YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

I

A TREATISE ON THE INTELLECTUAL
CHARACTER, AND CIVIL AND
POLITICAL CONDITION...
H. Easton

Published on demand by
UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS INTERNATIONAL
Ann Arbor. Michigan. U.S.A. • London.England

iV(»ri

This is an authorized facsimile of the original book,
and was produced in 1 976 by microfilm-xerography
by University Microfilms International
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
London, England

A TREATISE m ON TBI
INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER,
AND
CIVIL AND POLITICAL CONDITION
or Till
COLORED PEOPLE OF THE V. STATES)
AND THE
PREJUDICE EXERCISED TOWARDS THEM:
WITH A SERMON
ON THE
DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO THEM.

BY REV. ll<?EA8TON,
A COLORKD HAN.

BOSTON:
HUNTED AXD ft'DIJSilED BV ISAAC KXATT.
1837.

MICROFILMED- 1971

(C Rhktoric Publication*, Phila., Pa. 19107
Library of Congraai Catalog- Card No.
71-77052

REV. HOSEA EASTON
AND THE ROOTS OF PREJUDICE
1837
A bibliographical note
by
Maxwell Whiteman
An unprecedented turning point in the literature of black people
wu dearly evident in the eighteen-thirties and forties. AU of the
major cities of the North found black men speaking and writing
with a zeal and passion that had no counterpart up to that time.
The seeds were sown for a convention movement that brought
together people of color in a common goal and the first attempts
at self-identity, however meagre, were made by the discovery of
an African past. Forceful condemnations of slavery were increas
ing in number and the fugitives' narrative was making its impact
on the American mind while the harpoons of prejudice against
free blacks could not be averted by the most adroit of men. A
procession of books and pamphlets intruded upon the American
literary scene that was otherwise calm. What black people
wanted, what they thought and what they had begun to demand
should have been clear to any literate American. A new force
was released, a force that could no longer be stemmed or
repressed. If there was doubt about the status of free blacks,
there was no doubt about their right to transform into print the
agonizing quest for Justice and freedom. Black people had
undertaken to travel along the broad avenue which a free press
had made possible.
From the time that David Walker had published the last
edition of his volatile Appeal in 1830 to the appearance of
Frederick Douglass* Narrative in 1845, the forward course of
black protest was determined. In 1837, the year Easton's
Treatise made its bow, Samuel E. Cornish launched the New
York journal, the Colored American; the Life of Jim Crow
appeared in Philadelphia; Moses Roper's Narrative was published
in London and James Williams was displaying the grandeur of his
imagination in a fictitious slave experience to John Greenleaf
Whittier, and the poems of the North Carolinian black, George
Moses Horton, were reprinted in Philadelphia. Of the extensive
literature that appeared in 1837, the least remembered and most
neglected was Hosea Easton's bitter condemnation of prejudice
against the colored people of the United States.

It was a crucial year in American history and particularly
severe for the free blacks of the North. The panic of 1837 with
its resultant financial disaster spread alarm throughout the
nation. Whites went hungry and rioted; blacks went hungry but
suffered the twin evil of deprivation and physical abuse. In
Pennsylvania mobs wreaked their vengeance wherever blacks
lived; in the inland cities of Ohio, anti-black prejudice turned to
violence and in Massachusetts scattered riots were taking place
while Easton's pamphlet was still wet from printers ink.
Long before Easton donned ministerial robes in Hartford,
Connecticut he was involved, as he tells us in his Treatise, in
managing a manual training school conducted by and for black
people. For twenty years he and his colleagues did their utmost
to maintain the school which succumbed to the wiles of
prejudice. It was his work as a missionary, traveling through New
York and part of New England to determine why his people
were churchless, that he again realized that it was the cold hand
of white Christian prejudice that excluded blacks from the house
of God. But Easton's most galling experience and observation of
white conduct was witnessing white children being raised to
niggerisms, the nature of which he cuts into sharply. It was the
combination of these factors and the general conditions of the
time that compelled Easton to write his Treatise.
His attack upon prejudice follows an examination of the
variations of color in nature and an historical observation of
black antiquity. Easton recognized that color was superficial to
the underlying cause of slavery; that "free" blacks in the North
could not be free so long as blacks were held in captivity from
generation to generation in the South. He countered the charges
of intemperance with statements upholding the sobriety of hard
working blackfolk; he queried critics of the ne'er-do-well blacks
on why they failed to provide employment for those whom they
criticized. The sermon announced on the title page was not published.
At the end of the fifty -four page pamphlet, Easton stated that it
will appear with another work, Lectures on Civil, Social and
Moral Economy. The Treatise appeared in the spring of 1837,
published by Isaac Knapp the publisher of the Liberator from
whose office the Treatise could be obtained.
Sources: Liberator, March 18, 1837, et.seq., states in its
announcement: "This pamphlet rolls up the curtain, and intro
duces the reader to those colored American citizens who have

been so long despised, and almost unknown. The proflts of the
work will be applied to the rebuilding of a church for colored
people, which was lately destroyed by fire." The impact of the
Panic of 1837 upon the free blacks warrants separate investiga
tion. A study of the Northern press of the period would be very
useful. The subject of intemperance among blacks in a historical
setting is discussed by John R. Larkins, Alchohol and the Negro:
Explosive Issues (Zebulon, N.C., 1965).

A TREATISE

INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER,
AND
CIVIL AND POLITICAL CONDITIO*
or TUB

COLORED PEOPLE OF THE V. STATES;

AND THE
PREJUDICE EXERCISED TOWARDS THEM:
WITH A SERMON
ON THE
DUTY OF THE CHURCH TO THEM.

BY REV. ll^EASTOK.
A COLOHKD MAN.

BOSTON:
RUSTED AXD FL HUSHED BY ISAAC' KNAIT.
1837.

*aivi ox osiaaoaov osnuiaaa xaoia ajoo

PREFACE.

It if with diffidence that I offer this treatise to the public ;
but an earnest desire to contribute my mite, for the benefit of
my afflicted brethren, is my only apology. The subject is one
of peculiar difficulty ; especially as it is one in which I am
deeply interested.
To speak or write on a subject relating to one's self, is pe
culiarly embarrassing ; and especially so, under a deep sense
of injury.
As an apology for the frequent errors that may occur in the
following pages, I would remark : It cannot be reasonably ex
pected, that a literary display could adorn the production of ono
from whom popular sentiment has withheld almost every advan
tage, even of a common education.
If this work should chance to fall into the hands of any
whose minds are so sordid, and whose hearts are so inflexible,
as to load it, with its author, with censure on that account
merely, I would only say to them, that I shall not be disposed
to envy them in the enjoyment of their sentiments, while I en
deavor to content myself in the enjoyment of a consciousness
of having done what I could to effect the establishment of
righteousness and peace in the earth.
Hartford, Ct., March, 1S37.

INTRODUCTION.

I conclude that, by this time, one great truth is acknowledged
by all Christendom, viz. — God hatb made of one blood all na
tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. Or, in
other words, I conclude it is a settled point with the wisest of
the age, that no constitutional difference exists in the children
of men, which can be said to be established by hereditary laws.
If the proposition be granted, it will follow, that whatever dif
ferences exist, are casual or accidental. The variety of color,
in the humun species, is the result of the same laws which va
riegate the whole creation. The same species of flowers is
variegated with innumerable colors ; and yet the species is the
same, possessing the same general qualities, undergoing no in
trinsic change, from these accidental causes. So it is with the
human species. These varieties are indispensable, for the dis
tinction of different objects, throughout the whole range of
creation. The hair is subject to the same laws of variety with the skin,
though it may be considered in a somewhat different light. Were
I asked why my hair is curled, my answer would be, because
God gave nature the gift of producing variety, and that gift,
like uncontrolled power every where, was desirous to act like
itself; and thus being influenced by some cause unknown to
man, she turned out her work in the form of my hair ; and on
being influenced by some other cause, she turned out hair of
different texture, and gave it to another man. This would be
the best answer I could give ; for it is impossible for man to
comprehend nature or her works. She has been supplied with

an ability by her author in do wonders, insomuch that some
have been foolish enough to think her to bo God. All must
confess she possesses a mysterious power to produce variety.
Wo need only visit tho potato and corn patch, (not a costly
school,) ami wo slmll bo perfectly inlisflcd ; for ilioro, In the
samo hill, onono stalk, sprung from ono potato, you may And
several of different colors ; and upon the same corn-stalk you
may find two cars, one white or yellow, and the other deep red ;
and sometimes you may find an astonishing variety of colors
displayed on one ear among the kernels ; and what makes the
observation more delightful, they are never found quarrelling
about their color, though some have shades of extreme beauty.
If you go to the field of grass, you will find that all grass is
the same grass in variety ; go to the herds and flocks, and among
the feathered tribe, or view nature where you will, she tells us
all that we can know, why it is that one man's head bears woolly,
and another flaxen hair. |
But when we come to talk about intellectual differences, we
arc brought into a new field of investigation. I call it a new or
another field, because I cannot believe that nature has any thing
to do in variegating intellect, any more than it has power over
the soul. Mind enn act on matter, but maitor cannot act upon.
mind ; hence it fills an entirely different sphere ; therefore, we
must look for a cause of difference of intellect elsewhere, for it
cannot be found in nature. In looking for a cause, we have no
right to go above nor below the sphere which the mind occupies ;
we cannot rationally conceive the cause to originate with God,
nor in matter. Nature never goes out of her own limits to pro
duce her works ; all of which are perfect so far as she is con
cerned, and most assuredly God's works are perfect ; hence,
whatever imperfections there are in the mind, must have origi
nated within its own sphere. But the question is, what is the
cuuse snd the manner it affects ? Originally there was no dif
ference of intellect, either constitutional or casual. Man was
perfect, and therefore to him there was no exception. After he
fell, wc immediately find a difference of mind. In Abel we
find characteristics of a noble soul, a prolific mind : his under-

Handing appears to have been but very little, if any, impaired
by the fall. But in Cain we find quite the reverse. His mind
¦ppean to have been narrow — hit undemanding dark — having
wrapped himself up in a covetous manilo at contemptible as
his conduct was wickod.
Now I see no roason why the causes of difference do not
exist in the fall — n ilio act of transgression ; for certain it is that
the mind has since been subject to the influence cf every species
of evil, which must be a secondary cause to the existing effect.
Or the subject may be viewed in the following light, viz. : evil
and good exist in the world, and ns the mind is influenced by
the one or the other, so is the different effect produced thereby.
There is no truth more palpable than this, that the mind is ca
pable of high cultivation ; and that the degree of culture de
pends entirely on the means or agents employed to that end.
In a country, therefore, where public sentiment is formed in
favor of improving the mind, whatever the object may be,
whether to promote good or evil, the mind is influenced thereby.
The practical exercise of the mind is essential also to improve
ment and growth, and is directed likewise by public sentiment.
Public sentiment is founded on the real or imaginary interests
of parties, whose individual interests aro identified one with
another. Public sentiment itself is directed in the exercise of
its influence, by incidental circumstances, either local or foreign.
In this current the mind is borne along, and at tiie instance of
every change of event, is called to a new exercise of thought,
conclusions, purposes, &c. ; whereas, had it not been for the
change, there would have been no action produced in the mind :
for it is manifest, that the sphere which mankind are destined to
fill, is surrounded with a great variety of acting laws, which,
were it not for such causes, would make their minds entirely pas
sive ; but, under the influence of those causes, they are made
to act not from constraint, but in accordance with an innate de
sire to avail themselves of collateral aid to their operations. It
is manifest, therefore, that the more varying or complex the
state of a people is incidentally rendered, the more power there
is extant to call up renewed energies of the mind, the direct

