COLORED CHURCHES.

My Dear Friend and brother from the hands of American Slavery:ーI congratulate you in the philanthropic enterprise in which you are engaged. I hail you as a fellow laborer in the cause of freedom for three millions of our fellow-men, who are still toiling under the slave-driver’s lash, on the American soil, without wages. But while we are battling against chattel slavery in this hated land of professed liberty, I think we owe it to "ourselves and to our posterity" to do all we can to break down the ungodly prejudice and sectarianism which prevail to an alarming extent, and which would, if it were possible, shut the people of color out of Heaven itself.

I am happy to see that you have taken up the institution of colored churches, which, I presume, will be a very unwelcome doctrine among the pro-slavery white churches of the day, as well as among a large class of the colored. But I think we must have charity, and make some allowance, for the latter needs to be pitied rather thank rebuked. To break down these churches would stop a large number of them from preaching what they call the gospel. But I shall not now attempt to infringe upon the subject by giving my own views with regard to it; for you have most philosophically spoken my mind, and perhaps more fully than I could have done myself, and I only write this by way of giving response to your sentiments.

I consider this to be one of the most vital questions connected with our future destiny. It stands directly in the way of our moral, religious and intellectual improvement, and as such we are bound to expose it. We should contend for the natural equality of the human family, without regard to color or sect.

I see no more use in having a colored church exclusively, than having a colored heaven and a colored God. I regard prejudice to be just as wicked in a colored person as in a white one. Where is the difference?ーand who are they that stand holding up the complexionary and sectarian lines? It is the proud, aristocratic clergymen among the pro-slavery whites. They are generally pleased to encourage colored schools and colored churches.

And, on the other hand, we find among ourselves fanatical, superstitious, and ignorant leaders, preaching up the same doctrine.ーFrom such quarters we may expect to meet the strongest opposition to this important branch of reform. But I have no fears of not succeeding, sooner or later, believing that "God will speed the right."

Sir, I am with you on this question. You are pulling on the right strings; pull away, and I will help you. Let us make "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether."ーLet us pull until we pull down ignorance, prejudice, sectarianism, superstition, colored schools, colored churches, and American slavery, the mother of all these abominations.ーThen we shall have justice, humanity and liberty.

Ever true to the cause of suffering humanity,

HENRY BIBBBibb, Henry

Henry Bibb (1815-54), born a slave in Shelby County, Kentucky, escaped in 1837, only to be recaptured in his unsuccessful attempt to rescue his wife and child. By 1842 he had escaped once again and settled in Detroit, Michigan, his residence until 1850. Immediately plunging into political and antislavery work, Bibb was hired as a lecturer by the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society and spoke on behalf of Liberty party candidates. Although Bibb planned to visit England in 1848, he was advised against making such a tour because the bigamous implications of his marriage to a free woman, Mary E. Miles, might limit his antislavery appeal. He toured the East in 1849, at one point acting as an agent for the North Star, and published his Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb (1849). After the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, Bibb settled in Windsor, Canada West, where he published the Voice of the Fugitive (1851-53). In January 1852 the Refugee Home Society was founded to assist American blacks to migrate to Canada and chose Bibb as a trustee. Bibb was also active in the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, serving as one of its vice presidents in 1852. NS, 24 March 1848; Henry Bibb, Narrative of the life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave (New York, 1850); Floyd J. Miller, The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization, 1787-1863 (London, 1975), 106-07, 110-15, 149; Winks, Blacks in Canada, 204-08, 254-55, 396-97; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 61-62, 185, 218-19; Pease and Pease, Black Utopia, 109-22; idem. They Who Would Be Free, 65, 252-53; Fred Landon, "Henry Bibb: A Colonizer," JNH, 5:437-47 (October 1920). .

Boston, March 25, 1848.