Chapter IV: Part 4

About a year since, the colored people of Circleville, Ohio, appointed one of their own number, Mr. T. J. Merrett, a delegate to Liberia, to report on the condition and prospects of the Republic. Our Agent was present at the meeting; the subject of an Ohio Colony was fully explained, and the vote to commission the delegate was nearly unanimous. He sailed for Liberia in April, 1853, remained there about six months, and then returned to the United States. The vessel in which he embarked was stripped of its masts and rigging, in a hurricane, during the passage, its pumps rendered useless, and its hull only kept afloat by constant bailing, until it was landed at St. Thomas for repairs. The over-exertion and exposure incident to this disaster, induced ship-fever on the vessel, to which Mr. Merrett fell a victim two days after landing at Portland. While in Liberia, he had written an encouraging letter to his friends in Circleville, but made no formal report, as he did not live to reach home. Mr. Merrett was a man of good judgment, and highly esteemed by his neighbors. His death is a serious loss to us, and has somewhat interrupted our plans for commencing operations in Africa.

The advantages lost in the death of Mr. Merrett, may be regained by inviting Mr. Findlay to visit this country, to confer with the colored people of our State. The committee will adopt this course, if the funds to meet his expenses and make the necessary improvements at Grand Cape Mount, are placed at its disposal. The employment of such agencies, in other States, has tended to arouse a spirit of emigration, and should not be overlooked by our own.

The REV. JOHN MCKAY, a colored man, of Madison, Indiana, was employed in that State last year, and succeeded in raising a company of twenty-five emigrants, with whom he sailed to Liberia, in November. He touched at Sierra Leone and Grand Cape Mount, and remained eighty-three days in Liberia, to examine its condition. He returned to Indiana about the first of May, and speaks in the most favorable terms of the civil, social, and religious prosperity of the Republic. It is his intention to return to Liberia with his family, after laboring awhile for the Indiana State Board of Colonization.

Mr. McKay informs our Agent, that the adaptation of the soil and climate of Liberia, to the production of the best qualities of cotton, sugar, and coffee, has been fully tested; and that the willingness of the natives to engage in the cultivation of these products, under the direction of the Liberians, is no longer doubtful. To develop the unbounded agricultural resources of Africa, it only remains, therefore, that the capital to pay for the native labor, and the men to superintend it, should be supplied. The first of these elements of success is offered by British capitalists, and the last can be furnished by the American Colonization Society.

Mr. J. B. Jordan, a highly intelligent merchant of Liberia, is expected in Cincinnati, soon, to tarry a few weeks. He has been in correspondence with some of the intelligent colored men of this city, for more than a year past, and has expressed himself in the strongest terms, as to the superiority of that Republic, over the United States, as a home for the colored man. When on his way, at first, to Liberia, he visited our Agent at Oxford, Ohio, and agreed to coöperate in the erection of the proposed Ohio Colony.

Our Agent has several applications for information, as to the time when emigrants can remove to the proposed “Ohio in Africa;” and some have resolved to proceed to Liberia, to undergo the acclimating process, preparatory to entering into their inheritance.

In connection with this subject, we are gratified in being able to state, that companies of slaves, qualified to enter at once upon the cultivation of the lands in Africa, are occasionally offered, and may be of much value, as freemen, in our proposed settlement. In 1852, Mrs. LUDLOW, of Cincinnati, presented twenty-one slaves, then in Texas, to our Agent, as emigrants to Liberia; and they were forwarded in March, 1853, to their future homes. At the present moment, another family of seventeen slaves, valued at about $15,000, is offered to him, and will be accepted as soon as the preliminary arrangements for their removal can be made. Their master is a resident of a State in which there is no Colonization Agent; and, being acquainted with our Agent, he has appealed to him to accept his slaves, and provide for them in a land of freedom. As these people have been trained to Cotton-growing, it is important they should be sent to our Colony, to promote the cultivation of that valuable staple. Should they succeed well in Liberia, it is expected that other emancipations in the same region will follow, and a large number of cotton-growers thus be secured to aid in developing the resources of the African Republic.

