David Christy

“ Thus, it appears, that, as the colonization of colored men in Liberia elevates the native population, secures harmony of feeling and unity of interest between the parties, gives distinction to the race, and secures the more rapid extension of the Gospel; so the emigration of white men into South Africa, tends to degrade the natives, produces enmity of feeling and diversity of interest, destroys whatever of nationality they possessed, and erects a mighty barrier against their conversion to Christianity. ”

“ We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia has been subjected, as the main facts are familiar to every one. Her extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans; and, on the other hand, her ruin has been sought, in the destruction of the Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which stood men who are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. ”

“ From 1808, the work of missions in Sierra Leone, was successfully begun; and the first dawn of hope for oppressed Africa, arose with the first blow aimed at the slave-trade. Up to this date, the slave-trader had held undisputed sway on the coast of Africa, and the introduction of the Gospel was impossible. The slave-trade, it would seem, is an evil so horrid, that the Almighty refused to give success to the missionary, unless that outrage upon humanity should first be suppressed. ”

“ From the beginning, the minor offices were held by the colored men; and for the past twelve years, no white man has held any office, civil or military, in the Colony. Thus, the posts of honor have been open to the competition of every Liberian; and, catching the progressive spirit of the age, the colonists have aspired to the dignity of Nationality; have established an Independent Republic; and have progressed, in their civil and religious relations, with a rapidity doubly as great as Sierra Leone. ”

“ The citizens of the Republic are colored men, and enjoy a perfect equality under its constitution. They possess all the attributes of sovereignty, enacting and administering their own laws; but in purchasing territory from the African kings, the right of sovereignty and of soil is acquired, not to exclude the native people from the lands, but, as they adopt habits of civilization, to put them in possession of fee simple titles to their homes, on the same conditions allowed to the colonists. ”

“ These obstacles to missionary progress in South Africa, are daily on the increase, by additional European emigration; as each white man, who sets his foot upon the Cape, but adds to the necessity for robbing the natives of additional lands. On the contrary, each colored emigrant to Liberia, by adding to the strength of the Republic, is aiding in extending to the natives the blessings of freedom and of peace, and securing to them their right to their homes under the sanction of Christian laws. ”

“ But the hateful slave-trade, of which Lagos had long been the chief mart, had thoroughly engrained itself in the thoughts, habits, and hearts of the people. Taught by the slave-dealer to consider the English as natural enemies, they only awaited a suitable opportunity to renew a trade so lucrative as the capture and sale of their fellow men. Accordingly, about nine months after the expulsion of Kosoko, the Portuguese traders returned and secretly renewed the traffic in slaves. Akitoye, faithful to his treaty with the English, interposed his authority for its suppression. ”

“ While, however, teaching, reading, and preaching, are the chief instrumentalities for the conversion of the world; the progress of the Gospel, everywhere, is greatly accelerated by the presence of a Christian population, whose example aids in overturning the customs and superstitions of the people, and commends the religion of Christ to their confidence. As a mission, then, adds to the number of its converts, or receives additions of civilized emigrants, its ability of becoming more and more aggressive is increased, and its powers of progression multiplied. ”

“ And yet, further, this African mission in the Republic of Liberia is a steady and shining light to the western portions of Africa, where now reign the most degrading, cruel, and destructive superstitions to be found in the world. Until within a quarter of a century past, many thousands of human victims have been sacrificed annually, in their cruel and dark religious rites, within sight of the coast ”

“ The only question, with them, is, Where can the free colored people become the most efficient agents in the deliverance and elevation of their race? They have resolved, therefore, to collect information from Africa, while others are investigating South America. The slavery question, in their opinion, is now assuming a position in which attention must be more fully directed to its economical aspects. Moral considerations, they perceive, are powerless in arresting its progress. The cumulative demands of commerce, for tropical productions, are stimulating slavery in an unprecedented degree ”

“ Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the influence of unprincipled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their labors, or the native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the original proprietors, are naturally jealous and envious of those who, they suppose, would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights. If we speak at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice and truth. If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are misrepresented, and our motives are impugned. ”

“ Preaching to adults, though not altogether unsuccessful, has won but few converts, and done but little for the overthrow of superstition. Education lays the axe at the root of ignorance, but from the fewness of the teachers and schools, the small attendance of pupils, and the reaction of heathenism upon them, it has made very little impression on the surrounding barbarism. Less, still, has been done by these missions, in preventing native wars; while polygamy remains almost wholly unaffected by them. ”

“ In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by which his conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel, while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode of its propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measures by which it is to be extended. Pagan countries differ so widely in their civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intelligence, that corresponding variations must be made in the plans for their evangelization. Africa, when first visited by the Missionary, was one broad field of ignorance and barbarism. ”

“ From the time Sierra Leone passed out of the hands of Granville Sharp, the colored people have been excluded from participating in the government. The offices have been filled with white men, who reside among the negroes, in the position and attitude of a superior race, born to command; while the colonists are made to feel that their destiny is to obey: hence, in prosecuting their education, the youth of that Colony have had their mental powers dwarfed, by the absence of the stimulants which the hope of social and political advancement afford. In Liberia the policy has been the reverse. ”

