E 
 
 448 
 03 
 
TREATISE 
 
 AFRICAN COLONIZATION 
 
 IN WHICH THE PRINCIPLES, OBJECTS, AND CLAIMS, OF THAT 
 INSTITUTION ARE SET FORTH IN A. CONDFNSED FORM. 
 
 BY L. B. .CASTLE, 
 
 Minister of the Gospel, & Agent of the N. Y. S. C. S. 
 
 GENEVA, N. Y. 
 
 SCOTTEN & VAN BRUNT. 
 1844. 
 
443 
 
I 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To THE REV. MR. CURRAY. 
 
 DEAR SIR A lecture of yours, in behalf of African 
 Colonization, delivered in the Court House on July 4, 
 1830. in the village of Lockport, led me to embrace that 
 noble cause. As a token of respect for the services you 
 have rendered to the "African tribes" and also to "Africo- 
 Arnericans," in promoting tha interests of that philanthropic 
 institution ; as well as for your ministerial worth and 
 talents, this treatise is humbly dedicated by 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 M102108 
 
TREATISE, 
 
 SLAVERY as an institution, is probably as old as the days 
 of"Nimrodthe mighty hunter;" Gen, 10, 8 9. It seems 
 originally to have had no respect to birth, country, or com 
 plexion ; but was predicated on the universally acknowledg 
 ed right of the conqueror to the person, and even the life of 
 the vanquished. It increased with the growth of nations and 
 multiplication of wars, was participated in by all nations 
 either by conquest or purchase down to the 14th century 
 of the Christian era; when "the benign influences of the Gos 
 pel 1 as Grotius remarks was the great and almost the only 
 cause of its abolition." 
 
 " The friends of man can never thunder forth too fre 
 quently nor too loudly, in the ears of those who would 
 quote scripture in justification of slavery; that it was Chris 
 tianity which ameliorated the condition of slaves under the 
 Roman government; and inclined Constantine to render 
 their manumission much easier than formerly ; and which, 
 in conformity with its principles, claims the merit of having 
 gone furthest towards the abolition of this debasing institu 
 tion throughout nearly all Europe" Gurley. 
 
 If, as commentators uniformly suppose, and as clearly 
 
O SLAVERY. 
 
 appears from the law of Moses and the Patriarchal history, 
 God s ancient covenant people where allowed to participate 
 in this traffic; it was because slavery existed among the bar 
 barous tribes, and the purchase of them by the patriarchs and 
 jews would be greatly improving the condition of the slave 
 bringing him under the influence of divine theology, while 
 the spirit and influence of that theology would effectually 
 work his liberat) o:vatid, incorporate him with the people of 
 God, Qr send hinl bac,Vto his country a missionary of civl- 
 lizatioi? and, rsligion. 
 
 jiiuiay fce. safely admitted too, that the New Testament 
 no where forbids absolutely the custom; nevertheless as 
 Ward justly observes, 
 
 i( The spirit of the system there displayed effectually taught the 
 course of conduct which ought to be pursued towards the enslaved ; 
 by commanding them to look upon all men as brethren, to love them 
 as themselves, and to do unto others as they would others should do 
 to them." 
 
 " Since ;" says Sir Thomas Smith " our realm hath received the 
 Christian, which maketh us all in Christ brethren, and in respect of 
 God and Christ conserves, men began to have conscience to hold in 
 captivity and bondage him whom they acknowledge as their brother. 7 
 
 "Upon this scruple the holy fathers and friars, in their confessions, 
 and especially in their deadly sicknesses, burdened in their consciences 
 of them whom they had in their hands; so that temporal men by little 
 and little by reason of that terror, were glad to manumit all their vil- 
 lanies." 
 
 Thus the spirit of that institution which breathes univer 
 sal love, gradually gained upon the tyranny and avarice of 
 depraved and cruel man, until not only Rome s sixty mil 
 lions of slaves, but nearly all Europe s bond servants were 
 manumitted. 
 
 "While beneath the light and power of Christianity, the last vestigts 
 of slavery were well nigh effaced from the soil of Christendom; the 
 African slave trade arose, which, whether regarded as productive of 
 misery or crime is without a parallel in the annals of the world:" 
 Life of Jlshmun. 
 
 The Portuguese opened this drama cf blood-guiltiness 
 
AFRICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 early in the 15th century, under the authority of the pope 
 by planting colonies in Africa which served them as slave - 
 marts ; and their example excited all the maritime powers 
 of Europe to engage in the trade, which having been pro 
 secuted for 300 years has consigned probably more than 20 
 millions of unfortunate Africans to bondage or death. 
 
 "The decrees of five successive pontiffs granted, conveyed and con- 
 iirmea to the most faithful king a light to appropriate the kingdoms, 
 goods, and possessions of all infidels, to reduce their persons to slavery 
 or destroy them from the earth, for the declared purpose of bringing 
 the Lord s sheep into one dominical fold, under one universal pastor. 
 We suppose then that 8,000,000 have been shipped in Africa for the 
 West India Islands and America, 10,000,000 for South America, and 
 2,000,000 held in Africa. 
 
 "By whom has this commerce been opened and so long and so ar 
 dently pursued? the subjects of their most Faithful, most Christian, 
 most Catholic, most Protestant, Majesties, defenders of the faith, and 
 by the citizens of the most most free, most liberal, most republican states 
 and with the sanction of St. Peter s successor." .Dr. Dana. 
 
 This inhuman traffic therefore has brought to the shores 
 of this (now) "land of the free" multitudes of those degra 
 ded, suffering victims of violence and lawless cupidity, and 
 hence the existence of that institution among us so detested 
 and detestable denominated African slavery. It was while 
 these were British colonies that the system of slavery, so 
 abhorrent to every principle of kindness and humanity; and 
 so contradictory to the principles of republicanism, which, 
 though then in embryo were destined to mature and ripen, 
 to the mortification of British pride, if not to the final wither 
 ing of kingly arrogance : it was therefore regarded as the 
 tares of despotism intermingled with the pure seed of de 
 mocracy by all who had sincerely sought in this retreat an 
 asylum from intolerance and oppression. Statesmen and di 
 vines but quakers especially, failed not to remonstrate 
 igainst it, memorials were addressed to the court of Eng 
 land praying for the interposition of British authority against 
 she inhuman practice, and some slaves were actually wres 
 
AFRICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 ted from their pretended owners and sent back to Africa, 
 The power of avarice, sustained by British law triumphed, 
 and philanthropy and piety like the two witnesses prophe 
 sied in sackcloth slavery grew with our growth ; it soon 
 became interwoven with all the interests and habits of socie 
 ty ; our fathers at the commencement of the struggle for in 
 dependence, found the evil too extensive and complicated, 
 to admit, in their judgment, at that season of peril to their 
 own liberties, of a remedy. They felt that it was an insti 
 tution at variance with their political creed; that morally 
 wrong in its origin, it would be perpetuated only by viola 
 tion of justice; but they consoled themselves with the re 
 flection that it was forced upon them, and that in that time 
 of general agitation and distress it was beyond their control, 
 and that, should their liberties be secured, it might be effec 
 ted during a more quiet state of public affairs . 
 
 The independence of the United States being acknow 
 ledged by the mother country, a new form of government 
 was to beadopted ; and in this case unitu was properly con 
 sidered by all, as a matter of primary importance. Many of 
 those who gave their support to the constitution, saw M r ith 
 regret, that it recognized moral wrong in the laws of some 
 states ; but fondly hoping that national union would favor 
 the cause of universal liberty, and firmly believing that the 
 principles of a free government could not for any great 
 length of time tolerate the institution of slavery, they did it 
 expecting that at no distant period a termination of the great 
 evil would be brought about. 
 
 These advocates of human rights, on leaving the legisla 
 tive hall, exerted their influence for the accomplishment of 
 this noble purpose in their respective states; nor did they 
 cease their efforts until northern emancipation was accom- 
 
CONDITION OP THE FREE COLORED, 
 
 plished. In the northern states, while the severity of the 
 winter rendered the newly imported African useless and 
 even burdensome, and the moderation of the summers heat 
 was quite consistent with the labor of European emigrants 
 and beasts of burden ; principle met with but a feeble re 
 sistance from interest, in its promptings to the discharge of 
 duty ; and at the south too, although interest was more for 
 midable, the growing sense of humanity and religion produ 
 ced numerous manumissions, so that a class of free people 
 of color arose and for a time greatly increased. Among 
 the most zealous advocates of emancipation, and one who 
 was second perhaps to none in sacrifices and efforts for its 
 accomplishment was the celebrated Dr. Finly of N. J. 
 who has deservedly the honor also of devising the scheme 
 of African Colonization. 
 
 This eminent philantropist and Christian minister lived 
 to witness and mark the results of northern emancipation 
 for 25 years, and with many of his contemporaries and fel 
 low laborers in this deed of love frankly confessed himself 
 disappointed in its influence upon the colored race. 
 
 If a few became industrious and enterprising, and by 
 studious habits and in honest and honorable pursuits secured 
 or merited respect, this was far from being the case with 
 most. But now and then one engaged in agricultural or 
 mechanical occupations, or indeed in any undertaking which 
 required a constant exertion of the mental or physical ener 
 gies, and on the whole there was little or no intellectual im 
 provement, a degeneration in their morals and as a conse 
 quence a diminution in numbers. 
 
 The causes of this deterioration were very obvious. Thin- 
 Ij scattered among a people separate and distinct from 
 themselves they were deprived of social privileges and en- 
 
10 CONDITION OF THE 
 
 joyments, this operated as a sort of imprisonment ; igno 
 rant, proscribed and not unfrequently insulted and abused, 
 they had constantly before their eyes a mortifying contrast 
 between themselves and their neighbors, and though called 
 free they were really in civil bondage, and under embarras-- 
 ments directly calculated to impede and vitiate their moral, 
 intellectual and mental energies and enervate their physi 
 cal powers. 
 
 The controversy, however, is not, whether or no the con 
 dition of the freed man of color is deplorable and should be 
 ameliorated and improved; but whether he or his friends 
 can rationally hope to free him from these embarrassments 
 while he sustains his present relation to the whites. 
 
 The founders of this institution argued that so long as the 
 races continued separate and distinct, prejudices and jeal 
 ousies will be likely to operate greatly to the disadvantage 
 of the weaker, and so long as objections founded upon com 
 plexion and features which characterize each, prove a bar 
 to matrimonial alliances, so long it is probable if not certain, 
 that the one will be the privileged, the other the proscri 
 bed, the one the ruler the other the ruled, and indeed, the 
 one the master the other the slave ; at least in a civil sense. 
 In support of this theory they appealed to the history of for 
 mer ages ; from which it appears, that though repeated ef 
 forts have been made by treaties of amity and alliance, ra 
 tified by covenants the most solemn and binding, in every in_ 
 stance recorded where different sorts of people have attemp 
 ted to dwell together under one government, jealousies have 
 arisen, discords have ensued, and if neither have submitted 
 to the yoke of bondage, blood and carnage have driven ei 
 ther to expatriation or extinction, the weaker party. Their 
 maxim was "two sorts of people separate and distinct from 
 
FREE COLORED. 
 
 11 
 
 each other will not dwell together on terras of equality and 
 reciprocity. 
 
 On the supposition however, that the negro race may yet 
 be elevated among us, even to a level with ourselves, 
 which is to admit the inadmissible hypothises, that they are 
 distinct from us, and yet there is no distinction made be 
 tween us or that there is a difference and yet no difference, 
 even then what disadvantage would accrue from the pro 
 posed separation?- it is urged "this is the land of their birth 
 and of all their endearments," so also it is the land of their 
 oppression. But the Israelites, the Puritans, and multitudes 
 of Europeans have gladly left the " land of their birth" for 
 the two-fold purpose of escaping oppression and securing 
 pecuniary and other advantages; judging that to be the 
 shorter and more peaceable way of securing their rights. 
 Our eastern people meet with difficulties in the land of their 
 birth, which in their judgment can most effectually be over 
 come by emigrating to the west. And it is best it should 
 be so ; for were it otherwise a great portion of the earth 
 would be uninhabited and the valley of Ararat the burying 
 ground of the human race. The scheme we advocate has 
 often been charged with oppression and driving the colored 
 people away because their circumstances are rendered so 
 intolerable here that they choose emigration in preference to 
 endurance. Let us inquire into this. Colonization encou 
 rages their emigration because they are oppressed in their 
 present circumstances; therefore Colonization drives them 
 away and is an oppressive institution. Will these logicians 
 apply this reasoning to those who encourage the escape of 
 slaves to Canada? 
 
