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• 1 media/Thumb 154.png 2024-12-03T13:23:40-05:00 "Deliberations of the Anti-Slavery Congress" 24 Summary of the proceedings of the Congress plain 2024-12-13T12:43:13-05:00
  

  First Session

  Monday 22 September
  
  The delegates of different antislavery Committees gathered, at 9 o'clock in the morning, in the hall of the Geography Society, 184 Boulevard St-Germain, under the chairmanship of His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, for the constitution of the definitive board and the setting of the agenda.
  
  Mr. Keller, the former deputy and president of the Directory Council of the Antislavery Society, was elected to preside over the Congress, and the Count of Resbecq, as secretary general.
  
  Haiti, the first independent Black State, not yet having an antislavery committee, did not have a representative at the Congress. We shared our regrets with Mgr. Brincat who, with with a haste for which we are grateful, was happy to submit the case before His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie. On the request of the prelate, the Congress unanimously admitted us as Haitian representative.
  
  In this first session, Messrs. the members of the Congress examined if it was appropriate:
  1. To publicly adhere to the dispositions of the general act of the Brussels Conference, as it was adopted by the powers.
  2. To decide that the Antislavery Campaign should remain divided into fully independent national committees, according to the nation to which each belongs, and to specify, by consequence, the sphere of action that each of these committees should adopt with regard to Africa.
  3. It if was appropriate for each of these national Committees to offer their active support to the respective Governments in the sphere of territorial influence of each of them, primarily for the creation of a corps of volunteers chosen from among the men who spontaneously offered their services to the Committees.
  ===

  At 3 o'clock in the afternoon 

  Public Session

  Cardinal Richard, archbishop of Paris, who had intended to preside over this session, found himself suddenly indisposed, and asked Mgr Livinhac to replace him. Mgr. Brincat read out the letter by which the prelate had excused himself.
  
  Mr. Keller eloquently read the proceedings of slavery as "contrary to natural law and Christian law."
  
  After having welcomed the representatives of foreign committees and sang the praises of Great Britain's colonial conduct, he gave a warm appeal to all those who have an interest in humanity. For the fight against the ferocious slavers, missionaries and resources are needed; schools must be founded that will give the Blacks the taste for work, hospitals, etc. It was to assure the means to attain this goal that the Congress was convened.
  
  Then, Mr. Descamps David, member of the steering committee of Brussels, spoke brilliantly about the providential characteristics of the anti-slavery movement in the nineteenth century and on the opportunity of an active campaign.
  
  Next, Brother Alexis, the well known geographer, gave an interesting lecture on the shared policy in Africa, following on the latest diplomatic conventions.
  
  ===

  Second Session

  Tuesday 23 September, at 9 o'clock in the morning
  1. We researched a simple and practical method for procuring annual resources for the charitable work in Africa and the missions that the Act of the Brussels Conference called for and promised to protect.
  2. We examined terms in which the question of free labourers could be resolved without harming the interests of European colonists, nor the liberty of the Blacks.
  3. We deliberated on the practical means of resolving the question of African Mohammedan fanaticism (Madhism, Senussianism, etc.) without provoking accusation of religious persecution.
  4. On the necessity of immediately electing, from among the National Committees, a Jury to judge the open contest for the composition of the popular work most able to boost, in popular opinion, the cause of the abolition of African slavery, and to specify the conditions of this contest.
  A supplementary meeting was held at two o'clock to clarify the latter points. And it was decided to continue acting on public opinion by way of anti-slavery Bulletins and communications made to the press, in order to ensure the strict execution of the decisions adopted by the Powers.

  Public and Solemn Closing Session

  The attendance was much greater at this second and last session of the Congress, a considerable crowd filled the place. Well before 3 o'clock the whole vast hall: they had to hear His Eminence the Cardinal.
  
  It was the Baron d'Avril, former minister plenipotentiary of France in Valparaiso, who first took the stand. An expert in geography, he traced on Brother Alexis's map of Africa an ingenious railroad project, going from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean through the Sahara, for which the posts of the missionaries, soldiers and merchants formed a triple barrier, and effective fortification for the better part of the Soudan, for the Niger and the Algerian lands, against the shameful plague of slavery. The speaker then describe the vast establishment, created by Cardinal Lavigerie at Biskra and currently in great prosperity, "where young people ripped from the slave traders are cared for, educated, regenerated by Christianity. The results obtained have already reduced to nothing the assertions of those who see the Black race as inferior to ours."
  
  Although the session started at the appointed time, the Cardinal had not yet arrived. The Marquis of Vogüé, rapporteur of the Congress, nevertheless began reading the wishes expressed by the private morning session, when the arrival of Mgr. Lavigerie was announced. It was the eminent prelate, indeed, who, smiling and resplendent, made his entrance.
  
