I I i t I J i I. t f G V -^^0^ ^^-n^. '^0^ " ■a? ■<<* .f 0- 4 O "-^0 -> ^^--^ 4- n■^^^ ^ ,-£>■ t % /\^;'i-''- ' ^V* •';^ ';M>'^> '^ * A 'i^^*'. <^ - <- - '^ . V 5 >A> O* \'v o r ^^0^ '*', ^°-v .f^ .'^■ ^ v^. 'X ^ " * ° ■^ V b V .0 ^ ■^.^v -^^ ^ - „(5 ^ •X- ^o v<^' '^. - - - a\ \ •>-„ .V o ,^i *V-^?;?^^ <^ 'o . » • -- ny 0' ■C*^ 'o , » * v*^ 'f.' .^ -^o .«> \ -n^o^ «1 O^ , (i'- <^'^^ .0^ . ^o ■^p. ."b 7 \.>. ^ ^^jril"*-',:- ^ '-f'.. o > w ^^i Mm ^- ■■-^ As ]ie Was; K^ jie Is; £s J^Ie Will Be. ^■■ '■^^¥^m^' ■■-^ -a-' -^ H. S. FULKERSON. ^^^^t^ / THE NEGRO;, As He Was; As He Is; As He Will Be. BY H. S:^FULKERSON. AUTHOR OF Early Days in Mississippi, J) VICKSBURG, MISS. 1887, PRICE 50 cents-postage PAID. VICKSBURG, MISS.: COMMKKCIAL UKRALD, TRINTKHS. 1887. b zn DEDICATION. Out of ax affectionate, a respectful and a just remem- brance OF her, this little work is dedicated to THE OLD SOUTH. A VESTAL SHRINE THOU ART BELOVED MOTHER, A LOYAL SON UNCOVERS AT THY BIER ; THOU ART NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPEST— YET ANOTHER, THYSELF TRANSFORMED, IN BEAUTY SHALT APPEAR. THY NAKED, BLEEDING FEET SHALL SANDALED BE — THY GOLDEN TRESSES, ALL DISHEVELED NOW — AGAIN SHALL CROWN THY HEAD OF MAJESTY, AND RICHEST DIADEM ADORN THY BROW. " If the so-called ' New South make false confession— meanly false— of shame in our past, shame in our sire?, shame in our dead, which but the silliest fool can honestly feel, then, with all the power i^iven to us by the God of Truth we cry: Avaunt, false South, avaunt rotten trunk upon cursed root, thy fruit must turn to ashes! "—£x-Mi?iJspro has always been a bone of contention between the peoi)l<' of the Cnited States ever since the Union was formed, and no matter how closely defined his status may have THE NEGRO. 7 been under the Constitution and laws of the country the people have continued to "gnaw at the bone" with a voracity which indicated that there was scarcely anything else with which their political hunger could be appeased. In the process of time (and not a very long time either) they made the Xegro a slave, and imbedded him as such in the Constitution; then they wrangled about him unnceasingly; then fought about him; then freed him; and then immediately elevated him to the highest dignity of man by investing him with the right of suffrage, digging a new bed for him in the Constitution and hedging it about with prohibitions and limitations against all unhallowed feet. He was then taken into the nursing arms of a paternal government, and after a few draughts from the maternal breast, was, while in his "swaddling clothes" and "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms," set up together with that "mournful fact," as Mr. Greely called him, the carpet-bagger, as a good enough ruler for the lately revolted States. And the piety of the country, North, in alarm at his religious state ; however much the sufficiency of his wisdom, sent, " out of their abundance," the missionary with " millions " in his pocket, to look after his future state. And then the wickedly rebelious States, incredulous as to the capacity of the Negro to rule, immediately set about the task, and that "of their penury." of giving him the blessing of education, taxing their ))ropert3^ to the extent (at present) of not less than five million dollars per annum for the purpose; besides spending other untold and unascertained millions for the suppression of his crimes, looking to the benevolent end of making him a good citizen. It will be seen by report of the State Superintendent of Education to the Mississippi Legislature, session of 1SS5-G, that $840,776.86 were expended in the year of 1885 in support of our public school system, and the higher institutions established for both races; the whole sum being raised by taxation. The average monthly enrollment, was, of whites, 112,540; colored, 180,318. Tbe Superintendent for the county of Warren, outside the city of Vicksburg which has its own independent system of free "schools, in his report to the Board of Supervisors for the year ending April 5th, 1887, gives as the amount expended in the county in support of public schools, for the term of four months, iis being 89,410.00. Total enrollment of children, 3,932. White, 432, colored 3,500. SO.MK NEWSPAPER CLI I'l'I XfiS. "Of the money now raised by taxation in the South, the greater proi)ortion goes for public schools. The amount actually needed for the support of the several State governments, includ- ing everything except the schools — for the interest on the debt, B THE NEGRO. for judicial expenses, State and other officials, levees, etc., is S9,8o0.0U0; while the amount expended for the schools, is Sll,- 545,033. If the comparison be made with other sections, it will be shown that the South does its full duty in the matter, actually taxing itself State and county, 3.4 mills, or nearly one- third of 1 per cent., against an average of 2 mills for the whole country. It is evidently doing its very best in the way of edu- cating its youth. It has made wonderful strides in the last few years, but it has still much to