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 DISCOURSE, 
 
 ON T H K 
 
 MORAL, LEGAL AND DOMESTIC CONDITION 
 
 OUK COLORED TOPULATION, 
 
 P 11 E A C II V. Y) E E F O n K T II E 
 
 VERMONT COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 
 
 MON T P y L I E |{, OCT DISK It 17, 183: 
 
 IJ Y J . K . CONY J:] USE, 
 
 PastDr ufllio First (',)ii;;n'^';Ui(mal Cliiir.-I:, nurlin-loii, Vt. 
 
 Y 
 
 BURLINGTON: EDWARD SMITH 
 
 {Successor to Chauncey Goodrich.) 
 
 1832. 
 
•\^ 
 
 Rev. J. K. CoNVEHsK. 
 
 As a coiiiiiiitteo of tin; Veniioiit Coluiiizatioii Societ}', I am requested 
 to present you tlieir very cordial tliatiks for your able and interesting 
 discourse delivered last evening, and also to reejuest a copy of the same 
 for publication. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 C. WRIGHT. 
 Mo-NTPKi-iER, Oct. lS;h, 1832. 
 
 Rev. C. Wright. 
 
 In rejjlytoyour note of this morning, and incompliance with the request 
 of the Colonization Society of Vermont, I send you herewith, a copy of 
 the discourse presented last evening. If the Society think its publication 
 will serve the cause, which it was intended to promote, it is clieerfully 
 committed to their disjmsal. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. K. CONVERSE. 
 Mo.NTPELiER, Oct. ]8th, 1832. 
 
 F 11 1 ) .M 'J' II i: 1^' A' I V j: 11 s I -r v i- ii i: 
 
DISCOUHSE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 And if thy brothnr, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee and serve theo six 
 years, then in the seventh year thou shall let him go free from thee. 
 
 And when thou sendest hira out free from thee, thou shall not let him go away empty ; 
 
 Thou shall furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press ; 
 of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed tliee, thou shall give unto him. 
 
 And thou shall remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God 
 redeemed thee ; therefore I command thee this thing to day. Dent. .xv. 12 — 15. 
 
 These words contain an injunction from Jehovah to 
 the Jewish nation soon after their emancipation from 
 Egyptian bondage. They were designed to teach them 
 lessons of humanity and kindness towards all men, and 
 especially towards those who might be in a state of 
 servitude or subordination among themselves. 
 
 When the great Lawgiver of the Jews under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, was preparing his code for 
 the government of the people, he gave to it one very 
 remarkable feature, which provided that, at the end of 
 every seven years, the debtor, the servant and all the 
 oppressed should be set at liberty and allowed to go out 
 free among their brethren. On the year of release, or 
 at the season of the great national jubilee, the command 
 in reference to all persons of this description was. Thou 
 shall let the oppressed go free : and obedience to this 
 command was enforced by one of the most striking and 
 powerful of all arguments in the closing words of our 
 text : For thou shall remember that thou wast a bondman 
 in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeerned 
 thee. This was a direct and powerful appeal to their 
 own feelings, — to their vivid recollection of their own 
 recent sufferings under a most rigorous bondage. The 
 Hebrews were to exercise compassion towards those 
 
who had been oppressed among them, not only because 
 this was right in itself, but especially because God had 
 exercised compassion towards them when in bondage 
 and had delivered them out of it. 
 
 According to the Jewish law, if a man for debt or 
 crime or any other cause, were sold into bondage, he 
 could not be retained in this condition more than six 
 years. On the seventh year at the longest he could 
 claim his freedom. And if the year of jubilee or of 
 release occurred before the end of six years' service, on 
 that year he was to receive his free discharge. And let 
 it be especially observed that the servant or bondman 
 thus set free, was not to be sent away empty. — The 
 injunction in the text was designed to prevent this. Jlnd 
 if thy brother, an Hcbreiv man or an Hebrcio woman, be 
 sold unto thee and serve thee six years, then in the seventh 
 year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when thou 
 se7idest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go 
 away empty : TJiou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy 
 flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine press ; of 
 that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou 
 shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that 
 thou least a bondman in the land af Egypt and the Lord 
 thy God redeemed thee. 
 
 Again, in verses seventh and ninth of this chapter, 
 this injunction is repeated in reference to all poor persons. 
 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren 
 within any of thy gates, in thy land which the Lord thy 
 God giveih thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor 
 shut thine hand from thy poor brother : But thou shalt 
 open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend 
 him sufficient for his need, in that lohich he wanteth. 
 Beware that there be not a thought in thy icicked heart, 
 saying, the seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, 
 
and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou 
 give him nought, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, 
 and it be sin unto thee. 
 
 Thus, the law not only required the Hebrews to 
 emancipate those who were in bondage at an appointed 
 time : It ak^q required them to furnish their emancipated 
 servants with the means of beginning in the world for 
 themselves. They were rightly supposed to have 
 nothing of their own. They had received no wages for 
 their service, and they must still be slaves or servants 
 in every thing but the name, unless they were furnished 
 from some source, with the means of getting into a 
 condition in which they might be really free. 
 
 Every one must see that the words which we have 
 chosen as an appropriate introduction to the subject now 
 before us, apply with peculiar force to the people of this 
 land and to the circumstances of the age and country in 
 which we live. Many of our ancestors were once 
 oppressed in the land of their birth for the truth's sake, 
 but God delivered them out of all their troubles and 
 brought them to this Canaan of hberty and plenty and 
 distinguished christian privileges. 
 
 Again, at a subsequent period, our fathers were 
 oppressed and threatened with an 'Egyptian bondage,' 
 and again, the Lord redeemed them, and brought them 
 out ' with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.' 
 
 All who now hear me have been in bondage in the 
 service of sin and satan ; but there are some, and I hope 
 many, here, whom the Lord our God hath redeemed and 
 brought into the glorious liberty of the so?is of God. 
 May we not, then, ought we not to bring to the 
 consideration of the subject now before us, the solemn 
 recollection, that both we and our fathers have been 
 bondmen in several important respects ; may w^e not 
 
also bring those grateful feelings which ought to be 
 awakened by the assurance that the Lord our God has 
 redeemed us from our bondage. 
 
