THE COLOR Q/CTIESTTOlsr.
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A. LETTER
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WKITTEN FOR THE
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SIXTIETH ANNUAL MEETING
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OF THE
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
Washington, g. <g., January 16, 1877,
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EDWARD P. HUMPHREY, D.D., LL.D.
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PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
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WASHINGTON, D. C. :
Colonization Rooms, 450 Pennsylvania Avenue,
1877.
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THE COLOR QDESTION IN THE UNITED STATES.
Louisville, Kv., January n, 1877.
Hon. Peter Parker, Washington City.
My Dear Sir : I have heretofore expressed to Mr. Coppinger and
yourself my regret that I cannot, in compliance with the wishes of
the Executive Committee of the American Colonization Society,
make an address at the approaching Annual Meeting. I have now
the pleasure of your note of December I, 1876, asking me to prepare
a paper for the use of the Committee, showing "the influence of the
benevolent operations of the Society on the state of things in this
country." Herewith I submit to your consideration a few thoughts
on this subject, to be used at your discretion.
It is frequently said that, although the slavery question in this coun¬
try is settled, the color question has not been touched. Indeed the
extirpation of slavery has introduced new and perplexing conditions
into the problem. Before the law the colored man is the equal of
the white man. His rights of property are acknowledged. The
ballot-box is open to him. Hie is eligible to office, even the highest
in every State and in the General Government. Hie may remove at
his own pleasure from any one State to any other, and acquire citizen¬
ship wherever he goes upon the terms prescribed to the whites. His
fright of trial by jury is secured. No discrimination is made against
him in the lavwof marriage and divorce, in the conditions imposed on
the relations of the sexes, in the law of wills and testaments, or in the
punishments awarded on conviction of crime; he may be whipped,
or imprisoned, or put to *death in no other way than if he were a
white man. These immense changes in his civil relations do not ren¬
der more simple or manageable the problem of the colored race; they
add to its complications. The process by which the slave has been
written the citizen has not changed his present social relations, nor is
there in this process any promise of such a change hereafter. The
controlling fact is that the overwhelming majority, eight out of nine,
of our people are white; the ninth is black. The people who bear
the color stain have been everywhere and always, in this country, the
inferior, and for the most part the servile race.
It may be useful just now to put to the test of common sense some
of the more plausible answers to the question, What shall be done
with the freedman ? For the first, it has been thought that they
might be concentrated upon the Gulf States, all the whites leaving
those States and all the blacks going thither from the other parts of
the country. But there is not in the history of mankind an example
of such a movement of populations ; nor, if there were such exam¬
ples, is there any reason to suppose that this thing could be done
here. The Gulf States include some of the choicest cotton-lands on
the face of the earth, together with the only sugar-producing region
in the country. These States hold, also, the mouths of the river
Mississippi, with its widest and deepest channels. Does anybody
believe that the whites now in possession will abandon that vast and
fertile region to the blacks, surrendering to them, in the bargain, the
control of the navigation of the great river? Again, the history of
the Indian reservations shows that the whites are not in the habit of
acknowledging the rights of an inferior race. A struggle is at this
moment going on for the ownership of the Black Hills. They have
been ceded to the Indians by solemn treaty. The red man is in pos¬
session, and his title is protected by the military power of the United
States; but neither the ferocity of the Sioux warriors within the terri¬
tory, nor the vigilance of the national troops posted on its borders, can
keep off the miners and speculators. A people who mean at all hazards
to rob the Indians of their reservations are not likely to pull up stakes
and abandon to the colored race the fertile shores of the Southern
Gulf. They have just now built Deadwood City among the snows
and bad lands of the Black Hills. They will hardly move away from
Mobile and New Orleans, and from the four or five neighboring
States, for the accommodation of the freedmen.
A second solution of the problem has been proposed. It is diffi¬
cult to state or to examine a proposition than which nothing could
be more unreasonable or revolting. I refer to the amalgamation of
the white and black races through unrestrained intermarriage. It
would be a reproach to the intelligence of the colored race to inti¬
mate the existence of any expectation among them to thai effect.
