents needed for the
renovation of Africa, and in a corresponding readiness
on the part of Africa to receive her regenerators. We
discover the same solution in a negro nationality in
Africa, fashioned after the Anglo-Saxon mould and
vitalized by a living Christianity ; in an enlightened
commerce and an extensive colonization ; in the
physical development and the moral regeneration of
Africa by her own redeemed children. In these vari-
ous agencies we find the solution of our problem, be-
cause implied in them are all the elements of a health-
ful progress : Christianity, civilization, industry, enter-
prise ; the education of the masses, and all the higher
departments of learning. For these are all of the
Anglo-Saxon type of life.

In a word, our hope for Africa lies chiefly in the
hope of a negro nationality that shall be highly vital-
ized with the religion of the New Testament. This
is the only living, enduring element of a nation’s life.
Commerce, learning, civilization, wealth, industry,
enterprise, are but the mere adjuncts or manifestations
of that life in a nation. Her real life is hid in the
sanctuary of a pure and undefiled religion.

“ Princes shall come out of Egypt ; Ethiopia

SIT ALT, SOON STRETCH OUT HER HANDS UNTO GOD.”

398

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

CHAPTER XX.

The Interior of Africa — Recent developments — Their bearings on the future
of Africa — British trade — The Liberia College.

Our survey of Africa and estimate of her present
condition, and our anticipations of her future, would be
confessedly incomplete if we did not advert, at least, to
the recently developed features and resources of Af-
rica’s great interior. Our notions of that great conti-
nent are derived very much from an acquaintance only
with her coasts, and more especially with her western
coast. Such is altogether an inadequate view, and
essentially erroneous. Perhaps no people have so se-
verely suffered from intercourse with foreigners as the
people of Western Africa. First, a most demoralizing
system of piracies desolated the coast. Then followed
an avalanche of Portuguese adventurers, who, like the
devouring locusts, swept over the land, and then, for
many a grievous year, ate up every green thing. The
wiles and corruption, the avarice and despotism, of
Rome never had a more unrestrained and luxuriant de-
velopment. All here found a befitting field — a house
“ swept and garnished,” for habitation. Those blight-
ing piracies had but prepared the way for a more with-
ering blight. An ignorant, confiding people became the
victims of a wicked and designing priestcraft ; and
Rome never rioted in a more congenial soil.

These two waves passed, a third, more blighting,
more prolonged and deadly in its bitter fruits, followed

PIRACIES OF THE SLAVE-TRADE.

399

in their wake with intensified virulence. What piracies
began, and the contaminating rule of the Portuguese
advanced to a fearful consummation, the slave-trade
finished. No traffic was ever so impoverishing to the
country, so demoralizing to the people. Instead of the
civilizing, enriching, enlightening influences of a legiti-
mate commerce, and the salutary influences which usual-
ly characterize intercourse with foreign peoples, this
trade, in the vile pre-eminence it attained, has won the
epithet, the “ summation of all villainies.” It, more
nearly than any other device of the great adversary,
obliterates from man the last vestige of humanity.

We may not, then, form any just estimate of the real
character and capabilities of Africa and African races
from the specimens which appear most conspicuously
before us. Nor do we gain from the same quarter any
juster apprehensions of what are the actual resources of
the country, what the climate, or the future destiny of
the people. A most withering sirocco has swept over
the entire coast, and left behind it but one unbroken
desolation. Morally, socially, and commercially, all is
desolate. Man is there no longer man, but a wild beast
preying on his fellow-man. The humanizing, enno-
bling, civilizing mission of commerce is made but the
mission of degradation and death. “ A fire devour eth
before them ; behind them a flame burneth : the land is
as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a
desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing escapes them.”