 So pertinent are the words of our text to our 
 circumstances as a people, that they seem to have been 
 uttered with prophetic view to the age and country in 
 which we live. We as a christian nation, like the Jews 
 of old, profess to receive Jehovah as our sovereign, and 
 Jiis law as our rule of action. Like the Jews, Ave 
 hold many of our poor brethren in a state of servitude 
 and degradation. More than 2,000,000 are in this 
 condition. They have been in this condition not merely 
 seven years, but more than twice seven times seven 
 years. The season of our nation's jubilee has just passed 
 away. The outward demonstrations of gratitude and 
 joy with which it was hailed, through every part of the 
 land, have scarcely died upon the ear. To us then, on 
 this occasion, the injunction of the text comes, clothed 
 by the Spirit of God, in all its original authority. Let the 
 oppressed go free, Isa. 58. 6. For Thou shalt remember 
 that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and the 
 Lord thy God redeemed thee. 
 
 The plans and proceedings of the American Colo- 
 nization Society, whose cause we plead this evening, are 
 all based upon the assumed fact, that we have among 
 us a numerous population, who are not only deprived 
 of personal liberty, but are sunk extremely low in 
 ignorance and moral degradation ; and who, though they 
 might be made freemen in name, can never be raised to 
 the rank and privileges of freemen in this country. 
 
 I do not intend on this occasion to enter into a 
 discussion of the abstract right or injustice of slavery. 
 On this point, among us, there is probably but one 
 opinion. — Taking the system of slavery and our colored 
 
population just as we find them, it will be my object to 
 show that the plan of colonization, is the best plan for 
 improving the condition of our colored people, and for 
 freeing our country from the evils and dangers of a 
 mixed population. And that the strong motives to effort 
 in this cause, may be seen and felt in all their force, 
 we shall take a general view of the moral, legal and 
 domestic condition of our colored population. The most 
 lamentable effect of the system of slavery as it exists in 
 this country, is the woful degradation of one sixth part of 
 our population, or of more than 2,000,000 of human 
 beings. Most of them are in bondage. They are 
 connected by no natural tie, either to the soil on which 
 they live, or with any other class of our population. 
 
 I. / am to speak first of their moral condition. And 
 my first remark here is, that the great majority of our 
 colored people are sunk as low in ignorance and vice 
 as we can conceive it possible for human beings to be, 
 in the midst of civihzation and christian institutions. 
 This fact is undeniable in respect to a large portion of 
 them. They are as emphatically heathens as any that 
 can be found on the continent of Asia. — This may seem 
 a strong assertion ; and you are ready to ask, why is 
 the African race among us sunk so low in the scale of 
 being? — To this question there is an easy and ready 
 answer. An obvious reason for the moral degradation 
 of our colored population is, that they are placed, both 
 by our laws and by pubhc sentiment, totally beyond the 
 reach ot those great moral motives and stimulants 
 which form the characters of white men and raise them 
 to their respective grades of moral and intellectual 
 dignity. What are the motives which form the characters 
 of white men ? They are plainly such as these ; aspi- 
 rations after wealth, ease, power, reputation, a share 
 
8 
 
 in the common honors and privileges of society and 
 future happiness. These are the objects which all 
 really freemen place before them in idea, and for the 
 attainment of which they do instinctively apply all their 
 powers. But not one of these motives, (except the 
 last) can be made effectually to reach and touch the 
 springs of action in the slave, for the plain reason, that 
 he can never hope to attain one of these objects, how- 
 ever much he may desire it. The slave, for example, 
 cannot expect wealth, because he labors, not for himself, 
 but for another. The master treats him on the principle 
 that when he is well fed and clothed he can want 
 nothing more. This principle may apply very w^ ell to 
 beasts of burden. But can you bring human nature 
 down to this ? no, never ; you cannot bring the slave to 
 this. He does desire more, and more he will have ; 
 and acting on the instinctive principle that every man 
 is justly entitled to the product ot his own limbs and 
 labor, and regarding what his master claims as property, 
 as the product of his limbs and labor, he therefore steals 
 it. And as the property of all the masters in a given 
 district is the product of all the slaves in that district, 
 therefore all slaves have a right to steal from all masters. 
 This mode of reasoning and practice, though all wrong, 
 is perfectly natural to them in their condition. Hence 
 it happens, that where no rehgious restraint interferes, 
 to be a slave and to be a thief is much the same thing. 
 And human nature under any other complexion, would 
 exhibit the same features. 
 
 Again. The colored man can have no moral motives 
 in the hope of acquiring power, for whether he is a 
 bondman or nominal freeman he knows very well that 
 the exercise of his power can never rise higher than to 
 a very little influence over his companions in degradation. 
 
9 
 
 Again. The colored man, in this country, can derive no 
 moral stimulants from the hope of gaining a reputation 
 or establishing for himself a character, for he knows 
 perfectly well, that the learning of a Plato, the piety of 
 an Apostle and the refined manners of a Courtier, can 
 never raise him to a level with the white man, or procure 
 for him a place in the social privileges and public honors 
 of his country. His exclusion from these depends not 
 at all upon his talents, or his literary or moral qualities. It 
 depends wholly upon the fact, that he is a colored man, a 
 misfortune, alas, totally beyond the power of his control. — 
 Such is the condition of every bondman. Those nominally 
 free among us, are scarcely in a better condition. With 
 all the cares, burdens and responsibilities of freemen 
 they have none of its substantial benefits. All prospect 
 of amalgamation with the whites is forever cut off. Their 
 associations are, and, in our southern country must be, 
 chiefly with slaves. They can have no political influence 
 in our public counsels. The bar, the bench and the 
 medical profession will forever be closed to them here 
 by an impassable barrier. 
 
 I ask then, since things are thus, how it can be 
 otherwise, than that the colored race among us should 
 be sunk to the lowest depths of civihzed ignorance and 
 vice? Every principle of enterprise that can have an 
 influence m elevating the character of a man, is swept 
 away from them. They feel that they are devoted to 
 worthlessness and ignorance. They bid farewell to 
 hope. Their grand principle of action is, 'let us eat 
 and drink, for to-morrow we die.' They freely give up 
 to every unholy passion and lust, and thus furnish, in 
 their debasement, a living commentary on the declaration 
 of the prophet that the heart is deceitful above all 
 things and desperately wicked. 
 2 
 