 The deplorable fact is readily admitted, and will be in 
 dignantly maintained by every consistant Colonizationist 
 
12 CONDITION Off THE 
 
 that there is unrighteous and inexcusable oppression and 
 abuse practised on the colored people both bond and free j 
 but the association is as incapable of correcting these abuses 
 as the colored man himself. And it is a fact too, that there 
 are serious embarrassments under which the colored man la 
 bors in his present relation consequent on treatment for which 
 the white man will not stand reproved. Men will hardly 
 be driven or persuaded to give up their right to the exer 
 cise of choice in all their associations, as well as their ope 
 rations and pursuits. In social visits, parties or entertain 
 ments; as partners in rest, seats, walks, rides; or business 
 as correspondents, confidents or companions ; in these and 
 numerous other relations ; propositions will be made, ac 
 cepted or declined in accordance with the dictates of taste. 
 And what ever peculiarity exists in any, the offence of which 
 would counterbalance the proffit or delight the occasion 
 would afford, these peculiarities will produce a disinclina 
 tion either to proffer or accept such solicitations ; and it will 
 be so far only as taste or choice is reciprocal, that inter 
 course and familiarity will be agreeable. The same right 
 will also be claimed in the support of candidates for stations 
 and offices, in the various departments of letters, morals, and 
 politics. Very few perhaps will prefer a person of color? 
 other things being equal, and the day is doubtless far dis 
 tant when there will not be a superabundance of our own 
 complexion as well qualified, to fill every station private, 
 social, and public. Nor does it necessarily follow that be 
 cause we prefer our own complexion as associates, compani 
 ons, guides, and rulers, we therefore hate or despise the 
 people of color. His complexion may be innocently re 
 garded as a misfortune which, though it would not disquali- 
 
FREE COLORED. 13" 
 
 fy him for the office proposed, it nevertheless renders him 
 less acceptable than one unencumbered with this defect. 
 
 It is no part of the friend to flatter with delusive hopes, 
 However fond the expectation of the Africo American may 
 be, of being elevated in this land to a level with his white 
 neighbors, the expectation must perish. 
 
 It cannot have escaped the eye of the observer, that very 
 few of the colored people possess real estate ; and as they 
 bave not accustomed themselves to agricultural pursuits, 
 they gather into cities and villages and the labor they per 
 form is almost exclusively servitude. This renders their 
 condition still more embarrassing ; by keeping them poor, 
 consequently ignorant and more liable to temptation . 
 
 This relation has been urged against their removal " they 
 are needed among us j" is the sordid plea, not of the true 
 friend of the negro. It would be quite as convenient to the 
 friends of Colonization as for others to keep them at hard 
 labor, in poverty and ignorance, smothering their gifts, bury 
 ing their talents it is consistent enough with selfishness 
 to keep them in servitude and vassalage, to the indulgence 
 of our ease, and the increase of our wealth. If the point 
 at issue were the pecuniary interests of the whites, we 
 would give up the position as untenable or at best as not 
 worth defending. 
 
 Another source of embarrassment under which the color 
 ed people labor is, the utter want of a national cha 
 racter. They do not respect one another. Hence if one 
 rises by prosperity or education, he holds his own people 
 in utter contempt, is more rigorous then white men, more in 
 tolerant and cruel as an overseer, and if possible more than 
 white men disdains to associate with them. He has nothing 
 to hope from their suffrage or from any familiarity with them; 
 
14 CONDITION OP THE FREE COLORED. 
 
 as a people therefore, there is little aside from the awful rela 
 tionship of degradation that can serve as a bond of union. 
 
 As yet those who are educated among them are the most 
 dissatisfied with their condition, the most solitary and gloo 
 my, the most melancholy and dejected ; because, they see 
 more clearly and feel more keenly their degradation ; be 
 cause they have a strong aversion to mingling with the com 
 mon mass of colored people, have but here and there one 
 on a level with themselves among them, and therefore theirs 
 is a condition nearly allied to solitary confinement; which 
 hurries them in the midst of life down to death. I have 
 never known a colored man of education and refinement to 
 survive the age of 57. 
 
 It has been stated, that the Rev, Dr. Finley, who devised 
 the scheme of African Colonization, was one of those active 
 and devoted anti-slavery men who labored indefatigably for 
 the emancipation of slavery in the Northern States. Among 
 his correspondents and advisers were Mills, Caldwell, Mar 
 shall, Jefferson, Monroe, besides many ministerial gentle 
 men who with himself deeply deplored the existence of 
 that evil, and who with himself therefore were beyond all 
 suspicion of any connivance with the advocates of that in 
 stitution. 
 
 Besides the well known anti-slavery principles of its foun 
 der and his advisers, the arguments urged in its support 
 when the adoption of the constituion was a subject of debate 
 show, that the cause of the slave was not overlooked. A 
 powerful appeal was made on the ground that there were 
 "two millions of slaves then in the United States besides 
 two hundred thousand free colored people." See African 
 Repository, February, 1844 
 Once demonstrate that the colored man is capable of self-government 
 
INFLUENCE OP COLONIZATION ON SLAVERY. 15 
 
 and you create the strongest argument in favor of the abolition of sla 
 very." Chief Justice Marshall. 
 
 It is true that slave holders have approved and greatly 
 advanced the institution and perhaps some of them from 
 motives of selfishness. Reasoning that " if the free color 
 ed people were removed, our slaves will be more quiet; 
 and even if my neighboring planters are prevailed on to send 
 their slaves, mine will be the more valuable." It was origi 
 nally the design of the undertaking to send over as pioneers 
 to Africa free people of color, as it was supposed among 
 them might be found persons of more resolution and entei- 
 prise ; and knowing too, as Marshall intimates, that slave hol 
 ders must be convinced that the negro is capable of self go 
 vernment ere they would consent to emancipate. The ex 
 pectation was therefore indulged, that when the slave hol 
 ding community was satisfied that the condition of the slave 
 would be improved the work of emancipation would keep 
 pace in advance of Colonization operations. The correct 
 ness of this opinion will appear from the following facts. 
 
 John McDonough of New Orleans, sent during the year 
 1842, 79 slaves at his own expense to Liberia. 
 
 For fifteen years he had been instructing them in science, 
 arts, and domestic economy, and preparing them for the use 
 of civil liberty, and the testimony given to the success of 
 his efforts is, that such a company of slaves was never 
 known in the state of Louisiana. Industrious, intelligent, 
 pious, they have gone to the land of the free, to hand down 
 like the pilgrim fathers, their influence to future generations. 
 Mr. M. was offered about nine months before their depar 
 ture $2,500 for a single individual, but he assured his ap 
 plicant for human bodies and souls that no money would 
 purchase him. 
 
16 INFLUENCE OP COLONIZATION 
 
 Mr. Brown of Nashville Tennessee, offers all his slaves, 
 68 in number for emigration; and is desirous they should 
 be taken before his death, lest at his decease they fall into 
 the hands of one who is opposed to emancipation. 
 
 A gentleman of wealth in South Carolina on hearing a 
 lecture by the Rev. R. R. Gurley, resolved to prepare his 
 slaves for freedom. Forthwith he selected four of the like 
 liest of his slaves of twelve years of age took them into his 
 family and iustructed them for two years and placed them as 
 teachers of the rest. For five years he has been sedulously 
 pursuing his plan, and this year 1844 intends settling them 
 all in their father land. Seventeen other planters in South 
 Carolina who own about 3500 slaves induced by this ex 
 ample are pursuing similar plans, while the principle is ef 
 fectually operating on minds too noble to resist its force. 
 
 A young gentleman in Lynchbury Virginia, has liberated 
 his slaves, and has advanced funds to provide for them a 
 passage and outfit. And a gentleman connected with the 
 society who has travelled for that purpose has ascertained 
 to his satisfaction that 10,000 are now being fitted for emi 
 gration at the expense of their masters and 2,000 are ready 
 and waiting to embark when funds sufficient shall have been 
 raised by the society for that purpose. 
 
 The improvement the emigrants have made, exceeds the 
 most sanguine hopes of the first supporters of this institution. 
 There are to be found statesmen, scholars, and divines, 
 who would suffer little in comparison with the same classes 
 of men in this and other civilized countries, who have been 
 raised up from the lowest degradation in this land. Agri 
 culture and the mechanic arts are flourishing, and a- lucra 
 tive trade is carried on with most of the enlightened nations, 
 and as the reward of industry and virtue, peace and plenty, 
 
ON SLAVERY. 17 
 
 are sweetly enjoyed, and a knowledge of this prosperous 
 and happy state of things, cannot fail to incline the true 
 friends of the afflicted colored people to promote the inter 
 ests of this institution and to induce the colored people them 
 selves to accept the proffered benefits. 
 
 The reader may have seen a few numbers of an unfinish 
 ed work now going through the press entitled " Wander 
 ings in Africa." It is not our intention to review that work, 
 but that he see that men as equally capable of judging and 
 whose varacity stands unimpeached have judged very dif 
 ferently on some important points, we shall subjoin a few 
 statements copied from the "African Repository. 
 
 In September 1827, the inhabitants of Monrovia assem 
 bled and adopted an address to their brethren in the United 
 States. On the subject of the country they say: 
 
 " Away with all the false notions that are circulating about the bar 
 renness of this country: they are the observations of such ignorant 
 and designing men, as would injure both it and you. A more fertile 
 soil, and a more productive country, so far as it is cultivated, there is 
 not, we believe, on the face of the earth." 
 
 Captain Nicholson after a visit to the Colony early in 
 1828, on his return wrote : 
 
 " The soil in the possession of the colonists is rich, and will produce 
 n superabundance for the support of the colony, as well as for extern 
 al commerce. Sugar, cotton, coffee, rice, and various trees and plants, 
 yielding valuable dyes, and medicinal gums, can be cultivated with 
 
 success." 
 
 The Rev. G. W. McElroy, an intelligent and highly re 
 spected clergyman from Kentucky, visited Liberia in 1835. 
 His public testimony concerning the country, is given in 
 the following wo^ds : 
 
 " As to the soil of Liberia, I can truly say it is not surpassed if 
 equalled, in fertility, by the richest lands of the States. I speak ad 
 visedly, when I say this, for I have cultivated and travelled over some 
 of our finest lands in several of the western and middle States. I have 
 seen the full stock of corn in Kentucky, and the waving white fields 
 of Ohio and Pennsylvania ; I have trodden the rice lands" of Georgia 
 and the cotton lands of the Carolinas, and in the same year I have 
 
18 LIBERIA. 
 
 seen the golden fruits of Africa. On the tanks of the St. Paul I saw 
 the waving millet, the luxuriant plantain sand the abundant cassada, 
 the sweet potatoe and the growing rice ; and I must say, the contrast 
 which I was thus enabled to make, led me to the conviction that with 
 equal skill and cultivation, the land of Liberia, would bear a favorable 
 comparison with those of our or any other country." 
 
 Dr. Todsen, who resided several years in the colony, 
 says : 
 
 "The soil of Liberia, with the exception of Cape Mesurado, on 
 which Monrovia is built, is, in richness and fertility, equal to some of 
 the finest lands I have ever seen, either in Europe or America. In 
 fact, there are few spots on the globe that present so inexhaustible a 
 soil, so luxuriant a vegetation, even unassisted by the industry of man, 
 as that of the rivers St. Paul, St. John, Mesuiado, and the Stockton 
 Creek. Many of the productions of tropical climates, such as coflee, 
 a variety of the finest spices, valuable woods, and dye-stuffs, grow 
 there spontaneously : and it would only require a small share of atten 
 tion and industry, to bring them to a state of perfection and pro 
 ductiveness. I have no doubt that the culture of tobacco would prove 
 very successful in the colony ; and I am inclined to think that the 
 finer qualities of that herb might be successfully transplanted from Ha- 
 vanna, and thus become a new and most profitable source of wealth to 
 the colonist. * * * The soil along the above rivers is well adap 
 ted, also, to the culture of cotton and the sugar-cane. * * * The 
 forests abound in rare and valuable woods and seeds : no where can 
 rice, cassada, yams, groundnuts, Indian corn, sweet potatoes, and 
 plantains, be cultivated to greater advantage than on those courses. 
 All the domestic animals and fowls (horses excepted) of America, 
 thrive and increase in the colony, with scarcely any care to their 
 owners, particularly goats, sheep and hogs." He also mentions "or 
 anges, limes, and pine-apples as abundant ; and that arrowroot in great 
 quantities might be profitably raised for exportation." 
 
