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8. G. HOWE.

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. BOSTON:

wBioHT'ft roTTiBK. PttnrrKBB. i asmsQ lanb.*
1864.

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114153

PRBtACB.

DuBiHO the last sammer, the United States Freedmea's Inqoiiy
Cominiafion made an inveatigation, through we of its ii|emben» of tb«
condition of the colored popolation of Canada West

This pamphlet contains the result of inquiries and obserratioBS made
during the investigaUon. At any time but this, an apology might be
necessary foi:iputiing forth, in such a hae^r and crude form, the obserra-
tions and speculations which it contwns. Bet now, when every body is
asking what shall be done with the negroes, — and many are afhdd Uiat
they cannot take care of themselves if left alone, — an iacoonnt of the
manner in which twenty thousand are taking care of themselves in
Canada, may be interesting, even if it be imperfect, and contidn
superfluous specuIationB.

It is commonly said that the Canadian refugees are ** picked men ; " that
the very fact of their escape from slavery, is proof of their superioriQr ;
and therefore, however w^ they may succeed in taking care of them-
selves, it does not prove that ordinary negroes can do the same. Ther^
is more point than force in this. In the first place, there are vast regions
of slave territory, from which escape to Canada is almost impossible.
Secondly, men may lack Uie courage and skill v^hich are necessary to
insure escape from slavery, but possess all the qualities necessary to
provide for themselves and their families.

The local attachments of the slaves are very strong. They ding far
more fondly than whites do (o the ''old place." They wjmt to be free ;
and have a strong, though vague feeling, that freedom will, some-
how, and at some time, come to them. Some are restrained fmoi
flight by moral qualities which are in themselves excellent. They
fondly love their families. They often have personal and tender attach-
ment to their masters, and more often to his children and family. Th^
have a feeling of loyalty, and shrink from the idea of betraying trust.
Others again are restramed by a feeling of religious obligation, having \
been taught Scripture in such garbled and distorted form, as to make
them believe it enjoins obedience to masters, even if obedience leads to
all manner of sin. Finally, it is the testimony of intelligent men from

.»^'.l*-.

,**■ . ■)

fiytO

the Slave States, who know the Canadian refugees, that they are fait-
representatives of the colored population, free and s;ave, of the Border
and Bliddle States.

No I the refugees in Canada earn a living, and gather propertj' ; they
marry and respect womei ; they build churches, and send their chi!]ren
to schools ; they improve in manners and morals, — not because they are
" picked men," but simply because they are free men. Each of them
may say, as millions will soon say, — " When I was a dove, I spake as a
slave, I understood as a alave, I thought as a $lave ; but when I became
a free man, I put away slavish things."

The writer desires to express his thanks for the kind and courteous
manner in which gentlemen, in various parts of Canada, endeavored to
facilitate 1^ inquiries. All were civil and kind ; but Messrs. Thouas
Hennino and McGann, of Toronto; Dr. Litchfield, of King-
ston ; Rev. HiRAU Wilson and Dr. Mack, of St. Catherines ; Rev.
Mr. Kino, of Buxton ; Mr. McCullum and Mr. Wm. H. Howard, of
Hamilton ; Dr. A. T. Jones and Mr. Thomas Webb, of London ; Mr.
J. W. Sparks, of Chatham, were very usefi^l.

But he would especially acknowledge his obligation to Mr. J. M. W.
Yerrinton, Secretary of the Commission, who accompanied him as
Reporter, and who, by uncommon intelligence and tact, assisted in gath-
ering a great deal of valuable information. This is added to the large
body of evidence concerning the condition of the colored people in
various parts of the United States, gathered by the Freedmen's Inquiry
Commission, and will be given with their final Report.

S. 6. H.

Boston, December 81, 1863.

Messrs. Robert Dale Owen and James McKAYfe,

Of the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission :

Gentlemen, — ^The undersigned respectftilly asks leave
to make through you, to the Secretary of War, the
foUowmg Report of his observations of the condition of
the colored people of Canada West.

The fact that many thousands of blacks and mulat-
toes, who have fled from slavery, or from social oppres-
sion in this country, are living in Upper Canada as free
men, » 'ith all the rights and privileges of British sub-
jectf,, is too important to be overlooked by a Commission
of Inquiry into the condition and capacity of the colored
population of the United States, just set free.

These emigrants, or rather exiles, are fair representa-
tives of oiir colored people. They are in about the
same proportion of pure Africans, half-breeds, quarter-
breeds, octoroons, and of others in whom the dark shade
grows fainter and fainter, until it lingers in the finger-
nails alone. The greater part have been slaves, or are
the children of slaves ; but many were bom free, of free
parents. They have been, during many years, in about
the same condition as that in which »ur newly-freed
people now find themselves. They have been trying the
experiment, for their race, of their capacity for sdf-
support and self-guidance, under the aegis of the law,
indeed, but amidst an unsympathizing population, just
as our freedmen are about to do.

It became very desirable, therefore, to learn the
history, condition, and prospects of the colored popula-
tion of Canada, in view of the light which might be
thrown upon the general subject which the Commission is
to investigate. But this could not be done without per-
sonal inspection and careful study. The undersigned,
therefore, with your consent, undertook this, and pro-
ceeded to Canada, in company with Mr. J. M. W.
Yerrinton, Secretary and Reporter of the Commission.

We visited all the large towns, in which the colored
population exist in considerable numbers, St. Catherines,
Hamilton, London, Toronto, Chatham, Buxton, Windsor,
Maiden, Colchee^^er^ and spent in each all the time neces-
sary to get a good idea of the people. We inspected
many small settlements and detached farms, occupied by
colored people. We saw the mayors and city officials in
most of the cities, the sheriflFs, jailers, constables, the
schoolmasters and the clergy, and took their testimony.
We also saw and conversed with a great many colored
people at their houses, shops and farms.

The testimony of all these persons was taken down
carefully, word for word, and is preserved. Some of it
will be introduced into this Report ; — more, indeed, of
that given by refugees than may at first seem called for ;
but it is to be considered that all the influences which
formerly acted upon them, and moulded their character,
have been until within a few months acting upon the
colored population, whose condition and prospects the
Commission is to study. '

The negro, like other men, naturally desires to live in
the light of truth ; but he hides in the shadow of false-

hood, more or less deeply, according as his safety or
welfare seems to require it. Other things equal, the
freer a people, the more truthful ; and only the perfectly
free and fearless are perfectly truthful.

Already the negroes in Canada show the effect of free-
dom and of fearlessness.

"I served twenty-five years in slavery," testifiet. William
Grose, " and about five I have been free. I feol now like a man,
while before I felt more as though I were but a brute. When
in the United States, if a white man spoke to mo, I would feol
frightened, whether I were in the right or wrong ; but now it is
quite a dififerent thing : if a white man speaks to me, I can
look him right in the eyes, — if he were to insult mo, I could
give him an answer. I have the rights and privileges of any
other man. I am now living with my wife and children, and
Moing very well."*

Said David West, a man of religious character : —

" I myself was treated well in slavery. I hired my time, and
paid my master two hundred dollars a year, but my mastor died,
and I heard that I was to be sold, which would separate mo from
my family, and knowing no law which would defend me, I
concluded to come away. *»»♦•«♦

" I have known slaves to bo hungry, but when thoir master
asked them if they had enough, they would, through fear, say
* Yes.' So if asked if thoy wish to be free, they will say
' No.' . I knew a case where there was a division of between
fifty and sixty slaves among hoirs, one of whom intended to set
free her part. So, wishing to consult them, sho asked of such
and such ones, if they would like to be free, and thoy all said
' No : ' — for if they had said yes, and had then fallen to the
other heirs, they would be sold, — and so they said ' No,' against
thoir own consciences. But there will be a time when all will
be judged."t

* The Refugee, or Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada, by Benjamin
Drew.

While, therefore, the testimony of negroes in Canada
must be taken with due allowance for liability to error
and disposition to exaggerate, it must not be considered
as testimony taken from the same class of persons in the
Southern States would be. There the negroes are held
to be untruthful, almost as a matter of course. In
Canada, they are not. In the South, they have motives
for lying which do not affect them in Canada ; for, in the
latter, it is evident that they hrve the most entire reliance
upon the protection which the law gives them. Complain
as they may about other matters, they all admit that ;
and it is a common remark with them, that they are not
now afraid to say things that are true, for " the law will
bear them out in it." .. •

Said Leonard Harrod: —

" A man can get more information in Canada about slavery,
than he can in the South. There I would have told you to ask
master, because I would have been afraid to trust a white man :
I would have been afraid tliat you would tell my master. Many
a time my master has told me things to try me. Among others,
he said he thought of moving up to Cincinnati, and asked me
if I did not want to go. I would tell him, ' No ! I do n't want
to go to none of your free countries ! ' Then he *d laugh, —
but I did want to come — surely I did. A colored man tells the
truth here, — there he is afraid to."*

The testimony of these refugees was given with simpli-
city and apparent honesty. It was given by persons not
connected with each other ; and mostly, by persons not
acquainted with each other. Taken as a whole, and sus-
tained by the testimpny collected from over a hundred

,; > :v ;> • Drew, p. 310.. . ,v; ..

\ <

refugees, by Mr. Drew, several years ago, it bears strong
internal evidence of truth. It is a fearful record of the
meanness, the vices and the crimes into which men are
apt to be drawn, when they are wicked enough, or weak
enough, to commit the folly and sin of holding their
fellow-men as slaves. , ' '

From the information thus gathered, from all sorts of
%ien, the undersigned endeavored to form a just opinion
of the material, moral and social condition of the colored
people of Canada West.

He endeavored, moreover, to gather the statistics of
population, of property, of crime, of mortality, and the
like. This was difficult, because the law does not recog-
nize distinction of color, and the official records do not
show it, except in the prison returns. For instance, the
roll of tax-payers does not distinguish between whites
and blacks ; but the local officers generally know every
individual, and by their assistance, which was generally
rendered very cheerfully, the exact number of colored
tax-payers^ the amount of their tax, and the comparative
amount paid by blacks and whites, in several places, were
ascertained.

With this statement of the object of the inquiry, and
of the sources of information, the undersigned proceeds
to report the result of his observations and thoughts upon
this remarkable emigration, under the following heads : —

First. The history of the emigration, its causes, its
progress, and the actual number of the emigrants.

Second, The physical condition of the emigrants, as
a£fected by climate, soil, intermarriage, and the like.

Third. Their material condition, as shown by their

property, taxes, pauperism, and the appearance oi cheir
houses and farms.

Fourth. Their mental and moral condition, as shown
by the general character they bear, the condition of their
schools, churches, societies, and their mode of life.

Fifth. General inferences, to be drawn from the expe-
rience of the colored people in Canada, as to the future
condition of thos»e in the United States, isi •> y,>'Mt . •

Liberty will be taken to enlarge upon such matters as
seem to throw any light upon the difficult problems
which must soon be solved in the United States, by
reason of the important changes in the legal and social
condition of so many of its inhabitants.

' . * ,, Section 1. — History. a-,

Canada has not been long a place of refuge for the
oppressed. The Indians, imitating our pious ancestors,
stole or bought negroes, and held them as daves. Sophia
Pooley, who was living very recently, though over ninety,
says : — *

((

I was stolen from my parents when I was seven years old,
and brought to Canada ; that was long before the American
Revolutior, There were hardly any white people in Canada
then — nothing here but Indians and wild beasts. Many a deer
I have helped catch on the lakes in a canoe: I was a woman
grown when the first governor of Canada came from England :
that was Governor Simcoe.

" My parents were slaves in New York State. My master's
sons-in-law, Daniel Cutwaters and Simon Knox, came into the
garden where my sister and I were playing among the currant
bushes, tied their handkerchiefs over our mouths, carried us to
a vessel, put us in the hold, and sailed up the river. I know

not how far nor how long — it was dark there all the time.
Then we came by land. I remember when we came to Genesee,
— there were Indian settlements there, — Onondagas, Senecas,
and Oneidas. I guess I was the first colored girl brought into
Canada. The white men sold us at Niagara to old Indian
Brant, the king. I lived with old Brant about twelve or
thirteen years, as nigh as I can toll. Brant lived part of the
time at Mohawk, part at Ancaster, part at Preston, then called
Lower Block : the Upper Block was at Snyder's Mills. While
I lived with old Brant, we caught the deer. It was at Dundas,
at the outlet. We would let the hounds loose, and when we
heard them bark, we would run for the canoe — Peggy, and
Mary, and Katy — Brant's daughters and I. Brant's sons,
Joseph and Jacob, would wait on the shore to kill the deer
when we fetched him in.

" King Brant's third wife, my mistress, was a barbarous crea-
ture. She could talk English, but she would not. She would
tell me in Indian to do things, and then hit me with any thing
that came to hand, because I did not understand her. I have a
scar on my head, from a wound she gave me with a hatchet ;
and this long scar over my eye is where she cut me with a
knife. * * » # Brant was very angry, when

he came home, at what she had done, and punished her as if
she had been a child. Said he, ' You know I adopted her as
one of the family, and now you are trying to put all the work
on Ifer.'

" I liked the Indians pretty well in their place ; some of them
were very savage, some friendly. I have seen them have the
war dance, in a ring, with only a cloth about them, and painted
up. They did not look ridiculous ; they looked savage — enough
to frighten an) body. One would take a bowl, and rub the '
edge with a knotted stick ; then they would raise their toma-
hawks and whoop. Brant had two colored men for slaves ; one
of them was the father of John Patten, who lives over yonder ;
the other called himself Simon Ganseville. There was but one
other Indian that I knew who owned a slave. I had no care to
get my freedom. , ,

" At twenty years old, I was sold by Brant to an Englishman
in Ancaster, for one hundred dollars. His name was Samuel

Hatt, aud I Uved with him seven years ; then the white people
said I was free, aud put me up to running away. He did not
stop me ; he said he could not take the law into his own hands.
Then I lived in what is now Waterloo. I married Robert
Pooley, a black man. He ran away with a white woman ; he
is dead."*

The French tolerated the " Instituticn." Thej-e je
sad monuments of the barbaujous system still standing.
At Maiden, you may see " the bloody tree " used as a
whipping-post for slaves. The English, when they
seized Canada, not only tolerated the existing system of
slavery, but expressly provided for importing negroes
from Africa and elsewhere, by an Act in the thirtieth
year of George III., " for encouraging new settlers in
his Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in North America."
By virtue of this Act, negroes were imported and held
as slaves. It is a remarkable fact, that some escaped
from their masters and fled to the United States, to enjoy
freedom there. A* case of this kind was related to us by
Mrs. Amy Martin. She says: — • ' « ^ T

•

" My father's name was James Ford. He was born in Vir-
ginia, but was sold to Kentucky, and was there taken by the
Indians. He was eighty-six years old when he died, and would
be over one hundred years old, if he were now Uving. The
Jndians brought my father to Canada — I think to Fort Maiden.
He was held here by the Indians as a slave, and sold, I think he
said, to a British officer, who was a very cruel master, and he
escaped from him, and came to Ohio. He got off in a sail-boat,
and came to Cleveland, I believe, first, and made his way from
there to Erie, where he settled. After I cam'=> over here, I
married a man who was also a fugitive, and the old folks moved
over here to be with me in their old age. When we were in
Erie, we lived a little way out of the village, and our house was

*, . •Drew, p. 102.

a place of refuge for fugitives — a station of the underground
railroad. Sometimes there would be thirteen or fourteen fugi-
tives at our place. My parents used to do a great deal towards
helping them on to Canada. They were sometimes pursued by
their masters, and often advertised; and their masters would
come right to Erie. We used to be pretty careful, and never
got into any trouble on that account, that I know of. The
fugitives would be told to come to our house."

The act of thirtieth George III. was in full and
binding force until July 9, 1793. Then the Provin-
cial Government declared as follows : " That whereas
it is unjust that a people who enjoy freedom by law
should encourage the introduction of slaves, and whereas
it is highly • ipedient to abolish slavery in this Province
so far as the same may gradually be done without violating
private property" &c., therefore the authority " to grant
license for impoi Sg any negro or negroes into this
Province is hereby repealed."

The 2d section provided that nothing in the Ant
should extend to contracts already made.

The 3d section provided that children bom of female
slaves, after the passage of the Act, should remain in the
service of the owner of the mother until twenty-five
years of age, when they should be discharged. Itfurther
provided for registration of births, and penalties for
neglecting the same.

Section 4th provided remedies against undue detention
of such persons beyond the age of twenty-five : also for
the freedom of children bom to them while under twenty-
five years of age.

^ Section 5th provided for security to be given by
masters liberating their slaves, that such persons should

not be chargeable to the public; but no part of the Act
provided for the freedom of any slave bom before July 9,
'i793; nor has any subsequent Colonial legislation
done it.

Nothing in this Act affected the status of any negro
slave bom previous to the date of it. On the contrary,
the 2d section provides that nothing in it shall disturb
existing relations. The legislation' was prospective
merely ; and there has been none subsequently. There-
fore a slave bom before July 1, 1793, would have
been legally a slave until the general abolition of slavery
in all the British colonies by act of Parliament in .1833.
Thus slavery had a legal existence in Canada many years
after it had bipen abolished in several States of the
tJnited States.

Massachusetts abolished it by her Bill of Rights in
1780; New Hampshire in 1792 ; New York in 1799;
Tiew Jersey in 1820 ; and it was virtually abolished in
the other Northern States before 1830. ,jrj„ij

But though the Canadian Parliament, with the usual
veneration of legislators for things hallowed by age,
merely scotched slavery, public opinion (and the cold)
would not let it drag out its legal life, but killed it before
the beginning of this century. » i. ...- v,

For several years, the existence of freedom in Canada
did not affect slavery in the United States. Now and
then a slave was intelligent and bold enough to cross the
vast forest between the Ohio and the Lakes, and find a
refuge beyond them. Such cases, however, were, at
first, v<}ry rare, and knowledge of them was confined to
few; but they increased, early in this century; and

the mmor gradually spread among th*e slaves of the South-
em States, that there was, far away under the north star,
a land where the flag of the Union did not float ; where
the law declared all men free and equal ; where the
people respected the law, and the government, if need
be, enforced it.

The distance was great; the path difficult and danger-
ous ; and the land, itisteacl of milk and honey, abounded
in snow and ice. It was hardly a place in which white
men could live, much less black men; who, moreover,
were told monstrous stories about it, in order to deter
them from fleeing thither.

"After we began to hear about Canada," said J. Lindsey,
" our master used to tell us all manner of stories about what a
dreadful place it was ; and we believed some of them, but some
we didn't. .When they told us that we must pay half of our
wages to the Queen, every day, it didn't seem strange nor
wrong ; but when they said it was so cold there that men going
mowing had to break the ice with their scythef, I didn't believe
that, because it was onreasonable. I knew grass wouldnH grow
where ice was all the time." " I was told before I left Virginia,"
said Dan Fackiirt, " I have heard it as common talk, that the
wild geese were so common in Canada, that thsy would scratch
a man's eyes out ; that corn wouldn't grow there, nor any thing
else but rice ; that every thing they had there was imported."

Nothing invited the negroes to this cold region, except
the still small voice of Freedom ; but some of them heard
and answered that. They braved the imaginary dangers,
overcame the real ones ; and many found that resolute and
industrious men, even if black, could live and enjoy the
rights of men in Canada.

Some, not content with personal freedom and happi-
ness, went secretly back to their old homes, and brought
away their wives and children at much peril and cost.

The rumor widened ; the fugitives so increased, that
a secret pathway, since called the underground railroad,
was soon formed, which ran by the huts of blacks in the
Slave States, and the houses of good Samaritans in the
Free States ; and they placed by its borders helps which
the wayfarer could find, even in the night. Hundreds
trod this path every year, but they did not attract much
public notice.

