Page:The future of Africa.djvu/224

218 do not even intend to invite any one to Liberia, glad as I would be to see around me many of the wise and sterling men I know in the United States, who would be real acquisitions to this nation, and as much as I covet their society. I am not putting in a plea for colonization. My object is quite different; in fact it is not a strict compliance with the terms of your letter, for I shall have but little to say about Liberia. But believing that all men hold some relation to the land of their fathers, I wish to call the attention of the sons of Africa in America to their "."

And even on such a theme I know I must prepare myself for the rebuff from many—"Why talk to us of fatherland I What have we to do with Africa? We are not Africans; we are Americans. You ask no peculiar interest on the part of Germans, Englishmen, the Scotch, the Irish, the Dutch, in the land of their fathers, why then do you ask it of us?"

Alas for us, as a race! so deeply harmed have we been by oppression that we have lost the force of strong, native principles, and prime natural affections. Because exaggerated contempt lias been poured upon us, we too become apt pupils in the school of scorn and contumely. Because repudiation of the black man has been for centuries the wont of civilized nations, black men themselves get shame at their origin and shrink from the terms which indicate it. Sad as this is, it is not to be wondered at. "Oppression" not only "makes a wise man mad,"it robs him also of his self-respect. And this is our loss; but having emerged from slavery, it is our duty