The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-05-26
THE NEGRO REPUBLIC.
Some Plain and Startling Statements About
Affairs In Liberia.

THE NEGRO REPUBLIC.
Some Plain and Startling Statements About
Affairs In Liberia.
From. the Cincinnati Commercial.
Nfr. George R. Stetson of Boston, hat
written some queer chapters about the
Republic of Liberia, on the West coast Of
Africa. 1t was founded by philanthrop.
lists 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 Continent
into fernent of Christian civilization.
In the period of their enthusiasm, the
American Colonization Society spent mil
lions of money on the freedmen's para.
disc. As far back as 1859 they sent 10,
900 American negroes there at an expense
of $3.50 per head. About half of them
went to paradies by shorter route than
even the Colonization Society dreamed
of. They died.
In beating the American bush for emf
grants to Liberia, tuneful agents harped
much on the extraordinary richness of
African soil. It had only to be tickled
with wooden hoe to smile back luxuri-
ant harvest. Fruits, grain, and vegeta.
bles, all that made glad the human stonl-
ach, grew in unlimited profusion. This
was one side of the story. The silver
tongued agents told that side. The other
part was that every foreigner who touches
the coast of Liberia, thoug he remain no
longer than week, is stricken down with
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 remians there 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 ne
gro 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 coasting
vessel made trip to the delta of the
Niger. She had crew of 6fty'fve per.
sons. Of these, twenty-five died.
Another vessel was sent to the same
place with crew of twenty men. Ten
of them died within four weeks.
It will be remembered that o passion
for emigration to Liberia suddenly seized
the colored people of Georgia and the
Corolinas three years ago. They sailed
thither by hundreds. One ship, the Azor,
took 256 emigrants from Charleston at
one load. It was fine fun-the starting.
All shared tile devout belief that they
we're going direct to the promise land.
but ali their hopes turned to the bitterest
disappointment. The disgusted pilgrims
died off like sheep in Colorado blizzard.
In many cases of negroes emigrating to
Liberia from America whole families
died, not one being left alive. One fam
ily of ten persons from Georgia sailed in
the Azor. Three died on sbipboard and
two at Monrovia. The other five begged
mony and fed back to Georgia before the
acclimating fever took them, too. Many
others of the colonists who sailed within
few years to Africa are sending for
money to bring them 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 poltical-the testi-
mony is no less emphatic. The term
"lazy African" is probably only under
stood in its truest sense in Africa. Under
the schorching sun the laziness strikes in.
The climate effects 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 "them '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 Uni
ted 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 90
it?
It 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
and kindred.
In other respects the Africans who
rule Liberia have shown their ability to
acquire high civilzation-the very
highest indeed. They have got a bonded
debt. It is so large one that there is
no prospect whatever they will ever pay
it. Moreover, it all owned in London,
every penny. Putting the two facts to.
gether, and connecting them by a link of
reasoning with well.known peculiarly
of the noble British nature, it is not hard
to make prophecy concerning Inc iuluIe
of this, the one black Republic on the
face of the earth.
Some very singular facts have been de-
veloped in the history of Liberia. No
body was more enthusiastic in the cause
of African colonization from this country
than the churches and the religious COM
munity. Missionaries went there BY the
hundred, labored among the black saw
ages. and deid martyrs to their Christian
devotion. Who does not remember for
years "Africs sunny fountains" as the
objective points of missionary work in
America?
What has come of all this work, of the
sacrifice of all these unselfsh lives i?
Christians everywhere expected the
Characterization of all Africa as confident
ly as the Second Adventists looked for
the end of the world. The happy result