DR. DELANEY: Brighton, August 28, 1860
MY DEAR SIR--I am sorry that I am obliged to leave Brighton before you deliver your lectures, and as we may not meet again, I thought I would write you a few lines just to revive the subject that was pa.s.sing our minds yesterday. I cannot but think, if it were practicable for a few thousands, or even hundreds, of your West Coast men to come round to the East Coast, that is, to Port Natal, an immense amount of good would be derived therefrom; not only in a.s.sisting to abolish the barbarous customs of our natives in showing them that labor is honorable for man, but that the English population would appreciate their services and that they would be able to get good wages. What we want is constant and reliable laborers; not those who come by fits and starts, just to work for a month and then be off. They must select their masters, and then make an engagement for twelve months; or it might be after a month on approval. Good laborers could get fifteen shillings per month, and as their services increased in value they would get twenty shillings, and their allowance of food, which is always abundant.
I have thought that some might work their pa.s.sage down to the Cape of Good Hope in some of Her Majesty"s Men-of-War, and from there they might work their pa.s.sage in some of the coasting vessels that are continually plying backwards and forwards. My farm is only five miles from the Port. Should any ever come from your representations, direct them to me, and should I not require them myself I will give them such information as may lead them to find good masters. I have always said that Natal is the key to the civilization of South Africa; but, however, there are sometimes two keys to a door, and yours on the West, though a little north of the Line, may be the other; and, by G.o.d"s blessing, I trust that the nations of the East and West may, before long, meet in Central Africa, not in hostile array, as African nations always have done, but in the bonds of Christian fellowship. Wishing you every success in your enterprize.
Believe me, dear Sir, yours most sincerely, RALPH CLARENCE
NOTE--Mr. Clarence is requesting to be sent some of our industrious natives from Western Africa, as he informed me that those in the East think it disreputable to work. The term "master" is simply English; it means employer. The "fifteen" and "twenty" referred to, means shillings sterling.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Now 8 Adolphi Terrace, Strand.
XV
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN SCOTLAND
Commercial Relations
I have only to add, as a finality of my doings and mission in Great Britain, that in Scotland I fully succeeded in establishing commercial relations for traffic in all kinds of native African produce, especially cotton, which businesses are to be done directly and immediately between us and them, without the intervention or agencies of any society or a.s.sociation whatever. The only agencies in the case are to be the producers, sellers, and buyers--the Scottish house dealing with us as men, and not children. These arrangements are made to facilitate, and give us the a.s.surance of the best encouragement to prosecute vigorously commercial enterprises--especially, as before stated, the cotton culture--the great source of wealth to any people and all civilized nations.
Business Integrity
The British people have the fullest confidence in our integrity to carry out these enterprises successfully, and now only await our advent there, and commencement to do anything necessary we may desire, or that the circ.u.mstances justify. Each individual is regarded as a man in these new relations, and, as such, expected to make his own contracts according to business custom, discharging in like manner his individual obligations. It must here be expressly understood that there are to be nothing but _business relations_ between us, their entire confidence and dependence being in the self-reliant, independent transactions of black men themselves. We are expected, and will be looked for, to create our own ways and means among ourselves as other men do.
Public Endors.e.m.e.nt
As an earnest of the estimate set upon our adventure, I subjoin the names of a number of the leading commercial British journals--the two first being English, and all the others Scottish, in the midst of manufacturing districts, and all speaking favorably of the project:
The Leeds Mercury, the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, the Glasgow Herald, the Glasgow Examiner, the Scottish Guardian, the North British Daily Mail, the Glasgow Morning Journal, the Mercantile Advertiser, and others. (For absence of these notices, see author"s prefatory note.)
FROM THE DAILY CHRONICLE
_Newcastle-on-Tyne, Monday, September 17th, 1860_
DANGER AND SAFETY.-- ... The cotton of the United States affords employment to upwards of three millions of people in England, and a famine of cotton would be far worse than a famine of bread; the deficiency of the latter could be supplied; but the destruction of the cotton crop in America would be an evil of unparalleled magnitude, and against which we have no present protection....
From the district of Lagos on the Gold coast, near the kingdom of Dahomey, there comes amongst us Dr. Delany with promises of a deeply interesting exposition of the prospects of Africa, and the probabilities of the civilization and elevation of the black races.