10 
 
 There is, then, as we have seen, no moral motive 
 that can be made eifectually to touch the springs of 
 intellectual and moral action in our colored population, 
 except that which is drawn from religion ; a motive, 
 which assures them that they wall be rewarded or 
 punished in a future Ufe according to the character they 
 form here. And now, we ask, what has been done to 
 bring them under the influence of this motive 1 Or, in 
 other words, to instruct them in the principles and duties 
 of the christian religion ? Truth must answer, almost 
 nothing, has been done. — The laws of the south strictly 
 forbid their being taught to read ; and they make no 
 provision for their being orally instructed. Ministers 
 sometimes preach to them, under peculiar and severe 
 restrictions of the law. But with all that has yet been 
 done, the majority are emphatically heathens, and, what 
 is very strange, heathens in the midst of a land of 
 sabbaths and of churches, of bibles and of christians. 
 Yes, through some strange defect of pubhc sentiment, 
 we, as a visible church and a christian nation, have 
 looked on year after year ; — we have seen from one to 
 two millions of immortal beings, of the same nature with 
 ourselves, endued with the same powers of mind, and 
 with as quick sensibilities of heart, destined to the 
 same judgment bar ; to be undistinguished sharers with 
 us in the same eternity, abandoned to palpable ignorance 
 and fanaticism, wdth 30,000 of them yearly passing into 
 eternity, without any hearty efforts or systematic plans 
 for instructing them in the religion of Jesus Christ. For 
 such neglect, there must be guilt somewhere. 
 
 I w^ould not be understood to say that the slaves of the 
 south never have the opportunity of hearing the gospel, 
 or that all pious masters neglect their religious instruction, 
 for such would not be the truth. The slaves sometimes 
 
11 
 
 have the opportunity of hearing the gospel, but they 
 have no disposition to improve it. They have no respect 
 for the sabbath : As they are confined to hard labor 
 during six days of the week, they claim the right to 
 spend the sabbath as they please : Accordingly, they 
 usually do spend it in visiting, hunting, in riot and 
 drunkenness, in carrying to market their stolen property 
 or the little produce which they have honestly cultivated 
 around their mud-wahed cabins. 
 
 Pious masters, (with some honorable exceptions) are 
 criminally negligent of giving religious instruction to their 
 slaves. It has long been neglected and masters have 
 fallen into a deep sleep in reference to this matter. 
 They can and do instruct their own children and perhaps 
 their * house servants'; while those called afield han(ls\ 
 live, and labor and die, without being once told by their 
 pious masters that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. 
 Indeed this is a most ungrateful task to the master. He 
 is so much accustomed to speak to them in the rough 
 tone of sternness and authority, that it requires an effort 
 most revoking to his feelings, to assume the kind and 
 gende accents of a christian teacher. 
 
 Intemperance and theft are vices to which the colored 
 population of the south are very much addicted ; so much 
 so, that it is proverbially said that they are constitutionally 
 inclined to these vices. But the undoubted fact is, that 
 they are no more predisposed to them constitutionally, 
 than white men would be in the same circumstances. 
 
 Finally, in respect to the moral condition of slaves, it 
 should be remembered, that there are no laws regulating 
 marriage among them. An apology for a marriage 
 ceremony is sometimes attempted among the higher 
 order of ' house servants ;' — is celebrated, perhaps, by 
 a minister of the gospel or a civil magistrate ; but even 
 
12 
 
 then, it has no legal validity, and may continue only so 
 long as shall suit the caprice of the parties or the 
 convenience of the master. The law, in this, as in 
 other things, respects them only as property. The 
 effects of such a state of things, on their moral character, 
 need not be described to this assembly. 
 
 I have thus far spoken chiefly, of the southern slave, 
 but the moral condition of the great body of the free 
 colored people, throughout the union, is but litde better. 
 They, too, are placed, by their color and by pubhc 
 sentiment, totally beyond the reach of those great moral 
 motives which form the characters of other men ; and 
 for proof of their general degradation, I need only state 
 the fact from the reports of the American Prison 
 Disciphne Society, that the penitentiaries of some of our 
 free states, contain seven blacks to one white man, when 
 the ratio of the two kinds of population is considered. — 
 In Mass. only l-74th part of the population is colored, 
 but l-6th part of the convicts are colored. Here then, 
 we have one sixth part of the crimes and convicts out of 
 l-74th part of the population. In Connecticut, l-34th 
 part of the population is colored and l-3d part of 
 the convicts. In New York, l~35th part of the 
 population is colored but l-4th part of all the crime and 
 convicts is from this 35th portion of the population. The 
 proportion in Pennsylvania is the same. — In New Jersey, 
 1-1 3th part of the population is colored and one third 
 part of the convicts. According to this calculation, 
 the colored population of our free states is seven fold 
 more degraded than the whites. In Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, one fourth 
 part of the money expended for the support of convicts 
 and paupers, is expended on colored convicts and 
 paupers. — These remarks and statistics are still more 
 
13 
 
 applicable to the free blacks in the slave holding states. 
 They are there placed midway between freedom and 
 slavery. They feel neither the incentives and stimulants 
 of the one, nor the wholesome restraints of the other ; and 
 they are alike injurious by their conduct to every other 
 class of society. They are not only sunk to the common 
 level of the slave in moral degradation, but are often, far 
 below him in poverty and wretchedness. — Though nom- 
 inally freemen, they are in fact slaves, — slaves in public 
 sentiment, and slaves to every vice that debases human 
 nature ; for, what is freedom without the emancipation 
 of the intellect. What is freedom, without the possible 
 opportunity of developing and bringing into action those 
 powers which a benevolent God has conferred upon us. 
 It is a vanishing vapor ! It is a name without a meaning. — 
 So much for the mora/ condition of our colored population. 
 
 II. The legal condition of our colored popidatian. 
 It is known to some present, that the African race, 
 who are in bondage among us, are not governed by 
 the same laws with the whites, but by a totally distinct 
 code. Many of the laws insdtuted for slaves, w^ould 
 appear rigorous and cruel in the extreme, to those 
 unacquainted with the circumstances which called them 
 forth. In Virginia, where the laws are as mild and 
 those in bondage are as well treated as in any state in 
 the union, the standard of capital punishment for the 
 white man, is one thing, but that for the slave is quite a 
 different thing. — No slave is sent to the penitentiary 
 for any crime wdiatever ; and for the obvious reason, that 
 if slaves were sent there for the same crimes wdth 
 white men, acres of land and millions of dollars would 
 scarcely furnish an establishment large enough to contain 
 and support the multitudes that would flow into it.— Most 
 
14 
 
 of the crimes punishable in white men hj penitentiary or 
 fine, when committed by slaves, are punished with death. 
 Thus, stealing or being accessary to the stealing of a 
 horse, by the white man, is punishable by imprisonment 
 or fine, the same crime by a slave, death. So the 
 burning of outbuildings by a white man, imprisonment or 
 fine, by a slave, death. So of a hundred other crimes, 
 such as the breaking open a warehouse or store ; forgery 
 of various kinds, the embezzling of public property or 
 documents, subject the slave to death ; others, only to 
 fine or imprisonment. 
 