tendency of which is to confirm and strengthen it. Henoe I
deem it a fuir conclusion, that whatever differences there are in
the power of the intellect of notions, they are owing to the
difference existing in the casual laws by which they are influenc
ed. By consulting the history of nations, it may be seen that
their genius perfectly accords with their habit3 of life, and the
general maxims of their country; and that these habits and
maxims possess a sameness of character with the incidental cir
cumstances in which they originated.
As the intellect of a particular class will be in part the sub
ject of this treatise, I wish in this place to follow the investiga
tion of national difference of intellect, with its cause, by com
paring the history of Europe and Africa.
Ham was the son of Noah, and founder of the African race,
and progenitor to Assur, who probably founded the first govern
ment after the flood. It is evident from the best authority ex
tant, that the arts and sciences flourished among this branch of
the great family of man, long before its benefits were known to
arty other. History is explicit with regard to their hospitality
also. At an early period of the existence of the government of
Egypt} and while Chcdcrlaomer, king of the Elamitcs, had already
commenced the practice of robbery and bloodshed, Abraham
was obliged by a famine to leave Canaan, where God had com
manded him to settle, and to go into Egypt. ' This journey,'
says a historian, ' gives occasion for Moses ,to mention some par
ticulars with regard to the Egyptians ; and every stroke discov
ers the character of an improved and powerful nation. The
Egyptian monarch, and the grandeur of his court, are described
in the most glowing colors ; — and Ham, who led the colony into
Egypt, has become the founder of a mighty empire. We are
not, however, to imagine, that all the laws which took place in
Egypt, and which have been so justly admired for their wisdom,,
were the work of this early age. DiodQijis Siculus, a Greek
writer, mentions many successive princes, who labored for their
establishment and perfection. But in the time of Jacob, first
principles of civil government seem to have been tolerably un
derstood among the Egyptians. The country was divided into

several districts or separate departments ; councils, composed of
experienced and select persons, were establUhed for the man
agement of public affairs ; granaries for preserving corn were
erected; and, in fine, the Egyptians in this age enjoyed a com
merce far from inconsiderable. These facts, though of an an
cient date, deserve our particular attention. It is from the
Egyptians, that many of the arts, both of elegance and ability,
have been handed down in an uninterrupted chain, to modern
nations of Europe. The Egyptians communicated their arts to
the Greeks ; the Greeks taught the Romans many improve
ments, both in the arts of peace and war ; and to the Romans,
the present inhabitants of Europe are indebted for their civility
and refinement.'
This noble people were not content with the enjoyment of
luxury and ease, to the exclusion of their neighbors. At an
early period they are found carrying the blessings of civilization
into Greece; and, although repulsed in their first attempt by the
rudo barbarity of the Greeks, yet their philanthropy soon inspir
ed them to resume the enterprise, which resulted in the settle
ment of two colonies, ono in Argos, and (be ott'er in Attica.
The founders of these colonies succeeded in their endeavors to
unite the wandering Greeks, which laid a foundation for the in
structions they afterwards gave them. Sesostris, a prince of
wonderful ability, is supposed to mount the throne of Egypt
about 2341 years before Christ. Egypt in his time, it is said,
was in all probability the most powerful kingdom upon earth,
and according to the best calculation, is supposed to contain
twenty-seven millions of inhabitants. From the rehrn of Se
sostris to that of Boccharis, a term of near £00 years, but little
is known of the princes who reigned, but it is I elieved from
collateral evidence, that the country in that time continued in a
very flourishing condition, and fortnight that is known, enjoyed
i uninterrupted peace. Wars and commotions, (says an eminent
(writer,) arc tlic greatest themes of the historian, while the cen-
i tie and happy reign of a wise prince passes unobserved and
^unrecorded. During this period of tpiietude at home, Egypt
continued to pour forth her colonies into distant nations. Ath-

10
ens, that seat of learning and politeness, that school for all who
aspired after wisdom, owes its foundation to Cecrops, who land
ed in Greece, with an Egyptian colony, before Christ 1585.
The institutions which he established among the Athenians gave
rise to the spread of the morals, arts and sciences in Greece,
which have since shed their lustre upon Rome, Europe, and
America. From the reign of Boccharis to the dissolution of their gov
ernment, the Egyptians arc celebrated for the wisdom of their
laws and political institutions, which were dictated by the true
spirit of civil wisdom. It appears that this race of people,
during their greatest prosperity, made but very little proficiency
in the art of war. We hear of but little of their conquests of
armies, which is an evidence of their being an unwarlike people.
On taking a slight view of the history of Europe, we find a
striking contrast. Javan, 'the third from Noah, and son of Ja-
phet, is the stock from whom all the people known by the name
of— Gieeks are descended^ Javan established himself in the
islands on the Western coast of Asia Minor. It is supposed,
and it may not be impossible, that a few wanderers would escape
over into Europe. Who would believe, says a writer, that the
Greeks, who in latter ages became the patterns of politeness
and every elegant art, were descended from a savage race of
men, traversing the woods and wilds, inhabiting the rocks and
caverns, a wretched prey to wild beasts and to one another.
I Would here remark that it is a little singular that modern philoso-/
pliers, the descendants of this race of savages, should claim for
their race a superiority of intellect over those who, at that very)
time, were enjoying all the real benefits of civilized life.
The remnant of this race which found their way to Europe
from Asia Minor, arc brought into notice but very little until
after Rome had conquered the world. On the decline of that
empire, from the death of Thcodosius the great, A. D. 395 to
A. D. 571, all Europe exhibited a picture of most melancholy
Gothic barbarity. Literature, science, taste, were words scarce
in use from this period to the sixteenth century. Persons of
the highest rank could not read or write. Many of the clergy

II
did not understand the learning which they were obliged daily
to write; some of them could scarce read it.
The Goths and Vandals, and other fierce tribes, who were
scattered over the vast countries of the North of Europe and
Northwest of Asia, were drawn from their homes by a thirst for
blood and plunder. Great bodies of armed men, with their
wives and children, issued forth like regular colonies in
quest of new settlements. New adventurers followed them.
The lands which they deserted were occupied by more remote
tribes of barbarians. These in their turn, pushed into more
fertile countries, and like a torrent continually increasing, rolled
on, and swept every thing before them.
Wherever the barbarians marched, their route was marked
with blood. They ravaged or destroyed all around them.
They made no distinction between what was sacred and what was
profane. They respected no age, or sex, or rank. If man was
called upon, (says an eminent historian,) to fix upon the period
in the history of the world, during which the condition of the
human race was most calamitious and afflicted, he would, with
out hesitation, name that which elapsed from A. D. 395 to 511.
Cotemporary authors, who beheld that scene of destruction,
labor and are at a loss for expressions to describe the horror of
it. The scourge of God, the destroyer of nations, are the d. ead-
ful epithets by which they distinguish the most noted of the
barbarous leaders.
Towards the close of the sixth century, the Saxons or Ger
mans were masters of the Southern and more fertile provin
ces of Britain: the Franks, another tribe of Germans; the
Goths of Spain ; the Goths and Lombards of Italy, and the ad
jacent provinces.
During the period above mentioned, European slavery was
introduced. Having, as yet, the art of navigation but very im
perfectly, it seemed to be the whole bent of their mind to en
slave each other.
A form of government, distinguished by the name of the
Feudal system, was one under which the leaders of these barba
rians became intolerable. They reduced the great body of

12
them to nctual servitude. They were slaves fixed to the soil,
and witli it transferred from one proprietor to another, by sale,
or by conveyance. The kindred and dependants of an aggres
sor, as well as of a defender, were involved in a quarrel, with-'
out even the liberty of remaining neuter, whenever their supe
riors saw fit.
The king or general to whom they belonged, would lead
them on to conquest, parcel out the land of the vanquished
among his chief officers, binding those on whom they were be
stowed, to follow his standard with a number of men, and to
bear arms in his defence. The chief officers imitated the ex
ample of their sovereign, nnd in distributing portions of their
lands among their dependents, annexed the same conditions to
the grant.
For the smallest pretext they would make war with one
another, and lead their slaves on to conquest ; and take the land
and goods of their foes as the reward of their enterprise. This
system existed in the highlands in Scotland, as late as the year
1156. It is not a little remarkable, that in the nineteenth century a
remnant of this same barbarous people should boast of their
national superiority of intellect, and of wisdom and religion ; who,
in the seventeenth century, crossed the Atlantic and practised
the same crime their barbarous ancestry had done in the fourth,
fifth and sixth centuries : bringing with them the same boasted
spirit of enterprise ; and not unlike their fathers, staining their
route with blood, as they have rolled along, as a cioud of locusts,
towards the West. The late unholy war with the Indians, and
the wicked cruradc ngainst the peace of Mexico, are striking
illustrations of the nobleness of this race ol people, and the
powers of their mind. I will here take a brief review of the
events f illowing ench race from their beginning.
Before Christ 2183, Misnim, the son of Ham, founded the
kingdom of Ezypt. which lasted 1633 years.
2059, .Vnus, the son of Bolus, another branch of Ham's
family, founds tlu kingdom of Assyria, which lasted 1000 years,
and out of its ruins Babylon. IVinevah. and the kingdom of the
Medes

13
183S, Memnon, the Egyptian, invents the letters.
1571, Moses bom in Egypt, and adopted by Pharaoh's
daughter, who educated him in all the learning of the Egpytians.
1556, Cecrops brings a colony from Egypt into Attica, and
begins the kingdom of Athens, in Greece.
1485, The first ship that appeared in Greece was brought
from Egypt by Danaus, who arrived at Rhodes, and brought
with him his fifty daughters.
869, The city of Carthage, in Africa, founded by queen
Dido. 604, By order of Necho, king of Egypt, some Phenicians,
sailed from the Red Sea round Africa, and returned by the
Mediterranean. 600, Thales, of Miletus, travels to Egypt, to acquire the
knowledge of geometry, astronomy, and philosophy ; returns
to Greece and calculates eclipses, gives general notions of the
universe, &&c.
285, Dionysius, of Alexandria, began his astronomical era,
on Monday, June 26, being the first who' found the exact solar
year to consist of 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes.
284, Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, employs seventy-
two interpreters to translate the Old Testament into the Greek
language, which was called the Septuagint.
237, Hamilcar, the Carthagcnian, causes his son Hannibal, at
nine years of age, to swear eternal enmity to the Romans.
218, Hannibal passes the Alps, at the age of 28 years, and
defeats the Romans in several battles.
47, The Alexandrian library, consisting of 400,000 valuable
books burned by accident.
30, Alexandria is taken by Octavius, upon which Mark An
tony and Cleopatra, put themselves to death, and Egypt is
reduced to a Roman province.
640, A. D., Alexandria is taken by the Saracens, or follow
ers of Mahomet, and the grand library burned by order of Omar
their caliph or prince.
991, The figures in arithmetic are brought into Europe by the
'Saracens from Arabia. [Poor negroes, I wonder where they

14
got learning. These are tho race of people who are charged
with an inferiority of intellect.]
Africa could once boast^of several states of eminence, among
which areiEgyptrEthiopiaj^djCarthagp^ the latter supported
an extensive commerce, which was extended to every part of
the then known world. Her fleets even visited the British
shores, and was every where prosperous, until she was visited
with the scourge of war, which opened the way for those nations
whose life depended on plunder. The Romans have the honor,
by the assistance of the Mauritonians, of subduing Carthage ;
after which the North of Africa was overrun by the Vandals,
who, in their march destroyed all arts and sciences ; and, to add
to the calamity of this quarter of the world, the Saracens made
a sudden conquest of all the coasts of Egypt and Barbary, in the
seventh century. And these were succeeded by the Turks,
both being of the Mahornedan religion, whose professors carried
desolation wherever they went ; and thus the ruin of that once
flourishing part of the world was completed. Since that period,
Africa has been robbed of her riches and honor, and sons and
daughters, to glut the rapacity of the great minds of European
bigots. The following is a short chronological view of the events
following the rise of the Europeans.
A. D. 49, London is founded by the Romans.
51, Caractacus, the British king is carried in chains to Rome.
59, Nero persecutes the Druids in Britain.
61, The British queen defeats the Romans, but is conquered
soon after by Suetonius, governor of Britain.
63, Christianity introduced into Britain.
85, Julius Agricola, governor of South Britain, to protect the
civilized Britons from the incursions of the Caledonians, builds
a line of forts between the rivers Forth and Clyde ; defeats the
Caledonians ; and first sails round Britain, which he discovers
to be an island.
222, About this time the barbarians begin their eruptions and
the Goths have annual tribute not to molest the Roman gov
ernment.