 Dr. Gould, who visited Liberia in 1835, says : 
 
 " A proper attention to the cultivation of the soil would soon place 
 the colony in a most flourishing and happy condition. The soil, 
 though apparently of the same quality of the Maryland good lands, 
 seems, nevertheless, to be much more productive ; and being remarka 
 bly easy of cultivation, would soon return a rich reward to industri 
 ous farmers. Cotton, sugar-cane, coffee, tobacco, and a variety of 
 other articles of commerce, may be cultivated to almost any extent." 
 
 Dr. Goheen, physician to the Methodist mission in the 
 colony, wrote in 1838 : 
 
 "Here are those who enjoy wealth and live at ease; here the in 
 habitants enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of a soil the most fertile, 
 well watered and best timbered, I have ever seen." 
 
LIBERIA. IS 
 
 Dr. Blodgett, after visiting the colony the same year, 
 testifies : 
 
 "The soil, after leaving the beach one or two miles, becomes very 
 fertile^ and will not suffer by comparison with the same lands in the 
 State of Mississippi. In short the country wants nothing but indus 
 try to make it a place of delightful residence." 
 
 The Rev. John Seys, superintendent of the Methodist 
 mission in Liberia, on his return from Africa in 1835, said : 
 
 "That the soil of Liberia contained a mine ofexhnustless wealth to 
 the colonists. It was well adapted to the culture of the sugar-cane. 
 He knew all about the culture of sugar; and he had examined the soil 
 of Liberia, and this was his settled opinion. It wanted nothing but 
 cultivation, and it would repay the labor of the agriculturist ten-fold. 
 He here publicly declared it as his judgment, thaUf the Society would 
 raise and put into the hands of an agent, the sum of $10,000, to be laid 
 out in the culture of sugar, it would clear all expenses, and in five 
 years would nett a profit of $100,000. This might sound chimerical, 
 but he knew what he was saying. He had gone carefully into the 
 calculation, allowing largely for all expenses, and this was the result. 
 The lands of the colony contained the means not only of rendering the 
 colonists easy in circumstance?, but of enriching them with every thing 
 that could render life desirable." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Skinner, (once colonial physician, and 
 subsequently governor,) at the same time, went on to give; 
 
 " His fullest sanction to the statements which had been made by the 
 Rev. Mr. Seys; so rich was the soil and so abundant the means of 
 living, that two hours labor out of the twenty-four, would furnish a 
 man with all the comforts of life." 
 
 In 1832, two respected free colored men (Messrs. Simpson and 
 Moore) wentfrom Mississippi to the colony and remained three weeks, 
 examining all the settlements. They became satisfied with the coun 
 try, and soon after their return emigrated thither with their friends. 
 In their report they say : 
 
 "The soil at Caldwell and Millsburg is as fertile as we ever saw, 
 and much like the land in Mississippi. We saw growing upon it, 
 pepper, corn, rice, sugar-cane, cassada, plantains, cotton, oranges, 
 limes, coffee, peas, beans, sweet potatoes, water-melons, cucumbers, 
 sousop, bananas, and many other fruits and vegetables." 
 
 Captain Crowell, of Massachusetts, who visited the colo 
 ny the same year, after mentioning other blessings, says: 
 
 " To these advantages may be added that of a most rich and prom > 
 ising soil, well adapted to the culture of all the tropical productions." 
 
 Captain Vorhees, of the IT. S. Shin John Adam?, touch- 
 
20 LIBERIA 
 
 ed at Liberia in December, 1833. In his report to the Sec- 
 retary of the Navy, from that place, he states : 
 
 "The country is fertile and productive of every variety of sustenance 
 necessary to man ; and no settler, however poor, with industry and 
 frugality, after a year s support need to be in want. The settlement 
 must move onward, and, with all its disadvantages, it appears a mira 
 cle that it should be in such a state of advancement." 
 
 The Rev. J. B. Pinney, first a missionary and subsequent 
 ly governor of Liberia, wrote in 1835 : 
 
 " We shall triumph. The advantages of soil and products and free 
 dom which exist in Liberia, will, when prejudice yields to sober rea 
 son, induce the high-minded and enterprizing men of color in Ameri 
 ca, to emigrate on their own resources. The crops of arrowroot, cof 
 fee, pepper, and cotton, exceed all that can be b&asted of in the Uni 
 ted States. * * * By a very careless trial of arrowroot, it is as 
 certained that at ten cents per pound, the land will, with very little 
 trouble, produce at the rate of $100 per acre: and so of other crops, 
 sugar-cane, coffee, and cotton." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Rockwell gives an extended and minute 
 account not only of the productions of the colony, but of 
 the character, manners, and condition of the settlers, (copi 
 ous extracts from which will be found in this Journal for 
 August and September, 1842 ;) but one fact dropped inci 
 dentally we cannot forbear to mention. He observes : 
 
 " Sweet potatoes will grow every season of the year. * * 
 They were brought to us by the colonists in canoes, some of 
 them twenty miles from the coast; and in such abundance 
 were they offered us, that, though we supplied our crew of 
 nearly five hundred men with them, yet many more were 
 brought to us than we could furnish a market for."* 
 
 * Dr. Bacon, though he represents African diseases as easily curable, 
 refers to the mortality among emigrants as justifying the severest con 
 demnation against the conductors of the Colonization scheme. On 
 this point we state two facts : 
 
 1st. For some time past the births in the Cape Palmas colony have 
 exceeded the deaths, and the mortality has been less, than among the 
 free blacks of Baltimore : and 
 
 Secondly ; We notice an incidental remark of the Rev. Mr. Rock 
 well, who, in urging the importance of persons emigrating in the prime 
 of life, says : (f Children of such parents, too, if born in Africa, will 
 
LIBERIA. 21 
 
 [Compare the statements of Mr. Rockwell, in his 
 * Sketches of foreign travel and life at sea," with those of 
 Dr. D. F. Bacon, in his " Wanderings on the seas and shores 
 of Africa " as both authors were in Liberia about the same 
 time.] 
 
 The late Governor Buchanan, on his arrival in the colony 
 in 1836,wrote : 
 
 " Liberia far exceeds, in almost every respect, all that I had ever 
 imagined of her. Nothing is wanted, I am persuaded, but a better 
 system of agriculture, and the permanent establishment of schools, to 
 bring the people of Liberia to the very highest point of the scale of 
 intellectual refinement and political consequence." 
 
 This same gentleman in his despatch of the 13th of De 
 cember, 1840, reported 7,205 coffee trees growing in Mon 
 rovia and the adjacent villages, and 23,000 in the three set 
 tlements of Bassa Cove, Edina, and Bexley. At the close 
 of that month, premiums were awarded for the cultivation 
 of coffee trees to 
 
 S. Benedict, for 3,060 treea. 
 
 James Moore, for 3,300 " 
 
 Lewis Sheriden, for - 3,000 " 
 
 Samuel Claborn, for 2,000 " 
 
 Under date of August 2, 1842, Dr. J. Lawrence Day, 
 colonial physician, after mentioning the efforts of Mr. 
 Jenckes, (a white man from the United States,) in the cul 
 tivation of the sugar cane, observes : 
 
 "The good he did, lives after him. * * * He has demonstrated 
 too, what was hitherto a problem, viz : that there is nothing in the soil 
 or atmosphere, that will prevent our making, with the least kind of 
 care, as good, as much, and, (with the same means of grinding,) as 
 
 be much better adapted to the peculiar climate of that country, than 
 those who even at an early age remove thither. Hence it is, that at 
 Monrovia, with a population [this was six years ago] of six or eight 
 hundred inhabitants, there may now be seen a hundred fine, healthy 
 boys, children of the colonists, engaged in their evening gambols in the 
 treats." 
 
22 LIBERIA. 
 
 cheap sugar as is made in the West Indies. Three thousand pounds 
 of sugar, and several hundred gallons of molasses were manufactured 
 during the last season, at the colonial farm ; and but for a defect (to 
 be easily remedied hereafter) in the grinding of the cane, this quantity 
 would have been doubled." 
 
 Dr. James Hall, (a gentleman of the most accurate ob 
 servation and sound judgment, who has resided eleven 
 years in Liberia,) says : 
 
 "She, Africa, possesses the soil, the climate, the physical force and 
 only requires capital and intellect to enable her to flood the world 
 with those tropical productions which have for the past century been 
 so eagerly sought in the rocky islands of the West Indies, and which 
 have been there produced at such a sacrifice of human life and human 
 happiness." 
 
 Of coffee and the sugar cane Dr. Hall says : 
 
 "Both of these products are indigenous to Africa. The former, of 
 the most perfect species, is found in abundance in the forest, and only 
 requires transplanting, in order to yield at least one hundred per cent, 
 more than the most prolific species cultivated in the West Indies. 
 The sugar cane now growing on the public farm in Cape Palmas, is 
 equal in size and weight to that produced in any part of the world, 
 and is capable of being cultivated to any extent in every variety of 
 soil throughout the colony." 
 
 After mentioning the cheapness of land, of rice and of 
 labor, Dr. Hall adds : 
 
 " And in fact, every facility exists for carrying on operations for the 
 production of sugar and coffee at a less expense than it can be done in 
 the West Indies, and requiring less than one tenth the amount of capi 
 tal the whole expense of labor not exceeding the interest on the mo 
 ney required for slave labor." 
 
 Such is a portion of the testimony, decided and unequi 
 vocal, gathered from various, intelligent and respectable in 
 dividuals, several of them in no way connected with the 
 Colonization Society, most of them, if not all, men of un- 
 impeached and unsullied honor and veracity. Such testi 
 mony is not to be invalidated by any single witness, cer 
 tainly not by one visiting the colony from motives of curi 
 osity, or an excentric humor, yet availing himself of the 
 Society s patronage, and who, while entrusted with a com 
 mission as principal colonial physician, with a salary of 
 
LIBERIA. 23 
 
 61,600 per annum, stated in his first letter to the Society, 
 that in consequence of one of the emigrants having landed 
 contrary to his and the Governor s orders, and used some 
 insulting language, and repeated it in company with some 
 of his friends, he had at first concluded not again to land, 
 but to return in the same vessel to the United States. This 
 sudden and extraordinary determination of the author of 
 4 Wanderings on the seas and shores of Africa," from which 
 he informs us he was turned by the apologies, representa 
 tions, entreaties and promises of several of the colonial gen 
 tlemen, and especially by the advice of Dr. Hall, who hap 
 pened to arrive at that time, was certainly less wonderful 
 than his no less sudden renunciation of all idea of effecting 
 any thing whatever under the powers he conceived him 
 self clothed with, as to " medical police," so that, (to use 
 his own words,) " I abandoned all hopes and plans of sa 
 ving life by prevention of exposures, and determined to go 
 on shore as a mere medical practitioner, and satisfied that 
 a brace of pocket pistols and a sword-cane would be a suffi 
 cient remedy for any repetition of my first difficulties, [hav 
 ing] assured the Governor that I should use them on the first 
 man that insulted or threatened me in the discharge of my 
 duty" The difficulties of our friend, the Wanderer, ap 
 pear theieafter to have rapidly increased ; and having on 
 two occasions " defined his position," and forcibly compel 
 led obstinate patients to take his medicines with happy ef 
 fect, in one case, upon the disposition as well as upon the 
 health ; (for the man on recovery became his devoted friend, 
 and " his regard dated," says our author, " from this one 
 moderate drubbing.") He makes the following sage re 
 flections : 
 
 " Such are niggers, in the peculiar American sense of that Ameri 
 can form of the word j such are they under kind treatment, and such 
 
LIBERIA. 
 
 are they under the opposite. I do not use the word < nigger as sy 
 nonymous with < negro. If the latter is taken as a specific term, the 
 former then expresses a peculiar artificial sub-variety of that species 
 induced by cultivation. The latter is what the former has become by 
 slavery, and may be morally denned and characterized as a creature 
 with some of the inferior virtues of a good dog and all the meanest vice* 
 of a bad man. } 
 
 Without attempting here to review the unfinished work 
 of Dr. Bacon, we suggest that the preceding sentence may 
 explain many of its dark surmisings, discouraging conjec 
 tures, unpromising predictions, and strange and extraordi 
 nary statements. A white man in Liberia acting upon the 
 opinion of the Doctor, could hardly expect, were this opin 
 ion correct, to find it concurred in by the people, and if 
 an error, must impute his exemption from manifestations of 
 public indignation, either to eminent virtue and forbearance 
 in the community, or to some remarkable protection of 
 Providence. 
 
