personally, that he has been a badly-treated brother ;
that he is a worthy member of the human family,
placed in an inferior position through the prejudice
and ignorance of the white man, with whom he should
be upon equality.
The negro has been, and still is, thoroughly misunderstood.
However severely we may condemn the
horrible system of slavery, the results of emancipation
have proved that the negro does not appreciate the
blessings of freedom, nor does he show the slightest
feeling of gratitude to the hand that broke the rivets
of his fetters. His narrow mind cannot embrace that
feeling of pure philanthropy that first prompted England
to declare herself against slavery, and he only regards
the anti-slavery movement as a proof of his own importance.
In his limited horizon' he is himself the
important object, and as a sequence to his self-conceit,
he imagines that the whole world is at issue concerning
.the black man. The negro, therefore, being the important
question, must be an important person, and
he conducts himself accordingly—he is far too great a
man to work. Upon this point his natural character
exhibits itself most determinedly. Accordingly, he
resists any attempt at coercion; being free, his first
impulse is to claim an equality with those whom he
lately served, and to usurp a dignity with absurd pretensions,
that must inevitably insure the disgust of
the white community. Ill-will thus engendered, à
hatred and jealoiisy is established between the two
races, combined with the errors that in such conditions
must arise upon both sides. The final question remains,
Why was the negro first introduced into our colonies—
and to America ? p
The sun is the great arbitrator between the white
and the black man. There are productions necessary
to civilized countries, that can alone be cultivated in
tropical climates, where the white man cannot live if
exposed- to labour in the sun. Thus, such fertile
countries as the West Indies and portions of America
being without a native population, the negro was
originally imported as a slave to fulfil the conditions
of a labourer. In his own country he was a wild
savage, and enslaved his brother man ; he thus became
a victim to his own system; to the institution of
slavery that is indigenous to the soil of Africa, and
that has not been taught to the African by the white
Knan, as is currently reported, but that has ever been
the peculiar characteristic of African tribes. .
In his state of slavery the negro was compelled to
work, and, through his labour, every country prospered
where he had been introduced. He was suddenly
freed ; and from that moment he refused to work, and