15
274, The art of manufacturing silk first introduced into Bri
tain from India; the manufacturing of it introduced into Europe
by some monks, 551.
404, The kingdom of .Caledonia, or Scotland, revives under
Fergus. 406, The Vandals, Alans, and Suevi spread in France and
Spain, by a concession of Honorius, emperor of the West.
410, Rome taken and plundered by Alaric, king of visi-Gotbs.
412, The Vandals begin their kingdom in Spain.
446, The Romans having left the Britons to themselves, are
greatly harassed by the Scots and Picts, they make their com
plaints to Rome again, which they entitle, the groans of the
Britons. 449, The Saxons join the Britons against the Scots and Picts.
455, Saxons having repulsed the Scots and Picts begin to
establish themselves in Kent under Hcngist.
476, Several new states arise in Italy and other parts, con
sisting of Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarians, under
whom literature is extinguished, and the works of the learned
are destroyed.
496, Clovis, king of France, baptized, and Christianity begins
in that kingdom.
508, Prince Arthur begins his reign over the Britons.
609, Here begins the power of the Pope by the concession
of Phocas, emperor of tlio cast.
685, The Britons, after a struggle of near 150 years, are
totally expelled by the Saxons, and drove into Wales and
Cornwall. 712, The Saracens conquer Spain.
726, The controversy about images occasions many insurrec
tions. 800, Charlemagne, king of France, begins the empire of Ger
many, and endeavors to restore learning.
838, The Scots and Picts have a hard fight. The former
prevail. 867, The Danes begin their ravages in England.
896, Alfred the Great fought 56 battles with the invading

16
Danes, after which he divides his kingdom into counties, hun
dreds, tythings ; erects courts: and founds the University of
Oxford. 936, The Saracen empire is divided into seven kingdoms, by
usurpation. 1015, Children forbidden by law to be sold by their parents,
in England.
1017, Canute, king of Denmark, gets possession of England.
1040, The Danes after much hard fighting are driven out of
Scotland. 1041, The Saxon line restored under Edward.
1043, The Turks who had hitherto fought for other nations,
have become formidable, and take possession of Persia.
1059, Malcolm III. king of Scotland, kills Macbeth, and mar
ries the princess Margaret.
1065, The Turks take Jerusalem.
1066, The conquest of England by William ; who
1070, introduced the feudal law.
1075, Henry IV, emperor of Germany, and the Pope, have
a quarrel. Henry, in penance walks barefoot in January.
1096, The first crusade to the Holy Land is begun, under
several Christian princes, to drive the infidels from Jerusalem.
1118, The order of knight templars instituted.
1 172, Henry II, king of England, takes possession of Ireland.
1182, Pope Alexander III, compels the kings of France and
England, to hold the stirrups of his saddle when he mounted
his horse.
1192, Richard, king of England, defeats Saladin's army, con
sisting of 300,000 combatants.
1200, Chimnies not known in England.
1227, The Tartars emerge from the Northern part of Asia,
and in imitation of former conquerers, carry death and desolation
wherever they march. They overrun all the Saracen empire.
1233, The inquisition began in 1204, is now in the hands of
the Dominicans.
125S, The Tartars Hike Bagdad, which finishes, the empiru
of the Saracen '.

II
1263, Acho, king of Norway, invades Scotland with 160 sail,
and lands 20,000 men at the mouth of the Clyde, who were
cut to pieces by Alexander III.
1273, The empire of the present Austrian family begins in
Germany. 1282, Iicwellyn, prince of Wales, defeated and killed by Ed
ward I., who unites that principality to England.
1314, Battle between Edward II, and Robert Bruce, which
establishes the latter on the throne of Scotland.
1340, Gunpowder and guns first invented by Swartz. 1346,
Bombs and four pieces of cannon were made, by which Edward
III. gained the battle of Cressy.
1346, The battle of Durham, in which David, king of Scots,
is taken prisoner.
1356, The battle ofPoictiers, in which king John of France
and his son are taken prisoners by Edward, the black prince.
1362, John Wickliffe calls in question the doctrines of the
church of Rome, whose followers are called Lollards.
1388, The battle of Otlerburn between Hotspur and the
Earl of Douglas.
1415, Battlo gained over the French by Henry V. of England.
1428, The siego of Orleans.
1453, Constantinople taken by the Turks.
1483, Civil war ended between the house of York and Lan
caster, after a siege of 30 years, and the loss of 100,000 men.
1489, Maps and sea charts first brought to England.
1492, America first discovered by Columbus.
1494, Algebra first known in Europe.
1497, South America first discovered.
1499, North America by Cabot.
1517, Martin Luther begins the reformation.
1616, The first permanent settlement in Virginia.
1621, New England planted by the Puritans.
1635, Province of Maryland planted by Lord Baltimore.
1640, The massacre in Ireland, when 40,000 English protest-
ants are killed.
1649, Charles I. beheaded.
3

in
1664, The New Netherlands in North America, taken from
the Swedes and Dutch by the English.
1667, The peace of Breda, which confirms to the English
the New Netherlands, now known by names of Pennsylvania,
New York, and New Jersey.
The object I have in introducing this account of events, at
tendant on the rise and progress of the African and European
nations, is, that the traits of their national character may at a
glance be discovered ; by which the reader may the better judge
of the superiority of the descendants of Japhet over those of
Ham. In the first place, the European branch of Japhet's family
have but very little claims to the rank of civilized nations.
From the fourth up to the sixteenth century, they were in the
deepest state of heathenish barbarity. A continual scene of ,
bloodshed and robbery was attendant on the increase of their
numbers. Their spread over different countries caused almost
an entire extinction of all civil and religious governments, and
of the liberal arts and sciences. And even since that period,
all Europe and America have been little else than one great
universal battle field.
It is true, there is a great advance in the arts and sciences
from where they once were ; but whether they are any where
near its standard, as they once existed in Africa, is a matter of I
strong doubt. We should without doubt, had not the Euro- '
peans destroyed every vestige of history, which fell in their
barbarous march, been favored with an extensive and minute
history of the now unknown parts of Africa. Certain it is,
however, that whatever they may have contributed of knowl
edge to the world, it is owing to these casual circumstances we
have mentioned, rather tiian any thing peculiar to them as a
people. Any one who has the least conception of true greatness, on
comparing the two races by means of what history we have,
must decide in favor of the descendants cf Ham. The Egyp
tians alone have done more to cultivate such improvements as
comports to the happiness of mankind, than nil the descendants
of Japhet put together. Their enterprise in establishing colo-

19
nits and governments among their barbarous neighbors, end
supplying their wants from their granaries, instead of taking the
advantage of their ignorance, and robbing them of what little
they had, does not look much like an inferiority of intellect,
nor a want of disposition to make a proper use of it. They, at
no age, cultivated the art of war to any great extent. Neither
are they found making an aggressive war with any nation. But,
while other nations were continually robbing and destroying
each other, they were cultivating internal improvement ; and
virtually became a storehouse of every thing conducive to the
happiness of mankind, with which she supplied their wants.
Even as late as Carthage was in her glory, that race of people
exhibited their original character. For that famed city never ac
quired its greatness, but by the cultivation of commerce. And
though she obtained command of both sides of the Mediterranean,
became mistress of the sea, made the islands of Corsica and
Sardinia tributary to her, yet it is evident she acquired this ad
vantage by her wealth, rather than by her arms.
Europe and America presents quite a different spectacle.
There is not a foot of God's earth which is now occupied by
them, but has been obtained, in effect, by the dint of war, and
the destruction of the vanquished, since the founding of London,
A. D. 49. Their whole career presents a motley mixture ol
barbarism and civilization, of fraud and philanthropy, of patriot
ism and avarice, of religion and bloodshed. And notwithstand
ing many great and good men have lived and died bright lumina
ries of the world — and notwithstanding there are many now
living who are the seed of the church, yet-it-niust be admitted
_that_almost every nation in Europe, and especially Americans,
qretain, iri principle, ff not in manners, all the characteristics of
.their barbarous and avaricious ancestors. And instead of their
advanced state in science being attributable to a superior devel-
opement of intellectual faculties, there is nothing more capable
of proof, than that it is solely owing to the nature of the circum
stances into which they were drawn by their innate thirst for
blood and plunder.
! Had the inhabitants of Egypt, Ethiopia. Carthage, and other

20
kingdoms in Africa, been possessed with the same disposition,
the probability is, that the world now would be in a heathenish
darkness, for the want of that information which their better
disposition has been capable of producing. And had they had the
means at that early age of understanding human nature, as they
now would have, were their kingdoms in their glory, they would
probably not have suffered their liberality to be taken advantage of
by a barbarous crew around them. It is not for the want of mind,
therefore, that Africa is in her present state ; for were the disposi
tions of her different nations like the ancient barbarians of Europe,
they .vould soon make a plenty of business for Europeans, with;'
all their advantages, to defend themselves against their depre
dations. But it is not the genius of the race. Nothing but
liberal, generous principles, can call the energies of an African
mind into action. And when these principles are overruled by
a foreign cause, they are left without any thing to inspire them
to action, other than the cravings of their animal wants. |
Africa never will raise herself, neither will she be raised by
others, by warlike implements, or ardent spirits ; nor yet by a
hypocritical religious crusade, saying one thing and meaning
another. But when she rises, other nations will have learned
to deal justly with her from principle. When that time shall
arrive, the lapse of a few generations will show the world that
her sons will again take the lead in the field of virtuous enter- ,
prise, filling the front ranks of the church, when she marches
into the millennial era.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE INTELLECTUAL CHARACTER OF THE COLORED FEOTLB
OF THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
In this country wo behold tho remnant of a once noble, but
now heathenish people. In calling the attention of my readers
to the subject which I here present them, I would have them
lose sight of the African character, about which I have made
some remarks in my introduction. For at this time, circumstan
ces have established as much difference between them and their
ancestry, as exists between them and any other race or nation.
In the first place the colored people who are born in this coun
try, are Americans in every sense of the word. Americans by
birth, genius, habits, language, &ic. It is supposed, and I think
not without foundation, that the slave population labor under
an intellectual and physical disability or inferiority. The
justness "of these ronctosians^ however, will apply only to such
as have bec-j subject to slavery some considerable length of
time. I have already made some remarks with regard to the cause
of apparent differences between nations. I shall have cause to
remark again, that as the intellectual as well as the physical
properties of mankind, are subject to cultivation, I have ob
served that the growth or culture depends materially on the
means employed to that end. In those countries in which the
maxims and laws are such as are calculated to employ the phy
sical properties mostly, such as racing, hunting, &c, there is
uniformly a full development of physical properties. We will
take the American Indian for example. A habit of indolence
produces a contrary effect. History, as well as experience, will
justify me in saying that a proper degree of exercise is essen
tial to the growth of tho corporeal system ; and that the form
and size depends on the extent and amount of exercise. On

comparing one who is brought up from his youth a trades
man, with one who is brought up a farmer, the difference is
manifestly apparent according to the difference of their exercise.
Change of public sentiment indirectly affects the form and size ol
whole nations, inasmuch as public sentiment dictates the mode
and kind of exerr.be. The muscular yeomanry who once formed
a majority of our country's population, are now but seldom
found ; those who fill their places in society, in no way com
pare with them in that respect. Compare our farmer's daugh
ters, who have been brought up under the influence of country
habits, with those brought up under city habits, and a difference
is most manifest.
But there is another consideration worthy of notice. Edu
cation, says D. D. Hunter,* on the part of the mother, com
mences from the moment she has the prospect of being a mother.
And her own health thenceforth is the first duty she owes to
her child. The instructions given to the wife of Manoah, and
mother of Sampson, the Nazarite, (Jud. 1 3, 4 :) ' Now, therefore,
beware, I pray thee, drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat
not any unclean thing,' are not merely arbitrarily adapted only
to a particular branch of political economy, and intended to
serve local and temporary purposes ; no, the constitutions of
nature, reason, and experience, which unite in recommending
to those who have the prospect of being mothers, a strict atten
tion to diet, to exercise, to temper, to every thing, which affecting
the frame of their own body or mind, may communicate an im
portant, a lasting, perhaps indelible impression, to the mind_or_
bodyof their offspring. A proper regimen for themselves, is
"tEerelbre the first stage of education for their children. The
neglect of it is frequently found productive of effects which no
future culture is able to alter or rectify.
These most just remarks confirm me in the opinion, that the
laws of nature may be crossed by the misconduct or misfortune
of her who has the prospect of being a mother. Apply these
remarks to the condition of slave mothers, as such, and what arc
the plain and natural inferences to be drawn. Certainly, if they
are entitled to any weight at all, the intellectual and physical
inferiority of the slave population can be accounted for without
imputing it to an origioai .liSJ^iilii^cTliiSfi- Contemplate the
exposed condition'of slave mothers— their continual subjection
to despotism and barbarity : their minds proscribed to the nar
row bounds of servile obedience, subject to irritation from every
• HunHr'» Socreil Biography, \o\. 7. pi?e III