The slaves have always instinctively felt that the
'enemies of our country must be their friends, and that
war time was good time for them. Consequently, they
improved the opportunity of the war of 1812-14, and
escaped into Mexico and Canada. The loss of " prop-
erty " became so great in the following years, that in
1826, Mr. Clay, Secretary of State, instructed Mr. Gal-
latin, our Minister to St. James, to propose to the British
Government a stipulation for " a mutual surrender of all
persons held to * service or labor ^ under the laws of either
parttf^ who escape into the territort/ of the other''

" Our object," said the Secretary, " is to provide for
a growing evil." ,; ,( ;. .j ,

<Ai^<.

Early in 1827, he again called Mr. Gallatin's attention
to the matter, informing him that a treaty had been
negotiated with Mexico, by which she had engaged to
return our " runaway slaves."* The Minister was to press
upon the British government the importance of the stipu-
lations about mutual surrender, in view of the danger of
the escape of slaves from the West India Islands to our
shores. Thus the great Republic was not only to change

* The treaty was negotiated, but the Mexican Sunatp refused to confirm it.-
Jay\ View. '■ — ---^^-'-^-^ ■- v^'-nn-^-.rk'l'rf .F*7

its fundamental policy of being a place of refuge for all
the oppressed, but try to shut up such places elsewhere.

In July of the same year, Mr. Gallatin communicated
the manly conclusion of the British government, that
" it was utterly impossible for them to agree to a stipulation
for the surrender of fugitive slaves.'*

But the power behind the White House, which ever
directed the national policy in the interests of slavery,
persisted in its purpose.

On the tenth of May, 1828, a resolution was passed
the United States House of Representatives, without a
division of the House, " requesting the President to open a
negotiation with the British government in the view to obtain
an arrangement whereby fugitive slaves, who have taken
refuge in the Canadian Provinces of that government, rnay
be surrendered by the functionaries thereof, to their masters,
upon their making satisfactory proof of their ownership of
said slaves."

June 13, 1828, Mr.- Clay transmitted this resolution
to our new Minister, and again spoke of the evil " as a
growing one, well calculated to disturb the good neigh-
borhood which we are desirous of cultivating with the
adjacent British Provinces."

Eager to seize their prey, the slaveholders could not
brook diplomatic delay, but at the very next session
procured the passage of a resolve calling on the President
to communicate the result of the negotiation; and he
showed that he had been sv/ift to run before their wishes,
by sending in a mass of documents bearing upon the
subject.

The result of the negotiation was, as Mr. Barbour, our

new Minister, wrote October 2d, 1828, that Lord Aberdeen
insisted " that the law of Parliament gave freedom to
every slave who effected his landing upon British ground."*

Thus the Monarchy rebuked the Republic; spumed
the pi^posal of a mutual betrayal of exiles, and assured
the sanctity of the Canadian asylum to fugitive slaves.

Meantime, free colored people, mulattoec, offspring of
negroes and whites, were multiplying rapidly, and spread-
ing over the whole Union. These half-breeds, if not
equal to the whites in mental force, were not stupid, nor
lazy, but thrifty and shrewd; and they prospered in
worldly things. The'r prosperity begat the desire of
security for their freedom, which they could not have in
the South ; and for social rights, which they could not
have, either in the North or South. The barbarous legis-
.lation, in some of the so-caUed free States, bore very
hardly upon these people. Therefore, they too began to
look to Canada as a place of refuge.f This gave another
impetus to the emigration.

Meantime, the steady progress of the slave power
toward complete domination of the whole land culminated
in the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill. This opened
all the United States to slave hunters, and put in peril the
liberty of every one who had even the faintest tinge
of negro blood. Of course it gave great increase to the
emigration, and free-bom blacks fled with the slaves from

• State Papers 1827-8, Vol. 1, Doc. 19.

f " Owing, among other causes, to the extremes of climate in the more
northern States, and in other States to expulsive enactments of the Legisla-
tures, the free colored show a decrease of numbers during tlie past ten years
according to the census, in the following ten wtaies." — U. S. CeruuSf Prelim.
iJ«p., '60, p. 6. ..,.;.. .^r, .,..

a land in which their birthright of freedom was no longer
secure.*

Such is a brief outline of the general causey and his-
tory of the remarkable exodus of colored people from
the United States.

It is impossible to ascertain the number of exiles who
have found refuge in Canada since 1800 ; but according
to the most careful estimates, it must be between thirty
and forty thousand.

It is difficult, moreover, to ascertain the present num-
ber. The census of 1850 is confused. It puts the
number in Upper Canada at 2,502 males, and 2,167
females.t But in a note it is stated, " there are about
8,000 colored persons in Western Canada.X This word
about is an admission of the uncertainty ; and, as if to
make that uncertainty greater, the same census in another
part puts the number in Western Canada at 4,669.§

The abstract of the census of 1860 makes the
colored population to be only 11,223. Doubtless, in
some districts, the distinction between colored and
whites was not made. At any rate, the number is
greatly under-stated, because in several cities, the
records show that there must be a greater num-
ber than is given in the census. For instance, in St.

. . . *" New York has increased from 3,097,394 to 8,880,735, exhibiting
an augmentation of 783,311 inhabitants, being at the rate of 25.20 per cent.
The free colored population has fallen off 61 since 1850, a diminution to be
accounted for probably by the operation of the fugitive slave law, which
induced many colored persons to migrate Jurther North," — U. S. Census, '60,
Prelim. Rep., p. 4. •

t See Qjensus Report of the Canadas, 1850, Vol. 1., p. 817.

tibid., Vol. 1., p. 37. : ' > A^ -

§ Ibid., Vol. 2., p. 8. J^ - - • - ^— - ^ -- ' .

III'

■! ^
hi i

Catherines, C. P. Camp, Town Clerk, said to us : — " The
Government Census is all wrong (about our place). They
made the population 6,284 by last Census ; but we took the
Census a year ago and made it 7,007." •

Indeed, the town records show that thpre are 112
colored tax payers! In the Government School, the
attendance of colored children in winter is from 130
to 140. About forty were attending one private school.
The inference from these data would be that the colored
population is, as was represented to us by Elder Perry
and others, about 700. The Census makes it only 472 !

In Hamilton are three colored churches, two of which
we attended. The colored population is probably over
500, but the Census makes it only 62 !

In Toronto, Mr. George A. Barber, Secretary of the
Board of School Trustees, furnished us a certified copy
of the number of colored residents, amounting to 934,
but the Census makes it only 510.

The Mayor of London, C. W., estimated the number
of families among the colored people at 75, but the
Census makes the whole colored population only 36 !

There has been no movement of the colored population
iBufficient to explain such discrepancies, and the conclusion
is that the Census of 1850, and that of 1860, included
some of the colored people in the white column.

The report of the Anti-Slavery Society of Toronto, in
1852, estimated the colored population of Canada West
at 30,000. •

Intelligent people, acquainted with the matter, e^imate
the present populatipn at from 20,000 to 30,000. Our

own calculation is, that it does not fall short of 15,000,
nor exceed 20,000 .•

However imperfect these latter estimates may be, it is
evident, from the number known to have entered Canada,
that the births have never equalled the deaths, and
therefore, there has been no natural increase, but on the
contrary, a natural loss ; and that without constant immi-
gration, the . colored population must diminish and soon
disappear.

Section 2. — Physical Condition^ 8fc.

Most of the colored people of Cana4^ were bom in
the United States. In order, therefore, to understand
their physical character, we should look to the stock
whence they sprang, and to the changes wrought upon
it by a colder climate and new mode of life.

The proportion of pure Africans among the colored
people of the United States is very small indeed. Even
upon the Southern plantations they are rare. Those
imported from Africa are soon affected in their appear*
ance, especially in that of the skin, by the climate
and by slave life ; and their direct descendants, owing
to mixture of individuals from different tribes, rapidly
lose their tribal peculiarities. But their direct descend-
ants are comparatively few ; the mulattoes, offspring of
the cross between negroes and whites, are more numer-
ous, and they, of course, depart more widely frciii? the
original type.
* During the early period of our history, Africans,
mainly Congoes, were landed all along the Atlantic

i _. * See Appendix, Note 1. ^ ..v. k

tK-

III,

coast. The importation into the Northern Colonies was
never large ; it soon grew less, and ceased entirely before
the close of the last century ; while the importation into
the Southern regions, always larger, was kept up longer ;
and some have been smuggled in within a very few
years.

The crossing with the Vhite race immediately began
every where, and although it did not last long in the
North, it has been kept up vigorously in the South to the
present time.

From this crossing of races came that mulattoism,
which, unfortunately, is so wide spread among the whole
population of the United States, and whiph impairs the
purity of the national blood, taken as a whole.

Now, the fcondition of the Canadian emigrants, who
are mostly mulattoes, goes to confirm what besides is a
natural inference, that if this evil had not been fostered
by social influences, it would have been checked, and in
time, cured. ' - ^ "

This certainly could have been done, because the mulat-
toes of the United States are not a race, but a breed ; and
breeds are produced, modified, and may be made to
disappear, by social agencies. Proofs of the potency of
these agencies abound. The careful observer will find
them in the demand and supply, and in the geographical
distribution of the pro,duction8 of the breeding States.
Different kinds of colored men are demanded, and the
supply meets the demand. Slender, light-built quad-
roons, or octoroons, are wanted for domestic purposes ;
dark and heavier men for the field. Black women are
wanted for their strength and fruitfulness ; yellow ones

/ /"

for their beauty and comparative barrenness. If they are
not wanted where they are raised, they are taken to the
proper market. Henry Clay did not like to testify against
"the institution," yet he said, in a speech before the
Kentucky Colonization Society, in 1829 : " It is believed
that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States
would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietors
were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the
southern markets, which keeps it up in their own."
The consciousness of any purpose in all this may be indig-
nantly repelled ; bat the commercial laws net ; and there
are those who study them, and trade upon them, as
much as the breeders of cattle do. The proofs of this
are abundant. ,

^ Thus commercial interests disturb, to a certain extent,
the natural laws ; for there is in the social system, as
in the individual body, a recuperative principle which
tends to bring men back to the normal condition of their
race. No purely natural causes could have multiplied
and perpetuated such a breed in such a climate as ours.
On the contrary, there is reason to think that the
offspring of the cross between the small number of pure
Africans formerly slaves in the Northern States and the
whites would have dwindled, and by this time nearly
disappeared, by reason of the effect of climate, of further
crossing between half-breeds, and their comparative in-
fecundity, but for continual accessions from the South.
There, in a more favorable climate, a fruitfulness greater
than follows intercourse between mulattoes was and is
kept up, by constant crossing with the white race.

From this central source in the South, then, comes the

'Mi

'llill!"il

flood of adulterated blood, which spreads, whitening a
little as it flowSi but which reaches the Nordi, and
helps to retain there the taint which was fast vanishing.

Statistics carefully kept in some Northern cities, where
mulattoes intermarry among themselves, and where
crossing with whites is not common, show that births
among colored people are less numerous than the
deaths ! But in the South, the affinities of race, the
partial iafecundity of hybrids, and other natural causes
which tend to purify the national blood, are counteracted
by social causes, among which is the market value of
the offspring; in other words, the premiimi set upon
hybrids.

At .the beginning of this century, the total number
of colored people in the United States was 1,002,798, of
whom 109,194 were free; and in 1860, it reached
4,435,709, of whom 482,122 were free.

They have spread over most of the coimtry, the density
of their population, and the darkness of their com-
plexions, diminishing northward. ffw mm''

From this population came the colored people of
Canada, who are mainly of two classes, slaves who
escaped from bondage or freed men who fled from social
oppression in the Slave States, and free men who were
driven by social oppression, and iniquitous legislation,
from the Free States. * > . „. .... i ^4. ^ ...

Taken as a whole, they resemble in physical aspect
the colored people of the Middle States rather than
those of the extreme Southern, or the extreme North-
em States. They present about the same proportion
of blacks and mulattoes, shading off to white. ,-»»'*,^ >

They are slightly built, narrow-chested, light-limbed,
and do not abound in thews and sinews. They are
mostly of lymphatic temperament, and show strong
marks of scrofulous or strumous disposition. This is
(Uscemable in the pulpy appearance of certain parts
of the face and neck ; in the spongy gums, and glister-
ing teeth.

They are peculiarly disposed to the sort of diseases to
which persons of this temperament are most liable ; and
the climate makes the development of such diseases
more certain. The children are subject to mesenteric
and other glandular diseases. The young are liable
to softening of tubercles ; and there is a general preva^
lence of phthisical diseases.

The most reliable medical opinions are that these
people are unfavorably affected by the climate.

If, indeed, one should consider only the opinion and
testimony of the people themselves, he would conclude
that they bear the climate, very well, and are as healthy
and as prolific as the whites. But the opinion of the
comiion inhabitants of any place respecting its salubrity
is often not worth much. They who give it, find them-
selves iilive and well; they see a few old men and
women about, and expect to grow old like them ; their
neighbors are alive and well ; the sick are out of sight,
and the dead out of mind.

> If we seek the focus of any plague or epidemic, com-
mon people are apt to tell us that it is not in their
precise locaUty ; it is " over yonder " in some other
place ; or if there be a few victims in their town,
they must be strangers and unacclimated persons ; or, at

't::' I

ili-l'

lllilll I

I i I

lln,;j|

Mi:

Ihiii

worst, those who had pecuhar dispositions to that par-
ticular disease, of which disposition they themselves do
not partake.

So the colored people of Canada say the climate suits
them ; that they are very well ; that they hear as many
children as whites do, and rear them as weU. But
the opinion of the most intelligent white persons is

« Many intelligent physicians who have practised among
both classes, say that the colored people are feebly organ-
ized ; that the scrofulous temperament prevails among
them ; that the climate tends to development of tuber-
culous diseases ; that they dre unprolific and short-lived.
From an abundance of such testimony, the following,
given by two eminent physicians, one in the West, the
other in the eaatern part of Upper Canada, is selected
as among the most rehable. Dr. Fisher, physician at
the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, says: — , , ^ .

*' I think the colored people stand the climate very badly.
In a very short time lung disease is developed, and they go by
phthisis. The majority do not pass forty years. Of cpurse,
there are exceptions. Tliey die off fast. T suppose I have had
thirty colored people here with little children, with scrofu-
lous disease, extending as far as ulceration of the temporal
bone. Then they are a good deal subject to rheumatism.
They bear a great many children, but raise only about one-half
of them, I think. The children are generally weakly and
puny ; not so strong as our white children. A great many of
them die in childhood. The principal disease is tubercular
deposition of the stomach and intestines."

Dr. T. Mack, of St. Catherines, says: — " >

*' It strikes me that the mixed races are the most unhealthy,
and the pure blacks the least so. The disease they suffer

most from is pulmonary — more than general tubercular;
and where there is not real tubercular affection of the lungs,
there are bronchitis and. pulmonary affections. I have the idea
that they die out when mixed, and that this clim-ite will com- •
pletely efface them. I think the pure blacks will live. I have
come to this conclusion, not from any statistics, but from per-
sonal observation. I know A, B, and 0, who are mulattooii,
and they are unhealthy ; and I know pure blacks, who do not
suffer from disease, and recover from the smallpox, and ski a
diseases, and, yellow fever, which are very fatal to mulattoes.
I think there is a great deal of strumous diathesis developed in
the mixed race, produced by change of climate."

The vital statistics of the colored people in Canada
have not been kept with sufficient accuracy by the
official authorities to warrant any conclusions ; but they
have beer kept in some parts of the Northern States
where the climatic influences are at least as unfavorable
as those of Canada.

Take, for instance, the following extract from the
report of the Registrar of the City of Boston : —

" The following table will present, in an interesting form, the
number of births, marriages and deaths among the colored
population in each of the last eight years : a,- , , .. fVi^

ix' m'TV'i'

• oitit/i? .,>:M'oy.i'.;',i'nit

TEAB.

BIrtba.

Marriages.

Deaths.

1855, .

1856, .

1857, .

1858, .

1859, .

1860, .

1861, .

1862, .

Totals,

29
50
34
21
46
29
47
45

304

35
46
34
32
37
53
41
38

316

63
71
73
60
58
68
60
47

500

|l|l|r.i.l

** It will be noticed, that in each of the years named, the
colored deaths exceeded the births ; and that in 1855, 1858 and
1860, the latter were even less than the marriages ! During
the whole period, the deaths exceeded the births by nearly two
hundred, and the marriages by twelve. Estimating the white
population at 180,000, the proportion of births to the whole
number is as one to 84.^0 ;' while the ratio of colored births is
as one to 49, in a population of 2,200. It is not the less inter-
esting to observe, that while this difference in the natural
growth of the two races is so strikingly in favor of the white,
the marriages among the colored race were in the ratio of one
to 58 of the population, while among the former they were
only as on,e to 87.54 !

'* Thus it is shown, that in each of the aspects in which this
subject may be viewed, the colored race seems, so far as this
city is concerned, to be doomed to extinction."

J. R. Bartlett, Secretary of State for Rhode Island,
commenting on the State Registration Reports, says : —

"These Reports illustrate the peculiarities of the colored
race, as it exists in this State. Rhode Island has had a higher
proportion of colored persons than any other New England
State. This proportion is lessening from year to year, in spite
of a slight and concealed current of immigration from Southern
States. The mortality of the colored is about twice as great, in
proportion, as that among the white. In a period of nearly five*
years, the deaths of colored persons have been fifty-seven
more than the births of colored children."*

The Seventh Registration Report says : " The colored
race would at no distant day become extinct in Rhode
Island, if it were not maintained by immigration."f

Col. (now General) Tullock, and Staff Surgeon Balfour,

* 5th Registration Report, State of Rhode Island, pp. 47, 48.
1 7tb Report, p. 64.^

of the British Army, published four volumes of military
statistics, between 1848 and 1851, which are admitted to
be very valuable.

The first, iu a MS. letter dated November 25, 1863,
says : —

"It was shown by reference to the mortality among the slave
population in Jamaica and the West Indies, for a series of years,
that when not recruited by fresh importations, that race would
probably become extinct in little more than a century ; an
anticipation which is now, I believe, iu the course of being
realized, except on the Island of Barbadoes.

" The annual mortality of the negroes averaged, at that time,
about three per cent, among the male population of all ages in
these colonies ; it was still higher in the Mauritius, as also in the
French settlements of Bourbon, Martinique, Guyana, and Sene-
gal. You are aware that with so high a mortality among
persons of all ages, it was impossible for any race materially to
increase, or even to keep up its numbers, especially as a further
extension of the inquiry showed that this loss fell chiefly on
the adult population ; children under ten years of age being
iisually as healthy as those of English parentage in this country.
In illustration of the loss among these adults, even under the
most favorable circumstances, I pointed out that in the West
India Regiments and Black Pioneers^ men between the ages of
twenty and forty-five, the loss was usually four per cent, in the
Wast Indies, three per cent, in Jamaica, and that even on the
west coast o" Africa, the latter rate prevailed, while in the
Mauritius, among a similar class, it rose to nearly four per cent.,
and still higher in Ceylon and Gibralter, where negro troops were
for a short time employed.

" This high mortality among the negro race was found chiefly
to arise from their e^reme susceptibility to diseases of the lungs ;
indeed, it will be seen, by the returns of total diseases annexed
to the volumes jusri'y^(^ed to, that as many died from them
alone, as from aiiibtbitr diseiases ; so far as my experience goes,
no race has ever ^^wn^^^9,^^pt^bility for a variety of climates.
In the Southern States of America alone does there appear a
fair prospect of theii* bduig able to increase and keep up their

llll«ii:

IWlLi

numbers, probably in consequence of the climate being favorable
to those diseases by which they are elsewhere most affected.

" With regard to the mulatto race, I have few facts to offer,
because, as a general rule, they are seldom employed in our
army ; chiefly owing to the want of that physical stamina which
renders the pure negro better fitted for the duties of a soldier
or a laborer. So far as I am aware, our colonies possess no
separate records of the mortality to which mulattoes are sub-
ject, but in some of the French Colonies before referred to,
where the distinction has been kept up, the death rate appears
to be a medium between that of the negro and the naturalized
white settler. If a fair comparison could be drawn from the
rate among the Eurasian or half castes in India, it would be
decidedly unfavorable to the longevity of the mixed race, as it
is very rarely that any are found to arrive at a third generation."

