The weekly Anglo-African. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1859-1861, 1859-09-03


seek more Independent employments, and
follow them with more success, and make
whatsoever he does follow more respecta-
BILE.
Hear what the North American says:
Ninety-nine in a hundred of the great
bulk of our colored population are making
precarious livelihood by continually per-
forming the most mental Offices; or else
they are living in idleness and wretched-
ness" The latter clause Of this statement
is false-false as the blackness of dark
ness, and the "North American ought to
have known it or not to have made it. The
great bulk of the free colored people, while
we could wish them doing better, are nei-
Their living in idleness or wretchedness.
But again says the North American"
awe daily see the blacks driven from av-
ocations once deemed almost exclusively
their own"
We ask, why deem exclusively their
own2 That the "North American" and
those of its ilk might continually deem
them mental employments z We notice
one thing: that no sooner than these blacks
are driven from these avocations, and the
whites get snugly in them, they become
respectable, even laudable-so much SO
that there is not one in which even the
"North American" would hesitate to en-
gage.
The "North American can find it in its
heart to apologize for the desire on the part
of the South to be rid of the free colored
population, but is sadly puzzled to see
why the Northern and the new free States
and territories so ardently desire to free
themselves of them except on higher
grounds than mere prejudice. Had the
North American" not been so much very
slave, under the strictest surveillance of
its Southern masters, it might have discov-
cred that neither the idleness, the wretch
edness, nor yet the mere presence of the
free colored population, or that they can
not be useful citizens, have caused the
wicked and unjust legislation frequently
occurring in the Northern States and terri
tories but the stern dictum of the $780,
900 Southern masters of these trembling,
mean white slaves, who make up this OPP
position to the colored man-dreaded mas
tiers, whose behests they dare not disobey.
They must oppose the black man, or lose
the countenance of their superiors
But again SAYS the North American"
"These disabilities, such as are thrown
around our colored people in many of our
States and territories, have very little, if
anything, to do with their rise and pro-
greSs. We must look for something deep
er. We believe that the difficulty is to be
found in the constitution Of the negro him
self. He is an exotic, and all efforts to
naturalize him on American soil, or under
American skies, have failed"
Who but the meanest tool, like the
" North American" could have found in
The denying of the right of citizenship, and
the right of the soil, and the right of la
Dor, and the right of franchise, and other
equally essential immunities by legislative
acts, sufficient to check the progress of this
people rather than anything in the people
Reconsideration enough to have broken
down completely any other than the free
colored people2 No, no, friend Republi-
cans, the bait won't take. Your Southern
brethren, as you are wont to call them, and
whom you are so anxious to conciliate, in
spite of all your creeping, and cringing,
and fawning, will not, if they can help it,
permit you to elect your man, be he who
he may, by any such side thrusts at the
free colored people. You had better at
once come out and "tell the truth and
shame the devil" Be honest; be honest
| 10 Tic DldCk HAL DIS We'll dts W lLc NIIll6
man. Whatever party does this will ulti-
mately become the strong and permanent
party in the country. Cease, gentlemen,
to continually endeavor to write down the
black man under the belief that he is help
less, hoping thereby to add strength to
your party and conciliate your masters.
The day going by when such base means
will serve you. The black man begins to
discover that he is neither SO idle, so
wretched, nor yet an exotic, but a man who
intends to remain in the country, asking
neither more nor less than the removal of
those disabilities of which we have spoken,
and rather recommended by the " North
American" Remove all obstacles, and
give the black man an equal chance with
the rest of his fellow citizens; and then
should he not succeed, he will not ask you