 But the inquiry may be natural, why, if the fertility of 
 the Liberian soil be great, and its productions such as have: 
 been represented, why so few, if any, have been brought 
 into the markets of the world ] The answer is obvious. 
 The emigrants have generally gone out with little or no 
 property ; they have received but very limited assistance ; 
 have been compelled to engage in the construction of their 
 houses, the clearing of the lands, in the culture of such veg 
 etables as were most necessary for their immediate subsis 
 tence, and such barter trade with the natives as might give 
 them the most speedy and profitable returns. In a new 
 and uncivilized country, exposed to the trials of a tropical 
 climate, and in their earliest settlement not unfrequently to 
 the hostility of the native barbarous tribes, they have di 
 rected, of necessity, their principal energies to securo 
 shelter, security and subsistence. No rich capitalists 
 
LIBERIA. 25 
 
 been there ; no treasured commodities of all climes ; no 
 labor-saving machines ; and but very imperfect knowledge, 
 and scarcely any experience of the cultivation of the choi 
 cest productions of the tropics. Our wonder is not that 
 they have done so little, but that they have done so much. 
 
 " Monrovia, (says Mr. Rockwell, writing some six years ago.) was 
 the first and is the largest settlement, containing about five hundred 
 houses, five churches, several schools, besides being the seat of the 
 Colonial Government. We were everywhere hospitably received, ta 
 king our seats with the colonists at their tables ; uniting with them in 
 a public dinner they gave us on shore, and entertaining them and their 
 ladies on board our ship. The houses of the wealthier are two stories 
 high, of a good size, and with drawing-rooms furnished with sofas 
 sideboards, and other articles of luxury and ease. Most of the colo 
 nists, however, live in houses of a story and a half high, framed and 
 covered as in New England, and having besides the chambers, small 
 but convenient rooms on the lower floor, while the cooking is com 
 monly done, as in the southern United States, in cabins distinct from 
 the house, to avoid the annoyance of smoke and heat." 
 
 The same respectable author from whom we quote be 
 cause he visited the colony a short time before the arrival 
 of the " Wanderer on the seas and shores of Africa" 
 speaking of the inhabitants of New Georgia, a settlement 
 of recaptured Africans, says : 
 
 " These settlers are active, industrious farmers, and are fast acqui 
 ring a knowledge of the useful arts, and securing to themselves the 
 blessings of civilization and Christianity. But a few years since and 
 they were sunk in the beastly degredation of paganism, knowing no 
 thing of the language in which they have received all the education 
 and religious instruction they have enjoyed. Now they have a town , 
 regularly laid out, the streets and houses are extremely clean and neat 
 while all around them is an appearance of thrift, and of thorough and 
 successful cultivation of the soil, which is truly surprising, if we con 
 sider how recently the inhabitants have emerged from the indolent 
 and unsettled habits of savage and barbarous life." 
 
 Again says Mr. Rockwell : 
 
 "On the St. Paul s river, commences the town of Caldwell, which 
 is seven miles in length, each farmer having a given width on the 
 river, and besides this town lot, ten acres lying further back. The 
 land is thoroughly cleared, and in a good state of cultivation, for five 
 or six miles in length, and from one-fourth to half a mile in width," 
 Of Millsburgh he says : 
 
26 LIBERIA. 
 
 " The situation of the town is peculiarly pleasant ; its principal 
 streets, like those of Monrovia and Caldwell, running parallel to the 
 banks of the river, the rising grounds around, being covered with lofty 
 forest trees of the richest foliage ; while, at one extremity of the vil 
 lage, is one of the most beautiful grass-covered hillocks I have ever 
 seen. The inhabitants are mostly hardy and industrious farmers, and 
 though reared in America, we were surprised to learn that they en 
 joyed better health than they had done in the United States, and that 
 they could endure more fatigue and hard labor, than 1he native Afri 
 cans around them." 
 
 Of the settlement at Bassa Cove, then but three years 
 old, having stated that it was founded by one hundred and 
 twenty-six emigrants directly from the United States, Mr, 
 Rockwell says : 
 
 " The colonists had cleared forty acres of land, and besides erecting 
 houses for themselves, and ten others for future emigrants, they had a 
 bouse for the family of the Agent, and a substantial Government house, 
 twenty feet by fifty, and two stories high, with a well-enclosed and 
 beautiful garden of two acres annexed to it." 
 
 This had been done, although the settlement had been 
 exposed to the hostility of enemies, and being planted on 
 the principle of non-resistance, entirely broken up at one 
 time, and a number of the inhabitants massacred. It was 
 soon re-commenced with the spirit and means of resisting 
 aggression, " Under this regimen," says Mr. Rockwell, 
 
 " The colony has continued to flourish, furnishing a safe asylum 
 for the emigrant and the Missionary of the Cross ; by its treaties with 
 the natives, and by other means, aiding to suppress the slave-trade, 
 and by its schools and churches, and the arts and comforts of civili 
 zation and Christianity, strongly recommending by the force of exam 
 ple, the religion of the Bible, with its train of attendant blessings, 
 alike to the minds and hearts of the Pagan tribes uvctmd." 
 
 Of the independent colony at Cape Palmas, founded but 
 three years before, by one hnndred and ninety colored per 
 sons, under the auspices of Maryland, Mr. Rockwell states : 
 "There were forty-seven farms of five acres each, under cultivation, 
 and besides having commenced a public model farm of fifty acres, the 
 colonists had made five miles of road into the interior, and prepared 
 houses for the accomodation of two hundred more emigrants." 
 
 These are observations of the aspect and condition of 
 lungs, as we have said, more than six years ago, very near- 
 
LIBERIA. 27 
 
 ly at the time to which the sketches of " Wanderings on 
 the seas and shores of Africa 11 apply. And what is Mr. 
 Rockwell s testimony in regard to the contentment of the 
 
 settlers 1 
 
 u It has often been said that the colonists of Liberia are not con 
 tented with their situation, and were they able would gladly return to 
 this land. From free intercourse with those of all classes in the dif 
 ferent settlements, and after diligent inquiry on the subject, however, 
 I was fully persuaded that there are few communities in any land, the 
 members of which are more generally satisfied with their condition 
 than are the great mass of the colonists. I found, too, a decided pre 
 ference of Africa to America, in instances in which I should have ex 
 pected the contrary to have been the fact." 
 
 Let it be remembered that up to the period to which 
 
 these last statements refer, trade had occupied mainly the 
 thoughts, and principally contributed to the comforts and 
 prosperity of the colonists, that even in 1832 the import* 
 into Monrovia were to the value of $80,000, and the ex 
 ports to that of $125,000, and that, though the trade at this 
 point afterwards decreased somewhat, yet a number of 
 small coasting vessels had been built by the colonists, and 
 when Mr. Rockwell was there fifteen or twenty such craft 
 were owned and navigated by them. Let it also be remem 
 bered, that the early emigrants to Liberia were necessarily 
 much occupied in public affairs, means of defence, military 
 discipline, the organization and administration of their politi 
 cal judicial and social system ; in counteracting the agencies 
 of the slave-trade, in occasional wars, in negotiations with 
 African tribes, and finally, that each successive company of 
 them, were obliged, for several months, to restrain them 
 selves from exertion, and acquire by inquiry and experi 
 ment, the knowledge, which is only so attained, of their du 
 ties, and methods and means of living in a new and strange 
 country. All recent testimony from Liberia shows that 
 agriculture is receiving increased attention. In his letter 
 dated December 13th, 1840, Governor Buchanan stated: 
 
28 LIBERIA. 
 
 " It should be remembered that all the land in cultivation in th 
 colony (about 713 acres) is worked entirely by hand. We have made 
 a quantity of very beautiful sngar this season, though all the work has 
 been done at the greatest possible disadvantage." Under date of 
 April 6, 1840, he states: "Business in all its branches has increased 
 three-fold, and there is an abundance of the products of the earth in 
 the. colony for all the wants of the people." 
 
 It is some consolation to find the " Wanderer on the seas 
 and shores of Africa," who amuses himself and his readers 
 with some not very successful attempts to exhibit in ridicu 
 lous aspects the scheme of African Colonization and the 
 people and condition of the colony, making admissions that 
 from an opponent, are confirmations strong of the fertility 
 of the soil and ample resources of Liberia. Observe, also,, 
 the admissions we now cite, are from one who would have 
 us believe that want of food, and starvation are among the 
 common afflictions of the people of Liberia. After descri 
 bing the "soil of Monrovia as very thin and poor," except 
 the valley between the cape and the fort, Dr. Bacon remarks : 
 
 "The shrubs and trees, growing through the streets and gardens, 
 are mostly foreign fiuits introduced indirectly from the West Indies., 
 of which the orange, lime, soursop, guava, tamarind, cocoanut, and 
 papaw, are the principal. Of these only the guava and the lime are 
 abundant; the former having been naturalized (probably by the En 
 glish traders before the beginning of the colony,) so that it has be 
 come quite a nuisance, as it is a shrub of ready and luxuriant growth on 
 poor soils ; and it has so occupied some of the streets and fields as to 
 require much labor to keep it down. Limes, too, appear to have 
 sprung up without cultivation, in great numbers. Oranges are cheap 
 and good, though not very plenty ; for I do not think there are mora 
 than twenty trees producing them in the whole colony. [These trees 
 must be exceedingly productive, or the Liberians have little taste fo 
 oranges.] The soursop is not more abundant. The tamarind quite 
 rare. The cocoanut is found in but two localities." 
 
 Again says Dr. Bacon : 
 
 " In a very few spots, too, are seen the plantain and Bananna, which, 
 though soft, succulent, perishable plants, each trunk dying as its fruit 
 is removed, have nevertheless, the height, air, and proportions of 
 flourishing young trees. Of these, as of the other fruits, we only find 
 enough to show how easily they may be raised, and to make us won 
 der and complain that they are not produced in satisfactory abund 
 ance. The same may be said of the papaw, and of garden vegetable* 
 
LIBERIA. 29 
 
 likewise. In regard to the latter, this negligence appears particular 
 ly culpable, as even the thin rocky soil of the Cape, with the most or 
 dinary cultivation, will produce not only the vegetable of the tropics, 
 but also most of those which are found in the gardens of temperate 
 regions, some of which here flourish perennially, requiring little at 
 tention to make them yield a continual crop for several seasons ; such 
 are limes, beans, and other legumes, which, when once planted pro 
 duce richly for a long time. Even the roots natural to warm regions 
 are capable of this repeated production. The sweet potatoes are 
 pulled up, the roots picked off, and the green tops stuck in the ground 
 again, to radicate even in the first shower." Again: "The appro 
 priate grain of this climate and region is rice, which is raised in great 
 abundance and excellence by the natives, from the Gambia to Ivory 
 Coast, and to an unknown distance interior. On this part of the coast, 
 too, this great staple is cultivated with infinitely less labor than in 
 other tropical regions." 
 
