The Future of Africa/Chapter 3
the
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION ALONG THE
WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
Delivered in St. Peter's Church, Salem, Mass.; Grace Church, Providence, R.I.; St. James's, Bristol, R.I.; Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia; Christ Church, Hartford, Conn.; Christ Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., die., dec, during the year 1861.
"The ways of Providence are not confined within narrow limits; he hurries not himself to display to-day the consequences of the principle that he yesterday laid down; he will draw it out in the lapse of ages when the hour is come."—Guizot's "General History of Civilization" Lecture I.
"Is it not apparent that civilization is the main fact, the general and definite fact, in which all others terminate, and are included? * * * * This is so true, that, with respect to facts, which are from their nature detestable, disastrous, a painful weight upon nations, as despotism and anarchy, for example, if they have contributed in some degree to civilization, if they have given it a considerable impetus, up to a certain point we excuse and pardon their injuries and their evil nature; insomuch, that wherever we discover civilization, and the facts which have tended to enrich it, we are tempted to forget the price it has cost."—Guizot's General History of Civilization" Lecture I.
"In all things, Providence, to accomplish its designs, lavishes courage, virtues, sacrifices man himself!"—Guizot's General History of Civilization" Lecture VII.
ADDRESS.
Three hundred years of misery have made West Africa the synonyme of every thing painful and horrible. So generally, nay, so universally, has this been the case, that it is difficult for us to connect ideas grateful and gracious "with even any part of that continent. It seems to have an enstampect character which cannot admit of mitigating lights or relieving shades. Fact, and incident, and memory, and imagination, all serve but to breed suggestions that are distressful and agonizing.
The principle of association, moreover, is so tenacious and persistent a faculty that it is almost impossible, at times, to turn it from the channels in which it has been wont to flow, for generations or for ages. And the story of anguish, and rapine, and murder, which is the story of Africa for 300 years,—which has been so prolonged that it has seemed to be destiny; which has been so aggravated and intense that it has seemed to be organic,—it seems almost impossible to change this storv into a cheering episode of blessedness and mercy.
It is not so, however. The great poet of our language tells us that
"The night is long that never sees the day."
Still more pertinent to my subject is the declaration of the Psalmist, "Though, we have lain among; the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." A contrast as broad, and marked, and gracious as this, is now manifesting itself through the vast extents of that continent, and I desire to use my opportunity to set before you a few of its prominent characteristics.
Doubtless all intelligent persons have contemplated the fact of the long-continued and unbroken benightedness of the continent of Africa; but perhaps they have not had their attention called to the recent transitional state into which that continent is passing, on the way to enlightenment and salvation.
The facts pertaining to this subject are so distinct, so prominent, and so interesting, that I may be pardoned if I pause here, for a few moments, and endeavor to present them more minutely.
1. And here, first of all, we have to observe the sad and startling fact, that mental and moral benightedness Las enshrouded the whole of the vast continent of Africa, through all the periods of time, far back to the earliest records of history. We know that since the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, although both civilization and Christianity have streamed out, with the Gospel, from the Holy Land, through all Europe, to various parts of Asia, across the Atlantic to America, and, at length, from both Europe and America, to the islands of the sea; yet Africa has remained, during the whole of the Christian era, almost entirely unvisited by the benignant rays, and the genial influences of our Holy Faith.
And then, standing at the very start of the Christian era, if we strive to penetrate the long lapse of ages, which anticipated the coming of the Lord, we meet vista upon vista of the deepest darkness, stretching out to the earliest dawn of the world's being. So far as Western Africa is concerned, there is no history. The long, long centuries of human existence, there, give us no intelligent disclosures. "Darkness covered the land, and gross darkness the people."
