History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol 1
by George Washington Williams · English · Gutenberg #15735 · 1,398,459 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol 1
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol 1
Author: George Washington Williams
Release date: April 30, 2005 [eBook #15735]
Most recently updated: December 14, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15735
Credits: Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Richard J. Shiffer
and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA FROM 1619 TO 1880. VOL 1 ***
Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Richard J. Shiffer
and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
HISTORY
OF THE
NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA
_FROM 1619 TO 1880._
NEGROES AS SLAVES, AS SOLDIERS, AND AS CITIZENS;
TOGETHER WITH
A PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION OF THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN
FAMILY, AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AFRICA, AND AN
ACCOUNT OF THE NEGRO GOVERNMENTS OF
SIERRA LEONE AND LIBERIA.
BY
GEORGE W. WILLIAMS,
FIRST COLORED MEMBER OF THE OHIO LEGISLATURE, AND LATE JUDGE
ADVOCATE OF THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF OHIO, ETC.
_IN TWO VOLUMES._
VOLUME I.
1619 TO 1800.
NEW YORK:
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
27 AND 29 WEST 23D STREET.
1883.
TO THE
REV. JUSTIN DEWEY FULTON, D.D.,
OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK;
AND TO THE
HON. CHARLES FOSTER,
GOVERNOR OF OHIO;
WHO, AS CLERGYMAN AND STATESMAN, REPRESENT THE PUREST PRINCIPLES
OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH AND STATE.
To the Illustrious Representative of the Church of Christ:
WHO, FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY, HAS STOOD THE INTREPID CHAMPION OF
DIVINE TRUTH, AND THE DEFENDER OF HUMANITY: DURING THE DARK DAYS OF
SLAVERY, PLEADING THE CAUSE OF THE BONDMEN OF THE LAND; DURING
THE WAR, URGING THE EQUALITY OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS, DURING
RECONSTRUCTION, ENCOURAGING THE FREEDMEN TO NOBLE LIVES
THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL, AND
EVERMORE THE ENEMY OF ANY DISTINCTION BASED UPON
RACE, COLOR, OR PREVIOUS CONDITION OF SERVITUDE.
To the Distinguished Statesman:
WHO, ENDUED WITH THE GENIUS OF COMMON SENSE, TOO EXALTED TO BE
INFLAMED BY TEMPORARY PARTY OR FACTIONAL STRIFE, AND WHO,
AS CONGRESSMAN AND GOVERNOR, IN STATE AND NATIONAL
POLITICS, HAS PROVEN HIMSELF CAPABLE OF
SACRIFICING PERSONAL INTEREST TO PUBLIC WELFARE;
WHO, IN DEALING WITH THE NEGRO PROBLEM, HAS ASSERTED A NEW DOCTRINE IN
IGNORING THE CLAIMS OF RACES: AND WHO, AS THE FIRST NORTHERN GOVERNOR
TO APPOINT A COLORED MAN TO A POSITION OF PUBLIC TRUST,
HAS THEREBY DECLARED THAT NEITHER NATIONALITY NOR
COMPLEXION SHOULD ENHANCE OR IMPAIR THE CLAIMS
OF MEN TO POSITIONS WITHIN THE GIFT OF
THE EXECUTIVE.
TO THESE NOBLE MEN THIS WORK IS DEDICATED,
WITH SENTIMENTS OF HIGH ESTEEM AND PERSONAL REGARD, BY THEIR
FRIEND AND HUMBLE SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
I was requested to deliver an oration on the Fourth of July, 1876, at
Avondale, O. It being the one-hundredth birthday of the American
Republic, I determined to prepare an oration on the _American Negro_.
I at once began an investigation of the records of the nation to
secure material for the oration. I was surprised and delighted to find
that the historical memorials of the Negro were so abundant, and so
creditable to him. I pronounced my oration on the Fourth of July,
1876; and the warm and generous manner in which it was received, both
by those who listened to it and by others who subsequently read it in
pamphlet form, encouraged me to devote what leisure time I might have
to a further study of the subject.
I found that the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society
of Ohio, and the great _Americana_ of Mr. Robert Clarke containing
about eight thousand titles, both in Cincinnati, offered peculiar
advantages to a student of American history. For two years I spent
what time I could spare from professional cares in studying the whole
problem of the African slave-trade; the founding of the British
colonies in North America; the slave problem in the colonies; the
rupture between the colonies and the British Government; the war of
the Revolution; the political structure of the Continental government
and Confederation; the slavery question in local and national
legislation; and then traced the slavery and anti-slavery question
down to the Rebellion. I became convinced that a history of the
Colored people in America was required, because of the ample
historically trustworthy material at hand; because the Colored people
themselves had been the most vexatious problem in North America, from
the time of its discovery down to the present day; because that in
every attempt upon the life of the nation, whether by foes from
without or within, the Colored people had always displayed a matchless
patriotism and an incomparable heroism in the cause of Americans; and
because such a history would give the world more correct ideas of the
Colored people, and incite the latter to greater effort in the
struggle of citizenship and manhood. The single reason that there was
no history of the Negro race would have been a sufficient reason for
writing one.
The labor incident upon the several public positions held by me
precluded an earlier completion of this task; and, finding it
absolutely impossible to write while discharging public duties or
practising law, I retired from the public service several years ago,
and since that time have devoted all my energies to this work. It is
now nearly seven years since I began this wonderful task.
I have been possessed of a painful sense of the vastness of my work
from first to last. I regret that for the sake of pressing the work
into a single volume, favorable to a speedy sale,--at the sacrifice of
the record of a most remarkable people,--I found my heart unwilling,
and my best judgment protesting.
In the preparation of this work I have consulted over twelve thousand
volumes,--about one thousand of which are referred to in the
footnotes,--and thousands of pamphlets.
After wide and careful reading, extending through three years, I
conceived the present plan of this history. I divided it into nine
parts. Two thoughts led me to prepare the chapters under the head of
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. _First_, The defenders of slavery and the
traducers of the Negro built their pro-slavery arguments upon biblical
ethnology and the curse of Canaan. I am alive to the fact, that, while
I am a believer in the Holy Bible, it is not the best authority on
ethnology. As far as it goes, it is agreeable to my head and heart.
Whatever science has added I have gladly appropriated. I make no
claim, however, to be a specialist. While the curse of Canaan is no
longer a question of debate, yet nevertheless the folly of the
obsolete theory should be thoroughly understood by the young men of
the Negro race who, though voting now, were not born when Sumter was
fired upon. _Second_, A growing desire among the enlightened Negroes
in America to learn all that is possible from research concerning the
antiquity of the race,--Africa, its inhabitants, and the development
of the Negro governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia, led me to
furnish something to meet a felt need. If the Negro slave desired his
native land before the Rebellion, will not the free, intelligent, and
reflective American Negro turn to Africa with its problems of
geography and missions, now that he can contribute something towards
the improvement of the condition of humanity? Editors and writers
everywhere throughout the world should spell the word Negro with a
capital N; and when referring to the race as Colored people employ a
capital C. I trust this will be observed.
In PART II., SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES, I have striven to give a
succinct account of the establishment and growth of slavery under the
English Crown. It involved almost infinite labor to go to the records
of "the original thirteen colonies." It is proper to observe that this
part is one of great value and interest.
In PART III., THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION, I found much of an
almost romantic character. Many traditions have been put down, and
many obscure truths elucidated. Some persons may think it irreverent
to tell the truth in the plain, homely manner that characterizes my
narrative; but, while I have nothing to regret in this particular, I
can assure them that I have been actuated by none other spirit than
that of candor. Where I have used documents it was with a desire to
escape the charge of superficiality. If, however, I may be charged
with seeking to escape the labor incident to thorough digestion, I
answer, that, while men with the reputation of Bancroft and Hildreth
could pass unchallenged when disregarding largely the use of documents
and the citation of authorities, I would find myself challenged by a
large number of critics. Moreover I have felt it would be almost cruel
to mutilate some of the very rare old documents that shed such
peerless light upon the subject in hand.
I have brought the first volume down to the close of the eighteenth
century, detailing the great struggle through which the slavery
problem passed. I have given as fair an idea of the debate on this
question, in the convention that framed the Constitution, as possible.
It was then and there that the hydra of slavery struck its fangs into
the Constitution; and, once inoculated with the poison of the monster,
the government was only able to purify itself in the flames of a great
civil war.
The second volume opens with the present century, and closes with the
year 1880. Unable to destroy slavery by constitutional law, the best
thought and effort of this period were directed against the extension
of the evil into the territory beyond the Ohio, Mississippi, and
Missouri rivers. But having placed three-fifths of the slave
population under the Constitution, having pledged the Constitution to
the protection of slave property, it required an almost superhuman
effort to confine the evil to one section of the country. Like a
loathsome disease it spread itself over the body politic until our
nation became the eyesore of the age, and a byword among the nations
of the world. The time came when our beloved country had to submit to
heroic treatment, and the cancer of slavery was removed by the sword.
In giving an account of the _Anti-Slavery Agitation Movement_, I have
found myself able to deal briefly with methods and results only. I
have striven to honor all the multifarious measures adopted to save
the Negro and the Nation. I have not attempted to write a history of
the Anti-Slavery Movement. Many noble men and women have not even been
mentioned. It should not be forgotten that this is a history of the
Negro race; and as such I have not run into the topic discussed by the
late Henry Wilson in his "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power."
In discussing the problem of the rendition of fugitive slaves by the
Union army, I have given the facts with temperate and honest
criticism. And, in recounting the sufferings Negro troops endured as
prisoners of war in the hands of the Rebels, I have avoided any spirit
of bitterness. A great deal of the material on the war I purchased
from the MS. library of Mr. Thomas S. Townsend of New-York City. The
questions of vital, prison, labor, educational, and financial
statistics cannot fail to interest intelligent people of all races and
parties. These statistics are full of comfort and assurance to the
Negro as well as to his friends.
Every cabinet minister of the President wrote me full information upon
all the questions I asked, and promptly too. The refusal of the
general and adjutant-general of the army did not destroy my hope of
getting some information concerning the Negro regiments in the regular
army. I visited the Indian Territory, Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico,
where I have seen the Ninth and Tenth Regiments of cavalry, and the
Twenty-fourth Regiment of infantry. The Twenty-fifth Regiment of
infantry is at Fort Randall, Dakota. These are among the most
effective troops in the regular army. The annual desertions in white
regiments of cavalry vary from ninety-eight to a hundred and eighteen;
while in Negro regiments of cavalry the desertions only average from
six to nine per annum. The Negro regiments are composed of young men,
intelligent, faithful, brave. I heard but one complaint from the lips
of a score of white officers I met, and that was that the Negroes
sometimes struck their horses over the head. Every distinction in law
has disappeared, except in the regular army. Here Negroes are excluded
from the artillery service and engineer's department. It is wrong, and
Congress should place these brave black soldiers upon the same footing
as the white troops.
I have to thank Drs. George H. Moore and S. Austin Allibone, of the
Lenox Library, for the many kind favors shown me while pursuing my
studies in New-York City. And I am under very great obligations to Dr.
Moore for his admirable "History of Early Slavery in Massachusetts,"
without which I should have been put to great inconvenience. To Mr.
John Austin Stevens, late editor of "The Magazine of American
History," who, during several months residence in New-York City,
placed his private library and office at my service, and did every
thing in his power to aid my investigations, I return my sincerest
thanks. To the Librarians of the New-York Historical, Astor, and
New-York Society Libraries, I return thanks for favors shown, and
privileges granted. I am especially grateful to the Hon. Ainsworth R.
Spofford, Librarian of Congress, for the manner in which he
facilitated my researches during my sojourn in Washington. I had the
use of many newspapers of the last century, and of other material to
be found only in the Congressional Library.
To Sir T. Risely Griffith, Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of Sierra
Leone, I am indebted for valuable statistics concerning that colony.
To the Assistant Librarian of the State Library of Ohio, the
accomplished and efficient Miss Mary C. Harbough, I owe more than to
any other person. Through her unwavering and untiring kindness and
friendship, I have been enabled to use five hundred and seventy-six
volumes from that library, besides newspaper files and Congressional
Records. To Gov. Charles Foster, Chairman of the Board of Library
Commissioners, I offer my profoundest thanks for the intelligent,
active, and practical interest he has taken in the completion of this
work. And to Major Charles Townsend, Secretary of State, I offer
thanks for favors shown me in securing documents. To the Rev. J.L.
Grover and his competent assistant, Mr. Charles H. Bell, of the Public
Library of Columbus, I am indebted for the use of many works. They
cheerfully rendered whatever aid they could, and for their kindness I
return many thanks.
I am obliged to the Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, Financial Secretary of
the A.M.E. Church of the United States, for the statistics of his
denomination. And to all persons who have sent me newspapers and
pamphlets I desire to return thanks. I am grateful to C.A. Fleetwood,
an efficient clerk in the War Department, for statistics on the
Freedmen's Bank. And, above all and more than all, I return my
profoundest thanks to my heavenly Father for the inspiration, health,
and money by which I have been enabled to complete this great task.
I have mentioned such Colored men as I thought necessary. To give a
biographical sketch of all the worthy Colored men in the United
States, would require more space than has been occupied in this work.
Not as the blind panegyrist of my race, nor as the partisan apologist,
but from a love for "_the truth of history_," I have striven to record
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I have not
striven to revive sectional animosities or race prejudices. I have
avoided comment so far as it was consistent with a clear exposition of
the truth. My whole aim has been to write a thoroughly trustworthy
history; and what I have written, if it have no other merit, is
reliable.
I commit this work to the public, white and black, to the friends and
foes of the Negro, in the hope that the obsolete antagonisms which
grew out of the relation of master and slave may speedily sink as
storms beneath the horizon; and that the day will hasten when there
shall be no North, no South, no Black, no White,--but all be American
citizens, with equal duties and equal rights.
GEORGE W. WILLIAMS.
NEW YORK, November, 1882.
CONTENTS.
Part I.
_PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS_
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
THE UNITY OF MANKIND.
The Biblical Argument.--One Race and One Language.--One
Blood.--The Curse of Canaan. 1
CHAPTER II.
THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND EGYPTOLOGY.
Cushim and Ethiopia.--Ethiopians, White and Black.--Negro
Characteristics.--The Dark Continent.--The Antiquity of the
Negro.--Indisputable Evidence.--The Military and Social
Condition of Negroes.--Cause of Color.--The Term
"Ethiopian." 12
CHAPTER III.
PRIMITIVE NEGRO CIVILIZATION.
The Ancient and High Degree of Negro Civilization.--Egypt,
Greece, and Rome borrow from the Negro the Civilization that
made them Great.--Cause of the Decline and Fall of Negro
Civilization.--Confounding the Terms "Negro" and "African." 22
CHAPTER IV.
NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA.
BENIN: Its Location.--Its Discovery by the
Portuguese.--Introduction of the Catholic Religion.--The
King as a Missionary.--His Fidelity to the Church purchased
by a White Wife.--Decline of Religion.--Introduction of
Slavery.--Suppression of the Trade by the English
Government.--Restoration and Peace.
DAHOMEY: Its Location.--Origin of the Kingdom.--Meaning of
the Name.--War.--Capture of the English Governor, and his
Death.--The Military Establishment.--Women as
Soldiers.--Wars and their Objects.--Human Sacrifices.--The
King a Despot.--His Powers.--His Wives.--Polygamy.--Kingly
Succession.--Coronation.--Civil and Criminal Law.--Revenue
System.--Its Future.
YORUBA. Its Location.--Slavery and its Abolition--Growth of
the People of Abeokuta.--Missionaries and Teachers from
Sierra Leone.--Prosperity and Peace attend the
People.--Capacity of the People for Civilization.--Bishop
Crowther.--His Influence. 26
CHAPTER V.
THE ASHANTEE EMPIRE.
Its Location and Extent.--Its Famous Kings.--The Origin of
the Ashantees Obscure.--The War with Denkera.--The Ashantees
against the Field conquer two Kingdoms, and annex
them.--Death of Osai Tutu.--The Envy of the King of
Dahomey.--Invasion of the Ashantee Country by the King of
Dahomey.--His Defeat shared by his Allies.--Akwasi pursues
the Army of Dahomey into its own Country.--Gets a Mortal
Wound and suffers a Humiliating Defeat,--The King of Dahomey
sends the Royal Kudjoh his Congratulations.--Kwamina deposed
for attempting to introduce Mohammedanism into the
Kingdom.--The Ashantees conquer the Mohammedans.--Numerous
Wars.--Invasion of the Fanti Country.--Death of Sir Charles
McCarthy.--Treaty.--Peace. 34
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEGRO TYPE.
Climate the Cause.--His Geographical Theatre.--He is
susceptible to Christianity and Civilization. 45
CHAPTER VII.
AFRICAN IDIOSYNCRASIES.
Patriarchal Government.--Construction of Villages.--Negro
Architecture.--Election of Kings.--Coronation
Ceremony.--Succession.--African Queens.--Law, Civil and
Criminal.--Priests.--Their
Functions.--Marriage.--Warfare.--Agriculture.--Mechanic
Arts.--Blacksmiths. 50
CHAPTER VIII.
LANGUAGES, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION.
Structure of African Languages.--The Mpongwe, Mandingo, and
Grebo.--Poetry: Epic, Idyllic, and Miscellaneous.--Religions
and Superstitions. 66
CHAPTER IX.
SIERRA LEONE.
Its Discovery and Situation.--Natural Beauty.--Founding of a
Negro Colony.--The Sierra Leone Company.--Fever and
Insubordination.--It becomes an English Province.--Character
of its Inhabitants.--Christian Missions, etc. 85
CHAPTER X.
THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
Liberia.--Its Location.--Extent.--Rivers and
Mountains.--History of the First Colony.--The Noble Men who
laid the Foundation of the Liberian Republic.--Native
Tribes.--Translation of the New Testament into the Vei
Language.--The Beginning and Triumph of Christian Missions
to Liberia.--History of the Different Denominations on the
Field.--A Missionary Republic of Negroes.--Testimony of
Officers of the Royal Navy as to the Efficiency of the
Republic in suppressing the Slave-Trade.--The Work of the
Future. 95
CHAPTER XI.
RÉSUMÉ.
The Unity of the Human Family re-affirmed.--God gave all
Races of Men Civilization.--The Antiquity of the Negro
beyond Dispute.--Idolatry the Cause of the Degradation of
the African Races.--He has always had a Place in History,
though Incidental.--Negro Type caused by Degradation.--Negro
Empires an Evidence of Crude Ability for
Self-Government.--Influence of the two Christian Governments
on the West Coast upon the Heathen.--Oration on Early
Christianity in Africa.--The Duty of Christianity to
evangelize Africa. 108
* * * * *
Part II.
_SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES_.
CHAPTER XII.
THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA.
1619-1775.