Never did so many and such malignant influences
combine to crush a single people. The resources of
commerce which arc wont to develop the thrift, the
talent, enterprise, and industry of a people, and to ad-
vance them in knowledge, wealth, and social position,

400

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

and to work out their general amelioration, have there
served only to spread distrust among men — to debase
and impoverish— and to make man fear and avoid his
fellow-man, and, consequently to repel all social inter-
course and improvement. It is a commerce before
which goes conflagration and war ; and behind which is
left but ruin and devastation. The impoverishment,
distrust, and general demoralization engendered by the
slave-trade, furnish reasons enough for the present de-
pressed and abject condition of that portion of the Afri-
can race with which we are the best acquainted.

But as we penetrate into the interior of that conti-
nent we meet a different country, a different people,
climate, and natural resources. The researches of late
travelers represent Central Africa as one of the finest
countries in the world. Instead of the low, level sur-
face of the coast, an almost impenetrable jungle — fertile,
it is true, in soil, yet more fertile in malarious disease —
we meet “ a high table-land, rolling, mountainous, and
consequently healthy,” presenting, in all its natural fea-
tures, a salubrious, fertile, and delightful land.* What
was suspected thirty years ago by our early mission-
aries, as a fair matter of conjecture, has been verified by
recent tourists. Facts soon confirmed the conjecture
that the great unknown interior of Africa was not, as
had been so generally conceded, a great desert. Large
rivers were known to emerge from those supposed arid
wastes, and they said “ there can not be large rivers
unless there be mountains ; and, if mountains, then
inland lakes.” Other facts, which gave rise to the same
conjecture, were, that the Arabs, in large caravans, are

Rev. A. A. Constantine, late missionary in Western Africa.

RESEARCHES OP MODERN TRAVELERS.

101

known to traverse those regions from year to year, in a
manner it would be impossible on the supposition it
was an unbroken desert. Large cities are known to
exist there. The French are constructing a railway
from Algiers to Timbucto ; an enterprise quite absurd,
if the interior of Africa is a desert. They are extend-
ing thither improvements, such as -they would only do in
a country capable of improvement.

Researches of modern travelers have done much to
correct the misconceptions of former days. Where it
was supposed there would be met only arid sands and
bleak barrenness, and a people poor, stupid, and abject,
Dr. Livingston found himself amid hills and dales,
mountains and rivers ; wrell-watered, well-cultivated,
and fertile fields ; villages, towns, and cities ; commu-
nities of people so much superior to the inhabitants of
the coasts, as to give them a fair claim to be called
civilized. Those were regions of vast natural resources,
rich in mines of gold and silver, and the useful metals.
He found intelligence, a good degree of thrift, some
well-organized governments, schools, and unmistakable,
though not well-developed, vestiges of the true religion ;
not only the relics of a patriarchal religion, recognizing-
one Supreme God, but vestiges of Christianity, which
had, probably, found its way thither through Abyssinia,
where it had obtained a foothold in the days of the
apostles, and where, to the present day, it has never
ceased to exist.

All this, and more too, is confirmed by other travel-
ers. Captains Speke and Grant have deserved and
received the thanks of the whole civilized world for
their late successful researches. We can here no more
than quote a few paragraphs indicating some of the

402

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

general features of the parts of Central Africa which
they visited. They Represent that the interior of Africa
is really “ a great elevated water-basin, often abounding
in rich lands, its large lakes being fed by numerous
streams from adjacent ridges ; and its waters escaping
to the sea by fissures and depressions in the highest sur-
rounding lands.”

“ I believe,” says Speke, “ I have discovered a zone of
wonderful fertility in Africa. It is in a line with the
equator, east and west, and its fertility perfectly aston-
ishes me.” This region is represented by him to be
between 3,000 and 4,000 feet in altitude, watered by
rains the entire year, fertilizing the adjoining x-egions
with a temperature as mild as that of England in sum-
mer, and the most healthy of all the countries through
which he traveled. Arab merchants, and others, say
that thei'e is no place so healthy as the equatorial re-
gions. No part of the world, these travelers believe,
holds out such promise to the colonist or the Christian
missionary.

