Thoughts on African ColonizationGarrison, William Lloyd
Philosophy
Thoughts on African Colonization
Garrison, William Lloyd
African Americans -- Colonization -- Africa; American Colonization Society; Slavery -- United States
'The labors of the Colonization Society appear to us highly
deserving of praise. The blacks, whom they carry from the
country, belong to a class far more noxious than the slaves
themselves. They are free without any sense of character to
restrain them, or regular means of obtaining an honest
livelihood. Most of the criminal offences committed in the
southern States are chargeable to them, and their influence over
the slaves is pernicious and alarming.' * * * 'What is the true
nature of the evil of the existence of a portion of the African
race in our population? It is not that there are some, but that
there are so many among us of a different caste, of a different
physical, if not moral, constitution, who never can amalgamate
with the great body of our population. In every country, persons
are to be found varying in their color, origin and character,
from the native mass. But this anomaly creates no inquietude or
apprehension, because the exotics, from the smallness of their
number, are known to be utterly incapable of disturbing the
general tranquillity. Here, on the contrary, the African part of
our population bears so large a proportion to the residue of
European origin, as to create the most lively apprehension,
especially in some quarters of the Union. Any project,
therefore, by which, in a material degree, the dangerous element
in the general mass, can be diminished or rendered stationary,
deserves deliberate consideration.'--[African Repository, vol.
ii. pp. 27, 338.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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