The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements — John Shaqi
The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His AchievementsBrown, William Wells
History
The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements
Brown, William Wells
African Americans -- Biography
"What shall we do with the slave of the south? Expatriate him," say
the haters of the negro. Expatriate him for what? He has cleared up
the swamps of the south, and has put the soil under cultivation; he
has built up her towns, and cities, and villages; he has enriched the
north and Europe with his cotton, and sugar, and rice; and for this
you would drive him out of the country! "What shall be done with the
slaves if they are freed?" You had better ask, "What shall we do with
the slaveholders if the slaves are freed?" The slave has shown himself
better fitted to take care of himself than the slaveholder. He is the
bone and sinew of the south; he is the producer, while the master is
nothing but a consumer, and a very poor consumer at that. The slave
is the producer, and he alone can be relied upon. He has the sinew,
the determination, and the will; and if you will take the free colored
people of the south as the criterion, take their past history as a
sample of what the colored people are capable of doing, every one must
be satisfied that the slaves can take care of themselves. Some say,
"Let them alone; they are well cared for, and that is enough."
"O, tell us not they're clothed and fed--
'Tis insult, stuff, and a' that;
With freedom gone, all joy is fled,
For Heaven's best gift is a' that."
But it is said, "The two races cannot live together in a state of
freedom." Why, that is the cry that rung all over England thirty years
ago: "If you liberate the slaves of the West Indies, they can't live
with the whites in a state of freedom." Thirty years have shown the
contrary. The blacks and the whites live together in Jamaica; they are
all prosperous, and the island in a better condition than it ever was
before the act of emancipation was passed.
But they tell us, "If the slaves are emancipated, we won't receive
them upon an equality." Why, every man must make equality for himself.
No society, no government, can make this equality. I do not expect
the slave of the south to jump into equality; all I claim for him is,
that he may be allowed to jump into liberty, and let him make equality
for himself. I have some white neighbors around me in Cambridge; they
are not very intellectual; they don't associate with my family; but
whenever they shall improve themselves, and bring themselves up by
their own intellectual and moral worth, I shall not object to their
coming into my society--all things being equal.
Now, this talk about not letting a man come to this place or that, and
that we won't do this for him, or won't do that for him, is all idle.
The anti-slavery agitators have never demanded that you shall take the
colored man, any more than that you shall take the uncultivated and
uncouth white man, and place him in a certain position in society.
All I demand for the black man is, that the white people shall take
their heels off his neck, and let him have a chance to rise by his own
efforts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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