And, indeed, if you will examine the case, you will find no cause for wonder at this universal prevalence of benightedness through all Africa. I know, indeed, that the fact is often contrasted with the advance of both Europe and Asia in enlightenment; and the inference drawn, that is, of negro inferiority, as the cause of the seeming organic wretchedness of that vast continent. But you will remember that the civilization of all races has been conditioned on contact. It is the remark of a great German historian—perhaps the greatest historian of modern times: "There is not in history the record of a single indigenous civilization; there is nowhere, in any reliable document, the report of any people lifting themselves up out of barbarism. The historic civilizations are all exotic. The torches that blaze along the line of centuries were kindled, each by the one behind."[1]
Where peoples and nations have been so situated that they could be touched by influence and power, there men have gone upward and onward. And this accounts for the fact that newly-discovered islands in the seas have almost always been found low, degraded, and bestial; while, on the other hand, the peoples and races living on continents, generally exhibit the evidences of progress and improvement. But so far as contact with the elements of civilization is concerned, so far as the possibility of being touched by the mental and moral influences of superior and elevating forces is implied, Africa might as well have been an island as a continent. The Desert of Sahara has served as effectually to cut off Africa from the ancient civilizations, as the ocean, for long centuries, separated the Sandwich Islands from the Avorld's enlightenment. Here is the solvement of Africa's benightedness. Physical causes have divorced her from the world's cultivation and improvement. A great ocean of sand has shut her off from that law of both national and individual growth, namely, that culture and enlightenment have got to be brought to all new peoples, and made indigenous among them.
Thrown thus back upon herself, unvisited by cither the mission of letters, or of grace, poor Africa, all the ages through, has been generating, and then reproducing, the whole brood and progeny of superstitions, idolatries, and paganisms, through all her quarters. And hence the most pitiful, the most abject of all human conditions! And hence the most sorrowful of all histories! The most miserable, even now, of all spectacles!
2. But, as I have remarked, the Christian and civilized world, within a more recent period, has become both assured and hopeful by the fact of an evident transitional state, in Africa, from her night and gloom, to blessedness and glory. The long night of her darkness and misery has been broken in upon, during a little more than a half century, by the opening light of a brighter day of blessedness. Among the several causes which have contributed to these hopes for Africa, have been the following:—
First among these, was the Abolition of the slave-trade, by this country, and then by the leading powers of Europe. Auxiliary to this was the noble effort to rescue the numerous victims of this murderous traffic, by the active fleets, sent by generous nations, on this errand of humanity. Merciful feeling, and humane effort for Africa, served to interest the Christian world in her interests and her well-being. Just in proportion as the nations were prompted to heal the wounds of this afflicted continent, just so have they been scattering darkness from her agonized brow, and hastening the day of her final relief and regeneration.
But secondly, in addition to these distinctive philanthropic efforts, I must needs mention here the earnest missionary endeavors which, within the last 70 years, have helped to change to hopefulness the condition of Africa. These streams of saving influence have flowed out from every powerful Protestant State in the world. The whole world's enlightened and reformed religion, has striven for the regeneration of Africa. Missionaries have gone thither from England and Germany, from America and France, from Switzerland and Holland. Their stations are scattered all along the coast of Africa, from the south border of the desert to the Cape of Good Hope.
3. I have described all this as transitional—but it is more than this. The transitional aspects were confined to a preceding period of some 40 or 50 years, dating from about 1700; but these have now passed away. The remedial, the regenerative state of the Negro race and the continent of Africa, has now assumed a positive form, and reached a normal, and in some spots, an organic state; with both Christian and civilizing features. And these forms of fixed, and abiding, civilization are erowiim stronger and stronger every day, and taking deeper and deeper root. And there is an almost certain prospect, that a yet more thorough and radical growth will be theirs; as year by year, the work of grace, and the power of government and civilization go on, in the divers settlements of western Africa. All the auxiliaries fitted to these ends are now in use there, under the control of a most favoring providence. I beg to present here, in detail, these formative and creative agencies. (a) First of all there is the benfeent operation of legitimate Commerce. For nigh 3 centuries, commerce, on the coast of Africa, was divested of every feature, humane, generous, and gracious. Commerce then was a robber; commerce was a marauder; commerce was a devastator; a thief; a murderer! But commerce, now, under the beneficent hifiuence of Christianity, has become the handmaid of religion; and all along the coast of Africa she aids in the development of the resources of that continent; and conveys to its rude inhabitants the aids and instruments to civilization, to active industry, to domestic comfort, and to a budding social refinement. Without attempting any elaborate verification of these general statements, relative to West African commerce; I will merely present a few items which will show the progressive expansion and the real importance of African trade. I shall merely speak of two prime articles of that trade, namely Cotton and Palm Oil.
