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Page 5
We hear a great deal about emancipation--the freedom of the African
race--free negroes, &c. It is all sheer nonsense. Strictly speaking,
there is not a free negro in the limits of the United States! There
never has been, and there never will be. The white and the black races
have never co-existed under the same government, on equal footing, and
never can. Their liberty is only nominal! "It is all a lie and a
cheat!" Is the negro free any where in the Northern States? No, he is
not. There is no sympathy between the two races. Northern people
loathe and despise free negroes. They cannot bear the sight or smell
of them. The negro then is not free anywhere in the Northern States.
Not only the prejudices, but also the laws of the free states proclaim
it impossible: and the prejudices of the whites against the African
race is stronger in the free states, than it is in the slave states.
Every free state in this Union is disposed to cast them off as a
nuisance. They cannot bear their presence. Their very color renders
them odious; and this aversion to the African race, is daily becoming
stronger and stronger in every free state in this union. Nothing can
counteract it--nothing can overcome it. It is in the very nature of
things impossible. No, no! Negro novels piled mountain high in every
street and alley, in every city and village in this Union, will
accomplish nothing for the poor despised African. "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots," then may ye who are
accustomed to loathe, shun, and cast off the African race, receive
them to your kind embraces.
It is true that abolitionists affect to have a great deal of sympathy
for them while they are slaves in the South, but they have none for
the ignorant, degraded, half starved, ill clad, free negroes in the
North. No wonder, for their Southern sympathy costs them nothing, but
Northern sympathy might empty their purses. Show me the abolitionist
who is willing to meet the free negro on terms of equality. No man can
point to one--no, not one. The African is neglected, scorned, and
trodden under foot every where; by abolitionists and every one else.
This prejudice is invincible, irremediable. The poor African is
hopelessly and irretrievably doomed to scorn, contempt and degradation
while in the midst of the white race. Is the African allowed the
ordinary privileges of the white man any where in all the liberty
loving North? Show me the spot! Where is it? Show me the state--show
me the neighborhood--the man--the woman among all the white race in
all the North, who is willing to allow the despised African, the
ordinary privileges of white men. Ah! you cannot do it. Shame! shame!
Hold! cease,--for God's sake cease your hypocritical cant about
Southern slavery. No! no! there is not a state in all this union where
they enjoy the privileges of white men. There is not--there never has
been--and there never will be! They are no where equal parties in an
action at law. They are no where credible witnesses against white men.
They are no where allowed the right of suffrage; or if the law allows
it, they are not suffered to avail themselves of it. They are no where
admitted as judge, juror, or counsellor. They are no where eligible to
any office of profit, trust, or honor. Their children are no where
admitted into the same school-room with the whites. They are no where
protected, encouraged, and rewarded in all the North. They are victims
of injustice, scorned and despised in every free state in this
confederacy. And abolitionists are as far from making equals of them,
or associating with them, as any one else.
The city of Baltimore presents the largest and most intelligent mass
of free negroes found in the United States. These in an appeal to the
citizens of Baltimore, and through them to the people of the United
States, say, "we reside among you, and yet are strangers,--natives,
yet not citizens--surrounded by the freest people and the most
republican institutions in the world, and yet we enjoy none of the
immunities of freedom. As long as we remain among you, we shall be a
distinct race--an extraneous mass of men irrecoverably excluded from
your institutions. Though we are not slaves--_we are not free_."
Judge Blackford, speaking of free negroes, says, "They are of no
service here, (in the free states,) to the community or themselves.
They live in a country, the favorite abode of liberty, without the
enjoyment of her rights."
Dr. Miller says, "if liberated and left among the whites, they would
be a constant source of corruption, annoyance and danger. They could
never be trusted as faithful citizens."
There is at last no sympathy between the two races, except in the
slave states. There, for the most part, we find kind feelings and
strong attachments between the slaves and the families in which they
reside. I must, however, refer the reader to other parts of this
volume for additional remarks on the subjects discussed in the
preceding pages,--more particularly to chapters, 4, 5, 6, 7. But I
would ask, in the name of all that is sacred, what advantage, what
benefit under these circumstances is conferred on the Southern slaves
by emancipation? I know from personal observation, that Southern
slaves are better fed, better clothed, and better housed than are free
negroes, either North or South; in short, they are better paid for
their labor. The South is the only part of the United States, where
ministers of the gospel are successful in Christianizing the African
race--the only part of the United States where there is anything like
good order, good morals, or Christianity among them. The only place at
last, on this continent, where the African is cared for and provided
for, and where there is any thing like sympathy, kindness or
fellow-feeling between the two races.
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