 We notice that Dr. Bacon, though he could see no evi 
 dence of the successful cultivation of the sugar-cane and 
 coffee tree, does not deny the nature of the soil and climate 
 to be suitable for the production of the sugar-cane, coffee, 
 and cotton. From a letter of Dr. W. Johnson, who had 
 resided four years in the colony, dated June 3d, 1S41, we 
 copy the following extracts : 
 
 " All who have tried the Liberia Coffee, as far as I have heard, say 
 that it is equal to the Mocha or Java. The usual cost of clearing land 
 in Liberia and introducing a crop of rice, is worth about five dollars in 
 goods at African prices. The coffee requires rather close topping af 
 ter it is two feet high, as the elongation of the lower part of the trunk 
 will even then make the full grown tree six or seven feet in height, which 
 it ought not to exceed. It always bears, when cultivated, in the third 
 year, though but a small quantity. There is a large increase in the 
 product every year, and in seven years, I think from my observation of 
 a number of trees of about that age, they will average four pounds per 
 tree. We have not yet seen the tree attain its full growth, but it doubt 
 less requires about fifteen years. In the West Indies it is said to grow 
 twenty years. The lowest estimate of those in the colony who have 
 raised, measured, and weighed the coffee repeatedly, is five pounds per 
 tree for an average production. This is quite extraordinary, as in the 
 West Indies the average crop is stated by very respectable authority, 
 to be at full bearing, a tierce of a thousand pounds to an acre, on 
 which they plant above seven hundred trees. A coffee tree in Mon 
 rovia yielded last year two bushels, three and three-fourths pecks of 
 berries, which produced seventeen pounds of cleaned and cured coffee. 
 Such facts as these are fully explained by the appearance of the trees. 
 They will grow, if not topped down, to the height of twenty feet, and 
 will cover ten feet square of land, while the extent of the branches in 
 
30 LIBERIA. 
 
 the West Indies is not much larger than that of a hogshead. The 
 coffee berries are commonly borne on the branches more compactly 
 than any other fruit which I recollect to have seen. A small branch, 
 which I brought to New York, bore, within the space of one foot square, 
 one hundred and sixty berries, and was a fair specimen of their gen 
 eral appearance. The plant is indigenous in Liberia, or has become 
 naturalized, so that it abounds in the forest. The usual allowance of 
 labor in the West Indies is one slave to an acre of coffee. Eut we 
 have free women and children and natives for its prosecution, to all of 
 which circumstances it is very well adapted. We have two or three 
 kinds of coffee, one of which, and the best, has leaves as large as a 
 hand, and another as small as that of the apple tree." 
 
 From this statement it may be inferred : 
 
 1st. That the best coffee plants are to be found in Liberia, 
 and that the soil is well suited to their growth and fruitful- 
 ness. 
 
 2nd. That if properly cultivated, they will produce at 
 least as well, probably better than in any part of the West 
 Indies. 
 
 3rd. That had the earliest settlers (which it is absurd to 
 suppose,) found leasure when they first arrived, to set out 
 coffee plantations, they might in 1837, have nearly attained 
 their full growth. 
 
 4th. That had they for several years, been necessarily 
 occupied (as was the fact,) in securing subsistence from oth 
 er sources than coffee plantations, then the fact, as Dr, 
 Bacon states, that coffee was imported into the colony, and 
 not thence exported, and would be so, as he thinks, " for 
 ten years to come," from 1837, is no reason for discour 
 agement in regard to the production of coffee in that coun 
 try. 
 
 5th. That among " the few neglected coftee bushes that 
 Dr. Bacon saw growing in the streets of Monrovia," (or 
 which escaped his notice in its enclosures and gardens) was 
 one that in 1840, yielded seventeen pounds of cleaned and 
 cured cofec. 
 
LIBERIA. 31 
 
 6th. It would appear from the following extract from 
 the letter of Dr. J. Lawrence Day, dated Monrovia, Febru 
 ary 20, 1841, that the product of this one tree is not our 
 only demonstration (though it is quite sufficient) of what 
 may be done, or of what will be done in the culture of cof 
 fee in the colony. Dr. Day, says: 
 
 In December, nearly forty thousand coffee trees were living, the 
 plantings and growth of the year 1840. The number next year will 
 probably exceed this. These all in a few years will become a source 
 of profit to the owners, much larger in proportion than in any other 
 country. To show you what calculations may be made, a colonist 
 last year picked from one tree three bushels of berries, which it was 
 found yielded foui pounds of dried coffee to the bushel. You may 
 think this an extreme case ; I grant it. ~But there are now bearing 
 numbers of trees, which will every one yield one bushel and many of 
 them two bushels of berries to the tree." 
 
 From these facts we infer the probability that before the 
 " ten years" even dating from the year of Dr. Bacon s visit,, 
 coffee will be an article of export from Liberia, and the 
 certainty, that at no remote day, it will become one of the 
 great staple productions of the colony. 
 
 It is not to be imagined that human nature suddenly 
 loses all its weaknesses and imperfections, by crossing the 
 ocean, or by any new circumstances (however favorable to 
 its elevation,) among which it may be introduced, nor would 
 it be reasonable to look for an immediate degree of ad 
 vancement among colonists, composed of a people, long 
 depressed by adverse and withering influences, not a few 
 of them by slavery, beyond what would be expected of the 
 most favored of our race. We have thought the work of 
 African Colonization admirably adapted to strenghten the 
 intellectual powers and nurture and develope the moral 
 faculties and dispositions of those who might engage in it, 
 and that we might justly anticipate in the community of 
 Liberia, a sure if not rapid progress in knowledge and vir- 
 
32 
 
 LIBERIA. 
 
 tue. We have never claimed for this people entire exemp 
 tion from the vices, which have more or less existence in 
 all countries, and in all numerous classes of human beings. 
 With very few exceptions, the reports of those both from 
 United States and England, who have visited or resided in 
 Liberia, have been such as to create belief in the general 
 contentment, sobriety, industry and good character of the 
 colonists. Their own opinions and sentiments, the colonists 
 themselves, are best able truly and fully to express. In 
 September, 1827, the inhabitants of Monrovia addressed a 
 circular to their brethren in this country in which they say : 
 "Truly we have a goodly heritage ; and if there is any thing lacking 
 in the character or condition of the people of this colony, it never 
 can be charged to the account of the country it must be the 
 fruit of our own mismanagement or slothfulness or vices. But 
 from these evils we confide in Him, to whom we are indebted for al 1 
 our blessings, to preserve us." 
 
 "It is the topic of our weekly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty 
 God, both in public and private, (and He knows with what sincerity,) 
 that we were ever conducted, by his Providence, to this shore." " 
 
 In September, 1836, the citizens of Monrovia again assem 
 bled and in a series of resolutions expressed their unabated 
 attachment to the scheme of African Colonization and their 
 gratitude to its friends. Among the resolutions adopted on 
 that occasion we find the following: 
 
 " Whereas, it has been widely and maliciously circulated in the 
 United States of America, that the inhabitants of this colony are un 
 happy in their situation and anxious to return, on motion of Rev. B. 
 JR. Wilson, 
 
 c Resolved that this report is false and malicious, and originated in 
 a design to injure the colony, by calling off the support and sympathy 
 of its friends, that so far from a desire to return, we would regard such 
 ;m event, as the greatest calamity that could befall us." 
 
 In October, 1834, the Rev John Seys wrote from Monro 
 via to Gerrit Smith, Esq.: 
 
 " Here are to be seen intelligent, sensible and in many cases well 
 educated colored gentlemen, with whom it is pleasing to converse, and 
 whose houses and families give evidence of good order, morality, tem 
 perance and industry. Here are ministers of the Gospel, who add to 
 
LIBERIA. 33 
 
 all this a faithful, and zealous and untiring zeal to promote the cause 
 of Christ generally, and as it should be, to promote the prosperity of 
 their respective denominations. 
 
 "They have not classical education, but who is to be blamed? And 
 while they receive no remuneration, no salary, and are obliged to fol 
 low a trade, to be entangled with the affairs of this life, to procure an 
 honest livelihood, is it not much to their praise, that they fill their ap 
 pointments, and go up the rivers and creeks at their own expense, to 
 teach their brethren and neighbors the way to Heaven ? There are mem 
 bers of several Christian churches, who, at the sound of the church-go 
 ing bell, are seen on the holy sabbath, slowly and reverently assembling 
 in their respective places of worship, to adore their Creator and keep his 
 blessed day. In fact, the Sabbath is held sacred in Monrovia." 
 
 In 1835, the Rev. B, R. Wilson, (an intelligent and re 
 ligious colored man who after spending some time in the 
 colony had returned for Ins family] wrote for publication: 
 
 " The morals of the colonists I regard as superior to the same popu 
 lation in almost any part of the United States. A drunkard is a rare 
 spectacle, and when exhibited is put under the ban of public opinion 
 at once. 
 
 *| To the praise of Liberia, be it spoken, I did not hear during my 
 residence in it, a solitary oath uttered by a settler ; this abominable 
 practice has not yet stained its moral character and reputation, and 
 heaven grant that it never may." 
 
 Captain Outerbridge of the brig Rover, visited the colo 
 ny in the Summer of 1835; and August 5th, wrote for 
 publication in the New Orleans Observer, of the people of 
 Monrovia ; 
 
 " The inhabitants appear to enjoy very good health, and are very 
 friendly towards one another. The people of Monrovia are all for trade 
 and are all very pious, and I can say to my knowledge I heard not a 
 word of ill-fame while I was in Monrovia among the Americans, [colo 
 nists ;] for it appeared to me that they had left off that practice, as 
 well as drinking, and you will see them all going to church on Sun 
 day three times a day, and they appear to be very strict in their devo 
 tions ; as you cannot get a man to work on a Sunday, not even the na 
 tives." 
 
 The Rev. G. W. McElroy, on his return from Liberia in 
 December 1835, wrote : 
 
 " As to the morality of the colony, it is in general good." 
 Captain Wm. Hutton, an Englishman, and agent of the 
 Western African Company on a visit to the colony in Oc- 
 3 
 
34 LIBERIA. 
 
 lober, 1836, after speaking of the advantages of the plae, 
 and the friendly and hospitable manners of the inhabitants, 
 and of their gardens, which he pronounced in good order 
 and well enclosed, where he had observed, 
 
 i( Fine cabbages, cucumbers, parsley, beans and other vegetables., 
 as well as the most delicious fruits, such as pine-apples, oranges, 
 grapes, guavas, sousops, the African cherry, melons and lemons ;" 
 he adds " I must also do the inhabitants the justice to say, that they 
 are a highly respectable, moral, intelligent people." 
 
 The Rev. Charles Rockwell spent some days at the col 
 ony, in the autumn of 1836, and took special pains to ex 
 amine the country and the condition of nearly alL the settle 
 ments. He writes : 
 
 " The soil of Liberia is various, being affected by its position, its de 
 gree of elevation, and other similar causes. Directly on the ocean, 
 and along the banks of the rivers, a light, warm, sandy soil has in some 
 places been thrown up by the water, which will yield sweet potatoes, 
 beans, and cassada, but without manure the crops will be small. 
 
 " The next variety is bottom land, of strong, light-colored clay, 
 which is sometimes mingled with sand and dark loam. It is produc 
 tive, but is exposed to injury from the extremes of dry and wet weath 
 er. * * * The richest soil, however, and that which is most 
 prevalent in connexion with -the different settlements, is a deep, loose., 
 black mould, of alluvial formation. It extends back from the banks 
 of the rivers, and derives its strength from the wash of the fertile-up 
 lands above and beyond it. It is sufficiently moist, is free from stones 
 and gravel, and will give to any crop a rank and luxuriant growth. 
 
 " In higher positions than the last is a red, clayey soil mingled with 
 rocks and gravel of the same hue, all of which derive their color from 
 the oxyde of iron, with which they abound. This soil is of a poor 
 quality, but may be much improved by manuring. 
 
 " The last variety we shall notice is a strong, rich soil, found in 
 connexion w r ith the higher and more rocky uplands. It produces a 
 rank, luxuriant growth of forest trees and plants, but will produceweli 
 during the dry months of the year. Lands of this kind, however, are 
 extremely favorable to the cultivation of coffee and other valuable 
 plants and vegetables.^ 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Savage, Episcopal missionary at Cap6 
 Palmas, in relating the incidents of a trip up what he terms 
 the " Noble Cavally" river, says : 
 
 * A highly attractive object, to my New England eye, was maize, 
 so frequently seen uppn the backs of this rrver ; and another no less 
 reviving to my southern associations, was rice ; both of. whjch are 
 
LIBERIA. 35 
 
 produced here in perfection. The rice farms are very extensive ; and 
 at one time are seen, as we ascend the river, (through a small ope 
 ning among the trees, made for a landing place,) expanding far beyond 
 into fields of many acres ; at another, the brush being cleared away to 
 the very verge of the river, unfolds to the eye an immense expanse, 
 waving in all the luxuriance of nature." 
 
 In evidence of the satisfaction of the colonists with their 
 condition, and of their generally correct habits of temper 
 ance, industry, good morals, and respect for the Sabbath, 
 and the various duties of religion, we might adduce testi 
 mony from many respectable witnesses not only from this 
 country but from Great Britain. As far back as March, 
 1828, Captain Nicholson of the United States sloop-of-war 
 Ontario, wrote to Mr. Clay : 
 
 " All the colonists with whom I had communication, (and with 
 nearly the whole of them did I communicate in person, or by my of 
 ficers,) expressed their decided wish to remain in their present situa 
 tion, rather than return again to the United States. The appearance 
 of all the colonists, those of Monrovia as well as Caldwell, indicated 
 more than contentment. Their manners were those of freemen, who 
 experienced the blessings of liberty, and appreciate the boon." 
 