Introduction of the First Slaves.--"The Treasurer" and the
Dutch Man-of-War.--The Correct Date.--The Number of
Slaves.--Were there Twenty, or Fourteen?--Litigation about
the Possession of the Slaves.--Character of the Slaves
imported, and the Character of the Colonists.--Race
Prejudices.--Legal Establishment of Slavery.--Who are Slaves
for Life.--Duties on Imported Slaves.--Political and
Military Prohibitions against Negroes.--Personal
Rights.--Criminal Laws against Slaves.--Emancipation.--How
brought about.--Free Negroes.--Their Rights.--Moral and
Religious Training.--Population.--Slavery firmly
established. 115
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COLONY OF NEW YORK.
1628-1775.
Settlement of New York by the Dutch in 1609.--Negroes
introduced into the Colony, 1628.--The Trade in Negroes
increased.--Tobacco exchanged for Slaves and
Merchandise.--Government of the Colony.--New Netherland
falls into the Hands of the English, Aug. 27, 1664.--Various
Changes.--New Laws adopted.--Legislation.--First
Representatives elected in 1683.--In 1702 Queen Anne
instructs the Royal Governor in Regard to the Importation of
Slaves.--Slavery Restrictions.--Expedition to effect the
Conquest of Canada unsuccessful.--Negro Riot.--Suppressed by
the Efficient Aid of Troops.--Fears of the Colonists.--Negro
Plot of 1741.--The Robbery of Hogg's House.--Discovery of a
Portion of the Goods.--The Arrest of Hughson, his Wife, and
Irish Peggy.--Crimination and Recrimination.--The
Breaking-out of Numerous Fires.--The Arrest of Spanish
Negroes.--The Trial of Hughson.--Testimony of Mary
Burton.--Hughson hanged.--The Arrest of Many Others
implicated in the Plot.--The Hanging of Cæsar and
Prince.--Quack and Cuffee burned at the Stake.--The
Lieutenant-Governor's Proclamation.--Many White Persons
accused of being Conspirators.--Description of Hughson's
Manner of swearing those having Knowledge of the
Plot.--Conviction and Hanging of the Catholic Priest
Ury.--The Sudden and Unexpected Termination of the
Trial.--New Laws more stringent toward Slaves adopted. 134
CHAPTER XIV.
THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
1633-1775.
The Earliest Mentions of Negroes in Massachusetts.--Pequod
Indians exchanged for Negroes.--Voyage of the Slave Ship
"Desire" in 1638--Fundamental Laws adopted.--Hereditary
Slavery--Kidnapping Negroes--Growth of Slavery in the
Seventeenth Century--Taxation of Slaves--Introduction of
Indian Slaves prohibited.--The Position of the Church
respecting the Baptism of Slaves--Slave Marriage--Condition
of Free Negroes--Phillis Wheatley the African Poetess.--Her
Life--Slavery recognized in England in Order to be
maintained in the Colonies--The Emancipation of
Slaves.--Legislation favoring the Importation of White
Servants, but prohibiting the Clandestine bringing-in of
Negroes.--Judge Sewall's Attack on Slavery.--Judge Saffin's
Reply to Judge Sewall. 172
CHAPTER XV.
THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS,--CONTINUED.
1633-1775.
The Era of Prohibitory Legislation against Slavery.--Boston
instructs her Representatives to vote against the
Slave-Trade.--Proclamation issued by Gov. Dummer against the
Negroes, April 13, 1723.--Persecution of the
Negroes.--"Suing for Liberty."--Letter of Samuel Adams to
John Pickering, jun., on Behalf of Negro Memorialists.--A
Bill for the Suppression of the Slave-Trade passes.--Is
vetoed by Gov. Gage, and fails to become a Law. 220
CHAPTER XVI.
THE COLONY OF MARYLAND.
1634-1775.
Maryland under the Laws of Virginia until 1630.--First
Legislation on the Slavery Question in 1637-38--Slavery
established by Statute in 1663--The Discussion of
Slavery.--An Act passed encouraging the Importation of
Negroes and White Slaves in 1671.--An Act laying an Impost
on Negroes and White Servants imported into the
Colony.--Duties imposed on Rum and Wine.--Treatment of
Slaves and Papists.--Convicts imported into the Colony--An
Attempt to justify the Convict-Trade.--Spirited
Replies.--The Laws of 1723, 1729, 1752.--Rights of
Slaves--Negro Population in 1728.--Increase of Slavery in
1750--No Efforts made to prevent the Evils of Slavery.--The
Revolution nearing.--New Life for the Negroes. 238
CHAPTER XVII.
THE COLONY OF DELAWARE.
1636-1775.
The Territory of Delaware settled in part by Swedes and
Danes, anterior to the Year 1638.--The Duke of York
transfers the Territory of Delaware to William Penn.--Penn
grants the Colony the Privilege of Separate
Government.--Slavery introduced on the Delaware as early as
1636.--Complaint against Peter Alricks for using Oxen and
Negroes belonging to the Company.--The First Legislation on
the Slavery Question in the Colony.--An Enactment of a Law
for the Better Regulation of Servants.--An Act restraining
Manumission. 249
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT.
1646-1775.
The Founding of Connecticut, 1631-36.--No Reliable Data
given for the Introduction of Slaves.--Negroes were first
introduced by Ship during the Early Years of the
Colony.--"Committee for Trade and Foreign
Plantations."--Interrogating the Governor as to the Number
of Negroes in the Colony in 1680.--The Legislature (1690)
passes a Law pertaining to the Purchase and Treatment of
Slaves and Free Persons.--An Act passed by the General Court
in 1711, requiring Persons manumitting Slaves to maintain
them.--Regulating the Social Conduct of Slaves in 1723.--The
Punishment of Negro, Indian, and Mulatto Slaves, for the Use
of Profane Language, in 1630.--Lawfulness of Indian and
Negro Slavery recognized by Code, Sept. 5, 1646.--Limited
Rights of Free Negroes in the Colony.--Negro Population in
1762.--Act against Importation of Slaves, 1774. 252
CHAPTER XIX.
THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND.
1647-1775.
Colonial Government in Rhode Island, May, 1647.--An Act
passed to abolish Slavery in 1652, but was never
enforced.--An Act specifying what Times Indian and Negro
Slaves should not appear in the Streets.--An Impost-Tax on
Slaves (1708).--Penalties imposed on Disobedient
Slaves.--Anti Slavery Sentiment in the Colonies receives
Little Encouragement.--Circular Letter from the Board of
Trade to the Governor of the English Colonies, relative to
Negro Slaves.--Governor Cranston's Reply.--List of
Militia-Men, including White and black Servants.--Another
Letter from the Board of Trade.--An Act preventing
Clandestine Importations and Exportations of Passengers,
Negroes, or Indian Slaves.--Masters of Vessels required to
report the Names and Number of Passengers to the
Governor.--Violation of the Impost-Tax Law on Slaves
punished by Severe Penalties.--Appropriation by the General
Assembly, July 5, 1715, from the Fund derived from the
Impost Tax, for the paving of the Streets of Newport.--An
Act passed disposing of the Money raised by
Impost-Tax.--Impost-Law repealed, May, 1732.--An Act
relating to freeing Mulatto and Negro Slaves passed 1728--An
Act passed preventing Masters of Vessels from carrying
Slaves out of the Colony, June 17, 1757.--Eve of the
Revolution.--An Act prohibiting Importation of Negroes into
the Colony in 1774.--The Population of Rhode Island in 1730
and 1774. 262
CHAPTER XX.
THE COLONY OF NEW JERSEY.
1664-1775.
New Jersey passes into the Hands of the English.--Political
Powers conveyed to Berkeley and Carteret.--Legislation on
the Subject of Slavery during the Eighteenth Century.--The
Colony divided into East and West Jersey.--Separate
Governments.--An Act concerning Slavery by the Legislature
of East Jersey.--General Apprehension respecting the rising
of Negro and Indian Slaves.--East and West Jersey surrender
their Rights of Government to the Queen.--An Act for
regulating the Conduct of Slaves.--Impost-Tax of Ten Pounds
levied upon each Negro imported into the Colony.--The
General Court passes a Law regulating the Trial of
Slaves.--Negroes ruled out of the Militia Establishment upon
Condition.--Population of the Jerseys in 1738 and 1745. 282
CHAPTER XXI.
THE COLONY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
1665-1775.
The Carolinas receive two Different Charters from the Crown
of Great Britain.--Era of Slavery Legislation.--Law
establishing Slavery.--The Slave Population of this Province
regarded as Chattel Property.--Trial of Slaves.--Increase of
Slave Population.--The Increase in the Rice-Trade.--Severe
Laws regulating the Private and Public Conduct of
Slaves.--Punishment of Slaves for running away.--The Life of
Slaves regarded as of Little Consequence by the Violent
Master Class.--An Act empowering two Justices of the Peace
to investigate Treatment of Slaves.--An Act prohibiting the
Overworking of Slaves.--Slave-Market at
Charleston.--Insurrection.--A Law authorizing the carrying
of Fire-Arms among the Whites.--The Enlistment of Slaves to
serve in Time of Alarm.--Negroes admitted to the Militia
Service.--Compensation to Masters for the Loss of Slaves
killed by the Enemy or who desert.--Few Slaves
manumitted.--From 1754-76, Little Legislation on the Subject
of Slavery.--Threatening War between England and her
Provincial Dependencies.--The Effect upon Public Sentiment. 289
CHAPTER XXII.
THE COLONY OF NORTH CAROLINA.
1669-1775.
The Geographical Situation of North Carolina favorable to
the Slave-Trade.--The Locke Constitution adopted.--William
Sayle commissioned Governor.--Legislative Career of the
Colony.--The Introduction of the Established Church of
England into the Colony.--The Rights of Negroes controlled
absolutely by their Masters.--An Act respecting
Conspiracies.--The Wrath of Ill-natured Whites visited upon
their Slaves.--An Act against the Emancipation of
Slaves.--Limited Rights of Free Negroes. 302
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE COLONY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
1679-1775.
The Provincial Government of Massachusetts exercises
Authority over the State of New Hampshire at its
Organization.--Slavery existed from the Beginning.--The
Governor releases a Slave from Bondage.--Instruction against
Importation of Slaves.--Several Acts regulating the Conduct
of Servants.--The Indifferent Treatment of Slaves.--The
Importation of Indian Servants forbidden.--An Act checking
the Severe Treatment of Servants and Slaves.--Slaves in the
Colony until the Commencement of Hostilities. 309
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE COLONY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
1681-1775.
Organization of the Government of Pennsylvania.--The Swedes
and Dutch plant Settlements on the Western Bank of the
Delaware River.--The Governor of New York seeks to exercise
Jurisdiction over the Territory of Pennsylvania.--The First
Laws agreed upon in England.--Provisions of the
Law.--Memorial against Slavery draughted and adopted by the
Germantown Friends.--William Penn presents a Bill for the
Better Regulation of Servants.--An Act preventing the
Importation of Negroes and Indians.--Rights of Negroes.--A
Duty laid upon Negroes and Mulatto Slaves.--The Quaker the
Friend of the Negro.--England begins to threaten her
Dependencies in North America.--The People of Pennsylvania
reflect upon the Probable Outrages their Negroes might
commit. 312
CHAPTER XXV.
THE COLONY OF GEORGIA.
1732-1775.
Georgia once included in the Territory of Carolina.--The
Thirteenth Colony planted in North America by the English
Government.--Slaves ruled out altogether by the
Trustees.--The Opinion of Gen. Oglethorpe concerning
Slavery.--Long and Bitter Discussion in Regard to the
Admission of Slavery into the Colony.--Slavery
introduced.--History of Slavery in Georgia. 316
* * * * *
Part III.
_THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION_.
CHAPTER XXVI.
MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES.
1775-1780.
The Colonial States in 1715.--Ratification of the
Non-Importation Act by the Southern Colonies.--George
Washington presents Resolutions against Slavery, in a
Meeting at Fairfax Court-House, Va.--Letter written by
Benjamin Franklin to Dean Woodward, pertaining to
Slavery.--Letter to the Freemen of Virginia from a
Committee, concerning the Slaves brought from
Jamaica.--Severe Treatment of Slaves in the Colonies
modified.--Advertisement in "The Boston Gazette" of the
Runaway Slave Crispus Attucks.--The Boston Massacre.--Its
Results.--Crispus Attucks shows his Loyalty.--His Spirited
Letter to the Tory Governor of the Province.--Slaves
admitted into the Army.--The Condition of the Continental
Army.--Spirited Debate in the Continental Congress, over the
Draught of a Letter to Gen. Washington.--Instructions to
discharge all Slaves and Free Negroes in his Army.--Minutes
of the Meeting held at Cambridge.--Lord Dunmore's
Proclamation.--Prejudice in the Southern Colonies.--Negroes
in Virginia flock to the British Army.--Caution to the
Negroes printed in a Williamsburg Paper.--The Virginia
Convention answers the Proclamation of Lord Dunmore.--Gen.
Greene, in a Letter to Gen. Washington, calls Attention to
the raising of a Negro Regiment on Staten Island.--Letter
from a Hessian Officer.--Connecticut Legislature on the
Subject of Employment of Negroes as Soldiers.--Gen. Varnum's
Letter to Gen. Washington, suggesting the Employment of
Negroes, sent to Gov. Cooke.--The Governor refers Varnum's
Letter to the General Assembly.--Minority Protest against
enlisting Slaves to serve in the Army.--Massachusetts tries
to secure Legal Enlistments of Negro Troops.--Letter of
Thomas Kench to the Council and House of Representatives,
Boston, Mass.--Negroes serve in White Organizations until
the Close of the American Revolution.--Negro Soldiers serve
in Virginia.--Maryland employs Negroes.--New York passes an
Act providing for the Raising of two Colored Regiments.--War
in the Middle and Southern Colonies.--Hamilton's Letter to
John Jay.--Col. Laurens's Efforts to raise Negro Troops in
South Carolina.--Proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton inducing
Negroes to desert the Rebel Army.--Lord Cornwallis issues a
Proclamation offering Protection to all Negroes seeking his
Command,--Col. Laurens is called to France on Important
Business.--His Plan for securing Black Levies for the South
upon his Return.--His Letters to Gen. Washington in Regard
to his Fruitless Plans.--Capt David Humphreys recruits a
Company of Colored Infantry in Connecticut.--Return of
Negroes in the Army in 1778. 324
CHAPTER XXVII.
NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.
1775-1783.
The Negro as a Soldier.--Battle of Bunker Hill--Gallantry of
Negro Soldiers.--Peter Salem, the Intrepid Black
Soldier.--Bunker-hill Monument.--The Negro Salem Poor
distinguishes himself by Deeds of Desperate Valor.--Capture
of Gen. Lee.--Capture of Gen. Prescott--Battle of Rhode
Island.--Col. Greene commands a Negro Regiment.--Murder of
Col. Greene in 1781.--The Valor of the Negro Soldiers. 363
CHAPTER XXVIII.
LEGAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION
1775-1783.
The Negro was Chattel or Real Property.--His Legal Status
during his New Relation as a Soldier--Resolution introduced
in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to prevent the
selling of Two Negroes captured upon the High Seas--The
Continental Congress appoints a Committee to consider what
should be done with Negroes taken by Vessels of War in the
Service of the United Colonies.--Confederation of the New
States.--Spirited Debate in Congress respecting the Disposal
of Recaptures.--The Spanish Ship "Victoria" captures an
English Vessel having on Board Thirty-four Negroes taken
from South Carolina.--The Negroes recaptured by Vessels
belonging to the State of Massachusetts.--They are delivered
to Thomas Knox, and conveyed to Castle Island.--Col. Paul
Revere has Charge of the Slaves on Castle
Island--Massachusetts passes a Law providing for the
Security, Support, and Exchange of Prisoners brought into
the State.--Gen Hancock receives a Letter from the Governor
of South Carolina respecting the Detention of Negroes--In
the Provincial Articles between the United States of America
and His Britannic Majesty, Negroes were rated as
Property.--And also in the Definite Treaty of Peace between
the United States of America and His Britannic Majesty.--And
also in the Treaty of Peace of 1814, between His Britannic
Majesty and the United States, Negroes were designated as
Property.--Gen. Washington's Letter to Brig-Gen Rufus Putnam
in regard to a Negro in his Regiment claimed by Mr.
Hobby.--Enlistment in the Army did not always work a
Practical Emancipation. 370
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE NEGRO INTELLECT.--BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.--FULLER THE
MATHEMATICIAN.--DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.
Statutory Prohibition against the Education of
Negroes.--Benjamin Banneker, the Negro Astronomer and
Philosopher.--His Antecedents--Young Banneker as a Farmer
and Inventor--The Mills of Ellicott & Co.--Banneker
cultivates his Mechanical Genius and Mathematical
Tastes.--Banneker's first Calculation of an Eclipse
submitted for Inspection in 1789.--His Letter to Mr
Ellicott.--The Testimony of a Personal Acquaintance of
Banneker as to his Upright Character.--His Home becomes a
Place of Interest to Visitors.--Record of his Business
Transactions.--Mrs. Mason's Visit to him.--She addresses him
in Verse.--Banneker replies by Letter to her.--Prepares his
First Almanac for Publication in 1792.--Title of his
Almanac--Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson.--Thomas
Jefferson's Reply.--Banneker invited to accompany the
Commissioners to run the Lines of the District of
Columbia.--Banneker's Habits of studying the Heavenly
Bodies.--Minute Description given to his Sisters in
Reference to the Disposition of his Personal Property after
Death.--His Death.--Regarded as the most Distinguished Negro
of his Time.--Fuller the Mathematician, or "The Virginia
Calculator."--Fuller of African Birth, but stolen and sold
as a Slave into Virginia.--Visited by Men of Learning.--He
was pronounced to be a Prodigy in the Manipulation of
Figures.--His Death.--Derham the Physician.--Science of
Medicine regarded as the most Intricate Pursuit of
Man.--Early Life of James Derham.--His Knowledge of
Medicine, how acquired.--He becomes a Prominent Physician in
New Orleans.--Dr. Rush gives an Account of an Interview with
him.--What the Negro Race produced by their Genius in
America. 385
CHAPTER XXX.
SLAVERY DURING THE REVOLUTION.
1775-1783.
Progress of the Slave-Trade.--A Great War for the
Emancipation of the Colonies from Political
Bondage.--Condition of the Southern States during the
War.--The Virginia Declaration of Rights.--Immediate
Legislation against Slavery demanded.--Advertisement from
"The Independent Chronicle."--Petition of Massachusetts
Slaves.--An Act preventing the Practice of holding Persons
in Slavery.--Advertisements from "The Continental
Journal."--A Law passed in Virginia limiting the Rights of
Slaves.--Law emancipating all Slaves who served in the
Army.--New York promises her Negro Soldiers Freedom.--A
Conscientious Minority in Favor of the Abolition of the
Slave-Trade.--Slavery flourishes during the Entire
Revolutionary Period. 402
CHAPTER XXXI.
SLAVERY AS A POLITICAL AND LEGAL PROBLEM.