do. The following statistics show the im- provement in the public schools since the beginning of the decade : 1886-7 1879-80. No. Schools 61,583 45,031 No. Teachers 59,9(33 43,026 No. Children enrolled 3,006,124 2,054,376 Children in attendance 2,089,920 1,428,320 Amount expended on schools $11,545,033 0,415,706 Average duration of school, days 106 lOl As compared with 1870-71, when the Republicans were in power and controlling the public school systems, and plunder- ing the ))ublic school funds, there has been a great advance. The number of children enrolled and the attendance has been increased nearly threefold. The Southern States have, during this period, perfected their normal schools until now there is no lack of teachers for all the schools in the South. The subject of education has been extensively discussed, and the institutes have perfected the teachers in the art of instruction." "There are 16,000 colored teachers in this country, 1,000,000 pupils in the Southern States alone, 15,000 in the male and female high schools, and about 3,000,000 worshippers in the churches. There are sixty normal schools, fifty colleges and universities, and twenty-five theological seminaries." Verily, there is reason for the Negro's vanity, large by na- ture and thus cultivated by circumstances. Can he come to other conclusion than that this would be a poor and helpless country without him? And with tliese evidences of his im- l)ortan"ce to the country and his high capacities, is it to be thought "a thing incredible " that he should expect to rise in a few brief years to the high ground reached by the Aryan races after a struggle of four thousand years ? All we know of our Negro as iik av.vs, before the civilizing process of slavery began, is, that wicked men, "with wicked hands," caught him or bought him on the western coast of Af- rica, som(! one to two hundred years ago — say three to six gen- ationsagone — which wicked men, being engaged in dark deeds, in the dark continent, have left the world in darkness as to their modes and i)rocesses (we only know their motives) and we arc hdt to guess at the names of the royal heads or chiefs, or THE NEGRO. 9 bloated and brutish slave-holders they traded with. We only know (and that from outsiders) that these bought slaves be- longed to tribes inhabiting the jungles of Africa near the coast; tribes without a history, a legend or even a cairn as a mark of their progress. The}'' have no legend of the flood; the only people ever discovered, saj'S an eminent French writer, without such legend. Stanley, in his " Through the Dark Continent," shows how the tribes shaded off, as he approached the Western coast, from the center of equatorial Africa, (where he found tribes somewhat civilized) into the blackness of darkness in ig- norance, degradation and superstition. They had no more use for his '' Yankee notions" in exchange for their goobers than would an unreconstructed rebel of (leorgia have. Their only answer to his tempting and glittering ornaments held up to view and offered in exchange for food, when he and his people were starving, was " Rum, rum !" They wanted nothing but rum, and this was the extent of the civilizing influence given by their intercourse with traders on the coast. Such is the ori- gin of the Negro of the Tnited States, and this is about all we know of his ancestors. Some of these Western tribes were cannibals. The Ency- clopaedia Brittannica, on " Cannibalism," says, amongst other things: " Cannibalism assumes its most repulsive form where hu- man flesh is made an ordinary article of food like other meat. This state of things is not only mentioned in past times, in de- scriptions of We^t Africa, where human flesh was even sold in the market, but still continues among the Manbutta of Cen- tral Africa, whose wars with neighboring tribes are carried on for the purpose of obtaining human flesh, the bodies of the slain being dried for transport, while the living prisoners are being driven off like cattle." Dried African and African on foot! What a field for Ar- mour, the great meat king, and a packing establishment is the Manbutta country ! AFRICAN SWEETMEATS — CANNIBALISM IN CENTRAL AFRICA — ONE MAN WHO HAS KILLED AND EATEN EKillT OF Ills WIVES. "It is an open question whether cannibalism is really a vice of any tribe in the regions of the Congo, though evidence of it croi)s u]) now and then in a secondhand way that is re- garded as sufficient by some travelers to take the question as es- tablished. },iv. Stanley, in his second journey through the Dark Continent, at a vilhige called Kam})unzu, found two rows of skulls running along the entire length of the viUage, imbedtled about two inches in the ground, the 'cerebral hemispheres' up- permost, bleached and glistening white from the weather. He was told they were the skulls of the'sokos' — chimpanzees, oth- erwise called ' meat of the forest.' Mr. Ward not only takes it for granted that cannibalism 10 THE NEGRO. is a reality among certain tribes of Central Africa, but he sends me the portrait of a well-known cannibal of Ban gala, who is re- puted