Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-02-05

me WfOle ancient world. AS late MS the NTH ]
century, before the Christian era, Plato passed I
thirteen years in studying their sacred records.
Inc massive monuments of their cherries
culture have withstood the storms of time, |
better than the more graceful creations of
Grecian nrt. Races that emerged from bar !
barisin later than these of Africa have, with
fearful vicisstudes on the part Of individual
States, acquired aud maintained n superior
iiy over Africa, but am not prepared to say
that II rests on natural causes of a final aud
abiding character. We are led into error by
contemplating things too much in the gross.
There are tribes in Africa which have made
no contemplate progress in various branches
OF human Improvement On the other hand,
if we look closely at the condition of the
mnss OF the population in Europe, from Lis
bon TO Archangel, from the lieblides to the
Black Sea; II we turn from the few who
possess wenlth, or competence, education,
culture and that lor,lship over Nature ard
oil her forces which belongs TO instructed
mind; if we turn from these, to the bcniglt-
ed, destitute, oppressed, superstitious, ahlect
millions, whose lives are passed in the hone
less tolls Of the field. the factory. the mine
whose inheritance is beggnry, whose ednca.
tion Is stolid Ignorance at whose daily tuble
hunger aud thirst nre the stewards
rare festiyity is brutal intcmpcrance; il we
could count their numbers, gutler Into one
aggregate, their dcsiitulion of the Joys of
life, and thus estimate the full extent of the
practical barbarsm of the nominally civilized
world, we should he inclined, perhaps, TO
doubt The essential superiority of the present
improved European race. II il be essentially
superior, Why did il remain so loug uniin-
proved! The Africans, you say, perseycrcd
IN Their original barbarsin for five thousand
years. Wen, the Anglo.Saxon race did the
same thIng for nearly four thousand years.
and ~ the great chronology OF Providence,
thousand yenrs nre but as one dny.
a intle more than ten centuries ago, and
our Saxon ancestors were not more civilized
than some of the African tribes of the present
uay. They were savage, wnrlike people
pirates by sea, bandits on shore, enslaved by
the darkest supersiitiOns, worshipping diyiu-
tiles MS dark aud cruel as themselves; aud
the slave tra1e was carried on in Great Brit
hln eight hundred years ago us ruthlessly as
upon the coast of Africa ut the present day.
But il pleased Divine Providence to pour
the light of Christianity upon this midnight
darkness. BY degrees, civilization, law, lib
erty, letters aud arts came in, and at tho end
of eight centuries we talk of the essential
inborn superiority of the Anglo Saxon race,
nnd look down with distnin Oh those portions
OF the human family who have Jagged Il lit
ile behind us in the march Of civilization.
SIR, at tile present day Africa is not the
nbode of utter barbarism. Here again we
'lo not discriminate; we Judge in the gross.
Some of her tribes are, indeed, hopclessly
broken down by internal wars aud the inter
nal slave trade, and the situation of the whole
continent is exceedingly adverse to any pro-
gress in culture. But they are not savuges;
the mass OF tic population live by agricu-
ture. There is some traffic between the
coast and the interior; there is rude arch
itecture; gold dust is collected, iron is
snelted, weapons and utensils OF hlsblndiy
and household use nre wrought, cloth is
manufactured and dyed, palm oil is expressed
and schools are taught. Among the Ma
hommcdan tribes the Koran is read. have
seen native African in this city who had
passed forty yenrs of his lie as n slave in the
field, who, at the nge of seventy, wrote the
Arabic character with the elegance of
scribe. And Mungo Park tells us that law
suits are argued with rs much ability, fuency
nnd at as much length in the interior of AZ
rica, as at Edinburgh. certainly am aware
that the most advanced tribes of Central AZ,
ElCu MltANuNuf w consequence VI
the slave trade which exists among them in
the most deplorable form. The only wonder
is, that with this cancer eating into their Vi
tails from age to age, any degree of civiliza-
ton can exist. But think it may be snid,
without exaggerntion, that, degraded as are
the ninety millions of Africans, ninety mil
lions exist in Europe, TO which each country
contributes her quota not much less degra-
ded. The difference is, and certainly an all
important difference, that in Europe, inter
mingled with those ninety millions, are iif-
teen or twenty millions, possessed of all
degrees of culture, up 10 the very highest
while in Africa there is not an individual,
who, according to our standard, has attained
q high degree of cultivation. But il obvious
causes for this can be shown, il is unphilos-
optical 10 infer from il essential incupncity.
But all doubts Of the capacity OF the African
race for seli-goyernment, and of their i'm
PROBABILITY under favorable circumstances,
seem TO me TO be removed by what we wit
ness at the present day, both in our own
country and on the coast of that continent
Notwithstanding the disadvantages of their
condition in this country, specimens of intel
lectual ability, the talent of writing aud
speaking, capacity for business, for the lnge-
ilious and mechanical arts, for accounts, for
the ordinary branches of ucadeniical learn
ing, have been exhibited by our coored
brethren, which would do 10 discredii to
Anglo. .Saxons. Pail Cutler, well recolected
in Now England, was person of great en-
ergy. His father was an African slave lis
mother, an Indian OF the Elizabeth Islands,
Mass. | have already alluded to the extra
ordinary attninments of Abdcrrahamen. A
man of better manners or more respectable
appearance never saw.
The learned blacksmith of Alabama, now
in Liberia, has attained celebrity scarcely
inferior TO that of his white brother known
by the same designation. frequently atien.
ded, the examinations of a school in Cam.
bridge, at which Beverly Williams was
pupil. Two youths from Georgia aud II sou
Of my own were his fellow pupils. Beverly