every temptation before
them: all for the want of their morals being refined by
education and proper attendance paid unto them by their
owners, or those who had the charge of them. It is said by
the Southern slave-holders, that the more ignorant they can
bring up the Africans, the better slaves they make, 'go and
come.' Is there any fitness for such people to be colonized
in a far country, to be their own rulers? Can we not discern
the project of sending the free people of colour away from
their country? Is it not for the interest of the
slave-holders to select the free people of colour out of the
different states, and send them to Liberia? Will it not make
their slaves uneasy to see free men of colour enjoying
liberty? It is against the law, in some of the southern
states, that a person of colour should receive an education,
under a severe penalty. Colonizationists speak of America
being first colonized, but is there any comparison between
the two? America was colonized by as _wise_, _judicious_ and
_educated_ men as the world afforded. WILLIAM PENN did not
want for _learning_, _wisdom_, _or intelligence_. If all the
people in Europe and America were as ignorant, and in the
same situation as our brethren, what would become of the
world? where would be the principle or piety that would
govern the people? We were _stolen_ from our mother country,
and brought _here_. We have _tilled_ the ground and made
fortunes for thousands, and still they are not weary of our
services. _But they who stay to till the ground must be
slaves._ Is there not land enough in America, or 'corn
enough in Egypt?' Why should they send us into a far country
to die? See the thousands of foreigners emigrating to
America every year: and if there be ground sufficient for
them to cultivate, and bread for them to eat; why would they
wish to send the _first tillers_ of the land away? Africans
have made fortunes for thousands, who are yet unwilling to
part with their services; but the free must be sent away,
and those who remain must be _slaves_. I have no doubt that
there are many good men who do not see as I do, and who are
for sending us to Liberia; but they have not duly considered
the subject--they are not men of colour. This land which we
have watered with