In the present enlightened age, talent and piety have combined their energies, in endeavouring to promote the welfare and emancipation of the degraded and enslaved African. The grievous sin of man making merchandise of his fellow-creatures, and holding them in perpetual slavery, has long been a subject of eloquent declamation, and has for some time been denounced by the unanimous voice of the British public. England has given to the nations a noble example, in abolishing, at a great sacrifice, a system of injustice and cruelty, in which she had long taken a guilty part.

If, as I have already shown, the claims of all mankind to one universal brotherhood are so clearly and unequivocally defined, we can have no authority for impressing upon a large portion of the great family the stigma of inferiority, under the mere pretext of some external peculiarities which the Creator has been pleased to confer upon them. Nothing can be more fallacious, nothing has ever been more pernicious in its consequences, than the assumption, that moral and intellectual inferiority are inseparable from a coloured skin. Oh! when will prejudice give way, if not through the influence of Christian kindness, before the pressure of facts? How long shall the White Man answer “No!” to the appeal of the injured Negro, “Am I not a man and a brother?” How long shall we persist in turning a deaf ear to the united cry of the whole ebon race of Africa:

Those who are acquainted with the writings of Rousseau, Lord Kaimes, and others belonging to the same school, are not ignorant of the attempt which has been made, in opposition to the Bible, to establish the theory, already alluded to, which represents the human race as derived from different stocks. Apart from the authority on which the Mosaic account of the creation of Man is built, the consideration of God's having “made of one blood all the nations of the earth,” is much more simple and beautiful, and has a greater tendency to promote love and concord, than that which traces the different members of the human family to different origins, giving rise to invidious distinctions, flattering the pride of one class of men, and affording a pretext to justify the oppression of another. Had this opinion, which we are now combating, been perfectly innocuous in its operation, or had it been confined to philosophers, we might have left it to its fate; but its prevalence, and the use which has been made of it, show that it is as hostile to the best interests of humanity as it is contrary to the truth of Scripture.*

It is a singular fact, that the injuries done to the Negroes * Dr. Philip. on the East and West coasts of Africa, the murders formerly committed by the colonists on the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa, and the privations and sufferings endured by the Slaves in America and the Colonies, are justified on this principle, as involving in them a consequent inferiority. “Expostulate with many farmers in South Africa,” says Dr. Philip, “for excluding their Slaves and Hottentots from their places of worship, and denying them the means of religious instruction, and they will tell you at once that they are an inferior race of beings. Asking a farmer in the district of Caledon, whether a Black Man standing by him could read, he looked perfectly astonished at the question, and supposed he had quite satisfied my query by saying, ‘Sir, he is a Slave.’ In the same manner, the cruelties exercised by the Spaniards upon the Americans were justified by their wretched theologians, by denying that the poor Americans were men, because they wanted beards, the sign of virility among other nations.”

The effects of this pretended idea of inferiority have been carried to an extent, towards the African, truly awful to contemplate. In their own country, they have become the most wretched of the human race; duped out of their possessions, their land, and their liberty, they have entailed on their offspring a state of existence, to which, even that of Slavery might bear the comparison of happiness, and to which death itself would be decidedly preferable. Such may not be the case universally, but it is the treatment by which the aborigines of Africa have been generally reduced to a state of degradation and wretchedness, surpassed in debasement only by the heartless barbarities of many Europeans, who, pretending to believe that the natives are destitute of the qualities, and excluded from the rights of human beings, find no difficulty in classing them with the beasts of the forest, and destroying them without compunction, that they may obtain undisturbed possession of their country. The only consideration from which their lives have often been either spared or preserved, seems to have been, that in a state scarcely above that of oxen or of dogs, they might perform every species of labour or drudgery in the dwellings or farms of those who now occupy the lands on which the herds of their ancestors formerly grazed in freedom.

“A farmer,” says Barrow, in 1797, “thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder of one of these people. A farmer from Graaff-Reinet, being asked in the Secretary's office a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ with as much composure and indifference, as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed with his own hands nearly three hundred of these unfortunate wretches.”

A witness quoted by Pringle, says, “If the master took serious dislike to any of these unhappy creatures, it was no uncommon practice to send out the Hottentot on some pretended message, and then to follow and shoot him on the road.”

But the sad effects of this notion of inferiority are no where so conspicuously manifested as in the brutal treatment to which the poor African has been doomed in the New World, and in the degrading epithets by which he is designated by his lordly task-masters. The oppressors of the Negro have committed a serious moral mistake, in perverting what should constitute a claim to kindness and indulgence into a justification or palliation of their conduct in enslaving their fellow men, and of that revolting and anti-christian practice, the traffic in human flesh; a practice branded with the double curse of degradation to the oppressor and the oppressed. The very argument, which has been used for defending the wrongs committed against the African, appears to me to be a tenfold aggravation of the enormity. Superior endowments, higher intellect, greater capacity for knowledge, arts, and science, should be employed in extending the blessings of civilization, and in multiplying the enjoyments of social life; not as a means of oppressing the weak and ignorant, or of plunging those who are already represented as naturally low in the intellectual scale, still more deeply into the abyss of barbarism.

When we see a strong and well armed person, attack one equally powerful and well prepared, we are indifferent as to the issue; or we may look on with that interest which the qualities called forth by the contest are calculated to inspire: but if the strong attack the weak, if the well armed assail the defenceless, if the ingenuity, knowledge, and skill, the superior arts and arms of civilized life are combined, to rob the poor savage of his only valuable property—personal liberty—we turn from the scene with indignation and abhorrence.

“They who possess higher gifts should remember the condition under which they are enjoyed:—‘From him to whom much is given, much will be required!’ What a commentary on this head is furnished by Negro Slavery, as carried on, and permitted, by religious nations, by Christian Kings, Catholic Majesties, Defenders of the Faith, &c.!”*

For the sake of argument, let us admit that there may exist an intellectual imbecility in the mind of the Negro, —instead of its justifying our inflicting upon him the miseries of Slavery, does it not rather give him an additional claim to our sympathy and Christian compassion? If the retreating forehead and depressed vertex do indicate an inferiority in the mental capacity of the Negro, does it prove that he is not a human being,—that he has not an immortal soul,—or that he is not an accountable creature? Does it prove that he is not capable of every rational act, and that he is unendowed with every social feeling which is * Lawrence. essential to a man? Does it prove that the Negro race are less the children of “our Father who is in heaven,” or authorize us to refuse a practical recognition of their being a part of the human family? Monstrous absurdity! If the dark-coloured race is admitted to be inferior in intellectual endowments, or physical proportions to the White, what, before the Christian era, were many of those nations which now stand amongst the most refined and intelligent?

If we desire to ascertain how much the character of a people depends upon the influence of the circumstances under which they live, let us look at the contrast exhibited between many nations which at one period attained to the highest celebrity, and their present condition. If further evidence of this fact be wanting, we may vary our illustration, and show how nations which were once viewed as deficient in mental capacity, have reached the highest place in the scale of empire, while the very nations, which at one period contemned them, have sunk into a state of degeneracy.

Take a number of children from the nursery, place them apart, and allow them to grow up without instruction and discipline; the first state of society into which they would naturally form themselves would be that of the hunter. While food could be obtained by the chase, they would never think of cultivating the ground: inured to hardships, they would despise many things, which, in a civilized state of society, are deemed indispensable. In seasons of common danger, they would unite their efforts in their own defence; their union, being nothing more than a voluntary association, would be liable to frequent interruptions; the affairs of their little community would be, to them, the whole world; and the range of their thoughts would be limited to the exercise which their fears and hopes might have, in relation to their own individual danger or safety.

The Romans might have found an image of their own ancestors in the representation they have given of ours. And we may form not an imperfect idea what our ancestors were, at the time Julius Cæsar invaded Britain, by the present condition of some of the African tribes. In them we may perceive, as in a mirror, the features of our progenitors, and, by our own history, we may learn the extent to which such tribes may be elevated by means favourable to their improvement.*

When the inhabitants of a free country are heard justifying the injuries inflicted upon the natives of Africa, or opposing the introduction of liberal institutions among any portion of them, on the vulgar ground that they are an inferior class of beings to themselves, it is but fair to remind them, that there was a period, when Cicero considered their own ancestors as unfit to be employed even as Slaves in the house of a Roman citizen. “Seated one day in the house of a friend in Cape Town,” says Dr. Philip, “with a bust of Cicero in my right hand, and one of Sir Isaac Newton on the left, I accidentally opened a book on the table at that passage in Cicero's letter to Atticus, in which the philosopher speaks so contemptuously of the natives of Great Britain.** Struck with the curious coincidence arising from the circumstances in which I then found myself placed, pointing to the bust of Cicero, and then to that of Sir Isaac Newton, I could not help exclaiming, ‘Hear what that man says of that man's country!’ ”

Were it not so indubitably recorded on the page of history, we should hardly be willing to believe that there was a time when our ancestors, the ancient Britons, went nearly without clothing, painted their bodies in fantastic fashion, offered up human victims to uncouth idols, and * Dr. Philip.

** Britannici belli exitus expectatur: constat enim aditus insulæ esse munitus mirificis molibus: etiam illud jam cognitum est, neque argenti scrupulum esse ullum in illa insula, neque ullam spem prædæ nisi ex mancipiis: ex quibus nullos puto, te literis aut musicis eruditos expectare.” Epist. Ad. Atticum, 1. iv., Epist. 16.

It is evident than that the deduction of an affinity with the brute creation, from the allegation of a resemblance between the Negro and the Monkey, is a mere subterfuge. The Negroes of Mozambique, whom Barrow describes as inferior to many other Africans, may be instanced as exhibiting those general characteristics which are mostly associated with our ideas of Negro physiognomy. There are many Europeans who have countenances exactly resembling these and other Negroes; and varieties and intermediate gradations, almost imperceptible, may be traced, connecting all the different races. We perceive, indeed, an astonishing difference, when we place an ugly Negro (for there are such, as well as ugly Europeans,) against a specimen of a Grecian ideal model; but when we examine the intermediate gradations, this striking diversity vanishes. “The physiological characters of the Negro,” says Dr. Lawrence, “taken in a general sense, are as loosely defined as his geographical distribution; for among the Negroes, there are some, who, in smoothness of the hair, and general beauty of form, excel many Europeans.

The most obvious external point of distinction among mankind is the colour of the skin, a peculiarity of little natural, but which has become one of great moral imporance. It is the dark colour of the African that has been especially urged, as subverting the theory of a unity of races. Although a general survey of organized bodies, in both the animal and vegetable kingdom, by no means leads us to regard Colour as one of their most important distinctions, but, on the contrary, will soon convince us that it may undergo very signal changes without essential alterations of their nature, (and the remark holds equally good of the human subject), yet the different tints and shades of the skin, offering themselves so immediately to observation, and forcing themselves in a manner, on the attention of the most incurious, have always been regarded by the generality of mankind as the most characteristic distinction of separate races.

That this idea is entirely an erroneous one, is proved (as other cases of variation) by a reference to various parts of the animal creation, colour in them being in no instance a mark of species. If we take a collective survey of the diversities of colour, distinguishing particular breeds in animals, we shall discover that, with considerable allowance for the organization of new varieties in form and organic structure, the primitive type and hue is stamped upon each kind. Though the same animals vary in colour in the same country, each has more frequently its own distinctive peculiarity. Ælian informs us that Eubæa was famous for producing white oxen.* Blumenbach remarks, that “all the swine of Piedmont are black, those of Normandy white, and those of Bavaria are of a reddish brown.” “The turkeys of Normandy,” he states, “are all black; those of Hanover almost all white. In Guinea, the dogs and the gallinaceous fowls are as black as the human inhabitants of the same country.”**

To enter into a full discussion of this subject would lead us beyond our limits. A few more observations must suffice. That colour in Man is much influenced by climate is evident, and its variation appears to a considerable extent gradational throughout different parts of the globe. “The heat of the climate,” says Buffon, “is the chief cause of blackness among the human species.” Without assuring however, that solar heat is the alone agent affecting the colour of Man, the action of the sun in darkening the human tint is too obvious to be denied or unnoticed. How swarthy do Europeans become who seek their fortunes in the tropics or under the equator, who have their skins parched by the burning suns of “Afric or either Ind.” The effects are soon visible in their complexion, in the most distinct manner. A child, however fair, if allowed to * Ælian, lib. xii. cap. 36. ** Prichard. romp in the open air, without any shade over the head, will become what is called sunburt or dusky in a few months. If we observe the gradations of colour in different localities in the meridian under which we live, we shall perceive a very close relation to the heat of the sun in each respectively. Under the equator we have the deep black of the Negro; then the copper or olive of the Moors of Northern Africa; then the Spaniard and Italian, swarthy compared with other Europeans; the French still darker than the English; while the fair and florid complexion of England and Germany passes, more northerly, into the bleached Scandinavian white. At last, indeed, the gradation is broken, for a dusky tint reigns along the whole circuit of the Arctic border. The cause of this is not well explained; but the universal prevalence of a dusky hue under that latitude, seems clearly to indicate that there is something in the climate with which it is connected. During their short but brilliant summer, the sun, perpetually above the horizon, shines with an intensity unknown in temperate climates. May not the natives who spend this season almost perpetually in the open air, in hunting or fishing, receive from it that dark tint, which is not easily effaced? It may be partially smoke-brown, for the tenants of all this bleak circuit necessarily spend half the year in almost subterraneous abodes, heated by fires as ample as they have fuel to maintain; the smoke of which, deprived of any legitimate vent, constantly fills their apartments, and must have an effect in darkening the complexion, to which it very closely adheres.*

It may be remarked, that in the central regions of America there are many shades of colour in different parts, amongst nations evidently one in origin, the variations bearing a general reference to the situations in which the people are respectively placed. For instance, the inhabitants of high grounds in Central America, are pale compared with * Murray's North America. those of the low districts. Here we cannot doubt that the climate has operated, either in clearing the dusky or rendering dusky the white.

