Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1853-02-21

thirst are the stewards, whose rare festiv-
ity is brutal intemperance-if we could
count their numbers-gather into one ag-
gregate their destitution of the joys of
life, and thus estimate the full extent of
the practical barbarism of the nominally
civilized world, we should be inclined per-
haps to doubt the essential superiority of
the present improved European race.
Ifit be essentially superior, why did it
remain so long unimproved The Afri-
cans, you say, persevered in their origi-
nal barbarism for five thousand years.
Well, the Anglo Saxon race did the same
thing for nearly 1000 years. And, in
the great chronology of Providence, a
thousand years are as but one day. A
little more than ten centuries ago, and our
ancestors were not more civilized than
some of the African tribes of the present
day. They were savage, warlike peo-
ple-pirates by sea bandits on shore, en-
slaved by the darkest superstitions, wor-
shipping divinities as dark and cruel as
themselves. The slave trade was carried
on in Great Britain, 500 years ago, as
ruthlessly as upon the coast of Africa at
the present day, But it pleased Divine
Providence to pour the light of Christian
ity upon this midnight darkness, by de-
gree; and civilization, law, liberty, let
ters, art came in; and at the end of eight
centuries, we talk of the essential, inborn
superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, and
look down with disdain on those portions
of the human family who have Jagged a
little behind us in the march of civiliza-
ton. Sir, at the present day Africa is
not the abode of utter barbarism. Here,
again, we do not discriminate we judge
in the gross. Some of her tribes are, in
deed, hopelessly broken down by inter-
nal wars and the foreign slave trade
And the situation of the whole continent
is exceedingly adverse to any progress in
culture.
But they are not savages. The mass
of the population live by agriculture
There is some trafc between the cost and
the interior There is a rude architec-
ture Gold dust collected and coin is
smelted-weapons and utensils of husban-
dry and household use, are wrought
Cloth is manufactured Palm Oil is ex-
pressed Schools are taught among the
Mahometan tribes The Koran is read.
I have seen native African in this city
who had passed forty years of his life as
a slave in the feldwho at the age of sew
enty wrote the Arabic character with the
elegance of scribe and Mungo Park
tells us that law suits are argued with
much ability, fuency, and as much length
in the interior of Africa as at Edinburgh.
[ certainly am aware that the condition Of
the most advanced tribes of Central Af-
rica is wretched, mainly in consequence OF
the slave trade, which exists among them
in the most deplorable form. The only
wonder is, that with this cancer eating in
to their vitals from age to age, any degree
of civilization can exist.
But | think it may be said without ex-
aggeration that, degraded as are the nine
ty millions of Africans, ninety millions
exist in Europe, to which each country
contributes her quota, not much degraded.
The difference is-and certainly an all
important difference-that in Europe, in
terningled with those ninety millions, are
fifteen or twenty millions possessed of all
degrees of culture, up to the very high
est while in Africa there is not an indi-
vidual who according to our standard,
has attained high degree of intellectual
cultivation. But if obvious causes for
this can be shown, it is unphilosophical
to infer from it an essential incapacity. /.
But all doubts of the capacity of the
African race for self-government, and Of
their improvability under favorable cir
cumstances, seem to me to be removed by
what we witness in the present day, both
in our own country and on the coast Of
that continent. Notwithstanding the dis.
advantages of their condition in this coun-
try, specimens of inteilectuality-the tai
ent for writing and speaking, capacity fol
business, for the ingenious and meehan
ical arts for accounts, for the ordinary
branches of academical learning-have
been exhibited by our colored brethren
which would do no discredit to Angie
Saxons. Paul Cufer, well recollected II
New England, was person of great en-
ergy. His father was an African slave
his mother an Indian of the Elizabeth
Islandsin Massachusetts. have already
alluded to the extraordinary attainment
of Abderrahman. A man of better man
ners, or more respectable appearance,
never saw. The learned blacksmith o.
Alabama, now in Liberia, has attained
a celebrity scarcely inferior to that OF his
white brother, known by the same desig
nation. frequently attended the exam
nations at school in Cambridge, a
which Reverlv Williams was a nupjl, Two