1775-1800.
British Colonies in North America declare their
Independence.--A New Government established.--Slavery the
Bane of American Civilization.--The Tory Party accept the
Doctrine of Property in Man.--The Doctrine of the Locke
Constitution in the South.--The Whig Party the Dominant
Political Organization in the Northern States.--Slavery
recognized under the New Government.--Anti Slavery Agitation
in the States.--Attempted Legislation against
Slavery.--Articles of Confederation.--Then Adoption in
1778.--Discussion concerning the Disposal of the Western
Territory.--Mr. Jefferson's Recommendation.--Amendment by
Mr. Spaight.--Congress in New York in 1787.--Discussion
respecting the Government of the Western
Territory.--Convention at Philadelphia to frame the Federal
Constitution.--Proceedings of the Convention.--The Southern
States still advocate Slavery.--Speeches on the Slavery
Question by Leading Statesmen.--Constitution adopted by the
Convention in 1787.--First Session of Congress under the
Federal Constitution held in New York in 1789.--The
Introduction of a Tariff-Bill.--An Attempt to amend it by
inserting a Clause levying a Tax on Slaves brought by
Water.--Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts.--A Change in
the Public Opinion of the Middle and Eastern States on the
Subject of Slavery.--Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Address to the
Public for promoting the Abolition of Slavery.--Memorial to
the United-States Congress.--Congress in 1790.--Bitter
Discussion on the Restriction of the
Slave-Trade.--Slave-Population.--Vermont and Kentucky
admitted into the Union.--A Law providing for the Return of
Fugitives from "Labor and Service."--Convention of Friends
held in Philadelphia.--An Act against the Foreign
Slave-Trade.--Mississippi Territory.--Constitution of
Georgia revised.--New York passes a Bill for the Gradual
Extinction of Slavery.--Constitution of Kentucky
revised.--Slavery as an Institution firmly established. 412
HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA.
Part I.
_PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS._
CHAPTER I.
THE UNITY OF MANKIND.
THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT.--ONE RACE AND ONE LANGUAGE.--ONE
BLOOD.--THE CURSE OF CANAAN.
During the last half-century, many writers on ethnology, anthropology,
and slavery have strenuously striven to place the Negro outside of the
human family; and the disciples of these teachers have endeavored to
justify their views by the most dehumanizing treatment of the Negro.
But, fortunately for the Negro and for humanity at large, we live now
in an epoch when race malice and sectional hate are disappearing
beneath the horizon of a brighter and better future. The Negro in
America is free. He is now an acknowledged factor in the affairs of
the continent; and no community, state, or government, in this period
of the world's history, can afford to be indifferent to his moral,
social, intellectual, or political well-being.
It is proposed, in the first place, to call the attention to the
absurd charge that the Negro does not belong to the human family.
Happily, there are few left upon the face of the earth who still
maintain this belief.
In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis it is clearly stated that
"God created man," "male and female created he them;"[1] that "the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;"[2] and
that "the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it."[3] It is noticeable that the sacred
historian, in every reference to Adam, speaks of him as "_man_;" and
that the divine injunction to them was,--Adam and Eve,--"Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."[4] As among the
animals, so here in the higher order, there were two,--a pair,--"male
and female," of the human species. We may begin with man, and run down
the scale, and we are sure to find two of a kind, "male and female."
This was the divine order. But they were to "be fruitful," were to
"replenish the earth." That they did "multiply," we have the
trustworthy testimony of God; and it was true that man and beast, fowl
and fish, increased. We read that after their expulsion from the
Garden of Eden, Eve bore Adam a family. Cain and Abel; and that they
"peopled the earth."
After a number of years we find that wickedness increased in the
earth; so much so that the Lord was provoked to destroy the earth with
a flood, with the exception of Noah, his wife, his three sons and
their wives,--eight souls in all.[5] Of the animals, two of each kind
were saved.
But the most interesting portion of Bible history comes after the
Flood. We then have the history of the confusion of tongues, and the
subsequent and consequent dispersion of mankind. In the eleventh
chapter and first verse of Genesis it is recorded: "_And the_ WHOLE
EARTH _was of_ ONE LANGUAGE, _and of_ ONE SPEECH." "The whole earth"
here means all the inhabitants of the earth,--all mankind. The medium
of communication was common. Everybody used one language. In the sixth
verse occurs this remarkable language: "And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is _one_, and they have all _one_ language." Attention is
called to this verse, because we have here the testimony of the Lord
that "the people is _one_," and that the language of the people is
one. This verse establishes two very important facts; i.e., there was
but one nationality, and hence but one language. The fact that they
had but one language furnishes reasonable proof that they were of one
blood; and the historian has covered the whole question very
carefully by recording the great truth that they were _one people_,
and had but _one language_. The seventh, eighth, and ninth verses of
the eleventh chapter are not irrelevant: "Go to, let us go down, and
there confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there
confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord
scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."
It was the wickedness of the people that caused the Lord to disperse
them, to confound their speech, and bring to nought their haughty
work. Evidently this was the beginning of different families of
men,--different nationalities, and hence different languages. In the
ninth verse it reads, that "from thence did the Lord scatter them
abroad upon the face of all the earth." There is no ambiguity about
this language. He did not only "confound their language," but
"scattered them from thence," from Babel, "upon the face of all the
earth." Here, then, are two very important facts: their _language_ was
_confused_, and they _were_ "_scattered_." They were not only
"scattered," they were "scattered _abroad upon the face of all_ the
earth." That is, they were dispersed very widely, sent into the
various and remote parts of the earth; and their nationality received
its being from the latitudes to which the divinely appointed wave of
dispersion bore them; and their subsequent racial character was to
borrow its tone and color from climateric influences. Three great
families, the Shemitic, Hamitic, and Japhetic, were suddenly built up.
Many other families, or tribes, sprang from these; but these were the
three great heads of all subsequent races of men.
"That the three sons of Noah overspread and peopled the
whole earth, is so expressly stated in Scripture, that, had
we not to argue against those who unfortunately disbelieve
such evidence, we might here stop: let us, however, inquire
how far the truth of this declaration is substantiated by
other considerations. Enough has been said to show that
there is a curious, if not a remarkable, analogy between the
predictions of Noah on the future descendants of his three
sons, and the actual state of those races which are
generally supposed to have sprung from them. It may here be
again remarked, that, to render the subject more clear, we
have adopted the quinary arrangement of Professor
Blumenbach: yet that Cuvier and other learned physiologists
are of opinion that the primary varieties of the human form
are more properly but three; viz., the Caucasian, Mongolian,
and Ethiopian. This number corresponds with that of Noah's
sons. Assigning, therefore, the Mongolian race to Japheth,
and the Ethiopian to Ham, the Caucasian, the noblest race,
will belong to Shem, the third son of Noah, himself
descended from Seth, the third son of Adam. That the primary
distinctions of the human varieties are but _three_, has
been further maintained by the erudite Prichard; who, while
he rejects the nomenclature both of Blumenbach and Cuvier,
as implying absolute divisions, arranges the leading
varieties of the human skull under three sections, differing
from those of Cuvier only by name. That the three sons of
Noah who were to 'replenish the earth,' and on whose progeny
very opposite destinies were pronounced, should give birth
to different races, is what might reasonably be conjectured;
but that the observation of those who do, and of those who
do not, believe the Mosaic history, should tend to confirm
truth, by pointing out in what these three races do actually
differ, both physically and morally, is, to say the least, a
singular coincidence. It amounts, in short, to a presumptive
evidence, that a mysterious and very beautiful analogy
pervades throughout, and teaches us to look beyond natural
causes in attempting to account for effects apparently
interwoven in the plans of Omnipotence."[6]
In the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-sixth
verse, we find the following language: "And hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation."[7] The Apostle Paul was a missionary. He was, at this
time, on a mission to the far-famed city of Athens,--"the eye of
Greece, and the fountain of learning and philosophy." He told the "men
of Athens," that, as he travelled through their beautiful city, he had
not been unmindful of its attractions; that he had not been
indifferent to the claims of its citizens to scholarship and culture,
and that among other things he noticed an altar erected to _an unknown
God_. He went on to remark, that, great as their city and nation were,
God, whose offspring they were, had created other nations, who lived
beyond their verdant hills and swelling rivers. And, moreover, that
God had created "all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of
the earth" out "of one blood." He called their attention to the
fact that God had fenced all the nations in by geographical
boundaries,--had fixed the limits of their habitation.
We find two leading thoughts in the twenty-sixth verse; viz., that
this passage establishes clearly and unmistakably the unity of
mankind, in that God created them of one blood; second, he hath
determined "the bounds of their habitation,"--hath located them
geographically. The language quoted is very explicit. "He hath
determined the bounds of their habitation," that is, "all the nations
of men.[8] We have, then, the fact, that there are different "nations
of men," and that they are all "of one blood," and, therefore, have a
common parent. This declaration was made by the Apostle Paul, an
inspired writer, a teacher of great erudition, and a scholar in both
the Hebrew and the Greek languages.
It should not be forgotten either, that in Paul's masterly discussion
of the doctrine of sin,--the fall of man,--he always refers to Adam as
the "one man" by whom sin came into the world.[9] His Epistle to the
Romans abounds in passages which prove very plainly the unity of
mankind. The Acts of the Apostles, as well as the Gospels, prove the
unity we seek to establish.
But there are a few who would admit the unity of mankind, and still
insist that the Negro does not belong to the human family. It is so
preposterous, that one has a keen sense of humiliation in the assured
consciousness that he goes rather low to meet the enemies of God's
poor; but it can certainly do no harm to meet them with the
everlasting truth.
In the Gospel of Luke we read this remarkable historical statement:
"And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian,
coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he
might bear it after Jesus."[10] By referring to the map, the reader
will observe that Cyrene is in Libya, on the north coast of Africa.
All the commentators we have been able to consult, on the passage
quoted below, agree that this man Simon was a Negro,--a black man.
John Melville produced a very remarkable sermon from this passage.[11]
And many of the most celebrated pictures of "The Crucifixion," in
Europe, represent this Cyrenian as black, and give him a very
prominent place in the most tragic scene ever witnessed on this earth.
In the Acts of the Apostles we have a very full and interesting
account of the conversion and immersion of the Ethiopian eunuch, "a
man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of
the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come
to Jerusalem for to worship."[12] Here, again, we find that all the
commentators agree as to the nationality of the eunuch: he was a
Negro; and, by implication, the passage quoted leads us to the belief
that the Ethiopians were a numerous and wealthy people. Candace was
the queen that made war against Augustus Cæsar twenty years before
Christ, and, though not victorious, secured an honorable peace.[13]
She reigned in Upper Egypt,--up the Nile,--and lived at Meroe, that
ancient city, the very cradle of Egyptian civilization.[14]
"In the time of our Saviour (and indeed from that time
forward), by Ethiopia was meant, in a general sense, the
countries south of Egypt, then but imperfectly known; of one
of which that Candace was queen whose eunuch was baptized by
Philip. Mr. Bruce, on his return from Abyssinia, found in
latitude 16° 38' a place called Chendi, where the reigning
sovereign was then a queen; and where a tradition existed
that a woman, by name Hendaque (which comes as near as
possible to the Greek name [Greek: Chandakê]), once governed
all that country. Near this place are extensive ruins,
consisting of broken pedestals and obelisks, which Bruce
conjectures to be those of Meroe, the capital of the African
Ethiopia, which is described by Herodotus as a great city in
his time, namely, four hundred years before Christ; and
where, separated from the rest of the world by almost
impassable deserts, and enriched by the commercial
expeditions of their travelling brethren, the Cushites
continued to cultivate, so late as the first century of the
Christian era, some portions of those arts and sciences to
which the settlers in the cities had always more or less
devoted themselves."[15]
But a few writers have asserted, and striven to prove, that the
Egyptians and Ethiopians are quite a different people from the Negro.
Jeremiah seems to have understood that these people about whom we have
been writing were Negroes,--we mean black. "Can the Ethiopian," asks
the prophet, "change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" The prophet
was as thoroughly aware that the Ethiopian was black, as that the
leopard had spots; and Luther's German has for the word "Ethiopia,"
"Negro-land,"--the country of the blacks.[16] The word "Ethiop" in
the Greek literally means "sunburn."
That these Ethiopians were black, we have, in addition to the valuable
testimony of Jeremiah, the scholarly evidence of Herodotus, Homer,
Josephus, Eusebius, Strabo, and others.
It will be necessary for us to use the term "Cush" farther along in
this discussion: so we call attention at this time to the fact, that
the Cushites, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures, are the
same as the Ethiopians.
Driven from unscriptural and untenable ground on the unity of the
races of mankind, the enemies of the Negro, falling back in confusion,
intrench themselves in the curse of Canaan. "And Noah awoke from his
wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said,
Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren."[17] This passage was the leading theme of the defenders of
slavery in the pulpit for many years. Bishop Hopkins says,--
"The heartless irreverence which Ham, the father of Canaan,
displayed toward his eminent parent, whose piety had just
saved him from the Deluge, presented the immediate
_occasion_ for this remarkable prophecy; but the actual
_fulfilment_ was reserved for his posterity after they had
lost the knowledge of God, and become utterly polluted by
the abominations of heathen idolatry. The Almighty,
foreseeing this total degradation of the race, ordained them
to servitude or slavery under the descendants of Shem and
Japheth, doubtless because _he judged it to be their fittest
condition_. And all history proves how accurately the
prediction has been accomplished, even to the present
day."[18]
Now, the first thing to be done by those who adopt this view is, to
prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Noah was inspired to pronounce
this prophecy. Noah _had_ been, as a rule, a righteous man. For more
than a hundred years he had lifted up his voice against the growing
wickedness of the world. His fidelity to the cause of God was
unquestioned; and for his faith and correct living, he and his entire
household were saved from the Deluge. But after his miraculous
deliverance from the destruction that overcame the old world, his
entire character is changed. There is not a single passage to show us
that he continued his avocation as a preacher. He became a husbandman;
he kept a vineyard; and, more than all, he drank of the wine and got
drunk! Awaking from a state of inebriation, he knew that Ham had
beheld his nakedness and "told his two brethren." But "Shem and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and
went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their
faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness."[19]
It is quite natural to suppose, that, humiliated and chagrined at his
sinful conduct, and angered at the behavior of his son and grandson,
Ham and Canaan, Noah expressed his disapprobation of Canaan. It was
_his_ desire, on the impulse of the moment, that Canaan should suffer
a humiliation somewhat commensurate with his offence; and, on the
other hand, it was appropriate that he should commend the conduct of
his other sons, who sought to hide their father's shame. And all this
was done without any inspiration. He simply expressed himself as a
fallible man.
Bishop Hopkins, however, is pleased to call this a "prophecy." In
order to prophesy, in the scriptural meaning of the word, a man must
have the divine unction, and must be moved by the Holy Ghost; and, in
addition to this, it should be said, that a true prophecy always comes
to pass,--is sure of fulfilment. Noah was not inspired when he
pronounced his curse against Canaan, for the sufficient reason that it
was not fulfilled. He was not speaking in the spirit of prophecy when
he blessed Shem and Japheth, for the good reason that their
descendants have often been in bondage. Now, if these words of Noah
were prophetic, were inspired of God, we would naturally expect to
find _all of Canaan's descendants in bondage_, and all of Shem's out
of bondage,--free! If this prophecy--granting this point to the
learned bishop for argument's sake--has not been fulfilled, then we
conclude one of two things; namely, these are not the words of God, or
they have not been fulfilled. But they were not the words of prophecy,
and consequently never had any divine authority. It was Canaan upon
whom Noah pronounced the curse: and Canaan was the son of Ham; and
Ham, it is said, is the progenitor of the Negro race. The Canaanites
were not bondmen, but freemen,--powerful tribes when the Hebrews
invaded their country; and from the Canaanites descended the bold and
intelligent Carthaginians, as is admitted by the majority of writers
on this subject. From Ham proceeded the Egyptians, Libyans, the
Phutim, and the Cushim or Ethiopians, who, colonizing the African
side of the Red Sea, subsequently extended themselves indefinitely to
the west and south of that great continent. Egypt was called Chemia,
or the country of Ham; and it has been thought that the Egyptian's
deity, Hammon or Ammon, was a deification of Ham.[20] The
Carthaginians were successful in numerous wars against the sturdy
Romans. So in this, as in many other instances, the prophecy of Noah
failed.
Following the chapter containing the prophecy of Noah, the historian
records the genealogy of the descendants of Ham and Canaan. We will
quote the entire account that we may be assisted to the truth.
"And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and
Canaan; and the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah,
and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and
Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in
the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore
it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the
Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech,
and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that
land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city
Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah:
the same is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and
Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and
Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim. And
Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the
Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the
Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite,
and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the
families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of
the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto
Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah,
and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham,
after their families, after their tongues, in their
countries, and in their nations."[21]
Here is a very minute account of the family of Ham, who it is said was
to share the fate of his son Canaan, and a clear account of the
children of Canaan. "Nimrod," says the record, "began to be a mighty
one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.... And the
beginning of his kingdom," etc. We find that Cush was the oldest son
of Ham, and the father of Nimrod the "mighty one in the earth," whose
"kingdom" was so extensive. He founded the Babylonian empire, and was
the father of the founder of the city of Nineveh, one of the grandest
cities of the ancient world. These wonderful achievements were of the
children of Cush, the ancestor of the Negroes. It is fair to suppose
that this line of Ham's posterity was not lacking in powers necessary
to found cities and kingdoms, and maintain government.
Thus far we have been enabled to see, according to the Bible record,
that the posterity of Canaan did not go into bondage; that it was a
powerful people, both in point of numbers and wealth; and, from the
number and character of the cities it built, we infer that it was an
intellectual posterity. We conclude that thus far there is no
evidence, from a biblical standpoint, that Noah's prophecy was
fulfilled. But, notwithstanding the absence of scriptural proof as to
the bondage of the children of Canaan, the venerable Dr. Mede says,
"There never has been a son of Ham who has shaken a sceptre over the
head of Japheth. Shem has subdued Japheth, and Japheth has subdued
Shem; but Ham has never subdued either." The doctor is either
falsifying the facts of history, or is ignorant of history. The
Hebrews were in bondage in Egypt for centuries. Egypt was peopled by
Misraim, the second son of Ham. Who were the Shemites? They were
Hebrews! The Shemites were in slavery to the Hamites. Melchizedek,
whose name was expressive of his character,--_king of righteousness_
(or a righteous king), was a worthy priest of the most high God; and
Abimelech, whose name imports _parental king_, pleaded the integrity
of his heart and the righteousness of his nation before God, and his
plea was admitted. Yet both these personages appear to have been
Canaanites."[22] Melchizedek and Abimelech were Canaanites, and the
most sacred and honorable characters in Old-Testament history. It was
Abraham, a Shemite, who, meeting Melchizedek, a Canaanite, gave him a
tenth of all his spoils. It was Nimrod, a Cushite, who "went to Asher,
and built Nineveh," after subduing the Shemites, So it seems very
plain that Noah's prophecy did not come true in every respect, and
that it was not the word of God. "And God blessed Noah and his
sons."[23] God pronounces his blessing upon this entire family, and
enjoins upon them to "be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth." Afterwards Noah seeks to abrogate the blessing of God by his
"cursed be Canaan." But this was only the bitter expression of a
drunken and humiliated parent lacking divine authority. No doubt he
and his other two sons conformed their conduct to the spirit of the
curse pronounced, and treated the Hamites accordingly. The scholarly
Dr. William Jones[24] says that Ham was the youngest son of Noah; that
he had four sons, Cush, Misraim, Phut, and Canaan; and that they
peopled Africa and part of Asia.[25] The Hamites were the offspring of
Noah, and one of the three great families that have peopled the
earth.[26]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Gen. i. 27.