33
quarter ; great disappointment, and physical suffering themseltes,
and continual eye-witnesses to maiming and flagellation ; shrieks
of wo borne to their ears on every wind. Indeed, language is
lame in the attempt to describe the condition of those poor
daughters of affliction. Indeed, I have no disposition to dwell
on the subject ; to be obliged to think of it at all, is sufficiently
harrowing to my feelings. But I would inquire how it can be
possible for nature, under such circumstances, to act up to her
perfect laws ?
The approbrious terms used in common by most all classes,
to describe tho deformities of tho offspring of these parents, is
true in part, though employed with rather bad grace by those
in whom the cause of their deformity originates. 1 will intro
duce those terms, not for the sake of embellishing my treatise
with their modest style, but to show the lineal effects of slavery
on its victims. Contracted and slopedT "Ibreheadis r prominent
eye-balls ; projecting under-jaw ; certain distended muscles
about the mouth, or lower parts of the face ; thick lips and flat
nose ; hips and rump projecting; crooked shins; flat feet, with
large projecting heels. This, in part, is the language used by
moderns to philosophize, upon the negro character. With re
gard to their mind, it is said that their intellectual brain is not
fully developed ; malicious disposition ; no taste for high and
honorable attainments ; implacable enemies one to another ; and
that they sustain the same relation to the ourang outang, that the
whites do to them.
Now, as it respects myself, I am perfectly willing to admit
\ the truth of these remarks, as they apply to the character of a
slave population ; for I am aware that no language capable of
being employed by mortal tongue, is sufficiently descriptive to
set forth in its true character the effect of that cursed thing,
slavery. 1 shall here be under the necessity of calling up those
considerations connected with the subject, which 1 but a little
time since entertained a hope that I should be able to pass by
unnoticed ; I have reference to a mother who is a slave, bring
ing into the world beings whose limbs and minds were lineally
fashioned for the yoke and fetter, long before her own immortal
mind was clothed in materiality.
I would ask my readers to think of woman as the greatest
natural gift to man — think of her in delicate health, when the
poor delicate fabiic is taxed to the utmost to answer the demands
of nature's laws — when friends and sympathies, nutricicus ali
ments, and every other collateral aid is needed. O think of
poor woman, a prospective mother ; and when you think, feel

24
as a heart of flesh can feel ; see her weeping eyes fixed alter
nately upon the object of her nffections and him who accounts
her a brute — think how she feels on beholding the gore stream
ing from the back, the naked back, of the .former, while the
latter wields the accursed lash, until the back of a husband,
indeed the whole frame, has become like a loathsome heap of
mangled flesh. How often has she witnessed the wielding club
lay him prostrate, while the purple current followed the damn
ing blow. How the rattling of the chain, the lock of which
has worn his ancles and his wrists to the bone, falls upon her ear.
O, has man fallen so far below the dignity of his original charac
ter, as not to be susceptible of feeling. But does the story stop
here. 1 would that it were even so. But alas! this, the orna
mental production of nature's God, is not exempt, even in this
state, from the task of a slave. And, as though cursed by all the
gods, her own delicate frame is destined to feel the cruel scourge.
When faint and weary she lags her step, the overseer, as though
decreed to be a tormenting devil, throws the coiling lash upon her
naked back ; and in turn, the master makes it his pleasure to
despoil the works of God, by subjecting her to the rank of goods
and chattels, to be sold in the shambles. Woman, you who
possess a woman's nature, can feel for her who was destined by
the Creator of you both, to fill the same sphere with yourself.
You know by experience the claims of nature's laws — you
know too well the irritability of your natures when taxed to the
utmost to fulfil the decree of nature's God.
I have in part given a description of a mother that is a slave.
And can it be believed to be possible for such a one to bring
perfect children into the world. If we arc permitted to decide
that natural causes produce natural effects, then it must be
equally true that unnatural causes produce unnatural effects.
The slave system is an unnatural cause, and has produced its
unnatural elfects, as displayed in the deformity of two and a
half millions of beings, who have been under its soul-and-body-
destroying influence, lineally, for near three hundred years;
together with all those who have died their progenitors since
that period.
But again, I believe it to be an axiom generally admitted,]
that mind acts on matter, then again, that mind acts on mind;]
this being the case, is it a matter of surprise that those mothers
who are slaves, should, on witnessing the distended muscles on
the face of whipped slaves, produce the same or «imilar disten
sions on 'the face of her oflspring, by her own mind being affect
ed by the sight ; and so with all other deformities. Like

25
\ causes produce like effects. If by Jacob's placing ring-streaked
elder in the trough where Laban's flocks drank, caused their
'young to be ring-streaked and speckled, why should not the
offspring of slave mothers, who are continually witnessing excit
ing objects, be affected by the same law ; and why should they
not be more affected, as the mother is capable of being more
excited. From the foregoing I draw the following conclusions, with
regard to the different degrees of effect produced by slavery.
Compare slaves that are African born, with those who are born
in slavery, and the latter will in no wise compare with the for
mer in point of form of person or strength of mind. The first
and second generation born in this country are generally far
before the fourth and fifth, in this respect. Compare such as
have been house servants, as they are called, for several gener
ations with such as have been confined to plantations the same
term of time, and there will be a manifest inferiority in the
latter. Observe among the nominally free, their form of person,
features, strength of mind, and bent of genius, fidelity, &c, and
jit will evidently appear that they who sustain a relation of no
further than the third generation from African birth, are in gen-
s eral far before those who sustain a more distant relation. The
former generally acquire small possessions, and conform their
habits of life and modes of operation with those common where
they live, while those who have been enslaved for several gen
erations, or whose progenitors in direct line were thus enslaved,
cannot b«! induced to conform to any regular rule of life or oper
ation, t intend this last statement as general fact, of which,
however, there are exceptions ; where there is a mixture of
blood, asjt is sometimes called, perhaps'these remarks may^not
apply... I suppose, however, that in case of a union between a"
degraded American slave of the last order spoken of, and a
highly intelligent free American, whether white or colored, that
the offspring of such parents are as likely to partake of the in
fluence of slavery through the lineal medium of the slave parent,
as to receive natural intelligence through the medium of the
other. So far as I understand, nature's law seems not tobc scrupulously
rigid in this particular; there appears to be no rule, therefore by
which to determine the effect or lineal influence of slavery on a
mixed race. 1 am satisfied with regard to one fact, however that
caste has no influence whatever: for a union between a-hi-My
cultivated black and a degrad«Tb]i£i^rm)o*uxres an exact similar
effect. Whatever complexion or nation parents thus connected

may be of, the effect produced would be the same, but it would
not be certain that their children would occupy a midway re
gion between the intelligent and degraded parent, as in other
cases part of a family may he below mediocrity, and part above,
in point of form and intellect. One thing is certain, which may
have some bearing in the case ; that when nature has been robbed,
give her a fair chance and she will repair her loss by her own
operations, one of which is to produce variety. But to proceed
further with any remarks on this point, I feel myself not at
liberty. In view of what I have said on this subject, I am
nware of having fallen short of giving a full description of the
lineal influence and effects slavery has upon the colored popu
lation of litis country. Such is the nature of the subject, that
it is almost impossible to arrange our thoughts so as to follow
it by any correct rule of investigation.
Slavery, in its effects, is like that of a complicated disease,
typifyin» evil in all its vaiicty — in its operations, -omnipotent to
destroy — in effect^ fatal as death awl hell. Language is lame
in its most successful attempt, to describe its enormity ; and with
all the excitement which this country has undergone, in conse
quence of the discussion of the subject, yet the story is not half
told, neither can it be. We, who are subject to its fatal effects,
cannot fully realize tho disease under which wc labor. Think
of u colore! community, whoso genius and temperament of
minds all differ in proportion as they are lineally or personally
made to feel the damning influence of slavery, and, as though
it had (he gift of creating tormenting pangs at pleasure, it comes)
up, in the character of an accuser, and charjres our half destroy
ed, discordant minds, with hatred one towards the other, as
ihough a body composed of parts, and systematized by the lawb|
of nature, were capable of continuing its regular configurative/
movements after it has been decomposed.
When I think of nature's laws, that with scrupulous exact
ness they are to be obeyed by all things over which they are
intended to bear rule, in order that she may be able to declare,
in all her variety, that the hand that made her is divine, and
when, in this case, I sec and feel how she has been robbed of
her means to perform her delightful task — her laws trampled
under feet with all their divine authority, despoiling her works
even in her nio-a sacred temples — 1 wonder that I am a man ;
for though of the third generation from slave parents, yet in
body nuil mind nature has never been permitted to half finish j'
her work. Let nil judge who i- in the fault, God, or .slavery.;/
or it -< siiMaiiici' .' '

CHAPTER II.

OH THE POLITICAL CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF THE
COLORED PEOPLE.

A government like this is at any time liable to be revolution
ised by the people, at any and every time there is a change of
public sentiment. This, perhaps, is as it should be. But when
the subjects of a republican government become morally and
politically corrupt, there is but little chance remaining for repub
licanism. A correct standard may be set up, under which par
ties may pretend to aim at a defence of the original principles
upon which the government was based ; but if the whole coun
try has become corrupt, what executive power is there remain
ing to call those parties in question, and to decide wheth
er their pretensions and acts correspond wilh the standard under
which they profess to act. Suppose the Constitution and arti
cles of confederation, be the admitted correct standard by all
parties, still the case is no better, when there is not honesty
enough in either, to admit a fair construction of their letter and
spirit. Good laws, and a good form of government, are of but
very little use to a wicked people, further than they are able to
restrain them from wickedness.
Were a fallen angel permitted to live under the government
of heaven, his disposition would first incline him to explain
away the nature of its laws ; this done, their spirit becomes
perverted, which places him back in hell from whence he
came ; for, though he could not alter the laws of heaven, yet
he could pervert their use, in himself, and act them out
in this perverted state, which would make him act just like a
devil. The perversion of infinite good, is infinite evil — ami if
the spiritual use of (he laws of an infinitely perfect government
is productive of a perfect heaven, in like manner their spiritual
perversion is productive of perfect or infinite hell. Hence it is

id
said to be a bottomless pit— ay, deep as the principle is high,
from which the distortion is made. (
I have taken this course to illustrate the state of a people
with a good government and laws, and with a disposition to
explain away all their meaning. My conclusions are, that such
republicans are capable, like the angel about which I have spo
ken, to carry out their republicanism into tho most fatal des
potism. A republican form of government, therefore, can be a
blessing to no people, further than they make honest virtue the
rule of life. Indeed, honesty is essential to the existence of a
republican form of government, for it originates in a contract or
agreement of its subjects, relative to the disposal of their mu
tual interests. If conspiracy is got up by any of the contracters,
against the fundamental principles of the honest contract, (which,
if republican, embraced those interests which are unalienable,
and no more,) and if, by an influence gained by them, so as to
make its intent null and void, the foundation of the government
is thereby destroyed ; leaving its whole fabric a mere wreck, in
efficient in all its executive power. Or if tho contract had the
form of honesty only, when there was a secret design of fraud
in the minds of the parties contracting, then of course, it is a
body without a soul — a fabric without a foundation ; and, like a
dead carcass entombed, will tumble to pieces as soon as brought
to the light of truth, and into the pure air of honesty.
With regard to the claims of the colored subjects of this gov
ernment to equal political rights, I maintain that their claims are
founded in an original agreement of the contracting parties, and
that there is nothing to show that color was a consideration in
the agreement. It is well known that when the country belong
ed to Great Britain, the colored people were slaves. But when
America revolted from Britain, they were held no longer by any
legal power. There was no efficient law in the land except
marshal law, and that regarded no one as a slave. The inhabi
tants were governed by no other law, except by resolutions
adopted from time to time by meetings convoked in the differ
ent colonics. Upon the face of the warrants by which these
district and town meetings were called, there is not a word said
about the color of the attendants. In convoking the continental
Congress of the 4th of September, 1776, there was not a word
said about color. In November of the same year, Congress
met again, to get in readiness twelve thousand men to act in any
emergency ; at the same time, a request was forwarded to Con
necticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, to increase this
army to twenty thousand men. Now it is well known thathun-

119
deeds of the men of which this army was composed, wen color
ed men, and recognised by Congress as Americans.
\ An extract from the speech of Richard Henry Lee, delivered
in Congress, assembled June 8, 1776, in support of a motion,
which he offered, to declare America free and independent, will
give some view of the nature of the agreement upon which this
government is based. ' The eyes of all Europe are fixed upon
us ; she demands of us a living example of freedom, that may
contrast, by the felicity of her citizens, (I suppose black as
well as white,) with the ever increasing tyranny which desolates
her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where
the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted, repose. She
entreats us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that generous
plant which first sprang up and grew in England, but is now
withered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive
and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable
shade all the unfortunate of the human race.'
The principles which this speech contains, are manifestly
those which were then acted upon. To remove all doubt
on this point, I will make a short extract from the Dec
laration of Independence, in Congress assembled, fourth of
July, 1776. ' We, the representatives of these United States
of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to
the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our
intentions, and by the authority of the pood people of these
Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colo
nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.
(And now for the pledge.) We mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.' The representa
tives who composed that Congress were fifty-five in number, and
all signed the declaration and pledge in behalf of the good peo
ple of the thirteen States.
Now I would ask, can it be said, from any fair construction of
the foregoing extracts, that the colored people are not recogniz
ed as citizens. Congress drew up articles of confederation also
among which are found the following reserved state privileges.
« Each state has the exclusive right of regulating its internal
government, and of framing its own laws, in all matters not in
cluded in the articles of confederation, and which are not repug
nant to it.' Another article reads as follows : ' There shall be
a public treasury for the service of the confederation, to be re
plenished by the particular contributions of each state, the same
to be proportioned according to the number of inhabitants of
every age, sex, or condition, with the exception of Indians.'