.-.■■■■■ " , ■ •■ ' ■ • ' \-.t-

Dr. Andrew Fisher, of Maiden, Canada, says : —

" I should say that mulattoes don't have children enough to
keep up the breed itrithout assistance from emigration, from the
fact that more of the diseases I have been mentioning, [phthy-
sis, scrofula and rheumatism,] are developed among mulattoes
than among pure blacks.'* - - ,- ^ ^ ^s

Such statistics and such opinions confirm the conclu-
sion, drawn from other sources, that without the contin-
uance of mulatto breeding in the South, and fresh
accessions of population from that quarter, mulattoes
would soon diminish in Canada; and, moreover, that
mulattoism would fade out from the blood of the
Northern States. - ; -^ .^ ; ,

Upon the whole, then, the colored population of
Canada, considered solely in a physical light, is a poor
one. They are of a breed which is neither vigorous nor
prolific; and though in its present phase it seems to
evolve considerable vivacity of temperament and activity

of intellect, its tendency is rather to deteriorate than
improve.

The offspring of the cross show less ferocity than their
progenitors, certainly than their white ones ; hut this is
perhaps from dimimshed intensity and virility of their
whole nature. The animal organism is less in^tense in its
action. The mulatto, considered in his animal nature,
lacks the innervation and spring of the pure blacks and
whites; or, is less "high strung." The organic infe-
riority is shown in less power of resisting destructive
agencies ; in less fecundity, ancHess longevity.

Now, that this is not solely the result of unfavorable
climatic influences in Canada and New England, is shown
by the vital statistics of Liberia. There is the native
country of the negro. There, if any where, he should
flourish. That Colony is made up of precisely the same
class of emiji^rant-freed negroes, mostly from the border
States, and mostly mulattoes. The first emigrants were
sent there forty years ago; and up to January, 1858,
eleven thousand one hundred and seventy-two had been
landed. A very few have returned; and yot, with all the
fostering care of the Societies, and with all the aid and
appliances that kindness and money could afford, " the
colonists, with all their natural increase, numbered only
7,621 in 1858!"* A loss by excess of deaths over
births of 33 per cent ! The Haytian emigration has been
equally disastrous.

The unfavorable peculiarities of the cross breed are

it.

* " Liberia As I Saw It," by Rev. A. M. Cowan, Agent Kentucky Colo-
nization Society, p. 166. ' "

\.--

I « "I

i!;i'v

28 .

perhaps increased in the Canadian emigrants by inter-
marriage within too small a circle.

If slavery is utterly abolished in the United States, no
more colored people will emigrate to Canada ; and most
of those now there will soon leave it. There can be no
doubt about this. Among hundreds who spoke about
it,, only one dissented from the strong expression of desire
to " go home." In their belief, too, they agreed with
Rev. Mr. Kinnard, one of their clergy, who said to us,
" if freedom is establislj^d in the United States, there
will be one great black streak, reaching from here to
the uttermost parts of the South."

Or, if slavery is only so maimed and crippled that it
can no longer affect the freedom of the dwellers in the
Northern States, there will be no further emigration to
Canada. Refugees from slavery will not cross the lakes,
but remain in the Free States. Those now in Canada will
disappear by a slower process ; for, as Was just said,
when the fecundity of mulattoes is not increased by
occasional return to one of the original types, it rapidly
lessens, at least on this continent above the thirty-fifth
parallel of north latitude. • -

But, if slavery is neither abolished in the South, nor
prevented from encroaching upon personal freedom and
security in the North, then the colored population of
Canada, like thut of the Northern and Western States,
will go on increasing, as it has done, not by its own inhe-
rent fertility, but by immigration from the border and
Southern States, where intercourse between the purer
types of each race is frequent, and where increase is
encouraged by the marketable value of the offspring.

ti I ' , .

In connection with the physical condition of the exiles,
it may be as well to consider here the subject of

:'^.

;v i

u> iVUi^ltM^'a '»

Amalgamation of Races.

I rt/l

r'l »*i tl

It is feared by some that emancipation, by breaking
down certain barriers betwepn the white and black races,
may greatly increase their amalgamation. The Canadian
experiment may throw some light upon this matter.

During many years, the refugees were mostly men ;
and to this day, the males are most numerous, because
women cannot so easily escape. Now, the consequence
of any departure from the natural numerical proportion
between the sexes must of course be bad; and the
wider the departure, the greater the evil becomes, until
it culminates in the morbid tastes and monstrous abomi-
nations engendered in communities made up of one sex
only. Natural tastes and dispositions, imduly thwarted,
are perverted into morbid and monstrous passions. If
uncultured black men cannot find black mates, they will
find white ones, and the contrary.

It appears that formerly, that is, in the early period
of the emigration, marriages, or open cohabitation, be-
tween black men and white women, were not uncommon.
The marriages were mostly with Irish, or other foreign
women The instances of white men openly cohabiting
with black women were very rare ; and marriages of
this kind were too uncommon to need notice.

Dr. Litchfield, medical superintendent " of criminal
lunatics, says: — •

" It is not uncommon here for a colored tradesman to marry
a white woman. Tlie stipendiary magistrate of Kingston

*•

:ltui

[ 1

iil'Hii!

enumerated some ten or twelve colored men in this locality who
had married white women. These women were generally Irish
women, from the class of domestics."

It is to be remarked that Kingstun is far removed from
the region most populated by colored people ; and that
probably the first colored emigrants were chiefly men.

Within twenty or thirty years, many men have con-
trived .to redeem by money, or by pluck and enterprise,
their former wives or sweethearts. Slave women, too,
heard about Canada, and learned the way. Other colored
women came in from the Northern and Western States,
so that the numerical disparity betrreen the sexes soon
began to lessen, and continues to do so. This of course
tended to check amalgamation with whites.

Meanwhile, another corrective, and that the most im-
portant of all, began to be felt. As soon as the dis-
turbing forces of slavery and social oppression ceased
to act, the negroes, true to human instincts, began to
be drr -n together by more natural affinities than existed
between them and another race. They grouped them-
selves into families, and sanctified them by marriage.

Bishop Green, a colored man of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, says: — *

" There is not much intermarriage between the colors. But
our people have too much good sense to think a white woman is
degraded because she marries a black man. A respectable col-
ored man and a respectable white woman are looked upon 'as a
respectable family. The people don't say any thing agsiast
such marriages. If the man is an upright man, and the woman
an upright woman, they treat them as if they were both colored ;

they have sociability among them. Here is Mrs. — •, the

wife of a colored grocery-keeper, who is held in as much

respect among the first colored women as any black woman In

town. Here is Mrs. . Her husband is a house-plasterer,

and she is as much respected as any white woman. I don't
know that tliore are more such cases now than formerly. 7%e
most of them marry in the Slatet, and move here. The
immediate community here have their associations with their
own people, and you do not see any of our retpectable people
here marryinff any persons but their own associates. The
young men of our community are of opinion that they can find
as good wives among their own class as can be found any where,
and you can't find any of them offering to marry a white
woman. They have their own associates, I assure you, and
they cannot be influenced to do otherwise. These intermar-
riages are exceptional cases. Most all of them are from the
States." ,....>.

:rv.

i:> ■: *J.T7. -M

Other colored men take a, less liberal view of the

''4

■ma

matter than does the kind-nearted Bishop. Says John
Kinney, a very intelligent man,—

But
man is
e col-
I'as a
gsiiast
proman
ored ;
, the
much

" The majority of the colored people don't like the intermar-
riage of colored and white people. I want to have a woman I
am not ashamed to go into the street or into company with, and
that people won't make remarks about. It don't amount to
any thing, I know, but it hurts a man's feelings."

Col. Stephenson, who has had much acquaintance with
colored people, and who employs many of them, says : —

" They do n't marry much with whites ; it is looked upon
with such dreadful contempt by all classes— even by the negroee
themselves. The respectable colored people do n't like' to
have one of their color marry a white woman."

Mayor Cross, of Chatham, says : — , -, » < ,

" They do not intermarry much with the whites, and it is
only the most abandoned whites who marry them. It is a
very good trait in the character of the people, that they do not

regard it as any honor to marry a white person. A very laugh-
able incident occurred here the otlier day. A colored man ran
away witli a white girl, and another colored man, speaking of
the affair, said : * I always looked upon him as a respectable
man. I did n't think he would fall so low as to marry a white
girl.':'

Dr. Fisher, in whose neighborhood is a very large
colored population, says: — ,

'lit

■i%:))^^'

"Those who are here generally marry among themselves,
and keep aloof. I have been here four years, and I have never
heard of a white person getting married to a colored one."

Mr. Sinclair, teacher of the public school of Chatham,
says:— " - \^ '-n

♦■
" So it is with a white woman who marries a negro. The

whites will have nothing to say to her, and her society is entirely

with the blacks. Such marriages occur once in a while, but

not so frequently as they did a number of years ago. There

was considerable stir and fuss made about it, and the greater

part of the colored people, and their leading men, are opposed

to it themselves." > .'•.:: -

Thus the desire to imitate the higher ci/Jization
around them, seconded by the influence of the church,
has brought the colored people rapidly up, and out of
their loose and incontinent habits. The refugees,^ when
living among those of their own color, and able to earn
a livelihood, follow the attraction of natural affinities,
eschew marriage with whites, and build up families
among themselves. White men will not marry Mack
women ; and notwithstanding the fearful social pressure
which often forces white women to venture upon any
forlorn hope in marriage, few venture upon the most

♦ t

large

tiifi

forlorn hope of all, in the present Htate of society — union
with u bluck man.

Upon the whole, then, the experience of the Canadian
refugees goes to show that there need be no anxiety
upon the score of amalgamation of races in the United
States. With freedom, and protection of their legal
rights ; with an open field for industry, and opportuni-
ties for mental and moral culture, colored people will
not seek relationship with whites, but will follow
their natural affinities, and marry among themselves.
With the additional advantage which they will, or surely
ought to have, of choosing the soil and climate most
congenial to then* nature, they will give no trouble upon
this score, at least in the Northern, Western or Middle
States. Drawn by natural attractions to warmer regions,
they will co-operate powerfully with the whites from the
North in re-organizing the industry of the Soath ; but
they will dwindle and gradually disappear from the
peoples of this continent, outstripped by more vigorous
competitors in the struggle for life. But, surely, history
will record their blameless life as a people ; their patient
endurance of suffering and of wrong ; and their sublime
return of good for evil to the race of their oppressors.

Section 3. — Material Condition — Property/, Taxes, 8fc.

Has the negro the ability and the will, to work and
support himself, in a state of freedom ^

Many anxious souls are now pondering this question,
just as if it had not been solved, over and over again.

In the South, especially in the Border States, thousands
of slaveholders show their faith by their actions; for

L'l

fer-.«

'■ 4|il

f: ' .1

they leave the negro to lead and direct the field hands, to
manage their small farms, and to run their mills ; they
send him to neighboring markets to sell garden stuff, and
to more distant markets with droves of hogs and cattle ;
and they even confide to him small craft, with their
cargoes, on rivers and lakes. But especially does that
large class believe, who hire him out to himself, by the
month or year, and ask not and care not what he does,
so that he pays them punctually for the use of his own
brain and muscles.

Again, theie are about a half million* free colored
people in the United States, who not only support them-
selves, with less aid from public charity than our foreign
population receive, but contribute to the material pros-
perity of the country. Of these, there are 225,955 in' the
Slave States, and 262,015 in the Free States. The former,
notwithstanding they are unenfranchised, and labor under
various political and legal disabilities, support themselves
and contribute to the general weal.

In Maryland, for instance, according to the Preliminary
Beport of the U. S. Census, 1860, "This class, constitut-
ing as it does, 12 1-4 per cent, of the whole population,
forms an important element in the free labor of the State, "f

In Kentucky, they support themselves, build churches,
live in neat and comfortable houses, pay taxes, and are
respectable and useful inhabitants.

In Louisiana, and in other States, many of them are
wealthy. Those in the Free States, in spite of blind and

*48'i, 970— Abstract U. S. Census, 1860, p. 3.
t Aljstract U. S. Census, 1860, p. 6. ,

are
and

bitter prejudice, are thriving ; as the abundant testimony
gathered by your Commission, will prove.

Still, many people are made to believe that the 'negro
is too lazy to work, except under compulsion. To such,
the Canadian experiment may furnish another line and
precept.

Let it be borne in mind, however, that the refugees
find no other advantage in Canada except freedom and
protection by the laws. In all other respects, they labor
under very great disadvantages. Chiefest is that of

Climate.
This is even a greater obstacle than appears at first, for
it is a feeble breed, and not a vigorous race, which has to
resist its rigors. Forced to flee their own country, they
were thwarted at the very outset, in a very important mat-
ter ; because considerations about warmth are always lead-
ing ones in the choice of new dwelling-places. Men in-
stinctively seek the temperature best suited to their organi-
zation. Long residence even, in a country the tempera-
ture of which is not congenial to a race, does not change
their disposition ; and if they make a voluntary emigra-
tion, its track will be along the isothermal line native to
their fathers. As a geologist who finds a fragment of
an eaily stratum above a later one, infers that it must
have been rent from its connection by some convulsion,
so the sociologist who finds people of African descent^
living in an arctic region, infers that it must have been
driven, not drawn, thither. If free to choose their own
dwelling-places, the negroes would be surely drawn by
thermal laws, from the Northern and Western States, and

i.-' ■■■(

WmH '

towards the tropics. But slavery reverses even physical
laws, and drives men who would fain live where the
lizard -can bask all the year round, to a region in which
the fox and deer can hardly resist the bitter cold.

It is true that the refugees are not generally conscious
of the great disadvantage of the climate. Indeed, to hear
them talk, one would suppose they were " to the arctic
born." They have a bravado way about it, and say, " We
can stand the climate just as well as white men," —
unconscious of the import of the words " stand a climate ! "
that is, contend with it as with an enemy ; fight against
it; keep up a life-long struggle with it, and expend
their energy in retaining the warmth of which it is con-
tinually robbing them.

Now and then one, of happy organization, like the
jovial watchmaker. Sparks, at Chatham, seems to thrive
on cold. " I like it, first rate," said he ; "I weighed only
179 pounds when I came here, and now I weigh 241."
And his shadow is not becoming less.

All the facts, however, are against the theory of their
becoming acclimated ; and some of the most thoughtful
ones among them are aware of it. The following are
selected from the testimony ; and they are the words of
men whose natural ability and acquired knowledge would
make them remarkable in the industrial ranks of any
community.

Alfred Butler, of Toronto, says : —

'■1- i,

Rl'Sili'i

" Our people find the climate here pretty tough for the first
winters, but we get used to it after a while. Of course, it does
not agree with us so well as a warmer climate would. I don't
think it quite so easy to raise children here as down Scut . , I

)uld
I any

irst
loes
)n't

think the climate preys more upon the constitution than the
Southern climate does. I have become pretty well acclimated
here, and I can endure as much oold as most people raised
here ; and yet I think the weather preys upon a person's
constitution more, and a man gives way."

F. G. Simpson, of the same place, says : —

" I think, as a whole, the climate is rather too hard for the
generality of the colored people — more especially those from
the far South — though they stand it pretty well. But I notice
that many of them die of decline or consumption here." * *
" This climate is very changeable. I have seen it change
twenty degrees in a few hours. Those not prepai'ed with
clothing suffer from these sudden changes. I doubt if our
people are so fertile here as at the South. I think a warm
country, for any race of people, tends to make them more
prolific than a cold climate. I may be mistaken, but I don't
think the colored people are so prolific here as they are in the
States. Judging from appearances, there are not so many
children here."

Says Dr. A. T. Jones, of London : —

" I do not believe the climate is altogether congenial with
the health of the colored people. I do not think tlie colored
community would flourish as much here as down in Kentucky
or Maryland."

But a still greater disadvantage is that of

The Prejudice of the Whites against Negroes.
Peoples have their way of gossiping, just as indi-
viduals have; and a favorite one is that of criticising
their neighbors, and talking national scandal. The
American people are charged with prejudice against the
negroes ; and our English cousins especially denounce it
as a proof of our innate depravity ; while the more
philosophic French smile at it as merely a proof of our
being " behinded ; " that is. less liberal than the " grand
nation."

l!l 11

'ti>\

^- ill:

i' ■ li

The affinity between all members of the human
family which fits them for sympathy and affection is of
course greater between proximate races than between
remote ones. If a lone Caucasian in a desert should
meet a Carib, (who did not happen to be hungry or
angry,) they would probably be drawn together as brother
men. If an African should come along, the Caucasian
would prefer him by reason of closer affinity of race,
and the Carib might complain of this as prejudice.
A Mongol might wean the Caucasian from the African ;
but one of his own race would have still better chance for
his sympathy. Even among the varieties o^ race, there
are different degrees of natural affinity ; and an Anglo-
Saxon is drawn to a Teuton more readily than to a Celt.
Now, this law of affinity is strong enough in a stale of
freedom to preserve the hdrmony of uature, and keep all
men in their places : and if we add culture, all women
too. The essentials, however, are freedom and culture ;
for without these the natural affinities will not prevent
men warring upon each other, at small provocations;
though never as they war upon wolves and other brutes.
But because a man's sympathies with those of his own
race are so strong that he cannot think of marrying into
another race, and cannot think with pleasure of his
child doing so, must this be charged as guilty preju-
dice] Does preference imply prejudice, any more than
love implies hate ? However, let the rationale of preju-
dice against the negroes be what it may, it surely does
not become the English to reproach the Americans, as a
people, with the sin of it ; for they themselves have quite
as much of it ; and their people show it whenever the

reju-
than
reju-
Idoes

las a
luite
the

negroes come among them in sufficient numbers to
compete for the means of living, and for civil rights.
Whenever circumstances call it forth among the coarse
and brutal, they manifest it just as brutally as Ameri-
cans do. They have done so in Canada; and would
doubtless do so in England.

If the French people are, as they boast to be, above this
prejudice, (which is improbable,) it must be because they
have greater moral culture, (which is more improbable;)
or else that the Celtic element in their blood has closer
affinity with the African than ours has.

The English Canadians try to persuade themselves
that when this malady of prejudice does occasionally
appear among thera, they do not have it in the natural
way, but catch it from the Americans; and that it breaks
out in its worst form in towns where Americans most
abound.

The Rev. Mr. Proudfoot, of London, is a friend of the

colored people, and has shown his friendship by manly

opposition to the popular cry for expelling their children

from the public schools and putting them in separate

'schools. He said to us: —

"The prejudice against colored people is growing here.
But it is not a British feeling ; it does not spring from our peo-
ple, but from pour people coming over here. There are many
Americans here, and great deference is paid to their feelings.
* * * We have a great deal of Northern feeling here. The
sympathy for the North is much greater than you would
imagine. In fact, I have been very much vexed at it."

This opinion is hugged by very intelligent English
people ; and even such an enlightened man as Dr. Ryer-
son, Superintendent of Public Instruction, holds on to it.
Said he to us : —

i: : .

i' :f

" Tho American feeling still exists in this country in regard
to people of color, especially among the country people. I do
not consider it a natural feeling, becauise it is not an English
feeling." r-

The colored people, however, say, that this theory of
contagion is not sustained by faces ; and the bulk of the
evidence shows that they are right.

The truth of the matter seems to be that, as long as
the colored people form a very small proportion of the
population, and are dependent, they receive protection
and favors ; but when they increase, and compete with
the laboring class for a living, and especially when they
begin to aspire to social equality, they cease to be " in-
teresting negroes," and become " niggers."