[2] Gen. ii. 7.
[3] Gen. ii. 15.
[4] Gen. i. 28.
[5] Gen. vi. 5_sq._
[6] Encycl. of Geo., p. 255.
[7] If the Apostle Paul had asserted that all men resembled each other
in the color of their skin and the texture of their hair, or even in
their physiological make-up, he would have been at war with
observation and critical investigation. But, having announced a
wonderful truth in reference to the unity of the human race as based
upon one blood, science comes to his support, and through the
microscope reveals the corpuscles of the blood, and shows that the
globule is the same in all human blood.
[8] Deut. xxxii. 8, 9: "When the Most High divided to the nations
their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance."
[9] Rom. v. 12, 14-21.
[10] Luke xxiii, 26: Acts vi. 9, also second chapter, tenth verse.
Matthew records the same fact in the twenty-seventh chapter,
thirty-second verse. "And at they came out, they found a man of
Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross."
[11] See Melville's Sermons.
[12] Acts viii. 27.
[13] Pliny says the Ethiopian government subsisted for several
generations in the hands of queens whose name was _Candace_.
[14] See Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.
[15] Jones's Biblical Cyclopædia, p. 311.
[16] The term Ethiope was anciently given to all those whose color was
darkened by the sun.--_Smyth's Unity of the Human Races_, chap. i. p.
34.
[17] Gen. ix. 24, 25. See also the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh
verses.
[18] Bible Views of Slavery, p. 7.
[19] Gen. ix. 23.
[20] Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride. See also Dr. Morton, and
Ethnological Journal, 4th No p. 172.
[21] Gen. x. 6-20.
[22] Dr. Bush.
[23] Gen. ix. I.
[24] Jones's Biblical Cyclopædia, p. 393. Ps. lxxviii. 51.
[25] Ps. cv. 23.
[26] If Noah's utterance were to be regarded as a prophecy, it applied
only to the Canaanites, the descendants of Canaan, Noah's grandson.
Nothing is said in reference to any person but Canaan in the supposed
prophecy.
CHAPTER II.
THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND EGYPTOLOGY.
CUSHIM AND ETHIOPIA.--ETHIOPIANS, WHITE AND BLACK.--NEGRO
CHARACTERISTICS.--THE DARK CONTINENT.--THE ANTIQUITY OF THE
NEGRO.--INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE.--THE MILITARY AND SOCIAL
CONDITION OF NEGROES.--CAUSE OF COLOR.--THE TERM ETHIOPIAN.
There seems to be a great deal of ignorance and confusion in the use
of the word "Negro;"[27] and about as much trouble attends the proper
classification of the inhabitants of Africa. In the preceding chapter
we endeavored to prove, not that Ham and Canaan were the progenitors
of the Negro races,--for that is admitted by the most consistent
enemies of the blacks,--but that the human race is _one_, and that
Noah's curse was not a divine prophecy.
The term "Negro" seems to be applied chiefly to the dark and
woolly-haired people who inhabit Western Africa. But the Negro is to
be found also in Eastern Africa.[28] Zonaras says, "Chus is the person
from whom the Cuseans are derived. They are the same people as the
Ethiopians." This view is corroborated by Josephus.[29] Apuleius, and
Eusebius. The Hebrew term "Cush" is translated Ethiopia by the
Septuagint, Vulgate, and by almost all other versions, ancient and
modern, as well as by the English version. "It is not, therefore, to
be doubted that the term '_Cushim_' has by the interpretation of all
ages been translated by 'Ethiopians,' because they were also known by
their black color, and their transmigrations, which were easy and
frequent."[30] But while it is a fact, supported by both sacred and
profane history, that the terms "Cush" and "Ethiopian" were used
interchangeably, there seems to be no lack of proof that the same
terms were applied frequently to a people who were not Negroes. It
should be remembered, moreover, that there were nations who were
black, and yet were not Negroes. And the only distinction amongst all
these people, who are branches of the Hamitic family, is the texture
of the hair. "But it is _equally_ certain, as we have seen, that the
term 'Cushite' is applied in Scripture to other branches of the same
family; as, for instance, to the Midianites, from whom Moses selected
his wife, and who could not have been Negroes. The term 'Cushite,'
therefore, is used in Scripture as denoting nations who were not
black, or in any respect Negroes, and also countries south of Egypt,
whose inhabitants were Negroes; and yet both races are declared to be
the descendants of Cush, the son of Ham. Even in Ezekiel's day the
interior African nations were not of one race; for he represents Cush,
Phut, Lud, and Chub, as either themselves constituting, or as being
amalgamated with, 'a mingled people' (Ezek. xxx. 5); 'that is to say,'
says Faber, 'it was a nation of Negroes who are represented as very
numerous,--_all_ the mingled people.'"[31]
The term "Ethiopia" was anciently given to all those whose color was
darkened by the sun. Herodotus, therefore, distinguishes the Eastern
Ethiopians who had straight hair, from the Western Ethiopians who had
curly or woolly hair.[32]. They are a twofold people, lying extended
in a long tract from the rising to the setting sun."[33]
The conclusion is patent. The words "Ethiopia" and "Cush" were used
always to describe a black people, or the country where such a people
lived. The term "Negro," from the Latin "_niger_" and the French
"_noir_," means black; and consequently is a modern term, with all the
original meaning of Cush and Ethiopia, with a single exception. We
called attention above to the fact that all Ethiopians were not of the
pure Negro type, but were nevertheless a branch of the original
Hamitic family from whence sprang all the dark races. The term "Negro"
is now used to designate the people, who, in addition to their dark
complexion, have curly or woolly hair. It is in this connection that
we shall use the term in this work.[34]
Africa, the home of the indigenous dark races, in a geographic and
ethnographic sense, is the most wonderful country in the world It is
thoroughly tropical. It has an area in English square miles of
11,556,600, with a population of 192,520,000 souls. It lies between
the latitudes of 38° north and 35° south; and is, strictly speaking,
an enormous peninsula, attached to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez. The
most northern point is the cape, situated a little to the west of Cabo
Blanco, and opposite Sicily, which lies in latitude 37° 20' 40" north,
longitude 9° 41' east. Its southernmost point is Cabo d'Agulhas, in
34° 49' 15" south; the distance between these two points being 4,330
geographical, or about 5,000 English miles. The westernmost point is
Cabo Verde, in longitude 17° 33' west; its easternmost, Cape
Jerdaffun, in longitude 51° 21' east, latitude 10° 25' north, the
distance between the two points being about the same as its length.
The western coasts are washed by the Atlantic, the northern by the
Mediterranean, and the eastern by the Indian Ocean. The shape of this
"dark continent" is likened to a triangle or to an Oval. It is rich in
oils, ivory, gold, and precious timber. It has beautiful lakes and
mighty rivers, that are the insoluble problems of the present times.
Of the antiquity of the Negro there can be no doubt. He is known as
thoroughly to history as any of the other families of men. He appears
at the first dawn of history, and has continued down to the present
time. The scholarly Gliddon says, that "the hieroglyphical designation
of 'KeSH,' exclusively applied to _African_ races as distinct from the
Egyptian, has been found by Lepsius as far back as the monuments of
the sixth dynasty, 3000 B.C. But the great influx of Negro and Mulatto
races into Egypt as captives dated from the twelfth dynasty; when,
about the twenty-second century, B.C., Pharaoh SESOUR-TASEN extended
his conquests up the Nile far into Nigritia. After the eighteenth
dynasty the monuments come down to the third century, A.D., without
one single instance in the Pharaonic or Ptolemaic periods that Negro
labor was ever directed to any agricultural or utilitarian
objects."[35] The Negro was found in great numbers with the Sukim,
Thut, Lubin, and other African nations, who formed the strength of the
army of the king of Egypt, Shishak, when he came against Rehoboam in
the year 971 B.C.; and in his tomb, opened in 1849, there were found
among his depicted army the exact representation of the genuine Negro
race, both in color, hair, and physiognomy. Negroes are also
represented in Egyptian paintings as connected with the military
campaigns of the eighteenth dynasty. They formed a part of the army of
Ibrahim Pacha, and were prized as gallant soldiers at Moncha and in
South Arabia.[36] And Herodotus assures us that Negroes were found in
the armies of Sesostris and Xerxes; and, at the present time, they are
no inconsiderable part of the standing army of Egypt.[37] Herodotus
states that eighteen of the Egyptian kings were Ethiopians.[38]
It is quite remarkable to hear a writer like John P. Jeffries, who
evidently is not very friendly in his criticisms of the Negro, make
such a positive declaration as the following:--
"Every rational mind must, therefore, readily conclude that
the African race has been in existence, as a distinct
people, over four thousand two hundred years; and how long
before that period is a matter of conjecture only, there
being no reliable data upon which to predicate any reliable
opinion."[39]
It is difficult to find a writer on ethnology, ethnography, or
Egyptology, who doubts the antiquity of the Negroes as a distinct
people. Dr. John C. Nott of Mobile, Ala., a Southern man in the widest
meaning, in his "Types of Mankind," while he tries to make his book
acceptable to Southern slaveholders, strongly maintains the antiquity
of the Negro.
"Ethnological science, then, possesses not only the
authoritative testimonies of Lepsius and Birch in proof of
the existence of Negro races during the twenty-fourth
century, B.C., but, the same fact being conceded by all
living Egyptologists, we may hence infer that these
Nigritian types were contemporary with the earliest
Egyptians."[40]
In 1829 there was a remarkable Theban tomb opened by Mr. Wilkinson,
and in 1840 it was carefully examined by Harris and Gliddon. There is
a most wonderful collection of Negro scenes in it. Of one of these
scenes even Dr. Nott says,--
"A Negress, apparently a princess, arrives at Thebes, drawn
in a plaustrum by a pair of humped oxen, the driver and
groom being red-colored Egyptians, and, one might almost
infer, eunuchs. Following her are multitudes of Negroes and
Nubians, bringing tribute from the upper country, as well as
black slaves of both sexes and all ages, among which are
some _red_ children, whose _fathers_ were Egyptians. The
cause of her advent seems to have been to make offerings in
the tomb of a 'royal son of KeS_h_--Amunoph,' who may have
been her husband."[41]
It is rather strange that the feelings of Dr. Nott toward the Negro
were so far mollified as to allow him to make a statement that
destroys his heretofore specious reasoning about the political and
social status of the Negro. He admits the antiquity of the Negro; but
makes a special effort to place him in a servile state at all times,
and to present him as a vanquished vassal before Ramses III. and other
Egyptian kings. He sees no change in the Negro's condition, except
that in slavery he is better fed and clothed than in his native home.
But, nevertheless, the Negress of whom he makes mention, and the
entire picture in the Theban tomb, put down the learned doctor's
argument. Here is a Negro princess with Egyptian driver and groom,
with a large army of attendants, going on a long journey to the tomb
of her royal husband!
There is little room here to question the political and social
conditions of the Negroes.[42] They either had enjoyed a long and
peaceful rule, or by their valor in offensive warfare had won
honorable place by conquest. And the fact that black slaves are
mentioned does not in any sense invalidate the historical
trustworthiness of the pictures found in this Theban tomb; for
Wilkinson says, in reference to the condition of society at this
period,--
"It is evident that both white and black slaves were
employed as servants; they attended on the guests when
invited to the house of their master; and, from their being
in the families of priests as well as of the military
chiefs, we may infer that they were purchased with money,
and that the right of possessing slaves was not confined to
those who had taken them in war. The traffic in slaves was
tolerated by the Egyptians; and it is reasonable to suppose
that many persons were engaged ... in bringing them to Egypt
for public sale, independent of those who were sent as part
of the tribute, and who were probably, at first, the
property of the monarch; nor did any difficulty occur to the
Ishmaelites in the purchase of Joseph from his brethren, nor
in his subsequent sale to Potiphar on arriving in Egypt."
So we find that slavery was not, at this time, confined to any
particular race of people. This Negro princess was as liable to
purchase white as black slaves; and doubtless some were taken in
successful wars with other nations, while others were purchased as
servants.
But we have further evidence to offer in favor of the antiquity of the
Negro. In Japan, and in many other parts of the East, there are to be
found stupendous and magnificent temples, that are hoary with age. It
is almost impossible to determine the antiquity of some of them, in
which the idols are exact representations of woolly-haired Negroes,
although the inhabitants of those countries to-day have straight hair.
Among the Japanese, black is considered a color of good omen. In the
temples of Siam we find the idols fashioned like unto Negroes.[43]
Osiris, one of the principal deities of the Egyptians, is frequently
represented as black.[44] Bubastis, also, the Diana of Greece, and a
member of the great Egyptian Triad, is now on exhibition in the
British Museum, sculptured in black basalt silting figure.[45] Among
the Hindus, Kali, the consort of Siva, one of their great Triad;
Crishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu; and Vishnu also himself,
the second of the Trimerti or Hindu Triad, are represented of a black
color.[46] Dr. Morton says,--
"The Sphinx may have been the shrine of the Negro population
of Egypt, who, as a people, were unquestionably under our
average size. Three million Buddhists in Asia represent
their chief deity, Buddha, with Negro features and hair.
There are two other images of Buddha, one at Ceylon and the
other at Calanee, of which Lieut. Mahoney says, 'Both these
statues agree in having crisped hair and long, pendent
ear-rings,'"[47]
And the learned and indefatigable Hamilton Smith says,--
"In the plains of India are Nagpoor, and a ruined city
without name at the gates of Benares (perhaps the real Kasi
of tradition), once adorned with statues of a woolly-haired
race."[48]
Now, these substantial and indisputable traces of the march of the
Negro races through Japan and Asia lead us to conclude that the Negro
race antedates all profane history. And while the great body of the
Negro races have been located geographically in Africa, they have
been, in no small sense, a cosmopolitan people. Their wanderings may
be traced from the rising to the setting sun.
"The remains of architecture and sculpture in India seem to
prove an early connection between that country and
Africa.... The Pyramids of Egypt, the colossal statues
described by Pausanias and others, the Sphinx, and the
Hermes Canis, which last bears a strong resemblance to the
Varaha Avatar, indicate the style of the same indefatigable
workmen who formed the vast excavations of Canarah, the
various temples and images of Buddha, and the idols which
are continually dug up at Gaya or in its vicinity. These and
other indubitable facts may induce no ill-grounded opinion,
that Ethiopia and Hindustan were peopled or colonized by the
same extraordinary race; in confirmation of which it may be
added, that the mountaineers of Bengal and Benhar can hardly
be distinguished in some of their features, particularly in
their lips and noses, from the modern Abyssinians."[49]
There is little room for speculation here to the candid searcher after
truth. The evidence accumulates as we pursue our investigations.
Monuments and temples, sepulchred stones and pyramids, rise up to
declare the antiquity of the Negro races. Hamilton Smith, after
careful and critical investigation, reaches the conclusion, that the
Negro type of man was the most ancient, and the indigenous race of
Asia, as far north as the lower range of the Himalaya Mountains, and
presents at length many curious facts which cannot, he believes, be
otherwise explained.
"In this view, the first migrations of the Negro stock,
coasting westward by catamarans, or in wretched canoes, and
skirting South-western Asia, may synchronize with the
earliest appearance of the Negro tribes of Eastern Africa,
and just precede the more mixed races, which, like the
Ethiopians of Asia, passed the Red Sea at the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb, ascended the Nile, or crossed that river to
the west."[50]
Taking the whole southern portion of Asia westward to Arabia, this
conjecture--which likewise was a conclusion drawn, after patient
research, by the late Sir T. Stanford Raffles--accounts, more
satisfactorily than any other, for the Oriental habits, ideas,
traditions, and words which can be traced among several of the present
African tribes and in the South-Sea Islands. Traces of this black race
are still found along the Himalaya range from the Indus to Indo-China,
and the Malay peninsula, and in a mixed form all through the southern
states to Ceylon.[51]
But it is unnecessary to multiply evidence in proof of the antiquity
of the Negro. His presence in this world was coetaneous with the other
families of mankind: here he has toiled with a varied fortune; and
here under God--_his_ God--he will, in the process of time, work out
all the sublime problems connected with his future as a man and a
brother.
There are various opinions rife as to the cause of color and texture
of hair in the Negro. The generally accepted theory years ago was,
that the curse of Cain rested upon this race; while others saw in the
dark skin of the Negro the curse of Noah pronounced against Canaan.
These two explanations were comforting to that class who claimed that
they had a right to buy and sell the Negro; and of whom the Saviour
said, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay
them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with
one of their fingers."[52] But science has, of later years, attempted
a solution of this problem. Peter Barrère, in his treatise on the
subject, takes the ground that the bile in the human system has much
to do with the color of the skin.[53] This theory, however, has drawn
the fire of a number of European scholars, who have combated it with
more zeal than skill. It is said that the spinal and brain matter are
of a dark, ashy color; and by careful examination it is proven that
the blood of Ethiopians is black. These facts would seem to clothe
this theory with at least a shadow of plausibility. But the opinion of
Aristotle, Strabo, Alexander, and Blumenbach is, that the climate,
temperature, and mode of life, have more to do with giving color than
any thing else. This is certainly true among animals and plants. There
are many instances on record where dogs and wolves, etc., have turned
white in winter, and then assumed a different color in the spring. If
you start at the north and move south, you will find, at first, that
the flowers are very white and delicate; but, as you move toward the
tropics, they begin to take on deeper and richer hues until they run
into almost endless varieties. Guyot argues on the other side of the
question to account for the intellectual diversity of the races of
mankind.
"While all the types of animals and of plants go on
decreasing in perfection, from the equatorial to the polar
regions, in proportion to the temperatures, man presents to
our view his purest, his most perfect type, at the very
centre of the temperate continents,--at the centre of Asia,
Europe, in the regions of Iran, of Armenia, and of the
Caucasus; and, departing from this geographical centre in
the three grand directions of the lands, the types gradually
lose the beauty of their forms, in proportion to their
distance, even to the extreme points of the southern
continents, where we find the most deformed and degenerate
races, and the lowest in the scale of humanity."[54]
The learned professor seeks to carry out his famous geographical
argument, and, with great skill and labor, weaves his theory of the
influence of climate upon the brain and character of man. But while no
scholar would presume to combat the theory that plants take on the
most gorgeous hues as one nears the equator, and that the races of
mankind take on a darker color in their march toward the equator,
certainly no student of Oriental history will assent to the
unsupported doctrine, that the intensity of the climate of tropical
countries affects the intellectual status of races. If any one be so
prejudiced as to doubt this, let him turn to "Asiatic Researches," and
learn that the dark races have made some of the most invaluable
contributions to science, literature, civil-engineering, art, and
architecture that the world has yet known. Here we find the cradle of
civilization, ancient and remote.