In the case of the aborigines of Hindostan, who are dark in complexion, the action of climate is clearly observable; and is proved by the circumstances of the female inhabitants of the harem, derived from the same stock, being generally very fair. This is unquestionably the consequence of their secluded life, which prevents that exposure of person which their relations of the other sex necessarily undergo.

Let us survey the gradations of colour on the continent of Africa itself. The inhabitants of the north are whitest; and as we advance southwards towards the line, and those countries in which the sun's rays fall more perpendicularly, the complexion gradually assumes a darker shade. And the same men, whose colour has been rendered black by the powerful influence of the sun, if they remove to the north, gradually become whiter (I mean their posterity), and eventually lose their dark colour.

It is well known, that in whatever region travellers ascend mountains, they find the vegetation at every successive level altering its character, and gradually assuming the appearances presented in more northern countries; thus indicating, that state of the atmosphere, temperature, and physical agencies in general, assimilate, as we approach alpine regions, to the peculiarities locally connected with high latitudes. If, therefore, complexion, and other bodily qualities belonging to races of men, depend upon climate and external condition, we should expect to find them varying in reference to elevation of surface; and if they should be found actually to undergo such variations, this will be a strong argument that these external characters do, in fact, depend upon local conditions. Now, if we inquire respecting the physical character of the tribes inhabiting high tracts in warm countries, we shall find that they coincide with those which prevail in the level or low parts of more northern tracts. The Swiss, in the high mountains above the plain of Lombardy, have sandy, or brown hair. What a contrast presents itself to the traveller, who descends into the Milanese territory, where the peasants have black hair and eyes, with strongly marked Italian and almost Oriental features. In the higher part of the Biscayan country, instead of the swarthy complexion and black hair of the Castilians, the natives have a fair complexion, with light blue eyes, and flaxen, or auburn hair.*

In the intertropical region, high elevations of surface, as they produce a cooler climate, occasion the appearance of light complexions. In the higher parts of Senegambia, which front the Atlantic, and are cooled by winds from the Western Ocean, where, in fact, the temperature is known to be moderate, and even cool at times, the light copper coloured Fúlahs are found surrounded on every side by black Negro nations inhabiting lower districts; and nearly in the same parallel, but on the opposite coast of Africa, are the high plains of Enarea and Kaffa, where the inhabitants are said to be fairer than the inhabitants of southern Europe.**

It must be observed, that all varieties of structure and complexion which are congenital, that are a part of the original constitution impressed upon an individual from his birth, or that arise from the development of a natural tendency, are hereditary, or liable, with a greater or less degree of certainty, to be transmitted to offspring. Persistency in this respect is, however, far from invariable, and apparently, much more uncertain as regards colour than any peculiar formation of the body, as will be shown hereafter. In general, the peculiarities of the individual are transmitted to his immediate descendants; in other instances they have been observed to reappear in a subsequent generation, after having failed, through the operation of some circumstances * Prichard. ** Idem. quite inexplicable, to show themselves in the immediate progeny. This fact has been noticed by Lucretius:—

Many striking instances of singularities of structure, originating in the human kind, as well as among animals, have occasionally arisen and been propagated through many generations. The growth of supernumerary fingers or toes, and corresponding deficiencies, are circumstances of this description. Maupertius has mentioned this phenomenon; he assures us that there were two families in Germany, distinguished for several generations, by six fingers on each hand and the same number of toes on each foot.* Many similar peculiarities have been recorded as being transmitted through successive generations. **

The thick lip introduced into the imperial house of Austria by the marriage of the Emperor Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy, is visible in their descendants to this day, after a lapse of three centuries.*** Haller observed, that his own family had been distinguished by tallness of stature for three generations, without excepting one out of numerous grandsons descended from one grandfather.****

The gipsies afford an example of a people spread over all Europe for the last four centuries, and nearly confined by marriages, and their peculiar way of life, to their own tribe. In Transylvania, where there are great numbers of them, and the race remains pure, their features can be more accurately observed. In every country and climate, however, which they have inhabited, they preserve their * Prichard. ** Idem, vol. i., chap. iv. *** Coxe's Mem of the House of Austria. **** Elem. Physiol. Lib. xxix. distinctive character so perfectly, that they are recognized at a glance, and cannot be confounded with the natives.

But, above all, the Jews exhibit the most striking instance of a peculiar national countenance, so strongly marked in almost every individual, that persons the least accustomed to physiognomical observations, detect it instantly; though not easily understood or described. Religion has, in this case, most successfully exerted its power in preventing communion with other races; and this exclusion of intercourse has preserved the Jewish countenance so completely, in every soil and climate of the globe, that a miracle has been thought necessary to account for the continued transmission.

It is owing to native or congenital peculiarity of form and complexion being transmitted by generation, that we perceive a general similitude in persons of the same blood. Hence we can frequently distinguish one brother, by his resemblance to another, or know a son by his likeness to the father or mother, or even to the grand-parents. All the individuals of some families are characterised by particular lines of countenance, and we frequently observe a peculiar feature continued in a family for many generations.

The great and the noble, have generally had it more in their power to select the beauty of nations in marriage; and thus, while without system or design, they have merely gratified their own taste, they have distinguished their order, as much by elegant proportions of person, and beautiful features, as by its prerogatives in society. This remark is universally applicable. “The same superiority,” says Cook, “which is observable in the erees, or nobles, in all the other islands, is found here, (Sandwich Islands.) Those whom we saw, were, without exception, perfectly well formed: whereas, the lower sort, besides their general inferiority, are subject to all the variety of make and figure that is seen in the populace of other countries.”* * Lawrence's Lectures. Dr. Philip was particularly struck with the difference between the appearance of the chiefs and their families, and the common people (in South Africa); the superior class were taller in their stature; “their countenances approached nearer to the European model than those of a lower rank; their complexions were lighter, and they had in air of nobility about them, which indicated that they were born to command.”* “The men of Ashantee,” says Bodwick, “are very well made; the women also are generally handsome; but it is only among the higher orders that beauty is to be found; and among them, free from all labour or hardship, I have not only seen the finest figures, but, in many instances, regular Grecian features, with brilliant eyes, set rather obliquely in the head.” **

When any characters have become thoroughly worked into the system, it is only probable that they should for some time survive the causes which gave them birth, especially when no very active ones are in operation. This may serve for the solution of many cases, in which the colour of Man and the climate do not appear to correspond. The Chinese, descended from the Mongols, still retain a modified Mongol visage and shape. The natives of New South Wales spring from the Oriental Negro, and continuing, from their rude habits, exposed to the constant action of sun and air, they have remained black. In like manner may we account for Indostan being still peopled by races of various form and colour.

These are cases especially urged by those who argue in favour of a diversity of species in Man, on the ground of features and colour. Instances are also adduced, in which individuals transplanted into another climate than that of their birth, are said to have retained their peculiarities of form and colour unaltered, and to have transmitted the same to their posterity for generations. But cases of this kind, though often substantiated to a certain extent, appear to * Philip's Researches. ** Bodwick, p. 318 have been much exaggerated, both as to the duration of time ascribed, and the absence of any change. It is highly probable, that the original characters will be found undergoing gradual modifications, which tend to assimilate them to those of the new country and situation.

The Jews, however slightly their features may have assimilated to those of other nations amongst whom they are scattered, from the causes already stated, certainly form a very striking example as regards the uncertainty of perpetuity in colour. Descended from one stock, and prohibited by the most sacred institutions from intermarrying with the people of other nations, and yet dispersed, according to the divine prediction, into every country on the globe, this one people is marked with the colours of all: fair in Britain and Germany; brown in France and in Turkey; swarthy in Portugal and in Spain; olive in Syria and in Chaldea; tawny or copper-coloured in Arabia and in Egypt;* whilst they are “black at Congo in Africa.”**

The researches of Dr. Prichard have dispelled many of the ideas formerly entertained with respect to the general persistency of colour and features in the human race, especially of colour, on which the greatest stress has been laid. In some particular states of the constitution, the skin of Whites becomes, either wholly or in part, black. On the other hand, it is well known that the Black loses part of his original tint in a state of civilization. It is remarked, in the United States, that while Negroes kept at field-labour retain their pristine colour, those who are domesticated as servants become paler at the second and subsequent generations, and also lose their African features and other peculiarities. There are also instances of Negroes losing their original colour wholly or in part, under the influence of disease or some other constitutional affection. Dr. Strach records the case of a man who was converted by a fever into a perfect Negro in colour. Blumenbach * Smith on the Complexion of the Human Species. ** Prichard. in the middle of his body, and also about the knees, without ill health having any concern, appparently, in producing these appearances. Other instances are recorded of Negroes, in different countries, without the action of any apparent disease, gradually losing their black colour and becoming as white as Europeans. An example of this kind is recorded in the “Transactions of the Philosophical Society.” Klinkosch mentions the case of a Negro who lost his blackness and became yellow;* and Caldani declares that a Negro, at Venice, was black when brought during infancy to that city, but became gradually lighter coloured.** There are throughout Africa several nations, unquestionably Negro originally, who have acquired handsome forms and faces, as well as a lighter tint, in consequence of their living in mountainous regions, approaching to the temperate climate.

Instances of white people who have become black, in consequence of migrating into tropical latitudes, are more rare, and not so distinctly made out; yet, according to several accurately informed and scientific writers, such as Waddington, Dr. Rüppell, and M. Rozet, there are black races in Africa, among the genuine descendants of emigrants from Arabia. Detachments of the Arabian family emigrated, eleven or twelve hundred years ago, into northern Africa, where they have founded states of some importance, and, in some instances, they have passed into a perfectly black complexion; although improved in form and stature, and notwithstanding that they reside to the north of the Negro countries. A remarkable fact in the history of Loango, in the empire of Congo, is, that the country, according to a statement which was fully credited by Oldendorp, himself a writer of most correct judgment and of unimpeachable veracity, contains many Jews settled in it, * Klinkosch, de verà natura Cuticulæ; Prag. 1775. ** Caldani Institut. Physiol. 170. who retain their religious rites and the distinct habits which keep them isolated from other nations. Though thus separate from the African population, they are black, and resemble the other Negroes in every respect as to physical character.* It is probably in allusion to this case that Pennington, in his “Text Book,” says, “the descendants of a colony of Jews, originally from Judea, settled on the coast of Africa, are black.”** M. Rozet declares that there are many Negresses in the Algerine country, whither they have doubtless been brought from the interior of Soudan, and very probably from Haússa, who are of a jet black colour, but with truly Roman countenances.*** In one case, a degradation resembling that instanced among the Irish people, has been recorded to have taken place in the oasis of Fezzan. “The general appearance of the men in that locality is plain, and their complexion black; the women are of the same colour, and ugly in the extreme. Neither sex is remarkable for figure, height, strength, vigour, or activity. They have a very peculiar cast of countenance, which distinguishes them from other Blacks; their cheek-bones are higher and more prominent, their faces flatter, and their noses less depressed and more pointed at the top than those of other Negroes. Their eyes are generally small, and their mouths of an immense width, but their teeth are generally good; their hair is woolly, though not completely frizzled.” They are a dull phlegmatic people. Here we have, with black skins, Negro faces, and woolly hair, a people descended from the white tribes of Arabia, and who still speak the language of that country.

