imported coolie labor, not to negro free labor, 267; this proved by statistics of certain islands, 268; Jamaica without coolie labor, and with black free labor alone, is still declining in its exports, 269; facts as to Barbadoes, 269; remarks on preceding facts, 269; other testimony confirmatory of the failure of emancipa- tion in its expected results, 270, 271; effects of emancipation upon the national welfare of Caucasians most injurious, and of no advantage to Africans, 272. THE SOCIAL, MORAL, AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITION OF JAMAICA, AS ILLUSTRATING THE EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION WHERE IT IS UNACCOMPANIED BY ADEQUATE MEANS OF EFFECTS OF EMANCIPATION UPON THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE NEGROES IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS, AS COMPARED WITH that of SLAVERY UPON RISE OF POLITICAL ABOLITIONISM AND THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL TEACHINGS OF ITS LEAD- Ecclesiastical legislation on slavery designed to transfer the subject to the arena of politics, 426; the scheme successful, 426; the basis laid was accepted by aboli- tionists, 426; this action created alarm at the South, 427; measures adopted to counteract the dangers threatened, 427; Nullification and the Tariff a pretext, 427; abolition claimed the right to use both moral and political means for the overthrow of slavery, 429; the principles of the Liberty party, and also of the Garrisonians, 430; abolitionism in the Presidential campaigns, 430; abolition Convention of 1841 in Ohio, and its resolutions and address, 431-434; abolition Convention in New York, its ultra resolutions advising negroes to steal, etc., 434; opinions of Mr. Birney in 1843, 435; in 1844, 436; speech of Mr. Chase, 437-440; South-Western Liberty Convention, 1845, at Cincinnati, 440; speech of Mr. Bir- ney, of Mr. Wills, of Judge Stevens, resolutions, address, 440-442; remarks on the incendiary productions of these men, 442-451; notice of the dogma that "slavery is the creature of local law," 443; Hon. J. W. Stevenson on this point, 443; he quotes Lord Stowell as repudiating the doctrine, 444; he notices other cases illustrative of his views, 445-448; Mr. Clay on abolitionism, 448; argu- Abolition in 1835, the offspring of ecclesiastical action, 456; political abolitionism not then organized, 456; abolition used as a means of promoting the sectional interests of New England, 456; General Jackson's condemnation of abolition in his message, 457; abolition petitions in Congress, 458; debates upon them, 459-485. remarks on the debates, 485; on Mr. Slade's avowal of the necessity of abolition to prevent the ascendency of the South to the injury of the East, 485; the West not to be gained to the East on account of physical obstacles to trade in that direction, hence abolition, as a moral lever, was necessary to dissever it from the South, 487; the means of accomplishing this had been supplied by the Churches in generating and fostering abolition, 487; the West weaned from the South would leave the East triumphant in its protective policy, 487; secession threatened by Bostonians through their representative, as early as 1811, 488; Mr. Adams and Mr. Madison on the right of secession, 488, 489; secession never popular, 490; it ruined Mr. Webster's prospects for the Presidency, 490; remarks on other speakers, 490-492; burning of "Cotton is King," note, 492; remarks on Mr. Johnson's charge of conspiracy against abolitionists, 493; manifesto of Mr. Adams and others, threatening dissolution of the Union, 494, 495; South also threaten- AGENCIES ENGAged in promotinG MEASURES TENDING TO DESTROY AMERICAN COMMERCE, BY LESSENING THE DEPENDENCE OF EUROPE UPON US FOR COTTON................ 573 CHAPTER I. BRITISH THEORIES ON AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, AS DERIVED FROM THE EFFECTS OF THE SLAVE TRADE AND BRITISH COLONIAL SLAVERY. THE condition of Africa had long enlisted the sympathies of the benevolent, before anything was attempted for the moral and social elevation of its inhabitants. Its degradation was known to be extreme, but its true situation was involved in mystery. To the traffic in slaves was attributed much of its wretchedness. Time, however, showed that the iron despotism of its kings, the absoluteness of its domestic slavery, the objects of its idolatrous worship, the modes of performing its religious rites, its cruel superstitions, its degrading customs, its human sacrifices, its cannibalism, must have dated their origin far back beyond the commencement of the slave trade. This traffic, it became evident, had not originated the greatest evils under which Africa suffered, but was itself one of the natural fruits of the social and moral degradation previously existing. At length the darkness of that barbarism was to be penetrated by the light of civilization, and the attempt made to lift the African up to the level of the Caucasian. This effort was not a voluntary one, springing spontaneously from the mind of the philanthropist, and undertaken out of pure sympathy for Africa. The people were forced into action, for its accomplishment, in such a manner as God only can lead men into important measures for human progress. It was inaugurated by the adoption of such schemes, and conducted in such a way, as seemed best adapted to determine the question, whether the black man can be * made the equal of the white. It was begun, too, at the very moment when the white man, on the American continent, was commencing his attempt at solving the mighty problem of man's capability of self-government. It was a most important moment, this, when the first steps were taken towards the redemption of Africa. None, for a moment, supposed that the task could be performed in a thousand years to come. The work was an untried one-such a work as had never before been attempted upon earth. Nations had conquered nations-had destroyed their captives or enslaved them - but never had the strong devoted themselves to the elevation of the weak. Two thousand years had the whites struggled, unaided, to gain the boon of constitutional freedom; and, even then, but a single nation had succeeded. Could the blacks do more could they advance, at a single stride, from barbarism to civilization! We shall see. On the 22d May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the celebrated Somersett case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in Great Britain. † Previously to this date many slaves had been introduced into English families, and, on running away, had been delivered up to their masters, by order of the court of King's Bench, under Lord Mansfield; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as a beast of prey in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miserable as it might be, in perfect security. ‡ To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By the decision referred to, about 400 negroes were thrown upon * We refer, of course, to the first efforts which had been productive of favorable results. Earlier attempts had been made to introduce the Gospel into Africa, but without success. On this point, Mr. Tracy, in his History of Colonization and Missions, says: "Catholic missionaries labored for two hundred and forty-one years, but every vestige of their influence has been gone for many generations. The Moravians, beginning in 1736, toiled for thirty-four years, making five attempts, at a cost of eleven lives, and effected nothing. An English attempt, at Bulama Island, in 1792, partly missionary in its character, was abandoned in two years, with a loss of one hundred lives. A mission sent to the Foulahs, from England, in 1795, returned without commencing its labors. The London, Edinburgh and Glasgow Society, commenced three stations in 1797, which were extinct in three years, and five of the six missionaries dead." † See subsequent notices of the opinions of Lords Mansfield and Stowell. Clarkson's History of the Slave Trade. |