 The Rev. J. B. Pinney, (then the late governor of Li 
 beria,) in a speech in New York, June 28, 1836, after 
 speaking of the destitute character of emigrants, (many of 
 them liberated slaves,) on their arrival, said, 
 
 " Could they be expected at ono to produce a great and wide ef 
 fect on the native population around ; yet they have built them hou 
 ses, and churches, and school-houses. To expect that they should, 
 while struggling to effect this, open their houses and fill them with 
 the children of natives, hire teachers to instruct them, and ministers 
 to preach to them, and give away bibles and tracts among them, would 
 fre a most unreasonable expectation. Yet something like this has 
 been dene by these poor colonists. They have taken natives into 
 their families, and taught them the customs of this country, and they 
 have exerted an effort decidedly beneficial upon their morals. I do 
 not say that all the colonists are moral. Would to God they were. 
 All the people in New York are not moral. But most of these poor 
 people are moral, and what is far better, they are pious men and wo 
 men. They have erected four houses for divine worship. They have 
 put up 500 dwelling houses, many of them of stone. They have stone 
 stores, some of them worth frem too to three thousand dollars be 
 sides a court-house and jail." 
 
36 LIBERIA. 
 
 The late lamented Governor Buchanan, in 1836, on view 
 ing the villages of recaptured Africans, wrote : 
 
 "The air of perfect neatness, thrift and comfort, which reign 
 throughout, afforded a lovely commentary on the advancement which 
 these interesting people have made in civilization and Christian order, 
 under the patronage of the Colonization Society. Imagine to your 
 self a level plain of some two or three hundred acres, laid off into 
 square blocks with streets intersecting each other at right angles, as 
 smooth and clean as the best swept side-walk in Philadelphia, and 
 lined with well-planted hedges of cassada and palm Houses sur 
 rounded with gardens luxuriant with fruit and vegetables a school- 
 house full of orderly children neatly dressed and studiously engaged 
 and then say whether I was guilty of extravagance in exclaiming, 
 as I did, after surveying this most lovely scene, that had the Coloni 
 zation Society accomplished nothing more than had been done in the 
 rescue from slavery and savage habits of these three hundred people, 
 I should be well satisfied." Of his general impressions, he says : 
 ({ were I to obey the impulse of feeling, I fear you would place m& 
 among the list of eulogists whose exaggerated descriptions have done 
 little less injury to the interests of Liberia, than her most ignorant re- 
 vilers. But after all the curbing I have imposed upon my coloniza 
 tion enthusiasm, and the determination to look at things on the dark 
 side as well as on the bright, Liberia far exceeds in almost every re 
 spect, all that I have ever imagined of her." 
 
 In 1828 the Rev. Dr. Skinner, for a time Governor of 
 the colony, said : 
 
 <c Of the colonists a large portion are professors of religion. In the 
 settlement of New Georgia, which is composed of native Africans 
 who had been in America but four months, of 375 there are 167 mem 
 bers of the church. Dr. Skinner said that in his residence of fourteen 
 months in Liberia, he had seen and heard of only two intemperate 
 persons, and had heard only one profane oath. In regard to the 
 charge of bitter prejudice against the white man, among the colonists, 
 he said that the whites are treated with respect in Liberia, when they 
 treat the inhabitants with respect." 
 
 In 1838 Dr. Goheen, who was never connected with the 
 Colonization Society, but with the Methodist mission, wrote : 
 
 " The people are industrious and persevering in their attempts to 
 gain a comfortable livelihood, temperate and economical in their hab 
 its, and appear to be really enjoying life. 
 
 " I have inquired diligently, and I have yet the first man to find who 
 would leave Liberia for a residence in America on any terms." 
 
 Dr. James Lawrence Day, colonial physician, writes in 
 Feb., 1841: 
 
LIBERIA. 37 
 
 " I have before expressed to you my very agreeable surprise at find 
 ing the colony such as it is embracing so many flourishing settle 
 ments, and having a people among whom you can recognize scarce a 
 lineament of the American slave. Men here, are men, as you find 
 them in other communities, showing as they do a proper respect for 
 themselves and you ; you cannot remember your former prejudices, 
 however strong they may have been, but meet them at once, without 
 a reflection, on terms of perfect equality." 
 
 A distinguished English officer, who had been three 
 years on the African coast, speaking of the people of Li 
 beria in 1832, observes : 
 
 f The character of these industrious colonists is exceedingly cor 
 rect and moral ; their minds strongly impressed with religious feel 
 ings ; their manners serious and decorous ; and their domestic habits 
 remarkably neat and comfortable." 
 
 Lieut. Colonel H. Dundas Campbell said before an au 
 dience in London, in January, 1841, 
 
 " That, during the three years he had been Governor at Sierra 
 Leone, he had frequent opportunities of observing persons from the 
 colony of Liberia, and he had always found them very superior in in 
 tellect, besides being excellent mechanics, and generally very moral, 
 and well-conducted. In fact, he would candidly say that no persons 
 in his own colony equalled them. From his knowledge of the inte 
 rior of Africa, he took upon himself to say, that it was by the estab 
 lishment of such colonies as Liberia that civilization would be effect 
 ed there." 
 
 Capt. Stoll of the British navy, who visited the colony 
 in 1840, says : 
 
 (< The colonists with few exceptions, are all members of churches, 
 and I can safely certify, that a more orderly set of people I have ne 
 ver met with. I did not hear an improper or profane expression du 
 ring my visit. Spirits are excluded in most if not all the settlements. 
 They have formed themselves into various societies, such as agricul 
 tural, botanical, mechanical, for promoting Christian knowledge, also 
 a ladies society for clothing the poor. I went there unbiassed, and 
 left it with a conviction that colonies on the principle of Liberia ought 
 to be established as soon as possible, if we wish to serve Africa." 
 
 Finally we conclude this mass of testimony with that of 
 Dr. James Hall, who long resided in Liberia, and has been 
 intimately acquainted with all the settlements of the colony, 
 for the past eleven years, and whose perfect candor and 
 integrity, accuracy of observation, and remarkable sagacity 
 
38 
 
 LIBERIA. 
 
 and soundness of judgment, are admitted by all who know 
 him. 
 
 "The Liberians, says Dr. Hall, have shown a capacity for main 
 taining a free and independent government, a capacity and disposition 
 for a fair degree of moral and intellectual improvement. The soil of 
 Liberia is one of the most productive in the world, and capable of 
 yielding all the varieties of vegetables, and all the staple commodities 
 of the tropics. The climate of Africa is one that will prove as favor 
 able to the American emigrant,, as does the climate of the Western 
 States to the New Englander. In fine, all that is necessary to favor 
 and perpetuate on the coast of Africa, an independent Christian gov 
 ernment, is an increase of the number of select emigrants, an increase 
 for a certain period, of the appropriation to each individual on his ar 
 rival, and a general protection from the government of this country." 
 
 If, then, upon this concurrent testimony from colonists 
 themselves, from free colored men, who after careful per 
 sonal examination of the soil and settlements of Liberia, 
 have removed thither with their families; from captains of 
 merchant vessels, American and English; from missiona 
 ries; from those who have retired from offices of responsi 
 bility in the colony ; from intelligent and distinguished na 
 val officers of the United States and Great Britain, and 
 from the late Governor of Sierra Leone, any reliance can 
 be placed, it is impossible to doubt that the foundations of 
 a free Christian commonwealth are well laid in Africa, and 
 that the practicability of African colonization, to an indefi 
 nite extent, is demonstrated. It is for the friends of God 
 and man in this country to consider how colonies so well 
 organized, so beneficent as far as their power and influence 
 extend, so admirably designed and situated for progress, 
 and (if duly guarded and fostered,) to dispense rich bless 
 ings to one quarter of the globe, shall be sustained, and 
 rendered effectual means of relieving the miseries and ex 
 alting the character and destiny of the African race. 
 
 While human nature continues fallible, no plan of good, 
 even the most wise and least objectionable, can be execo* 
 
LIBERIA. 39 
 
 ted without the liability to error, and the imperfection in 
 separable from all the works of man. We must be willing 
 to labor in the twilight of our knowledge, and to have our 
 best efforts often disturbed and counteracted by the infirmi 
 ties, the prejudices, and the passions of mankind. To es 
 cape the effects of ignorance, mistake and perverseness, 
 we must needs go out of the world. With multitudes, 
 popular opinion, (however absurd,) has the force of law. 
 and ridicule is the test of truth. A word of contempt, a 
 shadowy and uncertain rumor, will shake the faith of some 
 in a cause, the merits of which all history illustrates and all 
 sound argument confirms. In view of the evidence we 
 have here exhibited of the condition, character and impor 
 tance of the colony of Liberia, we call upon all the editors* 
 clergy, statesmen and Christians of the country to awake 
 and arise with united energies and build it up, as a regen 
 erating power to Africa and an everlasting monument to 
 the praise of our philanthropy and religion. Why this si 
 lence, doubt, apathy ? Why slumber the churches as 
 though no knell sounded, appallingly, from Africa over the 
 perishing and the lost ? Why sleeps this whole nation as 
 deaf to the majestic voice of Providence, speaking not less 
 audibly than when it summoned the hosts of Israel to go 
 forward ? Why hesitate our statesmen in their places of 
 honor and responsibility to propose and advocate measures 
 in support of this scheme, so closely connected with the 
 permanency and glory of our Union and the best interests 
 of the two most numerous races encompassed by its limits I 
 Will delay diminish the evils to be remedied, the diffi 
 culties to be overcome, or the expenditures to be made ? 
 Shall we indolently resign all the honors and rewards of 
 d&e enterprise to our successors, and invite by our deeds of 
 
40 LIBERIA. 
 
 compassion, no redeemed children of Africa to come as pil 
 grims and scatter their fragrant flowers, and shed their 
 grateful tears upon our graves 1 
 
 It is not to be disguised that every emigrant whether co 
 lored or white, on settling in Liberia suffers an attack of 
 fever which has hitherto proved fatal to most white people. 
 According to Dr. Goheen and other colonial Physicians, 
 as well as his excellency Gov. Roberts, an old resident of 
 the colony, the mortality attending the acclimation of the 
 colored emigrant from any part of the United States is not 
 as great as that which attends emigration from Eastern to 
 Western states, in our own republic. Probably nine tenths 
 within the last 7 or 8 years recover from the attack, and 
 within a few months enjoy as good health as in any other 
 part of the world, There is now a territory belonging to 
 the Liberia common-wealth stretching about 300 miles 
 along the sea coast from the 8th. degree of N. L. towards 
 the equator, and from 10 to 30 or 40 miles into the interior. 
 They have several good harbors for shipping, 12 villages, 
 29 houses of worship, 53 ministers of the gospel, and about 
 2000 communicants : besides native converts the number 
 of which is unknown. It is said by Gov. General Roberts, 
 that in point of industry, temperance and civil regulations 
 the Liberians are excelled by no people of their opportuni 
 ties, of which he has had any account; and this is coroborated 
 by the testimony of Buchanan, Matthias, Chase, Seys, 
 Goheen, Brown, Tiege, and others who have resided for 
 years in the colony, and who have had good opportuni 
 ties for contrasting between them and other communities. 
 They have 17 common and 2 high schools or academies, with 
 able teachers. They have courts of justice, legislatures and 
 other civil regulations; and all these departments are chiefly 
 
LIBERIA. 41 
 
 superintended and conducted by colored men. Each adult 
 emigrant is on his arrival at the colony provided with a vil 
 lage lot, a 5 acre lot in the suburbs and a 50 acre lot in the 
 country ; and is supported for six months by the society. 
 
 The testimony of many has been adduced in proof that 
 the Liberians are highly pleased with their allotment, that 
 they would not remove to any other country under heaven, 
 that they highly appreciate the efforts of Colonization and 
 regard the institution as their most propitious earthly bene 
 factor. Some of these have on transient visits to this land 
 testified to this in the hearing of multitudes, others by let 
 ters to their friends, which have been published in America. 
 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive ; and men, pro 
 perly exercised and trained, enjoy more happiness in reflec 
 ting on the benefits they have conferred on others, than 
 upon favors they have received from their benefactors. 
 