The Portuguese who planted themselves on the coast of Africa a few centuries ago, have been succeeded by descendants blacker than many Africans.****

Langsdorf mentions an English sailor who had been for * Oldendorp's Geschicte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder, &c.** Text Book, p. 26. *** M. Rozet's Voyage, II. 140. **** Pennington's Text Book, p. 96. some years in Nukahiwah, one of the Marquesas Islands, becoming so changed in colour that he was scarcely to be distinguished from the natives.*

It is a remarkable circumstance attending the black people in Africa, in India, and in Central America, that amongst them Albinos are frequently born; that is, persons of a pure dead white, with white hair and red eyes. This is thought to be a diseased condition; but, besides these, there are instances by no means unfrequent, of true Whites being born amongst the Black races. This fact was long doubted; but it seems to be now set at rest. White children, or Dondoes, are frequently born from Black parents in all parts of Africa. Many of them are of what we should call a fair complexion. Among the Fungé, a race of Shilukh Negroes, who, some hundred years ago, conquered and settled in Sennaar, they are particularly numerous; insomuch as to have formed a separate caste, distinguished by the name of El Aknean (the red people.) Buffon has given a minute description of a white Negress, born in the island of Dominica, of black parents, who were natives of Africa.** A white Negro is described by Dr. Goldsmith, who saw him exhibited in London. He says, “upon examining this Negro, I found the colour to be exactly like that of a European; the visage white and ruddy, and the lips of the proper redness.” “However,” he adds, “there were sufficient marks to convince me of his descent.”*** Burchell has given a description of a female of a light complexion, born from the race of the Black Kafirs in South Africa. “The colour of her skin was of the fairest European, or, more correctly described, it was more pink and white.” Her features were those of her race, the parents being genuine Kafirs.**** Dr. Winterbottom mentions two white Negroes of the Mandingo country, from the testimony of an eye-witness. He describes from * Langsdorf's Voyages, V. p. 90. ** Prichard. *** Goldsmith's Hist. Earth and Anim. Nat., ii. 124. **** Prichard. his own observation, a white Negro woman whom he saw in the Sooson country, whose relatives were all black. No doubt could be entertained of her being of genuine Negro origin. Pallas has minutely described a white Negress seen by him in London in 1761. She was born of Negro parents in Jamaica, and was sixteen years of age. She was of small stature, fair complexion, with ruddy lips and cheeks. Her hair was quite woolly, and of a light yellow colour. This girl had the Negro features strongly marked, and had every appearance of genuine Negro descent. There are many other well attested accounts of such persons, but it would be tedious to enumerate them. The foregoing are brought forward merely to show that the dark colour of the Negro is neither constant, nor always entailed on posterity, and therefore can form no criterion of a distinct species.

Besides the numerous varieties in colour, which the different races of men present, there are other points of distinction equally obvious, and found to exist with similar regularity. Some of these are considered of minor importance, as the shade of the hair, eyes, beard, &c.

If complexion be made to constitute the great mark of inferiority in Man, if it be accounted the distinguishing livery of degradation and servitude, the stigma is equally attached to a great part of the inhabitants of the world; the sentence of imbecility must necessarily be passed on a very large portion of mankind; for “the dark-coloured races,” says Dr. Lawrence, “cover more than half of the earth's surface.” The colour of many of the Hindoos is perfectly black, as black as any Negroes. The Brahmins of the highest order are black. Yet the dark colour of the Hindoos is often united with a delicacy of form and expression, arising from habits of mind and of life, which render them in this respect, the antipodes of what the Negro is supposed to be. This people, it is said, calculated eclipses 2000 years ago, and at a more recent period astonished Alexander the Great, and his savans, by their advancement in civilization. Here we have an incontrovertible evidence that neither inferiority, nor imbecility, are the necessary accompaniments of a coloured skin. It may be observed, that there are portions of mankind much lighter in complexion than Negroes, who are, nevertheless, their inferiors in an intellectual point of view. Whilst the dark races of Africa are often found to produce intellects of respectable capacity, sometimes above mediocrity, the natives of Terra del Fuego, who are much lower in the scale of human intelligence, are far from being tinged with so deep a dye, and have hair more nearly resembling that of the European races.

Every one who will make himself acquainted with facts, must be satisfied that the whole of the pretexts alleged in support of the assumption of some of the races of Man being irremediably inferior to others, are as entirely fallacious, as the opinion of such being the case, has been pernicious in its consequences. The deviations from a common model in mankind, it has been proved, are less in degree than those which are found to exist in many other parts of the animal creation. Not one of the distinctive characters that can be adduced, in any of the varieties constituting the great family of Man, is sufficient to warrant the supposition of anything approaching to distinct species. It has been shown that there are differences equally great, and even greater, between individuals of the same family, and families of the same nation; and we may discover particular men, and even entire families, in this country, who are intellectually weaker, than any reasonable person could pretend the generality of the Africans to be.

Whatever may be the immediate or remote causes of the dark complexion of the, Negro, or other races, philosophical enquiry, if unable fully to solve the problem, has at all events proved it to be a provision of mercy and benevolence. It can be shown that hot water, in vessels of different and equal capacities, cools faster in the dark or black ones. The black colour of the native of tropical regions may justly, then, be considered as a wise expedient provided by Omnipotence, for cooling or modulating the fever of the blood, under the influence of a scorching sun. To call in question the proper humanity of the Negro, to scorn him on account of his colour, is to insult that Great and Allwise Being, who, by the most beautiful and benevolent provision, thus protects him from the deleterious influences around him. Copland, in his “Dictionary of Practical Medicine,” observes:—“The skin of the dark races is not only different in colour, but is also considerably modified in texture, so as to enable it to perform a greater extent of function than the more delicately formed skin of the white variety of the species. The thick and dark rete mucosum of the former, is evidently more suited to the warm, moist, and miasmal climates of the tropics, than that with which the latter variety is provided. The skin of the Negro is a much more active organ of depuration than that of the White. It does not merely exhale a larger proportion of aqueous fluid and carbonic acid from the blood, but it also elaborates a more unctuous secretion; which, by its abundance and sensible properties, evidently possesses a very considerable influence in counteracting the heating effects of the sun's rays upon the body, and in carrying off the superabundant caloric. Whilst the active functions, aided by the colour of the skin, thus tend to diminish the heat of the body, and to prevent its excessive increase by the temperature of the climate, those materials that require removal from the blood, are eliminated by this surface; which, in the Negro especially, perform excreting functions very evidently in aid of those of respiration, and of biliary secretion, &c.”*

The interesting branch of philosophical investigation we have been pursuing, is admirably summed up by Buffon: —“Upon the whole,” says he, “every circumstance concurs * Article—Climate. in proving, that mankind are not composed of species essentially different from each other; that, on the contrary, there was originally but one species, which, after multiplying and spreading over the whole surface of the earth, has undergone various changes from the influence of climate, food, mode of living, diseases, and mixture of dissimilar individuals; that, at first, these changes were not so conspicuous, and produced only individual varieties; that these varieties became afterwards more specific, because they were rendered more general, more strongly marked, and more permanent, by the continual action of the same causes; that they are transmitted from generation to generation, as deformities or diseases pass from parents to children; and that, lastly, as they were originally produced by a train of external or accidental causes, and have only been perpetuated by time and the constant operation of these causes, it is probable that they will gradually disappear, or at least that they will differ from what they are at present, if the causes which produced them should cease, or if their operation should be varied by other circumstances and combinations.”

In the consideration of the various points of distinction which the external appearance of Man presents, one circumstance ought, therefore, to be deeply impressed on the mind, viz.:—that neither peculiarity of conformation nor colour, have the slightest reference to original endowment, either in a mental or moral point of view, and consequently, that no race whatever has been doomed to perpetual degradation. In all human beings the same nature has been implanted, in however different degrees; and no man whatever be his colour, or form, or country, is so low in the intellectual and moral scale as to be entirely deficient of any one of the properties which constitute the most splendid talent and virtue.

Our observations have, thus far, been confined almost exclusively to the consideration of the physiological distinctions of Man. It is not, however, in external characteristics alone that we are able to discriminate our species from that portion of the inferior animal creation which most nearly resemble us. It is neither in these solely, nor even principally, that the great differences consist, by which Man is so pre-eminently distinguished, and which separate him, at so wide an interval, from the most anthropomorphous of animals.

The use of articulate language may be regarded as one of the most peculiar and characteristic endowments of mankind. The universality of its existence among our species is a fact not less striking than its total absence among brutes, even those which make the nearest approach to perfection, and in whose organization nothing has been discovered that precludes its use. We may have heard of children being born dumb, but there is no tribe of men without speech. There are uniform traits in human nature and habitudes, both intellectual and moral, which may be regarded as fixed principles of action, as well as the more variable ones, exhibited in the use of artificial clothing, fire, the necessary arts of life, arms, and the practice of domesticating animals. These are all peculiar characteristics of Man, inasmuch as they do not exist in the brute creation, beyond what mere instinct may teach.

Perhaps there are no traits existing in animated beings more characteristic of species, than the psychical qualities with which Providence has severally endowed them. Under this term may be included the whole of the sensitive and perceptive faculties, reason, intellect, feelings, sentiments, &c., or, what in the lower animals approaches nearest to them.

Reason and intellect, with the feelings, sympathies, internal consciousness of mind, and the habitudes of life and resulting therefrom, are perhaps the most real and essential characteristics of humanity. These are common to all the races of Man; they stamp him with an infinite superiority over any of those animals which most nearly resemble him, and they will ever constitute an impassable gulf between the one and the other. A full and complete investigation of these attributes, would require a comprehensive survey of human nature in its various relations. Our limits will not permit us to traverse so wide a field. The reasoning powers of Man being everywhere self-evident, what I shall endeavour now more particularly to illustrate, is the universality of certain ideas or apprehensions, by nature inherent in every portion of our species.

There are individuals, apparently amongst all the races of men, who, even in an uncivilized and barbarous state, entertain ideas, faint and imperfect though they may sometimes be, of the existence of a supernatural power, by which all things exist and are controlled; differing often materially in their conceptions of its nature and attributes, and having also various methods of worshipping and endeavouring to conciliate the favour of this Great Power, to which they hold themselves to be subject and responsible, &c. Availing myself largely of the admirable “Researches” of Dr. Prichard on this subject, I shall be enabled to demonstrate the general prevalence of such ideas amongst the Negro tribes, and, in addition to their conception of a Supreme being, a belief in their responsibility to that Being, their apprehension of the existence of the soul after death, and also of a state of retribution.

It is commonly said that the religion of the African nations, those at least who have not embraced Mahomedanism, is the superstition of Fetisses; that is, of charms or spells. This expression conveys a notion which is not perfectly correct. The superstition of charms or spells holds a place in the minds of the idolatrous Negroes, but this does not preclude a very general prevalence in their belief of the first principles of natural religion. It may be observed that among nations enjoying a much higher degree of mental culture, the prevalence of superstitions and practices, more or less resembling the Fetissism of Africa, may be recognized.

Barbot, in his description of Guinea, relates, that “Father Godfrey Loyer, apostolical prefect of the Jacobites, who made a voyage to the kingdom of Issini, and studied the temper, manners, and religion of the natives, declared they had a belief in one universally powerful Being, to whom the people of the countries visited by Father Loyer, address prayer.” “Every morning,” he says, “after they rise, they go to the river side to wash, and throwing a handful of water on their head, or pouring sand with it to express their humility, they join their hands and then open them, whispering softly the word ‘Eksuvais.’ Then lifting up their eyes to heaven, they make this prayer [translated],—‘My God, give me this day rice and yams, give me gold, &c.’ ”

The excellent missionary, Oldendorp, who appears to have had rare opportunities, and to have taken great pains to become accurately acquainted with the mental history of the Negroes, assures us that he recognised among them an universal belief in the “existence of a God,” whom they resent us very powerful and beneficent. “He is the maker of the world and of men; he it is who thunders in the air, as he punishes the wicked with his bolts. He regards beneficent actions with complacency, and rewards them with long life. To him the Negroes ascribe their own personal gifts, the fruits of the earth, and all good things. From him the rain descends upon the earth. They believe that he is pleased when men offer prayers to him in all their wants, and that he succours them in dangers, in diseases, and in seasons of drought. This is the chief God, who lives far from them on high; he is supreme over all the other gods.”

“Among all the Black nations,” continues Oldendorp, “with whom I have become acquainted, even among the utterly ignorant and rude, there is none which did not believe in a God, which had not learnt to give him a name, which did not regard him as the maker of the world, and ascribe to him more or less clearly all the attributes which I have here briefly summed up. Besides this supreme and beneficent divinity whom all the various nations worship in some way or other, they believe in many gods of inferior dignity, who are subject to the chief Deity, and are mediators between him and mankind.”*

“The Negroes,” says Oldendorp, “profess their dependence upon the Deity in different ways, especially by prayers and offerings. They pray at different times, in different places, and, as the Amina Negroes told me, in every time of need. They pray at the rising and setting * In this account of the religion of the Negroes, Oldendorp asserts that he relates nothing which he has not received immediately and exactly from the Negroes themselves.—See C. G. A. Oldendorp's Geshichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den Caraibaischen Inseln St. Thomas, St. Croix, und St. Jan; 1777, s. 318. of the sun, on eating and drinking, and when they go to war. Even in the midst of the contest, the Amina sing songs to their God, whom they seek to move to their assistance by appealing to his paternal duty. The daily prayer of a Watje Negress was, ‘O! God, I know thee not, but thou knowest me; thy assistance is necessary to me.’ At meals they say, ‘O! God, thou hast given us this, thou hast made it grow;’ and when they work, ‘O! God, thou hast caused that I should have strength to do this.’ The Sember pray in the morning, ‘O! God, help us; we do not know whether we shall live to-morrow; we are in thy hand.’ The Mandingoes pray also for their deceased friends.”

