Bishop H.M. Turner, D., LL. D.
From the National Baptist Magazine. Lynchburg, Va. 1897, p 584
“I would not be understood as saying that the black man cannot exist here as a mere individual. That he is doing very well, but if he would ever become anything in the way of a power and force in the world, ever reach the condition where his influence and commerce would be courted and turned to his own advantage, he must have a country and a government of his own that is a success.
Why, if we had a negro nation in Africa, though it did not contain over ten millions of people, and if we had active and prosperous cities, had cars and telegraph lines schools and factories, newspapers and ships, and numbered among our populations statesmen, writers and soldiers of recognized ability, and more especially, if we had a substantial currency and commerce of our own—made and carried on by our own race, the condition of the black man would be elevated all over the world. These things I have just mentioned constitute the very nest egg of civilization and only their successful and permanent development out of a people’s own resources can ever bring national vigor and strength.”
“Go to Arica, by all means, and not only do I advise the young man to do this, but those of middle life, who are physically able to stand the rough and tumble of life of a new country. To the young Negro of education and ability Liberia is the most promising country in the world. Its government and social institutions are developing very satisfactorily, and there is nothing whatever in his way. There are, of course some climatic objections to persons going from the cooler sections of the United States. One must become acclimated just as the Northern man who moves South. Hundreds go there who acclimate without the least trouble and go right to work. There is no sickness in Liberia more than might be expected in any new country, and there was only a railroad by which the high lands back fifty miles from the coast could be reached at once by the new citizen, one should need no acclimatization.”