(1) Cotton. It is not very generally known that West Africa, that is, that section of the continent of Africa which is called Negroland; is a vast cotton growing country. The cotton that is grown there is manufactured on simple native looms, into cotton cloths; and these cloths enter into an extensive home barter, as also into the foreign trade, for the supply of the Brazilian slaves. Upwards of 200,000 of these manufactured cloths, weighing on the average 2½ lbs. apiece, pass out of the port of Lagos. Their value is stated by Mr. Consul Campbell, late consul at Lagos, at £250,000.
About 30,000 find their way from the interior to Monrovia, and the other ports of Liberia A like number are brought and sold at Therbro.
The fact of this great growth of cotton in interior Africa, has not escaped the anxious eye of commerce; and within a few years efforts have been made by English houses, through missionaries and traders, to secure the raw material. The signal success of this movement is seen in the Abbeokutan country; where, from an exportation, 8 years ago, of about 235 lbs. of raw cotton, it lias been increased to 3,447 bales, for the year 1859.
(2) Palm Oil. In 1808 the quantity of Palm oil, imported into England, was only 200 tons. "The quantity that reached Great Britain during the year 1860 was 804,326 cwt." The estimate of the annual amount, from the whole of West Africa, is 60,000 tons.
This exposition of trade you will observe, has reference to but two articles. Its real importance would be greatly exasperated, if I could give you the items which pertain to the trade in other oils beside the Palm: in Ivory, of which 3,000 cwt. are annually exported; in Teak, Ebony, and Camwood, and in Gum-Arabic.
(3) I venture, however, to call attention to one more commercial fact, which will serve to show the growing value of this West African trade. In a recent number of the "African Times," published in London, I see that "the value of the exports of British produce and manufactures to British possessions on the west coast of Africa, has advanced from £263,725 in 1858 to £340,311 in 1860,"—that is, they have increased in value nigh $100,000 in two years.
I add here that such is the increasing value of the trade that the English steam-line on the "West coast, earned the latter part of 1861 a dividend of 7 percent., in addition to $10,000, which was laid aside as a sinking fund.
(b) Next to this, I may mention the active spirit of travel and inquiry which marks the age. Adventurous spirits are starting off from every civilized land for Africa; anxious to dissipate the spell, which for centuries has divorced her crowded populations from the world's brotherhood and enlightenment; and eager to guarantee them the advantages of culture, which, during the ages, has raised them from rudeness and degradation, and carried them up to the heights of grace and refinement.
Fifty years ago Africa was but little better known than it was in the days of Herodotus. Even the adventures of Bruce were regarded as splendid fictions; and he himself was often refused the courtesies due of society, from the supposed mendacity of his narrative. But the travels of Park and Clapperton, of Ledyard and the Landers, of Richardson and Barth, of Kraft and Livingston; have rectified the geographical errors which existed concerning the Nile and its several branches; have unfolded to the greedy gaze of commerce a vast interior route for trade and barter, by the river Niger, more than rivalling your own Mississippi, in its tropical richness and untouched luxuriant resources;—have modified the degrading prejudices concerning the negro, by contrasting him as free, dignified, powerful, and ingenious, in his native superiority, with the miserable caricature of him, shorn of bis manhood, ludicrous, and benighted, in chains and slavery; and have led to the discovery of superior peoples, mighty nations, vast kingdoms, and populous cities with from 50 to 100,000 inhabitants in the interior, subject to law and authority, given to enterprise, and engaged in manufactures, agriculture, and extensive commerce.
