is
the mother of Progress. Transplanted to alien climes, and through
centuries of desolating trials, this irrepressible race has [238] bated
not one throb of its energy, nor one jot of its heart or hope. In
modern times, after his expatriation into dismal bondage, both Britain
and America have had occasion to see that even in the paralysing
fetters of political and social degradation the right arm of the Ethiop
can be a valuable auxiliary on the field of battle. Britain, in her
conflict with France for supremacy in the West Indies, did not disdain
the aid of the sable arms that struck together with those of Britons
for the trophies that furnished the motives for those epic contests.

Later on, the unparalleled struggle between the Northern and Southern
States of the American Union put to the test the indestructible fibres
of the Negro's nature, moral as well as physical. The Northern States,
after months of hesitating repugnance, and when taught at last by dire
defeats that colour did not in any way help to victory, at length
sullenly acquiesced in the comradeship, hitherto disdained, of the
eager African contingent. The records of Port Hudson, Vicksburg,
Morris Island, and elsewhere, stand forth in imperishable attestation
of the fact that the distinction of being laurelled during life as
victor, or filling [239] in death a hero's grave, is reserved for no
colour, but for the heart that can dare and the hand that can strike
boldly in a righteous cause. The experience of the Southern
slave-holders, on the other hand, was no less striking and worthy of
admiration. Every man of the twelve seceding States forming the
Southern Confederacy, then fighting desperately for the avowed purpose
of perpetuating slavery, was called into the field, as no available
male arm could be spared from the conflict on their side. Plantation
owner, overseer, and every one in authority, had to be drafted away
from the scene of their usual occupation to the stage whereon the
bloody drama of internecine strife was being enacted. Not only the
plantation, but the home and the household, including the mistress and
her children, had to be left, not unprotected, it is glorious to
observe, but, with confident assurance in their loyalty and good faith,
under the protection of the four million of bondsmen, who, through the
laws and customs of these very States, had been doomed to lifelong
ignorance and exclusion from all moralizing influences.