SLAVERY
THE UNITED
EVILS, ALLEVIATIONS,
REPRINTED FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, OCT. 1851.
BOSTON:
CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN.
1851.
IN
S TATE S:
ITS
AND: REMEDIES.
.Is k -'j r,I
.i s 1. "I 
Whoever reads these remarks will see that the subject under discussion is treated
solely as a great social question; that the object has been to state some of the more
material facts, which must necessarily control action in regard to it, and to suggest
some practicable method of diminishing the evils of slavery, or of removing it altogether.  Whether wisely or unwisely, all reference to its bearings on the politics of
the day has been carefully avoided. Amidst all the changes of parties, slavery remains
among us, and there seems but slight reason to anticipate any great improvement in
the condition of the colored race in this country, through political action. At any rate,
it cannot be undesirable to keep in view any other modes of action which are within our
power; while the expression of the hope may be permitted, that a discussion of the
subject in a manner so aside from its party relations may do something to promote a
better and more friendly understanding between those whom the complex questions of
the time have brought into temporary opposition and conflict. In reprinting the article,
a few verbal alterations have been made, but they are of too little importance to require
any special notice.
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I 
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.*
IT would be very surprising if the institution of Slavery were not the
occasion of ceaseless discussion and agitation in the United States. It
is a matter of vital interest to the South, and, indirectly, of scarcely
less moment to the North. Its existence must of necessity be taken
into the account as a main element in determining the policy of the
General Government; political parties gravitate around it as if it were
a fixed magnetic centre; it exerts a controlling influence over the
industrial pursuits and relations of the country; and, what is of not
less importance, creates around itself a peculiar social state and classes
of interests which have been, and are likely to be, the occasion of perpetual irritation between the North and South.
It is a subject, which, above all others debated among us, ought to be
treated with calmness and candor; and, happily, there seems to be prevailing a fairer and more conciliatory spirit, and a growing disposition to
transfer its discussion from the tribunal of the passions to that of the
judgment. The temporary lull of political excitement furnishes a fitting
opportunity for presenting some of those considerations respecting the
more general aspects of slavery which are essential to the formation of
just conclusions, but which, in seasons of party strife, are apt to be
neglected. How far and how fast is the institution of slavery susceptible of change and amelioration- what are the prospects of its
being removed -and what can be done to promote its removal - -
* 1. Jamaica in 1850: or the Effects of Sixteen Years of Freedom on a Slave Colony. By
JOHN BIGELow.  Magnas inter opes inops: Horace.  New York and London: George
P. Putman. 1851. 16mo. pp. 214.
2. First Annual Report of the Trustees of Donations for Education in Liberia. Presented at the Annual Meeting, January 15, 1851. Boston: T. R. Marvin. 1851.
3.  Abstract of the Seventh Census: Aggregate, by States, of the White, Free  Colored,
and Slave Population of the United States, in 1850.  Published in the National Intelligencer. Washington. 
4
these are the great practical questions which present themselves to
most minds. We propose to consider them, partly on account of their
intrinsic interest, but with a particular reference to their bearing on
the subject of African colonization.
It is conceded on all hands, that the right to legislate in regard to
slavery belongs exclusively to the individual States in which that institution exists.  Each State has the right to abolish slavery within
its own borders, and no other State is permitted to interfere with its
action. The General Governmrent may, at most, admit it into*or exclude it from, the Territories of the Union, though, even in regard to
the right of exercising this power, there is not universal agreement.
But its authority certainly ceases when the Territories become States.
This single consideration, without reference to any thing else, shows
that the direct power, both of the General Government and of the Free
States over slavery, is confiGned within very narrow limits. Instead of
the several States deriving from the Union authority to interfere with
one another's domestic institutions, the organic law by which they are
united excludes them from such interference, and at the same time
relieves them from a corresponding responsibility.
There is, however, a limitation of our power over slavery far more
invincible than any imposed by arbitrary laws or treaties, growing out
of the manner in which it is wrought into the general framework of
our institutions.  Putting aside all questions which relate to the origin
and character of slavery, and viewing it simply under its present
aspects, the prominent fact which strikes one is, that it implies a
certain condition of society, -a stage of civilization, in which allwhites as well as blacks -are implicated. Were negro slavery, as
seems sometimes to be thought, a mere excrescence on the surface of
society, something exceptional and alien to its general structure, it
might with comparative ease be removed. But instead of its being an
exceptional excrescence, it is an essential and controlling element in
the whole social organization of the Southern people.  It penetrates
through and gives color to this organization. All the laws of the
South, its customs, its industrial pursuits, its social habits, are modified
by slavery. The education both of home and school, the notions of
what constitutes an honorable position, the respect paid to labor, the
condition of the church, the moral estimates of the true ends of life,
are all, more or less, determined by it. In different ways, its influence
is equally decisive on the condition of the slaveholders, the non-slave holders, and the slaves. The whites need to go through a training for
freedom scarcely less than the blacks. The master is as much fettered
to one end of the chain, as the slave to the other; and it would be
difficult to say which is least prepared for emancipation. 
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It is obvious that to reconstruct the whole fabric of society - which
is what is implied in any wise method of abolishing slavery -  can
never be the work of a day. Had the slaves been introduced a few
years ago into a community whose industrial habits and social judgments and moral feelings had been formed under free institutions, they
might be suddenly removed, and the transient void, soon filled, would
scarcely be observed. But to change the organic life of ten millions 
of people, to change institutions and ideas rooted in the past and
wrought into all the customs of common life, must, at the best, be a
very slow and gradual process.  To expunge slavery from the statute
book would be the least and easiest part of what is required, - far easier,,
certainly, than to legislate into the minds of whites or blacks the ideas
which belong to free institutions. Were legal slavery abolished at the
South, it would probably be centuries before it could be abolished from
the southern mind.  Even at the North, the black, when equal with
the white before the law, is as far as ever from having vindicated for
himself any position of social equality. In England, in spite of affinities of race and color, and general equality of culture, eight centuries
have hardly effaced the distinction between Norman and Saxon, and still
less that between Saxon and Celt. And thus far, all experiments in
emancipation, which have left the negro in the same country with his
former master -  for the British West Indies with the immense disproportion which exists there between whites and blacks cannot be regarded as forming any real exception -  show how nearly impossible it is
to overcome the barriers of race, caste, color, and historical association,
so that the two parties shall meet each other on equal terms.
Such considerations show plainly enough what formidable obstacles
are in the way of all attempts to remove slavery. And, what is of
still more consequence, they force upon us the conviction that any
change, which deserves the name of improvement, in the social condition of a people among whom slavery exists, must, from the necessity
of the case, be very gradual, and must be the result, not of revolution,
but of growth.
This is, in many respects, a very sad and discouraging conclusion.
There is one point of view, however, which ought not to be altogether
passed by, from which the picture seems to be relieved 8f-ome portion
of its depth of shadow. However deep-dyed in guilt slavery may comnmonly have been, both in its origin and its history, there are certain
conditions of society and a certain stage of progress in which, if it be
an evil, it has for the slave himself many counterbalancing advantages.
If the wrong in our own country has been on the side of the whites, upon
them also has fallen the heaviest part of the penalty. Jefferson, thinking of the whites, said "I tremble for my country, when I reflect that
I/ 
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God is just." His apprehensions of the retributions of heaven are, day
by day, blackening into more substantial realities. The very soil of
the South is blasted by slavery, and there is not one moral or social
interest which does not feel its disastrous influence. On the other
hand, it can scarcely be doubted that the blacks, on the whole, have
been benefited by their position. We do not mean by this that their
condition might not have been more favorable than it has been; and,
least of all, do we say it by way of apology for slavery. But it shows
that there is an overruling Providence which educes good from evil,
which makes evil correct or consume itself, and forbids it to be eternal;
.and, in doing this, makes us more patient with those social imperfec tions whose remedy is beyond our control.
The slaves of the South are, comparatively, not only a civilized peo ple, but we doubt if, in the whole history of mankind, a single example
can be adduced of a race of men starting from such a dep)th of moral
degradation and barbarism, and in a century and a half making so vast
an advance in civilization. This progress has been owing, as we be lieve, in no small part to the fact of their being slaves. Through this
relation they have been brought into close contact with a superior
race, under circumstances of restraint and excitement which have com pelled them to abstain from some of the most debasing vices, to form
habits of industry, and which have led them to catch rapidly the
social, moral, and religious ideas of their masters. This does not
extenuate the moral wrong of slavery, for it originated in no such
philanthropic purpose. It is a fact, however, not to be overlooked.
How  great this progress has been, is seen the moment they are sent
back to Africa, and placed side by side with those descended from the
same general stock. The native African is still a brute, bowing be fore a stone, offering human sacrifices, without arts or industry, with
scarcely a notion of right or wrong, a mere savage, and of the most
degraded kind. The emancipated slaves who have colonized Liberia
have gone far to prove themselves competent to establish and conduct the greatest work of man on earth - a free and Christian common  wealth. They have churches, and schools, and courts of justice, and
a representative government, and laws to which they know how to
secure obedience.  The marriage bond is as much,respected, the
home is as sacred, and the education of the young as anxiously provi  ded for, as among the great mass of the people in the more civilized
states of Europe.   And this progress, and more than this, is the fruit
of a gradual culture under a condition of slavery; and could scarcely
have existed without those habits of obedience, industry, and temper  ance, which, if exacted by the master for his own advantage, have in
the end redounded far more to the benefit of the slave. We confess 
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that we fear, if, one hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago, any
large number of native Africans had been landed in New England,
and left, with their freedom, to provide for themselves, that their descendants at this moment, if any still existed, would be in a far more
debased condition than if their fathers had been trained up from barbarism under the restraints of slavery.
