Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/31

 the English people, "we know the Negro better than you do." And yet emancipation had to be forced upon both West Indian and American slaveholders! With all their knowledge of the Negro, and their exuberant love of him, they both resisted to the utmost the unfettering of their bondmen!

How was it after emancipation? The great work of elevating and educating the Freedmen had to be undertaken by philanthropists outside of the former domains of slavery; by the friends of the black men in England; by northern men in the United States. I don't know of one single instance in the history of Negro bondage where slaveholders, as a class, have ever voluntarily emancipated the Negro, or, when raised to freedom, have ever voluntarily put themselves to pains to elevate him to manhood, intelligence, and superiority.

I challenge Dr. Tucker to point out one such instance.

3. The main reason Dr. Tucker gives for the rejection of Northern Missionaries is that the "northern man don't know the Negro." When they (i. e., the northern Christians) propose to help the Negroes, the southern (white) Christians "draw back," he says, "with a feeling of despair, mingled with anger, that God's servants should in wilful ignorance build up the kingdom of evil." Passing strange language this! Here these northern people, from divers denominations of Christians, have been sending forth missionaries to every quarter of the heathen world—Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Episcopalians. Everywhere they have gone their work has been so graciously attended by the gifts of God, the Holy Ghost; they have shown such wonderful knowledge of human nature, and plied such marvelous skill and practicality that English Civilians, great Governors-General, French and German tourists, yea, even infidel travelers, have spoken of these northern American missionaries as