Another writer says : The knowledge we possess of
the western and eastern shores of Africa, in the region
of the line, would lead us to suppose that the central
country is mountainous, intei’sected with deep and ex-
tensive valleys, and large sti’eams, whose banks have all
the wild luxuriance of warm and rainy climates. All
the interior of Africa between the ti’opics must be full
of rivers, woods, and i-avines, on account of the rains
which inundate it during the winter season. Other
travelers speak of the people. Their physical character
and social condition were found to be superior to any
other African l'aces known. And moi'e definitely yet
do they speak of their civil condition. “ On an'iving at

NATURAL PRODUCTIONS — COTTON.

403

the three Wahuma kingdoms which inclose the western
and northwestern shores of the Nyanza Lake,” they say,
“ a remarkable state of social and political life arrests
the attention. Two, at least, of these Wahuma king-
doms have the advantage of being ruled by a firm
hand.” Among the series of “ strong kingdoms” which
they met, particular mention is made of Uganda, which
is described as a “most surprising country, in the order,
neatness, civility, and politeness of its inhabitants.”
Our travelers were surprised at the “tidiness of the
people, the manner in which they deported themselves,
and the style of the native dress ;” which they said
would “ not disgrace a fashionable promenade in Lon-
don. These people in Uganda are a superior people.”

Nor should we overlook, in our estimate, the natural
productions of these countries. The purest iron and the
richest gold and silver mines in the world are found in
Central Africa. The soil, too, is exhaustless ; and the
resources of the forests and rivers are excelled by no
other country. Natives constantly coming to Liberia,
from the interior, tell of “ lands exuberantly fertile, of
large and numerous tribes, athletic, industrious ; not
the descendants of Europeans — but black men, pure
negroes, who live in large towns, cultivate the soil,
carry on extensive traffic, maintain amicable relations
with each other, and with men from a distance.”

But the product which gives the great importance to
these countries, now but recently revealed to the civil-
ized world, is the almighty cotton. His majesty shows
signs of a transfer of his throne from the dominions of
Africa’s white oppressors to the fairer regions of Ham’s
own sable sons. The capacity of the country for the
growth of cotton seems to know no bounds.

404

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

We can not here too profoundly admire the hand of
God in this very timely opening of that great cotton
field.

The Southern States had well-nigh assumed the mo-
nopoly of this indispensable article of commerce. The
negro must be enslaved — Africa be devastated by the
demon of avarice — American soil be wet with tears of
blood, that a few may riot in the great monopoly.

Discern we not the hand of God here ? The thing
that God has risen up to do, is to break the iron yoke
that binds four millions of his oppressed ones in a bond-
age more cruel than that of Egypt. The cotton monop-
oly forged their chains, and would not let them go.
Pharaoh wanted the Hebrews to make bricks, that he
might consummate his great architectural schemes — per-
chance the construction of the Pyramids. Southern
planters wanted the negroes to raise cotton, that they
might grow rich and prosper, and rule the nation. The
oppressed “ sighed by reason of their bondage, and
cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage. And God heard their groaning, and came
down to deliver them.” How, in the exercise of his
sterner judgments, he is, through the dreadful carnage
of war, battering down every stronghold of slavery, it is
not my province in the present connection to discuss.
We are here only concerned to inquire how he does it
in connection with the culture and traffic of cotton.

England must have cotton ; 20,000,000 of spindles
must be kept twirling, or millions of souls are sorely
troubled. A civil war breaks out in America, and the
supplies of cotton are cut off. Multitudes in England
are thrown out of employment, and their families are
brought to the verge cf starvation. And vastly greater

BRITISH TRADE WITH CENTRAL AFRICA.

405

multitudes arc troubled and perplexed for fear of the
things that arc coming on the earth. But what aileth
thee, that trouble has taken hold of thee, and pain as of
one that travaileth ? Nothing — but that Sambo lias
dropped his hoe and retired from the cotton-field.
Europe — the world in general — England in particular,
is like a car thrown from the track, because King Cotton
Avithholds his supplies. But the war goes on ; the
cotton-fields are laid waste ; the cultivators have heard
from afar the herald of freedom, and they will no longer
stay.

