New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-14
WHERE ARE THE ABoL1T1oN1sTs7

furth who travelled for some years among
the natives. 1t is q most minute repor.
OF the fauna and flora, of the geology and
meteorology of the upper Nile. 1t also
gives the social and industrial condition
of the negroes, with comparison of their
! language as prevailing in the numerous
tribes. We have read great many
travels in Africa. On the west coast
there have been host, of whom Foote is
among the most instructive There have
been narratives by returned slave dealers.
There have been reports from the British
and American colonization societies.
We have in the South specimens of all
the tribes of Western Africa, and long
ago, before the slave trade ceased, the
planters knew the distinctive tribal char
acteristics, as well as the varieties of any
other useful creatures whose services they
required. The Guinea negro or the
Congo was regarded as obstinate and diff
fcult to teach. The Mandingo was alert,
docile and apt to any occupation. Then
we have had numerous travellers from the
days of Park, Denham and Clapperton,
with the more modern Harris, Speke
Livingstone and Stanley All these au-
thorities tell the same story. Domestic
slavery is an institution which prevails
throughout Africa. Slaves are reared.
They are captured in war. They are
sold. They are sacrificed at the death or
inauguration OF the kings. They furnish a
rude medium of exchange and an article
of export. Ii we wished to sport any
extra reading on this subject We could go
back to the tomb chamber of Egypt and
to the Roman satirists, to show that the
sale and expectation of African slaves have
been contemporaneops with all authentic
history.
The particular foreign trade with the
American colonies has been the only case
in which these poor creatures have'been
ever elevated to intelligence, and come to
political right.
There were, for many years, class of
sincere fanatics, who charged themselves
with the duty of securing the emancipa-
ton of the slaves held in bondage in the
United States. In this object they were
adventitiously assisted by the civil war,
which did more than merely emancipate.
1t raised the slave to political equality
with all citizens, and gave the freedman
the protection of the power to which he
owed his freedom.
At this result the Abolitionists rejoiced,
and have apparently accepted this as the
fruits of their effort. They have subsidized
into apathy, OF dedicated their energy to
some other philanthropy.
We find the English philanthropists are
little more persistent. They find that
as the slave trade has been closed out in
the West, it has developed itself in the
East, SO that instead of increasing the
products Of Cuba or Carolina, it is serving
the luxurious despotisms of Persia and
Turkey. Here is what Mr.. Chenon read
before the conference on international law
recently held at the Hague:
He stated that slaves were conveyed IN
large numbers from Tripoli to Malta and
Const intinople, and urged that if the right
OF search were exercised in the Mediter-
ranean, or if civilized nations rigidly pro-
hibited the carriage of slaves in their steam
ships, the effect would be to intlct severe
blow upon the traffic 10 human flesh SO far
as Stamhoul and Smyrna are concerned.
He explained the legal difference between
the African slave trade and the system of
kidnapping now prevailing in Polynesia
He remarked that although the latter was
ostepsibly free immigration it was per-
vaded by the worst kind of injustice, that
which employs the forms of legality in
order to impose upon mankind. He believed
that until new international arrangement
had been concluded the continuance of the
slave trade in one quarter of the globe or
another was inevitable.
Now it will become important to our
philanthropists to prove that their action
was inspired by love of freedom, and not
by sectional hatred. 1t will become i'm
portant that they should continue their
aid to those whose emancipation they I'M
advocated.
The philanthropists should feel them
Selves at least responsible for any undue
of sudden liberation which
may have been visited upon the negroes
Of the South. They are without educa-
lion. They need the varied employments
Of industry to render them more indie
pendent and more useful to those who
have been in inimical relations toward
them ever since the war.
Could not the friends of the slave ex-
tend their aid to the freedman? The
colored men are confined to the exclusive
labor OF the field. The colored women are
menials and field hands. It would be
great measure of relief if these people
could be employed as mechanics and
mariners. 1t would promote their har-
mony with the whites if the women could
be employed in cotton spinning or other
industry which would relieve them from
mental labor and enhance the value of
he raw material of which the negroes are
he chief producers.
We address these suggestions to whom
t may concern of the Abolition Society,
md we may hope that it will induce them
% remember that their work will not be
completed until slavery shall disappear
rom this continent and its islands, and
Until all who have been liberated shall be