 Again, the deep moral degi'adation of the slaves is 
 acknowledged and proclaimed to the world, by a law 
 which declares that no testimony of a slave, or of any 
 number of slaves, can be received in a court of justice or 
 before a magistrate, against a white citizen. An army 
 of slaves cannot convict, a white man of a capital crime 
 committed before the eyes of them all ; though one, or 
 two white men could convict an army of slaves of the 
 same crime under hke circumstances. 
 
 Agam, in most of the slave holding states, the laws 
 strictly forbid masters to emancipate their slaves unless 
 they remove them out of the limits of the state. And 
 all servants thus emancipated, if found within the state 
 twelve months after emancipation, may be taken up by 
 any sheriff and sold again into hopeless bondage, unless 
 they have obtained citizenship, in the mean time, by 
 application to the legislature. These laws, rigorous and 
 unrighteous as they may seem, w ere like, others already 
 named, dictated by stern necessity. The southern 
 states were driven to these measures in order to prevent 
 the accumulation of an evil, already paralyzing their 
 physical and moral energies and threatening them 
 with destruction. And even now, under the rigorous 
 
15 
 
 execution of these enactments, their free colored 
 population is increasing four per. cent, faster than the 
 whites. But there is one feature of these measures 
 which cannot be defended from the charge of inhumanity 
 and oppression. If these states are determined to drive 
 these unhappy beings from their borders, after being 
 enriched by their sweat and toil, they are bound by all 
 that is honorable and sacred, to provide for them an 
 assylum, or furnish them with the means of getting to 
 one, already provided. Even the criminals of Great 
 Britain, when compelled by sentence of the judge to 
 leave their country, are treated with more humanity. 
 They are taken up and transported at the public expense 
 and in the public vessels, a distance of nearly 10,000 
 miles, to the continent of New Holland. 
 
 I will nodce one more of the slave laws of the south, 
 and let that suffice to illustrate the legal condition of our 
 colored population. I allude to the enactment which 
 forbids the teaching of colored persons to read or 
 write. In five of these United States, the first article 
 of whose political creed is, that ' all men are born free 
 and equal ;' not only slaves, but all colored persons, 
 however good their character, are forbidden, under 
 heavy penalty, to be taught to read or write. This 
 surely is a measure which can not be defended from 
 the imputadon of cruelty ! To hold the body in 
 perpetual and hopeless bondage is hard enough ! but 
 to bind the soul — the immortal spirit — created in God's 
 own image, which Christ died to redeem; — to bind 
 this, in chains of ignorance and eternal darkness, is 
 indeed cruel ! and the maintaining in our country a 
 system which demands such an expedient as a measure of 
 safety, imposes a tremendous responsibility somewhere. 
 
16 
 
 "Wo for those who trample o'er a mind! 
 
 A dealliloss thing. — They know not \v)iat they do 
 
 Or what they deal with.' Man perchance may bind 
 
 Tlie Flower his steps have bruised; or light anew 
 
 The torch ho quenches, or to music wind 
 
 Again the lyre-.string, from his touch that flew. 
 
 But for the soul! O tremble and beware 
 
 To lay rude hands uiion God's mysteries there. 
 
 The o])ject of these enactments is to keep the colored 
 race ignorant of their condition that they may be retained 
 the more quietly in bondage. But the plan for this object 
 is utterly vain. As well might they attempt to build up 
 walls to the heavens, to shut out the light of the sun. 
 No precaution can cause the slave to forget that he is a 
 slave. No ignorance, hovvcver abject, can eradicate from 
 his bosom the indelible stamp of nature, whereby she 
 has decreed man free. No rigors of legislation can 
 suppress the deep and earnest yearnings of his heart 
 after freedom. 
 
 Such are a few specimens of the laws for the government 
 of the colored race. I have not alluded to them for the 
 purpose of awakening a feeling of reproach towards our 
 sister states of the south. God forbid that I should do this. 
 Those unfortunate states deserve not your reproach ; 
 much more do they deserve your sympathies, your 
 prayers and tears. For many are the christians and 
 patriots there, who are at this moment mourning over 
 the circumstances which make such rigorous measures 
 necessary for the safety of themselves and families. 
 The very existence of such laws, is a demonstration 
 of the proposition with which we commenced these 
 remarks, viz. that the slaves of the scuth are sunk as 
 low in ignorance and moral degradation as it is possible 
 for human beings to be, in the midst of a civilized and 
 christian nation. And this is upon the ve'ry obvious 
 principle, that the severity of law must be in proportion 
 to the tendency to resist; i. e. in proportion lo the 
 
17 
 
 degradation and vices of those over whom the law is 
 instituted. Hence, if the rigors of the slave laws of the 
 slave holding states, be ten-fold greater than those of the 
 common law, it only proves the fact that the slaves are 
 ten-fold more degraded than the rest of the population. 
 III. Their domestic condition. Did time permit, it 
 might be interesting to you, to describe the domestic 
 habits, manners, usages, and superstitions of the southern 
 slaves. We might speak of the habits and treatment of 
 those born slaves, in their infancy and childhood, — of 
 the kind and quantity of food and the mode of ' giving it 
 out' to them ; — of their allotted tasks and treatment in 
 the field under the direction of overseers ; their treatment 
 when sick ; their African customs still retained and 
 transmitted among them ; of their festivals and holidays, 
 funerals &c. Did we wish to move your feelings, we 
 might speak of their coarse and often scanty fare, of their 
 unremitted and unrewarded toil, of their stripes at which 
 mercy weeps, of their crowded bazaars of mud and misery, 
 of the frequent sundering of families, of the unattended sick 
 bed, and the unwept grave. — The rules of management 
 adopted by masters are various, in different sections of 
 the south and even in the same districts of country. In 
 several of the respects here referred to, the treatment 
 of slaves is much better than is generally supposed by 
 our brethren of the north. Yet there is every where 
 seen enough of wrong and outrage, of misery, degradation 
 and cruelty, to call forth from the bosom of the beholder 
 the confession of the poet. 
 
