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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0141 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0141 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
| MARYLAND COLONIZATION JOURNAL. CONDUCTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS OF THE MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MANAGERS OF THE STATE FUND Vol. I. Baltimore, February, 1840. No. 36. When gratuitous please circulate. Eighth Annual Report OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE MARY- LAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. In presenting ttveir annual report to the So- ciety, the Board of Managers humbly acknow- ledge their grateful sense of the protection and favour vouchsafed by Divine Providence to their colony at Cape Palmas, which, without one ad- verse incident of serious importance, has con- tinued, from the day of its founding to the present time, to grow with a steady and healthful pace in happiness and prosperity. The Board, while thus alluding to the situation of the Society's affairs abroad, have been deprived, at home, of the services of their valued and es- teemed agent, the Rev. Ira A. Easter, by death. Mr. Easter died in Baltimore on the morning of Thursday, the 16th inst. He had been in the employment of the Society since November, 1835, and during that time had devoted himself with untiring zeal to the interests of colonization. As an agent, he was faithful, prudent and industrious, as a man, he was a sincere and devoted christian, filling all the relations of domestic life in the most exemplary manner, and meeting death, the conse- quence of a long and painful illness, with pious resignation. His memory will be cherished with the truest respect by the managers and oificers of the Society. In the fall of 1838, the Oberon, as stated in a former report, sailed with emigrants from Balti- more to Cape Palmas; and on the 12th December last, the Boxer left Baltimore with an expedition for the colony. The emigrants by the Boxer are a most respectable set of persons, and will add con- siderably both to the physical and moral strength of the colony. The population of the colony is now about 450. The Boxer, besides the trade goods sent to the colony, as supplies to meet expenditures there, had on board MM in specie, for the purchase of animals for agricultural use at Goree. The object of the Society, as already often intimated, has been to make the colony essentially an agricultu- ral one, and they have spared no pains to accom- plish this. The present attempt to procure a good stock of beasts of burden, from which to breed, proceeds from their desire to fix the attention of the colonists upon the cultivation of the soil, as the best mode of securing an early and happy independence. In this matter the Board have not been without their disappointments. Although the laws of the colony prohibited native traffic, the fruitful source of difficulty and dispute, without a license, except for clothing or provisions,—and although no li- censes were issued, it was impossible to prevent the exceptions covering a much more extensive trade than was intended, the inclinations of the colonists, generally, with some honorable excep- tions, leading them to prefer the easy profits of trade to the harder won profits of agriculture. This was remedied, to a considerable extent, by the introduction of the paper currency mentioi.ed in a former report, which found great favour with both natives and colonists,—and which, being is- sued sparingly, and with a view to the compe- tency of the public store to redeem it in goods, has maintained its credit, and along with that its usefulness. But nothing has tended so much to force the colonists to pay attention to agriculture, as the difficulties thrown in the way of obtaining rice, and provisions generally, from the natives, by wars among the latter. What might, at first sight, have appeared to be an evil to the colony, was made a benefit to it by the results ; and at the date of the lsst despatches, as Governor Russ. wurm writes, there was more land under cultiva- tion, by a great ileal, than there had been since the establishment of the colony, and the feeling was becoming general among the colonists, that it was both unsafe and impolitic to rely for support upon any other labour than their own. The im- portance of this subject justifies its being dwelt upon. During the last year the internal concerns of the colony have been as satisfactory as could reason- ably have been expected. And although occa- sionally a turbulent or disaffected individual has produced excitement, yet the laws have been in the end maintained, and have been supported by the good sense and good feeling of the commu- nity. The little society at Cape I'almas may be considered in a transition