Chapter III: Letter II: BALTIMORE, March 17, 1845 (2)

The number of manumissions reported to the commissioners of the State Colonization Fund from 1831 to 1845, under the act of the former year, was 2,988. This shows an average of some two hundred and more annually. I am not sure that this number exhibits all the manumissions. It is enough, however, to show the tendency of things. With all the restrictions which legislation has imposed upon manumissions they still go on. It may be taken for certain that they will go on; that nothing can stop them. Year after year the scruples of slaveholders in some parts of the State prompt to manumission. The death beds of many afford the occasions for giving these scruples force. It is useless to reason about a thing of this sort. Emancipation in Maryland must go on. In my humble judgment it is going on too fast--and for the simple reason that we are not making adequate preparation for the new condition of things which must ensue.

The contrast presented by the progress of the free States, within fifty years, and by that of the slaveholding States for the same period, is so familiar that it would be useless to burden these pages with statistics to illustrate it. It may be sufficient to state, in respect to the increase of population, that in 1790 the free States, including Massachusetts and Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had a population of 1,971,455; while the slaveholding States, Delaware, Maryland, with the District, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, contained 1,852,494 inhabitants. In 1840 the same free States numbered a population of 6,761,082, and the same slaveholding States had an entire population of 3,827,110. The former increased in a ratio more than double as compared with the latter.

In our own State, however, where we do not grow cotton, sugar, or rice, and where there are no new lands to present a fresh soil to the plough, and to invite settlers from a distance, the increase of population in our chief slaveholding counties has been nothing at all. There has been a decrease, and a very marked one. How has this decrease happened but by a process similar to that which rendered desolate three hundred thousand acres in the champagne of Naples, in the days of Slavery among the Romans--which made Italy itself almost one wilderness, reinhabited by wild boars and other animals, before a single barbarian had crossed the Alps!

Let us not conceal the truth from ourselves. Slavery in Maryland is no longer compatible with progress; it is a dead weight and worse; it has become a wasting disease, weakening the vital powers--a leprous distilment into the life blood of the commonwealth. Yet we will have no quacks to prescribe for our malady. It is only necessary that we should become aware of our true condition; there are restorative energies in abundance, rightly directed, to retrieve the State from every disorder to which she is subject.

VII. _Emancipation in Maryland: its difficulties._

If we are driven to the conclusion that Slavery in Maryland must terminate, under the operation of tendencies now at work, it becomes a matter of great importance to know something about the manner in which so extensive a change is to be accomplished. Undoubtedly it will not do to remain entirely passive on this subject. I am persuaded that the general sentiment in Maryland is fixed in the conviction that Slavery, here at least, is an evil, and that in some way or other it must be removed.

There are two main difficulties which here present themselves.

In the first place the negroes amongst us, whether emancipated or enslaved, must remain a distinct class, a servile class, separated from the whites by differences of color, race and civilization.

In considering Slavery where such bars of separation between the classes are not found, one may very well imagine how the system may be changed without confusion or disorder; how the enslaved class, gradually admitted to the privileges of freedom, may, after a while, become incorporated with the general body of society; how, thus, all distinctions may be finally destroyed, and how the power, resources, and energy of the State may be vastly increased by the addition of so much active material to her industrial and moral forces. In Rome the sons of freedmen were citizens. Europe could alter her system of Slavery which existed in the middle ages, and which still exists in Poland, Hungary and Russia; she could admit her serfs to some of the rights of citizens, though still withholding many of those rights; she could do this without danger, because serfs and lords were of one complexion, and of one race. The descendant of a peasant might himself in time become a lord.

But when a servile population, emancipated, stands marked by its peculiarities of race and color, so that it can not be drawn into the social and political sphere, its position inevitably becomes hostile. In the midst of the community, but not of it; the old bond of connection ruptured, with no basis whatever upon which a new one can be established--what but feelings of suspicion, of distrust, of aversion and repugnance can prevail between the two classes so far removed and so entirely dissimilar.

Nor can any thing be done by the superior class to elevate the condition of the other; because that would be to strengthen an adverse power. All efforts to improve an humble population must have reference to their ultimate admission to a participation in social and political rights. Of course this could not be contemplated for a moment in any community where the number of the black population might be at all considerable. And this brings me, without dwelling farther on this point, to the second difficulty which has to be considered by us in Maryland, in view of future emancipation.