But while this is true, and while it qualifies our regret that slavery
should have existed, and while we would not be blind to the extreme
difficulty of removing- it from a country where it is once established,
we have no idea of allowing ourselves to be regarded as its apologists
or defenders.  If there are circumstances under which slavery has
many compensating advantages, it is equally true, that, as men gain
self-control and rise above the level of savage life, slavery hinders the
progress which at an earlier stage it may have helped. And here is
its true evil. The great wrong does not arise out of the fact that
every man possesses an absolute and perfect right to freedom. What
are termed abstract rights are nearly all of them subject to great limitations and qualificatioris. Rights imply duties; social rights imply
corresponding duties to society; and he who has no ability to perform
the duties, has no just claim to the rights. So long as one is incompetent to perform the duties of a freeman, he has, properly speaking,
no right to be free. But, on the contrary, there can be no greater
wrong than that of which they are guilty who, for selfish ends, make
use of superior power to prevent him from becoming competent to the
duties and rights of freedom.  If man possesses any right, it is to
become what God intended him to be-  a man.   Here is the curse
of slavery. Its continued existence depends on preventing in the
slave the development of the higher qualities of manhood. It exists
only by shutting off the slave from education, from forming habits of
self-support, and, as far as possible, from all hope of a better state.
It allows the slave to rise as near to manhood as it dares, because the
more intelligent labor is, the more profitable; but beyond this, it systematically represses all mental or moral culture which would tend to
awaken the instinct for freedom. It is not that the slave is not well
fed, and clothed, and cared for, as an animal; but that the institution
of slavery maintains itself by preventing his rising above-a condition
half-way between the animal and the man. It is not that men in
other conditions do not live in ignorance and endure life-long deprivations; but that slavery is an institution which sustains itself only by
systematically keeping at a degraded level those under its control,
and must cease to exist were any general and serious effort made to
raise the slave to a higher mental or moral level.  And they who,
for the sake of their personal comfort, ease, or gain, - support, without
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attempting to change, an institution like this, must expect to encounter the sober reprobation of the Christian world.
But while we shall not defend slavery, we are equally far from
thinking that all means, irrespective of their tendency or character,
may be used for its removal. As in the case of other social evils, we
wish to see no remedies applied which are worse than the disease, but
those only which will change a most imperfect social state for a better
one. We wish to see slavery abolished, but not by methods which
will introduce in its stead worse evils than itself. Slavery is bad, but
there are many things worse. A savage anarchy is infinitely worse.
It is worse for the land to be under the rule of the appetites and passions of the ignorant- than under the despotic rule of the more intelligent. It is better that men should remain slaves, than be converted
by the touch of freedom into idle and sensual savages. We desire to
see slavery removed, but through those methods of improvement alone,
which, as it disappears, shall cause a fairer order of society to take its
place.
The moral sense of the world demands of the South, not that it
shall abolish slavery in a day or a year, but that it shall show, by
some decided action, that an institution which, it confesses, keeps the
slave in a low, debased, and inferior state, it does not intend, because
of its profitableness, nor for any reason but the direst necessity, to be
a permanent one. Were the Southern States, with a prospective
view to emancipation, to adopt some effective plan by which to edtucate the blacks for the duties of freedom,- were they thus, in some
proper method and by intention, preparing them for its ultimate enjoyment - though the process of training the slave for freedom were as
long as that which has accustomed him to the habits of bondage- it
would be felt that they were meeting, as can be done in no other way,
the responsibilities of their position.
And in speaking of the wrong to which the slave is subjected, and
of the duty of the slaveholder, we do not think it necessary to take on
us any airs of moral indignation, nor to assume the attitude of homilists.
Every word we have written is assented to as heartily, and, except
among the immediate disciples of Mr. Calhoun, almost as generally, at
the South as at the North. The number of Slave States in which
nearly successful efforts have been made to abolish slavery, the mnultitude of slaveholders everywhere met with, to whom slavery is a source
of perpetual grief and anxiety, the kind of interest which has been
taken in colonization, and the efforts to improve the lot of the black
in slavery, even where no means are used to deliver him from it,
show the existence of the same moral sensibility on this subject at the 
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South, which exists throughout the more enlightened parts of Christendom.
That slavery ought to be regarded as a temporary institution merely,
and as one which every wise and good man should, according to his
ability, labor to remove as far and as fast as is consistent with any
real improvement in the condition of society, is a proposition which
will be assented to almost as universally by the South as by the North;
while few, north or south, would go beyond this in their statement of
the duty to promote emancipation.
But if slavery is ever to be abolished, the question, By whom must
the work be done?- becomes one of great moment, not only for
those who are immediately responsible, that they may justly appreciate
their position, but for those also who, properly speaking, are not responsible, that they may not embarrass the action of those upon whom
the burden of this great enterprise must fall.  It is a question which
should be fairly answered, in order that between different parts of the
country there may be harmony, and concert, and mutual tolerance, and
a friendly willingness to give and receive aid. No good object is
advanced by assuming a respoisibility beyond our province. Even
in promnoting  the best ends, we must respect each other's moral freedom, and social and civil rights.
On whom, then, so far as any direct action is concerned, are we
chiefly to rely for the removal of slavery? For reasons to which we have
already adverted, we cannot look to the people of the Free States.
They are shut out from all authority over.the subject. They have
no more right or opportunity to vote in the legislature of Alabama,
than in the Parliament of England; and the slave laws of the South
are as far beyond their control, as the English corn laws.   If this be
true, it is a truth which  should be fully recognized; for any action
founded upon a contrary supposition can result in nothing but mischief.
But to whom then can we look? We answer, to that large class of
men at the South, not sufficiently regarded in our anti-slavery movements, who desire to see slavery give place to free institutions. 
If slavery is ever done away by human means, unless it be through
revolution, insurrection, and civil war, it must be by southern men;
and the only persons who have any direct influence for god over this
matter, and who can be expected voluntarily to exert that influence,
are the southern friends of emancipation.  Any northern method  of
agitating the question of slavery, which overlooks this point, must be
fatally erroneous. We fear that it has been overlooked, and already
with very mischievous results. We have never heard any man, acquainted with the South, doubt that the feeling in regard to the abolition of slavery, has, within the last few years, undergone a very great
..., 
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change.   Whatever important ends slavery agitation at the North mnay
have accomplished, it has paralyzed and struck dumb the southern
friends of freedom.  Fifteen or twenty years ago, large numbers, in
all parts of the South, for different reasons and in different degrees,
looked with dislike on slavery, and with favor on whatever tended
towards its removal. In Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, the
emancipation party was a large and powerful one. Now it is silenced
and all but annihilated. Multitudes are altogether repelled from it,
while others, shrinking from a false position, recoiling from any seeming
treachery to their friends and neighbors, and fearing to be identified
with northern abolitionists, are silenced. We attribute this state of
things in part to the influence of Mr. Calhoun, and in part to the increased value of slave property; but that state of feeling which has
made the calm and fair discussion of the subject all but impossible, we
attribute mainly to the manner in which it has been treated at the
North. The emancipation party in the Slave States has been palsied
by the action of abolitionism, more entirely even, than the Colonization Society in the Free States. A method of agitation whose main
result has been to destroy that party which alone had it in its power
to do any thing effectively for the abortion of slavery, seems to us a
mournful one. The right of free discussion is a sacred one, and not
to be surrendered; but a mode of discussion, whether in Northern
Legislatures or pulpits, or in the halls of Congress, which tends to
injure the cause in hand, is quite a different thing; and to call the
insisting on this mode of destructive speech a vindication of the freedom of speech, or to attribute that opposition to it which has been
really occasioned by a conviction of its uselessness or mischievousness, to a disregard of the value of free discussion, implies either great
injustice or a melancholy confusion of ideas.
But if we are to wait for the growth of an emancipation party at
the South, it is said, we may wait a century before it is large enough
to accomplish any thing. This may be so, or not. It does not,
however, alter the fact, that it is the only human agency, except it be
through violence, to which we can look for the removal of slavery.
We have in this case, as in so many others, to trust for the good
which we desire, to the slow development of causes over which we
have but little control. It is certain that our impatience will do little
to hasten the social progress of States in the management of whose
internal affairs we have no voice; while our uninvoked interference
will only cripple the action of those who alone have the disposition
and power to promote the welfare of the blacks.
But are there no causes at work to remove slavery besides those
dependent on human choice,-Providential causes, wrought into the
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general tendencies of society? We believe that there are, and that
they will finally raise the slave to the level of a free man.
The first is what may be termed the spirit of the age. For a hun dred years, in large portions of Europe and throughout this country,
there has been a steady progress towards free institutions, and an
increasing respect for the rights of the individual man.   It is a spirit
which has manifested itself in all the struggles of the people against
the despotisms of the older world. It has promoted education. It
hlas transformed  despotisms into constitutional governments, which,
leaving the individual under the obligation, has secured for him the
protection, of law.   It has abolished the slave trade.  It has caused
the powerful and prosperous to pay infinitely greater attention to the
condition of the poor and wretched. And this spirit of the age,
breathed in through all the thought and literature of the time, is felt
and will be felt by the slaveholder as it is by others. It leads him
involuntarily to pay more regard to the individual rights of the slave.