What now can England do ? It is a question of life
and death — of work and live, or be thrown out of em-
ployment and starve. Every mind is on the alert ;
every nerve strung. Where shall we get cotton now?
The voice of God replies : it speaks through the open-
ing cotton-fields, and the cheap labor, and the fertile soil,
and the populous regions, and the great navigable rivers,
of Central Africa. English capital, English enterprise
and cupidity — much that is good and more that is bad,
is engaged to open up a highway to the sources of the
Niger and the Nile ; and to every great trading post in
the interior. Lagos is already a great port of entry to
this new cotton-field, and a great arena of commercial
enterprise. Dr. Baikie strongly advises an English
trading station on the banks of the Niger. He speaks
of the mind of the Central African races as eminently
practical, capable of appreciating advantages of trade,
and ready to turn all proffered facilities to account.

England is appreciating the very great advantages of
her trade with Central Africa. France is an active
competitor. The contemplated railway from Algiers to
Timbucto, and the sinking of artesian wells in the Great

406

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

Desert, by the aid of which every locality about a well
becomes a fruitful field, are unmistakable intimations of
the estimate which France puts on this newly opening
field of commerce.

There is something- truly noteworthy in the course of
providential dealing at the present moment in connec-
tion with the existing slaveholders’ rebellion in Ameri-
ca ; and in its future bearing on Africa. It indicates,
beyond all controversy, that the time has at length come
when the mighty hand of God is engaged to recover,
from the desolation of many generations, that great and
singular continent, and a more singular race.

England must have cotton. Her great commercial
machinery is deranged — the wheels stopped — the com-
merce of the world paralyzed the moment the supplies of
cotton are suspended. Such a derangement, such a dam-
aging restriction of supplies, has befallen Great Briton
as a consequence of the present war. The derangements
and devastations of this dreadful conflict have laid
American cotton-fields waste, and scattered those who
cultivated them to the four winds. England feels it to
the quick, and loses no time and spares no pains to sup-
ply her lack. She is compelled to direct her search
elsewhere, and Africa looms up before her as her most
promising field. Every spindle in Lancashire now be-
comes a mute, unconscious advocate of the long-neglected
race. Let us see if we can trace the lines of providen-
tial dealing in the matter in question :

In order to the renovation supposed, the following con-
ditions would seem requisite, viz., natural capacities and
resources of the country and of the people to be reno-
vated, and the preparation of the agents who are to
become the renovators. A sterile country, with no re-

LATE EXPLORATIONS IN AFRICA.

407

sources to be developed, is incapable of the ameliorations
which we have supposed await Africa. And though she
must supply the material (the raw material) for such a
renovation, this material must first be wrought into
shape and fitness, and be tempered to the work, before
it can accomplish its assigned mission. This, we think,
we can sIioav in respect to the natural resource of Africa,
and the two great classes of agents which are destined
to work out her regeneration. We are at present more
especially concerned to discover the modus operandi — the
providential workings which are bringing about the
purposes here supposed.

We have already spoken of the great natural resources
of Africa in general, and the rapidly maturing of the
instrumentalities which are preparing for the most effi-
cient action in that direction. We have now to speak
of the same in their present advanced condition. Central
Africa has, within a few years, thrown open to the en-
terprise of commerce and philanthropy altogether new
and more inviting fields. And, in correspondence with
this, there has been as signal advance in the preparation
of the human agencies.

We have seen how the explorations of Barth, Burtou,
Livingston, Speke, and Grant have revealed a new Africa
to the world — regions of unsurpassed fertility-govern-
ments in advance of any thing heretofore known on the
coast; peoples comparatively intelligent and refined; cul-
ing learning and favored with schools ; acquainted with
the useful and ornamental arts ; with mining and the use-
ful metals, and with much which goes to civilize and
elevate a people. Persons not conversant with late explo-
rations in Central Africa may not be prepared to believe
that “ schools, of different grades, have existed for centu-

408

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ries, in various interior negro countries, and under the
provisions of law, in which even the poor are educated
at the public expense, and in which the deserving are
carried on many years through long courses of regular
instruction. Native languages have been reduced to
writing, books translated from the Arabic, and original
works written in them.” Most erroneous and unjust is
that judgment which forms an opinion of the hundred
millions of men spread over the interior of Africa, from
a knowledge of ten or twelve millions of sadly demoral-
* ized beings who are met on the coasts.