The probabilities of its occurrence are not suggested by any historical
analogies: not by the fusion of the citizens and helots of Sparta, or
of the Roman masters and their slaves, or of the free-born Russians
and their serfs. In all those instances the superior and inferior races
were of the same color and of the same general stock. Not one of
them touches the question how to obliterate the color-line which
divides forty millions from five millions, the first made up chiefly of
Anglo-Saxons, and the last of Africans, the Africans long held in
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slavery, and now laboring under the stain of color not only, but the
prejudice of caste as well. Nor is there anything in the condition
of the mixed breeds in Mexico, or in the amalgamation which is said
to be now going forward in the West India Islands, to warrant the
thought that universal miscegenation in this country is among the
possibilities of the future. This method of solving the problem may
be discarded without further argument.
A third solution may be obtained by our agreeing to abide bv the
present posture of affairs. It might be urged that the whites and the
blacks are now living together. The one is the superior and the
other is the inferior race. Both parties are now getting along after
a fashion. Let the subject rest there. This is a plausible suggestion.
For, first, this settlement of the question saves the trouble of study
and discussion on the most difficult branch of social science. Next,
this is an established element in American society; and whatever is
now, and has long been, the settled order of things holds a position
from which it is not easily dislodged. Further, the colored people
are satisfied with their homes in this country, and the most of them
resent any attempt to remove them. Their recent liberation and
enfranchisement, procured and guaranteed by constitutional amend¬
ments, have strengthened their attachment to what they proudly call
their native land. They are the equals of the whites before the law.
No other disability disturbs them except their social inferiority; and
this they are willing to endure, partly because they have become
accustomed to it, and partly because they hope, though the whites
think, against hope, for better things. And further still, the whites
"accept the situation," because they do not see that it is possible to
change it; and because the presence of the blacks, as laborers, is a
convenience in the northern portion-of the former Slave States, and
a supposed necessity in the Gulf States.
Here we come upon the main obstacles in the way of African
Colonization. The cause has but a feeble hold on the people of
either race. The blacks will not go to Africa, a few only excepted.
The whites do not believe that 5,000,000 of people can be removed
thither; nor are they willing to give up their old servants as a sepa¬
rate, inferior, and docile class of laborers and menials.
Standing face to face with all these obstacles, have we any further
plea to urge in behalf of Colonization? If so, what is the nature and
ground of the plea? For answer to these questions, let it be borne
in mind that the freedmen are now rising apace in the scale of intelli¬
gence, self-respect, sound morality, and the religious sentiment and
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ife. Nothing of the kind is more remarkable than their progress in
these directions. It has exceeded the hopes of their most sanguine
friends. A visit to their schools, to their churches, and to the
ecclesiastical meetings of the colored preachers would surprise those
even who entertain the largest expectations respecting their enlighten¬
ment and elevation.
It is to be expected that the progress of education and religion
among them will raise up a class of people who will demand for
themselves and their children a better home than will be afforded to
them here. When they were in slavery their hearts were set on
emancipation. What sacrifices were made by many of them, to
secure personal freedom for themselves and their children, will not
be forgotten by this generation either of the former masters or
servants. They are now free beyond the possibility of re-enslave¬
ment. This is the first step. Then, being freemen, they began to
seek equality before the law with their white neighbors. They were
taught to say: "Of what use is freedom to us, so long as we are de¬
prived of the ordinary rights of freemen? We are refused the self-
protection afforded by the ballot-box; the coveted prizes of citizen¬
ship, the inspiring rewards of good behavior are denied us; and the
law, instead of recognizing our equality, inflicts upon us, and entails
on our unborn children the stigma of legalized caste. Let us have
the rights as well as the personal liberty of free citizens." This is
the second advantage which has been sought and gained for them.
Now for the third. Having gotten their freedom and their civil
rights, the wealthy and cultivated people of color will aspire to
social equality. Their pride will be stung by the slights that will be
put upon them, by the indignities which white people of ruder and
coarser manners than they will inflict on their families, and by the
polite but more freezing exclusion which the better classes of the
whites will strongly enforce. They will say, " Freedom is a great
gift, equality before the law is a great gift; but what are these so long
as our children are not suffered in social intercourse to cross the color-
line—a bar more hateful than the 'dead-line' of the military prison?"
