Thoughts on African ColonizationGarrison, William Lloyd
Philosophy
Thoughts on African Colonization
Garrison, William Lloyd
African Americans -- Colonization -- Africa; American Colonization Society; Slavery -- United States
With such a mass of evidence before them, of the pernicious, cruel and
delusive character of the American Colonization Society, I leave the
patriot, the philanthropist and the christian to judge of the fitness of
the following inflated and presumptuous assertions of its
advocates:--'The plan is of heavenly origin, against which the gates of
hell shall never prevail'--'a circle of philanthropy, every segment of
which tells and testifies to the beneficence of the whole'--'addressing
its claims alike to the patriot, and the christian, it being
emphatically the cause of liberty, of humanity, of religion'[A]--'so
full of benevolence and the hallowed impulses of Heaven's own mercy,
that one might, with the propriety of truth, compare its radiant
influences to a rainbow, insufferably bright, spanning the sombre clouds
of human wrong, that have accumulated on the horizon of our country's
prosperity, and beating back, with calm and heavenly power, the
blackening storm that always threatens, in growling thunders, a heavy
retribution'[B]--'that citizen of the United States who lifts a finger
to retard this institution, nay, that man who does not use his
persevering efforts to promote its benevolent object, fails, in our
opinion, to discharge his duty to his God and his
country'[C][1]--'nothing but a distinct knowledge and a calm
consideration of the facts in the case, is wanting to make every man of
common intelligence, common patriotism, and common humanity, the earnest
friend of the Colonization Society'!![D]
There is one important consideration, which, owing to the contractedness
of my limits, I have omitted to enforce in this work. It is this: the
serious injury which our interests must inevitably suffer by the removal
of our colored population. Their labor is indispensably necessary and
extremely valuable. By whom shall the plantations at the south be
cultivated but by them? It is universally conceded that they can resist
the intensity of a southern sun, and endure the fatigues attendant on
the cultivation of rice, cotton, tobacco and sugar-cane, better than
white laborers: at least, their bodies are now inured to this
employment. I do not believe that any equivalent would induce the
planters to part with their services, or white laborers to occupy their
places. In the great cities, and in various parts of the southern
States, free persons of color constitute a laborious and useful class.
In a pecuniary point of view, the banishment of one-sixth of our
population,--of those whom we specially need,--would be an act of
suicide. The veriest smatterer in political economy cannot but perceive
the ruinous tendency of such a measure.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] African Repository.
[B] Rev. Mr Maffit's 'Plea for Africa.'
[C] Western Luminary.
[D] Christian Spectator.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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