Its influence is seen in the increased amount of religious instruction
which the slaves receive, and in their generally improved condition in
regard to the essential matters of food, clothing, and labor. It is an
invisible agency which cannot be shut out by State lines or laws; it
penetrates into the mind of the master, and makes him familiar with
ideas against which he may rebel, but which he cannot cast out; it
kindles up new and inspiring hopes in the mind of the slave, and
bears all on, with the sure progress of the tides, towards freedom.
The second cause is one which is felt particularly by the border
States. A slight inspection of the returns of the last census shows
that these States are silently, but certainly, passing through a social
revolution. Whatever the causes may be, it is obvious that slavery
is retiring, step by step, towards the South, and that the present
tendency is for it to become accumulated there in one solid mass.
The whole population of the northern tier of Slave States - Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri
-in  1830,  was  2,603,389.   In  1840, it was  2,995,143; and
in 1850, it was 3,832,430.   In the same States, the slave population, by the census of 1830, was 771,756.   In 1840, it was  786,521; and in 1850, it was 879,859. Without entering 4nto other
particulars, we have here the fact, a mere statement of which stands
in the place of all general reasonings on the subject -that while the
population of these border States during the twenty years between
1830 and 1850, had increased 1,229,041, the number of slaves had
increased only 108,103. Thus, while the slave population has
remained nearly stationary, the white population has increased more
than a million; or to be more precise, while the whole population 
has advanced at the rate of about 50 per cent., the slaves have
increased only 14 per cent., during the last twenty years. The more
one examines the progress of the individual States, the more striking
will these facts appear. This relative decrease of the slave population is not owing to any diminution in the per centage of births, as
compared with that of the whites, but to the fact that it has shrunk
and withered away on its northern border. Year by year, it is
receding towards the South. Slave property on the border becomes
of almost no value; and the slaves who remain there, and whose
masters intend that they shall remain, are practically, to no small
extent, losing the character and emerging above the condition  of
slaves.  Whatever may be, said morally of the internal slave trade,
the result is a very obvious one.  It is draining the northern tier of
Slave States of its slaves, and transferring them to the South. As
their numbers increase, unless the space which they occupy is also
enlarged, their value will diminish. The black population will outgrow the white, and Alabama and Texas will exhibit a counterpart of
that state of things which now exists in Kentucky and Virginia. It
is by no means impossible that the  time may  come  when white
laborers will very generally leave -the South, and white masters become absentees, till — at length, as De Tocqueville supposes to be not
at all improbable, a black kingdom shall have slowly and silently
established itself on the shores of the Mexican Gulf.
We have already spoken of the progress made by the blacks in
civilization; we add, that as they become more civilized, they demand,
and have conceded to them under the imperfect law  of custom, a
larger number of rights.  It doesnot follow, because one is a slave,
that he loses all the privileges of a human being.  Whatever he may
be in law, he is not in fact a chattel, nor is he treated as a chattel,
but as a man.  The word slave does not imply one invariable condition, any more than the word subject, when applied to the inhabitants
of different monarchies, means always the same  thing.  Nor does
it imply that the slave is an outlaw. In this country, the slave is
protected in important rights by the law, and in still more is he protected by that public sentiment which creates and gives authority to
law.  As he becomes more capable of freedom, although his nominal
condition may remain the same, he is generally found' to possess more
freedom.  It is difficult not to treat men to a considerable degree in
accordance with what they really are. When an Irishman from Cork
or Connaught first lands here, just dug out of his bog, the mud of his
cabin still thick and hard upon him, stultified, cowed down, not more
ignorant than dull, and bearing all the marks of stupidity in his face,
he is of necessity treated as if he were what he is, scarcely more
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than an unreasoning animal. A few years pass. He receives kind  ness, and learns to put confidence in the good purposes of those
around him. The desire of improvement is awakened, the elements
of manhood are quickened, his manner becomes more free, and his
features light up with dawning intelligence. He is a changed and
improved man, and involuntarily the treatment which he receives
undergoes a corresponding change.  He  may  nominally hold the
same place, but while the name is unaltered, his social position, in
essential respects, is altogether different. So with the slaves. Those,
especially, who reside near the frontier of freedom, are incessantly
breathing in influences which make them more intelligent and self relying. And, rising as men nearer to a level with their masters,
their whole treatment is more  or less modified.  A  change  is in
progress, similar in many respects to that through which the serfs of
the Middle Ages were liberated from their feudal tyrants, and fiom
villeins transformed into free men. We do not suppose that this
cause alone will lead to emancipation; but whether the masters desire
it or not, from the necessity of the case, up to a certain point, a pro cess of improvement among the slaves must go on; through their
connection with the whites and free colored persons, they cannot fail
to become more intelligent, more conscious of their individual rights,
and more aware of their own numrnbers and power;-and this cannot
take place without materially modifying the character of slavery,
though its name may remain.
Another consideration is to be taken into the account, in calculating
the duration and fortunes of slavery. The introduction of the culture
of cotton into the Southern States, and the improvements in the
methods for its manufacture, increased the value of slave property,
and gave an immense impulse to the growth of this institution. In most
cases, the great revolutions of society are brought about far less by
statesmen and soldiers, than by what seem the almost accidental
changes in the agriculture, commerce, or manufactures of States.
The next change which affects the South is quite as likely to be unfavorable, as favorable, to slavery.  If the efforts to introduce the
culture of cotton into Africa, Australia, or India, succeed, if it should
be found practicable to substitute flax to any considerable extent for
cotton, should some new fabric or method of manufacture be adopted,
it might so seriously diminish the value of the unelastic labor of the
South, that slavery would be felt to be an intolerable burden. When
one remembers how rapidly such changes occur- that, within a
hundred years, the great manufacturing and commercial interests of
society have been almost revolutionized, that coffee  and tea, whose
production and importation now employ hundreds of thousands of men
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and large fleets, a century since were hardly used in this country or in
Europe, that garments were composed of materials into which cotton
for the most part did not enter, that at every short period some new
article of agriculture or commerce is introduced-like that of opium
in India-on which the fortunes of kingdoms speedily depend, we
may easily anticipate changes which will do as much to break down
slavery, as the cultivation of cotton has done to build it up.
There are other facts of still greater significance, because they indicate that, throughout the country, there is a prevailing and powerful
tendency of feeling and opinion towards emancipation. We doubt if
its extent is at all appreciated. We are not conscious of the forward
movement, because, like ships sailing on parallel lines, all move
together. At successive periods between the years 1780 and 1804,
seven States passed laws for the abolition of'slavery, thus anticipating(, by many years, and at quite as great relative sacrifices,
the similar action of the English Parliament in regard to the West
Indies. From the Northwestern Territory, and at a time when
no additionis of territory beyond this were looked for by any one,
it was excluded by the organic law under which the States formed
out of this region came into the Union; and it should not be forgotten that this law received, with one exception, the unanimous
vote of the Continental Congress by which it was enacted. Into a
large part of the recently acquired territory it is not, and is not likely
to be, admitted. And all this has happened, not accidentally, but as
the result of settled and well-considered convictions.   In the mean
time, the foreign slave trade has been abolished; in several of the
remaining Slave States strenuous efforts have been made to prepare
the way for emancipation; throughout the South, the question of eman cipation is brought into perpetual discussion; the extension of slavery
has been limited; and at the present time, the legislatures of various
States, both north and south, show  a disposition to promote  the
colonization of free blacks, or of those who may be liberated for that
purpose.
More important, however, than any of these facts, in the way of
showing the tendency of things, is the number of free blacks. At
the close of the Revolution, there were scarcely ary in the country.
The words, negro and slave, were regarded as nearly equivalent. By
the last census, the number of free blacks, is 418,173. These,
wherever found, have all been slaves or are the descendants of slaves.
Those born at the North were emancipated by law. But of the
whole number, the larger part, —233,691 -are still found at the
South; and they, or their parents, and large numbers besides, who
have left the South, have been liberated by the individual humanity of 
15
their owners. Where so many masters, in spite of the many hin derances in the way, have given to their slaves their freedom, a far
greater number must be strongly inclined to take the same step. The
laws interpose many obstacles in the way of any individual who wishes
to emancipate his slaves; and public opinion, which, at the North as
well as at the South, dooms those who are emancipated to the wretch ed condition of a subordinate caste, interposes more obstacles.  Hu mane men, who are conscious of just and kind purposes towards those
under their control, naturally hesitate long before they throw their
slaves in their weakness and dependence, some of them young and
some old, upon their own resources, under such unfavorable circum stances. We think that those at all acquainted with the South would
say, that, in a multitude of cases, it is the humanity of the masters
which causes them to retain their slaves in bondage.  If, under these
circumstances, so many are made free, it shows clearly enough, not
only how strong and deep is the sentiment which sets towards eman cipation, but that it exists in scarcely less strength at the South than
at the North.