 To add, therefore, to the happiness of the emigrants, 
 Colonization has placed them in circumstances to do good 
 to their fellow men, by making the colony as far as it ex 
 tends an insuperable barrier against the slave trade. The 
 general congress in 1819, in compliance with a memorial 
 from the American Colonization Society, set an example 
 to the nations of the earth by declaring the slave trade pi 
 racy; and by authorising President Monroe to fit out an arm 
 ed vessel to watch the African coast for the purpose of seiz 
 ing all American vessels engaged in the slave trade. Rev. 
 Jehudi Achmun was also appointed the same year to act as 
 government agent in Africa and to cooperate with the Colo 
 nial agent to whose care all recaptured slaves were to be 
 committed. The English parliament soon followed the ex 
 ample of the United States and at an immense expense has 
 for 20 years endeavored to guard the African continent 
 
42 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 against the depredations of slavers. To what purpose these 
 great sacrifices have been made, may be seen by an exam 
 ination of Sir. -Thomas Fowel Buxton s report of two years 
 travel and observation ; during which time he visited the 
 extensive coast of Africa, and most of the ports where slave 
 ships unlade their cargoes of human beings. Perhaps the 
 reading world has never seen adevolopement of facts more 
 astounding, nor yet more contrary to expectation than it has 
 found in Mr. Buxton s invaluable book. Mr. B. is a mem 
 ber of the british parliament and for some time President 
 of the British Anti-slavery Society. He had become strong 
 ly prejudiced against African Colonization, and it was ma 
 nifestly a paramount object of his extensive travels to make 
 discoveries for the promotion of the anti-slavery cause. 
 His prepossessions therefore as well as his unsullied repu 
 tation for truth and veracity places him at a remove from 
 all suspicion of any connivance with colonization principles. 
 I shall here take the liberty to quote substantially from Mr. 
 Buxton s work what is to our purpose not disguising the 
 fact that our author differs from us in opinion as to the in 
 struments by which the plan is to be carried on. 
 
 Mr. Buxton s theory is 1st. Legislation against the slave 
 trade can never suppress it, though all Christian nations 
 should unite vigrously in maintaining the integrity of their 
 laws; because the records of custom houses show that 
 legislation has never yet succeeded in breaking up any 
 trade the profits of which exceed 33 per cent. The 
 advance on capital invested in the slave trade is at least 88 
 per cent. Neither 
 
 2nd. Will the policy of watching the coast with ships of 
 war accomplish the object. The gain of the slave trade 
 has led its enterprisers to the adoption of measures which 
 
SLAVE TRADE. 43 
 
 have baffled all such designs. And though some slave 
 ships have been taken by British and American cruisers, 
 and their suffering victims rescued ; yet these bear no pro 
 portion to the number which have escaped, and not only 
 have not perceptibly diminished the traffic, but have been 
 the occasion of greatly augmenting the amount of African 
 suffering and death. Slave vessels are now built on the 
 principle of fast sailing and distancing their pursuers ; the 
 middle passage is more limited in its extent the suffering 
 victims more closely packed or cramed together ; the 
 dreadful consequences of which are, the mortality is vastly 
 greater, and this loss is supplied by a proportionably heavier 
 draught on Africa. The probability is, that the loss of hu 
 man life in carrying on the slave trade is 35 per cent, 
 greater than would have been had no such efforts been 
 made to suppress it, Better, says he, let slavers pursue 
 quietly their work of theft, robbery and murder, than be 
 the occasion of so much additional suffering and death. 
 Despite of all that has been done in England and America, 
 in their legislative halls and by the vigilance of their marine 
 forces ; though each government has denounced the trade 
 as piracy and each has sent her fleets to enforce her laws, 
 the murderous traffic still goes on, and in these two coun 
 tries are manufactured most of the ships, implements 
 and articles of trade used in carrying on the fiendish enter 
 prise an enterprise which robs Africa of half a million of 
 her children annually inhumanly murders one half of these 
 by seizure and detention, passage and acclimation, and con 
 signing the other half to a bondage but little preferable to 
 death. 
 
 Mr. Buxton at last arrives at the conclusion, that, to plant 
 colonies along the coast, teach the natives agriculture and 
 
44 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 the civil arts, turn their attention to a different and lauda 
 ble trade, are the only means of preventing the ingress of 
 slave ships and the progress of the trade. Sir Thomas is 
 entitled to credit for his honesty and frankness in declaring 
 his convictions, and for the discovery of facts confirmatory 
 of the principle he advocates. His plan, however, addresed 
 itself more to the ambition of the British Government than 
 to its philanthropy, and it is attributable to what was sug 
 gested, no doubt, as an improvement to the plan which 
 had been in operation for more than twenty years by Ame 
 rican Colonizationists, that it proved an utter failure. Cer 
 tainly, nothing can more effectually defeat the murderous 
 designs of slave traders, than an impenetrable belt of civili 
 zation thrown around the country their victims inhabit. 
 The Liberia commonwealth has already secured the best 
 anchorage ground on the western coast, and if successful in 
 what it has undertaken to accomplish, the present year, 
 (1844,) will control the coast and completely annihilate the 
 trade for about 700 miles. The British colony at Siere 
 Leone, north of Liberia, with the assistance of British 
 cruisers, will be able to protect that injured country from 
 this invasion for a still greater distance. The success of 
 the British efforts with the powerful Ashantees, south of 
 Liberia, and a mission recently established at the Gaboon 
 river by the American Board of Foreign Missions, if suc 
 cessful, will secure all the harbors from the equator to the 
 14th degree N. Latitude. The English have also a pos 
 session at Badagra, between 2d and 3d deg. S. L., and a 
 fort on a peninsula 4 deg. 30 min. South, between which 
 and their possessions at Cape Colony, the Dutch have a 
 colony of 10,000 emigrants. The Portugese and French 
 have colonies, the former on the eastern and the latter on 
 
AFRICAN BARBARISM. 45 
 
 the western coast ; most of the eastern shore is rock-bound 
 and utterly inaccessible to vessels from the sea. 
 
 From this cursory view of the fortifications, colonies 
 and mission stations ; the governments engaged in these 
 enterprises, and the success which has attended the opera 
 tions of such as have been directed against the slave trade 
 quite as extensive as the plan of this work will permit, and 
 quite sufficient to show that Colonization on the shores of 
 Africa, if persevered in, is destined to overthrow the Afri 
 can slave trade we shall now direct the reader s attention 
 to another and still more important object of " African 
 Colonization" ; which is : What Colonization proposes to 
 do for Africa. 
 
 It is feared that our sympathy for negro suffering and 
 oppression, consequent on domestic slavery, has but too 
 nearly shut up our bowels of compassion for the native Af 
 rican In our zeal to remedy the great evil of slavery, 
 we have been exhausting our energies in lopping off the 
 twigs and branches of the upas tree, without striking at tiie 
 root. Not that we should be inattentive to that foul blot 
 upon our nation s character, or to the degredation and suf 
 fering of those in bonds among us. These things we should 
 do, but we should not leave the other undone. 
 
 Africa, of all nations under heaven, is perhaps the most 
 fallen and degraded the most superstitious and wretched 
 the most barbarous and cruel : slavery, human sacrifice, 
 and cannibalism are practiced to this day, and have been 
 from the days of yore. Divided into petty sovereignties, 
 clans or hordes, their policy has been to commit depreda 
 tions on each other plunder, rob, capture and devour; 
 their prisoners are doomed to slavery sold in the market, 
 sacrificed on their alters, murdered to avenge the loss of rel- 
 
46 AFRICAN BARBARISM. 
 
 atives, or butchered and dressed for eating. Nothing can 
 exceed the horrors and sufferings of those who are pat to 
 death to appease the rage of those whose relatives have 
 been slain in battle. They are flayed alive the heart ta 
 ken out, and while quivering in its blood, tasted by all for 
 whose loss the victim atones. A missionary among the 
 Badragas saw at one time a tree where victims of this de 
 scription were sacrificed ; the branches were literally bur 
 dened with skeletons, and the ground for some distance lit 
 erally covered with human bones. Each tribe has its 
 monthly and yearly sacrifices : when they have no prison 
 ers or slaves who can be spared, criminals are appointed, 
 and in the absence of these, their children supply tke altars, 
 from half a million of which smoking incense so often rises 
 in honor of deified reptiles, breasts, fishes, images and infer 
 nal spirits. 
 
 Do we deprecate the existence of slavery in this and 
 other Christian lands 1 do we look with indignation on the 
 trade which has brought to our shores so many suffering, 
 degraded human beings ? are we ready to rise and with 
 one simultaneous cry of disgust and reprobation thunder 
 our anathmas, and by efforts corresponding with our holy 
 cholor, crush these institutions 1 How much more should 
 oar sympathies be awakened for suffering humanity in that 
 land of deepest, darkest moral gloom how much higher 
 should rise the flame of our burning zeal for the rescue of 
 that country 1 Oh, to what extent should we lay under 
 contribution our efforts, our influence, and our means, for 
 the recovery from the reign and dominion of superstition 
 and horror Africa s 150 millions ! No man more sincerely 
 deplores the existence of slavery in OUP land than urself, 
 ngr will we be second to any of ouf ability in carrying out 
 
AFRICAN SLAVERY, &C. 47 
 
 proper measures for wiping away the stain it has fixed up 
 on our nation s character. The suffering, the degredation, 
 the misery, however, consequent upon slavery in any 
 Christian land, bears no comparison to the wretchedness 
 and horrors of slavery as it exists in Africa. It is not de 
 nied that the criminality of enlightened slave traders and 
 slave owners may be accounted vastly greater in the day 
 of judgment, than that of uncivilized and benighted Afri 
 cans : " He that knoweth his Master s will an doeth it not, 
 shall be beaten with many stripes. We are considering 
 now, not the amount of moral turpitude which attaches itself 
 to the conduct, when the circumstances, the light and 
 knowledge of the agents are considered ; but the evils re 
 sulting to the objects of the action. Let us for a moment 
 contrast the condition of an American slave with that of a 
 slave in Africa. The one has some protection by civil leg 
 islation, the other none at all ; popular opinion, as well as 
 civil and religious principles, throw a restraint upon the 
 most unprincipled of American slaveholders. If, indeed, 
 we were to suppose the slave to be treated as a brute, t^ie 
 treatment of the owner will be regulated by principles uni 
 versally imbibed. The sentiment which obtains in Africa 
 is, " that the master has a right to adopt, unrestrained, .his 
 treatment of his slave, even to the taking of life." In Ame 
 rica the value of the slave is a security against the deadly 
 thrusts of the master if he be slain or crippled the master 
 sustains a loss of property : in Africa the slave is worth 
 but little more than his weight in fish or flesh, and if he dies 
 by the violence of his owner he will then serve him for 
 food. Here the slave is addressed by the gospel, ancj-may 
 be made a partaker of its benefits, and death will be his 
 passport to freedom and bliss ; but yonder na voice of 
 
48 AFRICAN SLAVERY, &C. 
 
 mercy salutes him no comforts of grace are mingled with 
 his cup of sorrow, and his awful death is a " leap in the 
 dark." Finally, American slavery is a transfer of its sub 
 jects to a far better condition than that in which they were 
 placed before and the abolition of American slavery on 
 colonization principles, may yet declare " How unsearcha 
 ble is God s wisdom and his ways past Jinding out." 
 
 Africa is supposed to number from 99 to 150 millions of 
 inhabitants, most of whom are thus debased and sunk in 
 the lowest state of degredation and barbarism, and now 
 opens to the Christian world an extensive field for scientific, 
 civil and moral culture. Had Africa no claim on the sym 
 pathies and efforts of the civilized and Christian world, 
 other than that which is founded on the principles we have 
 universally imbibed and inculcated, it would hardly be set 
 aside. We could not consistently with our professions of 
 philanthropy, either turn a deaf ear to the groans and wail- 
 ings wafted on every breeze, or look unmoved at her smo 
 king altars and writhing victims of superstitious barbarism. 
 Moved by no impulse other than the pity her misery should 
 excite in every bosom, Christendom should be aroused and 
 fly to the rescue. But Africa has a demand on us aside 
 from those binding considerations, and on principles which 
 render it still more imperative. Africa is the birth-place of 
 literature from her the Europeans received the first prin 
 ciples of science and civilization. As we esteem and value 
 these essential ornaments and comforts of men and of na 
 tions, so should we sympathize with their now fallen and 
 debased progenitor ; and having derived from her the es 
 sential elements of our happiness and glory, we should as a 
 debt of gratitude nay, in compliance with a legal demand, 
 refund those elements, principle and interest. But alas! 
 