The words of Mr. Meigs, of Maiden, expressed the
truth ; but the contemptuous tone in which he uttered
the last sentence, gave it additional force. Said he : —

"I have been here for twenty-three years. The feeling
against the colored people has been growing ever since I came
here, and more particularly since your President's Proclama-
tion. They are becoming now so very haughty that they are
looking upon themselves as the equals of the whites ! "

This prejudice exists so generally in Canada, that trav-
ellers usually form an unpleasant and unjust opinion of
the colored refugees, because it is usually strong and
bitter in that class of persons with whom travellers come
most in contact. For instance, the head-clerk in the

hotel at

in answer to our inquiries

about the condition of the colored people, broke out as
follows: —

" Niggers are a damned nuisance. They keep men of means
^ay from the place. This town has got the name of ' Nigger

Towa,' and mon of wealth won't come hero. I never knew one
of them that would not steal, though they never steal any
thing of any great amount. Chickens have to roost high about
here, I tell you. The Grand Jury of this county has just in-
dicted seven persons, and every one of them was black. They
will steal a little sugar, or a pound of butter, and put it in their
pockets. But perhaps they are not to blame for it, for they have

been trained to steal in slavery."

•

This sort of evidence forms the staple out of which
newspaper reporters manufacture articles, and form the
public opinion about the Canadian refugees. Now, in
this very hotel, the head waiter, an intelligent man, who
enjoyed the respect and confidence of the household,
clerks included, was a colored man — one who bought
himself for $1,000, saving, with singular persistency and
resolution, $50 a year for twenty years, for that purpose.
His place was one of considerable consequence, requiring
capacity and integrity ; and he seemed to fill it to general
satisfaction.

It is not, however, hotel clerks alone, but grave officials.
Mayors and others, who, when first addressed, are apt to
speak contemptuously of the colored people; though
they usually do them more justice upon reflection ; espe-
cially in those cities where the negro vote is large enough
to turn an election.

The following is a fair sample of the matter of several
of these conversations. After explaining our mission,

and telling Mr. , head magistrate of , that tl e

object of the interview was to ask his opinion of the
colored people of his city, he said sharply : —

" Then my opinion is that niggers are a low, miserable set of
people, and I wish they were not here."

"Well, let us see; are tliey intemperate?" "Oh, no; I
must say they are not. Indeed, you never see any drunken
negroes about."

" Are they riotous and ungovernable ? " '^

" Oh, no, quite the contrary ; nqno of our people are more
easily governed, or give less trouble to the police."

" Are they much given to crime ? "

" Yes, I think they are."

" More so than any other immigrants of the laboring class ?''

" As to that, if you compare them with foreigners, they are
not worse. They do steal chickens, and commit such petty
offences, but then a great many white people do that, you
know."

" Do they work and get their own living, or do they beg and
depend upon public charity ? "

" Negroes are too lazy to work hard ; but I must admit that
they are industrious. They keep pottering about, and pick up
a good living, somehow. At any rate, they do not beg, and
they have very few paupers."

" Well, if they don't get drunk, and don't steal over much,
and don't beg, and don't become a public charge, and if they
work and support themselves, why are they not good citizens ? "

" I can't deny there 's something in that. But still, I think
they are a nuisance ; I wish they were out of the place. 1
don't wish, however, to be quoted publicly as saying this, be-
cause, you know, it might make trouble."*

The Hon. Isaac Buchanan, M. P., of Hamilton, said
to us : —

" I think we see the eflfects of slavery here very plainly.
The children of the colored people go to the public schools, but
a great many of the white parents object to it, though their
children do not, that I know of. I suppose, if the question was
put to vote, the people would vote against having the negroes
remain here."

* Coarse people in Canada say " nigger" habitually ; highly cultivated
people, never. Others say " colored people," " negroes," or " niggers,",
according to their mood of miud.

Hon. George Brown, M. P., of Toronto, said : —

" I think the prejudice against the colored people is stronger
here than in the States. To show you the prejudice that exists
against them, I will mention one fact. When I was a candi-
date for Parliament in Upper Canada, 150 people signed a
paper, saying that if I would agree to urge the passage of a
law that the negro should be excluded from the common
schools, and putting a head-tax iipon those coming into the
country, they would all vote for me ; otherwise they would
vote for my opponent. There were 160 men degraded enough
to sign such a paper and send it to me." ' n

Mr. McCullum, principal teacher of the Hamilton
High School, says: —

" Up at the oil springs, the colored people have quite a little
town. The white people were there, and they had all the work.
They charged six shillings for sawing a cord of wood. The
colored people went up there from Chatham, and, in order to
get constart employment, they charged only fifty cents a cord.
What did the white people do ? They raised a mob, went one
night and burned every shanty that belonged to a colored
person, and drove them off entirely. Well, it was a mob ; it
was not society at all ; it was but the dregs of society who did
this. They took a quantity of the oil, and while some of their
number were parleying with the colored people in front of their
doors, they went behind, threw the oil over their shanties, set it
on fire, and the buildings were in flames in a moment. The
parties were arrested, and two of them sent to the penitentiary
for seven years."

Rev. James Proudfoot, of London, says: —

" You will find a great many colore ^. people about Chatham —
too many. It has produced a certain reaction among the white
people there. The white people do not associate much with
them ; and even in the courts of justice, a place is allotted to
the colored people — they are not allowed to mix with the
whites. A number of gentlemen have told me that."

ill

l!ii|

Mayor Cross, of Chatham, says : —

" The colored people generally live apart. There has been,
hitherto, a very strong prejudice against them, and the result is
that they are, generally speaking, confined to a particular
locality of the town."

Rev. Mr. Gedcles, of Toronto, says : —

" The great mass of the colored population will be found in
the West ; and where they go in any great numbers, the people
acquire a strong prejudice against them."

Mr. Sinclair, of Chatham, says : — i

" Our laws know nothing about creed, color, or nationality.
If foreign-born, w^en they take the oath of allegiance, they are
the same as natives. But in regard to social prejudice, that is
something we cannot help. The colored people are considered
inferior, and must remain so for many years, perhaps forever,
because their color distinguishes them. One or two colored
men are constables here, but that is all." • • * •

" Many of the colored people, even in this town, say that if
they could have the same privileges in the States that they have
here, they would not remain a moment. The prejudice is not
so strong in this town, where tliey have been so long known,
and where the people see they can be improved and elevated ;
but even in this county, there is one township where no colored
man is allowed to settle. One man has tried to build a house
there, but as -fast as ho built it in the day time, the white people
would pull it down at night. No personal violence was done to
him. That was in the township of Orford. In the township of
Howard, I think there are only four colored families, and they
are a very respectable class of people. In that township, there
was as much prejudice as anywhere, fourteen years ago ; but
two colored families, very respectable and intelligent people,
settled there — they were rather superior in those respects to
the neighborhood generally — and they did a vast amount
towards doing away with the prejudice. They were intelligent,
cleanly, moral, and even religious ; so that ministers of the
gospel would actually call and take dinner with these people.

as they found every thing so nice, tidy and comfortable, and the
poor colored people so kind, and so ready to welcome any
decent person who came. So that a good deal depends upon
the first samples that go into a town."

The testimony of the colored people is still more strik-
ing. Mrs. Brown, (colored,) of St. Catherines?

says : — ' *

" I find more prejudice hero than I did in York State. When
I was at homo, I could go anywhere ; but hero, my goodness !
you get an insult on every side. But the colored people have
their rights before the law ; that is the only thing that lias kept
me here."

Dr. A. T. Jones, (colored,) of London, says: — -

" There is a mean prejudice here that is not to be found in

the States, though the Northern States are pretty bad."

Rev. L. C. Chambers, (colored,) of .St. Catherines, says :

" The prejudice here against the colored people is stronger, a
great deal, than it is in Massachusetts. Since I have been in
the country, I went to a church one Sabbath, and the sexton
asked me, 'What do you want here to-day?' I said, *Is
there not to be service here to-day ? * He said, * Yes, but we
do n't want any niggers here.' I said, * You are mistaken in
the man. I am not a " nigger," but a negro.' "

Mrs. Susan Boggs, (colored,) of St. Catherines, says : —

" If it was not for the Queen's law, we would bo mobbed
here, and we could not stay in this house. The prejudice is a
great deal worse here than it is in the States."

G. F. Simpson, (colored,) of Toronto, says : — >

" I must say that, leaving the law out of the question, I find
that prejudice hero is equally strong as on the other side. The
law is the only thing that sustains us in this country."

^ John Shipton, (colored,) of London, says : —

" I uovor oxporioiiccd noar tho projudico down thoro, (in tho
States,) that I have horo. Tlio projudico lioro would l)o a lioap
worso tlian in the Statos, if it was not that tho law keop» it
down."

It would be easy to show how the natural sympathy
and compassion which is felt for the exiles on their first
arrival by all, and which continues to be felt by people of
Christian culture, is converted into antipathy and ani-
mosity among the vulgar. The teachers in the pulpit,
and the teachers of public schools, have much to answer
for in this matter. The clergy of the Church of England
are generally staunch friends of the negro. Rev. Mr.
Geddes, of Hamilton, said : —

" Thoro aro several colored people belonging to my church.
I have them also in tho Sunday school, and have always taken
an interest in the improvement of their condition, socially and
religiously. Tliere are two young colored women also in the
Sunday school, who teach white children of respectable
parents,"

He related to us a case of two young ladies who were
sent to Hamilton for education, and who joined his Sunday
school. Their parents, on learning that colored children
attended the school, sent a remonstrance, saying that
their children must not be associated with negroes. His
answer was : —

" I am sorry that any persons belonging to the Church of
England are so narrow-minded as to suppose th«^ir children
will be injured because there are a few colored persons in the
same school ; but of course we cannot change our principle,
and the young ladies must leave."

Many Presbyterian clergymen are equally humane

i,.!i

and just ; but there arc those of all denominations who
refrain from rebuking by their example the intolerant
and unchristian spirit which prevails among their people.

So some of the teachers in public schools, risinj^ to
the dignity of their high calling, see in their colored
pupils poor and friendless children, who have most need
of sympathy and encouragement, and therefore they be-
stow them freely, careless whether committee-men and the
public approve or not. h " '

Mr. McCuUum, principal of the well-appointed High
School in Hamilton, says : —

" I had cliargo of tho Provincial Model School at Toronto for
ever ten years, and I have had charge of this school over four
years, and have had colored children tinder my charge all that
time. They conduct themselves wit) the strictest propriety,
and 1 have never known an occasion where the white children
have had any difficulty with them on account of color. At first,
when any new ones came, I used to go out with them in the
playground myself^ and play tvith them specially^ just to show
that I made no distinction whatever; and then the children
made none. I found this plan most healthy in its operation.

" Little white children do not show tho slightest repugnance
to playing with tho colored children, or coming in contact with
them. I never knew of a case. But sometimes parents will
not let their children sit at the same desk with a colored child.
The origin of the difficulty is not being treated like other
children. We have no difficulty here. We give the" children
their seats according to their credit-marks in the preceding
month, and I never have had the slightest difficulty. The
moral conduct of tho colored children is just as good as that
*of the others."

In London, the head-master of the High School
manifested a different spirit : he said, —

" It does not work well with us to have colored children in
school witlv the whites. In our community, there is more

Ill

B-f- 1

prejudice against the colored people, and the children receive
it from their parents. The colored children must feel it,
for the white children refuse to play with them in the play-
ground. Whether it is a natural feeling or not I cannot tell,
but it shows itself in the playground and in the class-room."

One of the teachers said : —

" I think that the colored children would be better educated,
and that it would be more conducive to the happiness both of
colored and white children if they were in separate schools.
Tli'e colored children would not be subjected to so much
annoyance. Some white children of the lower orders don't
mind sitting by them in school ; but there are others who are
very particular, and don't like it at all."

Now, this head-master is a man of vigorous nature,
who makes his influence felt widely; and should he
exert that influence as Mr. McCuUum does, then perhaps
" it would work well to have colored children in school
with the whites ;" then perhaps his sub-teachers would
not show such lack of sympathy with the little colored
children committed, in the providence of God, to their
charge ; then perhaps there would be no such sad sight
as wo saw in the playground, where colored children stood
aside, and looked wishfully at groups of whites playing
games from which they were exclnr.ed. Such scenes do
not occur in the playground at Hamilton, because the
teacher takes care, by showing personal interest in the
colored children, to elevate them in the eyes of their
comrades. Moreover, it is not likely that the school com- ■
mittee of London would persist in efforts to expel colored
children from the public schools, and so degrade them
in the public eye, if one humane master should publicly
protest against it, as any mtizen has a right to do.

3ly

Toronto and Hamilton are distinguishBd among the
populous places of Canada West for the comparative
liberality and kindness towards colored people. London
is not ; and the difference arises in some degree, doubt-
less, from the different spirit which children imbibe in
the public schools under different head masters. At
any rate, this accounts for the difference better than
the theory of " contagion " from Americans does.

The Canadians constantly boast that their laws know
no difference of color ; that they make blacks eligible to
offices, and protect all their rights; and the refugees
constantly admit that it is so. The very frequency of
the assertion and of the admission, proves that it is not
considered a matter of course that simple justice should
be done. People do not boast that the law protects
. white meUs

After making all due allowance for the fact that the
lack of culture disqualifies most of the refugees for many
offices to which they are legally eligible, and also for re-
fined society, there is manifest injustice done to them in
various ways by reason of a vulgar and bitter prejudice,
which defeats the benevolent purposes of the law. For
instance, they are practically kept off the juries. The
testimony of Mr. A. Bartlett, town clerk of Windsor,
shows one way in which it is done. He says : —

" The selection of the jury is a simple thing. We begin
with the man who is assessed the highest on the roll, and we
go down to half the names on the roll ; then the amount paid
by that person who is lowest on the first half forms the amount
of property qualification for that jury. Then we take two-
thirds of that number, and of course the selectors have it in
their power to say what two-thirds shall be taken ; and of
7

course the colored man is cut off, because they don't want
him on."

It happens sometimes that a sturdy Englishman, seeing
only his duty, insists upon its being done legally and
impartially, and then colored men are drawn.

Such a case happened recently. A black man was
drawn and duly summoned. He appeared in court, and
was placed upon the jury, to the consternation of some
snobs, who refused to sit in the box with him. The
Judge had the manliness to reprimand them, then to fine
them, and finally to imprison them; which at last
brought them to what senses they had.

There is the same practical difiiculty with regard to

Public Schools.

The Canadian law makes no distinction of color. It
j)roposes that common schools shall be beneficial to all
classes alike. Practically, however, there is a distinction
of color, and negroes do not have equal advantage from
public instruction with whites. The law allows colored
people to send their children to the common schools, or
to have separate schools of their own. They have asked
for and obtained such separate schools in Chatham, Mai-
den, and AVindsor. Now, there is a growing feeling
among the whites that they made a mistake in giving the
blacks their choice ; and a strong disposition is mani-
fested ill many places to retract it, and to confine colored
children to separate or caste schools.

On the other hand, there is a growing feeling on the
part of the colored people that they made a mistake in
asking for separate schools ; and a strong disposition it

the
tn

bi is

manifested to give them up; but the whites will not
allow them to do so.

This again shows how surely the natural sympathy
for the refugee is converted into antipathy or prejudice
whenever, by increase in number, they come into antag-
onism with the dominant class. By such antagonism,
the natural affinities between the whites become intensi-
fied, and they desire to keep the blacks in a separate
caste, because they feel that it must be a lower one.
Many colored people see this also, and they desire to
prevent the establishment of such caste. Each party
begins to see that the democratic tendency of the com-
mon school is to prevent or weaken castes, while the
inevitable tendency of the separate schools is to create
and to strengthen them.

The struggle has already commenced in several places.
The school committee of London has shown its purpose
of removing the colored children from the common
school to a separate school * ; and the colored people
have declared their purpose of resisting it. Most active
among them is Dr. A. T. Jones, a very black man, and a
very intelligent one also ; although he was a slave during
the first twenty years of his life. He testified as follows : —

"Tiie people here won't make the separate schools go.
When they try it, they will have trouble. I will tell you pre-
cisely what I tell them. I tell them — ' I have eight children, who
. were all born in this town, — British subjects, as much as the
whitest among you ; and they don't iSelieve in any thing else
but the Queen. Now, instead of leaving these children to

* See Report of a Sub-Committee of the School Trustees of the ("!•*'• rf
London ; in appendix No. 2. It v valuable, inasmuch as it shows how i. .0-
eral and unjust well-meaning men may become when governed by the spirit
of caste.

"1(1

grow up with that love for the country and the Queen, you
are trying to plant within them a hatred for the country ; and
the day may come when you will hear them saying, " This is
the country that disfranchise^ us, and deprives us of our rights ;"
and you may see them coming back here from the United
States with muskets in their hands.' I don't believe that in
ten years from this time you will see a colored man in this
country. We won't stay here after this war is decided ; for I
have my opinion in which way it is to be decided. I nave told'
my children to stay in school until they are put out. ' If they
tell you to go,' I have said to them, ' don't go, but wait until
they lay hands on you to put you out; and then you come
quietly home, and I will attend to it.' I have four children in
the school, who go regularly, and are getting on very well ;
there is no complaint of them. I told the trustees if there
was any complaint of their not behaving well, or any thing of
the kind, to expel them from the school, or let me know."

7. r

This struggle between a fugitive slave and the school
trustees of the city of London involves a great principle,
and the decision of the Court will be looked for with
interest, not only by the parties immediately concerned,
but by multitudes in Canada. Nor should the interest
be confined to that country ; for the same question and
the same struggle will arise in this.

Meantime, the question has been decided in favor of
the right of the school trustees of London to establish
a separate school for colored children by the highest
authority short of the Court, — Dr. Ryerson, the Chief
Superintendent of Public Instruction in Canada West.
He said to us : —

': : I

; *«»•«

" It is within the power of the school trustees in cities and
towns to make a distinction between colors, for there they have
the direction of all the schools ; but in country places, where
there are distinct school municipalities, it is at the option of the

md
lave
lere
Ithe

colored people to have separate schools or not. In some country
places, the trustees have refused to admit colored children to
the schools ; the parents have appealed to me ; I have referred
them to the courts ; and the courts have always given decisions
in their favor."

It is conceded that the law authorizes the school trustees
to establish separate schools for colored people upon their
asking for them ; it also authorizes school trustees in
cities and towns to establish separate schools without
such restriction. The obvious intent of giving this latter
power was to meet the wants of Roman Catholics, who
congregate in towns and cities. But notwithstanding this
intent, the Chief Superintendent decides that, under the
law, the trustees md*y establish separate schools for colored
children, and exclude them from the schools for whites.
This seems, to a layman, an extraordinary decision, how-
ever it may strike lawyers. It seems extraordinary, be-
cause the whole people, speaking through the laws, not
only declared against distinctions which lead to the
establishment of castes, but purposely ignored distinction
of color among citizens. They established a government
to carry out their will ; and yet a subordinate branch
of this government may use power derived from it to
defeat that will, and to degrade part of the citizens on
account of their color !

Moreover, it would seem that by permitting the School
Trustees to establish separate schools upon the petition of
colored people, the legislature did not contemplate the
establishment of such schools against their will.

The spirit of the law clearly contemplated common
schools, not compulsory caste schools ; and if these can

i>i

♦•1

be established in virtue of any 6y-law, then verily, the
letter killeth the spirit.

Underlying the great institution of the common
school are two primal ideas, one of individual culture,
the other of human brotherhood. In the common school '
house is held the first gathering of the Demos, in primary
assemblage, never to be dissolved, only adjourned from'
day to day, through all time. The little people trained
in the exercise of family love at home, come together in
the school-house to enlarge the circle of their affec-
tions by loving other children of the greater human
family, in its wider home — the world. Strange perver-
sion, if the first moral lesson should be that of exclusion

and caste !

It would be easy and agreeable to cite cases in which
not only justice but good will is manifested towards the
refugees. It is usually done in the towns where they
make a very small proportion of the population. It is
done in the University of Toronto, and in some other
literary educational institutions. But upon the whole,
there is a strong popular prejudice against the colored
people, which operates greatly to the disadvantage of the
refugees.

Then another disadvantage is to be considered. Emi-
grants going to a new country, especially to a cold one,
need to make some preparation, and to take v/ith them
a little property. These refugees, however, could do
neither. Those from the Slave States landed in Canada
penniless, and without change of raiment. Those from the
Free States brought small sums which they had earned ;
but very few had money "ienough for a month's subsist-

' ■-■■ ■ 55 '

ence. The Provincial Government did nothing for them ;
and the local authorities made no provision for employ-
ing them. Some money, indeed, has been raised by con-
tribution in England and the United States, but most of
this has been expended (with questionable wisdom) for
establishing several communities, or agricultural colo-
nies ; for building up churches ; and lor supporting white
agents in comfort. Very little of this money has been
applied directly to the aid of the refugees.

Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, they have
shoAvn the will and the ability to work and to support
themselves.

Disposition to Work.

No sensible people in Canada charge the refugees with
slothfulness. The only charge worth notice is that they
" shirk hard work." This charge is made thoughtlessly
by most people ; wrathfuUy by those who have to do the
heavy drudgery. The gist of the matter, however, is
this: In every civilized community there is a certain
amount of hard work, requiring muscular effort, to be
done by somebody. In Canada, as elsewhere, this work,
instead of being made a blessing to all by fair and equal
distribution, is made a grievous burden to one class, by
being thrown exclusively on their shoulders, while
another class suffers from lack of it.

Each white man tries to spare his own muscles, and to
make some of his neighbors do his share of manual
labor. If he must work, he prefers the lightest kind of
labor. The negro stands by, and imitates the white

¥■

man. Work he ipust ; but, like his fugleman, he pre-
fers the light kind ; and he contrives to get it.

Men want to be shaved, and to have their boots blacked.
They want also to have heavy hods carried up ladders ;
and wet mud shovelled out of ditches. There stand
Irishmen, Germans, and negroes, seeking work. Each
would prefer the lighter kind, especially as it is best
paid. Each would prefer to exercise his fingers rather
than his arms ; and to wait and tend, rather than strain
his back and weary his muscles. But the employer
prefers the nimble-fingered negro for his light work, and
the brawny-armed Irishman for his heavy work. So the
negro shaves, and brushes, and tends, and frisks about ;
while his competitor delves, and swears that " a nigger
is too lazy to work."

Sometimes the competition and contrast are very
striking, as in hotels and boarding-houses. Here the
colored men abound; but in these very houses, the
porterage, and all heavy work and dirty work, are done
by white men. If you ring your bell, the nimble mulatto
who skips up to you in his white linen jacket, does not
soil his dainty fingers by bringing the coal which you
ask for, but sends a stalwart fireman, a traditionary white
man, but so black and begrimed by coal, that in the
South ' might need free papers to prove his lineage.

In xurther proof of the mulatto's disposition to imi-
tate the white man, and shift the heaviest burden to
other men's shoulders, it may be stated that the colonists
in Liberia do exactly as the exiles in Canada do, except
that they use the native negroes, instead of Celts, to hew
their wood and draw their "^water.

'■I

" I was astonished," says the Rev. Mr. Cowan, " to see in
Harper, native women bringing up cord-wood on their heads
from the landing on the river-bank to private dwellings, at
twenty-five cents a day, while the colonist felt above such
work."*

Verily, human nature does not change with time, nor
does color ^ect it ; for the old maxim may be applied to
these colonists — " They who cross the sea change their
sky, but not their spirit." ^ -

But mulattoes dislike hard manual labor, not only
because it is held less respectable than light work or no
work, but because by their very organization, — by their
lymphatic temperament, and lack of animal vigor, they
are less adapted to prolonged muscular effort than full
breeds. That they do not lack industry and thrift, tl;ie
condition of those in Canada proves clearly, for thousands
and tens of thousands of colored people have there
worked hard for a living, and have earned it.

First, there is negative proof K)f this, in the fact that
they do not beg, and that they receive no more than their
share of public support, if even so much. We traversed
the whole length of Canada West three times, stopping
at the places where colored people most abounded ;
going into their quarters in the cities, and visiting
their farm-houses by the wayside; yet we met no beg
gars ; and although there were evident signs of ex-
treme poverty among those recently arrived, we did
not see such marks of utter destitution and want, as
may be found in the lower walks of life in most -coun-

*« Liberia As I Found It." By Rev. A. Cowan, Agent of the Kentucky
Colonization Society, p. 122.

ii»

58 * •

tries. The following are fair specimens of the testimony
given by intelligent white persons upon this point.
Hon. George Brown, M. P., of Toronto, says: —

'^ One thing about the colored people here is quite remarkable ; ■
they never beg. They only ask for work ; and when they get
work, if they have borrowed any money, they will come back
and pay it — a thing I never knew white men to do. Their
ministers are about the only beggars with black faces I have
ever seen."

Mr. Park, a merchant of Maiden, says : —

" Part of theia (the colored population) are disposed to bo
industrious, and part of them are pretty indolent. They do n't
take care of their own poor. We have no poor-house. The
poor are relieved either by the government of the municipality,
or by the people. The colored people get about the same
assistance, in proportion to their numbers, that the wliites do.
I think they beg more than the whites do."

Mr. Brush, Town Clerk of Maiden, says : —

" A portion of them (the colored people) are pretty well —
behaved, and another portion not. We have a very small Irisli
laboring population. A great many of these colored people go
and sail (arc sailors) in the summer time, and in the winter,
lie round, and don't do much. The upper part of this town is
inhabited by French people, the worst people in the world.
There is not the toss of a copper between them and the colored
people. We have to help a great many of them ; more than
any other class of people we have here. I have been Clerk of
the Council for three years, and have had the opportunity of
knowing. I think the Council have given more to the colored
people than to any others."

In and about Maiden the colored people congregate
too numerously, and do not do so well as in other places.

The llev. James Proudfoot, of London, says : — " I don't
know a beggar among the colored people."

The great mass of the colored people of Canada have
been thrown entirely upon their own resources ; and their
history is generally like that of a fugitive whom we met,
who told us that on arrival, he had to borrow twenty-
five cents to buy an axe, and from that day forward had
worked on without asking favors, until he had become
independent and comfortable. "

There is a most striking contrast between these exiles, —
penniless, unaided, in a cold climate, amid unsympathiz*
ing people, — and those who were sent, at great expense,
across the ocean to an African climate, then supported
entirely for six months, and afterwards aided and bolstered
up by a powerful society, which still expend large sums
for the support of the Colony. The first have suc-
ceeded ; the latter have virtually failed. Let the lesson be
pondered by those who are considering what shall be done
with the negro.

But second, there is positive and tangible proof of the
will and the ability of the colored people to work and sup-
port themselves, and gather substance even in the hard
climate of Canada.

Property.
The Mayor of London says : —

" I think there are about seventy-five colored families here.
They all pay taxes. They have not all got property, but every
male over twenty-one pays the road tax of two dollars per
annum. 8ome of them keep little huckster shops, but that is
about as far as they go in that direction. There are uoue of

• ■'t

any wealth, though there are a good many who own a single
lot of land apiece."

Mr. William Clark, of London, says : —

" I don't know that there is any pauperism here among the
colored people. They get work here, and some of them work
very well indeed. I never knew of any difficulty with them
here, any more than with white people. I have lived amongst
them, and never had any difficulty with them at all. Some of
them are very good, and some very bad — just like other people.
They compare very favorably with the other laboring classej."

Col. Stephenson, of St. Catherines, says : —

" The negroes have furniture, whereas the Irish have none.
Every copper of money the Irish get, they lay up ; and the
victuals they eat, they generally go out and beg from the peo-
ple. I have seen an old woman here begging who had $1,700
in the bank. You could not get a negro to do that. We don't
find many paupers among the negroes, as a general thing.
There is one thing I have noticed ; they cannot bear prosperity.
If they get a little ahead, they won't work, unless they can get
higher wages."

Dr. H. T. Kidley, of Hamilton, says : —

" I think the colored population are a very quiet, well-
behaved set of people. My patients are able to pay a moderate
fee. Full one-half of the colored people, I suppose, are able to
pay nothing. I think they compare well with the lower Irish."

,-*,

»«!,,

In another connection, he says : —

Very few of the colored people beg. I do not know of a
colored man who has come to me for a cent. They assist each
other. There are a few who own lots in town, but there is no
colored man here, that I know of, who is considered well off.
I am one of the six physicians to the hospital, and I do not think
the colored people send any greater proportion there than the
whites."

The town records of Mnldcn, show that there nre in
all 550 tax-payers in that town, of whom 71 arc colored.
The annual value of the property on which they were
assessed, in 1863, was ^1,253, on which a tax of 29 per
cent, was levied, — amounting to ^363.37 — or about
;$f5.12 to each tax-payer. The total tax of the town was
;^4,916.37: leaving ^4,553.00 to be paid by the whites
— or an average of ^9.52 to each. Assuming the popu-
lation given by Mr. Brush to bo correct, there is one
white tax-payer to three and one-third of the white in-
habitants, and one colored tax-payer to every eleven of
the colored inhabitants.

By the books of the assessors of Chatham, it appears
that the total number of rate-payers in the town for the
year 1863 was 1,021, of whom 134 were colored. The
total amount of tax collected was ;^10,179.79 ; of which
the 134 colored rate-payers contributed ^667.45 — or
;$f4.98 apiece, on an average. The 887 white rate-payers
contributed ;$f9,433.34— or ;^10.63 apiece. The total
population of Chatham is given at 4,466, and the colored
population estimated at 1 ,300. It thus appears that the
white tax-payers are about one to every three and a half
of the white population, and the colored about one to
every thirteen of the colored population.

By the books of the town clerk of Windsor, it appears
that there are 152 colored tax-payers in the town, and
448 white. The total annual value of the property
for which the colored people are taxed amounts to ;$f2,648
— aiFording a tax of ^635.52 ; which, deducted from the
total tax, (;^9,000,) leaves ;^8,364.48 to be paid by the
whites. Taking the colored population at 750, this

shows one tax-payer to every five of the population ; and
estimating the white population at 3,250, there is one
white tax-payer to every seven and one-fourth of the
white population. The average amount paid by each
colored tax-payer is ;$f4.18; by each white tax-payer,
|fl8.76.

In Toronto, a city of 44,821 inhabitants, of whom
about 900 are colored, the books of the tax collectors
show the following amount paid by colored persons : —

St. John's ward, ;^665.24 ; St. Andrew's ward, ^549.55 •
St. Lawrence's ward, ^388 ; St. David's ward, ;^37.25 ; St.
Patrick's ward, p47.63; St. George's ward, p^ 95 ; St.
James's ward, ;^261.57. Total, |f2,345.19.

In addition to this, an income tax is assessed on all
colored persons earning over ;^200 a year.

We found tha*; only fifteen colored persons deposited
money in the Savings Banks, averaging $\b each. They
have use for all their means, and do not hoard.

But the sdrest sign of their thrift is the appearance of
their dwelling-houses, farms, stock, tools and the like.
In tliese, moreover, we find encouraging signs for the
negros, because they show that he feels so strongly the
family instinct, and the desire to possess land and a
dwelling-place.

They were badly advised when they settled in suburbs
by themselves ; and the wiser ones now see that it would
be better for them, as it doubtless would for the whole
community, to have their dwellings scattered among those
of the whites, as they are in Hamilton and Toronto,
rather than to live in separate quarters, as they do in St.
Catherines, Chatham, and"^ other places.

.68

But whether scattered about, or collected in suburbs,
the dwellings of the refugees are generally superior to
those of the Irish, or other foreign emigrants of the
laboring class. Most certainly they are £ir superior to
the negro huts upon slave plantations, wiiich many of
them formerly inhabited. Indeed, in poir.t of neatness
of premises, they are superior to the dwellings of the
" poor whites," and even of small planters ; a doubtful
compliment, for those not only lack out-buildings, but are
usually dirty and comfortless. The refugees for the most
part live in small, tidy houses; not shanties, with old hats
sticking out of broken windows. Their habitations are
not filthy huts, in filthy grounds, but comfortable dwell-
ings, in good repair. Many are owned by the occupants.
They have little gardens, which seem well cared for. This
is the case not only in the Colonies, as they are called,
where the form and dimensions of the houses are pre-
scribed by the Company, but in those places where the
refugees are entirely free to live as they choose. In the
outskirts of Chatham and other large places are scores of
small two-story houses, with garden lots, owned and inhab-
ited by refugees who came to the country penniless. -- i-

We visited many of these houses, and found that
the decencies of life are well observed, and that the com-
forts of life are not wanting. Cooking, eating, and sleep-
ing, are not done in the same room, but in separate ones.
They are tidily furnished ; and some have carpets on the
floors ; and curtains at the windows. It is pleasant to
see the feeble dawnings of taste in rude pictures, and
simple attempts at ornament.

Their tables are decently spread, and plentifully sup-

I**-

plied. It is evident that they spend more money upon
their households than foreign emigrants do. They live
better ; and they clothe their children better. They say,
indeed, that this is the reason they do not lay up so
much money as many Irish and Germans do.
Says Mrs. Brown> (colored,) of St. Catherines : —

" I have been here fifteen years, and we have paid taxes all
the time. A good many of the colored people own their own
houses, and have owned them ever since I came here. When
they came here, of course they were destitute and had nothing.
Most of them came from the Slave States. Tliere are some
here wlio are doing very well. The reason they do not get so
mucli property as the Irish is because the Irish, will live on
little, or nothing. They live like pigs, and worse thpi pigs.
The colored people can't live, like the Irish, on potatoes and
salt. Tliey want something to eat, if they have to work. An
Irishman will take potatoes and salt, and a sup of milk, and
say nothing about it ; but as a people, we are used to living
different from that, and can't do it."

There are exceptions, of course ; and some families,
€Bpecially new comers, live crowded up in one room.
They cannot do otherwise at first ; but as soon as they
have secured the necessaries of life, they begin to imitate
the older settlers, and to look for its comforts, and then
for some of its luxuries. As a general thing, the condi-
tion of the house, the abundance of iurniture, and the
presence of ornament, denote the time which the refuj^
has enjoyed freedom. A family arrives to-day, without a
rag of clothing, except what they wear ; and without a
cent of money. Of course, they must huddle 11 to or>
room ; and by a little help from their fellows, Heed and
warm themselves as tl>ey best can. In ten y&*^,

ii.

that same family will probably inhabit a decent house,
with tidy furniture, and a plentiful table. Such Las been
the history of hundreds and thousands of Canadian
refugees.

It is difficult to collect any reliable statistics of the
property of the colored people in the rural districts.
They are widely scattered, and the tax-rolls do not dis-
tinguish them from whites. It is certain, however, that
they are generally thriving ; and it is probable that they
are doing even better than those who are more closely
congregated. Some have small gardens near large towns,
which they help to supply with vegetables. On ail
market days, they are seen going into town with their
carts, laden with garden stuffs ; the man generally ac-
companied by his wife or children ; often both, so social
are they. They form an industrious and useful chss.

Another class is formed by the small farmers, who a:^
more widely scattered. Little is heard about them,
except when the prejudice of the Irish, or other rude
people, is roused to passion by some competition of inter-
est, or personal collision, and then there is a talk about
the " nuisance of niggers."

They generally own the land which they occupy ; and
in many cases they have paid off the mortgages, and hold a
clear fee. Indeed, one of the most hopeful signs is the
general desire to own land, and work for themselves.

Now and then is seen the miserable cabin of a negro
squatter, who evidently sleeps by day, and prowls by
night. This, however, is the exception. Asa general rule,
the farms of negroes, although inferior to the first-class
farms of their region in point of cultivation, fences, stock,

and the like, are quite equal to the average of second-
class farms. So the colored farmers, though not equal to
the first-class white farmers, compare very well with the
average of the second-class. They have not the capital,
nor the intelligence, nor the skill of the best farmers.
But they are not lazy, nor stupid, nor thriftless ; on the
contrary, they keep their lands and premises in tolera-
ble condition; and they support themselves without
recourse to public charity. Such men are valuable mem-
bers of any agricultural community. If not the best,
they are far from being the worst.

We rode through some of the rural districts, and
stopped at many farm houses. The most remarkable
thing is that the farm houses of colored people are seldom
to be distinguished from those of whites by the external
appearance. There is no special look of poverty or
slovenliness about them. You have to watch for the
appearance of some person in order to know, by his color,
whether it is the house of whites, or not.

Usually, the condition of the land and premises about
the house, indicates the length of time which the refugee
has occupied them. Those who have come from the
United States within a year or two, live in a log cabin, in
a small cleared lot ; around which is the forest or wild land.
Older settlers have built houses, and cleared larger fields ;
and they keep a cow, a pig, and some poultry. A few have
well-cleared farms and good outbuildings, with plenty of
farm tools, horses, oxen, cows, and the like.

The following notes, made on a day's journey through
a rural district, will give some idea of the people whom
we met upon the road : — ^

" Tuesday, September 15, left Amherstburg for Colchester.
Before passing out of the township of Maiden, in which Am-
herstburg is situated, stopped at the farm of Mr. Buckner — a
colored man. The place is under good cultivation ; has a num-
ber of fine cattle upon it ; and every thing about indicates thrift
and care. Further on, called at a log cabin occupied by a
colored family, who had rented the place. The women only
were at home, who said they were getting alung very well with
the farm. The younger of the two women was uncommonly
bright and intelligent, and both of them kind and civil-spoken.
At another house, saw an old lady, who said she was from Ken-
tucky, where she had been free, but her husband was a slave.
She said she had worked harder in Canada, trying to get a start,
than she ever did in Kentucky. She thought the climate not
so healthy as that of Kentucky, especially for children, who
took colds, and were somehow carried off, she said, very fast.
She declared that she would go back to the old home when
freedom was established in the States.

Later, stopped at a wayside tavern, kept by French people.
The woman said the colored people were good neighbors, except
that they would pilfer small things. Met a man on horseback,
who said the blacks were poor farmers, and did not do so w'ell
as the most inferior class of whites. They did not know any
thing about farming, he said, and when hired, required to be
told every fifteen minutes what to do and how to do it. He
thought the climate prejudicial to children. The " darkies,"
he said, were charged with stealing a good deal, but he thought
they did n't steal any more than some white people. lie
thought the thefts of white men were often charged upon the
blacks.

Stopped at another tavern, kept by a Frenchman, who said
the blacks were good-natured, and not disposed to be quarrel-
some, but given to pilfering. When asked if they were any
worse in that respect than the whites, he said perhaps they
were, a little, but it was hard to say wliich were the worse.
Here were two fugitives from Kentucky. One of them said he
had been in the place six years, and worked out as a laborer,
getting 50 cents a day for common work, 62| cents for cutting
corn, and $1 a day for harvesting, and found. He said he
could not lay by any thing, having a wife and tliree children to

support. He was anxious to have a place of his own, he said,
but had no means to buy one. His children did not go to
school at all, for there was no school for colored children, and
tlie whites would not permit his children to go to their school.

Saw a little cabin near the road, and a colored man and
woman, and some children about. On being interrogated, the
man said he was from North Carolina, and " allowed " he found
Canada a hard place to got a living in. He would be glad, he
said, to get back to the States, as soon as he could be free there.
Ihe woman said she was from Virginia, and that the prejudice
was '' a heap " stronger in Canada than it was at homo. The
people, she said, seemed to think the blacks " wern't folks, any
way." She was anxious to go back. ■ '

Met a farmer, who said the blacks were the worst people
round. They wern't good for any thing, unless a man wanted
them to work, and then, if they were looked after " right sharp,"
they would do pretty well. He did n't know that the blacks
8tole any more than the whites, but thought the whites often
got clear by saddling their sins on the backs of the " darkies."

Returning, visited and inspected the colored school at
Amherstburg. Number of scholars on the roll, 90 ; average
attendance, 60."

Colonies.

There is another class of colored people to whom no
reference has yet been made, and they are called the
" Colonists."

The refugees have always rejeived from the govern-
ment of Canada welcome and protection ; from the better
class of people, goodwill and justice ; and from a few,
active friendship and important assistance. These
friends, with other benevolent persons in the United
States and Gxcat Britain, have, at various periods, got up
organizations for the relief and the aid of the refugees.
These organizations have generally taken the form of

i.'^

societies for procuring tracts of land, and building up
communities of colored peopliB, called colonies.

The principal of these are the Elgin settlement, at
Buxton, the Dawn settlement, at Dresden, and the
Refugees' Home, near Windsor. '

It is evident that the attempts of organized societies to
settle the ^olored people in colonies, by themselves, are
of less interest to the people of the United States, than
are the attempts of refugees to maintain themselves,
without any aid.