The first of August, 1838, is memorable throughout the world, as
the day on which eight hundred thousand human beings in the British
West Indies had the shackles of the slave struck from their limbs and
were restored to their rights as men. It was a great day for mankind,one of those historical days which measure the progress of the human
race. And yet the West Indian slaves, instead of being liberated by
their masters, owed their freedom to the votes of a Parliament which
held its sittings three thousand miles across the ocean, and in which
the masters were not represented. England generously contributed
~20,000,000 as a partial compensation for the slaves, which burden
fell, in the shape of an increase to the public debt, on a large and rich
nation; but a far larger pecuniary loss, as such property is reckoned,
fell upon the slaveholder. Far be it from us to detract from the
merits of this great event, whose nobleness lights up the dark track of
history, and must be an inspiring example to all times. The world
cannot afford to forget it. But let us remember that, if the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, by an act of the British Parliament, was a triumph of the philanthropy of England, simlar acts of
emancipation by the legislatures of the northern States, years before,
and the liberation by their immediate owners of so many slaves at the
South, are not less decided proofs of the philanthropy of America.
Under the circumstances, the existence of more than 400,000 free
blacks in the United States, who owe their freedom to the free choice
of those who were the immediate owners of themselves or their fathers,
is a far more unquestionable evidence of a wide-spread humanity and
'1 
16
desire for the emancipation of the blacks, than the 800,000 liberated
slaves of the West Indies.*
These circumstances, and others of a similar kind, show a steady
tendency-not a casual spasm, but a tendency created by the industrial relations, the social theories, and the moral sentiments most characteristic of the times -towards the abolition of slavery. We cannot doubt that sooner or later it will be swept from the land.
But whether emancipation will, within any calculable period, result
in any decided good to whites or blacks, we think a much more unsettled point. The South is in one of those Serbonian bogs, in which the
peril seems almost equally great to go forward or back. The result must, apparently, depend in no small degree on the manner in
which the abolition of slavery is accomplished. If, as is quite too
possible, "the area of freedom" is enlarged by the "annexation" of
the rest of Mexico to the United States, the blacks will continue to
recede towards the tropics. Crowded down into the isthmus, and into
a climate favorable to them and fatal to the whites, the time may come
in the revolutions of the world, when, constituting a State by themselves, they may, like a pear which is ripe, drop off, or be separated
by violence from the United States.  Should this occur, their subsequent fortunes must, under Providence, depend on themselves. If
the two races, after the slaves are set free, remain together at the
South, we can foresee nothing but evil. If amalgamation should take
place, it would create a third race, certainly inferior to the white, and
The cordial invitation from England to America to participate in the "World's Fair," has
had one drawback.  Not only has the periodical press, fronm the Quarterly to the daily newspaper, been abundant in admonitions, but leading men in difelbrent religious bodies, among other
acts of a similar kind, have gone so far as to give us warting, that no American ministers of
the gospel can expect to be admitted to their pulpits or their private hospitality, except those
who adopt the general views of the abolitionists.  Of course, the English people have an entire
right to determine for themselves what rules they will be governed by in their intercourse with
strangers, and being fairly warned, it will be their own fault if the proscribed classes do not
avoid personal insult; but on the whole, a less inhospitable and objurgatory benevolence woutld
better accord with some of the antecedents of English history. It is not now for the first time that
we have had experience of the willingness of England to superintend and direct the course of
this country in regard to slavery.  Besides the facts referred to above, there are others worth
remembering. Not only was slavery.forced on this country by England, against the all but unintermitted resistance of the Colonies, but in repeated cases, the Provincial legislatures passed
laws to hinder or prevent the introduction of slaves, without being able to obtain for them the
sanction of the royal governors or the British crown. In abolishing the save trade, this country from the beginning took the lead of England. Though not extinguished till 1808, several of
the individual States, immediately after the Revolution, among others, Virginia, prohibited the
slave trade to their citizens; and from 1794. the records of Congress show repeated enactments
all looking to the same end. This country was equally in advance of England in regard to emnancipation. For two years preceding the case of the slave Somersett in England, and in defiance
of the whole system of Colonial administration, the Courts of Massachusetts had granted
liberty to slaves suing their masters for freedom, on principles of right quite as broad as those
which controlled the decision of Lord Mansfield. After the Revolution, the northern States,
by successive acts, emancipated the slaves within their borders; and from that day to this, in
spite of exceptional cases, and in spite of whatever resistance may have been from time to time
opposed to it, the steady tendency of things has been towards the final abolition of slavery. 
17
probably inferior to the negro. But there is no reason to anticipate
an amalgamation. It is far more likely to take place while they are
slaves, than after they are free.  The moment the slave is liberated,
the lines of caste will be mnore tightly drawn; and living in the pre sence of their former masters, and amidst the associations of servitude,
they will always continue to be mere hewers of wood and drawers of
water. This is the best fate for which they can look. There is
another result, of whose possibility history gives us warning. It is, a
war of races, in which the feebler race will be crushed down into a
more hopeless state, till, losing all courage and energy, it gradually
perishes out of existence.
Is there no way of anticipating and preventing these evils?  In
general, they will be averted, or modified and softened, in the same
degree that society, white and black, is thoroughly christianized and
brought into a state in which every man shall first of all strive to
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God. But of
specific remedies we know only one, and that is colonization.  Even
this, at the best, as we are quite ready to concede, must be a very
irnperfect and gradual one; it may never prove fully competent to
meet the exigencies of the case; but so far as we can perceive, it is
on this, more than on any thing else, that the black race must rely
for any speedy improvement in its condition.
When the subject of colonization is proposed the first question to
be answered relates to its feasibility.  Is it to such an extent practicable, that we may hope by means of it to make any real impression
on the condition of the blacks in this country?   The past history and
present prospects of Liberia show plainly enough that it would be for
the benefit of the blacks, if, under proper circumstances, they could be
established in Africa. At any rate, if they cannot, when-there, maintain themselves in a state of comparative freedom and civilization, it
is very certain that in this country, in the presence of a more energetic
race, they cannot hope to rise above the level of a servile caste.  But
under any circumstances, is it possible to transport them to Africa in
such numbers as to warrant our regarding this measure as a means of
improving thie condition of the blacks, or of promoting the abolition
of slavery?
Within the last few years, we have had new and important experiences in this matter of colonization.  Some three hundred thousand
persons are now annually transported from Ireland to America. At
the same rate, the whole slave population might be transferred to
Africa in twenty years.  Germany is sending its people to our shores,
almost by provinces. From our Atlantic coasts, emigrants are moving
in columns of tens of thousands to the West. The Mormons, after
2* 
18
traversing the intervening desert, are building up an empire in the
interior of the continent; while the coasts of the Pacific are becoming
populous with the advancing hosts of civilization. Nor is this confined to the United States alone. Impelled by want, by ambition, by
a hot and restless spirit of enterprise, immense armies are leaving the
older world to plant themselves in Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Southern Africa, and India. The whole world is in movement; and
of the innumerable emigrants whose fleets, setting in all directions,
cross each other's tracks on every sea, the far greater proportion leave
home under as hard.conditions, and go to confront as serious difficulties,
as any which the free black who emigrates to Africa is called on to
encounter.  Such facts as these, to say the least, take African colonization out of the circle of impossibilities.
There is another view, which shows that there is nothing absolutely
impracticable in the simple transportation of them across the seas.
During the last ten years, the whole black population of the United
States, slave and free, has increased at the average rate of not quite
75,000 annually. To show what rapid changes are within the bounds
of possibility, the removal of 100,000 annually from the United States
would, in twenty-five years, -a short time in the history of a nation
- not only prevent any increase of the slave population, but would
reduce it from twenty to twenty-five per cent. below its present number. In the mean while, the white population would have doubled
itself, and such a change have taken place in the relative numbers of
the two races as to make slavery a comparatively manageable evil.
The expense may be great, but properly conducted, it need not be
such as to weigh heavily on the finances of this country. By the
Treaty of Washington, we are obliged to support on the coast of
Africa a squadron of some eighty guns, at a great cost of money and
health and life. Were the sum expended on this slender coast-guard,
which certainly does not seem to realize the expectations originally
formed of it, applied to colonization, or were the two objects, as
they might easily be, combined, it would not only do infinitely more
to annihilate the slave trade, but would probably supply the means
for carrying emigrants to Africa, as rapidly as is at present desirable.
But there is no reason for supposing that the whole expense would
fall on the Government. If these African colonies prosper, and the
blacks become satisfied that Africa opens to them and their children
better prospects than America, a new state of things will soon exist.
The African trade, already an important one, will be constantly
enlarging and increasing in value. The commercial relations between
America and Liberia will become more close.  Commerce opens and 
19
makes easy the way, and provides the means and facilities, for emi gration. As the ships engaged in the trade of the two countries
become more numerous, the opportunities for procuring a passage will
increase. The number of free blacks is already large; and any great
diminution in the value of slave labor, in connection with other causes
to which we have referred, is likely to make it much larger; while in
general, they will easily find the means to pay the expenses of emigra tion. Each prosperous emigrant will become a centre of attraction to
the little circle of friends whom he has left behind in this country.
Those now free are not more destitute than the Irish; and as soon as
they are satisfied that Liberia holds out a reasonable assurance to them
of prosperity and comfort, they will find their way thither through
some of the multiplied avenues of a constantly growing intercourse.
When it becomes evident that the colony is established on a firm
basis, and that it opens profitable opportunities for the investment of
capital and the employment of industry, and when the state of the
schools and churches is such as to secure to society the religious
instruction which it needs, and to the young the means of education,
the fortunes of Liberia may be safely left to the ordinary laws on
which the growth of communities depends. If any foreign aid should
be needed, the recent action of not less than five or six legislatures of
different States shows that it will be easily obtained.
