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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0112 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0112 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
| 116 MARYLAND COLONIZATION JOURNAL. The Heathen African Mother at her Daughter's Grave BY MRS. SIGOURNEY. [Some of tlie Pagan Africans visit the burial places of their departed relatives, with ofterings of food anil drink. Mother! have been known, for a long course of yean, to bring, in an agony of grief, thin annual oblation to their children'! graves.] 'Daughter!—I bring thee food,— The rice-cake pure and white. The cocoa with its milky blood, Dates and pomegranates bright, The orange in its gold, Fresh from the favourite tree, Nuts in their brown and husky fold. Dearest, I spread for thee. • Year after year I tread Thus to tit) low retreat,— But now the snow-hairs mark my head, And age enchains my feet; Oh !—many a change of wo Hath dimtn'd thy spot of birth, Since first my gushing teats did flow O'er this thy bed of earth. 'There came a midnight cry; Flames from our hamlet rose, A race of pale-brow'd men were nigh— They were our country's foes : Thv wounded sire was borne fly tyrant force away,— Thy brothers from our cabin torn. While bathed in blood I lay. ' I watched for their return, Upon the reeky shore, Till night's red planets ceased to burn, And tlie long rains were o'er; Till seed their hand had sown, A ripened fruitage bore. The billows echoed to my moan, But they returned no more. • Yet thou art slumbering deep; And to my wildest cry, When vexed with agony I weep, Dost render no reply : Daughter !—my youthful pride. The idol of my eye,— Why dost thou leave thy mother's side, Beneath those sands to lie?' Long o'er the hopeless grave, \Vhere her lost darling slept. Invoking gods that could not save, That pagan mother wept; Oh! for some voice of power, To soothe her bursting sighs— ' There is a resurrection hour— Thy daughter's dust shall rise .' Christians ! ye hear the cry From heathen Afric's strand,— Haste ! lift salvation's banners high, O'er that benighted land; With faith that claims the skies, Her misery control; And plant the hope that never dies Deep in her tear-wet soul. (From the Christian Statesman ) From Liberia. CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COM. ADVERTISER. Monrovia, West Africa, August 8, 1838. The announcement of a vessel about to sail from this port to the United States is hailed by us all as the signal to commence and wear pens to the pith, in giving to our friends at home the nine- teenth edition of the old stereotyped form 'the flourishing condition of Liberia,' and what seem to be the oft-repeated versions of the same truths. This can only be accounted for by the fact that we see and hear so little of the doings of the great world, lhat we become inflated with the idea that the orbit which we circumscribe is the world. Happy for mankind if they all enjoyed the do- mestic peace and quiet that arc experienced in our community's circle; happy indeed if the world was possessed of the industry and contentment which here pervade every breast, and are seen to beam forth in the cheerful glowing coun- tenances of the free citizens of Liberia. Our growing republic is not convulsed by the factions of deep and designing political demagogues ; nor are our agricultural and commercial operations paralyzed by ' the removal of the deposites,' or the 'suspension of specie payments.' Our circu- lating medium, gold, silver, and ivory, floats freely throughout the land, and we have a suf- ficiency of each, without discount. So much for the 'home of the oppressed' not having been located in the suburbs of, and next neighbor to, the American states. It is a source of great pleasure to me to be able to inform you that all the colonies are in a pros- perous condition. The vigorous exertions and anxious devotedness which characterize the ef- forts of the citizens to elevate and establish themselves permanently in the possession of privileges moral and political, almost amount to enthusiasm. The people are industrious and persevering in their attempts to gain a comfortable livelihood, temperate and economical in their habits, and a; pear to be really enjoying life. It is a mistaken idea that among the colonists there are contentious and dissatisfied spirits who bog • for the flesh-pots of Egypt,' and desire to turn back and enjoy • the proud man's contumely' in America. No, no; there are here no restless persons, nor any who would give up their pos- sessions in Africa for any station, no matter how- ever elevated, in the country where they cannot have equal rights, but must ever be looked upon as the dark and degraded sons of Ham. Many to whom I have put the question—would you prefer to return to America, and live bondmen as you have been ? have replied in substance, No, sir, we would rather remain here, possessed of half the privileges and happiness that we now have, than go back and be reported free men in any of the states. I have inquired diligently, and I have yet the first man to find who would leave Liberia for a residence in America on