It is unknown how much assistance the Colonists
receive from the money power of societies and the moral
power of the agents. It is indeed ungracious to criticise,
where the efforts have been so generous and the success so
satisfactory ; but there are various objections to the plans
and proceedings of the colonizing societies. The negroes,
going into an inhabited and civilized country, should not
be systematically congregated in communities. Their
natural affinities are strong enough to keep up all desir-
able relations without artificial encouragement. Experi-
ence shows that they do best when scattered about, and
forming a small proportion of the whole community.

Next, the discipline of the colonies, though it only
subjects the negroes to what is considered useful appren-
ticeship, does prolong a dependence which amounts almost
to servitude ; and does not convert them so surely into
hardy, self-reliant men, as the rude struggle with actual
difficulties, which they themselves have to face and to
overcome, instead of doing so through an agent.

Taken as a whole, the colonists have cost to somebody
a great deal of money, and a great deal of effort ; and they

.1...'

have not succeeded so well as many who have been
thrown entirely upon their own resources.

While commending to careful attention the accounts
given by Mr. King of the colony at Buxton, it is just to
say that some intelligent persons, friends of the colored
people, and familiar with their condition, believe that in
none of the colonies, not even in Buxtop, do they
succeed so well, upon the whole, as those who are thrown
entirely upon their own resources.

Nevertheless, these colonies are worthy of more
attention than we were able to give them.

We visited Buxton, and received from Mr. King, its
founder and father, an account of its history and con-
dition, which will be found, in a condensed form, in the
Appendix. He reports, and evidently believes fully,
that the colony has been a perfect success.

Be this as it may, Buxton is certainly a very inter-
esting place. Sixteen years ago, it was a wilderness.
Now, good highways are laid out in all directions through
the forest ; and by their side, standing back thirty-three
feet from the road, are about two hundred cottages, all
built on the same pattern, all looking neat and
comfortable. Arrund each one is a cleared space,
of several acres, which is well cultivated. The fences
are in good order ; the barns seem well filled ; and cattle,
and horses, and pigs, and poultry, abound. There are
signs of industry, and thrift, and comfort, every where ;
signs of intemperance, of idleness, of want, nowhere.
There is no tavern, and no groggery ; but there is a chapel
and school-house.

Most interesting of all are the inhabitants. Twenty

years ago, most of them were slaves, who owned nothing,
not even their children. Now they own themselves ; they
own their houses and farms ; and they have their wives
and children about them. They are enfranchised citizens
of a government which protects their rights. They have
the great essentials for human happiness, " something to
love, sometliing to do, and something to hope for; " and
if they are not happy, it is their own fault.

The present condition of all these colonists, as com-
pared with their former one, is very remarkable ; but no
limner could desire a stronger contrast for two pictures
of life than the history of one of them presents. Seven-
teen years ago, he was a chattel ; a thing to be
worked and flogged, bought and sold, like a horse. He
inhabited a wretched hut, with a woman who could
not be his lawful wife, and with dirty children, begot-
ten by them, but owned by another, and whom they
were rearing until large enough for the owner to work
or to sell. Sad as was his actual condition, there was
nothing to be hoped for in the future ; and every thing
to be feared.

At last, in des[)eration, he stole away by night from
his master's plantation in Missouri; and stole, besides
himself, something for food and covering, which he bore
on his back ; and also his little boy, whom he carried in
his arms. He stole also the woman, and the other chil-
dren, who followed him, trembling with fear and cold,
through the darkness, and towards the north star. Sad
procession ! but only one of the many which have been
continually moving, by night, from the house of bondage,
towards the land of freedom.

The flight was long, and painful, and dangerous. Then
followed years of toil, and poverty, and anxiety. Then
came, little by little, success, and comfort, and hope. And
now, the scene had quite changed ; and we found that man
standing erect and bold, upon his own well-tilled farm, in
front of his own house, into which he politely invited us.
The woman had become his lawful wife, the proud mistress
of a tidy liousehold. The dirty toddling chattels had
grown to be comely youth and maidens ; and the little
boy whom he bore away in his arms, was a fine, manly
fellow, a student at Knox College, but now spending his
vacation at home.

The man took a natural pride in his prosperity ; and
dilated upon the fertility of his acres, the excellence of
his stock, and the fleetness of his horses.

When the pressing invitation to stay and partake his
hospitality was declined, on the ground of lack of time,
he said, with pardonable vanity, " I can send you in a
wagon of my oww, and behind a pair of my own horses,
who will take you to Chatham, in less time than you can
get there with your team."

Some of the refugees are

Mechanics.

There are plasterers and white-washers in all the large
towns ; and there are also a few excellent blacksmiths,
and some tolerable carpenters. We found one man run-
ning a windmill, which he had constructed with his own
hands; and which, though very shaky in appearance,
furnished good power.

A colored man is said by many to be the best gunsmith
in Canada West. He certainly makes beautiful pistols.

The most interesting sight in the way of mechanical
industry was in Hamilton, where a young man named
Hill had established himself. He is a fine, athletic
young man, who must have come of good stock, for, said
he, "The whole of our family bouglit ourselves."

" I came away from Virginia," continued ho, " because I
didn't Hke the condition of tilings there. I didn't like to be
trod upon. A colored man there, let him be free born or not,
must carry a scrap of paper in his pocket to show that he is free,
or be cainiot move. Ho is not really free, because if he wants to
go to New York, for instance, he must get a white man to
vouch for his freedom.

" "We are manufacturers of tobacco, and there are merchants
here who have agreed to take all wo can manufacture, and to
encourage us all they possibly can. I came from the South
in September, 1858, and my family followed in December.
My wife had to get a voucher for her freedom, before she could
come on. Sometimes they put obstructions in the way '>f free
people coming away, if they ore so disposed. I was in slavery
until I was about eighteen years old. There were four uncles,
myself and mother, and another sister of my uncles. My
uncles paid fifteen hundred dollars apiece for themselves.
They bought themselves three times. They got cheated out of
their freedom in the first two instances, and were put in jail at
one time, and were going to be sold down South, right away ;
but parties who were well acquainted with us,, and knew we
had made desperate struggles for our freedom, came forward
and advanced the money, and took us out of jail, and put us
on a footing so tliat we could go ahead and earn money to pay
the debt. We have an uncle in Pittsburg, who has accumu-
lated a good deal of property since he obtained his freedom.
My uncles bought me and my mother, as well as themselves. I
saw a great deal of slavery ; and not only that, but my parents
had to undergo a great deal of hardship in their earlier days.
I never suffered aay particular hardship myself. I had a
grandfather who had long been free, and when the boys grow
up, he would take them and learn them a trade, and keep them
out of the hands of the traders ; and when they became men
10

)

%■

and women, having had his inJustry instilled into them, they
would be uble and willing to work." ^ •■

Wff found Mr. Ilill, and his three colored partners in
business, working very earnestly and vigorously, with
brawny arms, in a tobacco manufactory of their own.
They had recently hired a building at two hundred and
fifty dollars a year ; made most of the wood-work of their
machinery themselves, and started their business. By
diligent and faithful work, they soon drew custom, and
their prospect seemed excellent. They employed about
twenty hands, among whom were three white boys ; for,
said Hill, " hands are scarce, you see, and we have to
take ant/ we can get. We are adding to our numbers,
and as soon as all the machinery is going, we expect to
have fifty workmen."

The sight of this establishment would astonish those
who think negroes too stupid for business, and too
lazy for work. It was planned and carried on by col-
ored people, with money of their own earning. It
was marked by the order, silence, and earnestness
which pervade all good workshops. There was no
talking, laughing, or looking about. Every man was
busy at his task. Some were heaving down the press
with ponderous iron levers ; some were filling boxes ;
others nailing them up ; some assorting the stock, and
others rolling it into plugs. Each seemed to have the
kind of work best suited to him ; the men using their
brawny arms for lifting and pulling ; the boys their tiny
fingers for picking and sorting. They were paid in
proportion to the worth of their work ; and each worked
« with a will."

" We mean to succeed," said Hill, " and we think vre
•hall ; for we understand the business, and mean to do
better ^vork than others do ; and merchants will find that
out fast enough." The calm assurance with which he
spoke, would have secured good names on the back of
his note, if he had been unwise enough to ask credit.

The history of this family shows the effect of culture
upon good stock. Not all the depressing and demoral-
izing influences of a slave community could repress their
energy or prevent their success. ''

Another class is that of

Sailors.

The good will of " old salts " to negroes is proverbial.
In the old merchant packet, the steward was usually a
colored man; and so was the cook, who was always
dubbed " doctor." His " caboose " was a favorite resort in
dog-watch ; and he was the life of the forecastle. The
principal objection to shipping a colored man was, that
he was apt to charm some Desdemona, who would insist
upon marrying him and keeping him in England ; leav-
ing the ship to make the homeward passage minus
steward, or "doctor;" unless, perchance, some former
victim had become disenchanted, and inclined to fly to
America for freedom.

Even now, in the navy, your " true blue " will mess
with the negro, and rather likes his company. The
fresh-water sailors on the lakes and rivers seem to
share the liberality of " blue-water salts," and not to
object to " colored company," unless, indeed, there is too
much of it.

'iEi-

It is curious to observe how here, as elsewhere, the
individual negro awakens sympathy as a fellow man ; that
one, in a " mess," is a boon companion ; but that two or
three, excite antagonism and awaken prejudice. The root
of the evil is not in any natural antipathy, but that " busi-
ness " is conducted in the spirit of antagonism instead of
co-operation. «.

There are many of the refugees who " go down to the
lakes in ships, tiiat do business on the great waters ;" and
these fresh-water sailors earn good wages in summer.

No opportunity presented of seeing this class, but the
general report about them was, that they " loafed round
in winter, and spent all their earnings." This is proof
that they do wofk and earn money ; and if they spend it
just as other taip. do, the fact only proves that the voca-
tion of sailor affects blacks as it does whites.

Captain Avcrill, of Maiden, says : — "

" Colored men do very well for deck hands, and firemen, and
the like of tiiat. They are the best men we have. We have to
pay them the same as white men, and I prefer them to seme
portion of our citizens. We have to keep them separate from
white sailors. We cannot mix them. We always either carr)
a bl iCk crew or a wliite one. We will take a crew of firemen,
darkies, or a crew of deck hands, darkies. They are fully as
good as white sailors, in regard to temperance. We can put
more confidence in them than we can in white men. The
colored men are not much inclined to lay up their wages.
They spend their money just about as fast as they go
along. Some of them will stay about a boat all summer
long, and not take up any wages uf consequence ; and when
you can get a man like that he is very valuable, because ho will
influence tho others. . They don't get to places of confidence.
We never make them mates. None of them own any crafts."

?!ore evidence might be cited ; but enough has been

:.i

- ■ . ' f0 ■

given to show that with freedom, awJ the ordinary
motives for industry, the colored people will be diligent
and thrifty. >.'

It is plain^ however, that upon the whole, the physical
organization of a mixed breed like this one, does not a<lapt
men to hard and continuous muscular labor ; and that
they will naturally seek and find in the industrious
ranks of society, certain places not requiring such labor,
which they can fill profitably to the community and to
themselves.

Section 4.
Intellectual and Moral Condition.

An unusually large proportion of the colored popula-
tion of Canada is made up of adults. Those from the
Free States had very little schooling in youth; those
from the Slave States, none at all. Considering these
things, it is rather remarkable that so many can now
read and write. Moreover, they show their esteem for
instruction by their desire to obtain it for their chil-
dren. They all wish to have their children go to school,
and they send them all the time that they can be spared.

Canada West has adopted a good system of public
instruction, which is well administered. The common
schools, though inferior to those of several of the States
of the United States, are good. Colored children are
admitted to them in most places ; and where a separate
school is opened for them, it is as well provided by gov-
ernment with teachers and apparatus as the other schools
are. Notwithstanding the growing prejudice against
blacks, the authorities evidently mean to deal justly by

them in regard to instruction; and even those who
advocate separate schools, promise that they shall be
eq^ual to white schools. ' >

We had no adequate means of ascertaining exactly
how many colored scholars there are in proportion to
the whole population; but conclude, from what data
could be had, that it is almost as large as the proportion
of white scholars to the white population. In Chatham,
for instance, there is one white scholar to 11 1- of the
white population; and one colored scholar to 12 of the
colored population. The average daily attendance of
scholars in the colored schools is seventy per cent. ; the
average attendance in the white schools is a fraction
over seventy. Now, in Chatham, the colored people are
quite as unfavorably situated as in any other places ; and
considering that they are all of the industrious class,
who need the services of their children, the number of
scholars they send, and their average of daily attendance,
are high. It is generally stated, however, that the
black children do not attend school so many years as the
white do ; and this is doubtless for the reason above
assigned, that their parents more generally have need of
their services at home.

The colored children, in the mixed schools, do not
differ in their general appearance and behavior from
their white comrades. They are usually clean and
decently clad. They look quite as bright as the whites ;
and are perhaps a little more mirthful and roguish. The
association is manifestly beneficial to the colored chil-
dren. Says Mr. McCuUum, principal of the high school
at Hamilton, —

" I am impressed with the idea that colored persons brought
up among whites look better than others : tlieir rouglier,
harsher features disappear. I think that colored children,
brought up among white people, look better than their parents."

The appearance, and the acquirements of colored
children in the separate schools, are less satisfactory
They do not look so tidy ; and are not so well ordered as
children of the same class in the white schools. More-
over, they are more backward in their studies.

The colored people were unwise in asking for separate
schools at all ; and those who asked for colored teachers
made a further mistake ; because the chance of getting a
good one was small, the range of selection being very
limited. Had they merely required good teachers, irre-
spective of color, they would have had more men like
Mr. Sinclair, to elevate, as well as teach their children.

They must, in justice to the whites, acknowledge that
in the mitter of separate schools and of separate
churches, thoy themselves have yielded to the natural
affinities of race which lie at the root of those very
prejudi(M's about which they complain so much. They
must acknowledge, moreover, that the authorities en-
deavor to provide as good instruction for their ohildren
as for white children.

With rcgaid to the comparative mental capacity of col-
ored and white children, teachers differ in opinion. Dr.
McCaul, pri^sidcnt of the university at Toronto, bears very
strong testimony in favor of the first. He says: —

" I can give you my own experience in regard to the capacity
of the blacks. There was o. boy here from Upper Canada by
the name of Galigo, who, I think I aui safe in saying, was a

thorough black. He did exceedingly well, and manifested a
capacity equal to any white boy of his standing. We had a
mulatto here this last examination, who took the ' double-first '
in both classics and mathematics. He has very great ability.
There are very few whites who can do what he did. It would
be considered a rare thing to have a ' double-first ' got once in
five years, and that amongst the highest ' honor-men.' The
' honor-meUj' as we call them, are in the ratio of one to thirty.
There was very great competition, but he carried off the prize.
He expected to come out first of all in mathematics, but he
failed in that ; but he came out in the first class of honors,
in both classics and mathematics, as no one else in the year
did ; and I do not think there have been more than three
instances iv. which it has been done since the university was
opened, twenty years ago. Laferty is the young man's name.
His father was a man of very humble capacity, and, I think, a
full black. There was another man who was a student here,
who did very well in medicine — Dr. Augusta. There was
another medical student here, — Mr. Abbott, — who got along
very well. I do not hesitate at all to say, with regard to Mr.
Laferty, that he is fully equal to any white man, and, as J
mentioned to you, far superior to the average of them. It was
a great subject of astonishment to some of our Kentucky
friends, who came over here last year in October, when they
saw this mulatto get the first prize for Greek verse, which he
had to recite ; and he was the crack man of the day, all the
others listening to him with great pleasure."

Mr. McCullum, of Hamilton, says : —

" I have spoken to the teachers at the school, in reference to
tlie colored pupils, and they all coincide in the opinion I have
given, that they are fully equal to the others, in mental attain-
ments, and in their conduct and discipline at school."

Mr. Sinclair, principal of the school at Chatham,
says : —

" On the whole, I think the colored children learn about the
same as whites. The only difference I have observed is this —

that in one week they learn faster than the whites ; but then,
they require frequent reviews, so that, on the whole, it is about
the same."

' - i

This is the testimony of enlightened men, who have
given attention to the matter ; but they are men of liberal
and generous natures, whose sympathies are with the
colored people, because of their need of them. Other
teachers think less favorably of the mental capacity of
colored children.

But, however it may be in schools, and in regard to
the power of acquiring knowledge, the theory of the
menial equality of colored and white people does not
seem to be confirmed by the condition of the refugees in
Canada. Some of them have been there a long time ;
and a young generation is growing up. They do not
lack arnbition ; and yet they do not rise to stations
requiring mental vigor. Great allowance, indeed, is
to be made for the bitter prejudice against them, and for
other disadvantages. But on the other hand, it is to be
considered that when they are dispersed among the
whites, the prejudice is not called out. And then it
must be admitted, that among people of culture, there
is a disposition to give them fair play. Nay, such people
would probably regard a yoimg man of real force of
character with favor, on accouiit of his being colored ; and
would help him on. Two or three of this kind have been
so treated ; but all must admit that the number of supe-
rior young men who have appeared is very small indeed.

The colored people of Canada, like those of the Free
States, have sharp eyes and ears. They are quick of
preception; very imitative; and they rapidly become
11

"*
<-«*•

intelligent. But they are rather knowing, than thinking
people. They occupy useful stations in life ; but such as
require quick perceptions, rather than s.trong sense.

We have not the data for the final solution of the
question of mental equality. Time alone can supply
them. Not only must all the depressing influences of
slavery be removed from one generation, but there must
be several generations of free men ; of men free from the
consequences of slavery, and free from social ostracism,
before that question can be determined. But, admitting
that the colored breed has physical vitality enough to
persist and to maintain itself in the competition of com-
ing generations for subsistence, it is not certain that its
members will have moral force enough to recovfer from
the depression which so long existence as social pariahs
has produced. Be this as it may, we have now,, for the
solution of the question, only limited observation and
a priori inferences. These seem to point to the mental
inferiority of the half breeds, if not of the negroes.

An opinion is held by some teachers of colored schools
in the Northern States, that their scholars advance as fast
as whites in all the elementary studies, but fail when
they come to studies which tax the higher mental powers,
or the reasoning and combining faculties. That is, that
the perceptive faculties, which take cognizance of things,
and of their names and qualities, are as keen in the
blacks ae in the whites ; but that the reasoning faculties,
which generalise from the knowledge gatliered by the
perceptive faculties, are not.

This is probably true with regard to pure blacks, if
not to mulattoes also. Now, the perceptive faculties are

nearly allied to the instincts, which men share equally
Avith other animals ; while the reasoning and reflecting
faculties are superior to them, and are midway between
that animal nature common to men and brutes which
holds us down to the earth with them, and those higher
qualities, or peculiarly human attributes, which lift us
towards heaven. Superior activity of the lower or per-
ceptive faculties may arise from greater development of
that part -of the animal organization which keeps us in
relation with the organisms next below us in the scale of
creation.

But this question of mental equality between pure
blacks and whites is an ethnological one — a question
about races ; while we have only to do with a breed, —
that of raulattoes. This breed in its mental organization
seems to be partially emasculated. It has less of the
elements out of which grow ferocity, but also less of
energy and virilty, than pure blacks or whites.

Mulattoes seem to be, among races, what eunuchs are
among individual men. They have less animalization
than blacks, and less spiritualization than whites.

In concluding this part of the subject, a statement
may be made, which, standing alone, is worth nothing ;
but which, if supported by wider observation, may be of
some value. The colored persons met with in Canada, who
had most force of character, were either nearly negroes,
or nearly whites ; that is, they bore strongly marked
characteristics of one or the other race ; not merely in
the color of the skin, but in the character of other parts
of their organization.

% ■

'"" Moral Condition — Criminal Statistics. .'