 " There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart ; 
 It does not feel for man ; the natural bond 
 Of brotherhood is severed as the flax 
 That falls asunder at the touch of fiic. 
 Man finds his fellow guilty of a skin 
 Kol colored like his own ; and having power 
 
18 
 
 To enforce tlie wrong tor sucli a worthy cause^ 
 Dooini and devotes him as his lawful picy." 
 
 " And worse than all and most to be deplored 
 As human nature's broadest, foulest blot, 
 Chains him, and tasks him and exacts his sweat 
 With stripes tliat mercy, with a bleeding heart. 
 Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast. 
 Thisn what is man .' — and what man seeing this. 
 And having human feelings, does not blusli 
 And hang his head, to tliink himself a man. 
 I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
 To carry me, \o fan me while I sleep 
 And tremble when I wake, for all tlie wealth 
 That sinews bought and sold have ever earned. 
 No ; dear as freedom is, and in my heart's 
 Just estimation, prized above all price ; 
 I had much rather be myself the slave 
 And wear the bonds than fasten them on him." 
 
 Such is the moral, legal and domestic condition oi 
 one sixth part of our population ; degraded, abandoned 
 to heathenism in a christian country ; doomed, under 
 the form of law, to the grossest ignorance that ever 
 darkened the human mind, and oppressed with a bondage 
 more rigorous and hopeless than ever attended slavery in 
 any other form. Interested men may disguise the fact, 
 but slavery, though disguised, is slavery still. Degraded 
 they must be in this condition : For ' the day that 
 deprives man of his liberty, robs him of one half his 
 manly virtue.' 
 
 The condition of our free colored people is in fact but 
 very little better. Of these, we have in the United States 
 more than 300,000 whom ice call freemen, whom the law 
 calls freemen, but whom we treat as aliens. We treat 
 them as citizens in nothing. We place no dependence 
 on them for the defence of the country. They cannot 
 be elected to civil offices of any kind. They cannot 
 hold charters and privileges as a pubhc body. And there 
 are a hundred other privileges and immunities, common to 
 white citizens,from which they are excluded by law. They 
 
19 
 
 must be forever shut out from the bar, the bench and the 
 medical profession, by the inexorable force of prejudice. 
 All hope of amalgamation with the rest of the community- 
 is cut off by the same reason. In this respect, their 
 situation is peculiar. Among the Greeks and Romans, 
 their slaves were of the same color with themselves, and, 
 on being emancipated, might, in one or tw o generations, 
 amalgamate with the rest of the community. Against 
 such a result in this country there is an insuperable 
 barrier. — The scheme of colonization is the only one 
 which can deliver our colored population from their 
 degradation and misery, and place them where they 
 can be really free and happy. 
 
 Such are the evils growing out of African slavery, to 
 the colored people themselves ; evils, which the plan of 
 colonization proposes to remove. But there are other 
 evils growing out of this system which are sorely felt by 
 the United States. 
 
 Of these, in the second part of this discourse, I propose 
 to take a brief review. And 
 
 1. Slavery is now acknowledged by our ablest 
 politicians to be a heavy curse to the whole country ; 
 and especially so to the south. It is ruinous to the 
 whites ; it retards improvement ; roots out an industrious 
 population ; banishes the yeomanry of the country ; 
 destroys all incentives to enterprise, and is followed 
 by many decidedly immoral influences. — Independent 
 of its dangers, it is now, in the south, the greatest 
 obstacle to the advancement of society. The prosperity 
 and advancement of a state must ever be estimated 
 by its increase of inhabitants, industry and wealth. 
 Guided by this standard, we see at once that the 
 largest and oldest of the slave holding states are 
 already left far in the rear of their younger sisters. 
 
20 
 
 Take the State of Virginia for an example. The 
 valuation of the lands in the State of New York, now 
 exceeds the value of all the lands together with all the 
 slaves in Virginia, the largest and oldest state in the 
 union. Virginia is scarcely increasing her inhabitants at 
 all. Of the vast tide of emigration, which is yearly 
 rolling like a flood to the west, scarcely a trickling rill 
 finds its way into the ' Old Dominion.' Of the multitudes 
 of foreigners daily seeking a home in this empire of 
 liberty, how many turn their steps towards this region 
 of the slave ? Not one ! There is a malaria in the 
 atmosphere of a dense colored population, which they 
 shun as they would the cholera or the deadly atmosphere 
 of the Upas tree. It is a truth, that some of the'iairest 
 portions of that once illustrious state, are going to ruin, 
 and slavery is acknowledged to be the cause. The 
 traveller is often astonished at the wide spreading 
 desolation which he meets with there ; — the deserted 
 villages and mansions ; immense fields left without 
 culture, extensive forests, which if cleared and cultivated 
 by voluntary industry, would support millions ; — forests 
 to which the wolf, that was driven back by the approach 
 of man, at the first settlement of the state, is now 
 actually returning, after the lapse of a hundred years, to 
 howl over the desolations of slavery.* 
 
 2. The dangers arising trom the rapid increase of a caste 
 in our nation are not to be overlooked. These dangers 
 are yearly augmenting by the natural horror of slavery 
 and the strong feehng of hostihty to the whites, which 
 
 • Ifthe picture of the desolations of slavery'here drawn,shoulilbe thought by any to be exaggerated, 
 it is but justice to remark that the figure of the returning wolf is not a mere imagination of the 
 author of the discourse. He recollects having seen the fact asserted, or an expression to the 
 •ame effect, in the speech of a southern gentleman before the American Colonization Society at 
 Washington. The quotation is made from memory, and the author of this discourse is unable 
 to decide whether he is indebted for it, to George W. Custis Esq. of Washington, or to the Hon. 
 Mr Mercer of Virginia. 
 
