The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 615 pages of information about The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916.

The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 615 pages of information about The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916.

   “NEW STYLE COLONIZATION

“It seems that our old friend Gerrit Smith is anxious to form a colony of colored people in the State of New York.  It is not known that he pays the expenses of any to get to that happy spot, but he certainly offers them a share in the property of earth, when they arrive.  Some have thought his effort in this respect, another proof of his great liberality.  Perhaps it is—­but of the character of those lands we know nothing.  The Journal of Commerce seems to understand the subject from the following, which we cut from a late number: 
“’Bounty of Gerrit Smith.—­Some of the newspapers are eulogizing this once sensible man, because he is giving away deeds in any number to colored men, of forty acre lots of his vast tract in Hamilton county.  The considerations in the deeds are as follows: 
“’"For and in consideration of the sum of one dollar to me, in hand paid, and being desirious to have all share in the subsistence and happiness, which a bountiful God has provided for all, has granted, sold, etc.”
“’If the negroes do not run away from the bears and wolves and climate and sterility of Hamilton county, with more anxiety than they ever did from Southern slavery, then we do not understand their character.  We do not blame the negroes for getting their liberty if they can, but to make them take farms in Hamilton county, is too bad.  The wild beasts up there will rejoice in a negro settlement among them, especially at the beginning of winter.’

   “Had Judge Leigh taken the Randolph negroes there, they might have fared
   as well as they have done in Ohio, and certainly he could have gotten
   the land much cheaper!

   “After all, ‘there is no place like home!’ And there is no ’home, sweet
   home,’ for the colored man, but in Liberia!”

—­The African Repository, XXII, 320-321.

   “FREEDOM IN A FREE STATE

“Facts are almost daily transpiring which show the immense importance of colonization.  Among them, none are more conspicuous than those which come to us from the free States.  If the colored people cannot enjoy freedom in a free State, what can they do?  Where shall they go?  Here is a fact: 
Randolph’s ’John’.—­We are told by the Lynchburg Virginian, that John, the well-known and faithful servant of the late John Randolph, who, with the emancipated slaves of his master, went to Ohio, and were there treated by the citizens in a manner of which our readers have been apprized, has returned to Charlotte with the intention of petitioning the legislature to allow him to remain in the commonwealth.  He says, they have no feeling for colored people in Ohio, and, if the legislature refuse to grant his petition, he will submit to the penalty of remaining and be sold as a slave—­preferring this
Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.