The significant developments referred to, doubly sig-
nificant at this critical juncture in human affairs, indi-
cate one of the interesting lines of providential dealing
with Africa and her races, which characterize our times.
What is discovered to exist in Africa, and what is doing
for Africa, is rapidly preparing the theatre on which the
great, drama is about to be acted. The agencies and
actors are being prepared elsewhere. And, in order to
the fitting and bringing forth upon the great arena of
action these agencies and actors, the most extraordinary
commotions are taking place.

The true, legitimate renovators of Africa have, in
their respective generations, been more than two cen-
turies fitting for their mission. In the rice-fields of
the South ; in every department of useful labor : in the
hard school of unrequited bondage ; and in the scanty,
though to them blessed, religious privileges, which, in
spite of their “ durance vile,” the hand of Heaven’s mer-
cy has brought them, they have been fitting themselves
to act an important part in the redemption of their
fatherland. With a faith unwavering, with a patience
unequaled, with a childlike confidence and prayer that

THE GREAT BABYLON IS FALLEN.

409

takes hold on the promises with all the simplicity and
trust of a child, they have waited the time of their de-
liverance, till at length God came down and bade their
oppressors to let his people go. The great American
Rebellion which shakes the nation to its centre and vi-
brates in ominous sounds throughout Europe, is simply
a mad and organized resistance to this mandate of
Heaven.

One of the first felt results of the war, is to lay waste
the cotton-fields, and to cut short supplies for Europe.
This was a seeming, and for the time being, areal calam-
ity. It has retarded or suspended the busy wheels of
the great manufactories of Europe and America, thrown
multitudes out of employment, and brought their families
to the verge of starvation. It lias made itself as a liv-
ing calamity in the exorbitant prices of all cotton stuffs
the wide world over. All this seemed decidedly calam-
itous. But when we look at the final cause — its bear-
ings on the great continent of Africa, the seeming ca-
lamity appears but incidental and temporary ; the final
result, lasting and worthy of Heaven’s great King.

Cotton, the great Babylon of the commercial world,
is fallen — is fallen ; and the kings of the earth who have
lived deliciously with her, lament for her, and bewail
her, when they see the smoke of her burning ; and the
merchants of thee arth weep and mourn over her, for
no man buyeth their merchandise any more. The mer-
chants, who were made rich by her, stand afar off, weep-
ing and wailing — for in one hour so great riches are
brought to naught, and every shipmaster, and all the
company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by
sea, stood afar off. But shall the mighty, onward rolling
wheels of commerce and civilization stop because Hea-
ts

410

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

veil will no longer allow the unpaid toil of Africa’s sons
to freight her ships, and to fatten their oppressors.
Amid thunderings and lightnings and a great earth-
quake, which shakes two continents, the magical king is
transferring his sceptre to a third continent, where he,
who once rioted on the unrequited labors of the op-
pressed, will now, by a benignant rule, honor and bless
a willing people. Again, kings, merchants, statesmen,
premiers, lords of the treasury, travelers and explor-
ers of every name and nation, have, willingly or un-
willingly, come to the rescue ; never did wit and wis-
dom, interest and enterprise, more heartily combine to
devise a remedy.

Africa was opening to an enlarged and lucrative
commerce before. Large trading companies had been
organized ; lines of steamers run between England and
Africa ; large capital was employed in the trade ; and
extensive explorations were made. But now a new
impetus is given to the whole. Central Africa all at
once holds out new attractions to commerce, because it
opens the most hopeful and inviting field for an abund-
ant supply of cotton, and at the cheapest rate. The
time having come for the renovation of Africa, commerce
is again made the entering wedge to civilization and
Christianity.

