APPENDIX. LETTER OF JOHN M'DONOGH ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION. MESSRS. EDITORS: In a piece wrote by me in June last, on the subject of sending away some of my black people to Africa, and published in your paper of the 24th of that month, I observed, that the act of sending those people away is, in my case, one of simple honesty alone.' I lay no claim, nor am I entitled to any credit or praise, on the score of generosity. My meaning in the above assertion I will explain, Messrs. Editors, through your paper, (should my leisure admit of it,) at some future time, and the rather, as it may perhaps be of service to the slaveholders of the State, to know how one, who has had much to do for forty years past with the treatment of slaves, has succeeded in it. When they find from my experience, that they can send their whole gangs to Africa every fifteen years, without the cost of a dollar to themselves, what master will refuse to do so much good, when it will cost him nothing in the doing it, and afford him at the same time such high gratification, in knowing that he has contributed to the making many human beings happy. For my experience will show that, with a proper treatment of slaves, the gain from their extra labour, (that is, labour over and above that which slaves in general yield their owners,) in the course of that time-say fifteen years, will enable their masters to send them out, and purchase in Virginia and Maryland, (with the gain made from said extra labour,) a gang of equal number to replace them. In addition to which, what an amount of satisfaction (I would ask every humane master) would he not enjoy, in knowing that he was surrounded by friends, on whose faithfulness and fidelity he and his family could rely, under every possible contingency? In fulfilment, then, of said promise, I now undertake to explain the observation I then made, That the act of sending those people away is, in my case, one of simple honesty alone;' and to set forth and show the mode I adopted and pursued, (after much experience and reflection on the subject,) for many years in their treatment and its results. Before commencing, however, this long detail of treatment and its attending circumstances, I will premise to those who feel an interest in the subject, and will take the trouble to read this recital, that it is one of egotism throughout; it tells of what the master said and what he did, from the beginning of the chapter to its end,-in this, therefore, I will be excused: it is what I promised, and there is but one way of telling the story to make it intelligible. To proceed then, and give you the plan which I laid down for myself, and have pursued for the last seventeen years, for the conduct and management of those I held in bondage, I have to observe, that having been at all times opposed to labouring on the Sabbath day, (except in cases of actual necessity,) one of my rules for their walk and guidance in life always was, that they should never work on that holy day, prohibited as we were from so doing by the divine law. A long expe rience, however, convinced me of the utter impossibility of carrying it out in practice by men held in bondage, and obliged to labour for their master six full days in the week; and I saw on reflection, much to extenuate, as to them, the offence against my rule. They were men, and stood in need of many little necessaries of life not supplied by their master, and which they could obtain in no other way but by labour on that day. I therefore had often to shut my eyes and not see the offence, though I knew my instructions on that head were not obeyed; and in consequence, after long and fruitless exertions (continued for many years) to obtain obedience to that injunction, I determined to allow them the onehalf of Saturday (say Saturday from mid-day until night) to labour for themselves, under a penalty well understood by them, of punishment for disobedience, (if they violated thereafter the Sabbath day,) and sale to some other master. From this time, which was about the year 1822, the Sabbath day was kept holy-church was regularly attended, forenoon and afternoon, (for I had a church built expressly for them on my own plantation, in which a pious neighbour occasionally preached on the Sabbath day, assisted by two or three of my own male slaves, who understood, preached, and expounded the scriptures passably well, and at times I read them a sermon myself,) and I perceived in a very short time a remarkable change in their manners, conduct, and life, in every respect for the better. We proceeded on in this way, happy, prosperous, and blessed in every respect by the Most High, for about three years, or until 1825, when, seeing the amount of money which they gained by their Saturday afternoon's labour, (they in general laboured for myself, though they were permitted to |