state—enjoying a novel degree of freedom, and exercising for the first time an influence in their own government undei a written constitution. The result is as favoura- ble as there was any reason to expect; and the Board of Managers are satisfied, that under the eye of a firm and prudent executive, possessing sufficient authority at the colony, such as there is now in the person of Governor Russwurm, the colony will maintain the reputation of an orderly and well regulated community, where the law is paramount. The code, heretofore prepared for the colony, with the charter, or constitution, and ordinance for the temporary government, have been found to answer well in practice; and being as yet of small compass, and not swelled by decisions and modifications, are easily and fully understood by the colonists. The population at Cape Palmas and its vicinity is now large enough to justify the Society in send- ing to the colony as many emigrants as may be ottered ; and the colony is therefore in a situation to fulfil the views and expectations of its founders, offering to the fiee people of colour of the state as favourable a spot for emigration, as any other be yond the limits of the United States. In the first few years of the colony, care had to be taken to limit the number of emigrants sent to it, for fear of overburthening it. This is no longer a consi- deration. It has often heretofore been said, and it is here repeated, that colonization is not supported or ad- vocated by this society, as a means of transporting, without cost to themselves, the entire free coloured population of the state to Africa, or elsewhere; nut it is believed that with a much smaller expen- diture than would he required for this purpose, happy, prosperous, and increasing communities, capable of self-support, self-government, and self- defence, may be planted on the coast, which shall offer such inducements to the free coloured popu- lation to emigrate, that they will gladly seek them as an asylum and a home. To plant such com- munities, the contributions of states and individu- als are ample. Such a community the State So- ciety believe that they have been, in a measure, successful in planting) and they believe that, by the time the appropriation of the state shall be exhausted, the colony will be capable of taking care of itself, and fulfilling its purposes, without any other expenditure than may be necessary to transport such emigrants to it as may not be able to provide their own transportation. Few of the Europeans who seek our shores have any assistance given them to cross the At- lantic, and yet here they come, thousands upon thousands. The free coloured people have stronger reasons to leave America than the emigrants in question to leave Europe; tor colour here pre- sents an insuperal le barrier to the improvement ol their political condition, which is not the case with Europeans in the land they leave. Were the same emigration to take place from America 10 Africa that takes place between Europe and Ame- rica, but a few years would elapse before the free coloured people would disppear from among us— a few years it is meant in reference to such a result. In former reports the Board of Managers have referred to the difficulties in the way of procuring emigrants, caused by the labours of the abolition- ists ; the more difficult to counteract, because co- vertly carried on. These difficulties, the Board are informed by their agent, still continue to ex- ist, and can only be overcome by patience and perseverance in the course that has been pursued heretofore. Connected in some respects with the subject of colonization, is the emigration to Trinidad and English Guiana, which has taken place, or been urged and promoted during the lust year, by agents from those colonies of England. This plan has, in many instances, lound favour with the free coloured people, anil this has led to the belief that the doctrine of remaining in the United States, with a view to obtaining, by the influence of nu- merical strength, political and social (quality with the whites, is losing its weight, and will soon cease to operate. If this shall be the case African colo- nization will be the gainer, for this doctrine is that against which it has been most difficult to contend. The Board of Managers have thrown no obstacles in the way of either of the agents who have visited the United States, but on the con- trary, have been glad to see them succeed to the extent that they have done. The Board them- selves entertain little doubt that the free coloured people would consult their best and most lasting interests by emigration to Africa, but they are willing to believe that emigration to Trinidad or Guiana may, at the present time, be more for the advantage of the coloured man than to remain in the United States; because, from what