Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-04-30
African Emigration.
st. Louis Globe Democrat.

African EmIBIaIIOHH
st. Louis Globe Democrat.
The petition of colored citizens Of
Kansas asking Government aid in emf
grating to Africa, brings up a subject
about which there must always be two
radically opposite opinions. The ques-
ton of African emigration has for
many years been n of interest to
philanthropists, and various schemes
have been proposed, by which a gen.
eral deportation of the colored people
of this county to the home Of their
race was to be accomplished, but the
only result that came of many we'll
meant efforts was the founding of the
little republic of Liberia, having a Ter
ritory somewhat less than half that Of
Missouri and a population conjectured
to be about three quarters of S million,
of whom only $4,000 are emigrants
from America, the remainder being
aboriginees making little p%retense to
civilization and having even less than
they claim to possess.
This small outcome Of more than
forty years of almost continuous ef-
fort on the part of individuals, socie-
ties and churches, is not only extreme
ly discouraging, but suggestive of the
probability that the negroes, as a class,
do not want to 60 to Africa. The fact
that it is their ancestral home does
not excite any enthusiasm in their
breasts; like old residents who were
brought up IN a farm, they have out
grown their former home, and its as
sociates have no longer a charm. They
a not be blamed for unwillingness to
return to the home of their race. In
the United States, they are now as free
as they can ever hope to be in Africa;
they are always certain of employment,
their labor brings a fair if not a rich
reward, many Of them own their OVID
homes, and not a few have, since their
emancipation, accumulated considera-
amounts Of property.
To expect them to emigrate to Africa
is to consider that they do not under
stand where their real interests are,
since an emigration implies not only a
sacrifice of what they have been able
to accumulate, but also a life of misery
after reaching Africa, with the posi-
bility of an entire colony being wiped
out in a day by a val with hostile ma
tiYes, to say nothing of the likelihood
of'a European power taking posses
sion of their country and reducing
its population to a condition OF serf
dom. Such contingencies as these are
far from pleasant to contemplate, and
when their significance is clearly under
stood it is easy to understand the un'
willingness of the colored people to
emigrate to Africa. But bad as would
be their situation it could scarcely be
worse than that of the white population
of the Southern States without them.
The negro and the cotton plant have
grown up together, and al
though it is possible, of course, for one
to thrive without the other, the two
thrive so much better in company that
to take away the labor of the South is
practically to take away its cotton
crop. With both whites and colored
people opposed to the emigration plan
there is no possibility of its serious
consideration, much less of Govern
ment assistance +; but so long as there
are negroes in this country, so long
will enthusiasts and philanthropists
occasionally make efforts in behalf of
African emigration.
Grand DEMONSTRATION bv Miners