FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150  
151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   >>   >|  
e has had nearly forty scholars, and they learn well. There are numbers who can not come to school for want of suitable clothing. They are nearly naked."[51] On a late occasion it is remarked, that "this society seems to meet with the trouble which accompanies the efforts of other missionary societies in their endeavors to 'to seek and to save that which was lost.' They say they find it 'extremely difficult to win the confidence of the colored people of Canada.'"[52] But we have a picture of a different kind to present, and one that proves the capacity of the free colored people for improvement--not when running at large and uncared for, but when subjected to wholesome restraint. This is as essential to the progress of the blacks as the whites, while they are in the course of intellectual, moral and industrial training: "Some years ago the Rev. William King, a slave owner in Louisiana, manumitted his slaves and removed them to Canada. They now, with others, occupy a tract of land at Buxton and the vicinity, called the Elgin Block, where Mr. King is stationed as a Presbyterian missionary. "A recent general meeting there was attended by Lord Althorp, son of Earl Spencer, and J. W. Probyn, Esq., both members of the British Parliament, who made addresses. The whole educational and moral machinery is worked by the presiding genius of the Rev. W. King, to whom the entire settlement are under felt and acknowledged obligations. He teaches them agriculture and industry. He superintends their education, and preaches on the Lord's day. He regards the experiment as highly successful."[53] It is not our purpose to multiply testimony on this subject, but simply to afford an index to the condition of the colored people, as described by abolition pens, best known to the public. We turn, therefore, from the British colonies in the North, to her possessions in the Tropics. West India emancipation, under the guidance of English abolitionists, has always been viewed as the grand experiment, which was to convince the world of the capacity of the colored man to rise, side by side, with the white man. We shall let the friends of the system, and the public documents of the British Government, testify as to its results, both morally and economically. Opening, again, the Seventh Annual Report of the _American Missionary Association_, page 30, where it speaks of their moral condition, we find it written: "One of our missionaries, i
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150  
151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

colored

 

people

 

British

 

Canada

 

missionary

 

capacity

 

condition

 

public

 
experiment
 

successful


highly
 

testimony

 

multiply

 
subject
 

purpose

 
simply
 
afford
 

teaches

 

worked

 

machinery


presiding

 

genius

 
educational
 

Parliament

 
addresses
 

entire

 

settlement

 

education

 
preaches
 

superintends


industry

 

acknowledged

 

obligations

 

agriculture

 

Tropics

 

morally

 

results

 

economically

 
Opening
 
testify

friends

 

system

 

documents

 

Government

 

Seventh

 

Annual

 

written

 

speaks

 

missionaries

 

Report