Even changes and differences in color are to be noted in almost every
community.
"As we go westward we observe the light color predominating
over the dark; and then, again, when we come within the
influence of damp from the sea-air, we find the shade
deepened into the general blackness of the coast
population."
The artisan and farm-laborer may become exceedingly dark from
exposure, and the sailor is frequently so affected by the weather that
it is next to impossible to tell his nationality.
"It is well known that the Biscayan women are a shining
white, the inhabitants of Granada on the contrary dark, to
such an extent, that, in this region, the pictures of the
blessed Virgin and other saints are painted of the same
color."[55]
The same writer calls attention to the fact, that the people on the
Cordilleras, who live under the mountains towards the west, and are,
therefore, exposed to the Pacific Ocean, are quite, or nearly, as fair
in complexion as the Europeans; whereas, on the contrary, the
inhabitants of the opposite side, exposed to the burning sun and
scorching winds, are copper-colored. Of this theory of climateric
influence we shall say more farther on.
It is held by some eminent physicians in Europe and America, that the
color of the skin depends upon substances external to the _cutis
vera_. Outside of the _cutis_ are certain layers of a substance
various in consistence, and scarcely perceptible: here is the home and
seat of color; and these may be regarded as secretions from the
vessels of the _cutis_. The dark color of the Negro principally
depends on the substance interposed between the true skin and the
scarf-skin. This substance presents different appearances: and it is
described sometimes as a sort of organized network or reticular
tissue; at others, as a mere mucous or slimy layer; and it is odd that
these somewhat incompatible ideas are both conveyed by the term
_reticulum mucosum_ given to the intermediate portion of the skin by
its orignal discoverer, Malpighi. There is, no doubt, something
plausible in all the theories advanced as to the color and hair of the
Negro; but it is verily all speculation. One theory is about as
valuable as another.
Nine hundred years before Christ the poet Homer, speaking of the death
of Memnon, killed at the siege of Troy, says, "He was received by his
Ethiopians." This is the first use of the word Ethiopia in the Greek;
and it is derived from the roots [Greek: aithô], "to burn," and
[Greek: ôps], "face." It is safe to assume, that, when God dispersed
the sons of Noah, he fixed the "bounds of their habitation," and,
that, from the earth and sky the various races have secured their
civilization. He sent the different nations into separate parts of the
earth. He gave to each its racial peculiarities, and adaptability for
the climate into which it went. He gave color, language, and
civilization; and, when by wisdom we fail to interpret his inscrutable
ways, it is pleasant to know that "he worketh all things after the
counsel of his own mind."
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Edward W. Blyden, LL.D., of Liberia, says, "Supposing that this
term was originally used as a phrase of contempt, is it not with us to
elevate it? How often has it not happened that names originally given
in reproach have been afterwards adopted as a title of honor by those
against whom it was used?--Methodists, Quakers, etc. But as a proof
that no unfavorable signification attached to the word when first
employed, I may mention, that, long before the slave-trade began,
travellers found the blacks on the coast of Africa preferring to be
called Negroes" (see Purchas' Pilgrimage ...). And in all the
pre-slavetrade literature the word was spelled with a capital _N_. It
was the slavery of the blacks which afterwards degraded the term. To
say that the name was invented to degrade the race, some of whose
members were reduced to slavery, is to be guilty of what in grammar is
called a _hysteron proteron_. The disgrace became attached to the name
in consequence of slavery; and what we propose to do is, now that
slavery is abolished, to restore it to its original place and
legitimate use, and therefore to restore the capital _N_."
[28] Prichard, vol. ii. p. 44.
[29] Josephus, Antiq., lib. 2, chap. 6.
[30] Poole.
[31] Smyth's Unity Human Races, chap. II, p. 41.
[32] Herodotus, vii., 69, 70. Ancient Univ. Hist., vol. xviii. pp.
254, 255.
[33] Strabo, vol. I. p. 60.
[34] It is not wise, to say the least, for intelligent Negroes in
America to seek to drop the word "Negro." It is a good, strong, and
healthy word, and ought to live. It should be covered with glory: let
Negroes do it.
[35] Journal of Ethnology, No. 7, p. 310.
[36] Pickering's Races of Men, pp. 185-89.
[37] Burckhardt's Travels, p. 341.
[38] Euterpe, lib. 6.
[39] Jeffries's Nat. Hist. of Human Race, p. 315.
[40] Types of Mankind, p. 259.
[41] Types of Mankind, p. 262.
[42] Even in Africa it is found that Negroes possess great culture.
Speaking of Sego, the capital of Bambara, Mr. Park says: "The view of
this extensive city, the numerous, canoes upon the river, the crowded
population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding country,
formed altogether a prospect of civilization and magnificence which I
little expected to find in the bosom of Africa." See Park's Travels,
chap. ii.
Mr. Park also adds, that the population of this city, Sego, is about
thirty thousand. It had mosques, and even ferries were busy conveying
men and horses over the Niger.
[43] See Ambassades Mémorables de la Companie des Indes orientales des
Provinces Unies vers les Empereurs du Japan, Amst., 1680; and
Kaempfer.
[44] Wilkinson's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 340.
[45] Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 91. Dr. William Jones, vol.
iii., p. 377.
[46] Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. pp. 436-448.
[47] Heber's Narrative, vol. i. p. 254.
[48] Nat. Hist. of the Human Species, pp. 209, 214, 217.
[49] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p 427. Also Sir William Jones, vol.
iii. 3d disc.
[50] Nat. Hist. Human Species, p. 126.
[51] Prichard, pp. 188-219.
[52] Matt. xxiii. 4.
[53] Discours sur la cause physicale de la couleur des nègres.
[54] Earth and Man. Lecture x. pp. 254, 255.
[55] Blumenbach, p. 107.
CHAPTER III.
PRIMITIVE NEGRO CIVILIZATION.
THE ANCIENT AND HIGH DEGREE OF NEGRO CIVILIZATION.--EGYPT,
GREECE, AND ROME BORROW FROM THE NEGRO THE CIVILIZATION THAT
MADE THEM GREAT.--CAUSE OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NEGRO
CIVILIZATION.--CONFOUNDING THE TERMS "NEGRO" AND "AFRICAN."
It is fair to presume that God gave all the races of mankind
civilization to start with. We infer this from the known character of
the Creator. Before Romulus founded Rome, before Homer sang, when
Greece was in its infancy, and the world quite young, "hoary Meroe"
was the chief city of the Negroes along the Nile. Its private and
public buildings, its markets and public squares, its colossal walls
and stupendous gates, its gorgeous chariots and alert footmen, its
inventive genius and ripe scholarship, made it the cradle of
civilization, and the mother of art. It was the queenly city of
Ethiopia,--for it was founded by colonies of Negroes. Through its open
gates long and ceaseless caravans, laden with gold, silver, ivory,
frankincense, and palm-oil, poured the riches of Africa into the
capacious lap of the city. The learning of this people, embalmed in
the immortal hieroglyphic, flowed adown the Nile, and, like spray,
spread over the delta of that time-honored stream, on by the beautiful
and venerable city of Thebes,--the city of a hundred gates, another
monument to Negro genius and civilization, and more ancient than the
cities of the Delta,--until Greece and Rome stood transfixed before
the ancient glory of Ethiopia! Homeric mythology borrowed its very
essence from Negro hieroglyphics; Egypt borrowed her light from the
venerable Negroes up the Nile. Greece went to school to the Egyptians,
and Rome turned to Greece for law and the science of warfare. England
dug down into Rome twenty centuries to learn to build and plant, to
establish a government, and maintain it. Thus the flow of civilization
has been from the East--the place of light--to the West; from the
Oriental to the Occidental. (God fixed the mountains east and west in
Europe.)
"Tradition universally represents the earliest men
descending, it is true, from the high table-lands of this
continent; but it is in the low and fertile plains lying at
their feet, with which we are already acquainted, that they
unite themselves for the first time in natural bodies, in
tribes, with fixed habitations, devoting themselves to
husbandry, building cities, cultivating the arts,--in a
word, forming well-regulated societies. The traditions of
the Chinese place the first progenitors of that people on
the high table-land, whence the great rivers flow: they mike
them advance, station by station as far as the shores of the
ocean. The people of the Brahmins come down from the regions
of the Hindo-Khu, and from Cashmere, into the plains of the
Indus and the Ganges; Assyria and Bactriana receive their
inhabitants from the table-lands of Armenia and Persia.
"These alluvial plains, watered by their twin rivers, were
better formed than all other countries of the globe to
render the first steps of man, an infant still, easy in the
career of civilized life. A rich soil, on which overflowing
rivers spread every year a fruitful loam, as in Egypt, and
one where the plough is almost useless, so movable and so
easily tilled is it, a warm climate, finally, secure to the
inhabitants of these fortunate regions plentiful harvests in
return for light labor. Nevertheless, the conflict with the
river itself and with the desert,--which, on the banks of
the Euphrates, as on those of the Nile and the Indus, is
ever threatening to invade the cultivated lands,--the
necessity of irrigation, the inconstancy of the seasons,
keep forethought alive, and give birth to the useful arts
and to the sciences of observation. The abundance of
resources, the absence of every obstacle, of all separation
between the different parts of these vast plains, allow the
aggregation of a great number of men upon one and the same
space, and facilitate the formation of those mighty
primitive states which amaze us by the grandeur of their
proportions.
"Each of them finds upon its own soil all that is necessary
for a brilliant exhibition of its resources. We see those
nations come rapidly forward, and reach in the remotest
antiquity a degree of culture of which the temples and the
monuments of Egypt and of India, and the recently discovered
palaces of Nineveh are living and glorious witnesses.
"Great nations, then, are separately formed in each of these
areas, circumscribed by nature within natural limits. Each
has its religion, its social principles, its civilization
severally. But nature, as we have seen, has separated them;
little intercourse is established between them; the social
principle on which they are founded is exhausted by the very
formation of the social state they enjoy, and is never
renewed. A common life is wanting to them: they do not
reciprocally share with each other their riches. With them
movement is stopped: every thing becomes stable and tends to
remain stationary.
"Meantime, in spite of the peculiar seal impressed on each
of these Oriental nations by the natural conditions in the
midst of which they live, they have, nevertheless some grand
characteristics common to all, some family traits that
betray the nature of the continent and the period of human
progress to which they belong, making them known on the one
side as Asiatic, and on the other side as primitive."[56]
Is it asked what caused the decline of all this glory of the primitive
Negro? why this people lost their position in the world's history?
Idolatry! Sin![57]
Centuries have flown apace, tribes have perished, cities have risen
and fallen, and even empires, whose boast was their duration, have
crumbled, while Thebes and Meroe stood. And it is a remarkable fact,
that the people who built those cities are less mortal than their
handiwork. Notwithstanding their degradation, their woes and wrongs,
the perils of the forest and dangers of the desert, this remarkable
people have not been blotted out. They still live, and are multiplying
in the earth. Certainly they have been preserved for some wise
purpose, in the future to be unfolded.
But, again, what was the cause of the Negro's fall from his high state
of civilization? It was forgetfulness of God, idolatry! "Righteousness
exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."
The Negro tribes of Africa are as widely separated by mental, moral,
physical, and social qualities as the Irish, Huns, Copts, and Druids
are. Their location on the Dark Continent, their surroundings, and the
amount of light that has come to them from the outside world, are the
thermometer of their civilization. It is as manifestly improper to
call all Africans Negroes as to call, Americans Indians.
"The Negro nations of Africa differ widely as to their
manner of life and their characters, both of mind and body,
in different parts of that continent, according as they have
existed under different moral and physical conditions.
Foreign culture, though not of a high degree, has been
introduced among the population of some regions; while from
others it has been shut out by almost impenetrable barriers,
beyond which the aboriginal people remain secluded amid
their mountains and forests, in a state of instinctive
existence,--a state from which, history informs us, that
human races have hardly emerged, until moved by some impulse
from without. Neither Phoenician nor Roman culture seems to
have penetrated into Africa beyond the Atlantic region and
the desert. The activity and enthusiasm of the propagators
of Islam have reached farther. In the fertile low countries
beyond the Sahara, watered by rivers which descend northward
from the central highlands, Africa has contained for
centuries several Negro empires, originally founded by
Mohammedans. The Negroes of this part of Africa are people
of a very different description from the black pagan
nations farther towards the South. They have adopted many of
the arts of civilized society, and have subjected themselves
to governments and political institutions. They practise
agriculture, and have learned the necessary, and even some
of the ornamental, arts of life, and dwell in towns of
considerable extent; many of which are said to contain ten
thousand, and even thirty thousand inhabitants,--a
circumstance which implies a considerable advancement in
industry and the resources of subsistence. All these
improvements were introduced into the interior of Africa
three or four centuries ago; and we have historical
testimony, that in the region where trade and agriculture
now prevail the population consisted, previous to the
introduction of Islam, of savages as wild and fierce as the
natives farther towards the south, whither the missionaries
of that religion have never penetrated. It hence appears
that human society has not been in all parts of Africa
stationary and unprogressive from age to age. The first
impulse to civilization was late in reaching the interior of
that continent, owing to local circumstances which are
easily understood; but, when it had once taken place, an
improvement has resulted which is, perhaps, proportional to
the early progress of human culture in other more favored
regions of the world."[58]
But in our examination of African tribes we shall not confine
ourselves to that class of people known as Negroes, but call attention
to other tribes as well. And while, in this country, all persons with
a visible admixture of Negro blood in them are considered Negroes, it
is technically incorrect. For the real Negro was not the sole subject
sold into slavery: very many of the noblest types of mankind in Africa
have, through the uncertainties of war, found their way to the horrors
of the middle passage, and finally to the rice and cotton fields of
the Carolinas and Virginias. So, in speaking of the race in this
country, in subsequent chapters, I shall refer to them as _colored
people_ or _Negroes_.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] Earth and Man, pp. 300-302.
[57] It is a remarkable fact, that the absence of salt in the food of
the Eastern nations, especially the dark nations or races, has been
very deleterious. An African child will eat salt by the handful, and,
once tasting it, will cry for it. The ocean is the womb of nature; and
the Creator has wisely designed salt as the savor of life, the
preservative element in human food.
[58] Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46.
CHAPTER IV.
NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA.
BENIN: ITS LOCATION.--ITS DISCOVERY BY THE
PORTUGUESE.--INTRODUCTION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.--THE
KING AS A MISSIONARY,--HIS FIDELITY TO THE CHURCH PURCHASED
BY WHITE WIFE.--DECLINE OF RELIGION.--INTRODUCTION OF
SLAVERY.--SUPPRESSION OF THE TRADE BY THE ENGLISH
GOVERNMENT.--RESTORATION AND PEACE.
DAHOMEY: ITS LOCATION.--ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM.--MEANING OF
THE NAME.--WAR.--CAPTURE OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNOR, AND HIS
DEATH.--THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT.--WOMEN AS
SOLDIERS.--WARS AND THEIR OBJECTS.--HUMAN SACRIFICE.--THE
KING A DESPOT.--HIS POWERS.--HIS WIVES.--POLYGAMY.--KINGLY
SUCCESSION.--CORONATION.--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LAW.--REVENUE
SYSTEM.--ITS FUTURE.
YORUBA: ITS LOCATION.--SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION.--GROWTH OF
THE PEOPLE OF ABEOKUTA.--MISSIONARIES AND TEACHERS FROM
SIERRA LEONE.--PROSPERITY AND PEACE ATTEND THE
PEOPLE.--CAPACITY OF THE PEOPLE FOR CIVILIZATION.--BISHOP
CROWTHER.--HIS INFLUENCE.
BENIN.
The vast territory stretching from the Volta River on the west to the
Niger in the Gulf of Benin on the east, the Atlantic Ocean on the
south, and the Kong Mountains on the north, embraces the three
powerful Negro kingdoms of Benin, Dahomey, and Yoruba. From this
country, more than from any other part of Africa, were the people sold
into American slavery. Two or three hundred years ago there were
several very powerful Negro empires in Western Africa. They had social
and political government, and were certainly a very orderly people.
But in 1485 Alfonso de Aviro, a Portuguese, discovered Benin, the most
easterly province; and as an almost immediate result the slave-trade
was begun. It is rather strange, too, in the face of the fact, that,
when De Aviro returned to the court of Portugal, an ambassador from
the Negro king of Benin accompanied him for the purpose of requesting
the presence of Christian missionaries among this people. Portugal
became interested, and despatched Fernando Po to the Gulf of Benin;
who, after discovering the island that bears his name, ascended the
Benin River to Gaton, where he located a Portuguese colony. The Romish
Church lifted her standard here. The brothers of the Society of Jesus,
if they did not convert the king, certainly had him in a humor to
bring all of his regal powers to bear upon his subjects to turn them
into the Catholic Church. He actually took the contract to turn his
subjects over to this Church! But this shrewd savage did not agree to
undertake this herculean task for nothing. He wanted a white wife. He
told the missionaries that he would deliver his subjects to
Christianity for a white wife, and they agreed to furnish her. Some
priests were sent to the Island of St. Thomas to hunt the wife. This
island had, even at that early day, a considerable white population. A
strong appeal was made to the sisters there to consider this matter as
a duty to the holy Church. It was set forth as a missionary
enterprise. After some contemplation, one of the sisters agreed to
accept the hand of the Negro king. It was a noble act, and one for
which she should have been canonized, but we believe never was.
The Portuguese continued to come. Gaton grew. The missionary worked
with a will. Attention was given to agriculture and commerce. But the
climate was wretched. Sickness and death swept the Portuguese as the
fiery breath of tropical lightning. They lost their influence over the
people. They established the slave-trade, but the Church and slave-pen
would not agree. The inhuman treatment they bestowed upon the people
gave rise to the gravest suspicions as to the sincerity of the
missionaries. History gives us the sum total of a religious effort
that was not of God. There isn't a trace of Roman Catholicism in that
country, and the last state of that people is worse than the former.
The slave-trade turned the heads of the natives. Their cruel and
hardened hearts assented to the crime of man-stealing. They turned
aside from agricultural pursuits. They left their fish-nets on the
seashore, their cattle uncared for, their villages neglected, and went
forth to battle against their weaker neighbors. They sold their
prisoners of war to slave-dealers on the coast, who gave them rum and
tobacco as an exceeding great reward. When war failed to give from its
bloody and remorseless jaws the victims for whom a ready market
awaited, they turned to duplicity, treachery, and cruelty. "And men's
worst enemies were those of their own household." The person
suspicioned of witchcraft was speedily found guilty, and adjudged to
slavery. The guilty and the innocent often shared the same fate. The
thief, the adulterer, and the aged were seized by the rapacity that
pervaded the people, and were hurled into the hell of slavery.