When it was determined to abolish Slavery in Pennsylvania, the thing could be done easily enough, because of the small number of slaves in that commonwealth, in comparison with the bulk of the population. The slaves were a mere handful. They could be set free in the midst of the general community without the danger of their forming a large class remaining distinct from the rest of the population, to infect society by their idleness, or to excite commotion by the rivalry of their labor with that of the whites. It made no great difference in the social condition of Pennsylvania, whether the negroes within her borders were individually slaves or not. Their numbers were too small to affect the general current of things one way or another.

But in Maryland the case is otherwise. It would be a serious business to set free as large a slave population as we have, and leave them floating among us with a careless disregard of the future. The black population of Maryland is about one third of the whole population. In 1840 it amounted to 151,556; the white population numbered 316,011. In an aggregate population, then, of 467,567 the blacks number 151,556. Of these the slaves are about ninety thousand; the free blacks, about sixty thousand.

The question, it may be said, relates not to the aggregate number of the black population, but only to the slave portion. Sixty thousand and more are free already; emancipation would affect only the ninety thousand.

The latter number would be sufficient to make it a serious business. But in fact the matter relates to the whole number. For emancipation would make them all of one class as they are now of one race--would add the ninety thousand to the sixty thousand and upwards, constituting altogether a vast heterogeneous element in the social sphere which could not be assimilated, and which would be too great to remain unassimilated without great disorder.

No; the moment the interests of this race are disintegrated from those of the whites, the two will come into collision, and the weaker must be sacrificed. The only safety of the black is in the swallowing up of his personality--the merging of himself and his being, in the overpowering existence of the master race.

Why will not those who call themselves the friends of the black people think of this?

The ninety thousand slaves of Maryland have now protectors; these slaves constitute part and parcel of a great interest which their masters represent. Set them free, and where will they find protectors? They will not be able to protect themselves; for their freedom would give them no participation in the political franchise--nor would such participation avail them if it were given.

In the competition which arises now between slave labor and free white labor in our slaveholding counties, the latter is obliged to give way--because the slave and the master are of one interest, and that the predominant interest. The laboring white man removes; or, if he remains, he succumbs to the overpowering force, and, though conscious of the degradation, he submits to it.

But if the slave is separated from the master and left to stand alone, then is he not only deprived of the support which upheld him, but the very power which protected is now turned against him; the stamp of his race is upon him; he is isolated. Cut off from the sympathies of the whites, without any part or lot in the political life of the State, forming no part of the frame work of society, he is like a parasite plant torn from the stock to which it clung. The slaveholding interest is no more; where is the slave-protecting interest to spring up?

The competition between white labor and that of the blacks, Slavery being abolished, would now assume a new appearance. The negroes would have none to befriend them; every white laborer, actually or prospectively a voter, would bring with him into the competition the whole force of his connection with the social and political system. Apart from this, the value of white labor would be greater than that of negro labor, in almost any pursuit. The conflict of this competition might be dangerous to domestic peace; it might prove suddenly destructive to the race which sooner or later it would inevitably overwhelm.

The danger of disturbances of tranquillity would arise from the large mass of the black population amongst us. In the northern States the negroes are too few to come into competition with the whites; yet even in those States a hostile feeling is indulged towards them. Witness the outbreaks in Philadelphia and Cincinnati a few years ago. Here in Maryland the collision between the two classes of laborers would be more violent than any which has yet taken place elsewhere. The influx of foreign laborers, German and Irish, with their superior efficiency, would add continually to the force pressing upon the negroes. Recollect that the latter form nearly one-third of our population; and then consider the probable fate of that multitude of defenceless beings, aliens in the community, with an active enemy bent on rooting them out, no sympathies in their favor, no interest to support them, but with every prejudice of society turned against them.

Again, passing by these certain provocations of disturbance, the presence of so large a body of free negroes in the State would render necessary a series of restrictive laws. At this time our legislation is thought to be very severe towards the free colored people. It is painful to contemplate the extremes to which our police severities might be obliged to go in the event of an act of emancipation.

I have used the term “free negroes,” to distinguish the emancipated blacks from the slaves. But the distinction is scarcely worth a difference so far as servitude is concerned. The emancipated negro can not emerge from a servile condition; it is impossible that he should do so in this country, while the distinctions of race and color remain. If Slavery were abolished in Maryland, the negroes amongst us would be slaves to the social system, instead of slaves to individuals; the restrictions of the laws would be more hard than the control of a master.

