Part 33 (2/2)
”Supposing these conditions to be duly provided for, particularly the re questions relate to the aptitude and adequacy of the process by which the slaves are at the same time to earn funds, entire or supplemental, required for their emancipation and removal; and to be sufficiently educated for a life of freedom and of social order
”With respect to the proper course of education, no serious difficulties present the the preparatory period, and to be within the jurisdiction of States recognizing ample authority over theree in which this discipline will enforce the needed labour, and in which a voluntary industry will supply the defect of compulsory labour, are vital points, on which it ht fro the probable composition of the labourers, and the known fact that, where the labour is coether (unless, indeed, where co-operation of many hands is rendered essential by a particular kind of work or of machinery) the less are the proportional profits, it may be doubted whether the surplus from that source merely, beyond the support of the establishment, would sufficiently accumulate in five, or even es me to say that I am not satisfied either that the prospect of emancipation at a future day will sufficiently overconance to labour, or that there is such an advantage of united over individual labour as is taken for granted
”In cases where portions of ti the Spaniards, with a view to their working out their freedom, it is believed that but few have availed themselves of the opportunity by a voluntary industry; and such a result could be less relied on in a case where each individual would feel that the fruits of his exertions would be shared by others, whether equally or unequallythem, and that the exertions of others would equally avail hieht palliate this tendency, but it would be difficult to counteract it effectually
”The examples of the Moravians, the Harmonites, and the Shakers, in which the united labours of many for a co character But it must be recollected that in all these establishious authority in the head, for which there will be no substitutes of equivalent efficacy in the e establishes his conscientious and devoted flock, and enriches a common treasury, e in question His experience anization, 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 ins and ends with the iroes must learn trades, or die
The old avocations, by which colored ly and inevitably passing into other hands; every hour sees the black rant, 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 amen while we do live; and e cannot, ish to die It is evident, painfully evident to every reflectings forer
Whitehouse-servants, cooks and stewards on vessels--at hotels--They are beco porters, stevedores, wood-sawers, hod-carriers, brick-makers, white-washers and barbers, so that the blacks can scarcely find the o, a _white_ barber would have been a curiosity--now their poles stand on every street Formerly blacks were almost the exclusive coacher; white ht we see, they fill their servile station with an obsequiousness as profound as that of the blacks The readiness and ease hich they adapt theht of by the colored people The ht our insecurity by it Without the , life is a curse, and leaves us at the mercy of the oppressor to become his debased slaves Now, colored ? The Ao to Liberia Mr Bibb tells you to go to Canada Others tell you to go to school We tell you to go to work; and to work you o or die Men are not valued in this country, or in any country, for what they are; they are valued for what they can _do_ It is in vain that we talk of being men, if we do not the work of men We must become valuable to society in other departments of industry than those servile ones fro excluded We must show that we can _do_ as well as be; and to this end we must learn trades When we can build as well as live in houses; e can _make_ as well as _wear_ shoes; e can produce as well as consume wheat, corn and rye--then we shall become valuable to society Society is a hard-hearted affair--With it the helpless nity than that of paupers The individual ation to hier and sojourner _How_ shall this be done? In this manner; use every means, strain every nerve to master some i so are few--institutions of learning are more readily opened to you than the work-shop; but the Lord helps them ill help themselves, and we have no doubt that new facilities will be presented as we press forward
If the alternative were presented to us of learning a trade or of getting an education, ould learn the trade, for the reason, that with the trade we could get the education while with the education we could not get the trade What we, as a people, most need, is the means for our own elevation--An educated colored man, in the United States, unless he has within hi battle for his rights, as a man, finds few inducements to remain in this country He is isolated in the land of his birth--debarred by his color froenial association hites; he is equally cast out by the ignorance of the _blacks_ The remedy for this must comprehend the elevation of thethe mechanic arts within the reach of colored ly the case of our colored countryly, but we knohereof we affirs, we appeal to the abolitionists
What Boss anti-slavery ht's shop, his blacksmith's shop, his joiner's shop, his cabinet shop? Here is so _practical_; where are the whites and where are the blacks that will respond to it? Where are the antislavery irls and teach the?
The fact that we have ood barbers, and white-washers, induces the belief that weis certain; wea livelihood, for the old ones are failing us very fast_
We, therefore, call upon the intelligent and thinking ones ae upon the colored people within their reach, in all seriousness, the duty and the necessity of giving their children useful and lucrative trades, by which they may commence the battle of life eapons, coencies of conflict--_African Repository_, vol xxix, pp 136, 137
EDUCATION OF COLORED PEOPLE
(_Written by a highly respectable gentleo I saw in the _Repository_, copied froe for the education of young colored men in this country Since that ti lad to hear whether the proposed plan was ever carried into execution
Four years ago I conversed with one of the officers of the Colonization Society on the subject of educating in this country colored persons intending to erate to Liberia, and expressed h rants
Tocircumstances the project, all important as he confessed it to be, was al the influence of the enemies of colonization that they would dissuade any colored persons so educated frohly acquainted with the subject in all its bearings, and therefore felt that he ood reasons for what he said; still I hoped the case was not so bad as he thought, and, at any rate, I looked forith strong hope to the time when the colored race would, as a body, open their eyes to the miserable, unnatural position they occupy in America; when they would see ere their true friends, those who offered them real and complete freedom, social and political, in a land where there is no white race to keep theovern themselves by their os; or those pretended friends ould keep the African where he can never be aught but a serf and bondsman of a despised caste, and who, by every act of their pretended philanthropy, make the colored man's condition worse
Most happily, since that tiree never before known, and the conviction has becoo to Liberia if they would be free and happy
Under these circumstances the better the education of the colored man the more keenly will he feel his present situation and the ration
assus of the colored race, I think the iiate institution for the education of their young ed by every friend of the race Soislature of Liberia passed an act to incorporate a college in Liberia, but I fear the project has failed, as I have heard nothinghowever the funds raised for such an institution, where are the professors to come from?
They _must_ be educated in this country; and how can that be done without establishi+ng an institution specially for young colored men?