any terms. This account you will find fully corroborated in the numerous letters written by the colonists, and sent to their afflicted brethren throughout the Union. I am aware that it is not credited by some; but if men are not themselves the best judges of their own enjoyments and feelings, and are not to be believed when they thus publicly testify of the blessings and comforts which they possess, I ask, what portion of the community is it that is better qualified to decide? An enlight- ened and intelligent public will hear and believe, when the different papers and periodicals are daily teeming with the very conclusive letters from the citizens here, desciibing their happy condition, returning thanks to a generous and benevolent people lor having placed them in this rountry, and praying and beseeching their fellows to come and enjoy with them the sweets of free- dom in its broadest acceptation. But if there are any whose perceptive faculties arc so very opaque as not to permit them to see and under- stand how these things can be, they are only .such who, believing, would stamp the fact with uncer- tainty. The colonization scheme is one of the noblest benevolent institutions now in operation. It con- templates the entire annihilation of slavery in America and the christianizing of Africa. It is an institution that engages the energies and united efforts of the patriot, the philanthropist, and divine; it is no other than giving liberty to the captive, and salvation to the heathen. It is utterly impossible for you to form a cor- rect estimate of the amount of good that has resulted from the means thus far expended, unless you were here to observe with your own eyes the changes wrought. The man who was a slave in America is here a free citizen, the plebeian and servant there, the lord of the soil here ; there the degraded child of affliction, here the claimant and occupant of the highest office in the gilt of a free people. Here there are colonists of all pro- fessions and trades; governors, divines, lawyers, physicians, and mechanics. Here are those who possess wealth and live at ease ; here the inha- bitants enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of a soil the most fertile, well watered, and best tim- bered, that I have ever seen. And here permit me to ask, why do you colonization folks in every address that you make, speak of the burning sands and barren shores of Africa? Because, in the vast continent of Africa, the Zahara desert is found. Where is the continent that has no desert ? Is there not a great desert within the territory of the United States? England, and other European nations, get all their shipbuilding and other tim- ber from Africa. The coast from Sencgambia, southward, presents an almost impregnable forest, which contains a much greater variety of trees than you have in the States, and also a sufficiency to supply the world for centuries. But to return. There is here every possible inducement to prompt and stimulate the emigrant to action; a rich soil, a great variety of vegetables, and a ready market. The authorities of this town have recently established a daily market, which over- flows with the products of the country. The comforts possessed by the farmers, mechanics, and merchants, far surpass the opinion that you would form of them, unless you could be present, to be received into houses as splendidly furnished and well provided with all the luxuries that are usually found in the possession of citizens of refined and populous towns. The moral and religious state of society is very good; this is emphatically a church-going com- munity. In this town we have a ' Moral Friend- ship Society,' a ' Union Sisters of Charity Society,' a 'Female Benevolent Society,' a 'Missionary Society,' a flourishing 'Temperance Society;' and to the above list we have recently added a ' Liberia Lyceum.' The Lyceum is well attended, and promises to bestow much lasting good upon the citizens. From the above facts it is evident that your cause is a good one, and has been blessed and prospered by heaven's hand; it has found favour in the sight of God and man; it is fraught with considerations, the most ennobling, it demands from every well-wisher of the human family his suffrage, and appeals directly for assistance to all christian believers in the coming millennium. Will the time not shortly arrive when you can successfully petition the Congress of the United States for an American vessel to be sent here, that the slave trade may be effectually broken up along the coast of Liberia? Such a force is greatly needed to protect the Liberia coast trade, and to put a speedy check to the invasions of the slave. The community here is too young and weak to put down the evil, and being so, for want of sufficient aid, is obliged to regard with seeming indifference the numerous Baltimore clippers and other vessels that are frequently seen on our borders, and known to be slave ships. Any indignities offered to the slaver and his vessels would be revenged upon our colonial traders, perhaps to the total destruction of all the trading schooners, which would at once entirely destroy the trafficking