In view, then, of the real facts of our position, as it relates to our black people, what ought to be our chief concern? To hasten emancipation? No: that will come at any rate; it may come too soon. The main thing is to see how we can provide for it so that the new relations it will bring may be productive of good and not of evil to both races.

This, then, is the great matter; the public mind should be turned to it seriously and at once. Maryland has no precedent to follow. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England had none of her difficulties. They could emancipate and leave results to take care of themselves; or they might have refrained from emancipation with pretty nearly equal indifference. No strong, deeply rooted slaveholding interest could ever have grown up in those States; for the same reasons which prevent any such from fastening itself upon western Maryland and western Virginia. Slavery never could have become ingrained in the fibre and texture of the communities north of us, as it has grown into ours. Hence while the putting of it off by them was a mere rejection of something uncongenial with the system, it will be with us a serious alterative process to root out a constitutional malady which has crept into the blood, and blended itself with the very springs of life.

If we should rush precipitately upon emancipation, and rest with that as though it were every thing--let us see what would come of that. One hundred and fifty thousand black people, deprived of the guardianship and control of masters, the bonds of domestic relationship which united them with the community being rent asunder, and that identity of interest gone which secured them a definite and harmonious, though humble sphere in the social organism--shall they be left to the mercy of stringent laws and police restrictions, and have the life worried out of them by the incessant fretting of petty persecutions? Poor unfortunates, thrust forth out of the pale of communion to maintain a separate existence, with no foundation to rest it upon, with no element of social or political life wherewith to nourish it, with nothing to cling to, nothing to be engrafted upon, an existence without entity, miserable, forlorn, who could be so unfeeling as not to commiserate their condition! Nor would it be the slowly wasting process of petty persecutions which they would have alone to encounter. Day by day the pressure of competition would become more and more grievous, driving them from every avocation in which they could hope to find employment. Forced from the city into the country, they would be compelled to seek refuge from the country in the obscure alleys of the city. I have alluded to the riots in Cincinnati and Philadelphia a few years ago, the causes of which are too well known. In the city of New York, if my information is correct, negroes are excluded from cab driving and similar occupations. If such things are seen in communities where the number of blacks is comparatively small, what might not be expected in a community where the blacks are so numerous as they are in ours?

It may be here remarked that so long as Slavery remains a prominent institution in a State, its influence upon labor, and upon the estimation in which labor is held, has the effect of protecting the class of free negroes to a considerable extent from the competition, and its results, of white labor. The slaveholding interest is the bulwark of the whole colored race; it stands between them and destruction. Here in Baltimore there are no ordinances excluding free negroes from particular occupations. The competition of white labor, however, mostly Irish and German, has driven the free negroes from many sorts of employment on Fell’s Point, especially from the wharves and coal yards. If Slavery were abolished and the slaveholding interest extinct, the whole force of an irresistible competition would come directly upon the colored people, and would overwhelm them utterly. When we are considering emancipation, therefore, we must consider other things also, if we would be mindful of our duty as having in charge a docile inoffensive class, whose fate depends so much upon our conduct towards them.

One other thing remains to be here mentioned before we pass to the next and last division of the subject. In the event of emancipation, if we trust to the action of our domestic policy to drive the black population into other parts of the Union, it must be borne in mind that the reactive policy of our neighbor States, both north and south, will be immediately operative to repel the influx of blacks, likely to be poured upon them from Maryland. Can it be supposed that Pennsylvania will open her arms to receive the exiles rejected from our bosom? Ohio has already raised the barrier of exclusion as against Kentucky. The slaveholding States will not take our expelled negroes. We could not expect that; for Maryland at this moment will not take the free negroes of any other State.

Our condition, then, will be one of isolation, to such a degree, at least, as to throw us wholly upon our own energies. In other words, if we emancipate we must not expect to slough off the results upon other States. We must confront them ourselves; we must meet them on our own soil, and manage them as best we may. It is probable, however, that an act of prospective emancipation would induce some slaveholders to emigrate with their slaves to the south-west; and in this way there would be some diminution of the mass of the colored population.

VIII. _Colonization._

The law of 1831 which recognised COLONIZATION as a part of the public policy of Maryland was a compromise, though generally not so regarded now, between the emancipation tendency then operative and the slaveholding interest. The fanatical movement of the abolitionists checked the progress of things here; all sides, all parties, all tendencies were united to rebuke the insolent demonstrations of that fanaticism.

