The Past and the Present Condition, and the Destiny, of the Colored Race:: A Discourse Delivered at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1848Garnet, Henry Highland
History
The Past and the Present Condition, and the Destiny, of the Colored Race:: A Discourse Delivered at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1848
Garnet, Henry Highland
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
In 1620, the very same year in which the Pilgrims landed on the cold
and rocky shores of New England, a Dutch ship freighted with souls
touched the banks of James river, where the wretched people were
employed as slaves in the cultivation of that hateful weed, tobacco.
Wonderful coincidence! The angel of liberty hovered over New England,
and the Demon of slavery unfurled his black flag over the fields of the
“sunny south.”
But latterly the slave-trade has been pronounced to be piracy by
most all of the civilized world. Great Britain has discarded the
chattel principle throughout her dominions. In 1824 Mexico proclaimed
freedom to her slaves. The Pope of Rome, and the sovereigns of Turkey,
and Denmark, and other nations bow at the shrine of Liberty. But
France has laid the richest offering upon the alter of freedom, that
has been presented to God in these latter days. In achieving her
almost bloodless revolution, she maintained an admirable degree of
consistency. The same blast of the trumpet of Liberty that rang through
the halls of the Tulleries, and shattered the throne of the Bourbons,
also reached the shores of her remotest colonies, and proclaimed the
redemption of every slave that moved on French soil. Thus does France
remember the paternal advice of La Fayette, and atone for the murder
of Tousaint. Thanks be to God, the lilly is cleansed of the blood
that stained it. The nations of the earth will gaze with delight upon
its democratic purity, wherever it shall be seen. Whether in the
grape-grown valleys where it first bloomed, or in the Isles of Bourbon,
Gaudaloupe, Martinique, or in Guinna.[C] The colored people of St.
Bartholomews, who were emancipated by a decree of the King of Sweden
last year, have lately sent an address to their Liberator. Hayti, by
the heroism of her Oge, Tousaint, La-Overture, Dessalines, Christophe,
Petion, and Boyer, have driven the demon of slavery from that island,
and have burried his carcase in the sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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