is under- stood, employment is soon obtained, wages are higher, and there is more political importance given to the coloured population than with us. But how long this is to last may be another question. The invitation to the coloured popula- tion of the United States to emigrate, has followed the abolition of slavery in the colonies in ques. tiori, because the freed men working less than they did as slaves, do not furnish the same amount of labour as formerly. The plantations are there- fore not worked to their full capacity to produce, and hence the attempt to get additional labour from the states of the Union. It will not take a very large immigration to supply all the labour at this time wanted, and then further immigration, by increasing competition for employment, must lower the rate of wages ; unless, indeed, as is said to be the intention, or rather expectation, new plantations arc opened, and the emigrants themselves become landed proprietors. This is not considered, however, a probable event. Still, as the present emigration is certainly for the benefit of the emigrant, and as it will check itself, should the result suggested take place, the Society have felt no disposition to oppose it; but, on the contrary, consider it as evincing a salutary change in the opinions of the coloured people, and a growing conviction on their part, that this is not their appropriate home. The reasons of the Board for preferring and re- commending emigration to Africa are, that the colonists at once take the government into their own hands; not permissively and to a limited ex- tent, as in the English colonies, but altogether, from the highest offices to the lowest. The go- vernor, the magistrates, the military officers—all, indeed, who hold authority, are persons of colour. The colony is essentially a coloured colony, ever to remain so—the white man is the stranger there. In the English colonies, it is otherwise. Soil and salubrity being equal, and considering coloniza- tion in reference to the coloured race, as a means of elevating them morally and politically, the Board think that the greater privations encoun- tered in Africa, are far more than compensated by the more important results to be obtained there. During the past year, the intelligence from the coast of Africa having satisfied the United States' government, that the slave trade had been carried on there extensively under the American flag, two vessels of war have been sent to the coast. These will, it is understood, be stationed there, and their presence, it is believed, will have a happy influence, not only in the peculiar purposes of their employment, but also in affording counte- nance to the colonies on the coast. The large missionary force at the colony has, during the last year, been influential in promoting the interests of both natives and colonists; and their presence at the colony has afforded to the missionaries numerous opportunities of preserv- ing the peace and harmony of the settlement. The Board cherish them, and are anxious to pro- mote their usefulness and well being. The settlement of Maryland in Liberia consists now of two villages. One, which is the seaport, on the ocean, called Harper. The other, four miles in the interior, named Mount Tubman—the two connected by the Maryland avenue, onjeither side of which, and adjoining each other, are the farms of the colonists. The whole presents, as all visitors agree, a most interesting community. Accompanying this report, is a balance sheet of the books of the Society from its organization in 1831; shewing, it is believed, ever dollar that has been received and expended under the proper heads. The affairs of the Society are, to a con- siderable degree, commercial in their character; because, with a view to save the loss incurred in making purchases on the coast, paid for by drafts on the United States, the Society send out the articles themselves, and thus make the profit, which would otherwise be paid to the trader. The store at the Cape, belonging to the Society, is kept supplied with goods suitable to the mar- ket, with which the expenditures of the Society are made; for there being no coin, which cannot remain in a country that exports nothing, the trade with the natives and colonists is carried on by barter, except indeed, where the paper money already mentioned, serves as a medium of ex- change. This results advantageously to (he So- ciety; the gain, as shewn by the account current, being $9,046 98, which is there entered to the credit of profit and loss. By the account current, it will be seen, that the total amount of expenditures in the nine years, has been $101,162.82—of which, there has been received from the managers of the state fund, $69,639 91—from the colonization tax on slaves' imported into the state, $2,570—and from the state appropriation of 