The Kafirs are not, as some have thought, destitute of religious ideas. The Kosas believe in a Supreme Being, to whom they give the appellation of Uhlunga, supreme, and frequently the Hottentot name Utika, beautiful. They also believe in the immortality of the soul. They have some notion of Providence, and pray for success in war and in hunting expeditions, and during sickness for health and strength. They conceive thunder to proceed from the agency of the Deity, and if a person has been killed by lightning, they say that Uhlunga has been among them.*

The Watje Negroes assemble at harvest upon a pleasant plain, when they thank God thrice upon their knees, under the direction of a priest, for the good harvest, and pray to him for further blessings. When they have risen, the whole assembly testify their gratitude to God by their rejoicing, and clapping of hands. **

“Of the Bliakefa, the priests of Karabari and of Sokko, it is remarkable, that they give some instruction to the people concerning the Divinity and prayer. The Negroes come to them for this purpose, either singly, or in companies, when they pray with them, on their knees, that God, whom they call Tschukka, will protect them from war, captivity, and the like.”

Previous to the advent of that glorious era which the conclusion of our last chapter predicts, much deep-rooted prejudice, the growth of centuries, will require to be overcome. A thorough change in public opinion must be wrought, before an entire reconciliation can take place between the White and Black races. Although the prejudice against the latter does not exist in Europe to the extent to which it is carried in the New World, there are too many on this side the Atlantic who entertain the fallacious idea that a black skin necessarily confers an inferiority on its possessor; and some of the professed friends of the Coloured race, who deprecate Slavery as unjust, are still unwilling to extend towards them the full rights of social intercourse and Christian fellowship.

In consequence of our coming so little in contact with the objects of this prejudice, opportunities do not often occur to elicit the real feeling amongst us towards them; and when they do occur, whatever private opinions individuals may hold, the popular feeling is so much on the side of the Negro, that ideas of prejudice, for the most part, remain quietly suppressed in the bosoms of those who entertain them But the gross indignity offered to Frederick Douglass, and, the unwarrantable injustice done to him about a year ago, in depriving him of his purchased right to a cabin passage in the ship “Cambria,” is a circumstance which cannot be overlooked. That a British agent, upon British soil, should be found to yield to a despicable prejudice, and deliberately persevere in refusing, to an honourable and noble-minded man, the enjoyment of unquestionable rights, was an act as disgraceful to our country as it must have been painful to the feelings of a fellow creature. It affords but another feature of that hateful system which drives the Negro to the cotton field, which separates him from his family, and reduces him to the condition of a chattel. The facts of the case may be stated as follows:—

Frederick Douglass, a highly-respectable and talented Coloured gentleman, from America, who had been for some time advocating the rights of his oppressed brethren in this country, being about to return to his native land, applied to the London agent of the Cunard steamers for a cabin passage to Boston from Liverpool, and engaged a berth in the “Cambria,” paying the stipulated sum. He took the precaution of inquiring whether the fact of his being a Man of Colour would be any bar to his enjoyment of full social intercourse, and was told that he would be entitled to all the rights and privileges of other cabin passengers. On the morning of the day of sailing, accompanied by several kind friends, he presented himself on board the steamer at Liverpool, and having applied for the cabin for which he had paid, he was politely informed that it had been appropriated to another passenger, and that unless he consented to take his meals alone, he could not be admitted as a passenger. There was no time for legal redress; the “Cambria” was sailing the next morning, and an affectionate family were awaiting the arrival of a husband and father on the other side of the Atlantic.

This conduct was in strong contrast with the fact, that during the nineteen previous months, his distinguished talents, his amiable manners, and his high moral worth, had given him a ready admission into the best English society. It was only when he came under commerical influences, that his colour was discovered to be a sufficient reason, not for denying to him, in advance, the right to acquire a conveyance in the ship on the advertised terms of passage, but for breaking a solemn contract already entered into, and ratified by the payment and acceptance of his money, and the delivery to him of his berth certificate. Whence this exclusion? Was he unfit for social intercourse with the other passengers? Was he supposed to be a suspicious character? No such thing. GOD “who has made of one blood all nations of men” had given him a darker complexion than any of the other passengers, and for this he was insulted, degraded, and socially excluded. The circumstance was said to be mainly attributable to the saloon company being partially composed of Americans. Be this as it may, it must be remembered, that the act took place in England, in Liverpool—and on board a steam-ship, a large proportion of whose proprietors are Englishmen!—yes, these free-born Englishmen consent, “for filthy lucre,” to a regulation which excludes from social intercourse some of the finest specimens of humanity which ever came from the hand of GOD. Such treatment bowed Douglass's spirit to the uttermost, and he parted from his friends on board the steamer, the next morning, with absolute agony, yet throughout, he evinced much Christian bearing and unsubdued moral firmness under the infliction of this outrageous wrong. One of his friends, in allusion to this circumstance, wrote as follows:—“I never felt the real dignity of his character, as on this trying occasion. With the spirit of his Lord and Master, he calmly bore the outrage. ‘When he was reviled, he reviled not again;’ but he exhorted us to be temperate, and above all, not to let blame attach to parties who were guiltless.” It is but justice to the Captain of the “Cambria” to add, that he kindly and promptly placed his own cabin at Douglass's disposal, and assured him of every attention. He consequently took his meals there, seeing that his society, however highly it had been prized in Great Britain, was not good enough for these representatives of the American republic.

The unlooked for, and unwarranted treatment, of one so deservedly esteemed in this country, roused the sympathies of the British public. From the cottage to the lordly mansion—from the hamlet to the cities of our land, was felt the injustice he had experienced, and the cry was Shame! Shame! As a more full expression of the genuine feeling of national sympathy, it was determined that an appropriate Testimonial should be presented to the sufferer, whose only crime was the complexion given him by his Creator! A public subscription was commenced, which soon exhibited a sum total of £500. This sum was forwarded to Frederick Douglass by the Boston mail steamer, along with a valuable library of books collected by a lady in the south of England. It was intended that the amount should be applied in behalf of the millions, who still lie crushed under the rod of the oppressor; or in such a manner as shall tend to elevate the moral and intellectual condition of the Coloured people, and to assist in bursting those fetters which have so long held them in thraldom.

In the Douglass Testimonial, the aristocracy of the skin will have a substantial proof that British Christians respect the Divine image, alike in ebony and ivory; and that true nobility of character, generous self-sacrifice for the good of others, and an honest, daring advocacy of human rights, are appreciated in this country without reference to complexion.

The friends of Negro liberty will be glad to learn that Frederick Douglass has already provided himself with an excellent press and printing materials, out of the proceeds of the British subscription, and has established a weekly anti-Slavery paper, at Rochester, State of New York, entitled The North Star. The object of The North Star, is to attack Slavery in all its forms and aspects, to advocate universal emancipation, to exalt the standard of public morality, to promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the Coloured people, and to hasten the day of freedom to the three millions of our enslaved fellowmen. We wish it every encouragement and success, and cannot doubt it will be a formidable instrument in bringing down the walls of the modern Jericho. *

Of the effects of prejudice, in another quarter of the world, we have strong proof in the following circumstance related by Thomas Pringle in his “Residence in South Africa.” A clergyman, he states, refused to marry Christian Groepe, a Mulatto Hottentot, a most respectable and well-educated man, because the poor woman could not accurately repeat the Church Catechism! “The fact is,” says Pringle, “there existed a strong prejudice among the White Colonists against the full admission of the Coloured class to ecclesiastical privileges, and the majority of the colonial clergy were so little alive to the apostolic duties of their sacred office, as to lend their sanction, directly or indirectly, to these unchristian prejudices, which were also countenanced by the Colonial laws.”

“As for religion,” says Dr. Philip, “it was considered a serious crime to mention the subject to a native. They were not admitted within the walls of the churches. By a notice stuck above the doors of one of the churches, ‘Hottentots and dogs’ were forbidden to enter.”

Our trans-atlantic brethren are very deeply implicated in the ungenerous and anti-Christian prejudice against colour, and in America it may be said to pervade all classes of the community. Their churches being often composed of Slave-holders, or those connected in some way or other * The price of the North Star is two dollars (8s. 6d.) per annum, if paid in advance, or two dollars and a half (10s. 6d.) if payment be delayed over six months. English subscribers will be liable to an additional charge of 2d. per week postage. The names of subscribers may be sent to T. P. Barkas, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. with the system, are nearly all more or less deeply imbued with the predominating feeling in regard to the African race. There is, indeed, an interest there, in keeping up this prejudicial feeling. Few, if any of the Christian communities, are exempt from a portion of that load of guilt, which pervades free and religious America like a feculent fog; and unless there be a thorough change in this respect, and the rights of mankind become fully recognised, and extended to every shade of colour, no other result can rationally be contemplated, than a prolongation for generations yet to come, of those manifold indignities, and similar revolting scenes of wrong and barbarity, which are now inflicted on millions of the down-trodden race of Africa. Happily this prejudice is steadily giving way, yet many instances might be mentioned, of frequent occurrence, which prove it to be still very strong; and in general, the striking language of De Beaumont, a recent French traveller in the United States, will be found too true. “The prejudice against colour,” says he, “haunts its victim wherever he goes,—in the hospitals, where humanity suffers,—in the churches, where it kneels to God,—in the prisons, where it expiates its offences,—in the grave-yards, where it sleeps the last sleep.”

I do not now altogether allude to the prejudice against the Slave population, but to the general tone of feeling against the whole mass of the descendants of Africa; for the extent to which it is carried, appears to be greatest, according to every authority, in those States of America which hold no Slaves. It seems remarkable, that the strongest prejudice against Colour should exist in the Free States, and against Free Coloured persons! But such is the case, and the feeling is stronger towards them in proportion to their advancement in a moral or religious point of view, or their rise in the scale of society. There is never any objection expressed to mixing with Coloured people while they are Slaves; as such, the daintiest ladies and gentlemen do not hesitate to ride in the same carriage with them, to have them about their persons, and to nurse their children. “Their sufferings,” says H. C. Howells, “are just in proportion to their exaltation in society, to their mental attainments, to the acuteness of their religious feeling, and to their standing in social life. It is not the class of Coloured people sunk in degradation, wretchedness, ignorance, and filth, that are despised supremely in the United States. Strange to tell, they are not the people against whom the prejudice of the United States seems to bear. No; those who are sunk in degradation are supposed to be in their proper position, and they are passed by as the swine that wallow in the mire, with indifference, it being scarcely thought worth while to point the finger of scorn at them. I was once in the family of Mr. Forten, a Coloured gentleman of Philadelphia, a man of the most refined and courteous character, with a wife full of amiability and Christianity, and elegance of deportment, with a fine lovely family of sons and daughters, and I saw the tears trickle down her cheeks when, speaking of the Coloured people, and the indignities they were called to endure, she said:—In proportion as Coloured persons are respectable, so are their sufferings; we cannot even go out of our own home without having a company of degraded creatures running after us in the streets and calling out, ‘Nigger, nigger!’ ” *

The prejudice against colour is stronger in Barbadoes than in any of the British colonies, although the Coloured class of its population are numerous, wealthy, and respectable, comprising some of the first merchants of the island. The public opinion of the colony is powerful, and exercises an unfavourable influence, the Blacks being considered an inferior race by nature, born to a servile condition; and a spirit of caste is cherished between the White, Black, and intermediate races.

In countries where one class of beings look down upon another as an inferior race, Slavery and intolerance pass unnoticed, they are seldom regarded as inconsistencies among those who have had the misfortune to be brought up in the midst of them. It has been justly remarked by an eminent writer, that, although by the institution of different societies, unequal privileges are bestowed on their members, and although justice itself requires a proper regard to such privileges, yet he who has forgotten that men were originally equal, easily degenerates into the Slave, or, in the capacity of a master, is not to be trusted with the rights of his fellow-creatures.

While it is now universally admitted, that the natural tendency of the exercise of uncontrolled authority is to harden the heart, extinguish the moral sense, and give birth to every species of crime and calamity, it is evident that the wealthy part of the community are elevated in the scale of being by the effective legislative enactments by which the poor are protected from oppression. The barbarizing effects of uncontrolled authority on minds in the least danger of being corrupted by its influence, may be seen in every page of the history of human nature, and is well illustrated in the invaluable tract of Bishop Porteus on the Effects of Christianity on the temporal concerns of mankind. After having pourtrayed with glowing indignation, the horrid condition of those in a state of servitude among the polished and civilized Greeks and Romans, we find the following judicious remark:—“These are the effects which the possession of unlimited power over our species has actually produced, and which (unless counteracted and subdued by religious principle) it has always a natural tendency to produce, even in the most benevolent and best cultivated minds.”