carried on by our small craft—cut off the communication, by sea, with the seaboard settlements, and thus stop one of the principal sources of wealth to the colony. As I am not personally engaged in any depart- ment of the colonization cause, but only an ob- server in a part of it3 wide field of operations, permit me to take the liberty of making a few suggestions that have occurred to me. As the society's object can only be accomplished by ! efficient men ; and at a considerable expenditure of I means, it should be careful to send, in all cases, emigrants who can appreciate the privileges and advantages' hpre offered to them. They should, if possible, (for several years to come,) be men of intelligence and personal property, and, in every instance, those of industrious habits. Indi- viduals who will not work at home should not be sent here to be a charge on the public. It is vitally important to the growth of the colonies that attention be given to these particu- lars. Send men of intelligence, industrious men, healthy and wealthy men, and you need have no fears about the final success ofyour undertaking. Ten persons combining in themselves these quali- fications are worth more to the colony than one hundred who scarcely ' know their right hand from the left.' I urge these matters because when they land here they are their own masters, and if they lack ambition, they suffer themselves to become a public charge in a few months. Again, the different benevolent societies, whe- ther colonization, missionary, or educational, all being supported by the gratuitous donations of the people, should require that all their officers give to the public, through their several boards of managers, on account of their conduct and labours while in the employ of their respective societies. This, I think, would have a salutary effect in several ways. The agents and officers sent here hy the diffe- rent societies should be men who would stamp indelibly upon this embryo nation a character for temperance and morality, and be the first to lead it upward to high attainments in the arts, sciencea, and all that pertains to advancing the people, and preparing them lor an exalted station among the nations of the earth. Since my residence in Africa, my eyes have been compelled to view things differently to what they did in America. Having been educated in a non-slave-holding state, I was daily taught to look upon the man who held slaves as a monster scarcely human, and at all times to regard those engaged in or holding slaves as participating in crimes of the deepest dye ; and, notwithstanding I have resided in one, and travelled in several slave states, and never beheld the shade of a shadow of an attempt at the cruelties said to be practised (daily) upon the slaves, yet it was im- possible for me to overcome early prejudices, or to believe any thing else than that slavery, as there practised, was the greatest evil in the states, or in the world, which f now very much doubt. That slavery, as it exists in some parts of the universe, is an evil unparalleled by any other, is most true; but that it is burdened in the United States with all the cruelties and barbarities that the race is subject to, is very far from the fact. Slavery in the United States, in its worst form, and under the lash, is not as bad as slavery in Africa in its mildest form. It is a well-known truth that in Western Africa nine-tenths of the whole population are in a state of slavery. The females are all sold at an early age, to be, when they grow up, wives, or beasts of burden, as their proprietors may require. If the majority here were not slaves, how would they ever get into the foreign slave dealers' hands ? Where do the Portuguese and Americo-Spaniards get their cargoes of slaves? By plundering and ravishing the country ? No. By seizing and tearing them from their habitations along the coast? No. Nor yet by hunting them from place to place with dogs; but they are obtained from the kings of the country, who send and bring them from the far interior, in droves, and sell them as cattle to the highest bidder. They are sent in hundreds from the interior to the ' slave factories,' and sold for tobacco, powder, guns, cloth, and whiskey. Our coast is thickly settled by natives, who dwell secure from molestation by the slavers; they are not stolen and gathered promiscuously by every and any means; nor ate they deprived of their liberty when they are forced to leave these shores—they only change masters. Slaves they are, and such they had been to the most savage rulers, who inflict upon them the severest punish- ment, and feel free to kill, to eat, or to throw them upon the funeral pile, at pleasure. Slavery in the states, though an evil, cannot possibly be as great a one as it is here. There thousands hear the word of God, and become soundly converted to the christian faith; here, hitherto, they have had no such opportunities, and it appears evident that Goil is about to overrule, through the instru- mentality of the Colonization Society, this, as he did Joseph's slavery in Egypt, and thereby bring about a great and lasting blessing, to this whole country. I have heard men, who have been taken from this country in slave ships, and returned by the Colonization Society, bless God that ever they were bought by the slaver and carried to the states, where they heard the gospel preached, and had their dark understandings illuminated by divine grace.