The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-06-02

In 1876, the two Synods Of Alabama ant
Mississippi combined to purchase his freedom
and that of his family, IA wife and two chill
dren,) with the view of sending him to Africa
under the care of the American Board Of Mis-
sions He was introduced Mt the Tuscaloos'
Presbytery, as a candidate for clerical orders
and was afterwards ordained by the Synod o
Alabama His examination was cminently
satisfactory. At this time the notice states tina
his WIFE about his own age, could read DE-
son, about seventeen, could read and write, anc
had made some progress in the study OF arlth
metic, geography, and other branches OF school
learning The daughter, eleven years old had
Just commenced learning to read. The oppor'
tunities of the children we're only such as the
casual intervals of their own and their fathers
labor afforded them The whole family was
purchased by the two Synods, for $4,000 and
| in March, lS47, they went, with party OF
emigrants to the colony of Liberia. In lS4S,
Mr.. Ellis was pastor of Presbyterian congre-
CATION in Monrova He was then studying
the languages of two tribes of the natives, In
| order to preach to them in their own tongue.
He had visited the Mandngo country in which
he was claimed as countryman. In a letter
to an American friend, he describes these
people They are Mohammedans, and some OF
their priests are ntelligent-capable of read
ing Hebrew, when written in the Arabic char
acter. In 1850, he says in answer to certain
inquiries propounded to him by gentleman of
Alabama; g The children of Liberia are exact
ly like the white children in America and, as
this part of our community have the best op-
portunity to equal the corresponding part in
America, their equality can DO better SEEN
Remarkable as white children in America are,
old persons (slaves) had not the opportunity of
seeing much of it where we came from so
that many think our children have more pene-
trating minds than those Of America. This
supposition arose out of the above mentioned
circumst ance; but it is not well founded. The
fact is, if there be any difference it is in this
Perhaps the Liberia children learn as fast if
not faster for the first few years; but it may
be that the young Americans continue their
mental improvement the longest. | think
though there may be circumstances by which
we shall be able, after while, to account bet
ter for the facts just alluded to- think it
most probable that the lambs stop eating be-
cause the shepherds get out of corn"
Mr.. Ellis was between thirty and forty years
of age when he was appointed missionary to
Africa; and his remarkable attachments in
languages, and very clever progress in litera-
ture and theology, had all been made before
that period, in such leisure as the life of
slave mechanic allowed him.
OF his examination at the Presbytery, COM
potent witness says: 81 believe utter the SEN
timents of the whole Presbytery, and Of large
assembly present, when say, that for preci-
sion on the details of religious experience; for
sober, rational views of what constitutes call
to the ministry for sound, consistent scriptu-
raj views of the leading doctrines of the Cos
pei few candidates for the Office have been
known to equal him He read a sermon of his
own composition, correct in language, forcible
in style, logical in argument, and Astounding in
pertinent quotations from the Bible. All this
looked strange, incredible, from ono who had
been all his life a slave, 'oih none but the ordi-
nary privileges Of ddpe."
OF his quality as blacksmith, his money
value as a slave the general treatment expert.
enced from his several masters, and his feelings
and opinions about the institution, nothing is
given in the notice before US. He is quoted
only as saying that he "strove to make himself
agreeable and happy in this condition, and
counselled all his brethren to submission
What else he counsels, or would counsel if he
were absolutely free in his position and Office
we have no information. Expatriated as he is
and bound to the service of the pulpit among
the heather of africa, it is of little cOnse.
qucnce what he thinks or says upon the sub
iect of slavery his life is full enough of in
struction to answer for him. He is another
and a most unequivocal demonstration of the
capacity of the black man for the culture and
conditions of high civilization; and q plain
proof, moreover, that when slave comes up to
the fashion pattern of man, he gets too big
for his shackles, and bursts them. Skill as a
mechanic, and attainmcnts in scholarship, both
tend alike, though in unequal degree, to eman-
cipation They are available in the assertion
of manhood, and the vndication of its rights
Picty as in the case of Uncle Tom, and appa.
renty in that Of the Reverend Ellis is capable
of being prostitutcd in the service of slavery
Because it acts upon the life mainly as senti.
ment, il can be perverted into sort of spirit.
ual and moral handcut, and made to answer
the master as a restraint upon natural liberty
Ellis, his WIFE and two children, were pur.
chased for so, 500 This may have been much
below their market value When every slave
in Virginia is really worth $1,000 in available
faculties for the worlds work and usc they
will own themselves, and the system will be al
an end by a clear financial necessity. Thai
man is too cheap for q freeman who can be
raised for much less than 81 900. The animal
! O"u 10 hoau III Oohu"So c"ShJ VHouSii,
while he remains 50, neither law nor gospel
can emancipate him in fact but when his edu
cational enhancement will rent for three OF
four hundred year, he is free by the shee,
force of his acquired manhood
Beyond all measure therefore, We regard Mr.
Ellis as n better case for the freedom Of hi
race than any Uncle Tom that tho South car
produce or Mrs Stowe can imagine. Her hero
is model slaw, and will answer ~ q safe pre-
ccdent and example on the plantation. Read
his story to collie of negroes, and every en-,
thusiast among them, that nature made noble
and poetical, will be inspired with the spirit Of
selfsacrifce and submission They will be d,
for slavery, as well as for heaven. MIR. Eli,
was not fit for slave, and could not be kept