21 
 
 exist in the breasts of the slaves ; by the discussions in 
 our public journals, and by the inflammatory publications 
 which are clandestinely spread, in spite of all efforts to 
 suppress them. The tragic scenes of St Domingo and 
 the more recent horrors of the Southampton massacre, 
 have opened the eyes of the nation. These dangers 
 are fearfully felt in those states where the blacks are the 
 majority and have the physical strength, as is the case in 
 South Carolina, Louisiana and eastern Virginia. What 
 a state of society is that to dwell in where the master, 
 as he rises in the morning to open his doors for admitting 
 his domestics, fmds it necessary to go armed with a pistol, 
 not knowing whether he is to meet a friend or deadly 
 enemy in the person of his servant 1 Yet such is the 
 feeling when dark rumors and suspicions of insurrection 
 are abroad. There is a trembling apprehension which 
 agitates the bosoms of our southern brethren and tells 
 them that they are not safe in their own homes. Some 
 may shut their eyes against the light and cry peace and 
 safety, but the ghosts of the Southampton tragedy will rise 
 up in long array before them and tell them there is 
 danger. — These dangers are felt and deeply felt by the 
 stoutest hearts. — During the recent massacre in Virginia, 
 it was the fortune of the speaker (if he may be permitted 
 to allude to a private incident) to be near the scene of 
 action, in a neighboring city of 14,000 inhabitants, nearly 
 one half of which were blacks. It was rumored that on 
 a certain night the scenes acted in Southampton were 
 to be attempted in that city. Many thought the rumor 
 was groundless : But still such was its power over the 
 fears of the people, that the Governor of the Estate 
 assembled his council, called out and armed a regiment 
 of 1000 men, to protect the city against what might 
 happen on that anxiously expected night. And not- 
 
22 
 
 withstanding even this precaution, that was a night of 
 gloom and ten*or to many hearts — to many widowed and 
 defenceless families. Many were the eyes on that and 
 several successive nights, forsaken of their wonted 
 slumbers. Every sound that fell upon the ear seemed 
 to be the harbinger of death. At the distant barking of 
 the dog ; at the sound of a human accent in the street, or 
 of a footstep upon the pavement, or of the rusding of a 
 leaf upon the window, the fond mother pressed her babe 
 more closely to her bosom, not knowing but it would be 
 the last embrace this side of eternity ! And this was 
 the feeling which prevailed not for a day or a week, but 
 for months. This is the feeling which is every year 
 awakened by floating rumors of conspiracy and massacre. 
 The dangers from this source are accumulating. In 
 South Carolina, while the whites have scarcely doubled 
 their numbers during the last forty years, the blacks 
 have nearly trebled theirs. In the five original slave 
 states, (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina and Georgia,) the whites, in forty years, 
 have increased only eighty per. cent, while the slaves 
 have increased 112 per. cent. — According to calculations 
 made by a late secretary of state, the blacks among us 
 double their number in about twenty five years ; the 
 whites only once in twenty eight years. — In twenty five 
 years the slaves will be four millions ; in fifty years eight 
 millions, in one hundred years thirty two millions. And 
 what will this fair republic be worth Avith thirty millions 
 of ahens and enemies in her bosom ? Colonization will 
 then be out of the question ! As well may you think 
 to move the world ! And will these thirty millions, 
 gathered as they then will be in the south, still submit 
 in quietness to the yoke of bondage? Let St Domingo 
 answer. Let the more recent horrors of Southampton 
 
23 
 
 answer ! Let the page of history answer ! No ; it is 
 impossible. They will be free : And if they are not 
 freed before by christian kindness, they will rise in the 
 consciousness of their might, and shake the yoke from 
 their necks as the lion shakes the dew-drop from his 
 mane ; they will wrest the rod from the master's grasp, 
 and the children of this generation may yet walk in 
 chains amidst the sepulchres of their fathers ! Here 
 then is the evil with its fast accumulating dangers. It 
 is already so appalling in its aspect that very few dare to 
 look it in the face. But is it wise to hug a serpent in 
 our bosoms until we begin to feel the piercing of its 
 fangs ? This evil is now^ in our power. And shall it 
 not be removed 1 
 
 Such are some of the evils, the degradation, the 
 cruelties, dangers and blighting political influences arising 
 from the introduction of a colored population into the 
 United States. — For these evils, the plan of colonization 
 offers an efTectual remedy. The objects which the 
 Colonization Society aims to accomplish, are. 
 
 First. To rescue the free colored population of this 
 country, ft'om the degradation and proscription to Vv hich 
 they are here exposed, and place them where they can be 
 free and happy, under the influence of the great moral 
 motives which form the characters of other men. 
 
 Secondly. To free this country from the unnumbered 
 evils of a colored population, and thus avert the danger 
 of a dreadful collision between two castes which must 
 inevitably be objects of mutual jealousy to each other. 
 
 Thirdly. To spread civilization and Christianity through 
 the 100,000,000 who now people the continent of Africa. 
 
 And fourthly. To put a stop to the nefarious 
 tratiic of the slave trade. That it is competent to the 
 accomplishment of these great objects, under the blessing 
 
24 
 
 of God, is proved bj the success of its infant efforts. 
 The scheme of the American Colonization Society, is 
 a noble conception. It is a stupendous plan, encircling 
 in its wide embrace, a nation of degraded men, and a 
 continent of heathen. It aims not merely at benefiting 
 this country and the colored population of this country. 
 In addition to this, it is a foreign missionary society. 
 It is such to the churches of this land ; it is such in its 
 effects on Africa. It is in this light that the christian 
 ought to contemplate and patronize it. Every emigrant 
 of good moral character, which the Society sends to 
 Liberia, is a missionary. He carries with him credentials 
 in the sacred cause of liberty and free institutions, and 
 exerts a redeeming influence on all with whom he comes 
 in contact. If he be truly pious, he goes forth as a 
 missionary possessing advantages for evangelizing the 
 native tribes which no white missionary can possess. He 
 teaches by example as well as by precept. Similarity 
 of color and original cast of character, gives him a ready 
 access and a powerful influence over the native tribes. 
 The reason of the litde success of many of our efforts 
 to evangelize heathens, is doubdess, that we ^ have 
 attempted to christianize before civilizing them. This 
 work has been forced and unnatural, and has proved 
 abortive in many cases, as among the aborigines of this 
 country. But in Africa, we pursue the natural oixler of 
 things. Our emigrants and agents go forth with the 
 bible in one hand and the plough in the other. Both 
 parts of the work move on together. Our litde colony 
 there, though planted only ten years ago, and still in its 
 infancy, has already commenced the work as a band of 
 foreign missionaries. And for proof of this, look at its 
 present condition. — It now consists of about 3000 souls, 
 2000 of which were sent from this country ; the other 
 