* Gentlemen in America may say the cruel atro- cities heaped upon the coloured man in the South are not paralleled in any country ; but if they will only come abroad and suffer themselves to fall into the hands of a native king, or even a 'head-man,'they will experience to their sorrow punishments equally unheard of, nay, in a thou- sand degrees more painful than any of the 'tortur- ing inventions ol'the southern planters.' Coloured men may also talk of the wrongs which they sus- tain, of the privations they endure, and of the inferior ranks Ihey are compelled to fill in society, and point the listener to the degraded station that they occupy in the public mind in consequence of some of' their brethren being slaves in the South; when if it had not been for that 'same hell-deserving practice,' they themselves would now (if in existence at all) be prowling these African forests, with the thousands of untaught heathens who inhabit them, as naked as when the light fust dawned upon them. They would be here bondmen, the slaves of slaves, used as beasts of burden, and at all limes liable to decapitation ; they would be without any knowledge of a God or a hereafter, and suffering all the barbarities of a savage invention I say without any knowledge of a God, or a hereafter, because 1 have seen tliein examined before the courts of justice by an inter- preter, and they sa« their ' gree-grees,' are only of service during lil", that 'when they die they die,' and that no part of them continues to live— they laugh to scorn Ihe idea. They say they know nothing about what becomes of them after death, that if they do wrong their gree-grees will kill-them, and that ' they all die, and all rot, and that be the end.' Such are the privileges and enjoyments from which they are torn, when sold to slavers, and forced to leave ' their happy homes and peaceful country,' for a life of slavery, with christian privileges, in another hemisphere. I do not wish to be understood as advocating slavery. I am firmly set in opposition to it; but, as a christian man, who desires to see his fellow- man in the most comfortable condition, and enjoy- ing christian liberty and gospel privileges, I do say that if the colonization cause is to go down ami not to be further prosecuted—if the coloured men in the United States are not to be established here in colonies to assist the christian missionary in his efforts to bring this people lo the knowledge of truth ; then slavery in America is a glorious blessing to Africa, and the means overruled by Providence to lead some few of the perishing millions of this land from darkness to light—from idolatry to the true and living God. This assertion is conscientiously made, because I believe it impossible for the missionary ever to succeed in winning these tribes to the christian faith unless aided by colonics of the free people of colour. Here is the country where slavery with all its legitimate and concomitant horrors exist. Africa is the mother that clings to it as her only, her dearest offspring; here is the land for the 'friend of Man' to commence operations, and the believer in 'equal rights'and the ' Liberator' to begin their work of charity. And here is the country so deeply dyed in the sin of blood and slavery as to require all the abolitionists and colonizationisti, and their united means and labours for centuries, in clearing its skirts and removing the foul stains that make her the prize-money of other nations. • Several of these individuals are now preach- ing the gospel to the heathen and others. The members of a certain society in the United States, who are murh opposed to the Colonization Society, and equally so to the giving of their means for benevolent purposes, and also to the dealing in human flesh and blood, but who are very anxious that the native African should be taught, if they were here, (of which there is no likeli- hood,) would find their way to usefulness com- pletely closed up; for, in order to be permitted to teach females, your missionaries are under the necessity of purchasing them when children, and paying for them as we pay for other animals. But, sir, I have filled my sheet with matter foreign to what I intended when I commenced. My object in writing to you was to give a short history of my course of practice since here, and the result; but my letter is now nearly completed, and I have only room to say, that my mind con- cerning the climate of Africa, and particularly this notorious cape, is the same now that it was years before I set foot upon it; I have had no reasons nor just grounds for changing my opinion in any one respect. The diseases in this climate are very manageable, provided the practitioner does not manufacture them. The fevers are positively of a simple grade, and, as I said above, if not tor- tured into complex forms, are easily subdued. It is better than a year since