He is a _bona fide_ descendant of one of the elite families of Central Africa, a highly educated gentleman, whose presence at the International Statistical Congress was noticed by Lord Brougham, and whose remarks in the sanitary section of the Congress upon epidemics were characterized by a great knowledge of the topic combined with genuine modesty. He is a physician of African blood, educated in America, who has revisited the lands of his ancestry, and proposes a most reasonable and feasible plan to destroy the slave trade, by creating a _cordon_, or fringe of native civilization, through which the kidnappers could not penetrate from without, and through which no slaves could be transported from within. Dr. Delany is one of the Commissioners sent out by the convention of the colored people of Canada and the United States.
He has recently returned from the Yoruba country, adjoining the territory of the King of Dahomey, and desires to elicit a favorable consideration for the African Aid Society. His explorations have been productive of the most promising results, his fellow blacks having everywhere received him with distinguished honors. His anecdotes are interesting, and his lectures are ill.u.s.trated by specimens of native produce and manufactures highly curious. Of his lectures at Brighton and other places we have read lengthy reports, which represent the influence these addresses have produced, and which speak in eulogistic terms of Dr. Delany"s matter and manner.
The subject is one of vast importance to England, and we trust that we may witness ere long a proper appreciation of it.
FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD
All this betokens a considerable degree of intelligence. The towns had their market-places; in one of these, that of Ijaye Dr. Delany saw many thousands of persons a.s.sembled, and carrying on a busy traffic. What a field might thus, in the course of time, be opened for European commerce.
FROM THE LEEDS MERCURY (ENGLAND)
_Published by E. Baines, Esq., M.P., and Sons, December 8th, 1860_
ELEVATION OF THE COLORED RACE, AND OPENING OUT OF THE RESOURCES OF AFRICA.--An important movement for opening out the resources of a vast portion of the continent of Africa has been made by some of the most intelligent colored people of the United States and Canada. Having formed a society with this object in view, among others, Dr. Delany and Professor Campbell were commissioned to go out and explore a considerable portion of Western Africa, near to the mouths of the Niger, and not far from the equator. A report of this expedition is in progress by Dr. Delany, who is himself so fully convinced of the advantages which the rich resources of that part of Africa offer, that he has concluded to remove his family there immediately. A meeting of the Leeds Anti-Slavery Committee was held on Wednesday night, Wm. Scholefield, Esq., in the chair, when valuable information was communicated by Dr. Delany and William Howard Day, Esq., M.A., from Canada, who is connected with this movement. The following summary of their remarks will be found of deep interest:--
Wm. Howard Day, M.A., having been called upon, pointed out the necessity for an active anti-slavery organization in this country, as was so well expressed by the Chairman, to keep the heart of the English people warm upon the subject of human bondage.... By the production of cotton slavery began to be a power. So that as the cotton interest increased the testimony of the Church decreased.
Cotton now is three-fifths of the production of the South. So that the Hon. Amasa Walker, formerly Republican Secretary of State for the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, at the meeting held in London, August 1, 1859, and presided over by Lord Brougham, really expressed the whole truth when he said--"While cotton is fourteen cents per pound slavery will never end." Now we propose to break the back of this monopoly in America by raising in Africa--in the African"s own home--as well as in the West Indies, cotton of the same quality as the American, and at a cheaper rate. It had been demonstrated by Mr. Clegg, of Manchester, that cotton of superior quality could be laid down at Liverpool cheaper from Africa than America. We have sent my friend, Dr. Delany, to see what Africa is, and he will tell you the results--so very favorable--of his exploration. Then we feel that we have in Canada the colored men to pioneer the way--men reared among the cotton of the United States, and who have found an asylum among us. The bone and sinew is in Africa--we wish to give it direction. We wish thereby to save to England millions of pounds by the difference in price between the two cottons; we wish to ward off the blow to England which must be felt by four millions of people interested in the article to be produced if an untimely frost or an insurrection should take place--and, above all, to lift up Africa by means of her own children. After speaking of the organization among the colored people, which sent out Dr. Delany and of which Mr. Day is president, he said one of the means to secure these ends was the establishment of a press upon a proper footing in Canada among the fugitive slaves; and to collect for that is now his especial work. It would aid powerfully, it was hoped, in another way. Already American prejudice has rolled in upon the borders of Canada--so that schoolhouse doors are closed in the faces of colored children, and colored men denied a place upon juries merely because of their color. It was with difficulty that last year even in Canada they were able to secure the freedom of a kidnapped little boy who was being dragged through the province to be sold in the slave-mart of St. Louis. In view of all these points, hastily presented, he asked the good will and active aid of all the friends of liberty.
