Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Story
February 1, 1834
The Liberator
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
What is this article about?
An editorial excerpt from a Vermont newspaper presents a 'genuine specimen' of views on racial equality, arguing that prejudice against Black people is natural and unchangeable, dooming them to degradation, and advocates colonizing them back to Africa for better opportunities.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
A GENUINE SPECIMEN!
The following (from a Vermont paper) is a genuine specimen of colonization equality!
Prejudice will ever prevent the white man from acknowledging the negro as an equal. His complexion is the cause of his fate, and until Almighty power shall change his skin, he must here form a part of a degraded and unfortunate race, and be doomed to a perpetual state of bondage and moral vassalage. Whatever may be their mental attainments, whatever may be their moral worth, they can never pass the line of demarkation; they can never share in the privileges and honors of our social relations. Exposed to every possible temptation, they are virtually shut out from every generous incentive to exertion.
They are of an inferior caste. Hence our cities are crowded with idle, dissolute, and depraved blacks. Hence they enter, out of all due proportion, into our penitentiaries and jails. Their very name is a term of reproach. In many states we deny them the rights of citizens, and even when we draw nigh unto Him who is no respecter of persons, and in whose sight all distinctions of country and color are alike trivial, we keep them apart as though we feared pollution from their presence. We do not justify this feeling of aversion—We deprecate it; BUT IT IS NATURAL; it cannot be rooted out. The young African damsel, in the heart of Africa, shed tears, when she saw a white man enter her dwelling, and very candidly expressed to him her horror and distress at his shocking whiteness.
With these feelings of aversion, the white and the black can never amalgamate. Let us take, then, the only method in our power to alleviate the evil: let us remove them to their father-land'—where, with every honorable incentive to enterprise before them, they can gain the honest rewards of labor.'
The following (from a Vermont paper) is a genuine specimen of colonization equality!
Prejudice will ever prevent the white man from acknowledging the negro as an equal. His complexion is the cause of his fate, and until Almighty power shall change his skin, he must here form a part of a degraded and unfortunate race, and be doomed to a perpetual state of bondage and moral vassalage. Whatever may be their mental attainments, whatever may be their moral worth, they can never pass the line of demarkation; they can never share in the privileges and honors of our social relations. Exposed to every possible temptation, they are virtually shut out from every generous incentive to exertion.
They are of an inferior caste. Hence our cities are crowded with idle, dissolute, and depraved blacks. Hence they enter, out of all due proportion, into our penitentiaries and jails. Their very name is a term of reproach. In many states we deny them the rights of citizens, and even when we draw nigh unto Him who is no respecter of persons, and in whose sight all distinctions of country and color are alike trivial, we keep them apart as though we feared pollution from their presence. We do not justify this feeling of aversion—We deprecate it; BUT IT IS NATURAL; it cannot be rooted out. The young African damsel, in the heart of Africa, shed tears, when she saw a white man enter her dwelling, and very candidly expressed to him her horror and distress at his shocking whiteness.
With these feelings of aversion, the white and the black can never amalgamate. Let us take, then, the only method in our power to alleviate the evil: let us remove them to their father-land'—where, with every honorable incentive to enterprise before them, they can gain the honest rewards of labor.'
What sub-type of article is it?
Editorial
Social Commentary
What themes does it cover?
Social Manners
Misfortune
Tragedy
What keywords are associated?
Racial Prejudice
Colonization
Negro Degradation
Social Equality
African Repatriation
Natural Aversion
Story Details
Story Details
An opinion piece argues that inherent prejudice prevents racial equality for Black people in America, leading to their social degradation, and proposes repatriation to Africa as the solution to allow them honorable labor and incentives.