Martin Robison Delany

“ The whole face of the country extending through the Aku region or Yoruba, as it is laid down on the large missionary map of Africa, is most beautifully diversified with plains, hills, dales, mountains, and valleys, interlined with numerous streams, some of which are merely temporary or great drains; whilst the greater part are perennial, and more or less irrigating the whole year, supplying well the numerous stocks of cattle and horses with which that country is so well everywhere provided. The climate is most delightful. ”

“ Delany:—Philadelphia, June 7th, 1858
Dear Sir—I received your note of May 25th, through the kindness of R. Douglass, Jr., and can truly say, I am highly gratified to learn of so laudable an enterprise and expedition; and would be happy and proud to be numbered with the noble hearts and brilliant minds, identified with it. Yet, whilst I acknowledge (and feel myself flattered by) the honor conferred upon me in being selected for so important and honorable position, I regret to inform you, that it will be wholly out of my power to accept. ”

“ As to the possibility of putting a stop to the slave-trade, I have only to say, that we do not leave America and go to Africa to be passive spectators of such a policy as traffic in the flesh and blood of our kindred, nor any other species of the human race—more we might say—that we will not live there and permit it. "Self-preservation is the first law of nature," and we go to Africa to be self-sustaining ”

“ Besides all the rich products, as enumerated in another section, palm oil [7] and ivory are among the great staple products of this rich country. But as every nation, to be potent must have some great source of wealth—which if not natural must be artificial—so Africa has that without which the workshops of Great Britain would become deserted, and the general commerce of the world materially reduced; and Lagos must not only become the outlet and point at which all this commodity must centre, but the great metropolis of this quarter of the world. ”

“ On the African coast already exists a thriving and prosperous Republic. It is the native home of the African race; and there he can enjoy the dignity of manhood, the rights of citizenship, and all the advantages of civilization and freedom. Every colored man in this country will be welcomed there as a free citizen; and there he can not only prosper, and secure his own comfort and happiness, but become a teacher and benefactor of his kindred races; and become an agent in carrying civilization and Christianity to a benighted continent. ”

“ Great Britain has for half a century been employing physical force for the suppression of the slave trade, which after the expenditure of upwards of forty millions sterling, and the noble sacrifice of the lives of some of the best and bravest of her sons, still exists. It is but just to state that the exportation of slaves from Africa has been reduced from 150,000 to 50,000 per annum, by the persevering effort of those who are opposed to a traffic disgraceful to Christianity. ”

“ From the enactments lately made in some States of the Union, for the purpose of compelling all the free people of color either to leave the country or to be again reduced to a state of slavery, a considerable addition will, no doubt, shortly be made to the number of those who have already found their way to Canada; while, from physical causes, Canada can be looked upon by the colored only as a "City of Refuge." ”

“ We may, if we please, refuse to emigrate, and crouch like spaniels, to lick the hand that beats us; but children's children at the farthest, will have outgrown such pitiful meanness, and will dare to do all that others have dared and done for the sake of freedom and independence. Then all this cowardly cant about the unhealthy climate, the voracious beasts, and venomous reptiles of Africa, will be at a discount, instead of passing current as now for wisdom and prudence. ”

“ I cannot but think, if it were practicable for a few thousands, or even hundreds, of your West Coast men to come round to the East Coast, that is, to Port Natal, an immense amount of good would be derived therefrom; not only in assisting to abolish the barbarous customs of our natives in showing them that labor is honorable for man, but that the English population would appreciate their services and that they would be able to get good wages. What we want is constant and reliable laborers; not those who come by fits and starts, just to work for a month and then be off. ”

“ Africa is our fatherland and we its legitimate descendants, and we will never agree nor consent to see this the first voluntary step that has ever been taken for her regeneration by her own descendants—blasted by a disinterested or renegade set, whose only object might be in the one case to get rid of a portion of the colored population, and in the other, make money, though it be done upon the destruction of every hope entertained and measure introduced for the accomplishment of this great and prospectively glorious undertaking. ”

“ I have determined to leave to my children the inheritance of a country, the possession of territorial domain, the blessings of a national education, and the indisputable right of self-government; that they may not succeed to the servility and degradation bequeathed to us by our fathers. If we have not been born to fortunes, we should impart the seeds which shall germinate and give birth to fortunes for them. ”

“ I have only to add, as a finality of my doings and mission in Great Britain, that in Scotland I fully succeeded in establishing commercial relations for traffic in all kinds of native African produce, especially cotton, which businesses are to be done directly and immediately between us and them, without the intervention or agencies of any society or association whatever. The only agencies in the case are to be the producers, sellers, and buyers—the Scottish house dealing with us as men, and not children. ”

“ By this it will be seen and admitted that the African occupies a much more important place in the social and political element of the world than that which has heretofore been assigned him—holding the balance of commercial power, the source of the wealth of nations in his hands. This is indisputably true—undeniable, that cotton cannot be produced without negro labor and skill in raising it. ”

“ As the shades of evening deepen, if the weather allow the market to continue and there is no moon, every woman lights her little lamp, and presently the market presents, to the distant observer, the beautiful appearance of innumerable stars. ”

“ A great pit has been dug which is to contain human blood enough to float a canoe. Two thousand persons will be sacrificed on this occasion. The expedition to Abbeokuta is postponed, but the King has sent his army to make some excursions at the expense of some weaker tribes, and has succeeded in capturing many unfortunate creatures. The young people among these prisoners will be sold into slavery, and the old persons will be killed at the Grand Custom. Would to God this might meet the eyes of some of those philanthropic Englishmen who have some feeling for Africa! ”