But we should fail of any just estimate of the real
magnitude of this providential movement toward Africa,
if we did not take into the account the present enlarged
and yearly enlarging amount of commerce with that
country. And it is with no feelings of national pride
that we are obliged to acknowledge, that this trade, so
promising of great and lasting results to Africa, and so
abundantly remunerative to the nation that shall prose-

MORE TRADING COMPANIES WITH AERICA. 411

cute it, is, to a great extent, in the hands of our com-
mercial rivals. England has won the credit and reaps
the benefit of this important and profitable trade. Eng-
land, first moved by a laudable regard to her own inter-
ests, and now compelled by a stern necessity to repair,
as best she can, the unexpected failure of the Slave
States of America to supply the indispensable fabric,
now forces her way up the Nile and the Niger — up the
Senegal and the St. Paul, and seems in the way of ac-
complishing a destiny of which our people might justly
feel proud.

Besides the British Companies organized to trade with
Africa already named, as the West Africa Company ;
the Manchester Commercial Association ; the British
Cotton Supply Association, and others ; we have re-
cently noticed the West African Steamship Company,
with a capital of $1,250,000 ; the London and West
African Bank, with a capital of $2,500,000 ; and the
London and Liberia Banking and Commercial Institu-
tion, with a capital of‘$l,000,000. We have here in-
dicated the outlines of a commerce, the details and
magnitude of which, as hastened on by the slaveholders’
rebellion, hold out a presage for good to Africa hitherto
unprecedented.

Statistics have here a peculiar interest, as indicating
the progress of the great commercial revolution which
is transpiring in favor of Africa. The following, though
by no means complete, yet, as approximations, possess a
significance worthy of notice.

We are indebted to an intelligent and ardent friend
of Africa and her races, Wm. Coppinger, Esq., of Phila-
delphia, for the following statistics of English trade in
Africa :

412

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

“ In 1853, the export of palm oil from Lagos was 160
tons ; in 1857, the declared value of this, with a few
other articles, was £1,062.806. From Abbeokuta in-
terior, a short distance from Lagos, the increase of raw
cotton has been enormous. In 1852, nine bags, or 1810
pounds, were exported ; in 1858, 1,819 bags, or 220,000
pounds ; and in 1859, 3,447 bags, or 416,341 pounds.
From the island of Sherbro, near the northern confines
of Liberia, a cotton trade has sprung up in six years to
the value of £61,000 for the last twelve months reported.
Sixty thousand tons of palm oil are estimated as sent
annually from the western coast of Africa, and the quan-
tity that reached Great Britain during the year 1859
was 804,326 cwt.

The exports of British goods during the first six
months of the three past years are stated as follows :

1858.

To Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the

- Gold Coast, British .... £95,404
To other parts of west coast of

Africa 336,939

Total £432,343

1859.

I860.

£148,538

£139,643

344,710

471,619

£493,248

£611,262

“ This table shows an increase of nearly forty per
cent, in quantity and value compared with 1859, and
about fifteen per cent, in quantity and forty per cent, in
value over 1858.”

We may take this as an imperfect statement, and a
beginning of a commerce which shall become an in-
creasingly strong element in the civilization and moral
renovation of Africa.

Do not passing events seem to indicate that the next
great movement in the drama of human affairs will be
in Africa? which, indeed, presents a broad and hopeful

AFRICA HAS A UNIQUE HISTORY.

413

field for the exercise of the energies of all commercial
nations ; and seems, too, to hold out the beckoning hand
to the combined energies of philanthropy and religion,
that they will hasten to the harvest of fields already
white.

