Cooper, Joseph. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Title

Cooper, Joseph. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

Creator

Cooper, Joseph

Contributor

Post, Amy Kirby, 1802-1889

Date

1870-02-16

Description

Handwritten letter from Joseph Cooper to Amy Kirby Post, February 16, 1870.

Is Part Of

Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Rights

The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Identifier

1837

Location

Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Transcription

(Page 1)

16/2mo 1870

Dear Friend,
            On behalf of the Anti-Slavery
Committee[1], I take the liberty to send
the enclosed minute on Immigration
from China into the Southern States of
the Union. The facts which have at
various times been brought before the
committee during the last twenty years
arising out of immigration, especially
into Countries where slavery had previously
existed, have been of the most
harrowing character.
            Many rules &regulations have
from time to time been laid down by
the British Government both in its Imperial
& Colonial Capacities, and immigration
(Page 2)
agents have been appointed to prevent
abuses; but all efforts have, at least
in many cases so far, proved ineffectual
to prevent the perpetration of very grievous
attrocities. Kidnapping & fraud are
sick practices to a large extent previous
to embarcation [sic], whilst as to theSea
passage the fearful mortality often
indicates the grievous sufferings to which
the immigrants are subjected. The last
mail from Demerara[2] announces the
arrival of the Ship shared which left
Calcutta with 468 Coolies[3] on board +
only landed 364 alive.
In Cuba Chinese Immigrants have
long been bought & sold like cattle in the
open market, and there is abundant
testimony to the fact that their condition
is as bad as that of the slave himself[4]
In a parliamentary Blue Book published
(Page 3)
a year ago it is stated that 96.581
Chinese were imported into Cuba within
a period of one year & eight months.
            We do not know what the mortality
of the Chinese in Cuba is, but we do
know that out of more than 100.000
taken into Peru within twenty years,
less than 10.000 are now living and
that not more than about 100 have
ever returned to their native land.[5]
            As to. Jamaica, in a paper presented
to the International Anti-Slavery Conference
held in Paris in 1867 Henry Clarke
an esteemed Clergyman of the Church of
England who has resided twenty years
in Jamaica[6] bears striking testimony both
to the condition of the immigrants and the
causes which have led to their importation—
            He says the suicidal policy of many of the
Planters in making the nation labourers [sic] as
(Page 4)
uncomfortable as possible has driven them from
Estate labour [sic] to other occupations and that this
policy is still continued—another proof that the
spirit of slavery long survives its existence
as an institution. As to the condition of the the Immigrants
he writes— “I know this Coolie Immigration to be the
most atrocious & cruel form of the
slave-trade slavery that has ever existed, since
it is worse to capture people by fraud than by force,
and a slave for life is in a far better position than
a slave for a short period, because in the one
case it is in the owner’s interest to care for him when
sick; in the other to let him die off as soon as
possible. The negroes themselves say the slaves
were never treated as badly as the Coolies.”
            The subject appears to be of so much importance
to the United States at the present time that I
hope to be kindly excused for this pressing it[?]
            May I be allowed to suggest as one means
of attracting public attention to it, that the
Minute of the AntiSlavery Committee be published
in some of your Periodicals & newspapers as early
as may be.— Sincerely & very respectfully
            Joseph Cooper

[1] The Anti-Slavery Committee was founded in 1839 by Joseph Sturge in 1839. From this time until is death, Cooper served as Secretary of the Organization. The Late Joseph Cooper, The Anti-Slavery Reporter; Dec 1881; 1, 12; British Periodicals, pg. 240.

[2] Demerara was a region in Guyana controlled by Dutch colonists at the time.

[3] A derogatory term referring to the ethnic Chinese population, but also refers broadly to migrants from Asian countries.

[4] Cooper later writes extensively about the treatment of slaves passing through Cuba in chapter VII book titled The Slave Continent: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa 1875.

[5] Refer to passage written by Cooper in the Anti-Slavery Reporter for more information. SPAIN AND CUBA. Cooper, Joseph The Anti-slavery reporter; Jun 1870; 17, 2; British Periodicals pg. 42.

[6] Joseph Cooper, The Lost Continent: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa 1874, 1875. Frank Cass and Company Limited: London, United Kingdom, 60-70.

Annotations

The following passage is transcribed from a letter written by Joseph Cooper to Amy Post. The letter is dated February 16, 1870, and was sent from Joseph Cooper’s home in Walthamshaw, Essex Hall. While the nature of Cooper’s relationship with Post is ambiguous, it is evident that Cooper hoped Post would share his enthusiasm for the abolitionist cause.
As written in his obituary published in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, a journal that Cooper frequently contributed to as the Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, “his name, to a larger number of his countrymen, was comparatively unknown, but this was mainly due to the unostentatious manner in which he labored for suffering humanity”[1]. During a career spanning from 1830 up until his death in December 1881, Joseph Cooper worked tirelessly to eliminate the institution of slavery which he saw as a heinous violation of his Quaker faith[2]. Joseph Cooper’s commitment to abolishing slavery in all forms is evidenced in his most famous book, The Lost Continent: Slavery and the Slave-Trade in Africa 1875, which has been translated into French and German. Other notable works of his include a widely distributed pamphlet titled “Turkey and Egypt, past and present, in relation to Africa”, as well as numerous articles published in the Anti-Slavery Reporter[3].
Cooper’s letter to Post is significant for several reasons, but his transatlantic perspective proves invaluable to historians studying how the institution persisted following the United States’ antebellum period, and following England’s Slave Trade act of 1807. The slave-trade, despite national denouncements of slavery was “probably as great as it has been at any previous time”[4].

[1] The Late Joseph Cooper, The Anti-Slavery Reporter; Dec 1881; 1, 12; British Periodicals, pg. 240.

[2] The Late Joseph Cooper, The Anti-Slavery Reporter; Dec 1881; 1, 12; British Periodicals, pg. 240.

[3] Spain and Cuba, Cooper, Joseph, The Anti-Slavery Reporter; June 1870; 17, 2; British Periodicals, pg. 42.

[4] Joseph Cooper, The Lost Continent: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa 1874, 1875. Frank Cass and Company Limited: London, United Kingdom, 3.

Footnotes

[1] The Anti-Slavery Committee was founded in 1839 by Joseph Sturge in 1839. From this time until is death, Cooper served as Secretary of the Organization. The Late Joseph Cooper, The Anti-Slavery Reporter; Dec 1881; 1, 12; British Periodicals, pg. 240.

[2] Demerara was a region in Guyana controlled by Dutch colonists at the time.

[3] A derogatory term referring to the ethnic Chinese population, but also refers broadly to migrants from Asian countries.

[4] Cooper later writes extensively about the treatment of slaves passing through Cuba in chapter VII book titled The Slave Continent: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa 1875.

[5] Refer to passage written by Cooper in the Anti-Slavery Reporter for more information. SPAIN AND CUBA. Cooper, Joseph The Anti-slavery reporter; Jun 1870; 17, 2; British Periodicals pg. 42.

[6] Joseph Cooper, The Lost Continent: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa 1874, 1875. Frank Cass and Company Limited: London, United Kingdom, 60-70.

Collection

D.93 Isaac and Amy Post Family Papers

Citation

Cooper, Joseph, “Cooper, Joseph. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed November 21, 2024, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/4119.

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