to have eaten eight of his wives; and he also forwards me a set of implements that have been used at cannibalistic feasts. They consist of two spoons and a curious fork. It may be noted in favor of the statement, that there is no doubt as to the authenticity of these things, that they are by far the most prim- itive of all the articles of native manufacture which I have re- ceived. They are crude and ugly enough in shape and design to be the product of the most barbarous tribe, and, if Cannibal- ism is a Central African custom, one can quite imagine that these might well be the knives and forks of a cannibalistic feast.'" — London Illustrated News. Possibly some of our white ancestors were cannibals, but we don't know'it, and if they were, it's a very long time ago. It is one of the marvels of time and history, that the civili- zations planted upon the shores and outer edges of Africa, be- ginning, it may be said, with the dawn of civilization, have never b'een able to penetrate the interior of the Dark Conti- nent. The many millions of her inhabitants continue to sit in darkness, with their minds as sable in hue as their bodies. The Carthagenians, when at the height of their prosperity and in the broadest glare of their civilization, planted numerous colonies on the western coast, and traded entensively with the tribes of the interior. There was no ignition from the light they carried— the death-damps of the interior extinguished the spark, leaving no trace behind. No more influence had other nations that planted colonies on her shores. The Arab slave- traders, by miscegenation, have made some impression upon the Eastern coast tribes; but, if Stanley is to be believed, the tendency with these mixed breeds is to deterioration, with the prospect of the Arab mark (in color) being entirely lost. He speaks on page 428, 1st Vol., of a mixed tribe (mulatoes) as be- ing singularly long limbed and slender bodied," and as " not superior to their less favored neighbors in manners or customs or ways and means of life." From the utter absence of civilizing influences upon the native African by ancient civilizations, and from the testi- mony of modern explorers, as to his present condition, it may be fairly cjuestioned if he is susceptible to what is known_ as the civilization of the nineteenth century. Such questioning may be regarded as an uncharitably pessimistic view of his case, but in the light of such facts as we have, can it be avoided? Much stress is laid upon the elevating power of the Chris- tian religion to the end of his civilization. But it must be ad- mitted that the experiments in this line with the Africans li!iv«' so far yielded but little fruit. The same, it may be re- plied, is tru(! of eiloris in the same line with other heathen peo- ples. Hut then, it must not be forgotton, that a saving knowl- THE NEGRO, 11 edge of God may be obtained by individuals, and by peoples standing and remaining upon a very low plane of civilization. A nation may be born in a day to spiritual things, but not to civilzation. The latter is a growth and not a birth. The suc- cess of Christian missions in Greenland, in Madagascar, and the Fijii and Sandwich islands, is nearly, if not quite, a reali- zation of the prophecy, but what civilized nation woiild incor- porate these with itself and invest them with all of its privi- leges ? The penitent thief upon the cross illustrates this idea. The law of his country, the genius of the institutions under which he lived, demanded his life. He was untit to live a natural life, to enjoy the civil institutions of his country, but through penitence and the forgiveness of his sins, he was in- vested with spiritual life and made an heir of eternal life. The Gospel affords, and is able to afford a liberality which would unsettle the foundations of human society, constituted as it is at present, if applied to it. We shall have to wait for the " new heavens and the new earth " before its principles in all their plenitude can be applied to human affairs. To all appearances, the African is, physically, the same as the white man. Bur what says anatomy in its careful meas- urements? And to outward appearances, he is mentally the same. In this respect, we have the speculations of many close observers. The Encyclopffidia Brittannica, on the Negro, pages 316 and 317, Vol. xvi'i, in treating of him in both respects, says: "The chief points in which the Negro either approaches the Quadrumnna or differs most from his congeners, are : 1st, the abnormal length of the arm, which in the erect position some- times reaches to the knee i»an, and which, on an average, ex- ceeds that of the Caucasian about two inches; 2d, Prognathism or projection of the jaws (index number of facial angle about 70, as compared with the Caucasian 82); 3d, weight of brain as indicating cranial capacity. So ounces (highest gorilla. 