And thus, by these adventures, vast millions of that continent have been brought into contact with civilized men; with the fabrics of civilized nations; with the quickening ideas of superior men; and the whole continent itself, save a slight belt on either side of the Equator, has been opened to the scrutiny of travellers; and even this has been recently trenched upon by Burton and Speke in the East, directly upon the Equator.
(c.) Another effective agency now in use in West Africa for a permanent work of regeneration, is the missions and missionary schools scattered along some 2,000 miles and more of that coast, and which are giving, mostly, English instruction to many thousands of native African children. These mission stations are those of the Church of England and the Wesleyans, both north and south of Liberia; and which form a complete cordon of spiritual posts from about the fifteenth degree of north latitude to Liberia; and from the southern limits of Liberia to ten degrees of south latitude. The most northern mission station is that of Gambia.
Here the English Church and the Wesleyans have important stations, with several ministers and catechists; stations on the coast, and interior stations some 160 miles up the river Gambia.
About 400 miles lower down the coast, the English Church commenced, in 1856, a mission on the Pongas River, among both pagans and Mohammedans; which has had such real success that it may now be regarded as established.
At about the eighth degree of north latitude is the great missionary stronghold Sierra Leone. The English Church here has a Bishop, and the Church Missionary Society of England conduct, from that point, their extensive operations in Western Africa. Between 30 and 40 clergymen, the majority of whom are native-born Africans, and upwards of 60 lay agents, are employed in their different stations, whether at Sierra Leone, or Lagos, or Abbeokuta, or on the Niger.
In Freetown, the capital, is a cathedral, and all through the colony are numerous, capacious stone churches and chapels. Two high schools, in connection with the Church of England, are in existence, one in Freetown and the other at Lagos, where, besides the ordinary branches of education, instruction is also given in elementary mathematics, and in Latin and Greek.
Upwards of 20 common schools are connected with their stations. Over 5,000 are on the roll of their churches. Upwards of 20 native young men, natives of the land, are being prepared, some while in active duty, for Holy Orders.
At a recent ordination the Bishop of Sierra Leone ordained, at one ordination, 12 or 14 deacons.
The importance of the great missionary station may be gathered from the fact that Sierra Leone has already become the mother of missions; for from this place have gone out the teachers and catechists, the farmers and traders, the missionaries and civilizers—men of the negro race,—who have already introduced both the Gospel and civilized institutions at Lagos, made Abbeokuta a stronghold of missions, and churches, yea, and have carried schools and the Gospel to Rabba, 400 miles up the Niger.
This representation of the missionary character of Sierra Leone is incomplete, without a reference to the labors of the Wesleyans and the Lady Huntington connection; which two bodies maintain many ministers and catechists, have built several chapels, and have succeeded in converting to the faith near as large a body of members as the Church of England.
The Wesleyans have 19 missionaries and assistants in all their stations, including Sierra Leone, Lagos, Abbeokuta, &c.; about 300 lay agents, 54 chapels, 45 day schools, and near 9,000 church members.
At the distance of about 60 miles below Sierra Leone the American Missionary Association have important stations, in the Mendi country, which have already been fruitful in converts, Lave tended to the suppression of native wars, have prompted native industrv, and have originated an active commercial spirit. Some idea of the extent of their operations may be gathered from the fact, that the expenditure for the Mendi mission for 1801 amounted to $16,000.
Lower down the coast, that is, from Sierra Leone to lat. 4°, is the territory of Liberia, where American Christians—Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians—have been maintaining their missions nigh 40 years, both among natives and colonics.