Now, as a result of this condition of affairs, the population was
depleted, the people grew indolent and vicious, and finally the empire
was rent with political feuds. Two provinces was the result. One still
bore the name of Benin, the other was called Waree. The capital of the
former contains about 38,000 inhabitants, and the chief town and
island of Waree only contain about 16,000 of a population.
Finally England was moved to a suppression of the slave-trade at this
point. The ocean is very calm along this coast, which enabled her
fleets to run down slave-vessels and make prizes of them. This had a
salutary influence upon the natives. Peace and quietness came as
angels. A spirit of thrift possessed the people. They turned to the
cultivation of the fields and to commercial pursuits. On the river
Bonny, and along other streams, large and flourishing palm-oil marts
sprang up; and a score or more of vessels are needed to export the
single article of palm-oil. The morals of the people are not what they
ought to be; but they have, on the whole, made wonderful improvement
during the last fifty years.
DAHOMEY.
This nation is flanked by Ashantee on the west, and Yoruba on the
east; running from the seacoast on the south to the Kong mountains on
the north. It is one hundred and eighty miles in width, by two hundred
in breadth. Whydah is the principal town on the seacoast. The story
runs, that, about two hundred and seventy-five years ago, Tacudons,
chief of the Foys, carried a siege against the city of Abomey. He made
a solemn vow to the gods, that, if they aided him in pushing the city
to capitulate, he would build a palace in honor of the victory. He
succeeded. He laid the foundations of his palace, and then upon them
ripped open the bowels of Da. He called the building _Da-Omi_, which
meant Da's belly. He took the title of King of Dahomey, which has
remained until the present time. The neighboring tribes, proud and
ambitious, overran the country, and swept Whydah and adjacent places
with the torch and spear. Many whites fell into their hands as
prisoners; all of whom were treated with great consideration, save the
English governor of the above-named town. They put him to death,
because, as they charged, he had incited and excited the people of
Dahomey to resist their king.
This is a remarkable people. They are as cruel as they are cunning.
The entire population is converted into an army: even women are
soldiers. Whole regiments of women are to be found in the army of the
king of Dahomey, and they are the best foot-regiments in the kingdom.
They are drilled at stated periods, are officered, and well
disciplined. The army is so large, and is so constantly employed in
predatory raids upon neighboring tribes, that the consuming element is
greater than the producing. The object of these raids was threefold:
to get slaves for human sacrifices, to pour the blood of the victims
on the graves of their ancestors yearly, and to secure human skulls to
pave the court of the king and to ornament the walls about the palace!
After a successful war, the captives are brought to the capital of the
kingdom. A large platform is erected in the great market space,
encircled by a parapet about three feet high. The platform blazes with
rich clothes, elaborate umbrellas, and all the evidences of kingly
wealth and splendor, as well as the spoils taken in battle. The king
occupies a seat in the centre of the platform, attended by his
imperturbable wives. The captives, rum, tobacco, and cowries are now
ready to be thrown to the surging mob below. They have fought
gallantly, and now clamor for their reward. "Feed us, king!" they cry,
"feed us, king! for we are hungry!" and as the poor captives are
tossed to the mob they are despatched without ceremony!
But let us turn from this bloody and barbarous scene. The king is the
most absolute despot in the world. He is heir-at-law to all his
subjects. He is regarded as a demigod. It is unlawful to indicate that
the king eats, sleeps, or drinks. No one is allowed to approach him,
except his nobles, who at a court levee disrobe themselves of all
their elegant garments, and, prostrate upon the ground, they crawl
into his royal presence. The whole people are the cringing
lickspittles of the nobles in turn. Every private in the army is
ambitious to please the king by valor. The king is literally monarch
of all he surveys. He is proprietor of the land, and has at his
disposal every thing animate or inanimate in his kingdom. He has about
three thousand wives.[59] Every man who would marry must buy his
spouse from the king; and, while the system of polygamy obtains
everywhere throughout the kingdom, the subject must have care not to
secure so many wives that it would appear that he is attempting to
rival the king. The robust women are consigned to the military
service. But the real condition of woman in this kingdom is slavery of
the vilest type. She owns nothing. She is always in the market, and
lives in a state of constant dread of being sold. When the king dies,
a large number of his wives are sacrificed upon his grave. This fact
inspires them to take good care of him! In case of death, the king's
brother, then his nephew, and so on, take the throne. An inauguration
generally lasts six days, during which time hundreds of human lives
are sacrificed in honor of the new monarch.
The code of Dahomey is very severe. Witchcraft is punished with death;
and in this regard stalwart old Massachusetts borrowed from the
barbarian. Adultery is punished by slavery or sudden death. Thieves
are also sold into slavery. Treason and cowardice and murder are
punished by death. The civil code is as complicated as the criminal is
severe. Over every village, is a Caboceer, equivalent to our mayor. He
can convene a court by prostrating himself and kissing the ground. The
court convenes, tries and condemns the criminal. If it be a death
sentence, he is delivered to a man called the Milgan, or equivalent to
our sheriff, who is the ranking officer in the state. If the criminal
is sentenced to slavery, he is delivered to the Mayo, who is second in
rank to the Milgan, or about like our turnkey or jailer. All sentences
must be referred to the king for his approval; and all executions take
place at the capital, where notice is given of the same by a public
crier in the market-places.
The revenue system of this kingdom is oppressive. The majority of
slaves taken in war are the property of the king. A tax is levied on
each person or slave exported from the kingdom. In relation to
domestic commerce, a tax is levied on every article of food and
clothing. A custom-service is organized, and the tax-collectors are
shrewd and exacting.
The religion of the people is idolatry and fetich, or superstition.
They have large houses where they worship snakes; and so great is
their reverence for the reptile, that, if any one kills one that has
escaped, he is punished with death. But, above their wild and
superstitious notions, there is an ever-present consciousness of a
Supreme Being. They seldom mention the name of God, and then with fear
and trembling.
"The worship of God in the absurd symbol of the lower
animals I do not wish to defend: but it is all that these
poor savages can do; and is not that less impious than to
speak of the Deity with blasphemous familiarity, as our
illiterate preachers often do?"[60]
But this people are not in a hopeless condition of degradation.
"The Wesleyan Missionary Society of England have had a
mission-station at Badagry for some years, and not without
some important and encouraging tokens of success.... The
king, it is thought, is more favorable to Christian missions
now than he formerly was."[61]
And we say Amen!
YORUBA.
This kingdom extends from the seacoast to the river Niger, by which it
is separated from the kingdom of Nufi. It contains more territory than
either Benin or Dahomey. Its principal seaport is Lagos. For many
years it was a great slave-mart, and only gave up the traffic under
the deadly presence of English guns. Its facilities for the trade were
great. Portuguese and Spanish slave-traders took up their abode here,
and, teaching the natives the use of fire-arms, made a stubborn stand
for their lucrative enterprise; but in 1852 the slave-trade was
stopped, and the slavers driven from the seacoast. The place came
under the English flag; and, as a result, social order and business
enterprise have been restored and quickened. The slave-trade wrought
great havoc among this people. It is now about fifty-five years since
a few weak and fainting tribes, decimated by the slave-trade, fled to
Ogun, a stream seventy-five miles from the coast, where they took
refuge in a cavern. In the course of time they were joined by other
tribes that fled before the scourge of slave-hunters. Their common
danger gave them a commonality of interests. They were, at first,
reduced to very great want. They lived for a long time on berries,
herbs, roots, and such articles of food as nature furnished without
money and without price; but, leagued together to defend their common
rights, they grew bold, and began to spread out around their
hiding-place, and engage in agriculture. Homes and villages began to
rise, and the desert to blossom as the rose. They finally chose a
leader,--a wise and judicious man by the name of Shodeke; and one
hundred and thirty towns were united under one government. In 1853,
less than a generation, a feeble people had grown to be nearly one
hundred thousand (100,000); and Abeokuta, named for their cave,
contains at present nearly three hundred thousand souls.
In 1839 some colored men from Sierra Leone, desirous of engaging in
trade, purchased a small vessel, and called at Lagos and Badagry. They
had been slaves in this country, and had been taken to Sierra Leone,
where they had received a Christian education. Their visit, therefore,
was attended with no ordinary interest. They recognized many of their
friends and kindred, and were agreeably surprised at the wonderful
change that had taken place in so short a time. They returned to
Sierra Leone, only to inspire their neighbors with a zeal for
commercial and missionary enterprise. Within three years, five hundred
of the best colored people of Sierra Leone set out for Lagos and
Badagry on the seacoast, and then moved overland to Abeokuta, where
they intended to make their home. In this company of noble men were
merchants, mechanics, physicians, school-teachers, and clergymen.
Their people had fought for deliverance from physical bondage: these
brave missionaries had come to deliver them from intellectual and
spiritual bondage. The people of Abeokuta gave the missionaries a
hearty welcome. The colony received new blood and energy.
School-buildings and churches rose on every hand. Commerce was
revived, and even agriculture received more skilful attention. Peace
and and plenty began to abound. Every thing wore a sunny smile, and
many tribes were bound together by the golden cords of civilization,
and sang their _Te Deum_ together. Far-away England caught their songs
of peace, and sent them agricultural implements, machinery, and
Christian ministers and teachers. So, that, nowhere on the continent
of Africa is there to be found so many renewed households, so many
reclaimed tribes, such substantial results of a vigorous, Christian
civilization.
The forces that quickened the inhabitants of Abeokuta were not all
objective, exoteric: there were subjective and inherent forces
at work in the hearts of the people. They were capable of
civilization,--longed for it; and the first blaze of light from
without aroused their slumbering forces, and showed them the broad and
ascending road that led to the heights of freedom and usefulness. That
they sought this road with surprising alacrity, we have the most
abundant evidence. Nor did all the leaders come from abroad. Adgai, in
the Yoruba language, but Crowther, in English, was a native of this
country. In 1822 he was sold into slavery at the port of Badagry. The
vessel that was to bear him away to the "land of chains and stocks"
was captured by a British man-of-war, and taken to Sierra Leone. Here
he came under the influence of Christian teachers. He proved to be one
of the best pupils in his school. He received a classical education,
fitted for the ministry, and then hastened back to his native country
to carry the gospel of peace. It is rather remarkable, but he found
his mother and several sisters still "in the gall of bitterness and in
the bonds of iniquity." The son and brother became their spiritual
teacher, and, ere long, had the great satisfaction of seeing them
"clothed, in their right mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus." His
influence has been almost boundless. A man of magnificent physical
proportions,--tall, a straight body mounted by a ponderous head,
shapely, with a kind eye, benevolent face, a rich cadence in his
voice,--the "black Bishop" Crowther is a princely looking man, who
would attract the attention of cultivated people anywhere. He is a man
of eminent piety, broad scholarship, and good works. He has translated
the Bible into the Yoruba language, founded schools, and directed the
energies of his people with a matchless zeal. His beautiful and
beneficent life is an argument in favor of the possibilities of Negro
manhood so long injured by the dehumanizing influences of slavery.
Others have caught the inspiration that has made Bishop Crowther's
life "as terrible as an army with banners" to the enemies of Christ
and humanity, and are working to dissipate the darkness of that land
of night.
FOOTNOTES:
[59] The king of Dahomey is limited to 3,333 wives! It is hardly fair
to suppose that his majesty feels cramped under the ungenerous act
that limits the number of his wives.
[60] Savage Africa, p. 51.
[61] Western Africa, p. 207.
CHAPTER V.
THE ASHANTEE EMPIRE.
ITS LOCATION AND EXTENT.--ITS FAMOUS KINGS.--THE ORIGIN OF
THE ASHANTEES OBSCURE.--THE WAR WITH DENKERA.--THE ASHANTEES
AGAINST THE FIELD CONQUER TWO KINGDOMS AND ANNEX
THEM.--DEATH OF OSAI TUTU.--THE ENVY OF THE KING OF
DAHOMEY.--INVASION OF THE ASHANTEE COUNTRY BY THE KING OF
DAHOMEY.--HIS DEFEAT SHARED BY HIS ALLIES.--AKWASI PURSUES
THE ARMY OF DAHOMEY INTO ITS OWN COUNTRY.--GETS A MORTAL
WOUND AND SUFFERS A HUMILIATING DEFEAT.--THE KING OF DAHOMEY
SENDS THE ROYAL KUDJOH HIS CONGRATULATIONS.--KWAMINA DEPOSED
FOR ATTEMPTING TO INTRODUCE MOHAMMEDANISM INTO THE
KINGDOM.--THE ASHANTEES CONQUER THE MOHAMMEDANS.--NUMEROUS
WARS.--INVASION OF THE FANTI COUNTRY.--DEATH OF SIR CHARLES
MCCARTHY.--TREATY.--PEACE.
The kingdom of Ashantee lies between the Kong Mountains and the vast
country of the Fantis. The country occupied by the Ashantees was, at
the first, very small; but by a series of brilliant conquests they
finally secured a territory of three hundred square miles. One of
their most renowned kings, Osai Tutu, during the last century, added
to Ashantee by conquest the kingdoms of Sarem, Buntuku, Warsaw,
Denkera, and Axim. Very little is known as to the origin of the
Ashantees. They were discovered in the early part of the eighteenth
century in the great valley between the Kong Mountains and the river
Niger, from whence they were driven by the Moors and Mohammedan
Negroes. They exchanged the bow for fire-arms, and soon became a
warlike people. Osai Tutu led in a desperate engagement against the
king of Denkera, in which the latter was slain, his army was put to
rout, and large quantities of booty fell into the hands of the
victorious Ashantees. The king of Axim unwittingly united his forces
to those of the discomforted Denkera, and, drawing the Ashantees into
battle again, sustained heavy losses, and was put to flight. He was
compelled to accept the most exacting conditions of peace, to pay the
king of the Ashantees four thousand ounces of gold to defray the
expenses of the war, and have his territory made tributary to the
conqueror. In a subsequent battle Osai Tutu was surprised and killed.
His courtiers and wives were made prisoners, with much goods. This
enraged the Ashantees, and they reeked vengeance on the heads of the
inhabitants of Kromanti, who laid the disastrous ambuscade. They
failed, however, to recover the body of their slain king; but many of
his attendants were retaken, and numerous enemies, whom they
sacrificed to the manes of their dead king at Kumasi.
After the death of the noble Osai Tutu, dissensions arose among his
followers. The tribes and kingdoms he had bound to his victorious
chariot-wheels began to assert their independence. His life-work began
to crumble. Disorder ran riot; and, after a few ambitious leaders were
convinced that the throne of Ashantee demanded brains and courage,
they cheerfully made way for the coronation of Osai Opoko, brother to
the late king. He was equal to the existing state of affairs. He
proved himself a statesman, a soldier, and a wise ruler. He organized
his army, and took the field in person against the revolting tribes.
He reconquered all the lost provinces. He defeated his most valorous
foe, the king of Gaman, after driving him into the Kong Mountains.
When his jealous underlings sought his overthrow by conspiracy, he
conquered them by an appeal to arms. His rule was attended by the most
lasting and beneficent results. He died in 1742, and was succeeded by
his brother, Osai Akwasi.
The fame and military prowess of the kings of the Ashantees were borne
on every passing breeze, and told by every fleeing fugitive. The whole
country was astounded by the marvellous achievements of this people,
and not a little envy was felt among adjoining nations. The king of
Dahomey especially felt like humiliating this people in battle. This
spirit finally manifested itself in feuds, charges, complaints, and,
laterally, by actual hostilities. The king of Dahomey felt that he had
but one rival, the king of Ashantee. He felt quite sure of victory on
account of the size, spirit, and discipline of his army. It was idle
at this time, and was ordered to the Ashantee border. The first
engagement took place near the Volta. The king of Dahomey had
succeeded in securing an alliance with the armies of Kawaku and
Bourony, but the valor and skill of the Ashantees were too much for
the invading armies. If King Akwasi had simply maintained his
defensive position, his victory would have been lasting; but,
overjoyed at his success, he unwittingly pursued the enemy beyond the
Volta, and carried war into the kingdom of Dahomey. Troops fight with
great desperation in their own country. The Ashantee army was struck
on its exposed flanks, its splendid companies of Caboceers went down
before the intrepid Amazons. Back to the Volta, the boundary line
between the two empires, fled the routed Ashantees. Akwasi received a
mortal wound, from which he died in 1752, when his nephew, Osai
Kudjoh, succeeded to the throne.
Three brothers had held the sceptre over this empire, but now it
passed to another generation. The new king was worthy of his
illustrious family. After the days of mourning for his royal uncle
were ended, before he ascended the throne, several provinces revolted.
He at once took the field, subdued his recalcitrant subjects, and made
them pay a heavy tribute. He won other provinces by conquest, and awed
the neighboring tribes until an unobstructed way was open to his
invincible army across the country to Cape Palmas. His fame grew with
each military manoeuvre, and each passing year witnessed new triumphs.
Fawning followed envy in the heart of the king of Dahomey; and a large
embassy was despatched to the powerful Kudjoh, congratulating him upon
his military achievements, and seeking a friendly alliance between the
two governments. Peace was now restored; and the armies of Ashantee
very largely melted into agricultural communities, and great
prosperity came. But King Kudjoh was growing old in the service of his
people; and, as he could no longer give his personal attention to
public affairs, dissensions arose in some of the remote provinces.
With impaired vision and feeble health he, nevertheless, put an army
into the field to punish the insubordinate tribes; but before
operations began he died. His grandson, Osai Kwamina, was designated
as legal successor to the throne in 1781. He took a solemn vow that he
would not enter the palace until he secured the heads of Akombroh and
Afosee, whom he knew had excited and incited the people to rebellion
against his grandfather. His vengeance was swift and complete. The
heads of the rebel leaders were long kept at Juntas as highly prized
relics of the reign of King Kwamina. His reign was brief, however. He
was deposed for attempting to introduce the Mohammedan religion into
the kingdom. Osai Apoko was crowned as his successor in 1797. The
Gaman and Kongo armies attached themselves to the declining fortunes
of the deposed king, and gave battle for his lost crown. It was a lost
cause. The new king could wield his sword as well as wear a crown. He
died of a painful sickness, and was succeeded by his son, Osai Tutu
Kwamina, in 1800.
The new king was quite youthful,--only seventeen; but he inherited
splendid qualities from a race of excellent rulers. He re-organized
his armies, and early won a reputation for courage, sagacity, and
excellent ability, extraordinary in one so young. He inherited a
bitter feeling against the Mohammedans, and made up his mind to
chastise two of their chiefs, Ghofan and Ghobago, and make the
territory of Banna tributary to Ashantee. He invaded their country,
and burned their capital. In an engagement fought at Kaha, the entire
Moslem army was defeated and captured. The king of Ghofan was wounded
and made prisoner, and died in the camp of the Ashantee army. Two more
provinces were bound to the throne of Kwamina; and we submit that this
is an historical anomaly, in that a pagan people subdued an army that
emblazoned its banner with the faith of _the one God_!
