The Journal of Negro History Volume I Part 47

"From 1810 to 1820 the rate of increase was _reduced_ to a little less than 2, or exactly two and forty-seven hundredths per cent. per annum. This indicates that emanc.i.p.ation had ceased to swell, in any appreciable degree, the number of free colored persons, unless we are forced to admit that there is _greater mortality amongst freedmen than slaves_. This cessation of emanc.i.p.ation was _before the organization of the Colonization Society_. It is supposed to have been caused by the conviction that emanc.i.p.ation upon the soil had wrought but little change in the colored man's condition. The sympathies of good men were therefore awakened in behalf of the colored man, and colonization proposed and adopted, as the best means of securing to him the social and political privileges of which he was deprived. The establishment of an independent republic, including a population of 80,000 souls, with foreign exports to the value of $100,000 a year, and the introduction of civilization and Christianity in Africa, with all their attendant blessings, furnishes an answer to the question of the success of the scheme.

"The period of the greatest popularity of the Colonization Society, was from 1820 to 1830. During this time, the increase of the free colored population reached to nearly 3 per cent. or a half per cent. per annum over the natural increase. But from 1830 to 1840, the period when the Society had the least popularity, the increase was but a very small fraction over _two_ per cent. per annum, being two and eight hundredths, indicating that fewer bondmen had been liberated than during any other period. Indeed, the _decrease_ was so great as to reduce the rate of increase _more than a half per cent. per annum below the natural increase of the slaves_, and furnished an argument in favor of the idea, that freedom in this country is unfavorable to the longevity of the colored man. From all these facts, we may infer that colonization, while its object has been to benefit the free colored man, has not been unfavorable to emanc.i.p.ation.

"But colonization has not removed the 450,000 free persons of color from our country. They remain as _a floating body_ in our midst, drifting, as the census tables show, hither and thither, as the effects of _climate_ at the north, or _foreign emigration_ at the east, or _prejudice_ at the south, repel it from those points. It is an interesting subject of investigation to watch the movements of the colored population, and ascertain where they are tending and whither they will find a resting place.

"In 1810, in the eastern States, they commenced a movement from north towards the south; and in 1820, began to diverge westward, through the most southern of the free States, and penetrated into Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. From 1830 to 1840, Pennsylvania alone retained her natural increase, while the other eastern and northeastern free States, and also the eastern and southeastern slave States, all lost, or repelled, the greater part of their natural increase, and some of them a considerable portion, besides, of the original stock. But where have these people gone? That is the question which deeply interests Ohio. The census tables furnish the solution.

"From 1810 to 1840, the colored population of Ohio has been increasing at the average rate of 20 per cent. per annum. The increase for the ten years from 1830 to 1840, was 91 per cent. Supposing the emigration into Ohio since 1840 to have been no greater than before that period, her present colored population will be 30,000. If to this we add that of Indiana and Illinois, allowing their increase to have been at the same rate, these three States will have a population of near 50,000 colored persons, or _one ninth of the present free colored population of the United States._

"Ohio, therefore, cannot remain inactive. _She must do something._ These men should have all the stimulants to mental and moral action which we ourselves possess. But I shall leave to wiser men than myself the task of devising _new_ means to secure this object, while I go forward in my labors for the _only one_ which has yet been successful in securing to any portion of the colored people their just rights.

"The Colonization Society has in its offer, generally, more _slaves_ than its means will enable it to send to Liberia. Without a large increase of means, therefore, the Society cannot send out many _free persons of color_. Three fourths of the emigrants heretofore have been liberated by their masters, with a view of being sent to Liberia.

"Perhaps it is well that events should have been thus ordered. If slaves, when emanc.i.p.ated and instructed, and made to taste of the sweets of liberty, and to feel the responsibilities of nationality, can establish a prosperous and happy republic, and exert such an extended moral influence as to accomplish infinitely more in removing the greatest curse of Africa, the slave-trade, from a large extent of her coast, than has been done at an expense of more than a hundred millions of dollars, by the fleets of England and France, _it reflects the greater honor upon the African race_, and may serve to stimulate the free people of color of this country, to make the effort to join their brethren in a land of freedom.

"In addition to sending emigrants to Liberia, it is of the utmost importance that the Society _should purchase the greatest possible amount of territory, at the present moment_, and thus enlarge the sphere of influence which the republic exerts over the natives, and put it beyond the power of the nations, adverse to her interests, to circ.u.mscribe her in the n.o.ble efforts she is making for the redemption of Africa.

"In this connection, it may be proper to say, that the gift of _one dime_ from each one of the 100,000 inhabitants of Cincinnati, or $10,000 would probably purchase _fifty-six miles square of territory_ or more than _two millions of acres of land as good as that of Ohio_. Now, suppose a gift of such value were offered to the colored people of the city, or of the State, on condition that they would take possession of it and organize _a State Government for themselves_, and be admitted as one of the members of the new republic, who will say that they should or would reject the offer? Who will say that it would not be more safe and wise to emigrate to Africa than to Canada, Oregon, California or Mexico?