A single paragraph from the pen of an intelligent
writer on Africa* will confirm the view we have taken.
Its chief interest and encouragement relate more es-
pecially to recent developments in Central Africa: “Its
history, as to races, politics, learning, and religion,
forms one of the most curious and interesting chapters
in the world’s annals. A better acquaintance would
tgnd somewhat to abate the intense egotism of Cauca-
sian ignorance, by leading us to contemplate the not
improbable idea of savans of the eighth or tenth centu-
ry discussing the probability of elevating the white
bai'barians of the North ; and questioning wdiether the
Japhetic races were capable of civilization. But the
prospects held out by this region, of mercantile profits
and the conquest of trade, will interest a much larger
class. Strangely enough, there is lying nearer to
Western Europe than is any of the great fields of its
foreign commerce, a country of vast extent and of almost
boundless fertility, and accessible to sea-going vessels,
that has been waiting through weary ages to pour its
wealth into the lap of any who will receive it. Its
agricultural resources excel those of India, and rival
those of our own Mississippi Yalley ; and tire labor "to
develop these is at hand, ready to be employed at prices
that would render American slave labor ridiculously
expensive, and for which European fabrics would be

* Rev. Dr. Curry, in the “ Methodist Quarterly Review,” April, 1S61.

414

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

received to any extent purchasable by such products.
The whole region is one vast cotton-field, and the pro-
duction of that staple seems to be easily capable of an
infinite expansion, and there is no reason to doubt that
that country alone would very soon be made, by native
industry, to supply raw cotton to the whole of Europe.
We are glad to know that Great Britain already lias
her hand, as well ns her eye, upon that good land. We
trust, before many years, her flag will wave along the
Niger, the BAnu-we, and on the bosom of the Tchad ; and
that her strong and beneficent hand will bind the warring
chiefs of Soodan in the bonds of a peaceful commerce,
and so achieve the redemption of a great nation.”

But what shall we say of the strange remissness of the
American people to be first and foremost in a commerce
which would seem so naturally to belong to her ; and
whose prosecution is so promising of large and lasting
results? Every consideration would seem to urge this
enterprise on the people of America ; interest, honor,
duty — the simple requital of great wrongs — the peculiar
facilities Africa has, in respect to agencies and agents,
to prosecute a stupendous commercial enterprise with
Africa.

But it is time we draw this volume to a close. I
shall avail myself, in conclusion, of the aid of a friend
who has spent more than a quarter of a century in the
service of Africa* first as a missionary, and then in dif-
ferent departments of home labor. Passing events are
now urging upon us the query : What shall be the
coming destiny of this singular race? What shall we
do with the negro — what do for him? We have said,

* Rev. A. A. Constantine, missionary to Africa.

god’s plans past unfolding.

415

do nothing for him, or with him — except to meet him in
his present exigency as the good Samaritan did him
that had fallen among thieves — stripped — wounded, and
left half dead. Restore him to his God-given rights, as a
man. Give him protection by law, and the opportunity
to rise by his own merit and industry, and make his
own position. Water finds its level. Let him go and
come, buy and sell, in the full, free exercise of all his
rights ; do what he can, and make himself what, by
his own well-doing and the suffrage of a free people, he
may.

God’s plans and purposes in connection with that
whole African race are fast unfolding. As toward
Israel in Egypt, his hand is visible in working out the
greatest problem of the age. Grand results are already
achieved. From a chattel the negro has already be-
come a man, bearing arms in defense of his nation’s flag.
He is being educated in the best of schools to develop
his manhood. The mandate for his redemption has
gone out and must be obeyed, though the land be
drenched in blood, and there be mourning in every
family thereof. They have “cried unto the Lord, and
their cry has come up unto God by reason of their
bondage. And God has looked upon them, and had
respect unto them.” And through their redemption
and elevation we confidently expect the renovation of
the whole African family. Indeed, it will be but of a
piece with the Divine procedure, should that race yet
become, commercially, politically, and morally, a leading
race among the nations of the earth.

