Publication: FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPER
Date: May 20, 1852
F. DouglassTitle: COMMUNICATIONS. ------- LETTER FROM WM. G. ALLEN. -------
Location: Rochester, New York
COMMUNICATIONS.
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LETTER FROM WM. G. ALLEN.
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FREDERICK DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR: - There is now a project on foot to attach a medical department to New York Central College.
- A glorious idea this, as, if it should be successful, it will afford an opening for study to the very many colored young
men who are now, by prejudice and scorn, shut out of most, if not all, of the medical colleges in the land. The faculty are
physicians of Syracuse, in high standing and repute.
Geo. W. Clarke, Esq., of Rochester, delivered a lecture in the Presbyterian Church, on Temperance, last Sabbath evening;
and on Tuesday evening following, gave a concert in the College Chapel. Mr. Clarke's lecture was instructive, highly so; and
had it not been quite so long, would have made a most decided impression. His concert, I regret to say, was but thinly attended.
Those who did not hear him, know not what enjoyment they might have had. It was a treat, surely, such as one seldom gets in
these parts. Mr. Clarke has a magnificent voice, and in some of its tones, sweet to the ravishing of the inner soul. His music
was also well selected. "A man's a man for a' that," was given with great effect. I could almost wish that our friend would
give himself up entirely to music so harmoniously does he blend humanity with art. The principles of truth, justice, and an
equal brotherhood would find their way much quicker to the human heart when sung in his sweet tones than when delivered as
didacties.
On Wednesday evening following, the Luca family favored us with a grand concert. This family is composed of four brothers
- but lads yet, and all of them black enough to satisfy the most cavilling, that for whatever of genius they possess, they
are not indebted to one drop of the blood of the "superior" race. The youngest one performs gloriously on the piano; and would
utterly, confound (could they hear him) all the notions of the little-souled muddy-heads who are everlastingly prating of
African inferiority. The concert was a triumph; and I take pleasure in commending the family to all who wish to hear sweet
music, and who desire to encourage those who have to make their way upward through obstacles which those of a fairer hue know
not of.
Indeed the African race seem of late to be verifying the prediction that they will yet produce singers and instrumental performers
such as the world has never yet seen, neither read of nor heard of. Miss Greenfield, by the most pro-slavery and prejudiced,
is regarded as inferior to the greatest artists who have sung upon our shores only in cultivation, while in natural power
she is not only their equal, they say, but superior to the whole of them. I see the face of a black woman, but hear the voice
of an angel, was the expression of countenance marked upon her audience, says the
I have recently read "Uncle Tom." What a book! It is, in its line, the wonder of wonders. How its descriptions stir the blood,
indeed almost make it leap out of the heart! What delineations of character - St. Clare and Legree, extremes of slaveholders.
While the latter is a fit representative of the system of the pit, the former shows that not even slaveholding itself can
blot out every whit of whatsoever is good in the human heart. Thank God for this little space wherein one vivifying ray may
enter!
Uncle Tome was a good old soul, thoroughly and perfectly pious. Indeed, if any man had too much piety, Uncle Tom was that
man. I confess to more of "total depravity." More shame to me, possibly, but nevertheless, such is the fact. My non-resistance
is of the Douglass, Parker, and Phillip's school. I believe, as you do, that it is not light the slaveholder wants, but
The religious conversation between the slave-tenders, on the 102d and 3d pages, is a capital thing. Why do you not copy it?
- How it tells upon the miserable spittle-licking religionists of the present day, who, as Tom Soker has it, are running up
a bill all their lives with the devil, calculating to sneak out when pay time comes. Such religion is "p'ison mean," - it
is "dog meanness."
The story of the Quadroon girl, second book, thirty-fourth chapter, exceeds anything that I have ever read, in all that is
soul-searching and thrilling. Indeed, the book is marvellous for its dramatic power, and I do not wonder that cheap editions
are new being called for throughout the Northern States.