.10
These extracts are sufficient to show the civil and political
recognition of the colored people. In addition to which, how
ever, we have an official acknowledgment of their equal/civil, and
political relation to the government, in the following proclama
tion of Major General Andrew Jackson, to the colored people of
Louisiana, Sept. 21, 1814 ; also of Thomas Butler, Aid de
Camp :
* Head Quarters, Seventh Military District, Mobile, Sep
tember 21, 1814. To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Lou
isiana. ' Through a mistaken policy you have heretofore been de
prived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national
rights, in which our country is engaged. This no longer shall
exist. ' As sons of Freedom, you are now called upon to defend our
most inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks
with confidence to her adopted children, for a valorous support,
as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed under her mild
and equitable government. As fathers, husbands, and brothers,
you are summoned to rally round the standard of the Eagle, to
defend all which is dear in existence.
' Your country, although calling for your exertions, does not
wish you to engage in her cause, without remunerating you for
the services rendered. Your intelligent minds are not to be led
away by false representations — your love of honor would cause
you to despise the man who should attempt to deceive you. In
the sincerity of a soldier, and the language of truth, 1 address
you. 'To every noble hearted free man of color, volunteering to
serve during the present contest with Great Britain and no
longer, there will be paid the same bounty in money and lands,
now received by the white soldiers of tho United States, viz.,
ono hundred and twenty-four dollars in money, and one hundred
and sixty acres of land. The non-commissioned officers and
privates will also be entitled to the same monthly pay and daily
rations and clothes, furnished to any American soldier.
' On enrolling yourselves in companies, the Major General
commanding, will select officers for your government, from your
white fellow citizens. Your non-commissioned officers will be
appointed from anion:* yourselves.
'Due resard will be paid to the feelinzs of freemen and sol
diers. You will not, by being associated with white men in the
same corps, be exposed to improper comparisons or unjust sar-

31
casm. As a distinct, independent battalion or regiment, pursu
ing the path of glory, you will, undivided, receive the applause
and gratitude of your countrymen.
' To assure you of the sincerity of my intentions, and my
anxiety to engage your, invaluable services to our country, I
have communicated my wishes to the Governor of Louisiana,
who is fully informed as to the manner of enrolments, and will
give you every necessary information on the subject of this
address. 'ANDREW JACKSON, Major General CommmandingS
' Proclamation to the Free People of Color.
•Soldiers! — When on the banks of the Moble, 1 called you
to take arms, inviting you to parlako the perils and glory of
your white fellow citizens, I expected much from you ; fori
was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable
to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could
endure hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign.
I knew iccll how you loved your native country, and that you
had, as well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear —
his parents, relations, wife; children and properly: You have
done more than I expected. In addition to the previous quali
ties I before knew you to possess, 1 found moreover, among
you, a noble enthusiasm which leads to the performance of
great things.
' Soldiers ! — The President of the United States shall hear how
praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the
representatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give
you the praise your exploits entitle you to. Your General an
ticipates them in applauding your noble ardor.
' The enemy approaches, his vessels cover our lakes ; our
brave citizens ara united, and all contention has ceased among
them. Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor,
or who the most glory, its noblest reward.
' By Order, THOMAS BUTLER, Aid de Camp.'
All the civil and political disabilities of the colored people,
are the effect of usurpation. It is true, slavery is recognized
by the articles of confederation ; but there is not a public docu
ment of the government, which recognizes a colored man as a
slave, not even in the provision for Southern representation.
When fugitive slaves are demanded by Southern slaveholders
they are recovered by virtue of a provision made to recover
prisoners held to labor, in the state from whence they have ab
sconded ; but how that provision can be construed in such a

Vi
manner, as to give them that advantage, I cannot conceive. I
am satisfied, that it only serves as a pretext to justify a base
perversion of the law, for the sake of pleasing evil doers. In
the first place, a slave is not held to labor legally in slave states,
because, according to the extract I have made, viz., that each
state has a right to frame laws which are not prejudicial to the
articles of confederation ; there is a limitation to which every
other article of the document is subject. Now, what says an
other article of confederation ? Why, that a person held to
labor, shall be recovered. But in what way held ? Upon this
the articles of confederation, arc silent ; iu fact, they may as
well be silent ; for had they pointed out the manner of persons
being held to labor, they would have assumed the province of
common law ; this, the framcrs of the constitution and docu
ments of confederation, knew full well ; and the administrators
of justice now know, that no person under heaven can be held
to labor, other than by virtue of a contract, recognizable by
common law. Neither do the administrators of justice, found
their decisions on any thing found in the articles of confedera
tion ; for a proof of which, 1 will call the attention of my read
ers to the following considerations.
If a white person is arraigned before a justice, as a fugitive
slave, it would not be all the evidence that could be collected
to prove him a slave, however true, that would induce a justice
at the North to give him up, if he were able to prove that he
was of white parentage. It would be the same, in case that an
Indian was arrraigned. There have been such claims made, I
believe, and the defendants acquitted, even where there was
proof positive, on the part of the claimant. This is proof posi
tive, that decisions in such cases are not founded on a sentence
contained in the articles nf confederation, for there is nothing
said, in that instrument, about nation or complexion ; but per
sons held to labor. Now, if it is by virtue of that instrument,
that the black man is held to labor, why not hold the white per
son, and the Indian, by the same power? And if they cannot
be held by that instrument, how can any person be held, when
no particular person is described ? It is evident that decisions
in favor of claimants are founded in the fact of the defendants
being a black person, or descendants of blacks or Africans.
Now, for all this mode of administering justice, there cannot be
found a single sentence of justification, in any public document
in the country, except such as have been framed by individual
states ; and these are prejudicial to the articles of confederation.
If there is any thing in the articles of confederation, which ju»-

33
tifies such a course of procedure, I have never found it. Only
think, if one is claimed who is black, or who is a descendant of
a black, (though he be whiter than a white man:) he musi be
given up to homeless bondage, by virtue of the ankles of con
federation, when there is not a word about black contained in
the instrument ; whereas, if a white person be claimed, if he
is half negro, if he can prove himself legally white, or of white
parentage, he is acquitted. This course of conduct would be
scouted by heathens, as a gross libel upon humanity and justice.
It is so ; and a violation of the Constitution, and of the Bill of
Rights — the rights of the people ; and every State which con
nives at such robbing in high places, clothed with a legal form,
without a vestige of legal authority ; and that too, after having
taken the tremendous oath, as recorded in the Declaration of
Independence, ought to have perjury written upon their statute
books, and upon the ceiling of their legislative halls, in letters
as large as their crime, and as black as the complexion of the
injured.
A Excuses have been employed in vain to cover up the hypo
crisy of this nation. The most corrupt policy which ever dis
graced its barbarous ancestry, has been adopted by both church
and state, for the avowed purpose of withholding the inaliena
ble rights of one part of the subjects of the government. Pre
texts of the lowest order, which are neither witty or decent, and
which rank among that order of subterfuges, under which the
lowest of ruffians attempt to hide, when exposed to detection,
are made available. Indeed, I may say in candor, that a high
wayman or assassin acts upon principles far superior, in some
respects, in comparison with those under which the administra
tors of the laws of church and state act, especially in their at
tempts to hide themselves and their designs from the just cen
sure of the world, and from the burning rays of truth. I have
no language to express what I see, and hear, and feel, on this
subject. Were I capable of dipping my pen in the deepest dye
of crime, and of understanding the science of the bottomless pit,
1 should then fail in presenting to the intelligence of nioitals on
earth, the true nature of American deception. There can be
no appeals made in the name of the laws of the country, of
philanthropy, or humanity, or religion, that is capable of draw
ing forth any thing but the retort, — you are a negro ! If we
call to our aid the thunder tones of the cannon and the argu
ments of fire arms, (vigorously managed by black and white
men, side by side,) as displayed upon Dorchester Heights, and
ut Lexington, and at White Plains, and at Kingston, and at

34
Long Island, and elsewhere, the retort is, you are a negro
— if we present to the nation a Bunker's Hill, our nation's
altar, (upon which she offered her choicest sacrifice,) with
our fathers, and brothers, and sons, prostrate thereon, wrapped
in fire and smoke — the incense of blood borne upward upon
the wings of sulphurous vapor, to the throne of national
honor, with a halo of national glory echoing back, and spread
ing and astonishing the civilized world ; — and if we present
the thousands of widows and orphans, whose only earthly
protectors were thus sacrificed, weeping over the fate of the
departed; and anon, tears of blood are extorted, on learning
that the government for which their lovers and sires had died,
refuses to be their protector; — if we tell that angels weep in
pity, and that God, the eternal Judge, ' will hear the desire of
the humble, judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the
man of the earth may no more oppress,' — the retort is, yon ,
are a negro ! If there is a spark of honesty, patriotism, or
religion, in the heart or the source from whence such refuting
arguments emanate, the devil incarnate is the brightest seraph
in paradise.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE NATURE OP THE PREJUDICE OF THE WHITE POPULA
TION OF THE UNITED STATES. IN ITS MALIGNANT EXERCISE
TOWARDS THE COLORED PEOPLE.
Malignant prejudice is a principle which calls into action the
worst passions of the human heart. There are cases, however,
in which the exercise of prejudice is perfectly harmless. A
person may prepossess favorable opinions of another, and such
opinions may be just and right. Unfavorable opinions may be
formed, also, of persons whose conduct is censurable ; and a
just prejudice may be exercised towards them, as they stand
related to their own bad conduct, without a display of any
malignity. Again, prejudicial feelings may be exercised towards another,
through an error of judgment, for the want of means of know
ing the true character of those against whom a prejudice is in
dulged ; in which case, it possesses nothing malignant, because
its possessor entertains no purpose of injury. Great caution
should be exercised, however, in judging the motives and con
duct of another, especially when such conduct relates some
what to ourselves — because it is very natural for us to be gov
erned by our interest, or imaginary interest, which is liable to
lead us into errors of the worst kind. It is also natural, on
being convicted of wrong, to plead ignorance. But such a
plea will not always excuse the pleader in strict justice. For
if the prejudiced person has the means of knowing, or if he has
any doubt with regard to the justness of his opinions of his
neighbors, and still neglects to use the means of informing him
self, and to solve his doubts on the subject, but persists in the
exercise of his prejudice, he is equally guilty of all the mischief
produced thereby, as he would be if he knew ever so well and
persisted in his wrong course in the light of that knowledge.

