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New York Morning Herald, September 17, 1839, p.2
The Captured Africans.
NEW HAVEN, SEPT. 13.
Mr. Bennett:--The excitement respecting the Africans is still on the increase
here, and I notice by the prints from various sections of the country, that it is
attracting great attention in every quarter. It is really a question of the gravest
importance, and its settlement is fraught with portentous consequences to the South.
The papers are filled with preposterous twaddle, purporting to be argument on the
subject, but it does neither good nor harm. My object has been, not to discuss the
question, but to apprise you of such facts and circumstances as I could collect,
that had a bearing on the case, and to recapitulate and expose the absurdities put
forth by the Abolitionists. It is not to be denied that these infatuated and mischievous
men have long been hard at work in the hope of producing a fatal schism between the
free states and the slave states. In this nefarious design they are abetted by certain
reckless politicians who fan the embers, in the hope of rendering the excitement
subservient to their ulteteor [sic] purposes. The affair of the Amistad is a godsend
to these men. They have already told lies enough to jeopardy the eternal welfare
of half the Negroes in Christendom (always supposing them to have souls worth looking
after,) and they will, no doubt, tell twice as many more before the matter is settled.
Tappan lies from instinct, in the face of all probability, and in defiance of incontestible
evidence. He says the blacks are as intelligent looking body of men as are often
met with, and that Cinquez is dignified and graceful with the bearing of Othello.
Now I have no wish, no possible motive to deceive you or the public or to misrepresent
the appearance of these poor creatures, and I aver, most positively, and I shall
be borne out by the concurring testimony of every observing, unbiased man who has
seen the blacks, that I never saw a human being who was not an idiot, that approximated
to the average of these Negroes in point of hopeless stupidity and beastly degradation.
Cinguez is blubber-lipped, sullen looking negro, not half as intelligent or striking
in appearance as every third black you meet on the docks of New York. These audacious
falsehoods of Tappan’s are of little consequence in themselves, and are only referred
to for the purpose of showing the organized and systematic plan of operations adopted
by the Abolitionists. No frauds are too base, no deceptions too flagitious[sic],
for the promomotion [sic] of their unholy schemes. The sympathy expressed for the
ignorant Africans is a perfectly natural and proper feeling.--It has its origin in
the purest and most generous impulses of the heart. But it is founded on a view of
their condition entirely erroneous and unsupported by a single fact. Those who are
not sick were never as well off before, and with two or three exceptions, were probably
never so contented.
Two of the blacks still remain very low, and they all droop whenever the weather
is the least chilly. Dr. Hooker, the humane and very intelligent physician of the
prison, bestows every requisite attention upon them. A powerful dose of capsicum
was administered to several of them yesterday, and the effect was most ludicrous.
They made hideous grimaces, opened their cavernous mouths, thrust their fists into
them, danced about the apartment, making signs for water, and yelling like fiends,
while tears of the size of whortleberries rolled down their cheeks An attractive
and picturesque sight truly! and I wish it could have been witnessed by some of the
gentlemen who recommend mixing milk and molasses, and think Cuffee fit to associate
on terms of equality with the whites.
The fact is, those people who are making all this bustle and clamor about the “poor
Africans” are entirely uninformed respecting their social and physical condition
at home. They are slothful and thievish, and altogether are sunk in a state of ignorance,
debasement and barbarism, of which no adequate conception can be formed. The history
of the world presents no instance where the whites have been in a condition so degraded.
They are a distinct and totally different race, and the God of nature never intended
that they should live together in any other relation than that of master and slave.
I am no advocate of slavery, but I am clear in the conviction that the blacks can
never be raised to a footing of equality with the whites, and that effort directed
to this end is worse than useless.