When such is the general effect, what must it be where one class of people is considered as inferior beings? Where all the avenues to preferment are closed to them, where no prize is held forth to ambition, where their minds are without wholesome stimulants, there can be no energy in the national character. Different degrees of rank and office are necessary in all well-constituted societies; but laws which are made for favouring one part of the community, and depressing another, give rise to, and increase those moral obliquities, which destroy the proportion and mar the face of society. Invidious distinctions, by which one class of men is enabled to trample upon another, engender pride, arrogance, and an oppressive spirit in the privileged order, while they repress everything noble and praiseworthy in the oppressed. *

It has been justly remarked, that the noblest, the most elevated distinction of a country, is a fair administration of justice. Nothing can be done to elevate and improve a people, if the administration of justice is corrupt; but to insure a pure administration of justice in a country, it must be accessible to all classes of the community. In a state of society where there is one law for the White Man and another for the Black, and the sanctions of the law are borrowed to render the latter the victims of oppression, moral distinctions are confounded, and the names of virtue * Dr. Philip. and vice come to be regarded as exchangeable terms. Independent of printed statutes, there are certain rights which human beings possess, and of which they cannot be deprived but by manifest injustice. The wanderer in the desert has a right to his life, to his liberty, his wife, his children, and his property. The Negro has an undoubted right to these, and also to a fair remuneration for his labour; to an exemption from cruelty and oppression; to choose the place of his abode, and to enjoy the society of his children. No one can deprive him of these rights without violating the laws of nature and of nations.

The great doctrine, that God hath “created all men equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights,” and that amongst these are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is affirmed in the American Declaration of Independence, and justified in the theory of its constitutional laws. But there is a stain upon its glory; Slavery, in its most abject and revolting form, pollutes its soil; the wailings of Slaves mingle with its songs of liberty; and the clank of their chain is heard, in horrid discord, with the chorus of their triumphs. The records of the States are not less distinguished by their wise provisions for securing the order and maintaining the institutions of the country, than by their ingenious devices for riveting the chain, and perpetuating the degradation of, their Coloured brethren; —their education is branded as a crime,—their freedom is dreaded as a blasting pestilence,—the bare suggestion of * Cowper. their emancipation is proscribed as a treason to the cause of American independence. These things are related with sorrow, and with feelings deeply deploring the flagrant inconsistency so glaringly displayed between the lofty principles embodied in the great charter of the liberties of the Union and the evil practices which have been permitted to grow up under it.

The monstrous and wicked assumption of power by man over his fellow man, which Slavery implies, is alike abhorrent to the moral sense of mankind, to the immutable principles of justice, to the righteous laws of God, and to the benevolent principles of the Gospel. It ought, therefore, to be indignantly repudiated by all the fundamental laws of truly enlightened and civilized communities. But behold the debasing servitude in which millions of the Negro race are still held in the United States, by a people calling themselves Christian, and boasting of their country as the freest on the earth. What a mockery of religion was once the conduct of Great Britain towards the Slaves in her colonies—what a mockery of religion is the present conduct of America; and what a lie to the declaration of her federal constitution, that “all men by nature are free and equal.”

Columbia may yet redeem her character; but if the claims of the suffering Negro are not speedily heard, the treatment of that people will continue to be one of the foulest blots upon her national honour that ever stained the escutcheon of the most degenerate nation.

We ask for no new laws; we simply require that the different classes of inhabitants should have the same civil rights granted to them. The liberty required is not an exception from the law, but the advantage of its protection; the law grants no rights to the White man which it may not extend with perfect safety to all classes. All we ask for is, that the enslaved tribes should be placed on an equality with the long dominant race in civil and religious liberty; that the people who have been, for generations, deprived of the inalienable rights conferred upon them by their Creator, and oppressed by a system of Slavery, should have the enjoyment of those rights restored to them.

It is argued by the abettors of Slavery, that it is only a nominal thing, that the power of extreme punishments, &c. are rarely resorted to, and are used reluctantly. In every Slave country there are undoubtedly masters who desire and purpose to practice lenity to the full extent which the nature of their relation to the Slaves will allow. Still, human rights are denied them. They lie wholly at another's mercy, and we must have studied history in vain if we need be told that they will be continually the prey of absolute power. If the leg is galled by an iron chain it is vain to prescribe ointment to cure the wound while the fetter remains. The first step towards the improvement of the Negroes must commence in removing the cause of their present degradation. They have been corrupted and debased by the uncontrollable power exercised over them by their lordly masters; legislative enactments bestowing on them equal rights, would prove a salutary check to the one, and afford a stimulus of hope to the other. The first movement on the part of the legislature in their favour should be, the introduction of measures to ameliorate their condition, and teach their oppressors to respect them. When it shall be seen that the laws of the country make no distinction between the proud master and those whom he considers as belonging to an inferior class of beings, the administration of an impartial justice will generate within the breast of the former ideas of common relationship, and secure for the oppressed a milder treatment.

The establishment of law, forms an important era in the civilization of a people, and the statute which prevents the superior from oppressing or tyrannizing over his inferior, is as favourable to the humanity of the one, as it is to the happiness of the other. While equitable laws, and their impartial administration, elevate the standard of morals, raise the tone of thinking, exalt the character of a country, and increase the patriotism of a people, they generate the principles of love and justice in the hearts of a great and effective part of the population. Let the Coloured people be admitted to a full and fair participation of those privileges from which they have been excluded, and rest assured that justice being done to the one, will prove, ultimately, the happiness and prosperity of the other. Justice is in all cases the truest policy, it has proved itself so in the abolition of Slavery in the British Colonies; and what an example is there upheld to those nations, who, in spite of warning, and in defiance of Christian principle, persist in continuing Slavery.

Columbia!—thou art called to a great and to a noble deed;—delay it not. There is, indeed, a grandeur in the idea of raising some millions of human beings to the enjoyment of human rights, to the blessings of Christian civilization, to the means of indefinite improvement. The Slaveholding States are called to a nobler work of benevolence than is committed to any other communities. Do you comprehend its dignity? This you cannot do, till the Slave is truly, sincerely, with the mind and heart, recognized as a Man, till he ceases to be regarded as Property.

In countries where Slavery exercises its pernicious influence upon the inhabitants, its tendency is to lead them to regard those of a dark complexion as inferior beings, a species of property, or deserving only to become such. This has greatly aggravated, and its natural tendency is to keep up the prejudicial feeling against the Negro. When persons live, and are brought up in the very midst of cruelty and Slavery, and are inured from their infancy to behold the sufferings of the poor victims of oppression, to listen to their cries, and behold them treated with impunity, as creatures possessed of mere animal propensities, the vilest of the vile, it is no marvel that they should imbibe those feelings of prejudice which are thus early instilled into their minds. Perceiving the mental and moral degradation of the Slaves, and being taught to look down upon their unfortunate fellows, as a race of beings in all respects inferior to, and not entitled to the enjoyment of, or even fit to be intrusted with, equal privileges as themselves, their hearts become hardened, and their feelings blunted and deadened towards them.

The practice which strikes one man with horror, may seem to another, who was born and brought up in the midst of it, to be not only innocent, but meritorious; and it is to be feared, there are many who grow up almost unconscious of the responsibility of their station, and insensible of the enormity of the evils they are committing. “A man born among Slaves,” says Dr. Channing, “taught its necessity by venerated parents, associating it with all whom he reveres, and too familiar with its evils to see and feel their magnitude, can hardly be expected to look on Slavery as it appears to more impartial and distant observers.”—“Men,” he continues, “may lose the power of seeing an object fairly, by being too near as well as by being too remote. The Slaveholder is too familiar with Slavery to understand it. To be educated in injustice is almost necessarily to be blinded by it more or less. To exercise usurped power from birth, is the surest way to look upon it as a right and as a good.” Alas! then, for the unfortunate Negro;—his oppressor, swallowing the gilded bait of commerce, advancing rapidly to fame and fortune, beholds his victim through a very imperfect and defective lens.

The Slavery Optic Glass is not famed for developing all the wonders of creation; on the other hand, it disfigures and disparages the Almighty's most glorious work, Man, made after the image of his Maker. The atmosphere of Slavery freezes, as it were, the current of sympathy; like a deadly upas tree, it corrupts every thing within its influence; and so all those who acquire gain produced by the “thews and sinews” of the poor Negro, become, sooner or later, inclined to foster evil, and ere long embark with

Every morsel of food, thus forced from the injured, ought to be more bitter than gall, and the gold cankered. The sweat of the Slave taints the luxuries for which it streams. Better were it for the selfish wrong doer, to live as the Slave, to clothe himself in the Slave's raiment, to eat the Slave's coarse food, to till his fields with his own hands, than to pamper himself by day, and pillow his head on down at night, at the cost of a wantonly injured fellow-creature. What man, without a conscience seared, can earn, even his bread, “Not by the sweat, but by the blood of man?” Consider! ye who are sitting in ease and enjoyment; think how much cruelty is involved in the luxuries you enjoy.

No earthly interest should induce any one to sanction violence and injustice; neither can it authorize the systematic degradation of so large a portion of our fellow-creatures as are now held in cruel Slavery. “The first question to be proposed by a rational being is, not what is profitable, but what is right. Duty must be primary, prominent, most conspicuous among the objects of human thought and pursuit. If we cast this down from its supremacy, if we inquire for our interests, and then for our duties, we shall err. We can never see the right, clearly and fully, but by making it our first concern. No judgment can be just or wise, but that which is built on the conviction of the paramount worth and importance of duty. This is the fundamental truth, the supreme law of reason; and the mind which does not start from this, in its inquiries into human affairs, is doomed to great, perhaps, fatal error. Whoever places his faith in the everlasting law of rectitude, must, of course, regard the question of Slavery, first and chiefly as a moral question. All other considerations will weigh little with him compared with its moral character and moral influences.”

No greater calamity can befall a people than to prosper by crime; and there is, perhaps, no greater crime than that of man enslaving his fellow-men. The blight which falls on the soul of the wrong-doer, the desolation of his moral nature, is a more terrible calamity than he inflicts. In deadening his moral feelings, he dies to the proper happiness of a man: in hardening his heart against his fellow-creatures, he sears it to all true joy: in shutting his ear against the voice of justice, he turns the voice of God within him into rebuke. He may prosper, indeed, and hold faster the Slave by whom he prospers; but he rivets heavier and more ignominious chains on his own soul than he lays on others. No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt. No fiend, exhausting on us all his power of torture, is so fearful as an oppressed fellow-creature. The cry of the oppressed, unheard on earth, is heard in heaven. God is just, and if justice reign, the unjust must terribly suffer.

Melancholy is the situation of those who grow up unconscious of their responsibility, and the enormity of the evil they are committing, in being implicated in this great crime. Whilst our tenderest sympathies are awakened for the victims of their tyrannical barbarity, we should mourn deeply over their oppressors; our aspirations ought daily to ascend before Him, who can unstop the deaf ear, and open the eyes of those “who are blind,” that He would, in His mercy, show them the awful situation in which they stand.

Under the plea of a necessity for Slavery, Negroes have been spoken of as the most degenerate creatures upon earth. They are represented, as we have already been informed, as the lowest class of human beings, if, indeed, they are allowed to be included within the pale of humanity; as void of memory, filthy, and disgusting to a degree exceeding credibility, and so ungovernable in their propensities, that nothing will subdue them but severe coercion.

In order to form a just estimate of the character and capabilities of the Negro, we must observe him in a somewhat more favourable situation than in those dreadful receptacles of human misery, the crowded deck of the Slave ship, or in the less openly shocking, but constrained and extorted, and consequently painful labours of the sugar plantation or of the cotton field. Amongst the civilized tribes of Africa, as well as amongst those who remain in a more savage state, we may often meet with lofty sentiments of independence, and instances of ardent courage and devoted friendship, which would sustain a comparison with the most splendid similar examples in the more highly advanced races. Honourable and punctual fulfilment of treaties and compacts, patient endurance of toil, hunger, cold, and all kinds of hardship and privation, inflexible fortitude, and unshaken perseverance in avenging insults or injuries, according to their own peculiar customs and feelings, show that they are not destitute of the more valuable moral qualities.

Many travellers, and those who have had the most frequent intercourse with Africans, assure us that the natural dispositions of the Negro race, are mild, gentle, and amiable in an extraordinary degree. They bear ample testimony to their being possessed of intellectual capacities of no inferior order, assuring us also, how susceptible they are of every generous and noble feeling of the mind, abounding in benevolence, hospitality, generosity, and filial affection, thus demonstrating their capability of arriving at the highest attainments of the human understanding. Not unfrequently they are described as being conspicuous for the nobler attributes of our nature, and instead of the inhabitants of that vast continent being doomed to inevitable inferiority, many are the pleasing proofs, that they are highly capable of civilization, and that they would perhaps even excel in a moral and religious point of view.