The result of these efforts is, that the Methodist, the leading denomination of Christians, is now organized as a national church, with a bishop, a colored citizen, and 18 preachers, members of conference, and several local preachers; 19 week-day schools are maintained, for both natives and colonists; and two High Schools are in operation, where classical education is given to both boys and girls. This body of Christians has several missionary stations among the heathen; several native preachers, and has 32 native boys, who are placed in equal numbers in the families of its ministers "for instruction in letters and in home and industrial affairs."
The Presbyterian body is formed into a synod, with some 8 or 10 ministers. It maintains some 4 or 5 mission stations among the heathen; but is specially noted for the most important educational establishment in the Republic—The Alexander High School, in Monrovia; where a number of youth have received a superior education; and now some of them are holding most responsible positions in the government, as well as in the churches, and in mercantile life.
The Baptists have some 12 chapels and ministers; and a large membership throughout the Republic. In Monrovia they maintain an important High School, where both boys and girls receive a good and thorough English education, with mathematical training. They are united in a Conference, which meets annually in different parts of the Republic.
The Episcopalians are a missionary body, under the direction of the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.
The following will exhibit the agency and the work of this Mission:—
| Missionaries, Foreign, (including the Bishop,) 3 | Total | 10 | ||
| Missionaries,„ Colonist, 6; Native, 1 | ||||
| Assistant Missionaries: 1 Physician, (colored,) 3 White Ladies, 11 Colonist, 19 Native |
34 | |||
| Candidates for orders: Colonist, 3; Native, 3 | 6 | |||
| Confirmations: Colonist, 53; Native, 21 | 74 | |||
| Communicants (returns imperfect): Colonist, 175; Native, 143; Foreign, 14; total |
332 | |||
| Scholars: Colonist Boarding, 45; Day, 223 | 606 | |||
| Scholars:„ Native, Boarding,„ 130; Day,„ 208 | ||||
| 1 High School. | ||||
In connection with the Mission are 6 organized Colonist congregations, six principal Native stations, and seven out-stations.
The gospel is preached with more or less regularity, to over 100,000 people.
(d) Another most powerful auxiliary to the work of African regeneration, is the formation of important Christian colonies on that coast. The history and the importance of these germs of civilization, on the African coast, are but little known in this country. Let me dwell upon this particular item for a few moments.
The traveller sailing down the coast of Africa, and visiting its various settlements, meets, first of all, with the French settlement of Goree, and then with a few Portuguese ports in the same neighborhood, that is, from the 14th to the 17th degree of north latitude; hut after that, Anglo-Saxon authority, whether English or American, sways the coast for nigh 2,000 miles.
The English colony of Gambia is the next point of importance. This settlement comprises a well-built town on the coast, with schools, good churches and chapels, and several ambitious European houses; and another colony, several hundred miles up the Gambia river, in the interior, at McCarthy's island; which is reached by steamers and large sailing vessels, and which yields an important trade. A day's sail brings the traveller to Sierra Leone, the capital of West Africa, the settlement of recaptured Africans, with a population of over 60,000 inhabitants: its chief town, Freetown, with over 20,000 inhabitants—a capacious city, with numerous fine and even elegant houses; with a cathedral and many stone churches; large shipping, many merchants, and considerable wealth. Here is the Governor's residence, a substantial and capacious building; and here is to be seen, on an elevated site, the barracks for the several regiments of native African troops enrolled in the British army.