COLONIZATION proposes to convey to the western coast of Africa, and to establish there, on territory procured for the purpose, the free colored people of Maryland, with their own consent. To carry out this design the Legislature of Maryland, in 1831 appropriated ten thousand dollars annually for twenty years, and constituted the Maryland State Colonization Society the agent in the business. Three Managers of the fund are appointed by the State, to act in concert with the Colonization Board. Neither the managers nor the members of the board receive any compensation; yet no enterprise was ever prosecuted with more energy, prudence, and success.

It is not necessary that I should go into details here to show what colonization has achieved under the auspices of the Maryland board. The people of Maryland are familiar with this subject. The Colonization Journal, published semi-monthly in Baltimore, under the charge of DR. JAMES HALL, the board’s general agent, makes known to the public all the particulars connected with colonization, and the affairs of the settlement in Africa. It may be sufficient at present to say that a most propitious fortune seems to have accompanied every step of this great undertaking. The colony was planted by some thirty or forty emigrants; it now has a population of more than seven hundred. It is an organized community; in its form, constitution and laws it is a republic; the governor, appointed by the State board, is a colored man; the other officers, elected by the people or appointed by the Executive, are all colored men. The little commonwealth is prosperous; it has established its influence over the neighboring tribes; and recently GOV. RUSSWURM procured by purchase a considerable and very important territory, lying adjacent to Cape Palmas. The colony has its schools, its houses of worship, its military organization, its tribunal of justice, its officers of police, its administrative functionaries. Roads have been opened into the interior, and a trade is carried on in rice, camwood, palm oil, and other productions of the country. The language of an eye witness will best testify to the condition of affairs in our Maryland colony: I quote the Rev. JOHN SEYES, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, long a resident at the old colony of Monrovia, and recently a visiter at Cape Palmas:

“I consider the colony of Maryland in Liberia, known as the one receiving the exclusive patronage of the Maryland State Colonization Society of the United States, as decidedly one of the most prosperous of the American settlements on the western coast of Africa. It could not have been otherwise. The organization and continued energetic labors of the board representing the society, would lead us to expect nothing less. Soon after the colony was founded by Dr. James Hall, now the society’s general agent in Baltimore, and the machinery of a colonial government set in motion, the selection of a colored man as governor was made. This was just as it should be. It was called an experiment, but it was one of the success of which no reasonable fears could be entertained. From the commencement, the colony has been progressing, if not rapidly, yet steadily and onwardly. The population is now about seven hundred, and they receive an immigration every year. All necessary preparation is made for the reception of an expedition before its arrival. There is a public asylum or receptacle, consisting of a number of separate rooms, and situated in a healthful part of the colony, into which the new-comers are generally acclimated. Meantime frame buildings are being erected on lots laid out for them, of suitable size to afford them a good garden spot, and by the time the immigrant is through the fever and can begin to take care of himself, he has a home to go into--a dry, comfortable little framed and shingled house, where he can have all the necessaries and comforts of life, if he will only follow up his first advantages with economy and industry.

“It is a notorious fact _that there is not a single family, of all the colonists in Maryland in Liberia, occupying a thatched house_; all have buildings such as I have described. Let it be understood that there is another point of sound and wise policy in this arrangement of incalculable advantage to the settler. His house is not _given_ to him; by no means. He would not value it as much if it were. He is charged with all the expenses of its erection. When he is able, he is furnished with work, work is found him by some means, and as he earns his wages, he receives a part to live on, and a reasonable proportion is stopped in the hands of the society’s agent to pay the debt due for the house. As I am not writing a treatise on colonization, reader, I can not stop here to notice one tithe of the many points of superiority which this plan possesses over others which have been in vogue in other places. But that it works well, one must go to Palmas, visit the people as I did, go to their homes, eat and drink with them, inquire into their condition, find out their contentedness, without seeming to intend any such thing, and then he will be satisfied.”