The Resolutions of the Oxford Council, appended to this address, emanate from colored men of more than ordinary intelligence. None of them are advocates of Colonization, but they are capable of taking a comprehensive view of the questions involved in the enslavement of their race. They are now convinced, that unless the free colored people assume a position enabling them to engage largely in tropical cultivation, slavery, by retaining the monopoly of the supply of tropical products, must continue to possess the power of extending itself at will. The only question, with them, is, Where can the free colored people become the most efficient agents in the deliverance and elevation of their race? They have resolved, therefore, to collect information from Africa, while others are investigating South America. The slavery question, in their opinion, is now assuming a position in which attention must be more fully directed to its economical aspects. Moral considerations, they perceive, are powerless in arresting its progress. The cumulative demands of commerce, for tropical productions, are stimulating slavery in an unprecedented degree; and unless free labor can be enlisted in tropical cultivation, it must continue to extend until the whole of tropical America submits to its sway.

As only a part of the towns and congregations in Ohio could be visited during a single year; as the opposition to Colonization had been more extended, and its agencies more perfectly systematized here than, perhaps, in any other State; as it was impossible to obtain audiences, generally, to hear lectures, except on the Sabbath, when the secular aspects of the subject could not be discussed; and, as the people of African descent, almost to a man, were bitterly opposed to Liberia, and willing to believe every ill report its enemies put into circulation; the Agent found it necessary, at an early period of his labors, to resort to his pen, as a means of correcting public sentiment, and disseminating truth among the colored people. The fifth and last document of this kind is forwarded herewith, and commended to your attention. Its object, mainly, is to demonstrate the necessity of Colonization as an auxiliary to missions in Africa; to show what colored men, themselves, have accomplished for the elevation of their race; and to afford the pastors of congregations a brief outline of facts to lay before their people.

Before the peace of the tribes around Cape Mount can be secured, and the interference of foreigners to procure laborers for the West Indies, as apprentices or slaves, can be prevented, we must settle a colony there; and before this can be accomplished, suitable houses and fortifications, for the comfort and security of emigrants, must be erected. The government of Liberia, were it able, can not be expected to make these improvements; and the Colonization Society, were it willing, is equally unsupplied with funds for such an object. Aid is not expected, at present, from either our State Legislature or from Congress. Consequently, we are thrown back upon the liberality of the churches, and of individuals, in our own State, for the means of rendering the lands, purchased by Mr. McMicken, available to those for whom they were designed. And shall we seize the opportunity now presented, by a favoring Providence, for barring, forever, the traffickers in human flesh, by whatever name they may be called, from all access to Grand Cape Mount? Or, after the site has been secured, shall we suffer it to be transferred to others, and the citizens of our State robbed, by their own negligence, of the honor of perfecting what has been so successfully commenced?

To remove any remaining prejudices against Colonization, and to secure more prompt and general action by the different Churches, appeals have been made to the several Ecclesiastical Courts, where opportunity offered, to recommend the cause of Colonization to their people. Three Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Ohio, at their last sessions, passed resolutions approving the Colonization Society; and two of them—the Cincinnati and the Ohio, visited by our Agent—recommended collections to be taken up in the Churches under their care. The General Assemblies of both divisions of the Presbyterian Church, have also recommended the Society to the patronage of their people. The Baptists and the Protestant Episcopal Church, both, have missions in Liberia, and their people need no other inducements, it is conceived, than the fact that their contributions are needed, to enlist them in aiding emigration to that Republic. The Associate Reformed Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, have also expressed their confidence in African Colonization, and recommended their people to sustain the enterprise. The newer division of the Baptists—the Christian Church—have recently enlisted in the cause of African evangelization, and sent out a missionary. The people of that denomination, doubtless, will unite with us in promoting the great work of emigration to Africa.

And now, Christian Brethren, with these facts before you, and with these expressions of confidence in Colonization, by the Churches to which you belong, may we not urge upon you to lay this subject promptly before your people; so that, through your instrumentality and their pecuniary aid, we may have the means placed in our hands of delivering Grand Cape Mount from the long reign of rapine, cruelty, and war, to which it has been doomed; and of placing it under the protection of the Banner of the Cross, and subjecting it to the dominion of the Prince of Peace.

You will readily understand, Dear Brethren, that the Committee has progressed to a point, in its efforts to establish an Ohio Colony in Africa, where it is powerless without money. And, having accomplished so much—having territory enough, almost, for a kingdom—must all be lost for want of the ability to proceed? We can not but believe that the Christian people, under your care, will heartily respond to this appeal; and, that they will give us, at once, ample means of carrying out all the measures necessary to secure success.