The Ashantee empire had reached the zenith of its glory. Its flag
waved in triumph from the Volta to Bossumpea, and the Kong Mountains
had echoed the exploits of the veterans that formed the strength of
its army. The repose that even this uncivilized people longed for was
denied them by a most unfortunate incident.
Asim was a province tributary to the Ashantee empire. Two of the
chiefs of Asim became insubordinate, gave offence to the king, and
then fled into the country of the Fantis, one of the most numerous and
powerful tribes on the Gold Coast. The Fantis promised the fugitives
armed protection. There was no extradition treaty in those days. The
king despatched friendly messengers, who were instructed to set forth
the faults of the offending subjects, and to request their return. The
request was contemptuously denied, and the messengers subjected to a
painful death. The king of Ashantee invaded the country of the enemy,
and defeated the united forces of Fanti and Asim. He again made them
an offer of peace, and was led to believe it would be accepted. But
the routed army was gathering strength for another battle, although
Chibbu and Apontee had indicated to the king that the conditions of
peace were agreeable. The king sent an embassy to learn when a formal
submission would take place; and they, also, were put to death. King
Osai Tutu Kwamina took "_the great oath_," and vowed that he would
never return from the seat of war or enter his capital without the
heads of the rebellious chiefs. The Ashantee army shared the desperate
feelings of their leader; and a war was begun, which for cruelty and
carnage has no equal in the annals of the world's history. Pastoral
communities, hamlets, villages, and towns were swept by the red waves
of remorseless warfare. There was no mercy in battle: there were no
prisoners taken by day, save to be spared for a painful death at
nightfall. Their groans, mingling with the shouts of the victors, made
the darkness doubly hideous; and the blood of the vanquished army, but
a short distance removed, ran cold at the thoughts of the probable
fate that waited them on the morrow. Old men and old women, young men
and young women, the rollicking children whose light hearts knew no
touch of sorrow, as well as the innocent babes clinging to the
agitated bosoms of their mothers,--unable to distinguish between
friend or foe,--felt the cruel stroke of war. All were driven to an
inhospitable grave in the place where the fateful hand of war made
them its victims, or perished in the sullen waters of the Volta. For
nearly a hundred miles "the smoke of their torment" mounted the skies.
Nothing was left in the rear of the Ashantee army, not even cattle or
buildings. Pursued by a fleet-footed and impartial disaster, the
fainting Fantis and their terrified allies turned their faces toward
the seacoast. And why? Perhaps this fleeing army had a sort of
superstitious belief that the sea might help them. Then, again, they
knew that there were many English on the Gold Coast; that they had
forts and troops. They trusted, also, that the young king of the
Ashantees would not follow his enemy under the British flag and guns.
They were mistaken. The two revolting chiefs took refuge in the fort
at Anamabo. On came the intrepid king, thundering at the very gates of
the English fort. The village was swept with the hot breath of battle.
Thousands perished before this invincible army. The English soldiers
poured hot shot and musketry into the columns of the advancing army;
but on they marched to victory with an impurturbable air, worthy of
"_the old guard_" under Ney at Waterloo. Preparations were completed
for blowing up the walls of the fort; and it would have been but a few
hours until the king of Ashantee would have taken the governor's
chair, had not the English capitulated. During the negotiations one of
the offending chiefs made good his escape to a little village called
Cape Coast; but the other was delivered up, and, having been taken
back to Kumasi, was tortured to death. Twelve thousand persons fell in
the engagement at Anamabo, and thousands of lives were lost in other
engagements. This took place in 1807.
In 1811 the king of Ashantee sent an array to Elmina to protect his
subjects against predatory bands of Fantis. Three or four battles were
fought, and were invariably won by the Ashantee troops.
Barbarians have about as long memories as civilized races. They are a
kind-hearted people, but very dangerous and ugly when they are led to
feel that they have been injured. "_The great oath_" means a great
deal; and the king was not happy in the thought that one of the
insolent chiefs had found refuge in the town of Cape Coast, which was
in the Fanti country. So in 1817 he invaded this country, and called
at Cape Coast, and reduced the place to the condition of a siege. The
English authorities saw the Fantis dying under their eyes, and paid
the fine imposed by the King of Ashantee, rather than bury the dead
inhabitants of the beleaguered town. The Ashantees retired.
England began to notice the Ashantees. They had proven themselves to
be a most heroic, intelligent, and aggressive people. The Fantis lay
stretched between them and the seacoast. The frequent invasion of this
country, for corrective purposes as the Ashantees believed, very
seriously interrupted the trade of the coast; and England began to
feel it. The English had been defeated once in an attempt to assist
the Fantis, and now thought it wise to turn attention to a pacific
policy, looking toward the establishment of amicable relations between
the Ashantees and themselves. There had never been any unpleasant
relations between the two governments, except in the instance named.
The Ashantees rather felt very kindly toward England, and for
prudential and commercial reasons desired to treat the authorities at
the coast with great consideration. They knew that the English gave
them a market for their gold, and an opportunity to purchase
manufactured articles that they needed. But the Fantis, right under
the English flag, receiving a rent for the ground on which the English
had their fort and government buildings, grew so intolerably abusive
towards their neighbors, the Ashantees, that the British saw nothing
before them but interminable war. It was their desire to avoid it if
possible. Accordingly, they sent an embassy to the king of the
Ashantees, consisting of Gov. James, of the fort at Akra, a Mr.
Bowdich, nephew to the governor-in-chief at Cape Coast, a Mr.
Hutchinson, and the surgeon of the English settlement, Dr. Teddlie.
Mr. Bowdich headed the embassy to the royal court, where they were
kindly received. A treaty was made. The rent that the Fantis had been
receiving for ground occupied by the English--four ounces of gold per
month--was to be paid to the king of Ashantee, as his by right of
conquest. Diplomatic relations were to be established between the two
governments, and Mr. Hutchinson was to remain at Kumasi as the British
resident minister. He was charged with the carrying out of so much of
the treaty as related to his government. The treaty was at once
forwarded to the home government, and Mr. Dupuis was appointed consul
of his Majesty's government to the court of Ashantee. A policy was
outlined that meant the opening up of commerce with the distant
provinces of the Ashantee empire along the Kong Mountains. In those
days it took a long time to sail from England to the Gold Coast in
Western Africa; and before Consul Dupuis reached the coast, the king
of Ashantee was engaged in a war with the king of Gaman. The Ashantee
army was routed. The news of the disaster was hailed by the Fantis on
the coast with the most boisterous and public demonstrations. This
gave the king of Ashantee offence. The British authorities were quite
passive about the conduct of the Fantis, although by solemn treaty
they had become responsible for their deportment. The Fantis grew very
insulting and offensive towards the Ashantees. The king of the latter
called the attention of the authorities at the Cape to the conduct of
the Fantis, but no official action was taken. In the mean while Mr.
Dupuis was not allowed to proceed on his mission to the capital of the
Ashantees. Affairs began to assume a very threatening attitude; and
only after the most earnest request was he permitted to proceed to the
palace of the king of Ashantee. He received a hearty welcome at the
court, and was entertained with the most lavish kindness. After long
and painstaking consideration, a treaty was decided upon that was
mutually agreeable; but the self-conceited and swaggering insolence of
the British authorities on the coast put it into the waste-basket. The
commander of the British squadron put himself in harmony with the
local authorities, and refused to give Consul Dupuis transportation to
England for the commissioners of the Ashantee government, whom he had
brought to the coast with the intention of taking to London with him.
A war-cloud was gathering. Dupuis saw it. He sent word to the king of
Ashantee to remember his oath, and refrain from hostilities until he
could communicate with the British government. The treaty stipulated
for the recognition, by the British authorities, of the authority of
the Ashantee king over the Fantis. Only those immediately around the
fort were subject to English law, and then not to an extent to exempt
them from tax imposed by the Ashantee authorities.
In the midst of these complications, Parliament, by a special act,
abolished the charter of the African Company. This put all its forts,
arsenals, and stations under the direct control of the crown. Sir
Charles McCarthy was made governor-general of the British possessions
on the Gold Coast, and took up his head-quarters at Cape Coast in
March, 1822. Two months had passed now since Dupuis had sailed for
England; and not a syllable had reached the king's messenger, who, all
this time, had waited to hear from England. The country was in an
unsettled state. Gov, McCarthy was not equal to the situation. He fell
an easy prey to the fawning and lying Fantis. They received him as the
champion of their declining fortunes, and did every thing in their
power to give him an unfriendly opinion of the Ashantees. The king of
the Ashantees began to lose faith in the British. His faithful
messenger returned from the coast bearing no friendly tidings. The
king withdrew his troops from the seacoast, and began to put his army
upon a good war-footing. When all was in readiness a Negro sergeant in
the British service was seized, and put to a torturous death. This was
a signal for the grand opening. Of course the British were bound to
demand redress. Sir Charles McCarthy was informed by some Fantis
scouts that the king of Ashantee, at the head of his army, was
marching for Cape Coast. Sir Charles rallied his forces, and went
forth to give him battle. His object was to fight the king at a
distance from the cape, and thus prevent him from devastating the
entire country as in former wars. Sir Charles McCarthy was a brave
man, and worthy of old England; but in this instance his courage was
foolhardy. He crossed the Prah River to meet a wily and desperate foe.
His troops were the worthless natives, hastily gathered, and were
intoxicated with the hope of deliverance from Ashantee rule. He should
have waited for the trained troops of Major Chisholm. This was his
fatal mistake. His pickets felt the enemy early in the morning of the
21st of January, 1824. A lively skirmish followed. In a short time the
clamorous war-horns of the advancing Ashantees were heard, and a
general engagement came on. The first fighting began along a shallow
stream. The Ashantees came up with the courage and measured tread of
a well-disciplined army. They made a well-directed charge to gain the
opposite bank of the stream, but were repulsed by an admirable bayonet
charge from Sir Charles's troops. The Ashantees then crossed the
stream above and below the British army, and fell with such
desperation upon its exposed and naked flanks, that it was bent into
the shape of a letter A, and hurled back toward Cape Coast in dismay.
Wounded and exhausted, toward evening Sir Charles fled from his
exposed position to the troops of his allies under the command of the
king of Denkera. He concentrated his artillery upon the heaviest
columns of the enemy; but still they came undaunted, bearing down upon
the centre like an avalanche. Sir Charles made an attempt to retreat
with his staff, but met instant death at the hands of the Ashantees.
His head was removed from the body and sent to Kumasi. His heart was
eaten by the chiefs of the army that they might imbibe his courage,
while his flesh was dried and issued in small rations among the
line-officers for the same purpose. His bones were kept at the capital
of the Ashantee kingdom as national fetiches.[62]
Major Chisholm and Capt. Laing, learning of the disaster that had
well-nigh swallowed up Sir Charles's army, retreated to Cape Coast.
There were about thirty thousand troops remaining, but they were so
terrified at the disaster of the day that they could not be induced to
make a stand against the gallant Ashantees. The king of Ashantee,
instead of following the routed army to the gates of Cape Coast, where
he could have dealt it a death-blow, offered the English conditions of
peace. Capt. Ricketts met the Ashantee messengers at Elmina, and heard
from them the friendly messages of the king. The Ashantees only wanted
the British to surrender Kudjoh Chibbu of the province of Denkera; but
this fugitive from the Ashantee king, while negotiations were pending,
resolved to rally the allied armies and make a bold stroke. He crossed
the Prah at the head of a considerable force, and fell upon the
Ashantee army in its camp. The English were charmed by this bold
stroke, and sent a reserve force; but the whole army was again
defeated by the Ashantees, and came back to Cape Coast in complete
confusion.
The Ashantee army were at the gates of the town. Col. Southerland
arrived with re-enforcements, but was beaten into the fort by the
unyielding courage of the attacking force. A new king, Osai Ockote,
arrived with fresh troops, and won the confidence of the army by
marching right under the British guns, and hissing defiance into the
face of the foe. The conflict that followed was severe, and
destructive to both life and property. All the native and British
forces were compelled to retire to the fort; while the Ashantee
troops, inspired by the dashing bearing of their new king, closed in
around them like tongues of steel. The invading army was not daunted
by the belching cannon that cut away battalion after battalion. On
they pressed for revenge and victory. The screams of fainting women
and terrified children, the groans of the dying, and the bitter
imprecations of desperate combatants,--a mingling medley,--swelled the
great diapason of noisy battle. The eyes of the beleaguered were
turned toward the setting sun, whose enormous disk was leaning against
the far-away mountains, and casting his red and vermilion over the
dusky faces of dead Ashantees and Fantis; and, imparting a momentary
beauty to the features of the dead white men who fell so far away from
home and friends, he sank to rest. There was a sad, far-off look in
the eye of the impatient sailor who kept his lonely watch on the
vessel that lay at rest on the sea. Night was wished for, prayed for,
yearned for. It came at last, and threw its broad sable pinions over
the dead, the dying, and the living. Hostilities were to be renewed in
the morning; but the small-pox broke out among the soldiers, and the
king of Ashantee retired.
Sir Neill Campbell was appointed governor-general at Cape Coast. One
of his first acts was to call for all the chiefs of the Fantis, and
give them to understand that hostilities between themselves and the
king of Ashantee must stop. He then required Osai Ockoto to deposit
four thousand ounces of gold ($72,000), as a bond to keep the peace.
In case he provoked hostilities, the seventy-two thousand dollars were
to be used to purchase ammunition with which to chastise him. In 1831
the king was obliged to send two of his royal family, Kwanta Missah,
his own son, and Ansah, the son of the late king, to be held as
hostages. These boys were sent to England, where they were educated,
but are now residents of Ashantee.
Warsaw and Denkera, interior provinces, were lost to the Ashantee
empire; but, nevertheless, it still remains one of the most powerful
Negro empires of Western Africa.
The king of Ashantee has a fair government. His power is well-nigh
absolute. He has a House of Lords, who have a check-power. Coomassi is
the famous city of gold, situated in the centre of the empire. The
communication through to the seacoast is unobstructed; and it is
rather remarkable that the Ashantees are the only nation in Africa,
who, living in the interior, have direct communication with the
Caucasian. They have felt the somewhat elevating influence of
Mohammedanism, and are not unconscious of the benefits derived by the
literature and contact of the outside world. They are a remarkable
people: brave, generous, industrious, and mentally capable. The day is
not distant when the Ashantee kingdom will be won to the Saviour, and
its inhabitants brought under the beneficent influences of Christian
civilization.
FOOTNOTES:
[62] The following telegram shocks the civilized world. It serves
notice on the Christians of the civilized world, that, in a large
missionary sense, they have come far short of their duty to the
"nations beyond," who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.
"MASSACRE OF MAIDENS. LONDON, NOV. 10, 1881.--Advices from
Cape Coast Castle report that the king of Ashantee killed
two hundred young girls for the purpose of using their blood
for mixing mortar for repair of one of the state buildings.
The report of the massacre was received from a refugee
chosen for one of the victims. Such wholesale massacres are
known to be a custom with the king."--_Cinn. Commercial._
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEGRO TYPE.
CLIMATE THE CAUSE.--HIS GEOGRAPHICAL THEATRE.--HE IS
SUSCEPTIBLE TO CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION.
If the reader will turn to a map of Africa, the Mountains of the
Moon[63] will be found to run right through the centre of that
continent. They divide Africa into two almost equal parts. In a
dialectic sense, also, Africa is divided. The Mountains of the Moon,
running east and west, seem to be nature's dividing line between two
distinct peoples. North of these wonderful mountains the languages are
numerous and quite distinct, and lacking affinity. For centuries these
tribes have lived in the same latitude, under the same climatic
influences, and yet, without a written standard, have preserved the
idiomatic coloring of their tribal language without corruption. Thus
they have eluded the fate that has overtaken all other races who
without a written language, living together by the laws of affinity,
sooner or later have found one medium of speech as inevitable as
necessary.
But coming south of the Mountains of the Moon, until we reach the Cape
of Good Hope, there is to be found one great family. Nor is the
difference between the northern and southern tribes only linguistic.
The physiological difference between these people is great. They range
in color from the dead black up to pure white, and from the dwarfs on
the banks of the Casemanche to the tall and giant-like Vei tribe of
Cape Mount.
"The Fans which inhabit the mountain terraces are altogether
of a different complexion from the seacoast tribes. Their
hair is longer: that of the women hangs down in long braids
to their shoulders, while the men have tolerably long
two-pointed beards. It would be impossible to find such long
hair among the coast tribes, even in a single instance.
"In the low, swampy land at the mouth of the Congo, one
meets with typical Negroes; and there again, as one reaches
a higher soil, one finds a different class of people.
"The Angolese resemble the Fula. They are scarcely ever
black. Their hands and feet are exquisitely small; and in
every way they form a contrast with the slaves of the
Portuguese, who, brought for the most part from the Congo,
are brutal and debased.
"I have divided Africa into three grand types,--the
Ethiopian, the intermediate, and the Negro. In the same
manner the Negro may be divided into three sub-classes:--
"The bronze-colored class: gracefully formed, with
effeminate features, small hands and feet, long fingers,
intelligent minds, courteous and polished manners. Such are
the Mpongwe of the Gaboon, the Angolese, the Fanti of the
Gold Coast, and most probably the Haoussa of the Niger, a
tribe with which I am not acquainted.
"The black-skinned class: athletic shapes, rude manners,
less intelligence, but always with some good faculties,
thicker lips, broader noses, but seldom prognathous to any
great degree. Such are the Wollof, the Kru-men, the Benga of
Corisco, and the Cabinda of Lower Guinea, who hire
themselves out as sailors in the Congo and in Angola
precisely as do the Kru-men of North Guinea.
"Lastly, the typical Negroes: an exceptional race even among
the Negroes, whose disgusting type it is not necessary to
re-describe. They are found chiefly along the coast between
the Casemanche and Sierra Leone, between Lagos and the
Cameroons, in the Congo swamps, and in certain swampy plains
and mountain-hollows of the interior."[64]
That climate has much to do with physical and mental character, we
will not have to prove to any great extent. It is a fact as well
established as any principle in pathology. Dr. Joseph Brown says,--
"It is observed that the natives of marshy districts who
permanently reside in them lose their whole bodily and
mental constitution, contaminated by the poison they inhale.
Their aspect is sallow and prematurely senile, so that
children are often wrinkled, their muscles flaccid, their
hair lank, and frequently pale, the abdomen tumid, the
stature stunted, and the intellectual and moral character
low and degraded. They rarely attain what in more wholesome
regions would be considered old age. In the marshy districts
of certain countries,--for example, Egypt, Georgia, and
Virginia,--the extreme term of life is stated to be forty in
the latter place.... In portions of Brittany which adjoin
the Loire, the extreme duration of life is fifty, at which
age the inhabitant wears the aspect of eighty in a healthier
district. It is remarked that the inferior animals, and even
vegetables, partake of the general deprivation; they are
stunted and short-lived."