I have one regret, with regard to the book, and that is, that the chapter favoring colonization was ever written. I do not,
however, apprehend so much harm from it, as some others seem to anticipate. Many of the bad features of that chapter, are
somewhat modified by the admission, on the 302d page, of the right of the colored people to meet and mingle in this country
- to rise by their individual worth, and without distinction of caste or color; and that they have not only the rights of
common men here, but more than these, the rights of an injured race for reparation; and still further, that those who deny
this right to rise without distinction of caste or color, and in particular to rise
I have no objection to the chirstianization of Africa. God speed the missionaries who go thither for so high and holy purpose.
- Those, also, be they white or colored, who go to build republics upon her shores, go to perform a work, great, grand, and
glorious. - God speed them also. Liberia is a pigmy, and cannot be more. Great men could as soon grow up and flourish in Greenland,
as on that part of the Guinea Coast, where these colonists have settled.
As to the talk about African nationality, this is sheer nonsense, if, by African nationality is meant, a nation composed
entirely of pure Africans. Nations worthy of the name, are only produced by a fusion of races. If Americans had less prejudice,
they could read history more clearly. Whence the Romans! The Magyars! The English! The Americans! The latter, at least, notwithstanding
they roll up their eyes, and go into pretended fits, at the mere mention of amalgamation, are, of all the races, the most
amalgamated under the sun; and, as a matter of course - the most energetic and powerful. Indeed, fusion of races seems to
be a trait, distinctive of Americans. The shades of night scarce gather around them, ere they (the Americans) seek amalgamation
with even the very race which they affect most to despise. Talk of the "instincts of nature" - the hypocrites!
That the bona fide African race has peculiarities, I admit; and I admit, farther, that if these peculiarities are drawn out
without intermixture, they will develop a civilization very good indeed; indeed, so good as to be almost good for nothing.
The Saxons unmixed with the Romans, the Normans and the Danes were a clever people - no more. - The feeble Asiatics unmixed
with the Persians and the Hunns, are not Magyars. And the Jews, who are Jews still, excite next to no interest in the great
world of science, literature, and art. The plain truth, is, God has made us of one blood, and thereby, to intermingle. We
progress by adhering to this rule, we go backward by its violation. Nations, there must be, but merely as conveniences, not
to abrogate the great law of equal brotherhood.
One word more, with regard to the book. It contains some happy hits at prejudice against color. These are timely. Abolitionists,
by the hundreds, are not yet rid of this soul-narrowing and heart-belittling feeling, this "blasphemy against God," and "quarrel
with Jehovah." It is so easy to talk, and so comparatively easy to practice within circles not exceedingly obnoxious to the
community, that many delude themselves into the bell of that they are at one with the doctrine of an equal brotherhood, and
are even christian, when their hearts are polluted with a prejudice which is, beyond all question, a sin meaner than which
none ever rankled in the freeman's heart. Oh, for more good, great men, and more great good men. A friend wrote me, not long
since, and in his letter, wished that the Lord would let Gerrit Smith live to be as old as Methusaleh. Did I believe that
slavery and prejudice could exist in this land nine hundred years longer, I would second the wish, and not only that Gerrit
Smith should live thus long, but Lyndon King, Beriah Green, Garrison, and such as these, who have bedwarfed themselves in
their age, as Milton did in his, by keeping ahead so far. These are earth's noble spirits. Thank God, the time will come,
if not speedily, still surely, when men shall acknowledge, by word as in their inmost soul, that righteousness is true greatness,
and that there is no glory but in living in accordance with principles which are just and holy, and true.
I do not despair.
"Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait."
Let us take this to our hearts, at least, that slavery is a national sin, and nations are not fixed facts, but are continually,
though may be slowly, passing away.
Faithfully yours,
WILLIAM G. ALLEN.
MCGRAWVILLE, N.Y., May 6, 1852.