We make these statements, not because we think it desirable that
so large a mass of emigrants should, in the present state of things, be
thrown at once on the African coast, but to show that the simple
transportation of the blacks to the land of their origin presents, in
itself, no insurmountable difficulties. So rapid a change as we have
imagined is not to be desired or expected. It has taken two centuries
to bring slavery into its present state; and we may be well satisfied
if the ascent from this Avernus is not longer than the descent.
But to all such projects, it is replied, that the invincible obstacle in
the way of their accomplishment lies in the pecuniary value of the
slaves to their owners. The slaveholders will not make the enormous
sacrifice of property which emancipation involves, nor will the United
States government assume the burden of this sacrifice. Of course,
this objection does not apply to the colonization of free blacks, nor to
those who may hereafter be made free; but only to colonization as a
method of emancipation. We acknowledge, however, the full force
of this difficulty. If no other causes were at work tending to relieve
the country of slavery except colonization, we should consider the
matter hopeless. But this by no means presents a full view or the
case.
The ground which we take is this: -that there are powerful and 
20
irresistible influences at work in a large part of the Slave States,
tending towards the abolition of slavery within their boundaries;
that colonization cooperates harmoniously with these tendencies;
that, in removing those who become free to Africa, it is conferring an
inestimable good on the blacks; and, in so doing, it relieves these
States of a class whose presence, wisely or unwisely, causes the South
to look with dread on emancipation, as ultimately full of danger both
to blacks and whites. This point is of so much importance that we
will illustrate by an example what the practical relations of a wise
and large scheme of colonization would be to emancipation.
If slavery is ever abolished, it will be gradually, and first of all, in
the Slave States on the northern border. We may take the case of
Maryland, to explain what is very likely to be the progress of events.
The whole number of slaves in Maryland, in 1830, was 102,294. In
1840, it was 89,737. In 1850, it was 89,800. Thus, through the
agency of causes now at work, during the last twenty years, there has
been an actual falling off, in the slave population, of 12,494. In the
mean time, the population ofthe State has increased 135,466, amounting by the census of 1850, to 582,506.  Thus, while the number of
slaves is diminishing, the white population is steadily increasing, and
through this increasing disproportion between the two races, slavery is
every day conling more and more under control. Besides, as is evident
from the circumstance that so many are set free, there are large numbers of slaveholders disinclined to hold slave property, and equally
disinclined to sell their slaves. Of these, some would be glad to liber ate their slaves at once; and many more, unwilling to leave them in
bondage, would liberate them at death, could they have any assurance
that their condition would be changed for the better. Were the United
States Government, -adopting some plan like that suggested by Mr.
Webster in his speech of March 7, 1850- and which it appears from
his remarks was formerly suggested, we believe, by Rufus King -  (one
of those gigantic plans which contemporaries reject as impracticable,
and which posterity admires as characterized by a prophetic sagacity) -
to engage to transport to Africa as many as should be set free for that
purpose, and to provide them with the means of support for a reason able time after their arrival, there is every ground for believing that
many now retained in bondage would be liberated.  Through this de crease of the slave population, and the corresponding increase in the
number of intelligent and influential non-slaveholders - for such is
likely to be the character of those who voluntarilv liberate their slaves -
the whole aspect of slavery must be changed; and in a few years, the
state of things is likely to be such as to lead to its entire and voluntary
abolition. Similar causes would tend to produce similar results in the 
21
whole northern tier of Slave States; while each State which becomes
free, must, in so doing, aid powerfully that course of events which is
leading on towards universal emancipation.
But granting that it is impossible, even if it be desirable, to transport
all the blacks of this country to Africa; still any wise and comprehensive system of colonization must have a deep and wide influence
on the institution of slavery.  The scattered settlements, from Sierra
Leone to the San Pedro, have already annihilated the slave trade
along that extended line of coast, which was formerly the favorite
resort of the slave-trader. If the blacks prove themselves to be capable of freedom, and succeed in establishing and maintaining free institutions, they will take from the defenders of slavery one strong argument derived from the assumed inferiority of the negro race. Free,
civilized, and prosperous commonwealths cannot be built up in Africa,
without awaking in the blacks of this country new hopes and ambitions.
They will rise in their own estimation and in that of the whites. One
reason why we so readily acquiesce in the existence of slavery is, that
we are accustomed, both North and South, to see the blacks occupy
subordinate positions. The existence in Africa of self-supporting States,
founded by emancipated slaves, cannot fail to react on the public sentiment of this country, and to modify the general estimate in which
slavery is held, while it must go far to break up the habit of associating
the blacks with a depressed and degraded condition.
Except as a matter of humanity, the white population of the North
has no direct interest in colonization. The blacks are not sufficiently
numerous to enable them to make their influence felt. They herd
together in the larger towns, and are generally employed as domestic
servants, cooks, stewards on board of vessels, barbers, petty dealers,
or in some similar subordinate, but useful, positions. As a class, they
are orderly and industrious, and in these respects, in no way inferior to
the great mass of foreign emigrants.
It is far different, however, with the Southern States. In removing
the free blacks, that part of the population is removed which is likely
to furnish the intelligent leaders of insurrections, and whose simple
presence, by keeping before the slaves the visible possibility of freedom,
is the perpetual source among them of irritation and uneasiness. Colonies and colonization may thus look for support from the South, as a
matter of interest.  But far more than on this, we rely on Southern
humanity; -not on vague professions, but on that humane consideration of the slaves manifested in their improved condition and in the
numbers now set free, and which, fostered by Christianity and by all
the social tendencies of the times, must yearly gain strength and power.
For the blacks, bond and free, colonization is so desirable, that with 
22
out it, the gift of freedom would be robbed of half its privilege. Sure
we are, that if those now free, or hereafter to be made free, should,
as the condition under which liberty was to be enjoyed, be required
not to leave the country, it would be deemed, by the best friends of
the colored race, a wrong and an injury second only to absolute bondage. Our legislatures would be thronged with petitioners, and the
air would be fevered with the indignant eloquence of those demanding, for the black, permission to emigrate to some land where he might
seek his fortune under more propitious omens. And with good reason.
At the South, the condition of the negro, even when set free, is always
a degraded one, and at the North, scarcely less so; nor is there any
prospect of any material change in his condition for the better. We
certainly do not defend, or apologize for, this state of things; but it
exists, and none are more conscious of it than the blacks themselves.
Without dwelling on the causes of it, every intelligent black feels that,
in this country, he can never be more than half a man.  We honor
those who strive to rise above this depressing lot, and our deepest
sympathies go with themn in their struggles against what seems to be an
inevitable doom. But, practically, it is a struggle without hope. The
black man withers under the shadow of the white. It proceeds in
part, as we cannot help thinking, from some undefined difference of
race. But whether so or not, the circumstance that the two races
have stood together in the relation of master and slave, has modified
all their estimates of each other, and after the black is protected in
every right by law, the influence of this fact, as subtle as it is powerful, still keeps him in bondage. In Africa, surrounded by those of
his own color, taken out of that charmed circle within which, though
nominally free, he is still a slave, he becomes really emancipated.  He
assumes the responsibilities, undertakes the enterprises, and relies on
that self-guidance and support, which develop the higher faculties and
qualities of the man.   He becomes altogether a different being.  If
Liberia grows up into a settled, self-sustaining commonwealth, her
people will associate on equal terms with those of equal culture in
every part of the world.
In urging these schemes of colonization, the common objection made
to them is, that they are unrighteous and cruel. We do not acquiesce
in the justice of this charge. There is certainly no want of humanity
in the purposes of those most active in promoting colonization.  As
a matter of fact, the blacks in this country occupy an unhappy social
position. There is not only no prospect of great improvement, but
those who declaim most loudly against the wrong done the negro
race, are as little ready as any to take the only step - amalgamation which, by blending the races together, can ever afford any thing like 
23
an effectual remedy. The most zealous abolitionists would hesitate long
before encouraging intermarriage between their children and those of the
blacks.   We believe that, in this respect, their instincts are better than
their reasonings.   We do not believe that amalgamation is desirable for
either race. We believe that the difference of races which Providence
established, it is well to maintain.  But whether so or not, there is no
probability of complete amalgamation, while without it, the circumstances which now depress the free black will continue to depress him.
In defending colonization, we are not excusing prejudice or injustice.
We simply recognize facts which we have not power to change, and
which, if ever removed, are more likely than in any other way, to be
so, by its being shown on the part of the blacks, that they are capable
of supporting a civilized government of their own.   Under these circumstances, we think it the part of humanity to aid them in placing
themselves where their situation is likely to be more favorable for all
their true interests, than they can hope it to be in this country.
The rhetorical statement, that colonization is a scheme by which the
black is to be expelled from his native country, does not greatly affect us.