20; av- erage European, 45); 4th, 'Full black eye, with black iris and yelfovvish sclerotic coat, a very marked feature ; ")th, Short, flat snub nose, deeplv depressed at the V)ase or frontal suture, broad at extremitv. with dilated nostrils and concave ridge; 6th, Thick, protruding lips, plainly showing the inner red surface ; 7th, verv large zygomatic arches— high and prominent cheek bones; 8th, exceeding thick cranium, enabling the Negro to butt with the head and resist blows which would inevitably break any ordinary European skull; 9th, Correspondingly weak lower linibs, termi'nating in a broad, Hat foot, with low instep, divergent and prehensile great toe, and heel projeciting back- wards ( 'lark heel"); 10th, Complexion-deep brown or blackish, and in some cases, even distinctly black, due not to any special pigment, as is often supposed, but merely to the greater abun- dance of coloring matter in the Mali.ighian mucous membrane; 12 THE NEGRO. between the inner or true skin and the epidermic or scarf skin; 11th, Short, black hair, eccentrically elliptical or almost flat in section, and distinctly wooly, not merely frizzly, as Pritchard supposed, on insufficient evidence; 12th, Thick epidermis, cool, soft and velvety to the touch; mostly hairless, and emitting a peculiar rancid odor, compared by Pruner Bey to that of the buck goat ; loth, Frame of medium height, thrown somewhat out of the perpendicular by the shape of the pelvis, the spine, the backward projection of the head, and the whole anatomical structure : 14th, The cranial sutures, which close much earlier in the negro than in other races. To this premature ossifica- tion of the skull, preventing all further development of the brain, many pathologists have attributed the mental inferiority which is even more marked than their physical differences. Nearly all observers admit that the negro child is on the whole, quite as intelligent as those of other human varieties, but that on arriving at puberty, all farther progress seems to be arrested. No one has more carefully studied this point than Filippo Manetta, who, during a long residence on the planta- tions of the Southern States of America, noted that ' The negro children were sharp, intelligent and full of vivacity, but on ap- proaching the adult period, a gradual change set in. The intel- lect seemed to become clouded, animation giving place to a sort of lethargy, brightness yielding to indolence. ' We must neces- sarily suppose that the development of the Negro and White proceeds in different lines. While with the latter, the volume of the brain grows with the expansion of the brain-pan, in the former the growth of the brain is, on the contrary, arrested by the premature closing of the cranial suture and lateral pres- sure of the frontal bone. " It must at the same time be confessed that the question of the mental tem})erament of the Negro has been greatl}' com- plicated by the partizanship of interested advocates on either side. But for this disturbing element, it would perhaps be readily admitted that the mental are at least as marked as the physical differences between the dark and other races. And as both are the gradual outcome of external conditions fixed by heredity, it follows that the attempt to suddenly transform the Negro mind by foreign culture, must be, as it has proved to be, as futile as the attempt would be to suddenly transform his physical type." No less than fifty-five authors of various countries, and travelers and explorers in Africa, have been consulted by the editor of the Kncyclopaidia in the make-up of the 'long and ex- haustive article on the Negro, a very small portion of which only is given in the foregoing extract. In an attempt to get a knowledge of the Negro's character and capacities there is no more valuable work to consult than Stanley's. Mis opportunities for observation were extensive, THE NEGRO. 13 and his experience with the Negro was large. In his moments of disgust he would fain pursuade himself that all mankind were not of "one blood," while at other times, under the influence of some noble act performed, he was proud to call the African "brother." And under the influence of these varying moods he is led into inconsistent expressions of opinion con- cerning him. How like the experience of those who have known him long and well under the better conditions of his life in this country, in slavery and in freedom? And how like are the characteristics observed, and how these concuring observations emphasize the difliculty of eliminating what is " bred in the bone." The Negro is a riddle to us more because he is not what we would have him to be than that he is what he is. His essen- tial and prominent characteristics are as unchangeable as the spots of the leopard, (this of him as a race, not always individu- ally) and may not as much be said of all the divisions of the human family ? Stanley, in the beginning of his first volume, quotes the disparaging remarks of several explorers concerning the Afri- cans. One of them saying, " the wretches take trouble and display an ingenuity in opposition and disobedience, in per- versity, annoyance and villainy which, rightly directed, would make them invaluable." He then adds for himself, " I find them capable of great love and aflection, and possessed of grati- tude and