3G
Prejudice seems to possess a nature peculiar to itself It
never possesses any vitiating qualities, except when it is exer
cised by one who has done, or intends to do, another an injury.
And it» malignity is heightened in proportion as its victim in
any way recovers, or has a manifest prospect of recovering the
injury ; or if there is apparently a door open by which a su
perior power to that which he possesses, may bring him to an
account for the wrong done to his neighbor, all have a direct
tendency to heighten the malignity of prejudice in the heart of
its possessor.
The colored population are the injured party. And the pre
judice of the whites against them is in exact proportion to the
injury the colored people have sustained. There is a prejudice
in this country against the Irish, who are flocking here by thou
sands. Still there is nothing malignant in the nature and exer
cise of that prejudice, either national or personal. It grows
out of the mere circumstance of their different manners and
religion. The moment an Irishman adopts the maxims and
firevailing religion of the country, he is no longer regarded an
rishman, other than by birth./ It is to bo romotnberod, also,
that the Irish oro not an injured, but a benefited party ; there
fore, it is not possible that the beslower of benefits could be at
the same time malignantly exercising prejudice towards those
he is benefiting.
There exists, therefore, no injurious prejudice against the
Irish. There exists a prejudice against the Indians, but it is
almost entirely national, and for the very reason that the injury
they have sustained is essentially national. The jealous eye of
this nation is fixed upon them as a nation, and has ever exer
cised the rigor of its prejudice towards them, in proportion as
they attempted to recover their rightful possesions ; or, in other
words, just in proportion as the physical powers of the Indians,
have dwindled to inefficiency, prejudice against them has be
come lax and passive. It revives only as they show signs of
national life.
The injury sustained by the colored people, is both national
and personal ; indeed, it is national in a twofold sense. In the
first place, they are lineally stolen from their native country,
and detained for centuries, in a strange land, as hewers of wood
and drawers of water. In this situation, their blood, habits,!
minds, and bodies, have undergone such a change, as to cause!
them to lose all legal or natural relations to their mother coun
try. They are no longer her children ; therefore, they sustain '
the great injury of losins their country, their birthright, and are

37
made aliens and illegitimates. Again, they sustain a national
injury by being adopted subjects and citizens, and then be de
nied their citizenship, and the benefits derivable therefrom
— accounted as aliens and outcasts, hence, are identified as be
longing to no country — denied birthright in one, and had it sto
len from them in another — and, I had like to have said, they
had lost title to both worlds; for certainly they are denied all
title in this, and almost all advantages to prepare for the next
In this light of the subject, they belong to no people, race, or
nation ; subjects of no government — citizens of no country —
scattered surplus remnants of two races, and of different na
tions — severed into individuality — rendered a mass of broken
fragments, thrown to and fro, by the boisterous passions of this
and other ungodly nations. Such, in part, are the national in
juries sustained by this miserable people.
I am aware that most people suppose the existence of color
to be the cause of malignant prejudice. Upon this supposition
an argument is founded, that color is an insurmountable barrier,
over which there can be no social or political relation, formed
between white and colored Americans. To show the folly of
which, I shall lay down and sustain tho following, principles.
First. Effects, according to their numerous laws, partake of
their parent cause in nature and quantity ; i. e. the amount of
effect produced, will exactly agree with the amount of efficiency
the cause contains which produced it ; and their legitimacy
claims for them, the nature of their parent. Apply this rule to
the subject under consideration, and it will be seen, that, if color
were the cause of prejudice, it follows, that just according to the
variegation of the cause, (color; so would the effect variegate 
i. e. the clear blooded black would be subject to a greater de
gree of prejudice, in proportion as he was black — and those of
lighter caste subject to a less degree of prejudice, as they were
light. Now it is well known that the exercise of prejudice, is
as intense towards those who are in fact whiter than aclear blood
ed American, as it is against one who is as black as jet, if they
nre identified as belonging to that race of people who 'are the
injured party.
Again. That which cannot be contemplated as a principle
abstractly, cannot be an efficient cause of any thing. A princi
ple which is not subject to dissection, having bodv and parts— a
principle of configuration is not capable of being an active oause •
thereToTer^onlyexists as a passive principle/dependine entire^
ly on an active principle for its existence. Now, if animal color
can be contemplated as a cause, it must possess configurative

38
properties ; and if it possess these properties, then it is an in
dependent principle, capable of living and acting after the man
is dead, or decomposed. If it is argued thai each component part
of the man becomes independent when decomposed, and thai an
imal color is one of the component parts, then 1 would ask, why
we cahnot comprehend its existence, the same as other matter
of which the body was made ? If this cannot be done, then it
cannot be regarded other than a passive principle in which there
is no power of action. Color, therefore, cannot be an efficient
cause of the malignant prejudice of the whites against the
blacks ; it is only an imaginary cause at the most. It serves
only as a trait by which n principle is identified.
The true cause of this prejudice is slavery. Slavery partakes
of the nature and efficiency of all, and every thing, that is bad
on earth and in hell. Its effect in the character of prejudice,
as displayed towards tho colored people, fully sustains my posi
tion — that effects partake of their parent cause, both in nature
and quantity ; for certainly, nothing short of every thing evil
on earth and in hell, in the form and character of slavery could
be capable of producing such prejudicial injuries, as those under
which the colored people are doomed to suffer. It must be
admitted, that slavery assumes a most vicious character in its
exercise towards them. Never could a people exist under
greater injuries, than those under which this people have exist
ed in this country ; slavery, in its worst form, is the cause of all
injury sustained by them. The system of slavery in its effects,
is imposed on the injured party in two forms, or by two meth
ods. The first method is, by a code of laws, originating in pub
lic sentiment, as in slave states. The oilier is, prejudice, origi
nating in the same, as it exists in free states. The first method
is prejudicial, and partakes of the corruptions of public senti
ment, which is corrupted by prejudice ; but prejudice, in that
case, assumes the form of law, and, therefore, is not capable of
inflicting such deep injuries, as when it exists without law. Be
cause to all law time is a limitation, whether good or bad ;
hence, so far os the Inws of slovo states aro concerned, a limita
tion of suffering may bo contemplated, even undor their direct
influence. However scveio slave laws may be, and however
faithfully executed according to their letter and spirit—though
by them the cup of injury he lavished out in full measure upon
the objects of its abuse to the extent of its power, still, the in
nate principles of the human mind, will cause it to transcend
such legal abuse, where a limitation can be comprehended.

39
Legal codes, however oppressive, have never as yet been able
to crush the aspiring principles of human nature. The real
monster slavery, cannot long exist, where it is sustained by legal
codes only ; it is forced to stand off, and is capable of imposing
its shadow only, in comparison to what it is capable of doing by
collateral aid. When public sentiment, therefore, has become
so morally, civilly, and politically corrupted by the principles of
slavery, as to be determined in crushing the objects of its ma
lignity, it is under the necessity of calling prejudice to its aid,
as an auxiliary to its adopted formal code of wickedness, clothed
like a semi-devil, with all the innate principles of the old dragon
himself. This auxiliary, is all powerfully capable of accommo
dating itself to local circumstances and conditions, and appear
ing with all the nature of the old beast, slavery; it is always
ready to destroy every aspiration to civil, political and moral
elevation, which arises in the breast of the oppressed. There
is no pretext too absurd, by which to justify the expenditures of
its soul-and-body-destroying energies. The complexion, fea
tures, pedigree, customs, and even the attributes asd purposes
of God, are made available to its justification.
By this monster, the withering influence of slavery is directed
to the very vitals of the colored people — withering every incen
tive to improvement — rendering passive all the faculties of the
intellect — subjecting the soul to a morbid state of insensibility
—destroying the body — making one universal wreck of the best
work of nature's God.
Such is its effect at the south, and scarcely less destructive tt
the north. The only difference is this : at the north, there is
not so formal a code of laws by which to direct the energies of
prejudice as at the south ; still the doctrine of expediency full
well makes up the deficiency of cruel laws, giving prejudice as
full toleration to exercise itself, and in lavishing out its withering
influence, as law at the south.
It is a remarkable fact that the moment the colored people
show signs of life — any indication of being possessed with re
deeming principles, that moment an unrelenting hatred arises in
the mind which is inhabited by that foul fiend, prejudice ; and
the possessor of it will never be satisfied, until those indications
are destroyed ; space, time, nor circumstance, is no barrier to
its exercise. Transplant the object of its malignity to Africa, or
Canada, or elsewhere, and its poison is immediately transferred
from local into national policy, and will exert all possible means
it possesses, to accomplish its fell design. It always aims its
deadly fangs at the noble and active principles of the immortal

40
mind, which alone enables man to stand forth pre-eminent in all
the works of God.*
Let the oppressed assume the character of capable men in
buisness, either mercantile, mechanical, or agricultural, — let
them assume the right of exercising themselves in the use of
the common privileges of the country — lei them claim the right
of enjoying liberty, in the general acceptation of the term-
let them exercise the right of speech and of thought — let them
presume to enjoy the privileges of the sanctuary and the Bible
let their souls be filled with glory and of God, and wish to bow
the knee at the sacred altar, and commemorate the dying love
of Christ the Lord — let them seek a decent burial for their
departed friend in the church yard — and they arc immediately
made to feel that they are as a carcass destined to be preyed
upon by the eagles of persecution. Thus they are followed from
life's dawn to death's-doom.
I have no language wherewith to give slavery, and its auxil
iaries, an adequate description, as an efficient cause of the mis
eries it is capable of producing. It seems lo possess a kind of
omnipresence. It follows its victims in every avenue of life.
'" Tlie'pfinclple assumes still another feature equally destruc
tive. It makes the colored people subserve almost every foul
purpose imaginable. Negro or nigger, is an approbrious terra,
employed to impose contempt upon them as an inferior race,
and also to express their deformity of person. Nigger lips,
nigger shins, and nigger heels, are phrases universally common
among the juvenile class of society, and full well understood by
ibem ; they are early learned to think of these expressions, as
they are intended to apply to colored people, and as being ex
pressive or descriptive of the odious qualities of their mind and
body. These impressions received by the young, grow with
their growth, and strengthen with their strength. The term in
itself, would be perfectly harmless, were it used only to distin
guish one class of society from another ; but it is not used with^
lhat intent ; the practical definition is quite different in England]
to what it is here, for here, it flows from the fountain of put posei
to injure. It is this baneful seed which is sown in the tender;
soil of youthful minds, and there cultivated by the hand of a
corrupt immoral policy.
The universality of this kind of education is well known lo
the observing. Children in infancy receive oral instruction from
the nurse. The first lessons given are, Johnny, Billy, Mary,
* Take llajii l»r an example.

41
Sally, (or whatever the name may be,) go to sleep, if you
don't the old nigger will care you off; don't you cry — Hark;
the old niggers' coming — how ugly you are, you are worse
lhan a little nigger. This is a specimen of the first lessons
given. The second is generally given in the domestic circle ; in
some families it is almost the only method of correcting their
children. To inspire their half grown misses and masters to
improvement, they are told that if they do this or that, or if
they do thus and so, they will be poor or ignorant as a nigger;
or that they will be black as a nigger; or have no more credit
than a nigger ; that they will have hair, lips, feet, or some
thing of tho kind, like a nigger. If doubt is entertained by
any, as to the truth of what 1 write, let them travel twenty
miles in any direction in this country, especially in the free
States, and his own sense of hearing will convince him of its
reality. See nigger's thick lips — see his flat nose — nigger eye shine
— that slick looking nigger — nigger, where you get so much
coat ? — that's a nigger priest — are sounds emanating from little
urchins of Christain villagers, which continually infest the
feelings of colored travellers, like the pestiferous breath of
young devils ; and full grown persons, and sometimes profes
sors of religion, are not unfrequently heard to join in the
concert. A third mode of this kind of instruction is not altogether
oral. Higher classes are frequently instructed in school rooms
by refering them to the nigger-seat, and are sometimes threat
ened with being made to sit with the niggers, if they do not
behave. The same or similar use is made of nigger pews or seats in
meeling-houses. Professing Christians, where these seats exist,
make them a lest by which to ascertain the amount of their
humility. This I infer from their own language ; for, say they,
of the colored people, if we are only humble enough, we
should be willing to sit any where to hear the word. If our
hearts were right we should not care where we sii — I had as
Micf sit there (meaning the nigger pew,) as any where in the
|world. This, I admit, is all very good, but comes with rather
f bad grace. But, as 1 above observed, this kind of education is
not altogether oral. Cuts and placards descriptive of the ne-
groe's deformity, are every where displayed to the observation
of the young, with corresponding broken lingo, the very char
acter of which is marked with design.
6