“Many of the dark races,” says Dr. Lawrence in his Lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, “although little civilized, display an openness of heart, a friendly and generous disposition, the greatest hospitality, and an observance of the point of honour according to their own notions, from which nations more advanced in knowledge might often take a lesson with advantage. They possess a natural goodness of heart, and warmth of affection.” “I can see no reason,” he adds, “to doubt that the Negro is equal to any in natural goodness of heart. It is consonant to our general experience of mankind, that the latter quality should be deadened or completely extinguished in the Slave ship.”

Major Denham and his followers describe the Negroes as a kind-hearted race, lively, and intelligent.

That in his own country, the Negro is not that lazy, worthless, and brutified being he is frequently described to be, is clearly demonstrated by the testimony of many travellers. “The industry of the Foulahs,” says Mungo Park, “in agriculture and pasturage, is everywhere remarkable.” Speaking of the Negroes near one of the Sego ferries, he says,—“The view of this extensive city, the numerous houses on the river, the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the country, formed altogether a prospect of civilization and magnificence which I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa.” The same traveller, after relating an affecting interview between a poor blind Negro widow and her son, adds, “From this interview I was fully convinced that whatever difference there is between the European and the Negro in the conformation of the nose and the colour of the skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies and characteristic feelings of our common nature.” Of the truth of this observation he gives a striking example in the conduct of the Negro woman who found him, without food or shelter, sitting under a tree in the country of Bambarra. This pleasing circumstance will be found recorded in Park's own words in another part of the present volume.

In reading Ledyard, Lucas, Mungo Park, and others, we find that the inhabitants of the interior are more virtuous and more civilized than those on the sea coast; surpass them also in the preparations of wool, leather, cotton, wood, and metals; in weaving, dyeing, and sewing.

Adanson, who visited Senegal in 1754, when describing the country, says, “It recalled to me the idea of the primitive race of men. I thought I saw the world in its infancy. The Negroes are sociable, humane, obliging, and hospitable; and they have generally preserved an estimable simplicity of domestic manners. They are distinguished by their tenderness for their parents, and great respect for the aged; a patriarchal virtue, which in our day is too little known.” Golberry says, that in Africa there are no beggars except the blind.

Barrow gives a picture, by no means unpleasing, of the Hottentots. Their indolence he attributes to the state of subjection in which they live, as the wild Bushmen are particularly active and cheerful. “They are a mild, quiet, and timid people; perfectly harmless, honest, faithful; and, though extremely phlegmatic, they are kind and affectionate to each other, and not incapable of strong attachments. A Hottentot would share his last meal with his companions. They have little of that kind of art or cunning that savages generally possess. If accused of crimes of which they have been guilty, they generally divulge the truth. They seldom quarrel among themselves, or make use of provoking language. Though naturally fearful, they will run into the face of danger if led on by their superiors. They suffer pain with patience. They arc by no means deficient in talent.”*

“In his disposition,” says Barrow, “ the Bushman is lively and cheerful; in his person, active. His talents are far above mediocrity; and, averse to idleness, they are seldom without employment. They are very fond of dancing, exhibit great industry and acuteness in their contrivances for catching game, and considerable mechanical skill in forming their baskets, mats, nets, arrows,” &c., &c. **

That the Africans are very similar to the inhabitants of other parts of the globe, and regulate their conduct towards others according to the treatment they receive, may be easily gathered from the statements of many writers. “The feelings of the Negroes,” says one, “are extremely acute. According to the manner in which they are treated, they are gay or melancholy, laborious or slothful, friends or enemies. When well fed, and not maltreated, they are contented, joyous, and ready for every enjoyment; and the satisfaction of their mind is painted in their countenance. Of benefits and abuse, they are extremely sensible, and against those who injure them they bear a mortal hatred. On the other hand, when they contract an affection to a master, there is no office, however hazardous, which they will not boldly execute, to demonstrate their zeal and attachment. They are naturally affectionate, and have an ardent love for their children, friends, and countrymen. * Barrow's Travels in South Africa. ** Idem. The little they possess, they freely distribute among the necessitous, without any other motive than that of pure compassion for the indigent.”*

The acute and accurate Barbot, in his large work on Africa, says, “The Blacks have sufficient sense and understanding, their conceptions are quick and accurate, and their memory possesses extraordinary strength. For, although they can neither read nor write, they never fall into confusion or error, in the greatest hurry of business and traffic. Their experience of the knavery of Europeans has put them on their guard in transactions of exchange; they carefully examined all our goods, piece by piece, to ascertain if their quality and measure were correctly stated; and showed as much sagacity and clearness in all these transactions, as any European tradesman could do.”

Of those imitative arts, in which perfection can be attained only in an improved state of society, it is natural to suppose that the Negroes can have but little knowledge; but the fabric and colours of the Guinea cloths are proofs of their native ingenuity; and, that they are capable of learning all kinds of the more delicate manual labours, is proved by the fact, that nine-tenths of the artificers in the West Indies are Negroes: many are expert carpenters, and some watchmakers. The drawings and busts executed by the wild Bushman in the neighbourhood of the Cape are praised by Barrow for their accuracy of outline, and correctness of proportion.

Of those who have speculatively visited and described the Slave coast, there are not wanting some who extol the natural abilities of the natives. D'Elbée, Moore, and Bosman, speak highly of their mechanical powers and indefatigable industry. Desmarchais does not scruple to affirm that their ingenuity rivals the Chinese.

In 1818, when the sovereigns of Europe met in congress at Aix la Chapelle, Thomas Clarkson obtained an interview * Hist. des Antilles, p. 483. with the Emperor of Russia, and was received with marked attention by that amiable monarch. Clarkson's object was to interest him on behalf of the oppressed Slave. The Emperor listened to his statements, and promised to use his influence with the assembled monarchs, to secure the suppression of the trade in human beings as speedily as possible.

Describing this interview with the Emperor of Russia, in which the subject of Peace Societies, as well as the abolition of the Slave-trade was discussed, Thomas Clarkson observes:—“We then rose up from our seats, to inspect some articles of African manufacture, which I had brought with me as a present, and which had been laid on the table. We examined the articles in leather first, one by one, with which he was uncommonly gratified. He said they exhibited not only genius, but taste, and that he had never seen neater work either in Petersburgh or in London. There was one piece of cotton cloth which attracted his particular notice, and which was undoubtedly very beautiful. It called from him this observation,— ‘Manchester,’ says he, ‘I think, is your great place for manufactures of this sort,—do you think they can make a better piece of cotton there?’ I told him I thought I had never seen a better piece of workmanship of the kind anywhere. Having gone over all the articles, the Emperor desired me to inform him, whether he was to understand that these articles were made by the Africans in their own country; that is, in their own native villages, or after they had arrived in America, where they would have an opportunity of seeing European manufactures, and experienced work-men in the arts? I replied, that such articles might be found in every African village, both on the coast and in the interior, and that they were samples of their own ingenuity, without any connection with Europeans.

“ ‘Then,’ said the Emperor, ‘you astonish me—you have given me a new idea of the state of these poor people. I was not aware that they were so advanced in society. The works you have shown me, are not the works of brutes, but of men endued with rational and intellectual powers, and capable of being brought to as high a degree of proficiency as any other men. Africa ought to be allowed to have a fair chance of raising her character in the scale of the civilized world.’ I replied, that it was the cruel traffic in Slaves alone, which had prevented Africa rising to a level with other nations; and that it was only astonishing to me that the natives there, had, under its impeding influence, arrived at the perfection which had displayed itself in the specimens of workmanship which he had just seen.”

Walstrom, in his admirable “Essay on Colonization,” in speaking of the African race, makes the following remarks:—“Their understandings have not been nearly so much cultivated as those of Europeans; but their passions, both defensive and social, are much stronger. Their hospitality to unprotected strangers, is liberal, disinterested, and free from ostentation. Their kindness and respectful attention to White persons, with whose characters they are satisfied, arises to a degree of partiality, which, all things considered, is perfectly surprising. On those parts of the coast and country where the Slave-trade prevails, the inhabitants are shy and reserved, (as well they may,) and on all occasions go armed, lest they should be way-laid and carried off. In maternal, filial, and fraternal affection, I scruple not to pronounce them superior to any Europeans I ever was among. So very successful have the European Slave-dealers been, in exciting in them a thirst for spirits, that it is now become one of the principal pillars of their trade; for the chiefs, intoxicated by the liquor with which they are purposely bribed by the Whites, often make bargains, and give orders fatal to their subjects, which, when sober, they would gladly retract.

“On a question put to me in a committee or the British House of Commons, I offered to produce specimens of their manufactures in iron, gold, filigree-work, leather, cotton, matting, and basket-work; some of which, equal any articles of the kind fabricated in Europe, and evince that, with proper encouragement, they would make excellent workmen. Even the least improved tribes make their own fishing tackle, canoes, and implements of agriculture. If even, while the Slave-trade disturbs their peace, and endangers their persons, they have made such a progress, what may we not expect if that grievous obstacle were removed, and their ingenuity directed into a proper channel? The Slave-trade disturbs their agriculture still more than their manufactures; for men will not be fond of planting, who have not a moral certainty of reaping. Yet, even without enjoying that certainty, they raise grain, fruits, and roots, not only sufficient for their own consumption, but even to supply the demands of the European shipping, often to a considerable extent; in some islands and part of the coast, where there is no Slave-trade, they have made great progress in agriculture. Though, on the whole, passion is more predominant in the African character than reason; yet their intellects are so far from being of an inferior order, that one finds it difficult to account for their acuteness, which so far transcends their apparent means of improvement.”

“The Blacks living in London,” he adds, “are generally profligate, because uninstructed, and vitiated by Slavery, for many of them were once Slaves of the most worthless description; namely, the idle and superfluous domestic, and the gamblers and thieves who infest the towns in the West Indies. Some come to attend children and sick persons on board, and others are brought by their masters by way of parade. In London, being friendless, and despised on account of their complexion, and too many of them being really incapable of any useful occupation, they sink into abject poverty.”

Major Laing, in his “Travels in Western Africa,” observes, “A destitute old man is unknown among the Mandingoes. A son considers it his first duty to look after and provide for his aged father's comfort; and if he is unfortunate enough to have lost his own, he perhaps looks for some aged sire, who, being without children, requires the care and attention of youth. There is no nation with which I am acquainted, where age is treated with so much respect and deference.”

Writers on the history of mankind seem to be nearly agreed in considering the Bushmen of South Africa as the most degraded and miserable of all nations, and the lowest in the scale of humanity; yet there are accurate observers, who cannot be suspected of undue prepossession towards opposite sentiments and representations, who have drawn a less unfavourable picture of the moral and intellectual character of the Bushmen. Burchell, who sought and obtained opportunities of conversing with them and observing their manner of existence, though he found them in the most destitute and miserable state, yet discovered among them traits of kind and social feelings, and all the essential attributes of humanity.* Among other interesting remarks of this intelligent traveller, tending to the same result, we find an observation, that the females among the Bushmen displayed as much the signs of modesty as Europeans. “The young women were as delicate in feelings of modesty, as if they had been educated in the most decorous manner.” He adds, that they are pleasing by a sprightly and interesting expression of countenance, though far from beautiful, and although their features have the peculiar type of the Bushmen race. Mr. Thompson confirms this account, and even gives a still more favourable description of the females of the Bushmen. **

Dr. Knox asserts, that the Negroes are capable of civilization, and mentions the Kaffirs as being a very superior race, “scorning to use poisoned weapons, or resort to subtlety; being strong, valiant, and chivalrous.”

With regard to the intellectual capabilities of the African ace, it may be observed, that Africa was once the nursery of science and literature, and it was from thence that they were disseminated among the Greeks and Romans. Solon, Plato, Pythagoras, and others of the master spirits of ancient Greece, performed pilgrimages into Africa in search of knowledge; there they sat at the feet of ebon philosophers to drink in wisdom!* How many multitudes flocked from all parts of the world to listen to the instructions of the African Euclid, who, 300 years before Christ, was at the head of the most celebrated mathematical school in the world? Africa had once her churches, her colleges, and repositories of learning and of science; once, she was the emporium of commerce, and the seat of an empire which contended with Rome for the sovereignty of the world; * It is said that the ancient Greeks represented Minerva, their favourite Goddess of Wisdom, as an African Princess. she has been termed the cradle of the ancient Church, and she was the asylum of the infant Saviour. Say not then, that Africa is without her heraldry of science and of fame!

Antiochus the Great welcomed to his court, with the most signal honours, the African Hannibal; and the great conqueror of Hannibal made the African poet, Terence, one of his most intimate associates and confidants! Being emancipated by his master, who took him to Rome and gave him a good education, the young African soon acquired reputation for the talent he displayed in his comedies. His dramatic works were much admired by the Romans for their prudential maxims and moral sentences, and compared with his contemporaries he was much in advance of them in point of style.

Some of the most eminent Fathers and writers in the primitive Church, Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Cyril, were Africans. Can the enlightened Negrophobists of America tell us why these tawny Bishops of Africa, of Apostolic renown, were not colonized into a Negro pew, when attending the ecclesiastical councils of their day? And how do they reconcile their actions with the example of the Evangelist Philip, who, in compliance with the intimation of the Spirit, went and joined the Ethiopian in his chariot, preached to him the gospel of Christ, and baptized him in his name?

