Frederick Douglass:—Sir: I was much pained at heart, to learn through the North Star of May 3d, that our colored brethren in St. Louis have been holding a mass meeting on the subject of African Colonization, and that the said meeting was eloquently addressed by colored Americans. This is a sad state of affairs; but you will not let such opposition, I hope, cause your hands to hang down, or retard your efforts; but rather let all such pro-slavery actions be means for you to nerve your arm, and increase your firmness and argument—your fixed determination, in writing, printing and pleading the cause of the poor slave, and the Elevation of the free colored man, and telling, in burning words, to this land of professing Christians, and to the world, the sin of slavery, and that you may never cease pouring floods of living light on the mind and conscience of the oppressor, till you change their guilty prejudices, feelings and actions towards us as men and citizens of the United States. And I do hope that you will advise and urge our fellow-countrymen to avoid all participation in any meeting of the Colonization Society, as it is anti-Christian in its actions, and I have ever believed that Slavery and Colonization are twin-sisters, and that the main desire of the friends of Colonization is, to drain the free colored people out of these United States, so that the chain of slavery may be riveted more tightly upon its victims; and it is very clear that Colonization has long been fostered and sustained by the murderous spirit of slavery and prejudice.

Such being the character of the Society, it has neither the confidence nor the respect of the free colored people; and I think it the duty of every colored man to despise the name of the Colonization Society; because that Society has published to the world a libel on the name and character of my people, by saying that we were a nuissance, degraded, and vicious, &c.

In conclusion: This is the land where we all drew our first breath—where we have grown up to strength and manhood. Here we have cantracted the most sacred engagements, the dearest relations of life. Here we have found the companions of our childhood, the friends of our youth, the gentle partners of our lives. Here are the haunts of our infancy, the scenes of every endearing hour. In a word, this is our own NATIVE LAND; and we love our country—we love our fellow-citizens; and we consider every colored man who allows himself to be colonized in Africa, is an enemy to the slave, and a traitor to the anti-slavery cause. Yours, &c.,

J. B. VashonVashon, John B.

John Boyer Vashon (?–1853) operated a barbershop and bathhouse in Pittsburgh. He joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and served on its board of managers in the 1830s. Vashon attended several National Negro Conventions, including the 1853 Rochester gathering that launched the National Council of Colored Men. Douglass frequently visited Vashon’s home while touring the Midwest and eulogized him as “one of the most consistent advocates of the slave’s freedom, and of the colored man’s elevation, who has yet arisen among our proscribed race.” FDP, 20 August 1852, 15 July 1853, 6 January, 8 September 1854; ASB, 7 January 1854; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 20–33, 81, 108, 200; R. J. M. Blackett, “ ‘Freedom, or the Martyr’s Grave’: Black Pittsburgh’s Aid to the Fugitive Slave,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 61:117–34 (April 1978). .