Dr. M. R. Delany, whose name has become so celebrated in connection with the Statistical Congress, was invited to state what he had contemplated in going to Africa, and if he would kindly do so, what he had discovered there. Dr. Delany first dwelt upon the expectation which had been raised in his mind when a young man, and in the minds of the colored people of the United States, by the beginning of the anti-slavery work there by William Lloyd Garrison and his coadjutors. They had found, however, that all the anti-slavery people were not of the stamp of Mr. Garrison, who, he was proud to say, believed in giving to colored men just the same rights and privileges as to others, and that Mr. Garrison"s idea had not, by the professed friends of the black man, been reduced to practice. And finding that self-reliance was the best dependence, he and others had struck out a path for themselves. After speaking of the convention of colored people, which he and others called in 1854, to consider this subject of self-help, and of the general organization which began then, and in which Mr. Day succeeded him as president, he said he went to Africa to find a locality suitable for a select emigration of colored people; if possible, a large cotton-growing region, and with a situation accessible by civilization. All this he had found, with, in addition, a well-disposed and industrious people. The facts which Dr. Delany grouped together as to the climate and soil; as to productions and trade; as to the readiness of the people to take hold of these higher ideas; and as to the anxiety of the people to have him and his party return, were new and thrilling. An interesting conversation ensued on the points brought forward, and the following minute, moved by Mr. Wilson Armistead, and seconded by the Rev. Dr. Brewer, was unanimously pa.s.sed:--
That the thanks of this meeting be tendered to Dr. Delany and Wm.
Howard Day, Esq., for the valuable information received from them, with an ardent desire that their plans for the elevation of their race may be crowned with success, and it is the opinion of this meeting that they be made materially to hasten the extinction of the slave-trade and slavery.
Character of Commercial Relations
The commercial relations entered into in Scotland are with the first business men in the United Kingdom, among whom are Henry Dunlop, Esq., Ex-Lord Provost of Glasgow, one of the largest proprietors in Scotland; Andrew Stevenson, Esq., one of the greatest cotton dealers; and Messrs.
Crum, Graham & Co., 111 Virginia Place, Glasgow, one of the heaviest firms in that part of the old world, which is the house with which I have negotiated for an immediate, active and practical prosecution of our enterprise, and whose agency in Europe for any or all of our produce, may be fully relied on. I speak from personal acquaintance with these extensively-known, high-standing gentlemen.
Reliable Arrangements
One of the most important parts of such an adventure as this, is to have reliable Foreign Agencies, and these have been fully secured; as whilst these gentlemen, as should all business men, deal with us only on business terms, yet they have entered into the matter as much as Christians and philanthropists, to see truth and right prevail whereby humanity may be elevated, as for anything else; because they are already wealthy, and had they been seeking after wealth, they certainly could and would have sought some more certainly immediate means.
I left Scotland December 3rd, and sailed from Liverpool the 13th via Londonderry, arriving at Portland the 25th, the epoch of the Christian Era, and in Chatham the 29th.
XVI
THE TIME TO GO TO AFRICA
Caution against Danger
The best time for going to Africa is during "the rainy season," which commences about the middle or last of April, ending near or about the first of November. By going during this period, it will be observed that you have no sudden transition from cold to heat, as would be the case did you leave in cold weather for that country. But the most favorable time to avoid the _heavy surf_ at Lagos, is from the first of October to the first of April, when the surges in the roadstead are comparatively small and not imminently dangerous. And I here advise and caution all persons intending to land there, not to venture over the heavy-rolling surf of the bar in one of those native canoes.
Safety in Landing
Yet persons can land with safety at any season of the year; but for this there must be a proper boat. Any person going there at present ought not to land if the surf is high, without _Captain Davies" large sail-boat_, which is as safe as a tug, and rides the sea like a swan. Send him word to send his _largest boat at the best hour for landing_. The Captain is a native merchant, and most obliging gentleman.
A Tender