25 
 
 thousand are re-captured Africans. These 3000 citizens 
 occupy the extensive, healthful and fertile territory of 
 Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, and constitute 
 an independent, republican and christian nation, in that 
 benighted land. They are settled chiefly in the three 
 villages of Monrovia, Caldwell and Millsburg. They 
 have three churches. The ordinances of religion are 
 regularly observed, and its precepts as well obeyed as 
 among ourselves. Sabbath schools are established and 
 well attended. Six permanent common schools, besides 
 some smaller ones, are in successful operation. Nearly 
 100 children from the native tribes are now training in 
 these schools, who will soon go forth to their respective 
 homes and scatter the light of civilization, religion and 
 free institutions wherever they go. Several of the native 
 tribes have repeatedly expressed their desire to receive 
 religious instruction from the colonists. One of these has 
 a population of 125,000. Three tribes, with their kings, 
 have put themselves under the protection of the colony, 
 and several others have desired the same privilege. 
 * They wish,' they say, ' to become Americans.' — 
 A news paper, ably conducted by a colored man, a 
 graduate at one of our colleges, has been established ; 
 and we see in its various notices of elections, public 
 roads, military force, commercial transactions &c., all 
 the marks of a well established and prosperous little 
 state. All this has been accomplished since 1822, amidst 
 much prejudice and opposition at home, and many 
 obstacles abroad, which must ever be met in setthng a 
 new colony. We can already see the lessons of wisdom, 
 liberty, religion and social order, speaking out to the 
 pagans of Africa, in the actions of 3000 living men : 
 Arid we can well conceive how, in a short time, 
 ignorance, superstition and civil darkness will flee away 
 4 
 
26 
 
 from a land into which the knowledge and practice of 
 such institutions shall be transplanted. Now, if such 
 be the progress and such the good influence of this litde 
 state while in its infancy, on the surrounding tribes, 
 what may w^e not expect from its vigorous manhood 7 
 The colony live under a free government of their own. 
 Their laws originate with themselves and rise naturally 
 out of their circumstances. Some of their late enactments 
 show that they understand the true principles of 
 legislation. They have adopted the sound policy of 
 taxing heavily the vices of the community for the support 
 of its virtues. For a license to sell ardent spirits, {^300 
 is exacted by the Liberian code, and the money thus 
 raised goes into their common school fund. — Our naval 
 officers bear the most ample testimony to the good order, 
 good habits and morals of the colony. The colonists 
 themselves, in a recent address to the free colored 
 people of the United States, hold the following language. 
 ' Our soil is not exceeded for fertihty or productiveness 
 by any soil in the world. The productions of the soil 
 go on through the year without intermission. We have 
 no dreary winter here for one half of the year to consume 
 the productions of the other half. Nature is constandy 
 renovating herself and pouring her treasures all the year 
 round into the lap of the industrious. — Our houses and 
 circumstances are perfectly comfortable. — 'The climate 
 of Africa,' say they, ' is not understood in other countries. 
 Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy and as long 
 lived, to say the least, as those of any other country ; 
 and for the last four years not one person in fifty from 
 the middle and southern states has died from the change of 
 chmate.' — The climate of Africa is decidedly salubrious 
 and healthy to all native Africans, and the children of our 
 colonists, it should be remembered, will all be natives. 
 
27 
 
 The successes and unparalleled prosperity of the 
 colony at Liberia, have forever silenced all opposers to 
 the scheme of colonization, and fully demonstrated its 
 practicability. The principal obstacle now in the way, 
 is found in the fact that it will not do to increase the 
 numerical and physical strength of the settlement faster 
 than we doits intelligence and moral power. If thousands 
 of new emigrants without education, without religious 
 principles, and without those habits wdiich are the result 
 of voluntary industry, should be at once united to the 
 estabhshment, it might become ungovernable. This 
 obstacle to our plan may be successfully avoided by 
 multiplying the establishments. As soon as the means 
 can be furnished, colonies may be planted at a hundred 
 different stations, from each of which we may expect the 
 same results as have already flow^ed from that of Liberia. 
 Thus, in four or five years time, the capacity of the 
 scheme will be sufficiently increased to receive yearly 
 the wdiole annual increase of our colored population. 
 This is estimated at 60,000. The cost of transportation 
 is ^25 for each emigrant. The expense of transporting 
 the whole annual increase would be ^1,500,000. This 
 appears to be a great sum ; but it is really small w^hen 
 compared with the good to be produced by' it. It is less 
 than 12J cents to each citizen of the United- States.-The 
 amount annually expended in the New England States for 
 ardent spirits, which does nobody any good, but spreads 
 disease and death, bankruptcy and ruin, for both worlds, 
 is more than sufficient to remove the whole annual 
 increase of our colored population. — We have in the 
 United States 2,000,000 of slaves. Estimating their 
 present value at $150 each, they are w^orth 120 milhons 
 of dollars. The whole expense of their freedom and 
 removal to Africa would be 170 millions. — The amount 
 
28 
 
 expended in this country for ardent spirits (being 
 ^30,000,000, annually) would, in six years time, unclench 
 the fetters of eveiy slave in the land, and comfortably 
 settle him in the land of his fathers. 
 
 The expense of our plan is no longer an objection. A 
 tenth part of our surplus revenue would accomphsh the 
 whole object. — It is estimated that 80,000 slaves were 
 torn from their home and country and brought into the 
 two ports of Havanna, and Rio de Jeneiro, in 1828. If 
 the wretches engaged in the nefarious slave trade, could, 
 find means to transport 80,000 human beings across 
 the atlantic, in a year; surely this powerful nation, to 
 rescue itself Irom the stain of slavery, and for spreading 
 the unfettered enjoyment of liberty, religion and human 
 happiness over the two great continents of America and 
 Africa, can accomphsh the conveyance of 60,000, or 
 even 100,000, to a land where they will be lords of the 
 soil. The immediate object of the American Colonization 
 Society, is to do good to the free colored people of this 
 country. It offers to remove to the land of their fathers 
 all who are willing to go. No one is required to go 
 against his will. There are always enough ready to 
 embrace the privilege. At this moment, there are more 
 than 3000, who have taken a Pisgah view of this 
 promised land, and are anxiously waiting for the means 
 to help them across the Atlantic. — Will you help them 
 to go to this land of promise ? 
 
 But we solicit your patronage for the plan of African 
 Colonization as a powerful auxiliary in the cause of 
 foreign missions. The American Colonization Society, 
 though instituted primarily for another purpose, is, by 
 its natural operation, a foreign Missionary Society. It 
 is such to the churches of this country. It is such to 
 Africa. And is it not needed for this purpose 1 Let 
 
29 
 
 us look at facts and let them answer. The American 
 churches, since 1810, have expended a million and a 
 half of dollars, in establishing missions on the continent 
 of Asia and the islands of the sea. But they have not 
 planted a single pennanent mission on the African 
 continent. It is well known that all our missionary 
 operations have been directed to Asia and the Polynesian 
 Islands. All eyes have been turned to these corners 
 of the earth and waiting for the salvation of the Lord. 
 A..d may that salvation come : yea, let it speedily and 
 abundantly come. — But still we ask, why have the 
 100 millions of poor benighted Africans been entirely 
 overlooked in distributing the alms of our American 
 churches ? Is it because their souls are not as precious ? 
 