“ But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from persevering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields can only be removed by God’s appointed means, the Gospel; and, that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual. Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good: and, in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the Report of 1850, recommends the establishment of a Theological school for training a native ministry for that field. ”

“ It has been a wide-spread conspiracy for the degradation of the African family. Men in Europe, America, Africa, have been bound together in this unholy compact, each having assigned to him his own particular department, and each full of energy in the prosecution of it. Where were the printed goods fabricated that were used in barter between the foreign and native slave-dealer? ”

“ Sierra Leone, as a mission field, is free from some of the most serious difficulties which retard the progress of the Gospel among the Natives and in South Africa. Its chief advantages consist in its freedom from war; in the absence of white Colonists; and in the accumulating progress of civilization. Its inhabitants possess such a unity of races, such a social equality, as to prevent hostile collisions on account of color. ”

“ None of them are advocates of Colonization, but they are capable of taking a comprehensive view of the questions involved in the enslavement of their race. They are now convinced, that unless the free colored people assume a position enabling them to engage largely in tropical cultivation, slavery, by retaining the monopoly of the supply of tropical products, must continue to possess the power of extending itself at will. ”

“ But in Africa, and among the North American Indians, where the intellectual faculties of the population are shrouded in the darkness of barbarism, [49] the preaching of the word, in the commencement of a mission, has been but rarely successful in producing conversions; while the total ignorance of letters among these people, has rendered the circulation of the Scriptures useless. Christian missionaries, therefore, in attempting to introduce the Gospel among the Indians or Africans, have been forced to rely upon the education of youth as the means of success. ”

“ Then, as there was, originally, no material difference in their populations, the greater success of the citizens of Liberia, in maintaining their civil and religious institutions, can not be a result of their attainments under the slavery of the United States, but must be a consequence of their intellectual advancement after reaching the Colony. ”

“ With the exception of a few recaptured slaves landed in Liberia, by American cruizers, its population, each succeeding year from the first, has received accessions of civilized men, who have won the confidence of the surrounding tribes, added them to their communities, instructed them in the arts of civilization, allowed them the benefits of their schools, and a participation in civil affairs; until, at present, thirty-three years after the commencement of the colony, it includes 80,000 people, recognized citizens of the Republic. ”

“ And then it is difficult, not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow morally wrong to put them away. ‘Me send woman away?—where she go to?—what she do?’ This I consider the hugest difficulty with which Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this people, and makes me think that she must look mainly to the rising generation. ”

“ Their master is a resident of a State in which there is no Colonization Agent; and, being acquainted with our Agent, he has appealed to him to accept his slaves, and provide for them in a land of freedom. As these people have been trained to Cotton-growing, it is important they should be sent to our Colony, to promote the cultivation of that valuable staple. Should they succeed well in Liberia, it is expected that other emancipations in the same region will follow, and a large number of cotton-growers thus be secured to aid in developing the resources of the African Republic. ”

“ Good men, who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, finding themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, have, mostly, given in their adhesion to the cause, and left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh, as the only enemies to African Colonization. ”

“ The fierce Boers had destroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs; while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority, along with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis of a colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at Natal, which afforded security to the missionaries, and enabled them to establish themselves on a permanent basis. ”

“ The superiority of the free institutions of Liberia, as an agency for overcoming the obstacles to civilization and Christianity in Africa, will be farther noticed in the progress of our investigations. At present we need only say, in relation to both Colonies, that, as the result of English and American philanthropy, there is now a line of coast of more than 1,800 miles, from the Gambia on the West, to Lagos on the East, where the slave-trade is suppressed, and Christianity is introduced ”

“ Where reliance is placed upon education, mainly, for introducing the Gospel, its progress is necessarily slow; because a generation, or two, is needed to bring forward a competent number of agents to take possession of the field. The drawbacks, too, are very great—much seed being sown, which falls upon stony ground. If schools are conducted upon a large scale, the children must be supported by their parents; and, in such cases, the superstitions and vices of heathenism have, but too often, an easy victory over the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. ”

“ Prisoners of war and persons condemned for witchcraft, had been eaten, to Mr. Preston’s own knowledge. Such things, he says, are of frequent occurrence; and yet these people work very neatly in iron of their own smelting, and in brass obtained from traders—thus affording evidences of a nearer approach to civilization than the tribes on the coast.
Though the progress of this mission has been slow, and but few converts have been gathered into the church; yet the labors of the missionaries have, by no means, been unproductive of good results. ”

“ The recent disturbances at Grand Cape Mount, noticed in the accompanying Lecture of our Agent, will create a necessity for its speedy settlement; and, if we do not secure it for the colored people of Ohio, it must be given to others, to prevent the native population from being shipped off to the West Indies or Brazil.
The Committee feels assured, that, with a few thousand dollars, it can prevent this transfer to other parties, and secure the settlement of Grand Cape Mount as an Ohio Colony. This it considers very important, as a means of encouraging emigration. ”