It is not a new thing in the world for men to remove to distant lands for
the purpose of improving their condition, and there is very little cruelty
in aiding them so to do.  It is to be remembered that, so far as the free
blacks are concerned, they are not asked to emigrate except in accordance with their own choice: and as to the slaves, if liberty be a boon
of any value, they can scarcely be thought to do them an injury, who
besides setting them free, establish them, without expense on their part,
in a free commonwealth of their own color and race. At this moment,
constrained by the pressure of infelicitous circumstances, or to improve
their fortunes, hundreds of thousands of Europeans are annually driven,
or impelled to leave, their own country for America.   Under the
circumstances, we do not think themn unwise in seeking a home on our
shores, or that the destitute among their number are injured or wronged
by those friends who encourage and aid them to embark.   If there is
cruelty, it is on the part of those German governments which endeavor
by hard restrictions and needless obstacles, to prevent their subjects
from leaving. Among us, they are doing the same poor work, who,
by appealing to the prejudices, the jealousies, and the fears of the
blacks, are hindering them from seeking a home where, under better
auspices, they and their children may be really free.
Were it the question whether it would be wise to emigrate to an
entirely new and unsettled country, - though multitudes of the AngloSaxon race are not deterred from penetrating through the gates of the
Rocky Mountains and making a home in the wilds of Oregon, -we
might hesitate as to the answer.   But the first difficulties of African 
24
colonization are overcome. Liberia, including the Maryland colony,
extends from the river San Pedro to Sherbro, a distance of more than
500 miles. The civilized population is estimated at 7,000 or 8,000,
while the heathen population, in the territory over which it has acquired the right of jurisdiction, is above 200,000.   The soil is fertile,
the exports have risen to half a million annually, and are rapidly
increasing, while new forms of industry are developing new resources.
The republic of Liberia is not yet four years old; but Great Britain
and France have already entered into diplomatic relations with it.
The blacks are proving their capacity to form and sustain a free state
by every evidence which the circumstances admit. They have
organized the whole framework of government; and President Roberts
has exhibited a force of mind and character which shows his entire
competency to be at the head of this great enterprise.  In their
churches, they have more than 2000 communicants, and more than
1500 children in sabbath schools. The laws provide for a common
school in every town, and in these, where they are established, or in
the day schools attached to the various missions, are not less than
1200  pupils.  Several high schools are already opened  and  the
attempt is now making among the friends of the colony in this country, and with every prospect of success, to raise means for the
establishment of a college, in which teachers and others who require a
more advanced kind of instruction, may be educated. Doubtless, many
things are still wanting which it is desirable to have; but the first and
great difficulties, encountered in planting the colony, have been overcomne, and the emigrant finds the country in some degree prepared for
his reception, finds not only cultivated fields and villages and opportunities for profitable industry, but churches and schools and the institutions and resources of a comparatively settled and organized community.
It is a great incidental recommendation to this scheme of colonization, to which we have not even alluded, that it furnishes, probably
the most efficient means for the regeneration of Africa. Throughout
the modern world, the labors of missionaries have been paralyzed from
the want of teachers of the same race with those taught. It is found
next to impossible for an alien race to make any impression on the
ignorant and prejudiced mass of heathenism. At all the principal
missionary stations, the first step is to establish schools in which the
young may from childhood grow up into the ideas, the tastes, and the
habits which characterize a Christian civilization; and it is on the few,
thus taught, that the chief reliance is placed for the diffusion of the
Gospel and the arts and culture of civilized life among their brethren.
That class of persons which missionary societies have endeavored 
with very imperfect success to create, we have here at our hand, and
in numbers beyond tile dreams of missionary enthusiasm. Some
thousands of mnen and women, the most ignorant of them accustomed,
in an imperfect degree at least, to the ways of thinking, the manners,
and the industrial arts of civilization in the midst of which they grew
up, and receiving the Christian religion as the supreme rule of faith
and practice, are planted in communities strong enough to protect
themselves along the western coast of Africa. Connected with
Christendom by all their mental and moral habits, they are connected
still more closely with the native African by the powerful and permanent bond of race.  The territory subject to their jurisdiction contains
a native population which is already beginning to be brought under
the influence of their schools and laws. Besides this, the way is
opening for commercial intercourse with the whole interior of Africa.
Had one, in some summer-day dream, busied himself with imagining
the best method for civilizing a continent, he would have probably
constructed in his fancy some such scheme as this, which, through the
labors of the Colonization Society, has already-becomne a substantive
reality. It was a glorious conception, this of making emancipated
slaves the regenerators of the dark land from which their fathers came.
Nor has it proved to be a visionary enterprise, but one which for more
than thirty years has been steadily advancing towards successful issues.
Many might reasonably, at the outset, have hesitated and doubted
long, before engaging in such an undertaking.. But who, now that its
success and promise are before the world, will not bid it God-speed?
The whole cost of colonization, since its first commencement in 1817
is estimated at no more than $ 1,250,000; - a sum not sufficient to
build and maintain for half-a-dozen years the small and comparatively
ineffective squadron which we now keep on the African coast. On
what enterprise during the present century has the same sum been expended, with a reasonable prospect of such great results?
Our remarks, thus far, have been almost exclusively confined to the
subject of colonization in Africa.  And no doubt, if colonization be
looked to as a means of relieving the United States from the colored
race, or if we regard the welfare of the one hundred and fifty millions
of Africa, or the bearing of colonization upon the general fortunes of
slavery, the coast of Liberia presents by far Be most important opening for the establishment of these new commonwealths of freemen.
But #t the present moment, the British West Indies offer advantageous prospects to colored immigrants; and public attention having
been but little directed to these islands as a place for the settlement of
the blacks, we shall venture upon certain details which would otherwise not be required. We confine ourselves to an account of Jamaica,
3
25 
26
as being not only by far the largest of these islands, but the one
respecting which we have the most satisfactory information.  For our
facts and statistics we rely on the work by Mr. Bigelow, "Jamaica in
1850," whose title we have given above.  The  book seems to have
been very carefully prepared, by a man of sound sense and good
powers of observation.
There are two principal questions which need to be answered;first, What inducements are offered for the emigration of the free blacks
to this island; and secondly, What obstacles are in the way to deter
them from emigrating.
Jamaica is situated within the tropics, but the climate has the reputation of being a salubrious one, and especially so for the colored race.
Indeed, the mountainous character of the interior furnishes to the
settler almost any variety of climate that he may choose. The soil
is so fertile as to make the island the gemn of the sea.  It contains
about four million acres of land, of which, it is said, there are not
probably any ten lying adjacent to each other which are not susceptible of the highest cultivation, while not more than five hundred
thousand acres have ever been'reclaimed, or even  appropriated.
Vegetation is never suspended, planting and harvesting go on throughout the year, and the soil is of such fertility that, notwithstanding the
wretched system of cultivation, such a thing as an exhausted estate is
hardly known. Fruits of all kinds are abundant, and each month has
a harvest of its own. Indian corn grows luxuriantly, while potatoes,
yams, cassava, peas and beans of every variety, all the common table
vegetables of the United States, besides those of the tropics are easily
cultivated. The island abounds in spices, drugs, and dye-stuffs of the
greatest value. The crops of pimento have amounted sometimes to
seven or eight million pounds a year; and yet it is said there is not a
pimento-walk on the island which has been cultivated from seed
planted by human hands. Among the trees are the bread-fruit tree,
the cedar, the cotton-tree, the bamboo, the trumpet-tree, black and
green  ebony, lignumvite,  the palmetto, and the  mahogany.   Its
mineral wealth has been little explored, but it is thought that its
copper and coal mines would prove very productive. Some parishes
of the island require irrigation during a portion of the year; but in
general, the island abounds with streams, and the water-power is sufficient to manufacture every thing produced by the soil, or consumed
by the inhabitants. On the coast are sixteen secure harbors, and not
less than thirty bays, all affording good anchorage.
But owing to the indolence of the inhabitants, to the fact that a
large part of the cultivated soil has been owned by absentees, to the
wretched management of their estates, to the expensive character of
0 
slave labor, and to, a variety of other causes on which it is needless
here to dwell, the island has sunk into utter decay and dilapidation.
The sugar and coffee plantations are deserted and running to weeds.
The large estates are encumbered with mortgages beyond their value.
The little industry which appears is of the most inartificial, negligent,
and unproductive kind; while on an island capable of producing
nearly every thing which grows out of the earth, scarcely any thing
is cultivated but three or four principal staples. While it mtight be
made a garden to which the less fortunate inhabitants of other regions
should resort for their supplies, its people are dependent on others for
the common necessaries of life. Not a water-wheel is in use on the
island, except on plantations and for agricultural purposes.  Every
thing is expensive;- flour from twelve to eighteen dollars a barrel;
butter, thirty-seven and a half cents per pound; hams, twenty-five
cents per pound; lumber, twenty-five dollars a thousand; and yet,
while the island is covered with magnificent forests, there is not a
saw-mill upon it. Their lumber is all imported. Their brick they
import. There are no manufactories, excepting those of sugar and
rum. In 1849, to refer but to a few articles, this poverty-stricken
island imported, in round numbers, 70,000 barrels of flour, 87,000
bushels of corn, 17,000 barrels of pork, nearly 60,000 boxes of
herrings, mackerel, and alewives, and 91,000 quintals of codfish,
although the waters around the island abound in fish. Over four
millions of lumber were imported, and four millions five hundred
thousand of cypress and cedar shingles. And yet, all, or nearly all,
these productions might be raised on the island itself, with less labor
and expense, and would cost less, than in those countries from which
they are chiefly received.
And, in the mean time, land has fallen to an almost nominal value.