C. P. McILVAINE,
SAMUEL W. FISHER,
SAMUEL R. WILSON,
ALEXANDER GUY,
J. P. KILBRETH,
RUFUS KING,
JAMES HOGE,
H. H. LEAVITT,
H. G. COMINGO,
_Colonization Committee of Correspondence for Ohio_.

DAVID CHRISTY, _Secretary of the Committee_.

☞ All communications, in reference to this subject, and all
remittances of money, may be made to the Agent, DAVID CHRISTY,
Oxford, Butler county, Ohio, or to Rev. WM. MCLAIN, Washington City.

☞ The following paragraph, from the New York Times, was handed to
the Agent just as this Address was going to press. It affords a sad
confirmation of the doctrine of this Lecture, that there can be
little security for African Missions, except in connection with
Colonization: “Schooner _Cortes_, Capt. Stanhope, arrived at this
port yesterday morning, from Gaboon, West Coast of Africa, whence
she sailed April 14. We learn from Captain S., that on the 4th of
April, the Mission Houses, Church, and other houses, belonging to
the Church, at Corisco, were set on fire by the natives and entirely
destroyed. Two female servants belonging to the United States were
burned to death.”

☞ The Committee publish the annexed proceedings of the Oxford
Council, as a matter of news, and as an important step for the
colored people, without designing to indorse all the sentiments they
contain.

☞ Rev. G. G. LYONS, of Toledo, is an authorized Agent for
northwestern Ohio; and J. C. STOCKTON, of Mt. Vernon, for the
northeastern counties.

_From the Hamilton Intelligencer._

IMPORTANT DISCUSSION.

_Oxford_, May 22, 1854.

TO THE COLORED FREEMEN OF BUTLER COUNTY.

At a meeting of the Oxford Council, auxiliary to the State Council of the Free Colored People of Ohio, held on the 5th inst., the following preamble and resolutions were adopted for consideration; and on the 12th inst., an additional resolution was passed, inviting the members of the several Councils, in Butler county, to participate in the discussion. Notice is, therefore, hereby given, to all interested, that the discussion of the said preamble and resolutions will be commenced on Friday, the 26th inst., at two o’clock, P. M., in Oxford, and be continued, from time to time, until disposed of by the Council.

ALEXANDER PROCTOR, Pres’t.

SAMUEL D. FOX, Secretary.

Whereas, the Colored People of the United States, from the peculiar crisis which has arrived in their condition, are taking their rights into their own hands:

And, whereas, slavery, that “sum of all villainies,” is lengthening its cords and strengthening its stakes, and still more broadly exerting its baleful influence over the free as well as the slave portion of our people:

And, whereas, we believe, that to remain passive and indifferent, under all these great evils, is at once to show ourselves unworthy of those noble rights for which we contend:

And, whereas, the minds of the colored people, North, South, East, and West, are agitated, and parties and factions are being organized all over the Union, each urging its peculiar panacea for the ills we endure:

And, whereas, others are engaged in making investigations relative to Canada, the West Indies, and Central America, with the view of deciding where the safest asylum can be secured for ourselves and our posterity:

And, whereas, the time has fully come, we are convinced, when every subject, every system, every argument, should be thoroughly examined; and that to shrink from an honest and impartial investigation of all systems and subjects, African colonization not excepted, is behind the spirit of the age, and is pusillanimous rather than magnanimous: therefore,

_Resolved_, 1st, That we are in favor of availing ourselves of all the information we can obtain, as to the advantages afforded to emigrants in the Republic of Liberia, and the inducements held out by that Colony to free colored people.

2. That we will endeavor to procure all the correct knowledge we can, of Grand Cape Mount, in Africa, as the point of emigration for any of our people who may choose Liberia as their future home.

3. That, being informed of the existence of an Association in England, which has been organized to promote the agricultural resources of Africa, by advances of goods and money to intelligent and honest emigrants and colonists; we hereby authorize our President and Secretary to correspond with the said association, and learn the extent of encouragement it proposes to give to emigrants from the United States.