It is difficult to convey a correct idea of the mental
status of the refugees ; but still more to give satisfactory
evidence concerning their moral condition. Bare statis-
tics are worth little. School returns have to be taken
with great allowance ; prison returns with still greater.
With proper allowances, criminal statistics are worth
something.

The Provincial Penitentiary at Kingston has been
established twenty-seven years ; during which time 375
colored persons have been committed, for the following
offences: —

Arson, 5 ; murder, 9 ; rape, or assault with intent, 14;
felony, 127; larceny, 220 Of these, 286 "vere born in
the United States; 81 in British America; and 8 in the
West Indies.

At the time of committal, fifty-seven of the convicts
were between 10 and 20 x-^ars of age; one hundred and
seventy were between 20 and 30 ; ninety-one were
between 30 and 40 ; thirty-six were between 40 and 50 ;
sixteen were between 50 and 60 ; and five were between
60 and 70.

Dr. Litchfield, the very obliging Superintendent of
the Asylum for Criminal Lunatics, connected with the
Penitentiary, says: —

" I cannot draw any reliable inference from the records, in
respect to the comparative criminality of the white, red, or
black man ; because the census returns iu regard to the African
and Indian races, in the Province, at the time the last census
was taken, are so manifestly wrong, that no correct calculation
can be based upon them." ^

6"*

There are, at this time, 64 colored convicts in the Pen-
itentiary. Taking the colored population as set down in
the census of 1860, this gives one convict to every 191
inhabitants. But estimating the colored people at lt),000,
(and this is a very low estimate,) it gives only one in 234f .
1 With regard to the conduct of the colored convicts.
Dr. Litchfield says : — r ; t T i?"'

" Tl>e negro, as met with in Canada, is uniformly docile,
courteous, kindly, and submissive ; and ho exhibits those qual-
ities in a marked degree, in the Penitentiary."

This is corroborated by the County Jailers, who gen-
erally say that colored prisoners are more docile than
white.

Statistics of minor offences, collected from the jail
returns, will be found in the Appendix.

Any inferences from them as to the moral status of
the colored people should be made with due allowance
for the fact that a large portion of them arrived iu Canada
utterly destitute, and also for the significant fact stated
in the testimony of the Hon. George Brown, M. P. Said
he: —

" I regard the colored people of Canada as a useful class of
citizens. All their vices grow out of their former condition of
slavery. Thieving is natural to them. But one thing you
must bear in mind ; it will not do to trust the criminac talistics,
for if a man with a black face is put into the boXy it is almost
tantamount to conviction."

It will be seen that the most common offences of
which the colored people are convicted are not those of
violence, implying ferocity and passion, — not crimes
against the person, but against property.

In public opinion, they lack that form of honesty
which those who consider money as the chief end of man,
regard as highest in the scale of virtues. It is curious
to observe how vehemently the refugees are denounced in
Canada, as the slaves are in the United States, for their
utter insensibility to the right of property. Religious
people, north and south, marvel that even converted
and pious slaves do not abstain from picking and stealing ;
as if those who never in their lives knew anything of
meum^ should suddenly know all about tuum.

We boast of our white national virtues, and acknowl-
edge that they grow out of freedom, but forget that the
vices of slaves grow out of slavery ; or, as has been better
said — " The customs of a free people are part of their
freedom ; those of an enslaved people are part of their
slavery."* Men going from slavery to freedom cannot
change their habits as they change their garments. And it
is to be remembered that the offences against property,
with which by public voice the refugees are charged, are
those so common in the south, and which grow directly
out of slavery.

Respect of property is grafted by civilization upon
natur-'l morality. It needs culture, and is of slow growth.
The lowest savages respect no kinds of property ; and
the highest but few. Now, the supposed interest of the
slaveholder has been to keep the negroes as near the
savage state as is consistent with the profitable culture of

* Les coutumes d'un peuple esclave sont une partie de leur escla> .ge ;
celles d'un peuple libre sont une partie de leur liberie. — Montesquieu, Esprit
des Lois, Liv. XIX. Chap. 27.

;tly

cotton and sugar. He wants the negro not to steal, for-
getting that a man must own something in order to have
any adequate conception of what theft means,
if The immorality of theft, however, has its degrees ; and
these seem to depenc' upon the natural right of owner-
ship, rather than upon the conventional or legal right.
The right of a man to his life and freedom, and to his
young children, are manifest and indisputable, for they
depend not upon human laws. No man can be intelli-
gent enough to cultivate cotton, without feeling this
instinctively, whether he forms a clear conception of it
or not. He must feel, too, that the rights of property
grow less sacred as they affect the owner less closely — as
right in clothes, wares, horses, dogs, and the like ; until
they become very doubtful in fish and game, and things
fera natura. The owner, in his daily practice, violates
the most sacred right of property, b'y taking the slave's
labor without pay ; and the slave imitates him by vio-
lating the less sacred right of property, in stealing what
he can lay his hands on. The fact that there is any
honesty at all left among '(em is proof of the natural
strength of their moral nature.

Tlie skves come to Canada with these habits, which
seem to have been made a part of their very nature by
generations of servitude ; and yet they rapidly lay them
aside. Being free from the debasing influences of fear,
and '*> the midst of a community where the rights of
property are ranked among the most sacred things, as
soon as they earn anything honestly, they feel the pride
of ownership, and learn to respect the rights of others.

BMAGE EVALUATION
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PhotDgrapliic

Sciences

Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STRUT

WmSTM.N.Y. MSSO

(716)872-4!(03

^
^

Religion.

It has been well said, that the slaveholders used the
very virtues of the negroes to hold them in slavery. The
master, like the devil, knew how to quote scripture for
wicked purposes; and moulded the religious belief of
the negroes into such form that he could appeal to it to
compass his own ends, in violation of the spirit of true
religion. ^ i?

It is among the proofs of the strong religious nature of
the negroes, that their faith endures shocks which would
upset that of ordinary men. Slaves of pious, prayerful
masters, have grown to manhood in the firm belief that
it would be a sin against Heaven to leave the service of a
master who exacts life-long toil without reward, and who
would sell one of their children as he would sell a cow
or a pig, when he wanted cash.

A touching instance of the struggle between what he
believed to be a religious obligation to serve his mistress
and a natural longing for freedom, is to be found in the
narrative of Thomas Johnson, a Canadian refugee. He
was so intelligent and faithful, that he was entrusted with
the management of the farm. He came to the conclusion
that he had a right to free his wife and three youngest
children, and therefore got them off to Canada. He,
himself, remained more than a year, and performed what
he believed to be his duty to his mistress. Her friends,
however, having an eye to their own future property,
feared that if she should die, the slave would prefer to
go and work for his own wife and children, rather than
for them, and so they persuaded her to convert him into
cash. Finding he was to be sold, " down south," he escaped

across the river into Ohio. But his conscience trouhled
him. He could not bear the thought that he, who had
been trusted on account of his honesty, should become a
mean runaway; and he sent word that if instead of being
" sent south," he could be sold to a certain man in the
neighborhood, whom he thought to be humane, he would
go back and finish his earthly pilgrimage in bondage.
While waiting for the reply, he thought he would visit
his wife and children, and take a last farewell ; but when
he found himself in Canada and really a free man, the
natural bonds of affection proved stronger than those of
a perverted religious sense, and kept him there, to dis-
charge his duties to himself and his family.*

There are many touching instances of slaves who had
borne good religious and moral characters, when forced
by some gross outrage to run away, throwing themselves
on the ground, and bemoaning their downfall, as they
supposed — " I, an elder, — I, whom master and everybody
trusted, — I to become a mean runaway ! " &c. ;- ■ i am

.;>;;,' r-'

'Mix I !i

Churches, 8fc.

Whenever a few refugees congregate together, the first
thing they do in common is to provide for public wor-
ship. They have a passion for a church. Not merely a
church spiritual, but a church material ; and it must be
good-looking, too. Wherever there are a few families
gathered together, they get up a meeting-house of some
kind. When they increase in numbers, they split up
into various sects, and each sect must have a mjeeting-
house of its own. They do not wait for the first one to

i'^K/^iS-

• Draw, pp. 379, 380, 381.

,,i:'fiA ;»^ia|

become full ; for none of them do become full, because the
people subdivide, and swarm off. They expend an undue
and unreasonable part of their time and substance in
building churches ; and their zeal leads them to go beg-
ging for aid in the work. Their ministers have canvassed
the United States and England, contribution box in
hand ; and by appealing to sectarian zeal, got the means
of building up tabernacles of brick or wood, trusting to
their own zeal for gathering a congregation. All this
shows that the religious nature of these people, being but
imperfectly developed, needs to be exhibited in the
concrete fDrm. &• ■^■' m.. ^^rr 5?> ;.!;'{..• j-^v; ■■^^ h\i ■

They improve, however, in this respect, under free-
dom, and manifest their religious instinct under higher
forms than slaves do. It is a common remark that the
religion of the negroes in slavery is purely emotional;
that it does not prevent sinful lives ; and that the most
pious of them lie and steal without hesitation and with-
out remorse. A little reflection will show that it could
not well be otherwise. The religious instinct is certainly
very strong in the negro, and it must have gratification
in some outward manifestation ; either in the lowest form
of adoration of God, to secure personal preference with
Him, here and hereafter; or in duty to God, shown by
obeying the natural laws of conscience and morality as
His laws ; or in love to God, shown in good works and
love to man. In which of these forms the religious
instinct shall be manifested, whether the lowest or the
highest, depends, of course, upon the degree of inward
cultui'e, and the nature of putward influences. The mas-
ters know that the religious Instinct of the slave cannot

be suppressed, and they beck to divert its manifestation
in such way as will ler*'it affect the market value of the
man. They withhold culture, stifle thought, and feed
the religious appetite with dry dogmas and creeds. Of
course, the instinct, so confined, can manifest itself only
in the lowest form ; anri the slave's religion must be such
as touches him and his personal welfare, here and here*
after. His God must be personal and mighty ; but not
necessarily spiritual and holy. His heaven must be
material and gorgeous, but his bare belief must be a
ticket of admission. His hell must be very hot for
others, but easy of escape for him. • ^

The higher form of manifestation of the religious
instinct, in the development of conscience and moral
sense, is hardly possible among slaves, except in those
rare cases where spontaneous development amounts to
moral genius, and makes the man a perfect law unto
himself. With an ordinary slave, the moral sense can-
not develop itself, and rule the life. Continual fear, and
the cravings of ungratified animal instincts, prevent it
He must live, and evade painful work and stripes, rather
than not lie. He must have bread enough to eat, rather
than not steal it. The denial to him of the natural
rights of man prevents any exercise of the correlative
duties, and of course any clear understanding of them.
Like many free men, the main thing with him is to be
right Godward, and with a view to heaven, no matter if
he be all wrong manward ; and with better reason than
others have, because, even without definite consciousness
of the fact, he feels that all men are wrong towards him.

As to the highest form of manifestation of the reli-

gious instinct, love to God shown in good works and in
loTe to man, it is hardly possible to the ordinary mortal
who owns nothing — not even his time, his children, nor
himself. With all the lower and selfish propensities and
desires for personal happiness thwarted, yet ever craving
gratification, how can the higher ones have exercise and
growth?

The efiect of freedom upon the Canadian refugees has
been to lessen the manifestation of the religious instinct
in the lower or merely emotional forms, and to increase
it in the higher forms of conscience, morality, and good
works. Love of God manifests itself less in care about
themselves, and anxiety about their own future condition,
and more in care for others. Their piety is less nasal,
and more practical. They pray less vehemently, but lie
and steal less readily. They profess religion less, and
practise it more. Here is one instance in which the
religious instinct manifested itself in the form of pious
work and the performance of duty, rather than in mere
emotion and noisy demonstration.

" There was a large gathering of colored people at a
sort of Methodist love feast to celebrate the completion
of a church. The building of the church had been a
long and painful business. They had been much per-
plexed about the ways and means, and each one had
exerted himself to the utmost. After the usual prayer
and hymn, there was an inspiriting exhortation by the
pastor, and then the people were urged "to express
themselves." One after another got up and spoke simply
and earnestly, but very forcibly ; and every one congrat-
ulated himself upon having been humbly instrumental in

" getting up tlie church." They thanked God that they
had heen able to render help in that good work. The
pastor, an emotional man, but clearly inferior to many of
his flock in point of mind and character, tried hard to
stir up some stronger emotion, and to bring oiit noisy
demonstration by interrupting the speakers with " That's
right, brother!" "Glory to God!" " Hallelujah 1 " and
the like. But he had no success. The consciousness of
good works gave more satisfaction than windy declara-
tions of faith and hope. As a last resort, he struck up

, ^ " John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,

His soul is marching on," &c.

And in this all joined with great enthusiasm ; men, women
and children shouting out the chorus heartily. The con-
crete Christianity shown in the old hero's self-sacrifice
was comprehensible to their religious sense.

Again, their societies for the relief of new comers, or
of the feeble and destitute, their private charities, their
attentions to the sick, their tributes to the memory of the
dead, are all ways through which their religious 'nstincts
find gratification in action. If these, or such as these,
were wanting, of course the instinct would crave gratifi-
cation in mere emotional manifestations.

It is further charged, that the slaves are incapable of
vital religion, because the most pious of them so fre-
quently lead unchaste lives. But the fountain can rise no
higher than its source. The religious instinct of a servile
class cannot develop itself in any higher form than that
which it assumes in the dominant class, and which
governs the relations between them. It cannot be high,

if these grow out of low and selfish motives. It cannot
be purti, if the relations between the classes are impure.
Now, it is notorious, that in one respect, the relation is
disgustingly impure. No clasp with any claim to gentle
blood ever so demeaned itiielf as our slaveholders do. No
men, claiming to be gentlemen, ever so defiled themselves.

It is commonly asserted, that in the South, very
few white men grow up chaste, and that chastity
is unknown among the slaves. This may be exag-
gerated, but it is certain that the inevitable ten-
dency of American slavery is not only to bring
about promiscuous intercourse among the blacks, and
between black women and white men, but also to
involve white women in the general depravity,' and to
lower the standard of female purity. Southern gentle-
men, and Turkish gentry, both indulging in gross
personal licentiousness, think they secure superior virtufe
among women of their own caste by certain social
restraints, and by ferocious vengeance upon the violators
of their honor ; and both are mistaken. The subject is
repulsive, bui whoever examines critically the evidence of
the social condition of the Slave States, sees that the
vaunted superior virtue of Southern women is mere
boast and sham. . i

Nature cannot be cheated ; virtue cannot be made to
flourish in a vitiated social atmosphere ; and it is vitiated
through every stratum of slaveholding society. Out of
this corrupt community came the crowds of colored
refugees within our military lines, who are found to be
so grossly dissolute that some good men despair of them,
and adopt the slaveholders' doctrine, that the negro is

not capable of that moral culture which makes licen-
tiousness seem shocking, and makes personal purity
essential to self-respect. But, out of this atmosphere
came also the free colored people of the North, who, in
spite of political disfranchisement and other disadvan-
tages, already begin to show the effect of breathing a
better atmosphere by their growth in moral purity. Out
of this atmosphere came also the Canadian refugees, who
have already shown that with freedom, and a high social
standard before them, they tend upward to virtue as surely
as whites do in like circumstances. They show it by set-
ting themselves in families ; by respecting the sanctity of
marriage ; and by general improvement of morals.
There are hundreds and hundreds of families whose lives
are above reproach. We found there men of natural
refinement, living happily and securely in the marriage
state, who declared to us that they had always shrunk
from the idea of marrying while in slavery, because they
could feel no assurance about the previous purity of
young women, and no security against forcible violation
of their domestic honor. ■; ».**»; v

Treatment of Women. ^ - u^

When freed from the coiTupting influences of slavery,
the kindly nature of tlie negro makes him more ready to
render justice and respect to woman, thar the more
selfish nature of the white races allow them lo do. The
courtesy of the free colored men to their women is well
known in the United States ; and it is even more marked
in Canada. Indeed, the respect paid to women by
colored men, as soon as they become free, is one of the

most hopeful signs for their race ; a sign \irhich the
the North American Indians seldom give. A striking
instance of this is shown in Liberia. Mr. Cowan met
there many whom he had formerly known in Kentucky,
and he says there was a change in them for the better.
The change was in their manliness, their respect for each
other, and " the respect of the men for the women."'*
The Constitution of Liberia declares — •

** That the property of which a woman may be possessed at
the time of her marriage, and also that of which she may after-
wards become possessed, otherwise than by her husband, shall
not be held responsible for his debts, whether contracted before
or after marriage. Nor shall the property thus intended to be
secured to the woman be alienated otherwise than by her free
and voluntary consent ; anu such alienation may be made by
her, either by sale or devise, or otherwise." fnt^

The Constitution further sets forth, that "

" Adultery, the seduction of a wife or daughter, and the
breach of a contract, engagement or promise to marry, are
injuries of a peculiar nature, and partake of a criminal char-
acter, and actions in regard to them partake of a criminal >
character." . -. . -

There is a most interesting fact connected with these
provisions. At the instance of the Colonization Society, an
eminent juristf drew up the Constitution for the colonists,
and it was sent to Africa, and submitted for their adop-
tion. But the original draft contained none of these
provisions securing the rights of women. They were
inserted by a committee of colored men in Liberia.

• " Liberia as 1 Fopnd it." p. 63.

t Professor Greenleaf, of Cambridge, Mass.

fi, t.

^•^f??y*'

GENTLE DISPOSITION OF REFUGEES.

' Akin to their religious character, there are certain
moral qualities in the negro which are strongly exhibited
by the Canadian refugees. Among these are their for-
giving tempers, and their affectionate dispositions.

The idea has been advanced in this paper, that the cross
between white and negro races serves to lower the tone of
the whole animal nature of the progeny, and give less
manly force to the intellect than is possessed by either
parent race. But whatever may be its eifect upon the
mental powers, it does not lessen the moral capacities,
but, on the contrary, it seems, by softening some of the .
animal passions, to prepare men for a mission of love.
No white race has ever yet learned to turn the unsmitten
cheek to the smiter ; a black one may. The mulattoes
do not show so much ferocity as still lingers in the most
civilized white races, and which is sure to burst out
when they are hard pushed by oppression or want. It
is this lack of ferocity which has enabled the slaveholders
to push oppression in some parts of the country to the
utmost limit of human endurance, without danger to
themselves ; for they knew it was the worm and not the
adder upon which they trod.

Canada is full of men and women who, in the first
half of their lives, were witnesses and 'sufferers of such
indignities and wrongs as would burn into most white
men's souls, and make them pass the last half in plotting
vengeance. Not so these people. They cherish no spirit
of vengeance, and seem to have no grudge against their
oppressors. The memory and recital of their wrongs do
not arouse such bitter feelings, and call out such maledic^

tions, as would certainly be heard from white men of
similar exi)erience.

Only a single instance is recollected in which a feeling
of unsatisfied vengeance was manifested; but many
could be recalled where the old master and mistress were
spoken of with kindness, and a regret expressed that
they would not be seen again. -

' The testimony of Mrs. Wilkinson is a case in point.

"I was raised," said she, "in Winchester, Virginia; I was
treated kindly by the Dutchmen with whon: I lived, and they
freed me after lyy husband ran away, and gave mo my son,
when he was about three years old. My husband came here
because he wanted to be free. He was not treated right. I was
living very well — same as if I was free, although they hadn't
given me my free papers. I had no hardships. There were
two sets of cliildren, and when the old gentleman was dead, the
second set of children thought that they and their mother better
give me my freedom and let mo go, because, if slie died, they
didn't know but the first set of children might come in and
ensi'ivo me. 1 was twonty-eiglit years old when 1 was freed.

" I 7as over here twenty-one years, and then went back just
to see the old place and all my friends. That was six years ago.
1 saw my master's family. I wanted to se" them — indeed I did,
for I nursed tliem. I brought them with me, and will gettliem
and sliow them to you. (Mrs. W. here left tlie room, and
returned presently with a daguerreotype, wliich she handed to
Dr. Howe.) 1 nursed that man when he was a child. His name
is John Hoover. I nursed his brother, too. Tiiey thought a
good deal of me, and wouldn't do anything at all without asking
me. Tins (another likeness) is a picture of my young master's
cousin. Khe gave it to me herself, thinking I might not go})ack
again, but I don't know but I shall. • ' ' *

" I have seen a good deal of hard treatment of others, but
never had any myself. I was just raised up like one of the
family. I used to call my master " father," and the old lady
" mother," until I came to Ijliis country. Tiiat is the way I
was raised. I came off to follow my husband."