  Before beginning a casual and touching chat, which was interrupted many times by applause from the audience, Cardinal Lavigerie read a telegram from Leo XIII, "from the pope taking in hand the defence of slaves throughout the world from the depths of the prison of the Vatican," thanking the delegates from the good wishes they had sent to him, asking that they report on the slaves in Africa. Then the prelate said a few words on the role played by Mgr. Livinhac, his student and his son, "the first missionary in Africa," a man of science and a slave to his faith, laureate of the Academy of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and liberator, at the risk of his life, of unfortunate children destined for torment, "the bishop who bears at once the palms of the martyr and the palms of the Institute."
  
  Mgr. Livinhac is about forty years old, of overage height; his face, looking both fine and energetic, is enveloped in a brown beard. He speaks, in a think Gascon accent, a French that he has hardly had the chance to use in the past twelve years in Africa. The fourteen young Blacks—the converts he brought with him—obey his slightest gesture with remarkable docility.
  
  He first invented them—in their language, as not one of them speaks French—to thank the cardinal who had just blessed them; and all falling to their knees and smiling while murmuring a thanksgiving, which gives the most picturesque rhythm to the cadenced swaying of the bodies and the oblique clapping of joined hands. Among these young people, there are martyrs whose heroism is reminiscent of that of the first Christians.
  
  The bishop told us their story. He called two over to him; one, very young, had seen his father flayed and burnt; another, instead of an ear had nothing but a hole on his head. It had been cut off. "Why did you have your ear cut off?" Mgr Lavigerie asked him. "Because they wanted to stop me from praying." Cardinal Lavigerie drew them near to him to embrace them. And in the hall, among those who had just been laughing at the spiritual embellishments of the cardinal, I could see men who were crying.
  
  But time was passing. Once again the Marquis of Vogüé took the stand and announced the closing of the Congress and read the wishes expressed by the delegates.
  
  At five o'clock, Mr. de Vogüé's reading is finished. The English delegate, Mr. Charles H. Allen, addressed in the name of the foreigners a compliment of farewell to Mgr. Lavigerie who, after embracing him, turned toward the assembly on his knees and blessed it.
  
  And the Congress was over. Outside, a small crowd was waiting for the prelate and greeted him respectfully.
  
  This splendid event—unique in its type—ended with a banquet in which the delegates took part, and which took place at the Hôtel Continental, under the chairmanship of Mr. Keller.
  
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• 1 media/Thumb 151.png 2024-12-03T13:18:13-05:00 "The Anti-Slavery Congress at Saint-Sulpice" 21 Summary of the opening ceremony of the Anti-Slavery Congress plain 2024-12-07T15:29:28-05:00 Translation: The opening ceremony of the free Anti-Slavery Congress was solemnly celebrated on Sunday, 21 September, at the Saint-Sulpice church. The enthusiasm of the Christian community was even greater than could have been expected. From one o'clock, the side aisles, the nave of the church were nearly full; at 2:30, when the vespers began, the holy space was jam packed, and one could not walk around freely.
  
  The whole nave was reserved for invited guests, at the head of whom were the clergy of Paris, the directors of the congregations and charities, and the delegates of the seven major powers represented at the Congress, which were: Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal. Also present were the six delegates of the French Anti-slavery League; Messrs. Jules Simon, Georges Picot, of the Institute, and Lefèvre-Pontalis, the former deputy, for the Committee of High Patronage; Messrs. Keller, the former deputy, the Marquis de Vogüé, the former ambassador, and Baron d'Avril, former minister plenipotentiary.
  
  The entrance of the young Black converts brought by Mgr. Livinhac, bishop and apostolic vicar in the region of Lake Nyanza and who has been called to serve as Mgr. Lavigerie's coadjutor, caused a true sensation. These children went into the choir stalls, having the White Fathers beside them. Mgr. Livinhac officiated.
  
  The papal nuncio, Mgr. Rotelli, made his entrance as the magnificat began. The whole clergy, Mgr Livinhac at its head, went before this representative of the Pope who had come, in solemn procession, up to the dais that had been prepared for him near the choir stalls.
  
  When the vespers concluded, the nuncio, the officiant, and all the bishops in attendance came to sit on the pew that faced the pulpit. Mgr. Rotelli has to his right, Mrg. Livinhac, Mgr. Brincat, the Bishop of Hadrumetum and auxiliary of Mgr. Lavigerie, the Abbot Icard, superior general of the Sulpicians; to his left were Mgr. Fabre, archbishop of Montreal, and Mgr. Combes, bishop of Constantine.
  
  After one hundred and fifty singers artfully performed the Cantata on African slavery, composed by Mr. Bellenot, the choirmaster, His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie mounted the pulpit. Although sickness and fatigue have left traces on his venerable face, the eminent prelate is still admirable for his vigour and eloquence. With his long almost white beard, he reminds one of the beautiful heads of the patriarchs whose memory has been preserved by tradition.
  