But the decision of this question of right belongs to the colored people themselves. If the _foreign emigration_ continues to roll in upon us, the subordinate stations in society, in the west also, as is the case already in the east, will ere long be chiefly occupied by foreigners, and the colored man left, it is to be feared, without profitable employment. Dear as is the land of one's birth, if men's interests can be better promoted by a removal, the ties of country and kindred are bonds easily broken. The spirit of enterprise which characterizes the present age, if we do our duty, will in due time animate the intelligent colored man, as it is now stimulating the white race, and if he cannot secure equality of condition here, will prompt him to go where he can obtain it.

"Total number of emigrants up to January, 1848.... 5,961 Number of communicants in churches in 1843, were, of

Americans........... 1,015 Captured Africans..... 116 Converted heathen..... 353 in all............... 1,484

Present population estimated by President Roberts 80,000

Of these, are emigrants, captured Africans, etc., about....................................... 5,000

"The slave trade is suppressed on 400 miles of coast, excepting at one point.

"Shipping owned in the colony, 14 vessels, of from 20 to 80 tons.

"The exports annually, from the colony, are about $100,000.

"David Christy, "_Agent Am. Col. Society_"

--_The African Repository_, XXIV, 179-180.

OXFORD, O., April, 1848.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For a more detailed account of these settlements see Woodson's "The Education of the Negro, Prior to 1861," 243-244; and Hickok, "The Negro in Ohio," 85-88.

[2] Mr. Powell, a teacher of Tuskegee, wrote this letter a few years ago while making a study of the Negroes in Ohio.

A TYPICAL COLONIZATION CONVENTION

CONVENTION OF FREE COLORED PEOPLE

In another column we present a Circular Address to the free colored people of Maryland, calling a Convention to a.s.semble in Baltimore the 25th of July, to take into consideration their present condition and future prosperity, and compare them with the inducements held out to them to emigrate to Liberia. This movement may be considered indicative of the change that is going on in the minds of the colored people respecting emigration. It is well known that heretofore they have been almost entirely insensible to the advantages which they must necessarily enjoy in a land peculiarly their own. They have not been entirely free from the control of bad counsellors.--Now they seem resolved to take the matter into their own hands, and to look at their present condition and future prospects in this country as a matter in which they are personally interested. When they do this in earnest, the result can be easily foreseen. They will desire to escape from their present anomalous condition, will yearn to be free and disenthralled, to have a land of their own, to have rights unquestioned by any superiors, where character, enterprise, education, and all that is lovely and n.o.ble in life shall combine to elevate and improve them and their children after them to the latest generation.

--_African Repository_, XXVIII, 195-196.

EMIGRATION OF THE COLORED RACE

In presenting the circular, which will be found in another column, of which a committee of colored persons have undertaken the distribution, (and which was written by one of themselves,) it gives us pleasure to commend it as the evidence of a new and generally unexpected change of sentiment on the part of the colored population, or, at least, some portion of it. It is well known that for twenty-five years the Colonization Societies in this country have labored to present before that portion of our population, the advantages which must accrue to them, from emigration to a land where they might enjoy, undisturbed, those social and material privileges which it was impossible ever to expect they could obtain by a residence of centuries in this country, and that these appeals have met with comparatively little attention, and, in deed have been received with very bad grace by the great ma.s.s of those whom it was intended to benefit. The cause of this opposition was to be found in the steady and violent animosity of those white fanatics, who, setting themselves up as the peculiar friends of the blacks, represented that the prejudice against their color was merely an arbitrary sentiment, which time would weaken or entirely dissipate; and that they might still look forward to enjoying, in this country, an equality in social and political rights with the whites.

This a.s.sumption of peculiar friendliness on the part of the Abolitionists, and the plausible reasonings with which they approached their "colored friends," have acquired the confidence of the latter, who are now, however, beginning to awake to a just idea of their condition and future prospects in this country. They have discovered that the loud-mouthed protestations of the Abolitionists, are the mere effervescence of an intermeddling and dangerous faction, against whose principles the whole Union--whose destruction they have meditated--has p.r.o.nounced in tones of thunder; a faction whose baleful alliance is shunned most religiously, by both of the great parties of the country.

They have discovered that underground railroads are a device to inveigle the slaves from a condition of comparative comfort, into the _freedom of starvation_, with a poor display of political privileges, which are mockery in view of their exercise by an ignorant and despised minority; that the expectations fostered in behalf of the free blacks are proved to be entirely futile by the continued att.i.tude of opposition held towards them, when there is a question of lessening the social and political gulf which divides the races. They discover that the rapid immigration of whites from every quarter, is encroaching upon their employments, and lessening their chance of gaining a thrifty livelihood, even in those menial pursuits to which they are chiefly limited.

