The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1891-11-19
NEGROES GOING BACK TO AFRICA.
They Expect Better Times In the Land
"Where They Belong"

The trim bark Liberia, Capt. Page,
sailed from New York recently for Mon
rovia and Sierra Leone. She had on board
miscellaneous cargo and some seventy
two passengers. The passengers were all
bound for Monrovia, the capital OF the
negro republic Of Liberia, on the west
coast of Africa. Four OF them were white
men, professors OF Sims University, Syra-
cuse. who were going to establish In Mon
rovia an Industrial school similar to the
Armstrong school at Hampton, Va, for
the training Of the negro colonists. The
other passengers, sixty-eight in number,
were colored folks from the Southern
States, who have bid farewell forever to
the land OF their birth. and are seeking
refuge and what they believe will be a
greater independence and higher type OF
citizenship in the land where the negro
rules and the hand OF the white man may
not oppress.
month ago these Southern colored
folks began to arrive in town from the
farms OF Tennessee the cotton fields OF
Georgia, and the orange groves OF Flori-
ia. They have been coming along in
small parties ever since. They have
stored themselves away among those OF
their race in New York city awaiting the
departure OF the ship. When Capt. Page
called the roll OF passengers at O'CLOCK
on Friday night sixty-eight answered to
their names. They answered In gay, ex-
pectant voices which had In them the ring
oflong deferred hope about to be realized.
Tho oldest and most digniiied OF the
party was tho Rev. Robert O'Nelll, tall
and somewhat stoop-shouldered negro
from Florida. He wore an enormous
beaver OF a style long since obsolete. and
spoke In measured tones, and with ges-
lures which commanded attention. His
dialect was that Of the orange groves.
1--WE are going" said he TO a reporter,
"because tho good Lord put the colored
man in Africa, and there he meant him to
stay. The Lord gave America to the
white man and Africa to the black man.
We were MT meant for this land. 1t was
no fault Ci ours. nor yet OF the Lords.
that we were transpanted here and we
believe we are only fulfilling the Lords
will when we go back"
We've come to the deliberate con-
clusion, SIR" continued Mr.. O'Neill. that
there's no hope for the colored man in
this land. Not that we are deliberately
down trodden and oppressed because
we're black, though there may be good
deal In that. but there's no hopo. We are
nothing here; we can't get anywhere.
The white man owns the land and keeps
it. We're practically living on charity
for schools. and don't get any voice in the
government. at least la the South. There's
mighty move among us" there he raised
his voice and assumed the tone Of a
preacher) Ito go away from this land OF
the white man to the land which the good
God first gave us, and there live the life
Of men really free"
:" This is no little movement sir. It's
convictioa, sir. It's the voice OF God. sir.
That voice is going through the land. sir,
and it's hispering in the ears OF the
blacks: This isn't the land for you. IL
.sn't your land. God put you in Africa.
Go back. and find plenty and freedom.
Hasten from oppression. Get you whore
you belong-to your own land that God
has given you"