Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
AFRICAN COLONIZATION
BY
THE FREE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,
AN INDISPENSABLE AUXILIARY
TO AFRICAN MISSIONS.
A Lecture.
PREFATORY REMARKS.
In the course of his labors, as Colonization Agent for Ohio, thewriter, at an early day, found it necessary to examine the subject ofAfrican Missions. It was zealously urged, by many, that the Coloniesof the Society, instead of being auxiliaries to the evangelization ofthe natives, presented an almost insuperable barrier to the spread ofthe Gospel in Africa. The facts ascertained, during the investigations,have been used, from time to time, in the Lectures delivered in differentparts of the State, with general satisfaction to the friends of Colonization.The events of the last year or two in Africa, however, havebeen so marked, and the superiority of the missions in Liberia over allthe others, so fully demonstrated, that the publication of the resultshas been urged as an act of justice to the American Colonization Societyand to the Missions in the Republic.
In the preparation of the Lecture, none but the best authoritieshave been consulted, and the greatest care has been taken to avoiderror. References to the sources of information are given in a fewinstances. Should any wish to verify the whole range of the factsstated, they will find them, mostly, in the following works and periodicals:Choule’s History of Missions, Reports of American Board ofCommissioners for Foreign Missions, Missionary Herald, African Repository,and the works occasionally quoted in foot notes in theLecture.
A LECTURE
ON
AFRICAN MISSIONS.
In temporal affairs, experience supplies the best rule for the guidanceof man. In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by whichhis conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel,while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode ofits propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measuresby which it is to be extended. Pagan countries differ so widely intheir civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intelligence,that corresponding variations must be made in the plans fortheir evangelization. Africa, when first visited by the Missionary, wasone broad field of ignorance and barbarism. Its condition differed sowidely from that of any