Just below Sierra Leone is the Republic of Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society, with great sacrifice of precious life, and by the expenditure of large means and treasure. I cannot enter into minute statements concerning this young nation. But I beg to say that here is what I claim to be a most singular and striking phenomenon; of 15,000 simple and unlettered men, descendants of slaves, exiles from hereditary wrong and oppression, who, with, indeed, the aid of a large Christian philanthropy, have swept the slave-trade from 700 miles of the coast; have assimilated nigh 20,000 native Africans to them, to their own civilization and religion; have brought into the Christian faith, by baptism, several hundreds of their neighboring heathen; have built some 20 different towns and settlements, with brick, and stone, and frame dwellings; have cleared thousands of acres of lands, and are exporting, as the produce thereof, sugar and coffee to foreign lands; whose merchants are the owners of 40 vessels, engaged in commerce, manned and officered by their own citizens; and who have demonstrated their moral strength and the political capacity of the nation, by the reception in less than I8 months—nd that without any disturbance, without any disorgianization, but bv the turning it into an element of strength and advantage—by the reception, into the bosom of the State, of 5,000 heathen captives rescued, in nakedness and barbarism, by the cruisers of your own nation, from cruel slavers! I do not think I can exaggerate the importance of the Republic of Liberia. There are two or three facts of special importance, which I feel I cannot do otherwise than present in bold relief. One of these is, the fact that this little nation, of only 15,000 civilized black Americans has, during some 20 or 30 years, held under control nigh a half a million of bold and warlike heathen, and completely interdicted their participation in the slave-trade. Second, that although Liberia is one of the smallest of West African colonies, and its settlements are scattered along some 600 miles of coast; yet we are the only manufacturers of sugar and of bricks; we are the only ones who have saw-mills, and cut large quantities of lumber. And ee present the singular fact, that is that although we are the least of all the colonies on the coast in numbers; yet from the borders of the desert, to the Cape of Good Hope, Liberia is the only settlement which can meet demands for sugar, bricks, and lumber; and we can humbly claim, that for nigh 4,000 miles on that coast, we are the foremost of all people in enterprise, and that we own more vessels than all the sons of Africa, in all their settlements, along the whole line of the coast.
And now, through the munificence of citizens of Massachusetts and other states, a College has been given to the Republic of Liberia; the college building, nobly situated on the heights of Montserrada, can be seen far distant on the ocean. The establishment of this college forms an epoch, not only in the history of Liberia, but also of West Africa; for already numbers of African children, the sons of native chiefs, and kings, and merchants, are sent to England and Scotland for education. I have myself seen 12 native African children in one school in England; and I have no doubt that at the present time there are fully 50 or 60 of such children in British schools: but alas, many die from the severity of the climate. The favorable position of Liberia College will, I have no doubt, give us advantage in this respect; and ere long, numbers of these children, from beyond our territory, as well as within, will be sent to us for instruction: and thus from Liberia, as a fountainhead, shall flow culture, learning, science, and enlightenment to many of the tribes of Africa, all along the coast, and up its rivers, to its most distant inland quarters!
Below the Republic of Liberia are the several forts, settlements, and colonies of the English; lying some two or three hundred miles apart; namely, Cape Coast Castle, Accra, Badagy, and the important town of Lagos, which bids fair to be the New York of West Africa. At all these places the English have chaplains; missions are planted by the Church of England and the Wesleyans; schools are sustained, and the whole work of evangelization is vigorously prosecuted.
I close this part of my subject with this brief summary of the results of labor, on the West coast of Africa, during the last 40 or 50 years; the several items of which I have gathered from divers sources.
Over 150 churches have been erected; nearly 200 schools are in operation; 20,000 children have been instructed in English; nigh 20,000 baptized persons are members of different bodies of Christians; 25 dialects have been reduced to writing; between 60 and 70 settlements have been formed—the centres of civilization, English-speaking our tongue, with schools, and churches, agricultural operations, and commerce.
