No. 112.] 725 



were forsaken and the restraints of the Sabbath, with rare ex- 

 ceptions, disregarded.! 



In 1840, only seven families remained on the 80,000 acres 

 which now forms the town of North Elba. At this time the lands 

 were offered for sale, emigration was again directed to the region 

 and the evidences of returning prosperity were restored. The 

 public highways were again opened and improved. At this pe- 

 riod a WW episode occurred in the chequered history of North 

 Elba. Mr. Gerrit Smith, who had become an extensive proprie- 

 tor of the town, made gratuitous conveyances of a large number 

 of quarter lots, embracing forty acres each, to colored persons, 

 with the professed design, it was understood, of fu'ming a colony, 

 which should constitute an asylum for a peculiar class of African 

 .population. I found no difference of opinion in that region, in 

 reference to the character and results of this movement. What- 

 ever may have been the motive of the benefaction, the issue of 

 the experiment has entailed only disappointment and suffering 

 upon the recipients of the gratuity, while the act has exercised a 

 depressing and sinister influence upon the prosperity and reputa- 

 tion of the country. The Negro, ill adapted in his physical con- 

 stitution to the rigorous climate, with neither experience or com- 

 petency to the independent management of business affairs, and 

 adverse to them from habits and propensities, soon felt the inap- 

 propriateness of his position. He has abandoned his acquisition iii 

 disgust and disappointment, or became, in many instances, an 

 imju^verished and destitute object of public or private charity. 

 A very considerable proportion of these freeholds have been suld 

 for taxes j others have passed into the hands of speculators, and 

 only two of the large number of original grantees now retain the 

 occupation of the farms, they received. A knowledge of these 

 facts has been widely diiUL-ed, and altliuugli the wliule scheme 

 bure in its inception the inherent elements of failure, the result 

 has been imputed not to these causes, but public opinion has 

 ascribed it to an inhospitable climate ami the sterility of the soil. 

 A reluctance, innate to the New p]ngl nd sentiment, to mingle 

 with a colored population, in the social relations of a new couu- 



• Notes of T. 6. Noah. 