There is no instance of colonization, that I know of, which has proved more successful in every respect than this. The history of the settlement of our own country shows no parallel to it--especially when we consider the materials with which colonization in Africa had to work. Yet the colonists, humble indeed, and unaccustomed to self-government, have acquired from their residence with an Anglo-Saxon race so much of the rudiments, forms, and habits of a self-governing people, that, when thrown upon their own exertions, they have exhibited qualities of patience, endurance and good sense, which give assurance of their capacity to do well in their new abode. Removed, moreover, from their position of inferiority, and possessed with a true spirit of freedom and with a feeling of self-respect thence arising, they behold themselves _men_, with the power of rising to the highest stature of humanity. This, in itself, is a great thing; it is the chief thing. A people who can entertain such feelings and ideas have their destiny sure and a noble one.

With the State’s annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars, and the contributions of individuals, the board has carried on the operations incident to colonization. The debts contracted by the outlays necessary for the beginning of the enterprise of founding a new commonwealth, and of sustaining it in its early days, have all been paid off. An annual expedition with emigrants sails from Baltimore to Cape Palmas. An enterprise is now on foot, with every prospect of success, to start a packet vessel to run regularly between this city and Cape Palmas. A number of colored persons are engaged in this undertaking, and when its success is established, it will probably be surrendered entirely into their hands. The facilities for emigration will be much increased under this arrangement, by which a regular communication will be kept up with the colony. The trade between the two points, it is believed, will give abundant employment to a vessel of considerable tonnage.

Now, if we look merely at what colonization has done in the way of removing the colored population from Maryland, it would seem to be an utterly hopeless project. But let us see what colonization really proposes; and for this purpose I quote the language of Mr. LATROBE, under whose able superintendence, as President of the Colonization Board, the affairs of the colony have so wonderfully prospered:

“If colonization proposed by any probable means at its command, even with the most munificent assistance of Congress, State Legislatures and individuals, to remove the whole colored population of the United States to Africa, it would well deserve to be considered visionary, as idle indeed as to attempt to ladle Lake Erie dry. No means that could be obtained would be competent to this end. But the means, scant as they were, continued Mr. L., were ample to establish colonies on the coast of Africa, capable of self-support and self-government--moral and religious communities, where wealth and station would be offered to the colored man as the incentives and rewards for labor--colonies that would be as attractive to him as America is to the European. In 1832 the immigration to America was said to be upwards of two hundred thousand, more than double, nearly treble the annual increase of the entire colored population of the Union. These immigrants, with few exceptions, came at their own expense. In point of means they were in no way superior to the corresponding class of free colored people in the United States--they came, because America presented attractions which their home did not. It is in the power of colonization to invest Africa with the same attractions for the colored immigrant, that America presents to the white one. Where the latter has one inducement to remove the former has ten. In Europe there are few avenues to worldly honor which are closed to those, who, nevertheless, leave them all behind. In America there are few, if any, avenues open to those for whom colonization labors.

“The object of colonization, therefore,” said Mr. LATROBE, “may be stated as the preparation of a home in Africa, for the free colored people of the State, to which they may remove when the advantages which it offers, and, above all, the pressure of irresistible circumstances in this country shall excite them to emigrate.”

Rightly understood then, as to its views and purposes, colonization may not be so impracticable a scheme after all. At any rate, whatever it does accomplish, is so much of good achieved, practical, permanent, substantial good. What the future may disclose to urge, nay, to compel, the separation of the two races now dwelling together in this country, no one can tell. But COLONIZATION looks with an anxious eye to such a future contingency, and in the meantime it will do all it can to prepare the way for the easy accomplishment of that consummation, if it should become inevitable.

It is the belief of some very intelligent persons that the black population of the United States will gradually move towards the south-west, along with the cotton culture, and be finally absorbed in the mixed races of Central America, and that thus Slavery will cease. Mr. RIVES, of Virginia, advanced some such idea as this in the Senate of the United States, a year or so ago. But it seems clear to my mind that the white master will go as fast in that direction as the negro laborer, and wherever both are found together, one must be a slave. There is no spot on this continent where the negro can be put so as to be removed from the domination of the white man; no remote spot which the negro will reach unless the white man carries him thither. The colored race in this country can never exert their energies in an independent way; they are and must be under the overshadowing influence of a controlling race.

