imposing character. But it must be
recollected that in all these establishments there is a religious
impulse in the members, and a religious authority in the head, for
which there will be no substitutes of equivalent efficacy in the
emancipating establishment. The code of rules by which Mr. Rapp
manages his conscientious and devoted flock, and enriches a common
treasury, must be little applicable to the dissimilar assemblage
in question. His experience may afford valuable aid in its general
organization, and in the distribution of details of the work to be
performed. But an efficient administration must, as is judiciously
proposed, be in hands practically acquainted with the propensities and
habits of the members of the new community."

FROM FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S PAPER, 1853: "LEARN TRADES OR STARVE"

These are the obvious alternatives sternly presented to the free
colored people of the United States. It is idle, yea even ruinous, to
disguise the matter for a single hour longer; every day begins and
ends with the impressive lesson that free negroes must learn trades,
or die.

The old avocations, by which colored men obtained a livelihood, are
rapidly, unceasingly and inevitably passing into other hands; every
hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly
arrived emigrant, whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him
a better title to the place; and so we believe it will continue to be
until the last prop is levelled beneath us.

As a black man, we say if we cannot stand up, let us fall down. We
desire to be a man among men while we do live; and when we cannot,
we wish to die. It is evident, painfully evident to every reflecting
mind, that the means of living, for colored men, are becoming more
and more precarious and limited. Employments and callings formerly
monopolized by us, are so no longer.

White men are becoming house-servants, cooks and stewards on
vessels--at hotels.--They are becoming porters, stevedores,
wood-sawers, hod-carriers, brick-makers, white-washers and barbers,
so that the blacks can scarcely find the means of subsistence--a few
years ago, a _white_ barber would have been a curiosity--now their
poles stand on every street. Formerly blacks were almost the exclusive
coachmen in wealthy families: this is so no longer; white men are now
employed, and for aught we see, they fill their servile station with
an obsequiousness as profound as that of the blacks. The readiness