4<
Many of the popular book stores, in commercial towns and
cities, have their show-windows lined with them. The bar
rooms of the most popular public houses in the country, some-
limes have their ceiling literally covered with them. This
display of American civility is under the daily observation of
every class of society, even in Now England. But this kind
of education is not only systematized, but legalized. At the
south, public newspapers are teeming through the country,
bearing negro cuts, with remarks corresponding to the object
for which they are inserted.
But this system is not carried on without deep design. It has
hitherto been a settled opinion of philosophers that a black man ,
could endure the beat better than a white man. Traders in
human flesh have ever taken the advantage of that opinion, by
urging it as a plea of justification of their obtaining Africans, as
laborers in warm climates ; hence, we may naturally expect,!
that in a slave country like this, it would be a universally ad
mitted axiom ; and the more readily admitted, as it is easily
construed into a plea to justify their wicked purposes. If the
black can endure the heat, and the white cannot, say they, it
must be that God made him on purpose for that ; hence, it is
no harm for us to act in accordance with the purposes of God,
and make him work. These are the simple inferences drawn
from the philosophical premises, the justness of which I shall
hereafter examine.
The arguments founded on these premises, aro many. Cot
ton, rice, indigo, tobacco, and sugar, arc great blessings to the
world, say they, and they may as well be made to make them
as not ; for they are a lazy crew at the best, and if they are
not made lo work for us, ihey will not work at all, &c. Bui
to come at the truth, the whole system is founded in avjyjfie.
1 believe the premises to be the production of modern philoso
phy, bearing date with European slavery ; and it has been the
almost sole cause of the present prevailing public sentiment in
regard to the colored population. It has given rise to the uni
versal habit of thinking that they were made for the sole end of
being slaves and underlings. There could be nothing more
natural, than for a slaveholding nation to indulge in a train of
thoughts and conclusions that favored their idol, slavery. It
becomes the interest of all parties, not excepting the clergy, to
sanction the premises, and draw the conclusions, and hence, to
teach the rising generation. What could accord better with |
the objects of this nation in reference lo blacks, than to teach j-
their little ones that a negro is part monkey ? /

43
'The love of money is the root of all evil;' it will induce
its votaries to teach lessons to their little babes, which only fits
them for the destroyers of iheir species in this world, and far
the torments of hell in the world to come. When clergymen,
even, are so blinded by the god of this world, as to witness the
practice of the most heinous blasphemy in the house, said to
be dedicated to God, for centurios, without raising their warn
ing voice lothe wicked, it would not be at all surprising if they
were to teach their children a few lessons in the science of
knatomy, for the object of making them understand that a negro
is not like a white man, instead of teaching them his catechism.
' The effect of this instruction is most disastrous upon the
mind of the community ; having been instructed from youth
to look upon a black man in no other light than a slave, and
having associated with that idea the low calling of a slave, they
cannot look upon him in any other light. If he should chance
to be found in any other sphere of action, than that of a slave,
he magnifies to a monster of wonderful dimensions, so large
that they cannot be made to believe that be is a man and a
brother. Neither can they be made to believe it would be
safe to admit him into stages, steam-boat cabins, and tavern
dining-rooms ; and not even into meeting-houses, unless he
have a place prepared on purpose. Mechanical shops, stores,
and school rooms, are all too small for his entrance as a man ;
if he be a slave, his corporeality becomes so diminished as to
admit him into ladies' parlors, and into small private carria
ges, and elsewhere, without being disgustful on account of his
deformity, or without producing any other discomfiture. Thus
prejudice seems to possess a magical power, by which it makes
a being appear most odious one moment, and the next, beauti
ful — at one moment too large to be on board a steam-boat, the
next, so small as to be convenient almost any where.
But prejudice is destructive to life. The public have been
frequently told the operation of the slave system is destructive
to the life of its victim ; this statement is intended generally to
be confined to those parts where slavery is legalized ; and what
has been said relative to the subject is but a beginning of the
story. Indeed, I may say the publishers of the horrible effects
of slavery in this country, have not generally had the means of
knowing one half of its enormity. The extent of it will prob
ably remain a secret until the great day of eternity. Many of
us who are conversant with fugitive slaves, on their arrival to
the free states, have an opportunity of hearing a tale of wo,
which for the want of adequate language, we are not able to

44
describe. These stories are told wilh so much native simplic
ity as to defy the most stubborn incredulity of the incredulous.
But, though slavery in this way is carrying its thousands into
eternity, in the southern states, yet it is doing hardly less so in
the free states, as it displays itself in the character and form
of prejudice.
Mind acts on matter.. Contemplate the numerous free peo
ple of color tinder the despotic reign of prejudice— contemplate
a young man in the ardor of youth, blessed with a mind as
prolific as the air, aspiring to eminence and worth — contem
plate his first early hopes blasted by the frost of prejudice —
witness the ardor of youth inspiring him to a second and third
trial, and as often repelled by this monster foe — hear him ap
pealing to the laws of the land of his birth for protection —
the haughty executives of the law spurning him from the
halls of justice. He betakes to the temple of God — the last
alternative around which his lading, dying hopes are hovering
— but here, also, be receives a death thrust, and that by the
hand of the priest of the altar of God. Yes — hear ye priests
of the altar — it is the death thrust of slavery carried to the
hearts of its victims by you. Yes — let it be known to the
world, that the colored people who have been stolen, and have
lost all allegiance to_ Africa, are sold in the shambles, and scout
ed from every privilege that makes life desirable. Under these
discouragements they betake themselves to those who are called
to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-heart
ed, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison doors to them that are bound, and they are set at nought
by them also. The effect of these discouragements are every
where manifest umong the colored people.
I will venture to say, from my own experience and observa
tion, that hundreds of them come to an untimely grave, by no
other disease than that occasioned by oppression. And why
should it be otherwise ? They are virtually denied all posses
sions on earth, and how can they stay without a place whereon
to rest.
I, as an individual, have had a sufficient opportunity to
know something about prejudice, and its destructive effects.
At an early period of my life, I was extensively engaged in
mechanism, associated with a number of other colored men of
master spirits and great minds. The enterprise was followed
for about twenty years, persevering!)', in direct opposition to
public sentiment, and the tide of popular prejudice. So intent
were the parties in carrying out the principles of intelligent,

45
active free men, that they sacrificed every thing of comfort and
ease to the object. The most rigid economy wns adhered lo
at home and abroad. A regular school was established for the
instruction of the youth connected wilh the factory, and ibe
strictest rules of morality were supported wilh surprising assi
duity; and ardent spirits found no place in the establishment.
After the expenditure of this vast labor and lime, together
with many thousand dollars, the enterprise ended in a total
failure. By reason of the repeated surges of the tide of preju
dice, the establishment, like a ship in a boisterous hurricane at
sea, went beneath its waves, richly laden, well manned, and
well managed, and all sunk to rise no more. Such was the
interest felt by the parties concerned, and such was their
sense of the need of such an establishment for the benefit of
colored youth, that they might acquire trades and a corres
ponding education, that they exerted every nerve to call it into
the notice of the public, that the professed friends of the col
ored people might have an opportunity to save it from becom
ing a wreck; but all in vain; prejudice had decreed its fate.
It fell, and with it fell the hearts of several of its undertakers
in despair, and their bodies into their graves.
With the above, I could racord the names of scores whose
dissolution can be traced to a cloud of obstructions thrown in
their way to prevent enterprise.
I should proceed no farther with this tale of wo, were I
satisfied I had done my duty in the case. But the condition of
the colored people is such, even in the free states, that every
effort, however feeble, should he made to redeem them from
the influence of that dreadful monster — prejudice. I have
recently travelled among them as a missionary, and their con
dition is truly lamentable. Their immortal interests, as well as
their temporal, are in many places almost entirely disregarded;
and in others, their warmest friends seem not to comprehend
their true condition. I found several hundreds in some places,
who, though the bowl of knowledge was overflowing around
them, were not permitted to partake, without they receive it
from the cup of contempt, the thought of which, to sensitive
minds, is like a draught of wormwood and gall.
K Slavery, in the form and character of prejudice, is as fatal,
Iyea, more fatal than the pestilence. It possesses imperial do
minion over its votaries and victims. It demands and receives
homage from priests and people. It drinks up the spirit of the
church, and gathers blackness, and darkness, and death, around
her brow. Its poison chills the life blood of her heart. Its

46
gigantic tread on the Sabbath day, pollutes the altars of the
sanctuary of the Most High. It withholds the word of life
from thousands of perishing immortals, and shuts the gate of
heaven alike upon those whose hearts it possesses, and those
marked out for its victims. It opens wide the way to hell;
and as though posessed with more than magic power, coerces
its millions down to the pit of wo in defiance of the benevo
lence of a God, and the dying groans of a Saviour. O Prej
udice, thou art slavery in disguise ! and couldst thou ascend
to heaven, thy pestiferous breath would darken and poison that
now healthful and happy clime ; and thou wouldst make its
inhabitants feel the pains of the lowest hell. If there are de
grees of intensity to the misery of the damned, that being must
feel it in eternity, in whose heart prejudice reigned in this
world. 0 Prejudice, I cannot let thee pass without telling
ihee and thy possessors, that thou art a compound of all evil —
of all the corrupt passions of the heart. Yea, thou art a par
ticipant in all the purposes of the wicked one — thou art the
very essence of hell.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE CLAIMS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE TO ALL THE CIVIL,
RELIGIOUS. AND SOCIAL PRIVILEGES OF THIS COUNTRY.
This proposition is in part embraced within the province of
those of a preceding chapter. In following it, therefore, 1 shall
be able to fulfil a promise therein contained.
The claims set up are founded in the fact that they are Amer
icans by birth and blood. Complexion has never been made
the legal test of citizenship in any age of the world. It has
been established generally by birth and blood, and by purchase,
or by the ceding of a province or territory from one nation to
another. But as they are denied those privileges principally
on the ground of their complexion and blood, it shall be my
business in this concluding chapter to show — that though their
complexion is as truly American as the complexion of the
whites, yet it has nothing to do in settling the question. If
blood has any thing to do with it, then we are able to prove
jjthat there is not a drop of African blood, according to the gen-
leral acceptation of the term, flowing in the veins of an Ameri
can born child, though black as jet. Children of African pa
rents, recently arrived in this country, who have not under
gone what is called seasoning, may partake of the charac
teristics of its African parents; such as the hair, complex
ion, and such like appendages, but the child's blood has noth
ing African about it, and for the following reasons. The
blood of the parents in seasoning to this climate becomes
changed — also, the food of the mother being the production
of this country, and congenial to the climate — the atmosphere
she breathes— the surrounding objects which strike her senses —
all are principles which establish and give character to the

46
constitutional principles of the child, among which the blood
b an essential constituent ; hence every child born in America,
even if it be as black as jet, is American by birth and blood.
The kind of root called Irish potatoes, is in truth American, if
the potatoes are the production of American soil; and thus re
main American potatoes, though they be red or deep scarlet.
Some eagle-eyed philosophers, who possess great acuteness
of smelling powers, think there is a difference of smell between
the Africans and Europeans. Suppose that idea to be cor
rect — would it prove any difference of smell between Ameri
cans who are constitutionally alike, and whoso corporcols are
sustained by tho same aliment 1 In philosophically contcm-
| luting those constitutional properties, tho color of the skin can
no more be included than that of the eyes or the length of the
nose. It is the settled opinion of most people in this country, as I
mentioned in a former chapter, that black Americans can en
dure the heat belter than white Americans This opinion is
founded in the fact that black will retain heat while white emits
it. 1 admit the proposition, but I doubt the correctness of the
conclusions with respect to the color of animals.
Some minerals and dye-stuffs, and other black substances, will
retain heat, which is owing to their not possessing any reflecting
ingredient or property, by which the light or heat is thrown
back. Heated iron will retain heat longer than heated brass,
for the same reason — i. e. iron is not possessed of as much re
flection as brass — or in other words, it has not the properties
of reflection. I believe these are the considerations, end these
only, that are capable of sustaining the proposition.
But these considerations do not and cannot embrace those
connected with animal color, for that has neither the power of;
retaining nor emiting heat — and for the very good reason it i
possesses no properties; hence no efficient cause in itself to
produce any effect whatever. The principle as it exists in
relation to minerals and other substances, depends entirely upon
the nature of the properties of which these several bodies are
composed ; but can the principle be made to apply to animal
color ?
Analyze black iron, and black properties are found in the
iron. Analyze black dye-stuff, and black properties are found
in the stuff. Analyze light brass, and light reflecting proper-
t c: arc found in the brass.
Analyze a black man, or anatomize him, and the result of
. ^earch is the same as analyzing or anatomizing a white man.