Parents might endure the stigma of inferiority for themselves, but not
for their children. Could they be convinced that their descendants
of a remote generation will rise to a social equality with the whites,
even to the extent of intermarriage—which is and ought to be for¬
ever impossible—even then, the better classes of them will hardly feet
at liberty to leave their own children to be worn out by the sufferings
which they must endure in wearing out what they deem an odious
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prejudice of caste, all for the sake of future generations. Men prefer
the well-being of their immediate children to the comfort of unborn
and remote descendants. To the most intelligent and far-seeing
parents the question will surely occur, whether there is not some¬
where under the sun a country where their children may at once rise
to the dignity and just pride of men and women who are socially, as
well as by force of law, the equals of the highest. This inquiry,
which is sure to assume an urgent form, leads up to the remaining
solution of the problem.
That solution is proposed by the American Colonization Society.
It is busy and patient in the preparation of a home for these people
which shall fulfill all the conditions of a home. It is a fact, every
way remarkable, that the skies are brightening in Africa just at the
time when the color question becomes more serious than ever. The
hopeful signs may be easily pointed out. For the first, Liberia is
entering on a new career of prosperity. It is no longer a feeble
settlement, struggling for a foothold upon the edge of a continent
occupied by barbarous tribes and white savages trading in slaves. It
is no longer a colony, with fair prospects of success as a colony merely.
It is a free Commonwealth, with a written Constitution, good laws,
and an established Government. The authorities are obtaining hon¬
orable and peaceable possession of the outlying regions. Their power
of self-protection against the hostile native tribes has been maintained
by force of arms. The health of the climate is constantly improving.
Agriculture, the source of boundless wealth, is steadily gaining ground.
Churches and schools and all the allied forces of Christian civilization
are in vigorous working order. To all this it must be added that the
citizens of the new Republic are all colored people ; the white man
being forever disfranchised by an express provision of the Constitution.
Such is the home which is to-day offered to so many of our colored
people as are looking for another country better than America for
themselves and their children.
And further still, the world is beginning to find out that Western
Africa is only a narrow and low-lying border of a great continent. It
required nearly a hundred years after the settlement of Jamestown and
Plymouth for our fathers to ascertain that the strip of country between
the Atlantic and the Alleghanies was not North America, but only
a thoroughfare to the heart of the continent in the valley of the
Mississippi. That vast central region has drawn to itself emigrants
from other countries which may be counted by millions.
Recent discoveries in Africa are not less surprising. From Liberia
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on the Western Coast to Abyssinia on the Eastern, the breadth of the
continent is four thousand miles—one thousand more than the distance
from New York to San Francisco. The surface of Africa is not less
.diversified than the surface of America. There are low lands and high
lands, jungles and sandy plains, mangrove swamps, and mountains the
tops of which are covered with snow. There are basins for inland
seas and channels for mighty rivers. Lieutenant Cameron informs us
by his personal observation that "most of the land from the Tanganyi¬
ka to the Western Coast is of almost unspeakable richness. There
are metals^—iron, copper, silver, and gold; coal also exists; vegetable
products, palm-oil, nutmegs, cotton, several sorts of pepper and coffee,
all growing wild. The Arabs have introduced rice, wheat, onions, and
a few fruit-trees, all of which seem to flourish well." There are other
indications of the immense resources of interior Africa. Within a
short journey from Liberia a group of kingdoms may be found, some of
which have been in existence for more than a thousand years. These
contain wide districts of fertile soil, producing cotton, rice, and corn.
The air is cool and sweet, and the region is by nature every way in¬
viting. Now the discoveries already made and to be made hereafter
in Africa may be expected to invite an immense emigration. The
question has been often put us bv the colored people, "If Africa is so
good a eountry why do not the white people go there themselves?"