What they may become in Africa, their native home, carrying with them to those shores, the vigorous elements imbibed during their apprenticeship of servitude here, other generations yet to come will know better than we of the present. The part which the African is to perform in the progress of civilization, and the development of the entire character of humanity, is a problem which has begun to attract the attention of enlightened men. Mr. KINMONT, whose discourses on the Natural History of Man show so large and comprehensive a mind, dwells with much interest upon the characteristics of the African race. A portion of his remarks, so beautiful, so humane, I can not but quote:

“It is certainly a remarkable fact that the negro family of the human species should have been naturally confined to the peninsula of Africa, and should never have travelled beyond it from voluntary choice. Philosophers have found a constitutional adaptation in this case to the climate and local circumstances of this their native and allotted home, and there can be no question that there is, and that when the epoch of their _civilization_ arrives, in the lapse of ages, they will display in their native land some very peculiar and interesting traits of character, of which we, a distinct branch of the human family, can at present form no conception. It will be--indeed it must be--a civilization of a peculiar stamp; perhaps we might venture to conjecture, not so much distinguished by art as a certain beautiful nature, not so marked or adorned by science as exalted and refined by a certain new and lovely theology;--a reflection of the light of heaven more perfect and endearing than that which the intellects of the Caucasian race have ever yet exhibited. There is more of the _child_, of unsophisticated nature, in the negro race than in the European, a circumstance, however, which must always lower them in the estimation of a people whose natural distinction is a manly and proud bearing, and an extreme proneness to artificial society, social institutions. The peculiar civilization which nature designs for each is obviously different, and they may impede, but never can promote the improvement of each other. It was a sad error of the white race, besides the moral guilt which was contracted, when they first dragged the African, contrary to his genius and inclination, from his native regions; a voluntary choice would never have led the negro into exile; the peninsula of Africa is his home, and the appropriate and destined seat of his future glory and civilization,--a civilization which, we need not fear to predict, will be as distinct in all its features from that of all other races, as his complexion and natural temperament and genius are different. But who can doubt that here also humanity, in its more advanced and millenial stage, will reflect, under a sweet and mellow light, the softer attributes of the divine beneficence? If the Caucasian race is destined, as would appear from the precocity of their genius and their natural quickness, and extreme aptitude to the arts, to reflect the lustre of the divine wisdom, or, to speak more properly, the divine science, shall we envy the negro, if a later but far nobler civilization await him,--to return the splendor of the divine attributes of mercy and benevolence in the practice and exhibition of all the milder and gentler virtues? It is true, the present rude lineaments of the race might seem to give little warrant for the indulgence of hopes so romantic; but yet those who will reflect upon the natural constitution of the African may see some ground even for such anticipations. Can we not read an aptitude for this species of civilization I refer to, in that singular light-heartedness which distinguishes the whole race,--in their natural want of solicitude about the future, in them a vice at present, but yet the natural basis of a virtue,--and especially in that natural talent for music with which they are pre-eminently endowed, to say nothing of their willingness _to serve_, the most beautiful trait of humanity, which we, from our own innate love of dominion, and in defiance of the Christian religion, brand with the name of _servility_, and abuse not less to our own dishonor than their injury. But even amid these untoward circumstances there burst forth occasionally the indications of that better destiny, to which nature herself will at last conduct them, and from which they are at present withheld, not less by the mistaken kindness of their friends, than the injustice of their oppressors: for so jealous is nature of her freedom, that she repels all interference, even of the most benevolent kind, and will suffer only that peculiar _good_ or intelligence to be elicited, of which she has herself deposited the seeds or rudiments in the human bosom.”

I have in another place alluded to the consideration that the residence of a portion of the negro race in this country may be, under the overruling dispensation of Providence, the means of great good to the whole race. It may be that the civilization of Africa will receive its first quickening elements by the return of her sons from a servitude which proved to them a school of useful acquirements. Some touch of Caucasian energy thus infused into the African mind may be the awakening impulse that shall arouse a whole people from the torpor of ages.

At all events, leaving these speculations, one thing is certain, viz. that MARYLAND is doing a good thing in promoting the work of colonization in Africa. She is providing a home for the bondsmen of her fields, where they may enjoy in reality the blessings of freedom which can never be their heritage here. To what extent soever this work is done, to such extent will positive good be done. We can not now foresee the circumstances which may, in time, give aspect and character to colonization; but of this we may be assured, that in proportion as the home of the emancipated African is more and more enlarged in Africa, and made more and more attractive, in such proportion will the way be opened for the deliverance of Maryland from one of her most serious embarrassments.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This subject of “Rights,” in connection with servitude, I have considered more fully in a little treatise entitled “Some Thoughts concerning Domestic Slavery,” published a few years ago.

[2] See Table, Appendix.