AFRICAN SLAVERY, &C. 49 
 
 how strangely and wickedly have we perverted those 
 principles to which, for our immediate benefit, Africa has 
 given birthto instruments of cruelty and torture. We 
 have risen to power by the rich productions of her mental 
 soil ; and finding her shorn of her strength, we have taken 
 advantage of her weakness her burning towns have 
 served as lighthouses her children as commerce ; the 
 fierce, demoniac yell or war-hoop, the frantic scream, the 
 fainting death wail cf her mis-guided subjects, the music of 
 our tars, or the enlivening tunes to which our slave ships 
 have danced upon her coast; and we have made the spoil 
 ing of her goods the invaluable increase of our wealth. 
 
 " Is this the kind return 
 
 Are these the thanks we owe ? ?J 
 
 If it be settled that efforts should be made for the re 
 demption of Africa, the next consideration is, through what 
 instrumentality can this most effectually and with the 
 greatest facility be done ; or, what class of men shall be 
 employed in accomplishing this great enterprise 1 It is 
 already demonstrated that but little can be accomplished for 
 Africa through the agency of Europeans or Americans 
 alone. Opposed to this plan are three insurmountable ob 
 jections : 1st. The African climate is unsuited to their con 
 stitutions : of those who have made the trial, more than 
 19 in 20 have fallen, or have been obliged to return for the 
 recovery of their health. 2d. The sentiment is so univer 
 sally prevalent among the native Africans that the whites 
 are a superior grade of beings to themselves ; that civiliza 
 tion, science and religion are suited to the capacity of the 
 white man only, that could he endure the heat of the cli 
 mate, his efforts among them would be unavailing. Said 
 a native king to a missionary, who had explained to him 
 
50 AFRICAN SLAVERY, &C. 
 
 the doctrine of atonement, " I believe your religion good 
 for the white man, because it is of God, and the white man 
 was made for God ; but the negro was made for the Devil 
 the negro no worship God, for God will no have the ne 
 gro the negro worship the Devil cause the Devil will 
 have he." 3d. A third difficulty opposed to missionary 
 operations in the usual way, is the murderous and warlike 
 disposition of most of those tribes. Nothing could be more 
 acceptable to those mercenary clans, in the employment of 
 slave dealers, than to find a school of native children unpro 
 tected. These would be seized, carried off to a factory 
 and sold and shipped as slaves. A mission was established 
 in 1840, by Rev. George S. Brown, a little beyond the limits 
 of the Liberia commonwealth. No sooner than a school 
 of about forty children was collected, intelligence reached 
 them that Gotirah, a chieftain who had laid waste thirty 
 towns already, had promised to lead his men to the attack 
 of Heddington station swearing by his God, he would 
 eat the missionary for his breakfast and carry off the mis 
 sion property and the children as booty ; and but for timely 
 aid afforded by Buchanan, then Governor General of the 
 colony, that promising mission had been broken up. Ow 
 ing to one or other of these difficulties, much time has been 
 lost, immense sums have been expended, and many valua 
 ble lives have been lost to little or no purpose. 
 
 Colonization has hit upon the only feasible and success 
 ful plan ever yet devised for the accomplishment df the 
 great enterprise of civilizing Africa, by planting colonies 
 of civilized negroes contiguous to her barbarous tribes. 
 This plan is admirably adapted to all the circumstances 
 which have operated so unyieldingly against other benevo 
 lent undertakings. The instrument chosen is of the same 
 
INFLUENCE OP COLONIZATION ON AFRICA. 51 
 
 features and complexion, of the same great family with the 
 natives ; they can accost each other as kinsmen, and pass 
 reciprocal salutations and greetings as peers. 
 
 The climate of Africa is suited to the constitution and 
 habits of the colored man : there seems to have been by 
 the God of Nature a perfect conformity originally of the 
 one to the other. It is not, however, pretended that ne 
 groes born in America, and especially those whose ances 
 tors for several generations are American born, will suffer 
 nothing by their return to Africa. Nature will exert itself 
 under all circumstances and changes of climate and habits, 
 so to change in her functions and operations as to preserve 
 existence and promote health. Nothwithstanding her ef 
 forts have been so successful that the Africo-American en 
 joys as good health as his anglo neighbors, facts on record 
 show, conclusively, that in emigrating to Africa from these 
 shores he does not suffer as much as our Ne~.v En gland ad 
 venturers do in removing to the states and territories of the 
 west. 
 
 Another and weighty consideration, unforseen, to be 
 sure, by the originators of this scheme, is, by introducing 
 the civilized, the learned, the Christian negro to the natives 
 of Africa, you furnish them the most unequivocal proof of 
 the absurdity of their former notions. The natives have 
 addressed to their senses, conclusive evidence, that the ne 
 gro is capable of appreciating and enjoying all the bless 
 ings of civilization. Had we loom, we would give many 
 examples illustrative of this position, but one must suffice. 
 
 While temperance principles were advocated by such 
 only as had always been temperate, the instances of drunk 
 ards reclaimed were so rare that it became proverbial, 
 " Our hope is with those who have never contracted the 
 
INFLUENCE OP COLONIZATION ON AFRICA. 
 
 habit of drinking," " the drunkard is beyond recovery/ 
 The secret is now revealed The drunkard was addressed 
 by men who knew nothing of the craving of his appetite 
 for liquor, and often has he regreted that he acquired the 
 habit ; but now that it is formed, I feel, as our teachers 
 say, that I cannot overcome it. But when the inebriate 
 saw before him, in the Washingtonian, one who had been 
 as beastly as himself, now reformed, " clothed and in his 
 right mind," courage, ambition, hope, with corresponding 
 effort, are inspired and he is at once a reformed man. 
 
 Last. If the circumstances were equal if, indeed, it 
 were at the same hazzard of health and life, at the samo 
 sacrifice of means of domestic and social enjoyment, and 
 with no fairer prospects of success, even then the obliga 
 tion would be more binding on the colored than on the 
 white man. It is his own race, his kindred, his family, 
 which utters the cry of distress, and implores help ; and it 
 is by a rule God himself has given, it is the nearest -kins 
 man or relation on whom the obligation to redeem first rests. 
 He, if able, though he may not be as able as a more dis 
 tant connexion, is bound by the law of Heaven to adminis 
 ter relief. How much more when in all respects the color 
 ed man has decidedly the advantage can accomplish 
 vastly more, not only at no sacrifice or expense, but infinite 
 ly to his own advantage. Colonization adopts no coersive 
 measures : " It is with their own consent" the colored peo 
 ple are to be removed ; nevertheless, it should be urged 
 upon their consideration that duty, high moral obliga 
 tion, self-interest, even self-respect, and self-preservation, 
 combine to render it imperative that they should em 
 bark in the enterprise. I tremble in view of the fearful ac 
 count such must render as are engaged in discouraging 
 
APPEAL TO THE BENEVOLENT. 53 
 
 the colored people from entering into these measures, by 
 misrepresenting the condition of the emigrants in that com- 
 monfvealth ; impugning the motives of the society, as if it 
 were the degredation of the race at which the association 
 aims, and that no higher motives prompted the undertaking 
 than to get rid of the free blacks. Surely, had this been 
 all, measures would have been resorted to far more facili- 
 tous and less expensive. The colored man is also encour 
 aged to hope that the prejudice of caste will soon be done 
 away : " All distinction in consequence of color must be 
 done away," is the motto of a few ; and by their zeal for 
 the accomplishment of this object, their profession of at 
 tachment to the person and cause of the negro, they have 
 not only won his affection and confidence, but have insti 
 gated him to hold and treat as his enemies all who do not 
 thus encourage his delusive hopes. By these means the 
 colony has been deprived of many valuable accessions ; 
 many a native African has already gone down to death 
 shrouded in the darkness of paganism, upon whose soul 
 the Sun of Righteousness might long since have risen, and 
 many a colored man is destined to pass in obscurity and 
 comparative inactivity and uselessness, who might have 
 risen to eminence in Liberia as a statesman, or with those 
 who turn many to righteousness have shone for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 It is too late in the day to stand aloof and contend about 
 first principles. Whatever may have been the motives 
 which led to the adoption of these measures, most of the 
 originators of the scheme are gone to their reward ; and 
 the question more properly is, not whether they were right 
 or wrong, but what shall be done for that still feeble colony ? 
 
 Thousands of our colored brethren, relying on our pro- 
 
54 APPEAL TO THE BENEVOLENT. 
 
 tection arid support, have crossed the foaming deep, en 
 countered the dangers and difficulties of an untried climate, 
 an unsubdued soil and an untamed race of men. ffhey 
 have struggled with these and numerous other obstacles, in 
 spired not so much by present enjoyments as by future hopes, 
 until they behold with rapture the eagle of freedom flutter 
 ing in the breeze, and the banner of the cross waving in tri 
 umph in their moral atmosphere ; civilization and science 
 spreading and predominating over a territory of 500 square 
 miles, into which 90,000 of the natives have been induced 
 to enter for protection and instruction. And now we ask 
 the most strenuous opposer of the institution, what ought 
 we to do ? Shall we betray our trust, withhold our support, 
 and suffer the institution to languish and die 1 Would you 
 see the wild swine of the wood pluck and devour that 
 vine ? would you see the flourishing fields of Liberia over 
 run again by savage tribes, and turned again into a wilder 
 ness ? would you see their temples demolished or turned 
 into slave factories, or desecrated to idol or devil worship 1 
 would you have us call home our missionaries blow out 
 for ever the light of civilization and religion, and consign 
 Africa over to the darkness and damnation of paganism 1 
 If you would not, cease then your pestiferous breath 
 against this institution ! But we ask you, especially, who 
 have yourselves decoyed some of these unsuspecting ne 
 groes into that land of paganism and death ; you who have 
 a dvised them to go who have contributed for that pur_ 
 pose and incited others to do so : they have gone confi 
 ding in your integrity, relying on your promise of support, 
 and would you ask us to follow your worse than traitorous 
 example and deliver them over to African cannibals ? 
 
APPEAL TO THE BENEVOLENT. 55 
 
 Never ! never ! " If we have promised to our hurt, let us 
 make our promise good." 
 
 You say " the emigrants have been deceived." I grant 
 it. But you yourselves have been the deceivers ; you have 
 given your solemn pledge to stand by and sustain them 
 to support them by ;your funds and your influence to 
 gladden their hearts and strengthen their hands by sending 
 the means of grace and additional forces. Encouraged by 
 these assurances, they are now faithfully and nobly strug 
 gling with the difficulties of want and peril. They have ta 
 ken their post where retreat is cut off, and if not sustained 
 destruction is inevitable. Amid these dangers and fainting 
 toils, they turn to you their wishful eye they stretch out 
 their sable, imploring hands they utter more than the 
 Mondonian cry, " give us," not the gracious, but " the 
 promised help ;" and how, 1 ask, in the name of Him whose 
 awful denunciation against " truce breakers" is uttered, can 
 you meet in the day of doom this broken covenant. You, 
 who having led these sufierers into straits, and now not 
 only " shut up your bowels of compassion," turn away 
 your" eyes from pitying" and your ears from their suppli 
 cation, but in various ways prevent, as you are able, the 
 cry of their wants and distress from addressing your peo 
 ple ! Alas ! has it come to this. 
 
 There is one consideration to which the reader s atten 
 tion is solicited. About 2,000 slaves are now offered by 
 their masters as candidates for emigration, provided funds 
 can be raised to defray the expenses of their outfit ; 135 of 
 these must be provided for in the course of a few months, 
 or they will be beyond our reach ; most of them are edu 
 cated and communicants of different churches. To a 
 certain extent, the writer of this is authorized to pledge 
 
56 APPEAL TO THE BENEVOLENT. 
 
 himself, that for every $16 given for that purpose, a slave 
 shall be set free, (a thing converted into a man,) put in 
 possession of a farm, supported for six months and made a 
 missionary of civilization and perhaps of religion in Africa. 
 Who will respond to this ? But to any extent, all this may 
 be done at the expense of $60 for each adult and $30 for 
 each child. In behalf of these, but especially that portion 
 who are soon to revert back into hopeless bondage, we ap 
 peal to the sympathies and liberality of our countrymen. 
 Any response addressed to the author of this pamphlet, 
 who is agent of the N. Y. State Colonization Society, will 
 be thankfully received. Address L. B. CASTLE, Lodi, Sen 
 eca co., New-York. 
 
 
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