This question may receive an unexpected reply. Stranger things have
happened in the migrations of the human family than the settlement of
large districts of Africa by the white races, and by the return thither of
immense numbers of its own now exiled children. These last will be
in a condition to choose, not only between this country and Liberia,
but between this country and the most attractive regions of New Africa.
And further, it is reasonable to anticipate that the impulse of emigra¬
tion, having once taken possession of these people, will lead to their
voluntary colonization in regions within easy reach of this country.
Jamaica, Porto Rico, Hayti, San Domingo, Cuba, or the South Amer¬
ican States may invite the intelligent and enterprising colored people
of a new generation to found free commonwealths within their do¬
mains. A race resolved on seeking a new home will find or make one
for themselves.
Migration makes up one of the most wonderful chapters in the his¬
tory of the world. We find near at hand an illustration of the power
of this movement. It is said that within a quarter of a century
(1848-1873) over five millions of foreigners have been landed in
New York alone, in numbers equal to the entire colored popula-
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tion of the United States. Some of the forces that instigate and
secure migration are oppression, poverty, civil inequality, bad land
laws and labor systems, social disabilities, dissatisfaction with the old
and the attractiveness of new homes. The motives now known or
unknown which will stimulate the voluntary removal of the colored
race to other lands may, within our second century, go very far
towards solving the problem. And it may turn out that the greatest
work of our Society is the suggestion of colonization in foreign lands,
together with a demonstration in Liberia of its feasibility, as a cure for
the evils which now afflict the white no less than the black races.
Such is the solution which our Society applies to the problem.
We are not entitled to say that it will be actually solved in this way.
The thoughts of the Almighty are higher than our thoughts and His
ways are higher than our ways, higher than the heavens are above
the earth. He is accustomed to accomplish His gracious purposes by
methods which no human sagacity can divine. But we are entitled
to say that our plan is the best plan yet suggested for the future eleva¬
tion of the colored race. We are not at liberty to discard this scheme
until a better is proposed ; and if there be a better, the vigorous pros¬
ecution of this may lead us on to that.
Our Society is the only body of men in existence organized solely
for the benefit of the colored peoples here and in Africa. The Amer¬
ican Anti-Slavery Society labored for the emancipation of the slaves,
but it contemplated nothing beyond that. On the adoption of the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution the Society
adjourned without day. It did not even attempt to perpetuate and
strengthen itself to grapple with the question, What shall be done
with the freedman? That question was the unavoidable sequence of
their emancipation and enfranchisement. It is a question which
everybody foresaw would arise and must be met; a question which may
convulse the nation, and may in its settlement change the face of the world.
Instead of meeting this great crisis in the affairs of two races
and two continents, all the anti-slavery Societies went suddenly
into dissolution; but the crisis itself with all the problems which it
involves survives these extinct associations. The color question must
be met; the sooner the better. If we allow things to take their
course, the two races remaining as they now are, together and not
together, the history of other countries may, perchance, repeat itself
here in the gradual decay and final extinction of the weaker under the
shadow of the stronger. We would shut our eyes upon any solution
of the problem, which is unworthy of a humane and Christian people.
As to a war of races, perish the thought !
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Now, the Colonization Society, standing alone in this work, is
bound to hold on its way for the sake of the country agitated with
troubles growing out of the color question, for the sake of the freed-
men for whom the Society has faithfully labored through the period
of sixty years, for the sake of Christian missions in Africa, and for
the sake of humanity and the welfare of the human race, which are
all the time in peril. Hitherto God has helped the Society. He
will not leave it in doubt concerning what other and greater works
He will require at its hands.
For the rest, let the friends of this Society continue to study the
elevation and happiness of the colored people. Let us foster their
churches and schools of common and higher learning. Let us help
them in their efforts towards self-respect, refinement, and true re¬
ligion. Let us show that we are too faithful in our friendship to
advise them to struggle for social equality here, and faithful enough
to provide for them a new home in Africa, where they may found
free Christian commonwealths for themselves and give the Gospel to
a great continent.
Very truly, yours,
Ewd. P. Humphrey.