The facts I have stated serve to bring before us a few marked principles and conclusions:
1. The whole of Negroland seems, without doubt, to be given up to the English language, and hence to the influence of Anglo-Saxon life and civilization. It is a most singular providence that that very people, who have most largely participated in the slave-trade, should have been brought, by the power of God's dealings, and in the workings of His plans, to bear the weighty burden of lifting up this large section of humanity to manhood , and ofilluminating; them with Christian light and knowledge. Does any one here doubt this providence? Do any of you question the obligation? Just look then at that large portion of Africa which is bounded on the north by the desert, on the west and south by the Atlantic, and on the east by the river Niger; that immense territory which probably contains a population of from 30 to 50,000,000 of people, and which has been the seat of the slave-trade nigh three centuries; and then notice the other fact, that almost the only forts, settlements, colonies, and missions, along the whole line of its coast, are English-speaking, namely Gambia, Pongas, Sierra Leone, Mendi, Liberia, Accra, and Lagos. Can any one doubt that God has thrown the responsibility of evangelizing this people upon the Anglo-Saxon race? Does it not seem manifest that God has laid this people's spiritual burden upon the sensitive Christian heart of England and America? What if this grand cause should prove the agency for neutralizing their national prejudices; or for producing a union, for love and human well-being, such as the world has never before witnessed?
2. Again, I would add, that the evangelization of Africa is manifestly to oe effected contemporaneously with, its civilization. Unlike most of the missionary and evangelizing movements of modern times, God evidently purposes the redemption of Africa, in connection with the use of all the appliances of culture, learning, trade, industry, and commerce. All these are already being used, in West Africa, as handmaids of religion. Civilization is to be a most marked agent in the process of evangelization, among the million masses of that vast continent. We shall see, in West Africa, in these our own days, and on a large scale, that primitive mode of propagating Christianity over a whole continent, which characterized the rapid progress of the faith in Apostolic times; when the Spirit of God seized upon an actual, though pagan civilization; and ran, Avith an almost electric speed, through Palestine, through Asia Minor, through Greece, through the Roman provinces, through the Roman Empire; until, in less than three centuries, the Christian faith became the master influence of the world; and the diadem of the Caesars had to bow in submission to the cross of Christ!
So, most probably, will it be in West Africa. The day of Africa's agony is being closed up by the simultaneous entrance of Christian churches and civilized colonies, all along her coasts, and through all her interior quarters!
3. You see here also the important fact that the main agency God is employing for the ends I have pointed out, is black men themselves. It is, indeed, in West Africa, as everywhere else in all history, namely, that the primal training, the early preparation come from advanced and superior people. They always plant the germs of a new faith, or are the pioneers of a new civilization. But the work itself is alwyas effected by indigenous agencies. So in Africa, the work of these settlements, colonies, and mission, is being done by Negroes. Some of these came from the British West Indies: numbers of them are recaptured Africans, trained in English schools: thousands of them are American black men, educated in the missions of Liberia, or amid the institutions and in the schools of this country: and all of whom, thus enlightened, are Presidents, Judges, Senators, Merchants, Civilians, Planters, and a host of Priests, and Deacons, and Catechists—sons of Africa! How mighty is the hand of God in the affairs of earth! How wonderful is His providence amid the disastrous and destructive doings of men! The slave-trade has been carried on for centuries by cruel, ruthless men, without a thought of mercy. The system of slavery, in the lands of the black man's thraldom, has been a system of greed, and overwork, and lust, and premature decay, and death, with but slight and incidental alleviations. And yet there have been alleviations. God never allows any evils on earth to be entirely aggregations of evil, without their incidents of good. So here, in this matter, God has raised up, even in their lands of servitude, a class of black men who have already gone from America, from the British West Indies, and from Sierra Leone; the pioneers of civilization and Christianity, to the land of their fathers. Thus God overrules the wrath of man. Thus from blasting, deadly evil, is Pie ever educing good. Thus does He pluck the sting of malignant intent out of the disastrous histories of men; and transforms those histories into benignant providences.