49
Before the dissectiug knife passes half through the outer layer
of the skin, it meets with the same solids and fluids, and from
thence all the way through the body. Now I should like to
have some modern philosophers, who have got more sense than
common school-boys, la tell the world how it is that two bodies
of matter, the one exactly simitar to the oilier, in every minute
principle of their composition, should produce different effect
by the one cmiiiug heat, and the other retaining it.
If it is contended that those properties exist in the animal
color itself, then, if they will be good enough to analyze it and
give us a knowledge of its pails — i. c. if they think a black
head can receive and understand it — they will do the world a
great favor, as well as ourselves.
If the foregoing considerations ore reconcilable, then it may
be taken for grained that a black man can work better in the
hot sun than a while niau — but if they are not reconcilable,
then the whole theory is only calculated to dupe the black
people, and make knaves of the white people.
But to return. The colored people being constitutionally
Americans, they are depending on Amer can climate, American
aliment, American government, and American manners, to sus
tain their American bodies and minds ; a withholding of the
|fcnjoyment of any American principle from an American man,
either governmental, ecclesiastical, civil, social or alimental,
is in effect taking away his means of subsistence ; and conse
quently, taking away his life. Every ecclesiastical body which
denies an American the privilege of participating in its benefits,
becomes his murderer. Every state which denies an Ameri
can a citizenship with all its benefits, denies him his life. Ev
ery community which denies an American the privilege of
public conveyances, in common with all others, murders him
by piece-meal. Every community which withholds social
intercourse with an American, by which he may enjoy cur
rant information, becomes his murderer of the worst kind.
The claims the colored people set up, therefore, are the claims
of an American.
They ask priests and people to withhold no longer their
inalienable rights to seek happiness in the sanctuary of God,
at the same time and place that other Americans seek happi
ness. They ask statesmen to open the way whereby they, in
common with other Americans, may aspire to honor and worth
as statesmen — to place their names with other Americans  sub
ject to a draft as jurymen and other functionary appointment;,
according to their ability. They ask Uieir white American
brethren to think of them and treat them as American citizens,
7

SO
and neighbors, and as members of the same American family.
They urge their claims in full assurance of their being founded
in immutable justice. They urge them from a sense of patriot
ism, from au interest they feel in the well being of their com
mon country. And lastly, they urge them from the convic
tion that God, the judge of all men, will avenge them of their
wrongs, unless their claims are speedily granted. j>
There are some objections urged against theso claims. On/;
is, that the greater part of tho colored pcoplo uro held as prop
erty, and if these claims are granted, their owners would be sub
ject to great loss. In answer to this objection, I would remark,
that were 1 to accede to the right of the master to his property
in man, still I should conceive the objection groundless, for it
is a well known fact that a far greater portion of the colored
people who are free, purchased their freedom, and the free
dom of their families. Many of them have purchased them
selves several times over. Thousands of dollars have been
paid over to masters annually, which was the proceeds of
extra labor, in consideration of their expected freedom. My
colored acquaintances arc numerous who have thus done, somo
of whom were under the necessity of running uway to obtain
their freedom after all.
1 am sufficiently acquainted with tho sentiments and views of
the slave population of every slave slate in the union, to war
rant mo in the conclusion, that if the despotic power of the
master was wrested from him, and the slaves placed under n
law of ever so rigid n nature, with tho privilege of paying for
themselves by their extra lubor, there would be comparatively
lew slaves in the country in less ihun seven years. I'lio most
of them would pay the round price of their bodies, and come
out freemen.
Another objection is, that the slaves, if freed at once, would
not be capable of enjoying suffrages. I
This objection has less foundation than the former, for theA
several state legislatures of the slave states are continually as-;'
sisting the masters to keep them in ignorance, and why not,
legislate in favor of their being informed ?
Some contend that they are not now fit for freedom, but
ought to be prepared and then freed.
Such a calculation is preposterous. We might as well talk
about educating a water machine to run against its propelling
power, as to talk about educating a slave for a lice man. When
travelling through llio state of New York, recently, I madu
some inquiries with respect to ihc colored people, who in sonic

51
places are very numerous. I was there informed, by gentle
men whose veracity 1 cannot doubt, that they arc generally iu-
dolent and dissipated, far worse than they were when ihey were
slaves. I was told also, that many of them had enjoyed ex
cellent opportunities to become wealthy and respectable. That
before the Emancipation Bill was passed in that state, they
were mostly slaves, but had an opportunity, of obtaining an ex
cellent education, and the art of farming, equal, and in many
instances, superior to most whito men. When they became
free, many of their masters, as a reward of forrier faithfulness,
furnished them with means to operate for themselves on a small
scale. My informants expressed much astonishment at the
fact that most of those who had the best opportunity to do well,
had become dissipated, and much worse in character and con
duct than when they were slaves.
I have introduced this narrative for the purpose of showing
that slaves cannot be educated for free men. A slave is meta
morphosed into a machine, adapted to a specific operation, and
propelled by the despotic power of the slave system, without any
motive to attract. The influence of this power acts upon a
slave the same as upon any other biased agent. By the abro
gation of the propelling cause of all the acts of the machine, it
ceases to move. Tho slave is now left, without either motive
to attract, or power to coerce. A slave, as such, in undergo
ing the change from a moral, intelligent being, to a mere ma
chine, lost all the innate principles of a freeman. Hence, when
the principles of slavery ceases to act upon him, to the end for
which he is a slavo, he is left a mere out-of-use wreck of ma
chinery ; under nothing but the withering influence of the pelt
ing rain of wickedness.
It is true, many of the slaves of New York had some educa
tion, but that education was acquired when a slave. Hence, it
was only a collateral means by which he was rendered a more
efficient machine. His education was the education of a slave,
and not a freeman.
These conclusions may be thought by some to go against the
doctrine of immediate abolition — not so. The doctrine of im
mediate abolition embraces the idea of an entire reversal of
the system of slavery. The work of emancipation is not com
plete when it only cuts off some of the most prominent limbs of
slavery, such as destroying the despotic power of the master,
and the laying by of the cow-hide. The man who fell among
thieves was emancipated in that way. His cruel captivators,
I suppose, thought they had done a great act of philanthropy

52
when they left off beating him. But their sort of emancipa
tion left the poor roan half dead — precisely in the same way
New York emancipated her slaves, after beating them several
hundred years, left them, half dead, without proscribing any)
healing remedy for the bruises and wounds received by their
maltreatment. But the good Samaritan had quite a different
view of the subject. It is remembered, undoubtedly, that be
fore he acted, there were several who passed by that way, saw
the man, but passed by on the other side. Whether they
were Unionists, Colonizationisls, or Abolitionists, every one must
judge for themselves. But when the good man came along, he
carried out the principles of immediate abolitionism. If New
York had imitated him, thee would have been no complaint
about her emancipated negroes (as they are called,) being
worse than when they were slaves.
I repeal, that emancipation embraces the idea that the eman
cipated must be placed back where slavery found them, and
restore to them all that slavery has taken away from them.
Merely to cease beating the colored people, and leave them
in their gore, and call it emancipation, is nonsense. Nothing
short of an entire reversal of the slave system in theory and
practice — in general and in particular — will ever accomplish the
work of redeeming the colored people of this country from
their present condition.
Let the country, then, no longer act the part of the thief.
Let the free states no longer act the part of them who passed
by on the other side, and leaving the colored people half dead,
especially when they were beaten by their own hands, and so
call it emancipation — raising a wonderment why the half dead
people do not heal themselves. Let them rather act the part
of the good Samaritan. That only will open an effectual door
through which sympathies can flow, and by which a reciprocity
of sentiment and interest f?n take place — a proper knowl
edge acquired by the be •' ¦< : relative to his duty, and re
ciprocated on the part of i.ic benefited.
This state ,of things would. possess redeeming power. Every
collaterarfneans wouhT be marshaled under the heaven-born
principle, that requires all men to do unto others as they would
that others should do unto them. It would kindle anew the
innate principles of moral, civil and social manhood, in tho down
trodden colored Americans ; bidding them arise as from the
dead, and speed their way bark to the height from whence
they have fallen. Nor would the call be in vain. A corres
ponding action on their part would respond to the cheering

53
voice. The countenance which has been cast down, hitherto,
would brighten up with joy. Their narrow foreheads, which
have hitherto been contracted for the want of mental exercise,
would begin to broaden. Their eye balls, hitherto strained out
to prominence by a fienzy excited by the flourish of the whip,
would fall back under a thick foliage of curly eyebrows, indica
tive of deep penetrating thought. Those muscles, which have
hitherto been distended by grief ond weeping, would become
contracted to an acuteness, corresponding to that acuteness of
perception with which business men arc blessed. Tint interior
region, the dwelling place of the soul, would be lighted up
with the fires of love and gratitude to iheir benefactors on
earth, and to their great Benefactor above, driving back those
clouds of slavery and of prejudice which have hitherto dark
ened and destroyed its vision. And thus their whole man
would be redeemed, rendering them fit for the associates of
their fellow men in this life, and for the associates of angels in
the world to come.

Sona of Columbia, up got ye ;
Purge you from slavery's guilty staia.
Defend (lie honest poor, the truth maintsia.
Sons of pilgrim liref, up get ye;
Purge you front slavery's guilty staia.
Your country's stained with blood all o'er the
Priests of (lie altar, up get ye ;
Purge you from shivery'* guilty staia,
Cease (u be slavery's vassals — dupe* lo gaia.
Priests of the altar up get ye ;
Purge you from slavery's guilty stain.
No mure the holy name of God profasst.
Priests of the altar, up get ye;
Purge jou from slavery's guilty slain.
Come ye from under slavery's prejudicial ratgw.
Priests of the nliar, up get ye ;
Purge you from slavery's guilty ttaio,
The trump vf God has souuded— Hark  it
Daughters of freedom, up gel ye ;
Purge you from slavery's guilty staia,
Shall rioUud chastity call lor help in raw ^

04
Ihuighteri of fi*eJom, up get ye ;
Purge yoa from slavery's guilty stain.
Ere Uiy sitters* grief 'gainst tbee in beare«c*Mplaia.
Statesmen of Columbia, up get ye ;
Hark! Jefferson presuag'd from first.
Trembling for bis country— procUiu»ed--God is just 1 1
Priests end people, all. up get ye;
Hark! bear the prophets tell,
How nations forgetting God are sent to bell.
Pfiests and people, all, op get ye;
Purge you from Hint dreadful sin.
Prejudice — of dev'liih extract — be Hub fiend.
Priests and people, all, up get ye;
Repent ye while you may.
An awful judgment is at band — God's vengeful day.

i.;--The sermon, as proposed in our title page, is omitted
on the account that it would swell the work far beyond our
calculation. It will accompany a work entitled Easton's Lec
tures on Civil, Social, and Moral Economy, which will be pre
sented to the public in a few weeks. The surplus proceeds of
that work, as well as of this, after their expenses are paid, will
be given to a colored society in Hartford, Con., who have lost
their meeting-bouse by fire.
An extensive supply of this work may be bad by forwarding
an order to Isaac Knapp's Book Store and Liberator Office,
No. 25 Cornhill, at the rate of $18 per 100— $2.50 per doz.
25 cents single copy. Subscribers for the other work solicited
on the same conditions — directed to the same office before the
first of April.
Wherein the works are deficient in their claims to patron
age, it is hoped will be made up by the claims of the suffering
society, for whom the proceeds are intended.

ERRATA.
6th page, 6th line from the top, instead of ' sprung' read 'springing'
.—and for ' you may find ' read ' are round.'
10th page, 2d paragraph, 6lh line, instead of 'conquest of arrniea ' read
'conquest in arm*' — also, 3d paragraph, 6th line, instead of 'impossible'
read ' improbable.'
It lb page, 1st line, instead of 'learning 'read 'litany.'
12th page, 3d line, instead of ' by conveyanco ' read ' by other convey
ance,' — also, instead of ' kindred and ' &c. read ' subjects or ' die. — and
lor •defender ' read 'defendants.'
14th page, last paragraph, 2d line, instead of 'have annual,' die. read
' receive annual,' fyc.
18 ill page, 3d paragraph, 5th line, instead of 'the superiority' read
' the pretended superiority.'
l'Jih page, Dili line from the top, read after 'and,' ' their country ' vir
tually, tic.
24th page, 2d paragraph, two last lines, instead of ' their progenitors
since that period,' read 'since the commencement of that period.'
2(ith page, 2d paragraph, 12th line, instead of * pangs ' read * Tangs.'
2e)th page, 3d, 4lh, Sth and 6th lines from the bottom, rend thus : ' In
convoking the Continental Congress of the 4th of September, 1774, there
was not a word said about color. At a subsequent period, Congress met
again, and agreed to get in readiness 12,000 men, to act in any emer
gency ; also, a request was ' &.C.
31st page, 4th paragraph, 1st line, inetead of ' Moble ' read ' Mobile.'
34th pa;;e, 7th line from the top, for ' halo' read ' halloo.'
45th page, 5th line from the top, instead of ' surprising ' read ' unsur-
passing.'

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