“ This wise and beneficent arrangement of Divine Providence makes this country beautifully, in fact, delightfully pleasant; and I have no doubt but in a very few years, so soon as scientific black men, her own sons, who alone must be more interested in her development than any other take the matter in hand, and produce works upon the diseases, remedies, treatment, and sanitary measures of Africa, there will be no more contingency in going to Africa than any other known foreign country. ”

“ With the West India Islands, and Central and South America, composing free negro nations, slavery in the United States would, they suppose, soon be at an end. The facility of escape, the near neighborhood of friends and aid, it is urged, would rapidly drain off from the Southern States all the most intelligent, robust, and bold of their slaves. ”

“ The experience of half a century has proved that physical force cannot destroy the traffic while there is a demand for slave labor. Diplomacy must be baffled in its well-intentioned efforts to oppose this traffic while the profits for carrying each slave from the continent of Africa to the island of Cuba amount to the enormous return of fourteen hundred percent. [Pg 371]
It is a well-attested fact, that the same quality of cotton may be obtained from Africa for twenty millions of money for which Great Britain pays the slaveholders in America thirty millions per annum. ”

“ The laws of health should be particularly observed in going to Africa. In respect to eating, there need be no material change of food, but each individual observing those nourishments which best agree with him or her. When there is little inclination to eat, eat but little; and when there is none, eat nothing. I am certain that a large percentage of the mortality which occurs may be attributed to too free and too frequent indulgence in eating, as was the case with the Lewis family of five at Clay-Ashland, in Liberia—all of whom died from that cause ”

“ To succeed as a state or nation, we must become self-reliant, and thereby able to create our own ways and means; and a trade created in Africa by civilized Africans, would be a national rock of "everlasting ages." ”

“ How unsightly to a stranger, as he steps from the boat at the mouth of Stockton Creek, on the Messurado River, is the rude and rugged steep, leading by simple pathways in true native style, from the warehouses up to the town, which, if improved as it might and should be, would be one of the most pleasing as well as attractive approaches to any city in the world. ”

“ The Basis of a Great Nation—National Wealth
The basis of great nationality depends upon three elementary principles: first, territory; second, population; third, a great staple production either natural or artificial, or both, as a permanent source of wealth; and Africa comprises these to an almost unlimited extent. ”

“ In all my travels in Africa, I never had anything attacked by the termite; but during my stay of seven months in Great Britain, I had a suit of woolen clothes completely eaten up by moths in Liverpool.
Drivers
Drivers, as every person already knows, are black ants, whose reputation is as bad for attacking living animals, and even human beings, as the termites' for attacking clothing. This creature, like its white cousin, is also an instrument in the hands of Providence as a sanitary means, and to the reverse of the other is carnivorous, feeding upon all flesh whether fresh or putrified. ”

“ Alarmists point to the sparks in the cotton fields of America, while thoughtful men reflect that the commercial [Pg 372] prosperity of this great country hangs upon a thread of cotton, which a blight of the plant, an insurrection among the slaves, an untimely frost, or an increased demand in the Northern States of the Union, might destroy; bringing to Lancashire first, and then to the whole kingdom, a return of the Irish famine of 1847, which reduced the population of that portion of the kingdom from eight to six millions. ”

“ For this purpose the support of the mercantile class is earnestly solicited for a movement which—commenced by the colored people of America flying from oppression—bids fair to open new cotton fields for the supply of British industry, and new markets for our commerce, realizing the sublime promise of Scripture, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, and after many days it shall return unto thee." ”

“ I am certain, even now, that the native fever of Africa is not more trying upon the system, when properly treated, than the native fever of Canada, the Western and Southern States and Territories of the United States of America. ”

“ The African Aid Society has been formed to assist this [Pg 370] movement, and to annihilate the slave trade, by encouraging the development of the resources of those countries inhabited by the African races generally, as well as to cause African free labor to supersede African slavery and degradation.
In Canada West no less than 45,000 colored persons, flying from slavery, have now taken refuge; willing to meet the rigors of the climate, so that they are assured of personal freedom under the aegis of the British flag. ”

“ To make such an offering just at a time when we are about to establish a policy of self-regeneration in Africa, which may, by example and precept, effectually check forever the nefarious system, and reform the character of these people, would be to offer inducements to that monster to continue, and a license to other petty chiefs to commence the traffic in human beings, to get a reward of subsidy. ”

“ If cotton can be sold in the Liverpool market at anything less than 43⁄4d. per lb., the slaveholders in America will cease to grow what, under altered circumstances, would be unprofitable. Cotton of middling quality (which is in the greatest demand) may be obtained in West and Eastern Africa at 4d. per lb.; and, already, cotton from Western Africa (Liberia) has been sent to Liverpool, there re-shipped, and sold at Boston, in the United States, at a less cost than cotton of a similar quality could be supplied from the Southern States of the Union. ”

“ We have no motive in noticing this gorgeous dream of 'the Committee,' except to show its fallacy—its impracticability, in fact, its absurdity. No sensible man, whatever his color, should be for a moment deceived by such impracticable theories. ”

“ Lastly, the average product per acre on the best Mississippi and Louisiana cotton plantations in America, is three hundred and fifty pounds; the average per acre in Africa, a hundred per cent more, or seven hundred pounds. As the African soil produces two crops a year to one in America, then we in Africa produce fourteen hundred pounds to three hundred and fifty in America; the cost of labor a hand being one dollar or four shillings a day to produce it; whilst in Africa at present it is nine hundred per cent less, being only ten cents or five pence a day for adult labor. ”