PREFACE. No allusion has been made, in the following pages, to certain popular objections to the Colonization Society; nor have any cases of individual cruelty been cited, to illustrate the evils of slavery. It is proper, that the reasons for this departure from the ordinary mode of discussing these two subjects, should be given, that they may not be misunderstood. The objections I have omitted to notice, are, the mortality to which the emigrants are exposed, in consequence of the climate of Liberia; the demoralizing traffick, which the colonists have carried on with the natives, in rum and military stores; and the improvident application of the funds of the Society, which has rendered it bankrupt. These objections, serious as they are in themselves, are not inseparable from the system of Colonization. Another, and more salubrious site, may be selected; the traffick complained of, may be discontinued, and the fiscal affairs of the Society, may hereafter be managed with prudence and economy. But there are inherent evils in the system, and it is important that the public attention should not be diverted from these evils, by the contemplation of others, which are only accidental. So, also, it is of great importance, that the sinfulness of slavery, should not be merged in that of its unauthorized abuses. Many contend for the lawfulness of slavery, who readily admit the sinfulness of insulated cases of cruelty. It has, therefore, been my object to show, that, admitting the slaves to be treated as a prudent farmer treats his cattle-that they have enough to eat-are sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, and are not subjected to a greater degree of severity than is necessary, to extort from them a due amount of labor-American slavery is, nevertheless, a heinous sin, and, like every other sin, ought to be immediately abandoned. February, 1835. PART I. AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. INTRODUCTION. On the 1st of January, 1835, there were in the United States, 2,245,144 slaves.* This number about equals the population of Holland, and exceeds that of Scotland, of the Danish Dominions, of the Swiss Confederation, and of various Republics in South America. These millions of human beings, are held as chattels by a people professing to acknowledge, that "all men are created equal, and endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness :"-they are, moreover, kept in ignorance, and compelled to live without God, and to die without hope, by a people professing to reverence the obligations of Christianity. But slavery has ceased in other countries, where it formerly prevailed; and may we not hope that it is gradually expiring in this? An answer may be found in the following statement of our slave population, at different periods: Perhaps, however, the political evils of slavery may be gradually mitigated, and finally removed, by an increas * According to the ratio of increase between 1820 and 1830. |