Mr. Bigelow says, -" that prepared land, as fine as any under cultivation on the island, may be readily bought in unlimited quantities
for five dollars an acre, while land far more productive than any
in New England may be readily had at from fifty cents to a dollar."
He gives an account of the sale of different estates, for the purpose
of showing the present value of land. One estate of 1244 acres,
which had been sold once for ~18,000 sterling, was sold in 1845 for
~1000.   Another estate, of 1450 acres, once worth ~68,000 sterling, is rated now at less than ~5,000.  Another estate, of 1200
acres, was sold in 1846 for ~620 sterling, including machinery and
works; and these are but samples which show the general condition
of the island. Lands as productive as those of the Miami valley or
the western prairies can, in many cases, be bought for a dollar an
acre, and in most cases at a cheaper rate than in the cultivated portions of the West.
27
A*O 
Such facts as these, of which large numbers are given in the work
to which we have referred, show that industry directed by intelligence
could scarcely be exerted under circumstances which promise more
profitable returns. The immediate reason wily tile island is so unproductive is the wretched management of the large estates, the general
thriftlessness and idleness of the inhabitants, the small number of
productions which are cultivated, the consequent dependence on
importations from abroad, and the extremely rude and clumsy instruments and methods of cultivation.
Under such circumstances, it would seem as if any intelligent and
industrious colored man who should emigrate to Jamaica, possessing
means wherewith to purchase a small farm, might, if he should keep
up his habits of industry, in a very short time be prosperous and
independent.
But such a person, before emigrating, would reasonably wish to
know,whether the change, in a social point of view, would be to his
own advantage, or to that of his children. This question can be best
answered by a reference to facts.  The island is estimated to contain
a population of 400,000, of which but 16,000 are white, and of
the remaining 384,000 inhabitants, 68,529 are colored, and 293,128
are blacks. The Emancipation Act was passed in 1833; entire
emancipation took place, August, 1838. Since that time, the blacks
have enjoyed the same political privileges as the whites, and have
shared with them the honors and patronage of government.  As a
necessary consequence of this, and of the immense numerical preponderance of the black population, it seems even that a diminished,
though doubtless still a great, importance is attached to complexion.
Intermarriages between the white and colored people are frequent;
and where there is equality in other respects, although very much of
the ancient prejudice in favor of the whites may remain, no social
distinctions, based exclusively  on color, are recognized.  Colored
people are received at the Governor's house and invited to his table.
The wife of the Mayor of Kingston, at the time of Mr. Bigelow's
visit, and the wife of the Receiver-General, were of African descent;
one of the most distinguished barristers on the island was a colored
man, educated at an English university. At the SurreyAssize, where
Sir Joshua Rowe presided, two colored lawyers were sitting at the
barristers' table, and of the jury, all but three were colored.  All the
officers of the court, except the clerk, were colored.  Seven tenths
of the whole police force of the island, amounting to about 800 men,
were estimated to be colored.  In the Legislative Assembly, composed of fromn forty-eight to fifty members, ten or a dozen were
colored. The public printers of the Legislature, who were also
28
i
I 
editors of the leading government paper, were both colored men.
One or two black regiments were constantly kept under pay; and it
is the evident policy of the government to place the local management of the island, as far as possible, under the control of people of
color, while it is very likely, ultimately, to be surrendered entirely
into their hands.
The colored people of the island seem to appreciate, in important
respects, the advantages which freedom gives. A freehold of five
acres will supply nearly all a negro's physical wants, and will also
give him the privilege of voting. There are now over 100,000 belonging to the class of land proprietors, and the number is constantly increasing.  The average property of each proprietor is estimated at about
three acres. This number of landholders must be regarded as a very
large one, when it is remembered that only seventeen years have passed
since nearly all of them were slaves. The present tendency of things
is for the island to pass into the hands of the blacks. What its future
destiny may be, whether it will continue a colonial dependency of
Great Britain, or have a separate government of its own, or be finally
absorbed into the United States, is a question upon which we will not
venture any prophetical speculations.
The principal obstacles to emigration arise out of difficulties which
small capitalists may have to encounter in the purchase of land. A
large part of the present proprietors reside abroad. This fact, and the
different ways in which estates are involved, may, in many cases,
lengthen out and embarrass negotiations between them and those who
would be purchasers. There is also an indisposition to sell the large
estates in fragments and parcels, while many of the planters discourage all sales of land to the blacks, from the fear that, by increasing their independence, it will raise the price of labor. Both of
these obstacles, however, are merely temporary. The former must
give way before the steady depreciation and impoverishment of estates
as now managed; and the second must yield to more just views of the
real interests of the island.  In addition to other considerations which
tend to make these difficulties less troublesome, it is well understood
that the British government is ready to favor the immigration of
colored people from the United States. It is desirous of-vindicating
the policy of emancipation. In doing this, it endeavors now to promote the interests of the colored population which is already there,
and will welcome, in such ways as it can, those blacks from the
United States, who, by their industry or intelligence, are likely to
advance the prosperity of the island.
We have given, from Mr. Bigelow's work, this extended abstract
of facts which bear on the subject of colonization in Jamaica, from
3*
f29 
30
the conviction that it would be useful to have them more generally
known. For more particular information, we refer our readers to the
book itself, as one which will abundantly repay perusal.
Of course, we do not commend colonization either in Jamaica or
Africa as a panacea for all the evils of slavery, nor do we anticipate
that colored colonies, outranking all others in wisdom and virtue, will
suddenly become embodied Utopias. We have no intention of mnaintaining extravagancies of this sort.  It is not necessary that colonization should be a full and complete antidote to slavery to make it
worthy of consideration. - Our object has been simply to show, that
in the present state of the world, it furnishes an opportunity to the free
black for a decided improvement of his own condition, and, still more,
that of his children, and that well-arranged schemes of colonization
would form a most useful part in any wise plan for the abolition of
slavery. If it be competent to no more than this, it deserves the
attention of every humane and every patriotic man.
In treating of what relates to the welfare of our black population, it
is impossible to pass wholly by some of those questions of the day
which owe their origin to slavery, and which, at certain points, are
closely connected with the interests of the slave.  If it were in accordance with the design of this article, it might give us the same pleasure
that it does others, to discuss more fully, and under their more general
aspects, these questions. But this would be aside from our present
purpose; and in order not to be misunderstood, and not to embarrass
the subject to which we shall confine ourselves with what is comparatively irrelevant, we would say explicitly, that in our remarks, we
make no reference whatsoever to any recent legislation of Congress,
in the way of expressing a judgment on its merits.  Indeed, the views
which we wish to present are not only quite independent of this legislation, regarded as wise or unwise, but they relate exclusively to
great principles which underlie our organization as a people; - principles which are monopolized by no party, which'ougfht not to be
surrendered to party uses, and which are consistent with, and may be
held by, those who entertain the most diverse opinions respecting
particular measures of public policy. No matter what the duty of the
whites may  be in respect to the future, the great question with the
blacks is, not what might-have been, nor indeed what may  hereafter
be, but what are now the actual facts of their condition. Whatever
their merits, whether such as we should have preferred, or such as we
should not have preferred, — certain measures which bear on the con dition of the blacks have become a part of the law of the land. The
Constitution and the Union remain unbroken; the laws to which we
have referred not only exist, but as a matter of fact - wrought, as
it
II 
31
they are, into the general framework and system of government -we
suppose there can be little reason for any expectation that they will
not continue to exist; the blacks live under them, and will continue
to live under them; and in the mean while, it is a matter of much
practical moment to them, that their true relations to the institutions
of the country should be understood aright. In the discussions which
have vexed the land, attention has been directed almost exclusively to
the interests and duties of the whites.   We wish, in regard to two
principal points, to call attention to what, under the existing state of
things, is for the interest of the blacks.
Foremost among the questions of the day is that which relates to
the preservation of the Union. Of its importance to the general
welfare, North and South, so far as the whites are concerned, there
never has been a question, except among those who have had other
objects in view than the prosperity of the whole country.  There has
doubtless been much diversity of opinion respecting the bearing of
particular measures on the perpetuity of our institutions; and the long
enjoyment of domestic peace may have made us comparatively insensible to its value, and to the conditions through which alone it can be
preserved. There are those, too, who, in a blind devotion to some
single end or interest, are ready to sacrifice all rights and interests,
unless they can attainthe single object at which they aim. But it is
an instructive fact that, with -these exceptions, of all those men who
have most adorned our history, and who, by common consent, have
been placed in the first rank as men of clear, far-seeing wisdom, however much they may have differed on other points, there is not one
who has not regarded the preservation of the Union as the absolute
and fundamental condition, not only of our general welfare as a
people, but of preserving the most important rights which our institutions now secure to us.  Nor do we suppose that the most emphatic
words of Washington,  and the most impassioned declarations and
earnest warnings of the wisest men since his time, go beyond the
calmest truth. It is difficult to see what could be gained by disunion
in regard to any interest or any right, but quite easy to foresee the
certainty of immeasurable loss. It would be like breaking up a noble
ship, which, whatever its imperfections, still bears those. on board
safely across the seas, in order that the dismembered and scattered
crew might find greater safety and independence on the loose rafts
constructed out of the fiagments. After the Revolution, Lord Sheffield, sharing in the belief which prevailed in England of the impracticability of any permanent and peaceful confederacy among us, prophesied, that from the necessary results of disunion, this country must
be comparatively powerless; and confidently declared that England 
32
had as little reason " to deprecate the resolves of the German Diet as
of the American Congress." And except for that Union, which, as
we look back on the difficulties in the way of its formation, sees
now to have been the work of Providence rather than of mnan, these
evil auguries would have fallen far short of the reality. So absolutely
essential is the Union to the maintenance and progressive diffusion of
all the interests and rights which we most value, that the recent agitation of the subject will have been one of the fortunate events ill our
history, if it leave behind a more general and vivid conviction of the
necessity of abiding by that Constitution which makes us a nation.