  It was 4:10; the daylight was fading and the church was beginning to illuminate. Along the two stairways that went up to the pulpit, to the left and right of the majestic prelate, six White Fathers stood motionless; while at the edge of the nave packed with a contemplative crowd, spreading out from the dazzling base of the lights of the high altar, were the black silhouettes of the little Africans. The spectacle was gripping for its originality and grandeur.
  
  Recalling, in a few words, the ceremony that had taken place two years earlier in this same church of Saint-Sulpice, where he found his former superior as well as one of his most zealous collaborators, the Cardinal traced the historical contours of the great project to which he had dedicated the last years of his life, and for the triumph of which the Pope did not cease to give his support. He also recalled the Brussels Act through which the powers of Europe a plan of execution to destroy the slave trade in Africa. In the success of his noble task, Mgr. Lavigerie had the more or less unanimous support of the episcopate, and he thanked the diverse press for what they had done for him. Thanks to this support, definitive success is certain, if the powers hold to their resolutions written in the Brussels Act.
  
  The prelate then described the organization of the committee, each of which represents a nation and overseen interests in Africa in the region placed under its dependency. Then, in an eloquent move, he recalled the results he had achieved in the Sahara and the regions of Sudan:

  What do I do in these immense regions?
  
  I did what the Church does, the Church that Our Lord made, in his image, as the great Sower. Exiit qui seminat, seminare. I sowed what Christians sow, as our Tertullian said, when they want to assure eternal harvests; I sowed with blood, the blood of my sons, the White Fathers you see at this moment around the pulpit. Six of them, in addition to those who were sacrificed in other regions of Africa, suffered martyrdom under the blows of barbarians and fell blessing their executioners.
  
  How can I forget them today, in this parish of Saint-Sulpice, to which the first of them belonged like you, by his birth, my three dear Brothers, and whence, six years before his martyrdom, he left to come learn among us in the hard life of missionaries.
  
  But that blood of the apostles was not the only blood.
  
  All devotions are united in France for a conquest that we are leaving to Providence: science, charity, even the army have left, for a quarter of a century, in the desert, the traces of their bloody heroism.

  In a magnificent peroration, Mrg. Lavigerie solemnly conferred a part of his noble mission on his coadjutor, Mgr. Livinhac.
  
  "As for me" he added,

  I will return to my Africa, never to leave again, and I will give to it what God wills to give me in courage for the remaining years, being happy if, not having been able to work any better for the sanctification of the Father's flock that He has surrounded me with for a quarter of a century, it is my lot to fall pursuing the lost flock!

  The emotion in the room was profound when the Cardinal descended from the pulpit. Many people knelt as he passed by, imploring his blessing. It was 5:05.
  
  The allocution was followed by the singing of Veni Creator by Saint-Saëns, and by the taking of the Holy Sacrament led by Mgr. Rotelli. Auguez sand Rousseau's O Salutaris, and Vernet, Gounod's Ave Maria; the choir magisterially executed Tantum ergo by. Widor, who played the great organ, and Handel's Alleluia.
  
  It was after 6:30 when the crowd left the church to its calm and silence. This magnificent and imposing ceremony left the deepest impression on all those who attended.

  
  
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• 1 media/Thumb 152.png 2024-12-03T13:19:14-05:00 "German Slavery" 17 Benito Sylvain condemns the rumoured German authorization of the slave trade in Zanzibar plain 2024-12-10T10:38:00-05:00 09-24-1890 Translation:At the same time that the anti-slavery movement launched by His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie was reaching it most beautiful extent, a rumour spread, thanks to an article in the Times, that the agents of Germany in Zanzibar had proclaimed the liberty of commerce in slaves at Bagamoyo, and that it had granted licenses to these monstrous traffickers in human flesh.
  
  The news of such a fact, if it were true, would constitute a horrible and flagrant violation of the spirit of the letter and of the declarations of the general Act of the Brussels Conference—would be greeted with stupefaction by the entire civilized world.
  
  The Cabinet in Berlin immediately telegraphed to Africa to ask for information on the reported fact.
  
  Mr. Schmidt, who is serving as imperial commissioner on the east coast of Africa, officially declared that: "there has been no proclamation about slave commerce at Bagamoyo. No licenses have been granted to slave merchants. It is false that Zanzibar slave merchants have come to establish themselves on the German coast to practise their trade.
  
  "These rumours were spread by Arabs, and they were immediately untruthfully exploited against the Germans."
  
  The English press, raising a general outcry, energetically sullied this conduct of the Germans—which they were quick to qualify as "infamous."
  
  The Morning Post sees is as "a monstrous denial of the professions of humanitarian faith of Emperor Wilhelm II, and" the newspaper adds, "if a protest is inadequate to bring about the annulation of this abominable decree, Europe must show its displeasure by more effective means."
  
