We are able to adduce a number of cases, in which Africans have passed from a state of slavery to one of freedom, and been placed in circumstances in some degree favourable to industry and improvement.

At the close of the revolutionary war, the English had in their possession above 2,000 coloured people, who had escaped to them from their masters. They were liberated and settled on lands in Nova Scotia. They led a harmless life, and gained the character of a peaceable and industrious people. They erected places of worship, and had ministers of their own. The climate however being too cold for them, near 1,400 of them removed to Sierra Leone, where they and their descendants are now, most of them independent, and some of them wealthy.

At the close of the last war, there vere several hundred slaves who had joined the British. They were taken to Trinidad, emancipated and settled. It was objected by the planters at Trinidad, that they were sure those slaves would not work, but be a pest. The trial, however, was made, and they have proved, by their good conduct, that those fears were groundless.* In both these cases, the slaves went from among us-many of them from lower Virginia. They had the same habits and general character with our present slaves.

The thousands which the British have rescued from slave-ships, and settled at Sierra Leone and its vicinity, may be adduced. They are peaceful and industrious.

Í adduce, also, Nottingham's negroes, in the island of Tortola. They have been free for above forty years, and are of quiet and industrious habits.

age; 22,385 were above forty-five years of age. Of slaves, there were under twenty-six 1,076,802, and only 141,145 above fortyfive; whereas a fourth proportional would be 280,892-showing a deficit 139,047.

The census of 1830 gives slaves 2,010,436—of these 1,386 are above 100 years of age. Of free coloured persons 319,467, and of these there are 627 above 100 years old. This is greatly in favour of the free. They are longer lived.

*See in the New York Observer, Jan. 23, 1830, a recent account of them, which states their condition after fourteen years residence there, and says, that not one of them had been a burden to the whites.

The liberated negroes of Colombia, and other South American republics, may be mentioned. They are not that pest that many apprehend, but of a similar character with their white fellow citizens.

It is in place here to mention, that there are large numbers of free people of colour in most of the West India islands. Most of these were manumitted. Many of them have become wealthy. Almost all the coffee plantations in Jamaica are said to belong to them.

The Honourable Joshua Steel, of Barbadoes, abolished arbitrary punishment, substituted rewards in its place, treated his negroes (300 in number) as hirelings, and after a number of years trial, found that his clear gains were above three-fold what they had previously been. He could procure three-fold more work from them, and their health and comfort and increase was improved in the same proportion.* Our own colony at Liberia may also be referred to. They are doing well, as we have most ample proof.

The policy of the Spaniards and Portuguese is to encourage manumission, and give to their free coloured people most of the rights and privileges which they themselves enjoy; they have not experienced those evils which it is asserted will follow from allowing them to remain among us.

The plan of liberating and allowing them to remain among us, ought, if adopted, to be accompanied with some efficient measures for improving and elevating their cha

racter.

Were all obstructions to emancipation removed; were all under ten years, to be free at twenty-five, and all born after this to be free at twenty-one; were it required that all receive a common education, and this be enforced by giving freedom at nineteen to those that then could not read; were their marriages and family relations protected, and the shameful traffic in them wholly prohibited; were they

* I know it is asserted by some, that this case proved a failure --that the estate became insolvent. The fact of the case I believe was, that Steel's plan was abandoned soon after his death. But while Steel pursued the plan above stated, we have his own written declaration, that it was much more profitable than it had previously been.

allowed to buy themselves and relatives at a minimum price, and secured the right of a change of masters, when it appeared that they were badly used, and a similar change for the purpose of bringing husband and wife, parent and child together; were they allowed one working-day weekly, and encouraged to use it for purchasing themselves, and procuring something to begin with; and were means used to give instruction to a sufficient number to serve as religious teachers and school-masters for the rest, a very great change might, in the course of the next twenty years, be effected in the character and condition of that people.

The danger from insurrections would be almost, if not wholly, removed. The door to freedom would be open before them; the road to it so plain and short, that a shorter full of danger would not be thought of. The prospect of freedom and of bettering their condition would excite to industry and good conduct; a spirit of improvement would be awakened among them. The whites would not only be safer, but have the services of better domestics, and more efficient labourers. Good conduct might be enforced by the penalty of exportation to the idle and to vagrants that could not show how they obtained their living. They might also be taxed for the support of their own poor.

Yours, &c.

15

170

LETTER XV.

CHRISTIAN BRethren,

It may admit of a doubt, which of the above measures is the best. It is, however, particularly to be noticed, that they are so far from being incompatible with each other, that all may be used as so many channels to draw off the swelling flood of slavery, which threatens to overflow the fairest part of our fair Republic. As the Bible, Tract, Sabbathschool, Missionary and Education Societies, are the lovely sisters of the same blessed family; all engaged in the same good work, although in different departments; so colonizing at home and abroad, together with a plan for changing their condition from that of slaves to that of free labourers, would give mutual aid in getting clear of the evils of our slave system. To carry into full effect any of the above measures, the aid of Government is needful. Our Government, however, is a government of the people. Each citizen possesses some share of power in making laws and directing national and state measures. He not only has the right of choice as to his civil rulers, but has secured to himself the free use of speech and the press.

The whole system of slavery is but a permitted thing. Neither the natural nor moral right of it, nor its expediency, has been decided by Government. It is not made the duty of a citizen to be a slave-holder. A prejudice against having free coloured persons among them, has led most slave-holding States to throw obstructions in the way of manumission. This, however, is a measure of doubtful expediency. It has operated to retain many in slavery, and thus increased the evil and augmented the danger. There are several things which slave-holders can do, that will tell on the general cause.

They can take the proper course with their own slaves, and they can reach the whole system, through their civil rulers, whom they from time to time elect.

They can take a proper course with their own slaves. They can free those who give evidence that they are capable of managing and providing for themselves, and those dependent on them. It is not needful that they should

make out as well as the whites generally do, to justify freeing them; but that we have reason to believe they will not prove a burden to others. Many white men provide badly for themselves. The evil falls mainly on themselves. We are justified in withholding their natural and unalienable rights from others only for justifiable reasons. Their not making as good a use of their freedom as they might, and as others do, is not such a reason.

Those who evidently are not prepared for freedom, who would almost certainly not provide for themselves the necessaries of life, might, and perhaps ought to be, detained until some change takes place in their habits. This would be the case with the young, the very old, and perhaps a good many in middle life.

With respect to the old, those who enjoyed their labour while their labour was valuable ought of right to support them in old age. There would, however, be many cases in which the children would willingly undertake the care and maintenance of their aged parents.

And with respect to those between infancy and old age, instruction, and putting them on a course of managing for themselves would, in most cases, in a few years, prepare them for providing for themselves the necessaries of life. Managing for ourselves is plainly one of those things that depends much on practice. The theory is useful to practice, but cannot supply its place. One of the chief causes of the debasing effects of slavery is, that the slave is almost made a machine of, is directed in everything, provided for, and controlled in everything, and thus habits of economizing and providing for himself are not formed.

With respect to young slaves, in most cases their parents, when freed, could take them with them. They are the natural guardians of their offspring, and where it can be avoided, parents ought not to be separated from their children.

In other cases, however, and in all cases, so long as they remain with their present masters, care ought to be taken to give them that instruction, and form them to those moral, and religious, and industrious habits, which would fit them for acting well for themselves. Proper training in youth so uniformly fits persons for providing and manag