I know full well how wickedly, how blasphemously, all this story has been used to justify the wrongs of the Negro, and to fasten it all upon the will of God. But when Joseph told his brethren—"it was not you that sent me hither, but God," he did not mean that they had not acted brutally toward him; but only that, in all the dark deeds of men, there is a higher, mightier, more masterful hand than theirs, although unseen;—distracting their evil counsels, and directing them to goodly issues. God, although not the author of sin, is, nevertheless, the omnipotent and gracious disposer of it. Let us bless God for that master hand of His, which checks, and rules, and guides the policies and histories of men! "Alleluia! for the Lord God, omnipotent reigneth."
And here we may see, in two special points, how God shows himself Sovereign and Governor in this world, amid the sore vicissitudes and the bitter trials of men. For first, we have disclosed herein the workings of that great law of God, that is, the call to suffering and endurance, to the end of greatness and noble duty, in any race or people whom He has elected to greatness, and might, and future empire. For without doubt, the black man, in the lands of his thraldom, has been in the school of suffering; yea, tried in the fiery furnace, that being tried, he might secure therefrom the strength, the character, and the ability which might fit him for a civilizer and a teacher. Not for death, as the Indian, not for destruction, as the Sandwich islander, has the Negro been placed in juxtaposition with the Caucasian; but rather that he might seize upon civilization; that he might obtain hardiment of soul; that lie might develop those singular vital forces, both of the living spirit and the hardy frame, in which I claim the Negro is unrivalled; and thus, himself, be enabled to go forth, the creator of new civilizations in distant quarters, and the founder, for Christ, of new churches!
And next, we may see in all this that law of compensation which God vouchsafes the wronged and suffering, for all their woes and suffering. After being afflicted, by nigh three centuries of servitude, God calls chosen men of this race, from all the lands of their thraldom—men laden with gifts, and intelligence, and piety—to the grand and noble mission, which they only can fulfil, even to plant colonies, establish Churches, found Missions, and lay the foundations of Universities along the shores, and beside the banks of the great rivers of Africa. He lifts up this people from lowly degradation, to the great work of evangelizing the vast continent of Africa, so that the grandeur and dignity of their duties may neutralize all the long, sad, memories of then' servitude and sorrows.
4th, and lastly: I remark that the facts I have referred to are full of promise of that future glory in Christ which is promised, and which will surely be given to Africa. She has passed, sadly, wearily, through long ages of agony and woe; but the end is approaching. "The night is far spent: the day is at hand." The day when civilization and true religion shall make triumphal march through all her quarters, is rapidly drawing nigh. Yea, the time has already come when rudeness and barbarism shall be replaced by culture and refinement. Schools shall be filled by ten thousands of joyous children; Trades shall be pursued by her crowded populations; Agriculture shall pour forth its gifts and offerings for distant marts; Commerce shall bear multitudinous treasures to foreign climes; and Art shall multiply its blandishments, to
"Soften the rude and calm the boisterous mind."
It was a remark of the great William Pitt: "We may live to behold the nations of Africa engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit of a just and legitimate commerce; we may behold the beams of science and philosophy breaking in upon their land, which at some happier period, in still later times, may blaze with full lustre, and joining their influence to that of pure religion, may illuminate and invigorate the most distant extremities of that immense continent."
And already have these noble words been somewhat realized. I myself, with my own eyes, have seen the fulfilment, in partial degrees, of this grand prediction. Large masses of native children are now being trained in Christian schools. A great company of native cateehists have gone forth from their homes to train and evangelize their heathen kin. A host of native priests and deacons have been commissioned to go forth as missionaries, in divers tongues to preach the gospel: already have they penetrated the wilds of the interior; already have they reached the banks of the Niger; and soon the full picture painted by the great orator, shall assume the features of grand reality, "and science and philosophy, with pure religion, illuminate raid invigorate extremities of that immense continent."
But nobler words and a more glorious prediction have been uttered concerning Africa, than even the glowing words of the great British orator: for the words I now utter are the words of inspiration, they come from God Himself: "Ethiopia"—from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian—from the Mediterranean to the Cape, "shall soon stretch out her hands unto God!"
- ↑ Niebuhr.