It is remarkable that even the refugees who fled to
escape brutal treatment express no dislike to the whites
generally. Many often speak of their old mistress with
tenderness, and of her children as beloved playmates.
Many would like to go back and live in the old place, but
never as slaves. ,

- Among the minor virtues of these people is that of

. »>

i V r, ; ;i : Cheerfulness.

Indeed, the disposition to mirthfulness seems to be so
strong in the negro as almost to merit .the name of a
peculiar quality. Oppression keeps it down for a time ;
but it continually breaks out in jollity, and there is often
more fun and laughter in the cabin than in the master's
house. This disposition grows out of their very organ-
ization, and their peculiarity in this respect may be
among those marvellous arrangements by which Prov-
idence prepares races for the parts they are to bear in the
drama of existence. Indeed, some physiologists assert
that the Caucasian race, during uterine and infantile
growth, passes through " certain stages of form," which
are so much more persistent in the African race as to be
characteristic of it. May there not be something akin to
this in the moral development of the race ? The white
man seems to pass out of that phase of young life
abounding in mirth and jollity, when he passes beyond
boyhood, while the negro remains longer in it, if indeed
he ever gets out of it at all. At any rate, the negroes in
this country are proverbially mirthful and childish. In
the South, they are considered as children, and grown
men are called " boys." v- - •

100

But the whole bodily organization and the resulting dis-
positions are modified by external influences, especially in
a cross breed. We have seen how the physical organiza-
tion of the negroes has been modified at will, and just
such kind of men produced as the market demanded. But
this is not a'l. Slavery is instinctively discriminating in the
moral, as well as the bodily qualities which it cultivates
or represses. The Polish youth in the military schools,
established and directed by the dominant Russians, used
to assert that while the most rigid military discipline was
enforced, and the slightest breach thereof was punished
without mercy, moral discipline was not only neglected,
but such vices as gambling and licentiousness were
encouraged by being merely winked at. A sinful life
would make them less likely to be Polish patriots, and
more likely to be Russian mercenaries. So, for a slave,
mirthfulness is wholesome and harmless ; but thinking is
dangerous. The one promotes the growth and strength
of the body, and that belongs to the master ; the other
promotes the growth and strength of the soul, and that
belongs to the slave.

Moreover, slavery stunts the growth of individuality,
and strives to make boyhood lifelong. Of course,
there can be no true manliness without the feeling of
independent individuality and the habit of self-guidance,
and slavery prevents the exercise of these. Then there
can be no character without responsibilities and cares,
and slaves have few of them. In Canada, the negroes
seem to have a more sober aspect. They look older at
the same age than slaves do, and are not so rollicking
and jolly. This is said doubtingly, because other

101 • ; ';

obiservers of them say they are more mirthful through
life than whites are.

In summing up their moral qualities, it may be said
of the Canadian refugees generally, that like the mulat-
toes of the Northern States, they seem a little effeminate,
as though a portion of the grit had been left out of their
composition. It may be, that with their African blood,
they have inherited more of womanly than of manful
dispositions ; for Africans have more of womanly virtues
than fiercer people have. Indeed, it may be said that,
among the races, Africa is like a gentle sister In a family
of fierce brothers. . , -

General Conclusions^ drawn from Observation of the Con-
dition of Colored People of Canada West. ' .^-

1st. That the negroes of Canada, being for the most
part hybrids, are not of robust stock, and are unfavor- .
ably affected by the climate ; that they are infertile, and
their infertility is increased by intermarriage with each
other ; and therefore, unless their number is kept up by
immigrants from the United States, or by some artificial
encouragement, they will decrease and disappear in a few
generations.

2d. That, with freedom and equality before the law,
they are, upon the whole, sober, industrious, and thrifty,
and have proved themselves to be capable of self-guidance
and self-support. . :*

3d. That they have set themselves in families, and
hallowed marriage, whereby sensuality has lessened, and
amalgamation between the races nearly ceased.

102

4th. That they are exceedingly imitative, but incline
to imitate what is most worthy of imitation in the society
about them, and are decidedly improving in knowledge
and virtue.

5 th. That those situated upon farms show ability,
industry and skill enough to manage them, though their
isolation retards their mental improvement.

6th. That when they congregate in large numbers in one
locality, and establish separate churches and schools, they
not only excite prejudices of race in others, but develop
a spirit of caste among themselves, and make less pro-
gress than where they form a small part of the local
population.

7th. That prejudice against them among the whites
(including the English) is engendered by the same cir-
cumstances, and manifested with the same intensity, as in
the United States.

8th. That they have not taken firm root in Canada,
and that they earnestly desire to go to the southern
region of the United States, partly from love of warmth,
but more from love of horde. . . . v .

9th. That, compared with the whites, the per centage
of crimes indicative of lax morality is large; that of
crimes indicative of malice and ferocity, all things
considered, is not large; and that the percentage of
pauperism is very small indeed.

10th. That, upon the whole, they promote the indus-
trial and material interests of the country, ai.! are
valuable citizens.

103

General Inferences to he drawn from the experience of

Negroes in Canada, as to the probable effect of giving
freedom and equality before the law to all Negroes in

the United States.

Ist. That with freedom and the ownership of property,
the instinct of family will be developed, marriages will
increase, and promiscuous intercourse decrease. That
the tendency of this change to increase population will
be more than counteracted by the inferior fertility of the
mulatto breed, when not invigorated by crossing with
pure types, black or white ; so that the colored breed
will soon begin to 3crease,

2d. That, under freedom, we may safely rely upon the
natural laws of affinity to check amalgamation of races,
which slavery encourage^, by putting a premium upon
the offspring, and in other ways. :. h :-

3d. That with entire freedom of movement and secu-
rity from oppression, much of the colored population of
the Northern and Western States will be drawn by the
natural laws which govern movements of peoples towardi
the tropical regions, carrying with them social influences
which will sf'ftcn the ferocity now prevalent, and be
beneficial in many respects.

4tli. That the negroes of the South are capable of
self-guidance and support without other protection than
will be needed by poor whites ; and that they will be
loyal supporters of any government which ensures their
freedom and rights. , ^.a- . - i -..i'li

5th. That when living in communities with whites in
not greater proportion than one thousand to fifteen or

104

twenty thousand, antagonism of race will hardly be
developed, but the negroes will imitate the best features
of white civilization, and will improve rapidly.

6th. That it is not desirable to have them live in
communities bv themselves.

7th. That they will be docile and easily governed by
laws, and however given to petty offences, will not be
prone to crimes of grave character ; that they will be
peculiarly susceptible to religious influence, and excel in
some of the Christian virtues. j ■ ..■■^.'. -

8th. That they will not be idle, but industrious and
thrifty, and that there will be less pauperism among
them than is usual among our foreign emigrants.

9th. That by their industry and thrift they will for-
ward the industrial interests of the country, without the
fearful demoralization heretofore caused by their oppres-
sion and debasement.

Finally, the lesson taught by this and other emigra-
tions is, that the negro does best when let alone, and
that we must beware of all attempts to prolong his ser-
vitude, even under pretext of taking care of him. The
white man has tried taking care of the negro, by slavery,
by apprenticeship, by colonization, and has failed disas-
trously in all; now let the negro try to take care of
himwelf. For, as all the blood and tears of our people in
this revolutionary struggle will be held as cheap, if they
re-establish our Union in universal freedom, so all the
suffering and misery which his people may suffer in their
efforts for self-guidance and support will be held cheap,
if they bring about emT'ncipation from the control of
the whites.

-'»*<'»"•■■«' H-ir f>C'!. '•'

', flC«;':

-':■'}/''';

APPENDIX.

[Note, p. 17.]
' It was expected that the resuU of inquiries, instituted, would be known
soon enough to enable us to give in tiiis Report a more exact e^^tiraale of
the population ; but it is not. From all information received, however,
it appears that the estimate given on p. 17, is not too high.

The following extract from a Report of the School Trustees of the
City of London, proves that the census return of that city was entirely
wrong ; and that probably the colored people were included in the
column of Whites. The Abstract of the Census Report, 1861, states,
[page 49,] that there are 35 colored persons in London. But the
School Report, dated November, 1862, shows that there were 153
children, of whom 96 were of "school age." :. , :k^

" Your Committee have employed careful parties to make an enumeration*
of the families of colored citizens, the number of children in each family, the
number over five years of age, and the number attending school. From the
statistics so collected it appears that the whole number of colored families in
the city is as follows : —

Wabd.

1,
2,
8,
4,
5,
6,
7,

Families.

Number of
Children.

School Age.

153

Attending
School.

Your Committee append, for the inspection of the Board, the lists made out

by the enumt'rators from which the foregoing epitome has been taken, and

which shows that the number of colored families in the city is about 55, the

number of children* 153, of school age 96, and the number attending school 50."

-11.

106

There has been no movement of the population which can by possi-
bility have caused such a change.

[Note No. 2, p. 61.]
Extriiot from a Report of a Sub-Committee to the school trustees,
City of London, November, 1862. _

" 1. Your Committee are fully satisfied that a feeling is widely diffused
among the people, whether well or ill-founded it is useless to inquire, that the
negro difTers so essentially from the Caucasian race in organic structure, in
the effects of climate influences, or both, that any close or intimate relations
with them are not desirable. While this feeling exists, while it prevails among
the white population to such an extent, it is wrong, it is cruel in us to force
their children into the same classes with those of the colored people. Besides,
your Committee have seen that the children themselve sympathize in this prej-
udice of their parents, and manifest a strong dislike to being seated with
their colored class-mates ; and sometimes this feeling of repugnance is so
strongly shown as to require the intervention of the teacher's authority to
suppress it. When such is the case, it is vain to expect either harmony or a
kindly feeling to prevail in the class-room or play-ground : but rather must we
expect to find, on the part of both, a mind predisposed to take and give
offence, a bandying of offensive epithets, embittered, acrimonious feelings, and
juvenile quarrels. In these petty disputes the parents frequently take part ;
• complaints are made, and will continue to be made by both parties, that their
children have been insulted ; and, by the colored parents, that theirs have
been harshly and perhaps unjustly treated.

There is but little prospect, your Committee fear, of this state of things
being remedied while the system of uniting both races in the same classes
continues.

2. Your Committee feel it a duty imposed upon them to state plainly —
though the task may be an ungracious one — that from some unexplained
organic cause, the close proximity of these people, children or adults, is disagree-
able to their white neighbors. Your Committee will not be deterred, through
any feeling of false delicacy, from stating that, in a close class-room, during the
summer months, this effluvium is highly offensive to many of the children, and
still more so to many of the teachers. It is very true this cannot be, with any
justice, brought against them as a charge for which they are responsible :
neither do your Committee wish it, but still they esteem it a powerful reason
why a separation should be sought, as the case admits of the application of no
other remedy.

3. Your Committee feel convinced that there is, and must be, a want of
sympathy between the teacher and this part of her scholars, which is injurious
to both. The teacher knows that, in the discharge of her duty, she ought to
treat all alike ; that she should, without any visible constraint, self-imposed or
otherwise, manifest the same affection for one as another. But this she cannot
do ; and the little colored child feels with disappointment, mingled with grief,

107

that it has not the same easy access to the heart of the teacher that others
of a similar age and character possess. Hence originates the conviction, even
when still young, that they arc not placed upon the same footing as others.
Suspicion is aroused, and they begin to watch with a jealous eye every move-
ment of the teacher, to compare her bearing towards them, the manner in which
she recognizes their wish to please and their endeavors to excel, with her
bearing and manner in respect to similar conduct on the part of the other
children, and draw their own inferences therefrom.

Your Committee are certain that any keen observer can make up his mind
upon this part of the subject, in an evening visit to any of the classes where
these colored children are most numerous, by observing the different manners
in which the two races take leave of the teacher for the day. The beaming
eye and radiant smile with which the little white girl approaches her
teacher, indicate a warm and assured recognition of her salute ; while the
little African stands wistfully apart, gazing on the scene, or moves off with
either grief, jealousy, or a dogged indifference, visible upon its countenance."

There was much more to this effect ; but not one word of censure
upon teachera, who by their " want of sympathy" proved themselves to
be unfit for their duties. A vain effort was made to amend this most
discreditable Report, by inserting the following words : — , ,

" That, believing the colored population to be a portion of the human
family, who have chosen Canada as the land of their adoption, and being loyal
subjects of her Majesty the Queen, wc consider them fully entitled to all the
civic and religious rights of British subjects, and reject now and henceforth
the report of Messrs. Webb, Graydon, &c., which, if ever acted upon,
would deny them those equal rights dear to every Briton, and subject them
to a great amount of inconvenience and persecution." , • -

The Report was finally amended, by substituting for Section 3d, a less
offensive one ; but the question of substituting a caste school for the
common school ; of expelling colored children from the common school,
and restricting them to the caste school, was settled in the affirmative,
by a vote of ten to three. Illessrs. Alex. Johnston, McPherson, and
Ross, having manliness and pluck enough to vote against the measure,
as "Anti-British." , , .

BUXTON SETTLEMENT. • * . -i.

[Abstract of the Testimony of Rf-v. William King.]
This settlement was formed in 1849. I brought fifteen of my own
people here, [slaves whom he had emancipated,] and have trusted to
voluntary emigration since. They formed the nucleus of the commu-
nity, and others came in. In August, 1850, I procured an Act of
Incorporation from Parliament. The whole of my plan was this : —

108

to provide th(><<e people with a home, and their children with an educa>
tion ; and with these two things, I felt confident every bic^^ing would
come. Tiiu men were charged $2.50 an acre for the land, to be paid in
twelve nnnnnl instalment?. When a fugitive came to me who had not
a cent, I nnid to him, " You can go to work, and cam twelve dollars
and a half, and pay the first instalment on your land, and have ten
years in wiiidi to pay the rest." They were all able to pay the first
instalment, for the railroads were being built at that time, and they
could readily get work. I taught them never to ask for a cent, if they
could earn it themselves. You would hardly ever see one of t*^em
begging, and wo have endeavored to cultivate that principle throughout
the whole. They have supplied their own tools and cattle. I was at
considerable expense in establishing the settlement, but I have asked
no fee or reward, because I knew the moment I did so, it would be said
I was aclip;:; from mercenary motives. I formed an association, in order
to secure all this land, if they failed to purchase it themselves, because I
knew speculators would come in and b'.y it up if I did not take that
precaution.

The houses here were put up by the colonists themselves, after a
model furnished them, 18 feet by 24, twelve feet high, and set thirty-
three feet from the road, and enclosed with a picket fence. In three
years after I came here, there were one hundred men who could become
British subjects. We can turn out 150 or IGO voters for members of
Parliament now, and 220 voters for councillors. I had an anti-alienation
clause inserted in the deeds, so that these people could not transfer their
land to a white man until they had been here for ten years. That has
kept them a compact body, so that the political power ihey have got will
protect them. Prejudice has melted before that political power, and
now the people are respected and elected to office — paih-masters, school
trustees, and councillors. That is as high as we can get ; for a white
man would never vote for a colored man as member of Parliament.
In this district, we have had two Councillors in one year.

At the present time, two thousand acres are deeded, in fee simple,
one-third of which has been paid for, principal and interest. The
whole block contains nine thousand acres. The population of the set-
tlement is about one thousand — men, women, and children. I have
made them self-supporting in all material matters, and they are more
than half self-supporting in their schools at the present moment. They
have established two schools in the northern part of the settlement, of
which they pay all the expenses, and as soon as I can get them to pay
for the land, I shall make this school [the central] self-supporting.
Tbfe most that any of them owe on fifty acres of land is $183. I
expect to settle the whole thing up in eighteen months. I have no

109

doubt in regard to their paying every cent on their land. I am making
arrangements to get all the deeds out this fall, and let them borrow
the money from a money-lender and pay what is due, giving him mort-
gages, which I am sure will all be paid in eighteen months. They are apt
to take advantage when they find they are not compelled by necessity to
pay what they owe. Out of all who came in, there were only three
who had their first instalment paid by a friend. I took the notes of the
three parties for the amount ; one of them paid, but the others will not.
If the friend who advanced the money had been a Jew, they would
have paid him. I have known some of the men to borrow a hundred
dollars for their own purposes, and it has always been repaid.

From the day I came here to this, there has not been a drunken col-
ored man in this settlement. No man is allowed to sell liquor in this
settlement ; and to the honor of the people be it said, that when one
man came on our borders and opened a grog-shop, he could not remain
twelve months, for they would not support him. But if brought together,
and lefl to idleness, they would soon become demoralized. ' vmi •

With regard to the climate, I find that when the colored people are
clothed the same as Canadians, it has no more influence on them than
on whites. Those I brought from Louisiana stood the climate just
as well as those who were born in the North. In general, they are
quite robust and healthy. There has been but very little sickness in
the settlement. We have had no epidemic. We vaccinate the people,
and have had but one case of small-pox.

There are some large families here. There is one man with fourteen
children ; another has twelve ; another, ten. They are about half blacks
and half mulattoes. The average of children to a family is about three,
— not including the deaths. I don't think the mortality here has been
any greater tlian it would have been in any settlement, under the same
circumstances. I think the mulattoes are not so long-lived here as the
whites or the blacks. And even in New Orleans, Dr. Stone — very
good authority there — stated to me that he was of opinion that the
mixed race would die out in four generations. I have watched that
matter since, and it seems to me that, as a class they have not the same
stamina as pure blacks or pure whites.

Only four illegitimate children have been born in this settlement ;
and that is a better state of things than you will find in Europe. In
England, Scotland, or Ireland, the proportion of bastards is much
greater. The people here consider it a disgrace. I observe that they
pay a very great respect to chastity and to the marriage relation. They
all want to be proclaimed in church three times. There will be cases of
infidelity among them, but the guilty parties are not respected. The
most blame falls on the woman. Very few cases of adultery have

come under my observation. I strongly suspect three or four women,
from their conduct among men ; but I have no proof of their
criminality.

We have had one or two cases of petty larceny, and one of man-
slaughter. The class we have here has been very free from pilfering t
it has been an exception to the generality of the race. I will tell you one
fault they have ; when they borrow an article from me, they never
return it. I cannot say they have stolen it ; but they neglect to return it.

If freedom is established in the United States, I don't think it will
have any effect upon the settlers here ; but the young men and yoinig
women who are educated here will go down there, because they cannot
get white schools here to teach, such is the prejudice against them, and
there are not colored schools enough to employ them. I don't think col-
ored schools will be multiplied here, because they are not expedient, and
in a few years I think there will be but few lefl in the Province. I have
never encouraged the formation of villages, because 1 thought the main-
stay of the people would be agriculture. If any of the settlers are
unfortunate, the others freely help him. There are thirty orphans in
the settlement, who are supported by different familie^j.

This settlement is a perfect success ; there is no doubt about that. I
am prepared to prove tlmt in any place. Here are men who were bred
ilk slavery, who came here and purchased land at the government prices,
cleared it, bougiit their own implements, built their own houses after a
model, and have supported themselves in all material circumstnnce.s, and
now support their schools, in part. I charge them twenty-live cents a
month for schooling, when they are able to pay it. Not one-fourth pay
here, where there is no compulsion ; but in the government schools,
where the law obliges them to do so, they all pay it. I consider that
this settlement has done as well as any white settlement would have done,
under the same circumstances ; and I am prepared to prove that a colored
community can be made industrious and self-supporting, if they are
properly treated. I have no doubt that the colored people of your coun-
try, as soon as the war is over, if they are put upon the farms of the
South, will become self-supporting. A finer class of laborers cannot be
found in the world for raising cotton. Only introduce Northern capital,
or Southern capital, give them full remuneration, and in a short time
you will find them an industrious, i-espectable, self-supporting community.

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