  The German press shot back at the English, reminding them that Gordon's first act on arriving in Khartoum was to proclaim the maintenance of slavery. The English objected that this was a provisional maintenance, so as not to harm the customs of populations they hoped to win over.
  
  All ills are deniable. The German commissioner at Zanzibar denies the existence of the authorization that the Times correspondent "saw posted at Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam, signed by the German functionaries at these stations." But, when it published these denials, the German Empire Monitor announce that an investigation would be opened.
  
  This denial has encountered, by the way, many sceptics. Mr. Auguste Vacquerie, our eminent colleague, said on the subject in the Rappel: "What surprises me is that the English are surprised that Emperor Wilhelm could be a socialist in Berlin and a slaver in Zanzibar at the same time."
  
  It is true—and worth remembering—that the Germans never stopped saying that slavery was a necessary evil in Africa. Their reasoning was simple: since they cannot maintain themselves in Africa without the slave merchant who hold the coast and the frequented routes, they must draw these slave merchants to the German side by authorizing their commerce.
  
  This is—as we see it—very judicious from the practical and German point of view, but from the human point of view, it is simply shameful for such a civilized European state to have officially authorized the slave trade.
  
  Many times, no doubt, England has secretly protected slave traders, showing that in colonial matters the question of interests surpasses all others, but a crime does not become less abominable because it is committed by a large number.
  
  While we wait for the truth to break through and set responsibilities, may our protest rise and make its way to the German Emperor as an echo of indignation of the civilized Blacks of Haiti!
  
  Benito Sylvain
  
   
• 1 media/Thumb125.png 2024-11-08T11:53:43-05:00 "Anti-Slavery Congress" 16 Cardinal Lavigerie announces the Paris Anti-Slavery Congress and a writing competition plain 2024-12-11T08:53:27-05:00 Translation:The meeting of the Anti-Slavery Congress in Paris is definitively set for the 22nd of September. His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie addressed all of the presidents of the anti-slavery committees in the following invitation letter:

  Paris 19 August 1890
  
  Mister President,
  
  I had the pleasure of sending by post, to your committee, the printed letter that I recently addressed to the members of the anti-slavery effort, on the occasion of the meeting of our next free congress.
  
  I feel the need, today, to invent directly to give the honour of your presence along with two delegates who, according to the terms published in the last anti-slavery bulletin of France, will be elected by each national committee, to represent it at our Congress.
  
  I must finally let you know officially that this Congress will take place in Paris on Monday 22 September (1.). 
  
  In the afternoon of Sunday the 21st, a solemn religious ceremony will take place, with the authorization of His Eminence the cardinal archbishop of Paris, in the church of Saint-Sulpice, to thank God for the happy results already obtained through your common efforts and ask for the Holy Spirit to shine his light on our future works. We will sing, before the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the "Veni Creator Spiritus," which will be preceded by the execution of the anti-slavery cantata, set to music by Mr. Bellenot, music director at Saint-Sulpice. I will have the honour of personally presiding over this ceremony.
  
  Yours sincerely with the highest consideration and religious devotion,
  
  Your very humble and obedient servant,
  
  Charles Cardinal LAVIGERIE,
  Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers
  
  P.S. – The next congress being tasked with electing, by a majority of voices, the jury destined to decide the results of the contest that I have opened, in the name of Our Holy Father the Pope, for the composition of a popular work to be judged most capable of serving practically for the abolition of African slavery, I believe I should add a reminder that the prize offered is twenty thousand francs. This amount has been deposited at the Bank of France and will be granted to the author of the winning work as soon as the jury has made its decision.
  
  To be clear about the nature of this contest, I will allow myself to reiterate here what I have written on this subject in the open letter that I sent, a few months ago, to His Majesty King Leopold of Belgium. 
  
  I propose, I said then, the opening of a competition for a popular work destined to illuminate, to draw out the opinion of the question of the abolition of slavery. We know the importance, half a century ago, in England, in America, and in France, of works composed to this end by considerable men.
  
  Even in our century, one could say truthfully that it was a simple novel, Uncle Tom, that definitely led to the suppression of the American slavery.
  
  I am only waiting, I concluded, for the wrapping up of the Brussels Conference to declare this open contest.
  
  I declare it open today.
  
  The works presented to the competition will be received until 31 December 1891, at the office of the Anti-Slavery Work, 6 Rue Chomel, Paris, or at the Procuracy of Algiers Missions, 27 Rue Cassette, Paris.

  
  
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  Notes from original:
  1. The date of 15 October had been indicated in the note printed in the last issue of the "Paris anti-slavery bulletin." But the 15 October date seemed too far away for many of the members of our committees, particularly the committees in the Midi and especially in Africa.
  
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