other noble traits of human nature." His experiences with them, as detailed in the course of his narrative, hardly sustain this eulogy except in a limited way. Much of his narrative supports the charges of the author quoted above. Of course he had a varied experience in havine to do with so many people in his charge, and so many tribes as he journeyed. Of one tribe which appeared to be well fed and prosperous, and by whom he was denied food when on the very verge of starvation, he says: "Ah! in what part of all the Japhetic world would such a distracted and woeful band as we were then have been regarded with such hard, steel-cold eyes." His remarks about the noble Uledi, the cockswain of the Lady Alice, and his kinsmen, a brother and a cousin, all full-blooded Negro savages, originally, are highly interesting, and the writer cannot forbear to notice and quote some of them. Much is said of Uledi in the narrative, and his noble conduct on many occasions arrests and rivets the attention of the reader. Jle is as splendid an example of the virtues of fortitude, fidelity and courage under the most trying circumstances, as is to be found in history. Stanley says of him, " he was a devotee to his duty, and as such was ennobled; he was affectionately obedient, and as such he was beloved; he had risked hi.s life many times for creatures who would never have risked their own for his; as such he was honored. Yet, this ennobled 14 • THE NEGRO. beloved and honored servant — ah! I regret to speak of him in such terms — robbed 7Jie." His thefts on several occasions were proved up conclusively, and a flogging was the verdict of the head men of the expedition. He was so beloved that all plead for him, and his brother and cousin at the hour of administer- ing the punishment presented themselves as substitutes for the guilty one. Stanley accepted them as such, but in the pres- ence of the whole expedition graciously pardoned them. How like the wailing of an infant is the pleading of Uledi's cousin for his kinsman ? " The master is wise. All things that hap- pen he writes in a book. We black men know nothing, neither have we any memory. What we saw yesterday is to-day for- gotten !" AVho that knows the Negro well will fail to recognize him in these last sad and truthful words of the pleading sav- age? All African explorers agree in the opinion that the people of Uganda, a populous district of Central Africa, are the most advanced in the arts and some of the other features of civiliza- tion of all the tribes met with by them, and Stanley may be said to claim in his work, having converted Mtesa, the King of the country, to Christianity, though not to the extent of inducing him to put away any of his seven thousand wives! Since Stanley's second expedition his efforts to introduce Christianity in that country have been seconded by quite a number of missionaries, and a good degree of success has attended their labors. Upan the death of Mtesa, some two and a half years since, his son, Mwanga, came to the throne, and very soon, under evil counsel, evinced hostility to the mission- aries, putting Bishop Hannington and others to death, besides scores of native christians; burning the latter at the stake and horribly mutilating their bodies. This young ruler is the last of a line of Kings running back some three hundred years. Christianit}'' has had another triumph in the deaths of these numerous martyrs who refused to adjure their faith as a con- dition of the sparing of their lives, and it will be seen again, doubtless, that " the blood of the martj^rs is the seed of the church;" and that Christianity may be a success where the civilization of the age is a failure. Color has much if not everything to do with the relation of races to civilization. The Aryan (signifying noble) or White races are the founders and conservators of civili.'uition. The Yellow races are almost wholly only semi-civilized, and the black races are almost wholly uncivilized. The "color line " is thus distinctl}' drawn on the map of the world, and in all the ages of the past has defied the hand of time to obliterate it. In so far as the races (not individuals) are concerned race characteristics, determined by color, are as immutable as any of the laws of nature, and in so far as we may judge the future by the past, will continue so to be to the end of time. A mixing THE NEGRO. 