my arrival here; in that time I have fully acclimated white men and white women, young and old, married and single, and there is not now a diseased or impli- cated organ in any of them. 1 do not wish to be understood as saying that the influences or this climate are not dangerous—not at all; I only say that judicious persons, with proper attention and care, may completely rise above them all. Your missionaries are all in good health ; those sent out by the ship Emperor have not had fiver enough, at any time, to require regular attention, nor imy for several months. Among the colonies I have been practising daily, since a short time after my arrival; and to the present I have lost only two patients, (chil- dren,) who were regularly mine. My own case is still a rare one. I have been up rivers day and night, out in the woods, and in almost every degree and variety of exposure, and have had no fever for four or five months, and then only a touch of half a day's duration. Three dollars would purchase at any drug-store the full amount of all the medicines that 1 have taken since my residence in the colony. Old men tor counsel.—Father said a young man once, to a patriarch of the mountains, who is still living, (after being told that he must not go with half a dozen idle fellows, who had come to invite him,) 'Father, why is it that you deny me those privileges which other parents grant so readily to their sons of my own age?' 'David,' said the father, alter lifting up his head and lean- ing upon the top of his hoe handle, ' 1 have lived much longer in the world than you have, and I see dangers, which you little suspect. These young men are in a bad way. Such habits of idleness and this going about to frolics and horse races will ruin them. You will see, if you live, that some of them will get into the state's prison by and by, and it is well if they do not come to the gallows. These are my reasons for wishing you to have nothing to do with them.'—-David was satisfied.—Years rolled away.—Those young men soon spent their patrimony and fell into dis- sipated habits. From step to step they went on, till the prediction of the patriarch was literally fulfilled. Two or three of them were sent to the state's prison, and one at least, was hanged.— Dr. Humphrey. (From the Journal of Rev. James Wilson.) A Sand Storm. Allahabad, May 5. About 5 o'clock this afternoon, I was called out hastily to look at a very singular appearance in the western horizon. I immediately recognized a sand storm. It had the appearance of a deep dense cloud, but its yellow, liazy colour betrayed its character. It came at the speed of a whirlwind ; as it drew near, it darkened the whole horizon ; and from the ground to a great height In the air, it preserved an unbroken outline. As it ap- proached, till within half a mile, its general as- pect appeared like the smoke of an immense volcano, that had opened its mouth to give vent to its awful contents, pouring a flood of tiiin upon all around. The appearance was grand and awful beyond description—far beyond any thing of the kind that I have seen in India. As it approached, every thing was perfectly still until it came quite near, when we began to feel a gentle breeze which preceded it. While we stood and looked upon its awful front, and felt this gentle fanning breeze, we thought of the 'voice of God' in the garden ; but before any time was allowed for re- flection, we had to run into the house with all speed, and shut the doors. In two minutes it was as dark in the house as night; and the mass of sand, moving with the full majesty of the storm, was so dense that we could not distinguish any object at the distance of two rods. It lasted about haif an hour, and was followed by a slight fall of rain, which, in this awfully parched region, is a most gracious visitation. In this country, storms are sometimes dreadful, but there is nothing so dreadful as these bright, cloudless skies. 'The heavens over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron,' said he of an ancient time, who denounced the curse of God upon those who should afterwards forsake the Lord to follow idols. This strongly figurative language seems to be literal in India. N. Y. State Colonization Society.—The following resolution has been adopted by the friends of African colonization in this city : Whereas an official communication has been received from the Oneida County Colonization Society, and a request from the friends of coloniza- tion in other parts of the state, suggesting the ex- pediency of forming a colonization society for the state of New York, therefore resolved iluit lor the purpose of deliberating on this measure informa- tion be communicated to local societies and other friends of the enterprise in the different counties of the state, requesting them to send delegates to meet in convention in the city of New York on the 8th day of May next at 1 o'clock, P. M. with power to organize such society if it be deemed expedient. Alex. Proudfit, Cor. Sec. PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY, CORNER OF MARKET AND ST. PAUL STREETS, Who executes Book and Job Printing with neatness and accuracy. |