4. That in the adoption of any or all of these resolutions, we do not intend to be understood as committing ourselves either as Emigrationists or Colonizationists, but as honest inquirers after truth, and as men not afraid to investigate every question at issue in the great controversy in which we are involved.

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Footnote 1:

1806.

Footnote 2:

Mr. Mills enlisted in this cause himself, but on the organization of
the American Colonization Society, he embarked in it as the more
practicable scheme.

Footnote 3:

1812.

Footnote 4:

1817.

Footnote 5:

The receipts, for the first six years, averaged only $3,276 per annum.

Footnote 6:

Cape Palmas, in its political organization, is a distinct colony from
Liberia. It was established by Maryland, and has recently declared its
independence. We shall speak of it, however, as a part of Liberia.
Their territories lie contiguous, and the Missions of most of the
Societies are common to both colonies.

Footnote 7:

Missionary Advocate, April, 1853.

Footnote 8:

Letter to the Colonization Herald—October, 1853.

Footnote 9:

Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.

Footnote 10:

Gammel’s History of the American Baptist Missions.

Footnote 11:

Ibid.

Footnote 12:

Baptist Missionary Magazine, March, 1854.

Footnote 13:

Mr. Bowen was in Abbeokuta, when the king of Dahomey attempted its
destruction, as detailed hereafter.

Footnote 14:

Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

Footnote 15:

Report of Bishop Payne, June 6, 1853.

Footnote 16:

The funds for this purpose were supplied as follows: Charles McMicken,
Esq., of Cincinnati, $5000; Solomon Sturges, Esq., of Putnam, Ohio,
$1000; and Samuel Gurney, Esq., of London, England, $5000.

Footnote 17:

This system, in its moral bearings upon the Islands, is little better
than the old African Slave trade. The disparity in the sexes is fully
as great under the _apprenticeship system_, as it was during the
prevalence of the slave trade, and it must be equally as demoralizing.
Take, as an example, a few imports of apprentices from India and
China, for the supply of English planters. The cargoes of five
vessels, were composed of 1,433 males, 257 females, and 84 children.

The practical effect of this system upon Africa, in exciting wars, and
carrying off the male population, is identical with that of the slave
trade. See President Roberts’ letter on that subject in Appendix.

Footnote 18:

This sum is about equal to the price usually paid by the slave traders
for slaves.

Footnote 19:

African Repository, August, 1853. [See Appendix.]

Footnote 20:

Officer of U. S. Navy, in Gurley’s Report. Vice President Benson also
bears the following testimony to an improvement in the character of
the natives.

“It is also gratifying to know that the natives are becoming
increasingly assimilated to us in manners and habits; their
requisitions for civilized productions increase annually; they are
seldom satisfied with the same size and quality of the piece of cloth
they wore last year—some of them habitually wear a pair of pantaloons,
shirt or coat, and others all of these at once: and of the thousands
that have intercourse with our settlements, and used to glory in their
greegree, and were afraid to utter an expression against it, very many
of them are now ashamed to be seen with a vestige of it about them,
and if a particle of it should be about them, they try to secrete it,
and if detected, it is with mortification depicted in their
countenances; they disclaim it, or make some excuse. There is also
manifestly, a spirit of commendable competition among them throughout
the country; they try to rival each other in many of the civilized
customs, a pride and ambition that I feel sure will never abate
materially, till they are raised to the perfect level of civilized
life, and flow in one common channel with us, civilly and religiously.
It is certainly progressing, and though some untoward circumstances
may retard its consummation, yet nothing shall ultimately prevent it.”

Footnote 21:

The details of mortality connected with the Baptist mission, have been
given full, as an example of the effects of the climate on white
missionaries.

Footnote 22:

Letter to the Colonization Herald, October, 1853.

Footnote 23:

“Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or
accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing
the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can
be supported. The power claimed never was in use here, or
acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause
returned is sufficient by the law; and therefore the man must be
discharged.”—_Close of Lord Mansfield’s decision in the Somerset
case._

Footnote 24:

Clarkson’s History of the slave trade.

Footnote 25:

Wadstrom, page 220.

Footnote 26:

Memoirs of Granville Sharp.

Footnote 27:

Wadstrom, page 221.

Footnote 28:

Wadstrom.

Footnote 29:

They had first gone to Nova Scotia, from whence they sailed to Sierra
Leone.