1827, $930; in all, $69,639 91. The balance, $31,522 91, having been contributed by the Society, to the objects which the state had in view in passing the law of 1831, ch. 281, under which, the payments above mentioned, except the last, of $930, were made. Besides which contribution, there has been given to the subject, the gratuitous labours of the mana- gers, and their influence in promoting the objects of the legislation of the state. The account current shews the home expenses for the period aforesaid, to have been $14,158 15, or at the average of $1,573 12 per annum, an amount that is most reasonable and unexception- able. Taking the average of the expenditure for salaries in Alrica, shewn under the head of Afri- can Civil List, from the sailing of the expedition by the Ann, in November, 1833, it amounts to but $2,123 55 per annum. These remarks are made, for the purpose of shewing that there has been no wasteful extrava- gance in these particulars, and that a proper economy has been consulted by the Board of Managers. The books of the Society have been kept with accuracy, and a system of accountability, both in this country and Africa, has been maintained as far as the nature of the business done permitted. In the last annual report, notice was taken of the formation and useful action of the Ladies' Society of Baltimore for the promotion of Educa- tion in Alrica, and it was stated that they had sent a teacher to Cape Palmas. This person, Benjamin Alleyne, had made himself very useful, and promised to become very valuable in the colony, when he died. His death was not caused by any disease peculiar to Africa, lor a healthy- residence in which, the fact that he was a West Indian, peculiarly fitted him. The Board regret his loss much: but are happy to find that the Ladies' Society, not discouraged, are still zealous ..i the good cause for which they are organized, and propose to supply the place of Mr. Alleyne, so soon as a suitable successor can be obtained. The Board cannot conclude their annual report, without urging upon their friends throughout the state, the necessity of taking up collections in furtherance of the objects of the Society. The Board are desirous that nothing should be left un- done on their part, that can give firmness to the settlement. Education, the opening of roads, as- sistance to new emigrants, are all of the highest importance, and can only be obtained by the ex- penditure of means, which must be procured from (he members of the Society, and the friends of colonization throughout the state. It is earnestly hoped, therefore, that the call for these objects about to be made by the agents, will be liberally responded to. John H. B. Latrobe, Prest. Md. State Colonization Society. Cr. George Hoffman, State Appropriation, 1827, John Hoffman, Profit and Loss, Stste Colonization Tax, Managers' State Fund, Brig Baltimore, . J. Hiss, S. Smith Rev. I. A. Easter, Benjamin Alleyne, Colonial Currency, Thomas Gross, J. & J. Williams, Charles, in Liberia, John M. Roberts, Columbia Expedition, Cape Palmas Packet, S. Bayard, of N. J. J. Boardley, emigrant, Bills Payable, Contributions, . G. R. McGill, Boston & Watson, John Easter, of John, . John H. Kennard, $120 00 . 930 00 100 00 . 9,046 98 2,570 00 66,139 91 76 18 . 21 00 173 63 . 121 30 14 95 1,400 00 5 00 . 21 25 20 00 36 00 248 88 53 00 . 8 00 89 94 4,975 19 14,836 45 100 00 3 00 . 12 19 39 92 $101,162 82 Balance Sheet, 1839. Maryland State Colonization Society. Dr. Orion Expedition, William Mc Kenny, $3,230 89 93 96 Lafayette Expedition, . 345 70 Contingent Expenses, , Sarah ft Priscilia, 681 99 661 26 Brig Bourne, . 1,096 07 American Board of Com'rs of Foreign Missions, 1 45 African Civil List, 12,741 31 Personal Property in Africa, . . 2,762 84 Bills Receivable, , 508 18 Peter Hoffman, . 422 95 Purchase of Territory in Africa, . 2,054 93 Colonial Store in Africa, 2,616 22 Brig An,n 2,757 11 Expenses of Emigrants in Africa, . 10,686 72 Public Improvements in Africa, 14,069 13 Expenses of Agency House in Africa, 2,247 29 Contingent Expenses in Africa, . 3,154 16 Individual Accounts in Africa, 1,479 23 Harmony Expedition, 872 694 Savings Bank of Baltimore, . 100 00 Brig Fortune, . . . 1,331 41 Financier Expedition, 620 98 Niobe Expedition, 1st, 1,120 00 Colonization Journal, . 1,484 93 Ezekiel Harrington, . 71 41 John B. Russwurra, 727 06 Samuel F. McGill, 734 25 Prot. Ep. Board of Missions, . . 28 01 Mrs. E. H. Tubman, 145 20 Military Stores in Africa, . Niobe Expedition, 2d, . . 916 99 2,654 89 Rev. Thomas Thornton, . 35 00 Colonial Agency in Africa, 1,516 20 J. Stewart, an emigrant. 25 00 Dr. R. MacDowall, . 310 00 Oberon Expedition, . . 7,075 23 Government Farm, . 93 80 Collection and outfit of Emigrants, . 3,767 62 Home Expenses, 14,158 15 R. Mickle, treasurer, . 57 14 Martin & Mathers, 1 50 Ladies' Society, . 