Most eminent writers and historians concur in the opinion that the ancient Ethiopians were Negroes, though perhaps exhibiting the peculiar features of the race in a less aggravated degree than the dwellers on the coast of Guinea: to the Ethiopians we are justified in ascribing the highest attainments They appear to have been the parents of Egyptian science and civilization, and attained, as existing monuments attest, a high eminence in many arts in the very earliest periods of history.

Respecting the physical history of the ancient Egyptians, it has been a matter of discussion to what department of mankind they belonged. The fact has been strongly maintained by some that they were Negroes. If we form an opinion of them from the accounts left us by Herodotus and other writers, who say that they were “woolly-haired Blacks, with projecting lips,” we cannot doubt that they were perfect Negroes. Volney assumes it as a settled point that this was really the case. But the authority of Herodotus is of most weight, as he travelled in Egypt, and was therefore well acquainted, from his own observation, with the appearance of the people; and it is well known that he is generally very faithful in relating the facts, and describing the objects, which fell under his personal observation. In his account of the people of Colchis, he says, that they were a colony of Egyptians, and supports his opinion by this argument, that they were “black in complexion and woolly-haired.” These are the exact words (translated) used in his description of undoubted Negroes. But neither the Copts, their descendants, nor the mummies, of which so many thousands are yet extant as unquestionable witnesses, allow the supposition to be maintained that their general complexion was black.*

That the ancient Ethiopians were black, I have stated, most eminent writers are agreed upon; hence the Scripture query, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” Now, it is a fact of history, that Egypt and Ethiopia were originally peopled, contemporaneously, by the brothers, Misraim and Cush, and were long confederated under one government, being a similar people in politics and literature, &c. As * Dr. Prichard, in his History of Man, has brought together, with great learning and industry, most of the ancient testimonies illustrative of the question. By the most extensive researches, he has endeavoured to prove an affinity between the ancient Egyptians and Indians; and to show that both are marked by the characters of the Negro race. Those who desire to study this question in detail, will find ample materials in Dr. Prichard's work, Vol. II., p. 282, 289, 330; in “Volneys Ruins of Empires,” App. 278; “Burkhardt's Travels;” “Denon Descrip. de l'Egypte;” &c. evidence of this, down to the time of Herodotus, eighteen out of three hundred Egyptian sovereigns were Ethiopians.*

If it be not admitted that these nations were black, they were undoubtedly of very dark complexion, having much of the Negro physiognomy, as depicted in Egyptian sculpture and painting, and from them the Negro population, indeed the whole race of Africa, have sprung. Say not then, I repeat it, that Africa is without her heraldry of science and of fame! Its inhabitants are the“off-shoots,— wild and untrained it is true, but still the off-shoots,—of a stem which was once proudly luxuriant in the fruits of learning and taste; whilst that from which the Goths, their calumniators, have sprung, remained hard, and knotted, and barren.”**

However, putting this noble ancestry entirely out of view, which all Africans are, nevertheless, fully entitled to claim as their own;—instances are not unfrequent of undoubted Negroes, who have distinguished themselves in an intellectual point of view; and some who have been more fortunately favoured with opportunities of education and improvement, have arrived at intellectual attainments of no mean order. They are not without their philosophers, linguists, poets, mathematicians, ministers of the Gospel, merchants, lawyers, generals, and physicians, eminent in their several attainments, energetic in enterprise, and honourable in character. That examples of distinguished intellect and ability are not more frequent among the Negro race, is doubtless owing, chiefly, to the want of opportunities of cultivation and means of improvement, added to the other disadvantages under which they have laboured through successive generations. Let us again revert to facts, for I desire not to make any assertion without having the support of undubitable evidence.

Among the Turks, Negroes have sometimes arrived at the most eminent offices. Different writers have given the * Herod, Lib. II., cap. 100. ** Richard Watson. same account of Kislar Aga, who, in 1730, was chief of the Black eunuchs of the Porte, and have described him as possessing great wisdom and profound knowledge.*

In 1765, the English papers cited as a remarkable event, the ordination of a Negro, by Dr. Keppel, Bishop of Exeter.** Among the Spaniards and Portuguese, it is a common occurrence. The history of Congo gives an account of a Black Bishop who studied at Rome.***

Correa de Serra, a learned secretary of the Academy of Portugal, informs us that several Negroes have been learned lawyers, preachers, and professors; and that many of them in the Portuguese possessions, have been signalized by their talents. In 1717, the Negro, Don Juan Latino, taught the Latin language at Seville. He lived to the age of 117. ****

An African Prince, and many young Africans of quality sent into Portugal in the time of king Immanuel, were distinguished at the Universities, and some of them were promoted to the priesthood.*****

Near the close of the 17th century, Admiral Du Quesne, saw at the Cape Verd Islands, a catholic Negro clergy, with the exception of the Bishop and Curate of St. Jago. ******

In 1734, Anthony William Amo, an African from the coast of Guinea, took the degree of Doctor in Philosophy at the University of Wittemburg. Two of his dissertations, according to Blumenbach, exhibit much well digested knowledge of the best physiological works of the time. He was well versed in Astronomy, and spoke the Latin, Hebrew, Greek, French, Dutch, and German languages. In an account of his life, published by the academic council of the University, his integrity, talents, industry, and erudition are highly commended.*******

The facts recorded in the two preceding chapters, afford unquestionable evidence, that the Negro race is possessed of capabilities of improvement equal to those of any other people; that they are equally susceptible and desirous of rising in civilization, and also in the scale of intelligent existence. But, until those invidious and Anti-Christian distinctions of caste which now exist are removed, they cannot be otherwise than a degraded and inferior people. The want of principle, the absence of moral, and even of decent manners, and the practice of crime among the Negroes, have been the constant topics of complaint, especially amongst those connected with them as property. But the vices of the Slaves are the vices of their condition; and they are not only generated, but perpetuated, by the very system which is pleaded as necessary for their cure.

“That Slavery should be most unpropitious to the Slave as a moral being,” observes Dr. Channing, “will be further apparent if we consider that his condition is throughout, a wrong, and that consequently, it must lead to unsettle all his notions of duty. The injury to the character from living in an atmosphere of wrong we can all understand. To live in a state of society of which injustice is the chief and all-pervading element, is too severe a trial for human nature, especially when no means are used to counteract its influence. Coloured delinquency is mostly left to ripen into crime, with little interference from public or private philanthropy. As might have been expected, Coloured are more numerous than White criminals, in proportion to relative population; and this is appealed to as a proof of their naturally vicious and inferior character, when, in fact, society at large is chargeable with their degradation. The most common distinctions of morality are faintly apprehended by the Slave. Respect for property—that fundamental law of civil society—can hardly be instilled into him. His dishonesty is proverbial. Theft from his master passes with him for no crime. A system of force is generally found to drive to fraud. How necessarily will this be the result of a relation in which force is used to extort from a man his labour, his natural property, without any attempt to win his consent! Can we wonder that the uneducated conscience of the man who is daily wronged should allow him in reprisals to the extent of his power? Thus the primary social virtue, justice, is undermined in the Slave.”

“That the Slave should yield himself to intemperance, licentiousness, and in general, to sensual excess, we must also expect. Doomed to live for the physical indulgences of others, unused to any pleasures but those of sense, stripped of self-respect, and having nothing to gain in life, how can he be expected to govern himself? How naturally —I had almost said necessarily—does he become the creature of sensation, of passion, of the present moment! What aid does the future give him in withstanding desire? The better condition, for which other men postpone the cravings of appetite, never opens before him. The sense of character, the power of opinion, another restraint on the free, can do little or nothing to rescue so abject a class from excess and debasement. In truth, power over himself is the last virtue we should expect in the Slave, when we think of him as subjected to absolute power, and made to move passively from the impulse of a foreign will. He is trained to cowardice, and cowardice links itself naturally with low vices. Idleness, to his apprehension, is paradise, for he works without hope of reward. Thus Slavery robs him of moral force, and prepares him to fall a prey to appetite and passion.

“That the Slave finds in his condition little nutriment for the social virtues we shall easily understand, if we consider that his chief relations are to in absolute master, and to the companions of his degrading bondage; that is, to a being who wrongs him, and to associates whom he cannot honour, whom he sees debased. His dependence on his owner loosens his ties to all other beings. He has no country to love, no family to call his own, no objects of public utility to espouse, no impulse to generous exertion. The relations, dependencies, and responsibilities, by which Providence forms the soul to a deep, disinterested love, are almost struck out of his lot. An arbitrary rule, a foreign, irresistible will, taking him out of his own hands, and placing him beyond the natural influence of society, extinguishes in a great degree the sense of what is due to himself, and to the human family around him.

“The effects of Slavery on the character are so various that this part of the discussion might be greatly extended; but I will touch only on one other topic. Let us turn, for a moment, to the great motive by which the Slave is made to labour. Labour, in one form or another, is appointed by God for man's improvement and happiness, and absorbs the chief part of human life, so that the motive which excites to it has immense influence on character. It determines very much, whether life shall serve or fail of its end. The man who works from honourable motives, from domestic affections, from desire of a condition which will open to him greater happiness and usefulness, finds in labour an exercise and invigoration of virtue. The day labourer, who earns with horny hand and the sweat of his face, coarse food for a wife and children whom he loves, is raised, by this generous motive, to true dignity; and, though wanting the refinements of life, is a nobler being than those who think themselves absolved by wealth from serving others. Now the Slave's labour brings no dignity, is an exercise of no virtue, but throughout, a degradation; so that one of God's chief provisions for human improvement becomes a curse. The motive from which he acts debases him. It is the whip. It is corporal punishment. It is physical pain inflicted by a fellow-creature. Undoubtedly labour is mitigated to the Slave, as to all men, by habit. But this is not the motive. Take away the whip, and he would be idle. His labour brings no new comforts to wife or child. The motive which spurs him is one by which it is base to be swayed. Stripes are, indeed, resorted to by civil government, when no other consideration will deter from crime; but he who is deterred from wrong-doing by the whipping-post is among the most fallen of his race. To work in sight of the whip, under menace of blows, is to be exposed to perpetual insult and degrading influences. Every motion of the limbs, which such a menace urges, is a wound to the soul. How hard must it be for a man, who lives under the lash to respect himself! When this motive is substituted for all the nobler ones which God ordains, is it not almost necessarily death to the better and higher sentiments of our nature? It is the part of a man to despise pain in comparison with disgrace, to meet it fearlessly in well-doing, to perform the work of life from other impulses. It is the part of a brute to be governed by the whip. Even the brute is seen to act from more generous incitements. The horse of a noble breed will not endure the lash. Shall we sink man below the horse?”

Among the numerous reasons assigned for the rigorous treatment to which the Negro race is subjected, it is asserted, as observed in a previous chapter, that nothing but a state of extreme coercion is sufficient to keep them in any kind of order or control. That they should quietly submit to the insults and cruelties which are so coolly dealt out to them, would be contrary to human nature. When human beings are forcibly torn from their homes, and separated from all that is near and dear to them, and deprived of every liberty they enjoy, can we be surprised if they should evince some indignance, or manifest some signs of unwillingness to submit to the cruel yoke imposed upon them, and an occasional inclination to revolt? Negroes have sometimes exhibited a spirit of despondency, which has led them to commit suicide; they have sometimes shown themselves irreconcileable to a state of Slavery, and have frequently been driven to self-destruction by a spirit of unyielding independence. In one of the small Danish islands, where they were in open rebellion, finding themselves closely pressed, but determined not to submit, they rushed in a body to the edge of a cliff overhanging the sea, and plunged at once into the waves.*

But so far from the general character of the Negro being so savage and untractable as to require strong coercion, their patience and submissiveness, unless provoked by acts of wanton cruelty, has been illustrated in their general conduct in the degraded capacity to which they have been doomed. With spirits more resentful, the Negro tribes would not have been for ages an easy prey to every plunderer and hunter of men. “Their shores would have bristled with spears, and their arrows have darkened the heavens; nor would the experiment of man-stealing have been twice repeated. The same character distinguishes the Negroes in their state of bondage. It has not required a violent hand to keep them down; their story is not that of surly submission, interrupted by frequent and convulsive efforts to break their chains; and the history of Slavery nowhere, and in no age, presents an example of so much resignation and quietness, under similar circumstances, where the bondage has been so absolute, and the proportion of the dominant part of society so small.”

Another plea which has been urged as a palliation of the sin of Slavery, is the alleged fact of the deficiency in the victims of oppression of the finer feelings of our nature, their want of affection for their offspring and kindred ties. But this is as false in fact, as it is opposed to sound principles of philosophy. Captain Rainsford observes, “The most animated and attractive examples of pure and ardent love to the husbands of their hearts, and the fathers of their offspring, are as strikingly exhibited under the roofs of various Negro huts, as are anywhere displayed in the families of the White races. In the laudable duties of married life, and the maternal offices to the precious pledges of connubial intercourse, the transported and enslaved * Jamaica: Enslaved and Free. matrons of Africa, are not to be surpassed by the enlightened and free females of the freest land.”