But while all this is universally assented to, there are those who
seem to think that a dissolution of the Union would, in some undefined
and inexplicable way, redound to the advantage of the blacks. We
do not understand on what such an expectation can be founded. So
far from it, of the 23,000,000 of people within our borders, there
are none to whom the Union is more important, none to whom disunion would be more instantly and hopelessly disastrous, than the slave
population at the South. Hard as the fate of the negro now is, it
would then be hopeless. Were the Union dissolved, the immediate
consequence would be, that, at the South, all thought of the abolition
of slavery, except through insurrection, would be at an end. Were
the slaves emancipated, they must still remain where they are; for
the resources of the South would be insufficient to remove them, while
the northern States, some of which even now refuse to admit free
blacks within their limits, would lend no aid. In large, districts of
country, the liberated slaves would outnumber the whites. Color,
race, the traditional sentiments and customs on both sides,  would
keep them apart, and create a feeling of jealous antagonism. The
inevitable results of such a state would be deplorable enough; a probable result would be the gradual deterioration, as in Mexico and
South America, of both blacks and whites: while a not improbable
one would be a war of races, followed by extermination, or expulsion
from the soil, or the enslavement of the weaker  by  the stronger
party; - and calamitous as this must be to all, the blacks could hardly
fail to be the chief victims. With such prospects before them,
those southern men who now look forward to emancipation as a kind
of millennium, would, in case of disunion, become the strenuous supporters of slavery. For the protection of the whites, and to prevent
the escape of slaves, the slave laws would become more rigorous.
The free blacks would be looked upon with ever-increasing distrust,
and liberty to them would cease to be a boon. All the interests of
the South, like a ship wedged inextricably in one of the drifting floes
of Arctic ice, would be inseparably bound in with slavery.  In this
I
I 
33
struggle of life and death, the fears of the white, far more than the
law can do, would prevent his giving the black any instruction which
tended to develop his rational powers. Slavery demands space, and
nothing would hinder the South from extending the territory of slavery
further into Mexico, or from annexing to its narrowed empire the
island of Cuba. Those many helps and restraints which arise out of
the connection of North and South, and which accrue to the advan  tage of the slave, would be gone, and the two races, with all their
implacable jealousies, would be enclosed together in an arena from
which escape would be hopeless.
Of the importance to the whole country, that whatever is done for
the benefit of the blacks should be done in subjection to the Constitu tion, it would seem mere trifling even to speak. But while, for the
sake of the general good, the necessity, in all such efforts, of proceed ing by constitutional methods is recognized, it is not so much consi dered that the welfare of none is more immediately dependent on
maintaining the steady sovereignty of law, than that of the slave.
Any violation of law, though intended for his benefit, must finally
result in nothing but mischief to his class.  If, through the action of
inconsiderate friends, the blacks are brought into a position of anta gonism to law, they must inevitably be the victims.  So universal
and reasonable is the conviction, that the rights and welfare of all are
identified with the maintenance of law while it is law, and until it is
changed by constitutional methods, that any settled purpose of resist ing the law would alienate from the blacks whatever sympathy is now
felt for them, and cause them to be reg,arded as the dangerous enemies
of social order. Instead of being looked on as sufferers under hard
and unequal institutions, they would be regarded as the foes of the
public peace; and what their fate must be in such a conflict, it
requires no prophet to foresee. The strong may sometimes safely defy
the law, but the weak find their best protection in law, even though it
be imperfect; while their best hope is, by preserving the sympathy of
the humane and just, to secure its gradual improvement.
There is much, doubtless, to deplore in our national spirit and in
our institutions, so far as they bear on the condition of the black. But
we will not close this article with words of evil omen. Nor is it
needed. To us, the history of the last two years is, on the whole, an
encouraging one. The country has passed through a crisis which has
tried its institutions from corner to keystone. Questions of absolutely
vital moment have been raised and fiercely discussed. In looking
back on the aspect of public affairs at the beginning of 1850, and
comparing it with what now appears, who is there but must acknowledge that we have reasons for the profoundest gratitude?  The 
34
existence of the Union seems then to be at stake. The conquests
which war had gained from a foreign power, threatened to involve the
land in the worst evils of domestic strife; while slavery seemed ready,
by a sudden and vast enlargement of its area, to fix itself immovably
on this continent. It is necessary to remember the fears of that period,
in order to appreciate what we now enjoy. The boldest and most
sanguine friends of free institutions then did not dare to hope, what
now has become reality. The whole of the immense territory,
extorted from Mexico, so far as its condition had not been determined
by previous legislation, appears, practically, to have ranged itself on
the side of freedom; while almost the sole qualification on this vast
expansion of free territory, has been what was in substance the re  enactment, for the recovery of fugitive slaves, of a law which, in its
essential characteristics, had been in existence for half a century. We
are very far from saying that all has happened as we should have
chosen, had choice been within our power; but this is no reason why,
in summing up the results of two years of agitation respecting subjects
involved in the greatest difficulties, we should be blind to the good
and sensitive only to the evil. And when we consider the conflicting
parties banded against eachother, and the complications of so many
States with antagonistic interests, we cannot but think that the issue
of the crisis has, on the whole, been such as ought to gratify every
man who believes in the worth of the Union or in the value of free
institutions. Within the whole period since the adoption of the Con     stitution and the abolition of slavery in the Northern States, free insti     tutions have never made more progress, never done more to gain a
commanding place and an assurance of final triumph, than during the
There is, also, to our minds, in the character of the struggle which
has agitated the country, much that gives encouragement for the
future. When the time comes for opposing parties among us at the
North to do each other justice, we think the fact will be recognized,
maintained.
There are two sentiments absolutely essential to the healthy existence of a republic; - that of a vigilant sensibility'to personal rights,
and that of loyalty to law.  Free institutions grow out of a prevailing
sense of the value and sacredness of personal rights. We need to
have fostered among us a perpetual watchfulness in regard to the
rights of the individual, and a jealousy of all encroachment upon
them. On the other hand, without loyalty to law, which is the
guardian of all the rights of all, and the protection of the weak against
the strong,, we are remanded back to a barbarism in which the indi
i
I 
35 -
vidual loses all those personal rights Which he cannot maintain with
his own hand. These two sentiments are to each other as body and
soul, which cannot exist on earth except united. A sensitive regard
to personal rights without loyalty to law, would turn a republic into
an anarchy; and reverence for law, unbalanced by this regard for the
freedom and rights of the individual, would become a mere tame,
obsequious submission to the chance despotism of the hour.  A  state
of things bringing into conflict these two sentiments, which ought to
have been blended in indissoluble union, has given their most import ant characteristics to the party divisions of the time.  At the North, it
has not been a question of money, or power, or prosperity, but of
principles which lie at the bfoundation of society. It is not wonderful
that they should have taken deep hold of the passions of a people
accustomed, on all subjects, to think and act with a persistent and
serious earnestness; nor is it surprising that, sundered, exaggerated,
put into violent opposition, their adherents should have been mutually
repelled into extremes which none of them would soberly approve.
Great, however, as has been the temporary mischief, we cannot
regard it as all evil. It has aroused the nation to consider the relations
which liberty, law, and union sustain to each other. Nay, we derive
encouragement for the future, from the very violence of the contest.
Its history shows that, at the least, we possess that which is a chief
condition of force and energy in men and nations, -a capacity for
strong moral convictions.   This party strife has had some of the
characteristics of a religious war. On one side, men have believed
that they were doing God service by defending at all hazards what
they deemed the personal rights of the slave; and on the other side,
they have equally believed they were serving God in defending the
sanctity of law, and in so doing, defending in the best way, and to the
greatest extent, the rights of both slave and free. There have been
the bitterness and intolerance of a conscientious purpose on both sides.
Calmness and mutual justice have been wanting. Especially there
have been wanting clear and discriminating ideas respecting the relations of the individual to society, in regard to the point at which the
rights of one must give way to the rights of all; or in other words, of
the point where personal freedom must yield to the law, through which
alone the freedom of all has any permanent protection. Much is to be
regretted; passion, injustice, intolerance are to be regretted; but not
that personal rights are held sacred, nor that law is honored.   Instead
of alarming us, whatever indicates the existence of such feelings is a
trustworthy symptom of the healthful state of the public mind. We
hardly know which we should most dread, - insensibility to the worth
of individual freedom, or insensibility to the importance of maintaining 
law.  In eitherase, free instions w d beat an end, and society
:relapse into barbarism, or sink into that worse than savage statewhich
follows a worn out civilization.  But where men- who are not more
individuals than social beings - seek freedom in union, and through
hat union which exists by means of law, and where those sentiments
-iprevail which make freedom, thus sought and limited, sacred, there is
::still youthful blood circulating through the social body; and if it be
-sometimes attended with the diseases of youth, it brings with it also
vigor, and elasticity, and hope.
W"