15 of the races does not seem to cure the difficulty or obliterate the line. It may seem to do so for a time, but finally the law pre- vails and the mixed race settles back to the dominant color, if not characteristics, where the mixing occurs. This, as here- inbefore noticed, was observed by Stanley in the mixing of the Arabs with the Africans at Zanzibar. In an open letter, addressed by a committee of ministers and elders of the Southern Presbyterian church, of which Rev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., was chairman, to the members of said church, on Organic Union with the Northern Church, the fol- lowing is said in that part of the letter which treats of the race problem : "It canot be denied that God has divided the human race into several distinct groups, for the sake of keeping them apart. When the promise was given to Noah that the world should not be again destroyed with a flood, it became necessary to restrain the wickedness of man that it should not rise to the same height as in the ante-Diluvian period. Hence the Unit}- of huniiin speech was broken, and "so the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." Now, co- ordinate with this '' confusion of tongues," we find these grou})S distinguished by certain physical characteristics — and that, too, as far back as history carries us. We are not warranted in affirming that this differentiation through color and otherwise, was accomplished at the same time, and as part of the same process, with the "confusion of tongues;" but since the di.stinc- tion exists from a period in the past of which history takes no note, and since science fails to trace the natural causes by which it could be produced, the inference is justified which regards it as fixed b}' the hand of Jehovah Himself. At any rate, all the attempts to restore the original unit}' of the race by the amal- gamation of these severed parts, have been providentially and signally rebuked. In all instances where the Caucasian stock has crossed with the others — as when the Latin families, witii a feebler instinct of race, have intermingled with the people whom they found in Mexico and in portions of South America — the lesult has been the production of a stock inferior in qual- ity to both the factors which sunk their superior virtues in an emasculated progeny. Largely to this cause is due the failure of these Latin families to hold the colonies which they have established in different parts of the world ; and which have, one by one, slipped from their hands into the possession of oth- ers. The Anglo-Saxon stock, on the contrar}', through all time jealous of its purity of blood, and refusing to debase it by in- termingling with inferior races, has preserved its power and to this day dominates vast empires in which it has ])lantt'd its banners. These are stubborn tacts lying upon the face of his- tory, open to the inspection of all who will studiously consider their import." 16 THE NEGRO. After the manner of Mr. Edward Atkinson, the great stat- istician of the North, and after the manner of the baking pow- ders advertisements in the newspapers, the diagram below is presented to the public in illustration of the writer's idea of the three grand divisions of the .human family, to-wit : White ^-»^— Yello w^""^"*^""^^" Black«« It is done out of regard, especially, to New England readers, to whose understanding Mr. Atkinson has been demonstrating his propositions by diagram for so long a time that they will hardly be able to understand the foregoing statement, in the ab- sence of this perfect demonstration ! A high historical authority (Hwinton, in his Outlines of the World's History) says : ''The Aryans are in general a progressive and practical race, but the Hindoos (a mixed race) after making considerable advance in literature and philosophy, became stationary and had very little influence on the^great current of the world's history. Their kinsmen, the Persians, being left unmixed, de- veloped far more of those characteristics that marked the Euro- pean members of the Aryan stock." It will be shown in the course of this investigation, by perfectly reliable statistics, that deterioration in its worst form, that is, in viorals— which carries with it every other form of deterioration — is evident to an alarming extent in the descen- dants of the white and black miscegenationists of the South. This crime (under our laws) is shockingly prevalent and its })erpetrators are filling our jails and penitentiaries with the fruit of their beastly lust. The 8olons of the Legislature of Ohio, who lately repealed the law of that State against the crime, would do well to note the figures in part second of this work. We come now to speak of the Negro as he was under the benign influence of American slavery. For, think as we may of the institution abstractly, it was to that race a beneficence, if / slavery with the chance of freedom, and the betterment of con- dition, in a civilized country, be better than barbarism, canni- balism, debasement, and the chance of slavery in a land of sav- ages? Without raising here the question of his capacity to ap- preciate and enjoy our free institutions, it may be affirmed that he has been admi'tted, through slavery, to a degree of physical eiijoyniLiit and comfuit to which he would have been a stranger in the land of his forefathers. And over and above all, he has throujrh slavery, had tlie opjwrtunity of being brought to the knualcdgjof Ciod. For whatever his capacity, whether it be mncli or little, for the comi)rehension of the civilization to which he is introduced, there can be no question of his ability THE NEGRO. 17 to comprehend the phm of salvation, otherwise the command to preach the CJospel to every creature would have no significance us to him, and he would be shut out eternally from the Kin