With the spread of education, and the expansion of republican ideas, they become more sensible of their own anomalous and degraded condition, and the result is a yearning to be free like those around them, to have a land all their own, to have rights unquestioned by any superior color, to go wherever such privileges may be obtained. They see in the growing republics on the West coast of Africa, a living refutation of the calumnies of the Abolitionists against the colonizationists, a land where, from simple citizenship up to the highest post in the government, all is free and open to them, and where character, enterprise, education and honorable ambition, have all their appropriate rewards in the order of the State. What is better, no white man can hope to cast his lot there with the prospect of permanent settlement, or transmitting a healthy posterity. They see there such men as the late Gov. Russwurm or the present Gov. Roberts, sustaining their rule surrounded by their own race, with a distinction and dignity which would do honor to any white man. They see there pioneers of their own color, who in the arts of peace or of war, are striking examples of what the emanc.i.p.ation of the MIND can effect.

This is a crisis full of important results to the race in this country, and it behooves them now to cast aside all false issues, to take into serious consideration (in the words of the circular) their present condition and future prospects in this country, and contrast them with the inducements and prospects opened to them in Liberia, or any other country.

We have little doubt as to the quarter to which their preferences will be given, although that is as yet left an open question. Trinidad is a failure, Jamaica is a half-ruined British dependency, and in both the white man the sole source of authority. Liberia excepted, Haiti is the only point left, and here reigns a perpetual jealousy between the black and mulatto. Moreover, the imperial rule set up there is repugnant to their feelings and inclinations, for strange to say, in the midst of depression, this race in America has become imbued with a sentiment of republicanism and a love for its system, which will make them in Africa the sedulous imitators of ourselves, in all but in the misfortune of introducing another race to be perpetually subservient to themselves. In this career we are happy to believe they will run rejoicing, long after the privations of their forefathers in this country shall have been forgotten.

--_African Repository_, XXVIII, 196-197.

CIRCULAR

Pursuant to an invitation given through the columns of the Baltimore daily papers to the Free Colored Population of Baltimore, friendly to calling a State Convention, to be held in this city some time during the ensuing summer to take into consideration their present position and future prospects in this country, and to compare the same with the inducements and prospects held out to them to emigrate to Liberia or elsewhere; a respectable number a.s.sembled in the school room of St.

James (colored) Church, corner of Saratoga and North streets.

The meeting being duly organized, it was resolved that a Convention of Delegates of the Free Colored Population from each county of the State of Maryland and of the City of Baltimore, be held in this city on the 25th of July next, for the purpose above stated.

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to issue a circular addressed to the Free Colored People of the State, setting forth the object of the Convention, the time of its commencement and the conditions upon which Delegates will be ent.i.tled to a seat in the same.

At an adjourned meeting of persons friendly to the call of the said Convention, held on the 4th of June 1852, in the room before referred to, the Committee on the Circular Address, made the following report, which was unanimously approved and adopted:

ADDRESS TO THE FREE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND

Brethren:--Whereas the present age is one distinguished for inquiry, investigation and enterprise, in physical, moral and political sciences above all past ages of the world, one in which the nations of the earth seem to have arisen from the slumber of ages, and are putting forth their utmost energies to obtain all those blessings, which nature and nature's G.o.d seem to have intended that man should enjoy, and the principles set forth by the American Sages, in the Declaration of Independence of these United States, "that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," with each revolving year have extended wider and wider throughout the habitable globe, and sunk deeper and deeper into the hearts of millions of men, and as we humbly hope, are destined to revolutionize the civil and political conditions of all the nations of the earth, it would indeed be pa.s.sing strange if the Free Colored man in this country, which gave birth to those elevated and sublime sentiments, should feel nothing of the force of their mighty import, and with anxious eye and panting heart, endeavor in this, or some other country, to realize the blessings so freely enjoyed by the white citizens of this land. Actuated by these feelings we have presumed to address our brethren of our native State, and we do hereby respectfully solicit them to a.s.semble with us in this city, on the 25th of next month (July), to take into serious consideration our present condition and future prospects in this country, and contrast them with the inducements and prospects opened to us in Liberia, or any other country. In conformity with a resolution pa.s.sed at the meeting held on the 24th ultimo, the Committee do hereby respectfully propose, that each county in the State shall have the privilege of sending any number of Delegates not exceeding six, as they may deem proper, and our brethren throughout the State are requested to hold meetings (by legal permission) in their several counties, for the purpose of selecting their Delegates, and to collect money to defray the expenses they may incur by attending the said Convention.

As the object for which this Convention is called, is one of vital importance to the Free Colored People of Maryland, it is greatly to be desired, and confidently expected that a full attendance of Delegates will be present on the occasion, who will calmly, deliberately and intelligently consider the object for which they have been called together, and that each Delegate will come prepared to contribute his portion of information, and fully and freely to express his views on the great subject of our future destiny.

Delegates are requested to bring credentials of their appointment from the chairman and secretary of the meeting at which they were appointed, but in counties where no formal meeting is held, Delegates are requested to procure a certificate from some respectable person, either white or colored, a well known resident of the county from whence he or they may come. All Delegates complying with the above requisitions, shall be duly admitted to the Convention.

All communications in relation to the Convention must be directed to the care of H. H. Webb, St. James' School Room, corner of Saratoga and North streets.