African Colonization by the Free Colored People of the United States, an Indispensable Auxiliary to African Missions.: A LectureChristy, David
History
African Colonization by the Free Colored People of the United States, an Indispensable Auxiliary to African Missions.: A Lecture
Christy, David
African Americans -- Colonization -- Africa; Missions -- Africa
But time will not allow us to extend our comparisons. The superiority of
the free institutions of Liberia, as an agency for overcoming the
obstacles to civilization and Christianity in Africa, will be farther
noticed in the progress of our investigations. At present we need only
say, in relation to both Colonies, that, as the result of English and
American philanthropy, there is now a line of coast of more than 1,800
miles, from the Gambia on the West, to Lagos on the East, where the
slave-trade is suppressed, and Christianity is introduced; and, that
within this region, once the undisputed empire of the slave-trader,
there are now 30,000 attendants on public worship, 10,300 church
members, 152 schools, 13,600 pupils, and a band of teachers, nearly all
of whom are natives or Liberians.
Such are the results within these Colonies, where the missionaries have
enjoyed the protection of Government, and the aid of civilized colored
men; such are the fruits of the English and American Colonization of the
African race on the soil of their Father-land; and such the prospects of
the moral redemption of the people of that continent, by the return of
its captive sons, bearing in their hands the lamp of the Gospel.
III. _The Missions among the Native Tribes, beyond the Influence and
Protection of the Colonies._
A full history of these missions, including the facts illustrative of
the obstacles to the progress of Christianity, where the restraints of
civil government are not felt by the population, would be of thrilling
interest. But this would require a volume. We must limit ourselves to
two or three; and shall first direct attention to those of the American
Board on the Gaboon, in West Africa, and among the Zulus, in South
Africa.
The first of these missions was begun in 1834, at Cape Palmas; but owing
to mistaken impressions in relation to the influence of the Colonies on
the work, it was removed, in 1842, to the Gaboon, 1200 miles eastward.
On entering this region, the missionary, the Rev. J. L. Wilson,
encouraged by the attention of the chiefs, entertained such hopes of
success, as to lead the Board to send additional missionaries to his
aid. Some of the native converts at Cape Palmas, accompanying him to the
Gaboon, served as a nucleus for a church at the new station. But on
trial, the difficulties inherent in African heathenism were found to be
much more perplexing and insurmountable, in his new field, than those he
left behind in his old one.
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