Footnote 30:

See my Lectures on African Colonization, and on the Relations of Free
Labor to Slave Labor, for the main facts in relation to the increase
of the Slave-trade.

Footnote 31:

It does not appear that the Nova Scotia fugitives sent their children
to these Schools.

Footnote 32:

Although these Nova Scotia free blacks,—or rather these American
fugitive slaves,—had gone to work so freely at first, in building
churches and establishing schools, nothing farther is heard of them,
in the history of missions, until the Wesleyans, 18 years afterwards,
undertook their spiritual oversight. Their failure in securing the
civil privileges for which they took up arms, seems to have placed
them in a position of antagonism to the English Church.

Footnote 33:

“Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.”

Footnote 34:

“Where are your charms?” said a Mohammedan chief, under whom part of
the Christian converts fought against the Dahomians. “You will all be
killed.” “We have no charms,” was the simple reply, “but our faith in
the Son of God, who died for sinners.” A watchful eye was kept upon
them in the field of battle, for it was said that Christianity was
making women of them; but they acquitted themselves like men: so much
so, as to gain the praise even of those who persecuted them; and the
result showed that it was possible to be brave, and yet Christian, and
to escape the risks of battle without amulets.—_Church Missionary
Intelligencer, Oct. 1853._

When, in the midst of the battle, another chief, addressing one of the
converts, exclaimed: “Ah, Kashi, if all fought like you, they might
follow what religion they like.”—“_Sunrise in the Tropics._”

Footnote 35:

Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1853.

Footnote 36:

Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics.

Footnote 37:

Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1853.

Footnote 38:

Capt. Paul Cuffee, a wealthy colored man of Boston, in 1815, took out
38 emigrants to Sierra Leone.

Footnote 39:

The whole population on the present enlarged territory of Liberia, is
estimated at 300,000; but the partly civilized population, called
citizens, is only 80,000.

Footnote 40:

The native population, along the coast, are found to be more degraded
than those of the interior.

Footnote 41:

BISHOP AMES, at the anniversary meeting of our Missionary Society,
held in Cincinnati, 1853, paid the following just compliment to the
Republic of Liberia:—

“Nations reared under religious and political restraint are not
capable of self-government, while those who enjoy only partially these
advantages have set an example of such capability. We have in
illustration of this a well-authenticated historical fact: we refer to
the colored people of this country, who, though they have grown up
under the most unfavorable circumstances, were enabled to succeed in
establishing a sound republican government in Africa. They have given
the most clear and indubitable evidence of their capability of
self-government, and in this respect have shown a higher grade of
manhood than the polished Frenchman himself.”—_Methodist Mis. Adv._

Footnote 42:

Missionary Herald, January, 1854.

Footnote 43:

Missionary Herald, August, 1853.

Footnote 44:

See Moffat’s South African Missions.

Footnote 45:

Missionary Herald, for December, 1853, and January, 1854.

Footnote 46:

Missionary Herald, February, 1853.

Footnote 47:

Recent developments at Sierra Leone, have proved, beyond all question,
that certain persons, in that English Colony, have long been secretly
engaged in the slave-trade. There is reason to believe, however, that
these wars have been excited by the English scheme of restocking their
West India plantations by purchasing _emigrants_, at $10 per head,
from the African chiefs. See the letter of President Roberts, on this
subject, in Appendix.

Footnote 48:

American Missionary, March, 1853.

Footnote 49:

Barbarism is the ignorance of infancy prolonged into adult age. This
definition will convey a true idea of its relations to moral and
religious truth.

Footnote 50:

The German term for farmers.

Footnote 51:

Missionary Magazine and Chronicle, October, 1853.

Footnote 52:

Report of Annual Meeting, May, 1853.

Footnote 53:

Baird’s Retrospect, pages 400–2.

Footnote 54:

The comparative condition of the missions in West Africa, South
Africa, and the West Indies, according to Baird’s Retrospect for 1850,
was as follows:

W. Africa. S. Africa. W. Indies.
Missionaries, 93 214 283
Assistant Missionaries, 170 155 36
Native Assistants, 75 8 349
Communicants, 9,625 12,116 75,503
Schools, 152 60 160
Pupils, 13,631 20,102 11,042

Footnote 55:

In England.

Footnote 56:

United States.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.