94 58 Public Farm..... 906 45 Colonial School..... . 402 92 $101,162 82 Report Of the Managers of the State Colonization Fund, for the removal of the free people of colour; to the Legislature of Maryland. Colonization Rooms, Baltimore, January 21st, 1840. To His Excellency William Grason, Governor of Maryland : The report of the undersigned, the Managers of the State Colonization Fund, respecllully re- presents :— That during the last year the sum that they have drawn from the State has been $15,000. By the act under which they were appointed, the sum of $200,000 was appropriated to be applied to the purpose of removing the free people ol colour from the State, ot which $20,000 was authorized to be paid during the year succeeding the appro- priation, and the balance from time to time as might become necessary, and a tax amounting to $10,000 per annum was imposed upon the coun- ties of the state, to be paid in the proportions mentioned in the act. Alter the first year, the sum generally drawn by the Managers has been limited to $10,000 annually, though such restric- tion is not to be found in the act. This money has been paid from time to time as required, and as has been stated in former reports, to the Mary- land State Colonization Society, and by them ap- propriated to the establishment of their colony of Maryland in Liberia, and the removal there of such emigrants as the efforts of the Society could induce to remove. The expenditures of this Society have been under the eye of the Managers of the state fund, and have been economical and judicious; and the agency of the State Society, which brought a number of gentlemen of charac- ter and influence to the aid, gratuitously, of the objects of the state in her legislation on this sub- ject, has been considered always as valuable and important. In another point of view the associa- tion has been productive of benefit to the state, for the State Society being a benevolent institu- tion, and receiving support from individual* throughout the state, besides what they derived from the state fund, has added most materially to the means applicable to the object,—and the ac- count current annexed to the report of its pro- ceedings for the last year herewith transmitted— shows that, while the contribution of the state has amounted since the organization of the So- ciety to $69,639 91, the contributions of the Society from other quarters has amounted to $31,522 91, which is the gain of the state by the course which the Managers of the slate fund pur- sued in using the agency of the Society in ques- tion. In this proportion, it will be seen that the appropriation of $200,000 by the state, is made in fact equivalent to a sum ot nearly $300,000, ap- plicable to the purpose in hand, the removal of the free people of colour of the state from beyond its borders. The result of the system thus far, has been the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, at a point salubrious to the coloured emigrant, where the soil is fertile, and where there is gradu- ally growing up, with rare prosperity, a colony, which will be competent to receive all the emi- grants from the State whom circumstances may induce to remove. That the time is approaching when it will be- come apparent to the free coloured population that it is their interest to remove, the undersigned cannot doubt. The increasing white population of the country, the growing competition already obseivable in many of the ways of livelihood, all tend but to one result, which must be a convic- tion on the minds of the free coloured population, that in this land their race can have no abiding home. When this day arrives in Maryland, the State will be prepared for it, and the colony on the coast of Alrica will offer to the free people of colour a home, of which, it is believed, that they will then be most ready to avail themselves. The Managers of the state fund have thus ex- tended their report beyond its accustomed length, with a view to state fully the system on which they have acted; one that has heietofore been countenanced and approved by the state authori- ties; and they do this, at this time, because it has been suggested to withdraw the appropriation of the state. This would not have the effect of swelling the funds in the treasury for genera) purposes, the tax being a specific one for a spe- cific object, but the sure result of it would be to abandon to ruin a colony, established under an act of the General Assembly—approved by suc- cessive legislalures, and whose people relied on the faith of the State to the extent of the original law, when they left America for Africa. The number of manumissions, immediate and prospective, since the date of the last annual report, has been one hundred and twenty-eight. All which is most respectfully submitted. Chas. Howard, Wm. R Stuart, F. Anderson. |