 •; Is it because they are not as needy ? Must we not 
 meet them also before the bar of God, as well as the 
 Bramin, the Indian, or the Laplander 1 Is it because 
 we ow^e to Africa, no debt of gratitude, no return of 
 
 \ sympathy ; after we, as a nation, and a chrisdan nation 
 too, have borne so large a part in tearing away, and 
 brutalizing her children, and are now holding two millions 
 
 • of them in hopeless bondage ? — Surely, if there is a land 
 on earth, that has claims on our prayers and charities, 
 that land is Africa ! For us as a nation, her country 
 has been made desolate, her fields laid waste, her 
 villages plundered and burnt ; and her children torn 
 away, brutalized, and doomed to pitiless bondage. — 
 If there is a single enterprise of this age, combining all 
 the motives that can move the heart of a man and a 
 christian, it is this which looks to the redemption of 
 Africa, and the well being of the poor African. Justice 
 and mercy, obligation and interest, the voice of humanity 
 within us, and the voice of eternal justice from the 
 heavens, the groans and tears of 2,000,000 of enslaved 
 
30 
 
 men in our own land, and the claims of 100 millions in 
 Africa, for whom Christ died ; all speak to us in a 
 language which cannot be disregarded without guilt. 
 To us then as christians, the appeal comes home ; are 
 we not called upon to aid in this cause of hght, and 
 liberty, and human happiness ? 
 
 Shall we, whose souls are lighted 
 
 VVitli wisdom from on high ; 
 Shall we to men benighted, 
 
 The lamp of life deny ? 
 
 When, when will christian charity aw^ake to the full 
 importance of this subject? Let American christians and 
 American citizens, discharge the debt they owe her ; and 
 soon shall we see Africa, ' long distressed and afflicted 
 Africa ; delivered from her miseries, her chains knocked 
 off, her spirit emancipated, rising up in strength and 
 beauty, like a new born angel from the night of chaos,' 
 stretching out her hands to God in praise, and invoking 
 ceaseless blessings upon America, as the means and 
 instrument of her redemption. 
 
 Bear this subject with you to the throne of grace. Let 
 it occupy your thoughts in the intervals of business. 
 When you sit down in the family circle, among those 
 with whom you mingle in the sweet communion of life, 
 to share the blessings of freedom and plenty, which a 
 bountiful God has bestowed upon you, think of two 
 millions of human beings, in these free. United States, 
 who are cut off from ail these blessings. And in the 
 disposition of your property, let not the claims of Africa 
 be forgotten. Remember that in patronizing the cause 
 we plead to night, you are aiding to rescue our free 
 colored population, from degradation and proscription ;- 
 to remove the dangers of a dreadful collision between 
 two castes, which may, at a future day, bathe the fairest 
 portion of our land in blood ; — you are aiding to arrest 
 
31 
 
 the nefarious traffic of the slave trade, which is still 
 carried on, except on the Liberian coast ; and last, though 
 not least, you are aiding to spread civiUzation and 
 relit^ion over one of the largest and most fertile continents 
 of the globe. These, under the blessing of God, are the 
 promised, the assured, and not very distant results of 
 the scheme of colonization. Yes, it will achieve the 
 intellectual and moral emancipation of Africa, through 
 the instrumentality of our emigrants and colonies. Our 
 own happy country, but two centuries ago, was as wild 
 and savage as Ediiopia now is. It has now become 
 an independent, happy, christian nation. It has grown 
 to its present prosperity and power, from christian 
 colonies like those we are now planting on the shores of 
 Africa. Our anticipations are not too large. The 
 vision is before us and it is sure. Yes, it is sure : The 
 promise ot the Omnipotent secures it. Princes shall 
 come out of Egypt ; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her 
 hands unto God. 
 
 It is indeed refreshing to the soul to look down the 
 vale of years to come, and enjoy in anticipation, the 
 results of the efforts which this century will make for 
 the redemption of long oppressed Africa. Often, when 
 contemplating this theme, does my fancy steal away 
 from the apathy and the cad realities of the past, and 
 convey herself onward, a hundred years, in the march 
 of time, to visit this regenerated continent of the slave, 
 as it will then appear to an admiring world. And do 
 you ask, what do I see in this pleasing vision of the 
 future ? — I see those moral lights, which our labors are 
 i kindling there, brightening, and spreading through those 
 dark habitations of cruelty. — I see one tribe after another 
 coming to the light of Zion, and to the brightness of her 
 rising. — I see Ethiopia awaking from her sleep, looking 
 
32 
 
 forth upon the light, and stretching out her hands to 
 God in praise. — I see long benighted and abused Africa 
 regenerated and peopled by two hundred millions of 
 christianized men. I see the dark and unbroken forests 
 which now stretch over the most fertile continent of the 
 globe, converted into rich plantations, crowned with two 
 abundant harvests in the year, as the reward of voluntary 
 industry. I see towns and cities rising up in peace 
 and beauty, along her ' ancient rivers' ; quiet cottages, 
 and thriving villages scattered over her ' palmy plains'; 
 churches and schools every where rising into being, 
 dispelling the long night of darkness and superstition, 
 and diffusing their mild influence through those regions 
 which are now the habitations of cruelty. On the plains 
 of the pyramids, I see the relics of those enduring 
 monuments of pride and superstition, converted into 
 temples of the hving God, and institutions of learning to 
 bless the land with all that is rich in human science. I 
 see the Muse of poetry and eloquence awaking from 
 her sleep of ages, shaking her slumbers from her brow, 
 and preparing her lyre for strains as sweet as ever 
 flowed from the corded shell of Terrence, her ancient 
 bard. I hear the familiar accents of my mother tongue 
 in aU her borders. I see the star spangled banner of my 
 country, waving in all her ports : And, instead of the yell 
 of despair wrung from the agonized heart of the pirate's 
 victim, I hear the song of praise and the voice of 
 christian worship ascending from the lips of two hundred 
 millions of enlightened, christianized and happy freemen. 
 
 i.Fua'!2 
 
 -^