Placed in the centre of the earth and capable of pro-
ducing, in the greatest perfection and abundance, the
products of the tropics and the temperate zones, Ameri-

416

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

ca and Europe may be spared their long and perilous
voyages around the Cape, and realize all the wants of
commerce comparatively at their door. Africa can be
made to supply the world with the great staples of com-
merce, cotton, sugar, rice, cofFee, dyes, valuable oils, and
precious metals. Her people, too, have all the natural
aptitudes to realize such a result — quick perception,
great power of endurance, love of home and fondness for
agriculture, and a marked love of traffic.

Could the merchants of New York and Boston see
Africa as she is, and as she shall be, they would not
allow England to forestall them in a lucrative com-
merce. They would come in for their share, by organ-
izing companies and placing lines of steamers to all
important points on the coasts and up the rivers of
Africa, manned by colored seamen. Congress should
at once aid such companies, send out explorers, form
treaties with the natives, and develop the resources of
the country. This will be done, because the elements
of commerce are there. A highway is thus opening to
Africa, liberating and preparing a people to go and
possess the land. Who does not see the hand of God
in working out the destiny of that people ?

From whatever standpoint we contemplate the desti-
ny of the African race, in connection with the recent
and peculiar intimations of Providence toward that
race, we can not but look forward to a nationality in
Africa as their only really hopeful prospect. And here
we should fail to do justice to our own convictions if we
did not indicate the “ African Civilization Society” as
incorporating, in its general features, modes of working
and objects, the most suitable and hopeful agency to
work out the final destiny of this people. With a

LIBERIA COLLEGE— See page 417.

THE LIBERIA COLLEGE — AFRICA WAITING. 417

working power of colored men, and a motive power — a
guidance, encouragement, and co-operation of some of
our most philanthropic and benevolent citizens, it prom-
ises a final success. The plan seems common-sense and
practical. Small industrial settlements of selected
colored families, composed of farmers, mechanics, teach-
ers, and preachers, act as a civilizing agency, carry
Christianity into the field and workshop, and thus make
it practical and their missions self-sustaining. Each
forms a nucleus about which the natives will gather,
and each, in turn, become a radiator of the new light.

I have quite failed, in the foregoing pages, to give the
deserved prominence to one of the most promising signs
of Africa’s coming renovation. I refer to the Liberia
College. Nor can I do more — nor need I do more, than
to recognize the fact of its existence. A college, a high
literary institution, with a president, professors, and
directors, patrons and pupils, who would do honor to
any college, and yet of the lineage of Ham, is a speaking
fact — a day-star risen upon that land of darkness and
shadow of death. God bless it ; aud may it cast its light
far and wide over that long- benighted continent !

But enough. I have presented Africa in her waiting-
posture, ready to be delivered — her vast resources on
the eve of development — Central Africa just at this
juncture opening up to view elements of progress hitherto
unknown, and a commerce inaugurating of equally gigan-
tic dimensions ; the agents for this work preparing in
the iron furnace of slavery, and the great slaveholders’
rebellion brought about at the appointed time to loose
them from their bondage and send them on their mission
to their fatherland — England cut off from a supply of
cotton, and compelled to seek a supply from Africa —
18*

418

THE GREAT NEGRO PROBLEM SOLVED.

how the war is carrying out the work of preparation
begun by slavery, fitting for their mission warriors,
statesmen, leaders, as well as merchants, mechanics,
artisans, and scholars. Is there not good ground for
the hope now taking hold of the philanthropic mind
that the star of Africa is rising?

And what follows, but that the great heart of humani-
ty should beat responsive to the mighty working of the
Divine hand — that we should take the side of the
oppressed and of God — meet our responsibilies — quit
ourselves like men — lean on the everlasting arm — shake
ourselves from the burden and bondage of the past —
“up, sanctify ourselves,” and put away the “accursed
thing,” praying with all prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving ; work where and when God is working —
throw ourselves into the current of providential work-
ing— as a nation, repent and humble ourselves before
God, and put away the sins that have brought down
upon us the sore judgments of God, and we shall see if
God will not turn and smile upon us, and bless us more
than before ! “ Though he hath torn, he will heal us ;

though he hath smitten, he will bind us up 1”

- *

(

/•

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•• ji.

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