The Democratic advocate., 1878-12-28
Our Oliu.
Life in Liberia.

tween the mode in which the more pros
porous Liberians live and the manner il
which the Southern planter lived twent..
years ago The Liberian planter who i
fairly successful contents himself with su
pervising the work of his laborers. A
soon as visitor enters the house the flash
ing decanters are placed on the table
When he desires to go to Monrovla, h
calls his dusky crew together, jumps int
his canoe, and while the paddles keep tim'
to the song of the rowers, lolls in the sterI
till he reaches his destination. How IRE
sistibly this reminds one of the cypress
canoes in which our Sea Island planters
travelled, in state, to Charleston in the
times before the war.
As the young Liberians finish their ed
ucation they take charge of the plantation
entirely, sometimes making the "granc
tour" before they settle down. There il
no lack of improvement among the wealth
ier class. In view of all that he saw
and heard, Mr.. Williams is satisfied that
each generation brings the Liberians near
er to the plane of European civilizations
The contrast between the rising generation
of Liberians and the Azor emigrants was
particularly noticeable, and not to the ad-
vantage of the emigrants. Whether the
negro is capable of reaching and remain,
ing on the white mans level or not, he
becomes higher and better citizen in
Liberia than in the United States.
Mr.. Williams is convinced that there is
more capability of improvement in the e.
gro than has been brought to light here
This is the conclusion to which he is
forced, and it will excite natural surprise.
We have fattered ourselves that the con-
ditions favorable to the intellectual devel-
opment of the negro exist, in the United
States, in a higher degree than elsewhere.
Here he has before him the loftiest exam
pies of moral and industrial progress.
Around him the law throws its protecting
mantle. Before him is the example of
persons of his own race who have accumu-
lated property and live in comfort. True,
the Southern freedman, in the midst OF
such influences, is inert and unambitious.
There is, in the mass, no aspiration for
such repose and satisfaction as can be
earned by steady work alone, They do
not look upward. Their march is not on
ward. Whether the broad fact that they
stand in presence of superior race, al
ways, and always to be, superior to them
in mental ability, in culture, in moral force
and political power, SO oppresses them that
they are stifed, stunted and hopeless, is a
question that we shall not attempt to an
swer. 1t is sufficient, for the moment, to
note that there is marked tendency to
improvement in Liberia, and that the class
now rising in the scale will be reinforced,
not by the worse, but by the better class
of Southern negroes.
Life in Liberia is not without its social
Inconvenience. All colored men and wo-
men in the Republic are free and equal, so
equal and free that domestic servants are
addressed as Miss Minta or Mr.. Pompey!
by their highly favored employers. This
will cure itself in time, as it has cured it
self on the Liberian plantations. There is
no working or laboring class, as such, and
the Liberians, therefore, resort to slave
labor! In Liberia proper there are no
slaves, but the Liberians hire from the ma.
tive kings across the border as many la.
borers as they need, paying the kings in
rum and brass kettles. These slaves work
faithfully until they are recalled, and their
Liberian employers do not hesitate to fog
them when they misbehave. So the lii
berians reproduce another phase of old
time life in the South. AS the whites look
down on them, and as a pampered South
ern servant looked down on the poor whites,
so the Liberian looks down on his nomi-
nally free brother over the line. As the
African king rules his haif-nude subjects,
so do the Liberians regulate their common
wealth. No rival is admitted near the
throne! The "medicine man" will soon
put out of the way any returning slave who
ventures to bring back into the wilderness
the habits or garb of civilized life. The
same spirit actuates the Liberians in de-
nying to the whites the equality and JUS
tice they claim for, and enjoy, themselves.
With them the moving cause is fear of the
superior ability of the white man. In the
United States the conditions are reversed.
The black man is kept in the back ground.
Not, however, because of his superior in
dustry or strength, but because, by his ig
norance and credulity, he throws the po-
litical and social machine out of gear, and
Injuries himself and the whites alike;
We have already noticed the receipt in
Charleston of an order for building mate
rials to be sent to Liberia, 1t was Jesse
Sharp who made the first essay, and Mr..
Williams assures us that there is a desire
to trade with the South. The business
men of the South have the confidence of
the Liberians. As is the case in the South
they will trust the Southern whites in ev-
erything except politics. One of the lead.
ing Liberians frankly said I'll know the
men who generally do business in South
Carolina are gentlemen, and that they are
above G dirty trick, or taking advantage
of a man because he is far away" The
trade has hitherto been monopolized by
the English and Dutch and Northern
firm, and not to the benefit of the Libe
rian merchant or producer.
The Azor emigrants manfully said, when
Mr.. Williams told them what he had seen
on the St. Paul's :-"We've got lots of
cotton seed and tools and when YOU come
back again, If you don't see cotton bales
around here, you can whip us" In the
same breath they asked whether it would
be possible 'sto deal with their old factors
in Charleston ~ Surely Charleston can
furnish them with every raw and manu-
factured article more cheaply than Europe
or New York and Boston can do From
cotton bagging to agricultural implements,
Charleston cap supply them to advantage.
At this point we stop for to-day. 1t is
sure that what is contained in the letter
now published will excite the wonder of
the public generally. Indeed it is easier
to appreciate the marvellous natural re-
sources of Liberia than to realize that the
Liberians are steadily advancing in knowl-
edge, and that the best. of them, in the
rising generation, are superior to such
Southern freedmen as have already emf
grated to Africa. All of them are not on
the same level, of course; but the tide is
rising, not falling This is one of the
deeply significant and encouraging facts
r