Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-16
THE NEGRO REPUBLIC.
Some Plain and Startling state.
ments About Affairs In Liberia.
Cincinnati Commercial.

Cincinnati Commercial
Mr.. George r. Stetson. of Boston, has
written some queer chapters about the
republic of Liberia, on the West coast
of Africa 1t was founded by philan-
thropists in the United States, some fifty
years ago. 1t was to be speck of para
disc for freed slaves from America.
Good people were to send them there,
set them up in republic on their own
hook, and then put the whole dark con-
tinent into ferment of Christian civili-
zation.
In the period of their enthusiasm, the
American Colonization Society spent
millions of money on the freedmen s
paradise. AS far back as 1859 they had
sent 10 600 American negroes there at
an expense of $3.50 per head. About
half of them went to paradise by a
shorter route than even the Colonization
Society dreamed of. They died.
In beating the American bush for emil
grants to Liberia, tuneful agents harped
much on the extraordinary richness of
African soil. 1t had only to be tickled
with a wooden hoe to smile back
luxuriant harvest Fruits, grain
and vegetables-all that made glad
the human stomach-grew in unlimited
profusion. This was one side of the
story. The silver-tongued agent told
that side. The other part was that every
foreigner who touches the coast of
Liberia, though he remain no longer
than week, is stricken down with q
horrible miasmatic sickness called the
"acclimating fever" The blistering
sun, alternating with heavy rains, and
the rank vegetation from that very soil
whose richness the agents exalted, are
the cause of the terrible malaria Ague
gets the better of civilization. 1t kills
every white man who remains there a
| few years.
The savage African aborigines do not
| appear to suffer from the malaria. Like
the Florida Indians, who are proof
| against mosquito bites, they appear to
be soaked so full of poison that it does
not hurt them. But the American born
negro suffers nearly as much as the
white man. The mortality of the fever
may be judged from some facts given by
| Mr.. Stetson. On one occasion a coast
ing vessel made trip to the delta of the
| Niger She had crew of fifty five
persons. OF these, twenty five died
Another vessel was sent to the same
place with a crew of twenty men. Ten
of them died within four weeks.
1t will be remembered that passion
for emigration to Liberia suddenly seized
the colored people of Georgia and the
Carolinas three years ago They sailed
thither by hundreds. One ship, the Azor,
took two hundred and fifty-six emigrants
from Charleston at one load. 1t was fine
g. oh Al,
belief that they were going directto the
promised land. But all their hopes turn
ed to the bitterest disappointment. The
disgusted pilgrims died off like sheep in a
Colorado blizzard. In many cases of ne
groes emigrating to Liberia from Ameri-
ca, whole families died, not one being left
alive. One family of ten persons from
Georgia sailed in the AZor. Three died
on shipboard and two at Monrovia The
other five begged money and fled back
to Georgia before the acclimating fever
took them too. Many others of the colo
nists who sailed within a few years to
Africa are sending for money to bring
them back home. Liberia, the country
of fertile soil and beautiful landscape is
so sickly that the very horses and mules
die that are taken there.
Concerning other aspects of life in the
model negro republic-educational, in.
dustrial, social and political-the testi-
mony is no less emphatic. The term
''lazy African" is probably only under
stood in its truest sense In Africa. Under
the scorching sun the laziness strikes in.
The climate affects even the industrious
freedman from America. In time he.
too, gives up the struggle and ceases to
work.
He turns to politics as an easier way
of getting living. He seeks 'tbem 'ere
offices" with enthusiasm. Thus he, at
least, shows his capacity for the highest
civilization. Liberian elections are quite
as loud and lively and as frequent as in
the great "moddle" republic of the
United States, which the little African
one was patterned after
Liberian exports have been steadily
declining for number of years. A bare
subsistence is not hard to obtain among
the naked aborigines. What is the good
of working when one is not obliged to
doit?
1t is not agreeable to record the fact
that slavery exists throughout the negro
republic. Its horrors down South never
surpassed the like horrors among these
Liberians, whose slaves are of their own
color and kindred.
In other respects the Africans who
rule Liberia have shown their ability to
acquire a high civilization very
highest indeed. They have got bonded
debt 1t is so large one that there is no
prospect whatever they will ever pay it.
Moreover, it is allowned in London, every
popnu pI1ftiDU tho two faafo fNnofJ,or
and connecting them by a link of reason
ing with a well known peculiarity of the
noble British nature, it is not hard to
make prophecy concerning the future
of this, the one black republic on the
face of the earth.
Some very singular facts have been |
developed in the history of Liberia.
Nobody was more enthusiastic in the |
cause of African colonization from this |
country than the churches and the re-
ligious community. Missionaries went
there by the hundred, labored among
the black savages, and died martyrs to
their Christian devotion. Who does
not remember for years "Africs sunny
fountains" as the objective points of
missionary work i'll America?
What has come of all this work, of
the sacrifice of all these unselfish lives?
Christians everywhere expected the
Christianization of all Africa as con.
f1dently as the Second Adventists looked
for the end of the world. The happy
result never followed. One of the
mld negro tribes that joined the Libe-
rlan Government was Mohammedan in
religion: There are forty wild negro
tribes 10 tae whole country. Instead
of these naked heathens coming under
the gentle lnfqence of the Bible, the one
Mohammedan }~ibe among them is con-
verting them to the faith of the Turk
with amazing rapiGty. There is actual.
ly prospect that at % distant dav ana ma.
iority of the inhabitans Of Liberia will
be followers of the crescent and the Ko.
ran.
Such is stated to be the present CON
dition of Liberia. Instead of ciNilixino
the native negroes, there really seems
rather to be danger that the civilized re-
groes who went there will relapse int,
barbarism. They are the merest hand
full among so many. They suffer hor-l
ribly from the climate, and are growing :
poorer and poorer.
Meantime an insidious British influence