The passions and instincts necessary for the preservation of the human species are little dependent upon the reasonings and refinements of men, and are often more strongly evinced in the lowest than in the highest grades of society. Can we suppose, for a moment, that the Author of our nature, who has imparted to the most timid brutes, an attachment to their young, which makes them boldly risk their lives in their defence, should leave any portion of our race, in their more hopeless condition, without a provision for them affording an equal security? It is, on the contrary, natural to suppose that the oppressions of the parents should rather increase than lessen their attachment to their children; and, in point of fact, Negroes in general are remarkable for an excess of affection for their offspring. “The separations of parents and children,” says Dr. Philip, “have, indeed, furnished the most heart-rending scenes that I have witnessed in South Africa; and in a letter now before me, from a respectable individual in the colony, on this very subject, the writer states, ‘heart-rending, indeed, are the woeful lamentations I often hear from Hottentot mothers about the loss of their children.’ ”

Let it not be said that the sable African has not the sensibilities of other men. Even the brute has the yearnings of parental love. If, then, the conjugal and parental ties of the Slave may be severed without a pang, what a curse must Slavery be, if it can thus blight the heart with worse than brutal insensibility, if it can sink the human mother below the polar she-bear, which “howls and dies for her sundered cub!” But it does not and cannot turn the Slave to stone; though it does much to quench the natural affections, it leaves sufficient of that feeling, which the Negro originally possesses in an equal extent to any other class of men, to make the domestic wrongs to which he is subjected, occasions of frequent and deep suffering.

Although the consideration of the subject of Slavery is not altogether within the province of this work, I shall not feel satisfied without making some allusion to it in a few words; seriously putting the question to all those who are concerned in the system, directly or indirectly, whether, in the face of what has already been cited, they can still, with an easy conscience, look down with an eye of scorn upon their fellow-creatures of a darker hue, or continue to hold them in unwilling bondage, or depress them as they do, with the iron hand of Slavery.

Claims to personal liberty are the birthright of every human being, irrespective of clime or of colour;—claims which God has conferred, and which man cannot destroy without sacrilege, nor infringe without sin. They have claims which are anterior to all human laws, and which are superior to all political institutions,—immutable in their nature. Thus writes our great poet Milton:—

Many condemnations against the system of one class of men oppressing another might be adduced. Pope Leo X., when the question was referred to him, declared “That not only the Christian religion, but nature herself cried out against Slavery.” The continuance of the unmerited and brutish servitude of the Negro, is undoubtedly nothing short of a criminal and outrageous violation of the natural rights of man.—“Gracious God!” exclaims Bishop Warburton, “to talk of men as of herds of cattle, of property in rational creatures, creatures endowed with all our faculties, possessing all our qualities but that of colour, our brethren both by nature and by grace, shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common sense! Nothing is more certain in itself and apparent to all, the infamous traffic in Slaves directly infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, and grace invites him to assert his freedom.”

How can Christian professors,—professors of a religion breathing love and good will to man, continue to be the undisguised and guilty supporters and advocates of the atrocious system of Slavery? themselves the owners, and the dealers in these “human chattels;” who, as if in mockery of the sacred name of liberty, are exposed for sale within the very precincts of those

It makes one's very blood to boil, it makes one tremble to think, that we Britons and our American descendants, with all their boastful cry of “Liberty,” are so guilty; but it is some consolation to reflect that we at least, have made a greater sacrifice than was ever made by any nation to expiate our sin. “On the page of history,” it has been said, “one deed shall stand out in whole relief—one consenting voice pronounce—that the greatest honour England ever attained, was when, with her Sovereign at her head, she proclaimed,—the Slave is Free!”—Yes, “in the pages of history,” says the estimable Hugh Stowell, “this act will stand out the gem in our diadem.”

Yet all the efforts we can make for the civil and religious welfare of the Negro family will never repay the debt we owe to the whole race of Africa for having robbed her of her children, under every aggravated form of cruelty, to increase our own comforts, to augment our private wealth, and add to our public revenues, by toils which imposed a daily stretch upon their sinews; a task which had no termination, but with their lives.

The White Man may boast of his superior intellect, and the peculiar advantages he enjoys, of a written revelation of his duty from heaven, of which he has deprived the victims of his oppression; yet with all his vaunted superiority, he is instilling into the minds of those whom he chooses to call savages and barbarians, the very reverse of that which the Divine law inculcates, the most despicable opinion of human nature. To the utmost of our power do we weaken and dissolve the universal tie that should bind and unite mankind. We practise what we should exclaim against as the greatest excess of cruelty and tyranny, if nations of the world, differing in colour from ourselves, were able to reduce us to a state of similar unmerited and brutish servitude. We sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our Christianity, to an unnatural sordid gain. We teach other nations to despise and trample under foot all the obligations of social virtue. We take the most effectual method to prevent the propagation of the Gospel, by representing it as a scheme of power and barbarous oppression, and an enemy to the natural privileges and rights of man.

I must now be more concise, being desirous of presenting my readers with the numerous biographical and historical facts to which allusion has been made, in further demonstration of the assertions I have already brought forward in favour of the Negro family. A few observations will now suffice.

It must be observed, that the calumnious charges preferred against the unfortunate race of Africa, have chiefly emanated from those who have been interested in pourtraying their vicious, rather than their virtuous qualities. Writers of this description are not likely to search for such collateral facts as might lead to conclusions opposed to their interests or prejudices; on the contrary, where circumstances of a favourable nature are known to exist, there is great danger of their being left in concealment. Plutarch remarks, “When a painter has to draw a fine and elegant form, which happens to have a blemish, we do not want him entirely to omit it, nor yet to define it with exactness. The one would destroy the beauty of the picture; the other would spoil the likeness.” On a casual perusal of the works of many writers on the Negro race, it is obvious that most who have travelled amongst them, have not only marked distinctly, but aggravated their blemishes, and have so far disparaged their more pleasing features, as to create disgust towards a people, who, if they cannot boast of forms to call forth admiration, exhibit, nevertheless, but few of those physical and moral deformities so largely ascribed to them. There is a propensity, too, in some travellers, to aim at novelty and effect, which so overbalances all other considerations, as frequently to give rise to very erroneous statements. For instance, a French writer on South Africa, describes whole tribes of natives which never existed, except in his own romantic imagination. Another traveller informs his readers that the Hottentots “shoot their arrows with great force, sending them sometimes through the body of an ox;” a third states that, “sometimes persons may be seen at Greenpoint riding on Zebras, which are brought from the interior, and generally kept at livery;” while a fourth informs his readers, that “the roads in the vicinity of Cape Town are repaired with the tails of cows and oxen.”*

I merely mention these circumstances to put the reader on his guard, and to exercise cautiousness in receiving all reports he may read respecting the African, as gospel. Superficial travellers are themselves liable to be imposed upon by erroneous statements they may sometimes have made to them by interested parties, or through an interested channel, to serve some sinister motives of the narrators; ignorant of which, they often relate circumstances far from the real truth, as facts, under the false impression that they have seen everything with their own eyes, and heard everything with their own ears.

In order to form a correct estimate of the character of a people, we must not look into the journals of hasty travellers for information they may have gathered from hearsay during their short visits; but to such as have resided among them, and have made themselves intimately * These incorrect statements are quoted by way of caution, in Shaw's Memorials of South Africa. acquainted with their language, their customs, and their manners.

When we observe men judging of any portion of the human race through the medium of their prejudices and passions, and from insulated facts seizing on general principles, we may rest assured they are unsafe guides. They draw a comparison between the present state of the semi-barbarous races and a higher standard of civilization; and without bestowing one grain of praise, they find fault only on account of what has not yet been effected for them. In detailing the degraded state of the Negro, they are silent as to the great causes of that which they disclaim against, which has already been satisfactorily explained, as resulting from the treatment he has so long experienced at the hands of Europeans, with the almost entire absence of all counteracting and meliorating circumstances.

The opportunities of actual observation that fall to the lot of impartial individuals, are so limited, and the remarks of travellers and historians writing on this subject, either from ignorance or misrepresentation, are so much perverted, that it appeared to the author of the present work, desirable to correct them by a narration of facts from sources indubitably authentic, illustrative of the moral, intellectual, and religious attainments of our sable brethren. These, with various testimonies on their behalf, are valuable and important, in conveying unequivocal proofs of the real character and capabilities of the African race. They are sufficient, I trust, fully to demonstrate that the same mental and moral endowments are equally dispensed to all the various races of mankind, irrespective of colour or of clime; and I do sincerely hope, that they may be the means of engendering a more friendly feeling, on the part of the White man, towards those whom he has so long held in oppression and treated with scorn and disgrace.

But before a thorough reconciliation can ever be effected, all those grossly exaggerated reports of the physical and moral deformities of the Negro must be counteracted. Though their race may not generally reach the standard of perfection according to our ideas of beauty and symmetry, we must cease to represent them in the most odious point of view. It is well known how much the adventitious circumstances of youth and beauty heighten our compassion for a sufferer. Add rank to these advantages, and say, too, that the individual is a highly accomplished female, and sympathy for her case will be raised to its utmost height. Had Mary, Queen of Scots, been as defective in personal charms as she was in prudence, less sympathy would have been excited by her unfortunate end. Knox might have made an ugly and deformed woman weep without creating much indignation; but the fascinations of Mary's beauty, added to her rank, has sunk her crimes, and the benefits of the Reformation, in the same grave; and that which entitled our reformer to the highest praise, the triumph of his principles, has loaded him with the reproaches of a partial and frivolous world. On the same principle, when the liberties of a people are to be extinguished, or when greater severities are to be inflicted, if, besides assigning to them certain disqualifications for freedom, and the necessity of restraining their vices, ugliness and deformity can be thrown into the picture, few will interest themselves in the fate of the oppressed. Misrepresentation and calumny having prepared the way, the work of Slavery and extermination may proceed with impunity.*

Many of the African race, as we have already been informed, particularly the youth, have interesting countenances, and under more auspicious circumstances, would speedily lose those displeasing peculiarities of appearance, which in all countries are, in a greater or less degree, the inseparable concomitants of penury and suffering. The plant, which in the desert, is stunted in its growth and presents but a scanty foliage, becomes the pride * Philip's African Researches. of the surrounding scenery when nourished by a more generous soil.

“Facts,” it is said, “are stubborn things,” and such is indeed the case; they cannot be controverted. The false philosophy which imputes to the Negro a constitutional inferiority, must henceforth be refuted, more by facts and experience, than by reasoning. If, as I before observed, instances can be adduced, of individuals of the African race who have exhibited marks of genius that would be considered eminent in civilized European society, we have proof that there is no incompatibility betwen Negro organization and intellectual power. The design of the succeeding part of this volume is to bring into view many remarkable cases of this description. How far it is successful in demonstrating, by a relation of facts and testimonies, that our Coloured fellow-creatures are not necessarily inferior in their moral, intellectual, or religious capabilities, to other branches of the human family, and that superior abilities attach no more to a white than to a sable skin, I must leave my readers to draw their own conclusion. For my own part, I am fully convinced that the blessings of freedom, education, and good government, are alone wanting to make the natives of Africa, either in an intellectual or moral point of view, equal to the people of any country on the surface of the globe. Were these blessings more abundantly conferred upon them, there can be no doubt that they would produce more Phillis Wheatleys, Paul Cuffes, and Gustavus Vassas, to refute the unfounded calumnies which have been heaped upon their unfortunate race, to demonstrate before all the world, that the Creator has not left them destitute of his noblest gifts to Man, nor of the power of improving those he has bestowed upon them.

I repeat it again,—“Let not the abettors of Slavery, who trample their fellow-creatures beneath their feet, tell us any more in their own justification, of the degraded state, the abject minds, and the vices of the Negro Slave; it is upon the system which thus brutifies a human being that the reproach falls in all its bitterness.”

Helpless, injured, and oppressed Africans! many tears have been shed over your unhappy fate and your accumulated wrongs; many sleepless nights have been occupied in devising means to meliorate your condition, but every attempt in your behalf must centre in fervent aspiration to Him who alone can change, even the hard and stony hearts of your taskmasters; whose eye is over all His works; and who will yet arise for your deliverance.

It is not for finite mortals to ask, why, in the inscrutable wisdom of Him who overrules all events, he has thus far permitted one portion of His creatures so cruelly to oppress another; or through what instrumentality He will at length redress the wrongs of the sufferer, bind up his broken heart and heal his wounds.

Unfortunate fellow-creatures, innocent sufferers, however you may still continue to be despised and afflicted, have comfort in believing that this is not the place of your rest; endless joys are laid up for you in that blessed country where the oppressor can no more oppress; for, doubtless, you are, equally with all mankind, the objects of redeeming love!