In his "Ashango Land," Paul B. du Chaillu devotes a large part of his
fifteenth chapter to the Obongos, or Dwarfs. Nearly all African
explorers and travellers have been much amazed at the diversity of
color and stature among the tribes they met. This diversity in
physical and mental character owes its existence to the diversity and
perversity of African climate.
The Negro, who is but a fraction of the countless indigenous races of
Africa, has been carried down to his low estate by the invincible
forces of nature. Along the ancient volcanic tracts are to be found
the Libyan race, with a tawny complexion, features quite Caucasian,
and long black hair. On the sandstones are to be found an intermediate
type, darker somewhat than their progenitors, lips thick, and nostrils
wide at the base. Then comes the Negro down in the alluvia, with dark
skin, woolly hair, and prognathous development.
"The Negro forms an exceptional race in Africa. He inhabits
that immense tract of marshy land which lies between the
mountains and the sea, from Senegal to Benguela, and the low
lands of the eastern side in the same manner. He is found in
the parts about Lake Tchad, in Sennaar, along the marshy
banks of rivers, and in several isolated spots besides."[65]
The true Negro inhabits Northern Africa. When his country, of which we
know absolutely nothing, has been crowded, the nomadic portion of the
population has poured itself over the mountain terraces, and,
descending into the swamps, has become degraded in body and mind.
Technically speaking, we do not believe the Negro is a distinct
species.
"It is certain that the woolly hair, the prognathous
development, and the deep black skin of the typical Negro,
are not peculiar to the African continent."[66]
The Negro is found in the low, marshy, and malarious districts. We
think the Negro is produced in a descending scale. The African who
moves from the mountain regions down into the miasmatic districts may
be observed to lose his stature, his complexion, his hair, and his
intellectual vigor: he finally becomes the Negro. Pathologically
considered, he is weak, sickly, and short-lived. His legs are slender
and almost calf-less: the head is developed in the direction of the
passions, while the whole form is destitute of symmetry.
"It will be understood that the typical Negroes, with whom
the slavers are supplied, represent the dangerous, the
destitute, and diseased classes of African society. They may
be compared to those which in England fill our jails, our
workhouses, and our hospitals. So far from being equal to
us, the polished inhabitants of Europe, as some ignorant
people suppose, they are immeasurably below the Africans
themselves,
"The typical Negro is the true savage of Africa; and I must
paint the deformed anatomy of his mind, as I have already
done that of his body.
"The typical Negroes dwell in petty tribes, where all are
equal except the women, who are slaves; where property is
common, and where, consequently, there is no property at
all; where one may recognize the Utopia of philosophers, and
observe the saddest and basest spectacles which humanity can
afford.
"The typical Negro, unrestrained by moral laws, spends his
days in sloth, his nights in debauchery. He smokes hashish
till he stupefies his senses or falls into convulsions; he
drinks palm-wine till he brings on a loathsome disease; he
abuses children, stabs the poor brute of a woman whose hands
keep him from starvation, and makes a trade of his own
offspring. He swallows up his youth in premature vice; he
lingers through a manhood of disease, and his tardy death is
hastened by those who no longer care to find him food.... If
you wish to know what they have been, and to what we may
restore them, look at the portraits which have been
preserved of the ancient Egyptians: and in those delicate
and voluptuous forms; in those round, soft features; in
those long, almond-shaped, half-closed, languishing eyes; in
those full pouting lips, large smiling mouths, and
complexions of a warm and copper-colored tint,--you will
recognize the true African type, the women-men of the Old
World, of which the Negroes are the base, the depraved
caricatures."[67]
But the Negro is not beyond the influences of civilization and
Christianization. Hundreds of thousands have perished in the cruel
swamps of Africa; hundreds of thousands have been devoured by wild
beasts of the forests; hundreds of thousands have perished before the
steady and murderous columns of stronger tribes; hundreds of thousands
have perished from fever, small-pox, and cutaneous diseases; hundreds
of thousands have been sold into slavery; hundreds of thousands have
perished in the "middle-passage;" hundreds of thousands have been
landed in this New World in the West: and yet hundreds of thousands
are still swarming in the low and marshy lands of Western Africa. Poor
as this material is, out of it we have made, here in the United
States, six million citizens; and out of this cast-away material of
Africa, God has raised up many children.
To the candid student of ethnography, it must be conclusive that the
Negro is but the most degraded and disfigured type of the primeval
African. And still, with all his interminable woes and wrongs, the
Negro on the west coast of Africa, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, as
well as in the southern part of the United States, shows that
centuries of savagehood and slavery have not drained him of all the
elements of his manhood. History furnishes us with abundant and
specific evidence of his capacity to civilize and Christianize. We
shall speak of this at length in a subsequent chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] See Keith Johnson's Map of Africa, 1863.
[64] Savage Africa, pp. 403, 404.
[65] Savage Africa, p. 400.
[66] Savage Africa, p. 412.
[67] Savage Africa, p. 430.
CHAPTER VII.
AFRICAN IDIOSYNCRASIES.
PATRIARCHAL GOVERNMENT.--CONSTRUCTION OF VILLAGES.--NEGRO
ARCHITECTURE.--ELECTION OF KINGS.--CORONATION
CEREMONY.--SUCCESSION.--AFRICAN QUEENS.--LAW, CIVIL AND
CRIMINAL.--PRIESTS.--THEIR
FUNCTIONS.--MARRIAGE.--WARFARE.--AGRICULTURE.--MECHANIC
ARTS.--BLACKSMITHS.
All the tribes on the continent of Africa are under, to a greater or
less degree, the patriarchal form of government. It is usual for
writers on Africa to speak of "kingdoms" and "empires;" but these
kingdoms are called so more by compliment than with any desire to
convey the real meaning that we get when the empire of Germany or
kingdom of Spain is spoken of. The patriarchal government is the most
ancient in Africa. It is true that great kingdoms have risen in
Africa; but they were the result of devastating wars rather than the
creation of political genius or governmental wisdom.
"Pangola is the child or vassal of Mpende. Sandia and Mpende
are the only independent chiefs from Kebrabasa to Zumbo, and
belong to the tribe Manganja. The country north of the
mountains, here in sight from the Zambesi, is called Senga,
and its inhabitants Asenga or Basenga; but all appear to be
of the same family as the rest of the Manganja and Maravi.
Formerly all the Manganja were united under the government
of their great chief, Undi, whose empire extended from Lake
Shirwa to the River Loangwa; but after Undi's death it fell
to pieces, and a large portion of it on the Zambesi was
absorbed by their powerful Southern neighbors, the Bamjai.
This has been the inevitable fate of every African empire
from time immemorial. A chief of more than ordinary ability
arises, and, subduing all his less powerful neighbors,
founds a kingdom, which he governs more or less wisely till
he dies. His successor, not having the talents of the
conqueror, cannot retain the dominion, and some of the abler
under-chiefs set up for themselves; and, in a few years, the
remembrance only of the empire remains. This, which may be
considered as the normal state of African society, gives
rise to frequent and desolating wars, and the people long in
vain for a power able to make all dwell in peace. In this
light a European colony would be considered by the natives
as an inestimable boon to inter-tropical Africa. Thousands
of industrious natives would gladly settle around it, and
engage in that peaceful pursuit of agriculture and trade of
which they are so fond; and, undistracted by wars or rumors
of wars, might listen to the purifying and ennobling truths
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Manganja on the Zambesi,
like their countrymen on the Shire, are fond of agriculture;
and, in addition to the usual varieties of food, cultivate
tobacco and cotton in quantities more than equal to their
wants. To the question, 'Would they work for Europeans?' an
affirmative answer may be given; if the Europeans belong to
the class which can pay a reasonable price for labor, and
not to that of adventurers who want employment for
themselves. All were particularly well clothed from Sandia's
to Pangola's; and it was noticed that all the cloth was of
native manufacture, the product of their own looms. In Senga
a great deal of iron is obtained from the ore, and
manufactured very cleverly."[68]
The above is a fair description of the internecine wars that have been
carried on between the tribes in Africa, back "to a time whereof the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary." In a preceding chapter we
gave quite an extended account of four Negro empires. We call
attention here to the villages of these people, and shall allow
writers who have paid much attention to this subject to give their
impressions. Speaking of a village of the Aviia tribe called Mandji,
Du Chaillu says,--
"It was the dirtiest village I had yet seen in Africa, and
the inhabitants appeared to me of a degraded class of
Negroes. The shape and arrangement of the village were quite
different from any thing I had seen before. The place was in
the form of a quadrangle, with an open space in the middle
not more than ten yards square; and the huts, arranged in a
continuous row on two sides, were not more than eight feet
high from the ground to the roof. The doors were only four
feet high, and of about the same width, with sticks placed
across on the inside, one above the other, to bar the
entrance. The place for the fire was in the middle of the
principal room, on each side of which was a little dark
chamber; and on the floor was an _orala_, or stage, to smoke
meat upon. In the middle of the yard was a hole dug in the
ground for the reception of offal, from which a disgusting
smell arose, the wretched inhabitants being too lazy or
obtuse to guard against this by covering it with earth.
"The houses were built of a framework of poles, covered with
the bark of trees, and roofed with leaves. In the middle of
the village stood the public shed, or palaver-house,--a kind
of town-hall found in almost all West-African villages. A
large fire was burning in it, on the ground; and at one end
of the shed stood a huge wooden idol, painted red and white,
and rudely fashioned in the shape of a woman. The shed was
the largest building in the village, for it was ten feet
high, and measured fifteen feet by ten. It is the habit of
the lazy negroes of these interior villages--at least, the
men--to spend almost the whole day lying down under the
palaver-shed, feeding their morbid imaginations with tales
of witchcraft, and smoking their _condoquais_."
But all the villages of these poor children of the desert are not so
untidy as the one described above. There is a wide difference in the
sanitary laws governing these villages.
"The Ishogo villages are large. Indeed, what most strikes
the traveller in coming from the seacoast to this inland
country, is the large size, neatness, and beauty of the
villages. They generally have about one hundred and fifty or
one hundred and sixty huts, arranged in streets, which are
very broad and kept remarkably clean. Each house has a door
of wood which is painted in fanciful designs with red,
white, and black. One pattern struck me as simple and
effective; it was a number of black spots margined with
white, painted in regular rows on a red ground. But my
readers must not run away with the idea that the doors are
like those of the houses of civilized people; they are
seldom more than two feet and a half high. The door of my
house was just twenty-seven inches high. It is fortunate
that I am a short man, otherwise it would have been hard
exercise to go in and out of my lodgings. The planks of
which the doors are made are cut with great labor by native
axes out of trunks of trees, one trunk seldom yielding more
than one good plank. My hut, an average-sized dwelling, was
twenty feet long and eight feet broad. It was divided into
three rooms or compartments, the middle one, into which the
door opened, being a little larger than the other two....
Mokenga is a beautiful village, containing about one hundred
and sixty houses; they were the largest dwellings I had yet
seen on the journey. The village was surrounded by a dense
grove of plantain-trees, many of which had to be supported
by poles, on account of the weight of the enormous bunches
of plantains they bore. Little groves of lime-trees were
scattered everywhere, and the limes, like so much golden
fruit, looked beautiful amidst the dark foliage that
surrounded them. Tall, towering palm-trees were scattered
here and there. Above and behind the village was the dark
green forest. The street was the broadest I ever saw in
Africa; one part of it was about one hundred yards broad,
and not a blade of grass could be seen in it. The _Sycobii_
were building their nests everywhere, and made a deafening
noise, for there were thousands and thousands of these
little sociable birds."[69]
The construction of houses in villages in Africa is almost uniform, as
far as our studies have led us.[70] Or, rather, we ought to modify
this statement by saying there are but two plans of construction. One
is where the houses are erected on the rectilinear, the other is where
they are built on the circular plan. In the more warlike tribes the
latter plan prevails. The hillsides and elevated places near the
timber are sought as desirable locations for villages. The plan of
architecture is simple. The diameter is first considered, and
generally varies from ten to fifteen feet. A circle is drawn in the
ground, and then long flexible sticks are driven into the earth. The
builder, standing inside of the circle, binds the sticks together at
the top; where they are secured together by the use of the
"monkey-rope," a thick vine that stretches itself in great profusion
from tree to tree in that country. Now, the reader can imagine a large
umbrella with the handle broken off even with the ribs when closed up,
and without any cloth,--nothing but the ribs left. Now open it, and
place it on the ground before you, and you have a fair idea of the hut
up to the present time. A reed thatching is laid over the frame, and
secured firmly by parallel lashings about fifteen inches apart. The
door is made last by cutting a hole in the side of the hut facing
toward the centre of the contemplated circle of huts.[71] The door is
about eighteen inches in height, and just wide enough to admit the
body of the owner. The sharp points, after the cutting, are guarded by
plaited twigs. The door is made of quite a number of stout sticks
driven into the ground at equal distances apart, through which, in and
out, are woven pliant sticks. When this is accomplished, the maker
cuts off the irregular ends to make it fit the door, and removes it to
its place. Screens are often used inside to keep out the wind: they
are made so as to be placed in whatever position the wind is blowing.
Some of these houses are built with great care, and those with domed
roofs are elaborately decorated inside with beads of various sizes and
colors.
The furniture consists of a few mats, several baskets, a milk-pail, a
number of earthen pots, a bundle of assagais, and a few other weapons
of war. Next, to guard against the perils of the rainy season, a ditch
about two feet in width and of equal depth is made about the new
dwelling. Now multiply this hut by five hundred, preserving the
circle, and you have the village. The _palaver-house_, or place for
public debates, is situated in the centre of the circle of huts. Among
the northern and southern tribes, a fence is built around their
villages, when they are called "kraals." The space immediately outside
of the fence is cleared, so as to put an enemy at a disadvantage in an
attack upon the village. Among the agricultural tribes, as, for
example, the Kaffirs, they drive their cattle into the kraal, and for
the young build pens.
The other method of building villages is to have one long street, with
a row of houses on each side, rectangular in shape. They are about
twenty-five or thirty feet in length, and about twelve to fifteen feet
in width. Six or eight posts are used to join the material of the
sides to. The roofs are flat. Three rooms are allowed to each house.
The two end rooms are larger than the centre one, where the door opens
out into the street. Sometimes these rooms are plastered, but it is
seldom; and then it is in the case of the well-to-do class.[72]
We said, at the beginning of this chapter, that the government in
Africa was largely patriarchal; and yet we have called attention to
four great kingdoms. There is no contradiction here, although there
may seem to be; for even kings are chosen by ballot, and a sort of a
house of lords has a veto power over royal edicts.
"Among the tribes which I visited in my explorations I found
but one form of government, which may be called the
patriarchal. There is not sufficient national unity in any
of the tribes to give occasion for such a despotism as
prevails in Dahomey, and in other of the African
nationalities. I found the tribes of equatorial Africa
greatly dispersed, and, in general, no bond of union between
parts of the same tribe. A tribe is divided up into numerous
_clans_, and these again into numberless little villages,
each of which last possesses an independent chief. The
villages are scattered; are often moved for death or
witchcraft, as I have already explained in the narrative;
and not infrequently are engaged in war with each other.
"The chieftainship is, to a certain extent, hereditary, the
right of succession vesting in the brother of the reigning
chief or king. The people, however, and particularly the
elders of the village, have a veto power, and can, for
sufficient cause, deprive the lineal heir of his succession,
and put in over him some one thought of more worth. In such
cases the question is put to the vote of the village; and,
where parties are equally divided as to strength, there
ensue sometimes long and serious palavers before all can
unite in a choice. The chief is mostly a man of great
influence prior to his accession, and generally an old man
when he gains power.
"His authority, though greater than one would think, judging
from the little personal deference paid to him, is final
only in matters of every-day use. In cases of importance,
such as war, or any important removal, the elders of the
village meet together and deliberate in the presence of the
whole population, which last finally decide the question.
"The elders, who possess other authority, and are always in
the counsels of the chief, are the oldest members of
important families in the village. Respect is paid to them
on account of their years, but more from a certain regard
for 'family,' which the African has very strongly wherever I
have known him. These families form the aristocracy."[73]
Here are democracy and aristocracy blended somewhat. The king's power
seems to be in deciding everyday affairs, while the weighty matters
which affect the whole tribe are decided by the elders and the people.
Mr. Reade says of such government,--
"Among these equatorial tribes the government is
patriarchal, which is almost equivalent to saying that there
is no government at all. The tribes are divided into clans.
Each clan inhabits a separate village, or group of villages;
and at the head of each is a patriarch, the parody of a
king. They are distinguished from the others by the
grass-woven cap which they wear on their heads, and by the
staff which they carry in their hands. They are always rich
and aged: therefore they are venerated; but, though they can
exert influence, they cannot wield power; they can advise,
but they cannot command. In some instances, as in that of
Quenqueza, King of the Rembo, the title and empty honors of
royalty are bestowed upon the most influential patriarch in
a district. This is a vestige of higher civilization and of
ancient empire which disappears as one descends among the
lower tribes."[74]
"The African form of government is patriarchal, and,
according to the temperament of the chief, despotic, or
guided by the counsel of the elders of the tribe. Reverence
for loyalty sometimes leads the mass of the people to submit
to great cruelty, and even murder, at the hands of a despot
or madman; but, on the whole, the rule is mild; and the same
remark applies in a degree to their religion."[75]
When a new king is elected, he has first to repair to the pontiff's
house, who--apropos of priests--is more important than the king
himself. The king prostrates himself, and, with loud cries, entreats
the favor of this high priest. At first the old man inside, with a
gruff voice, orders him away, says he cannot be annoyed; but the king
enumerates the presents he has brought him, and finally the door
opens, and the priest appears, clad in white, a looking-glass on his
breast, and long white feathers in his head. The king is sprinkled,
covered with dust, walked over, and then, finally, the priest lies
upon him. He has to swear that he will obey, etc.; and then he is
allowed to go to the coronation. Then follow days and nights of
feasting, and, among some tribes, human sacrifices.
The right of succession is generally kept on the male side of the
family. The crown passes from brother to brother, from uncle to
nephew, from cousin to cousin. Where there are no brothers, the son
takes the sceptre. In all our studies on Africa, we have found only
two women reigning. A woman by the name of Shinga ascended the throne
of the Congo empire in 1640. She rebelled against the ceremonies,
sought to be introduced by Portuguese Catholic priests, who incited
her nephew to treason. Defeated in several pitched battles, she fled
into the Jaga country, where she was crowned with much success. In
1646 she won her throne again, and concluded an honorable peace with
the Portuguese. The other queen was the bloodthirsty Tembandumba of
the Jagas. She was of Arab blood, and a cannibal by practice. She
fought many battles, achieved great victories, flirted with beautiful
young savages, and finally was poisoned.
The African is not altogether without law.
"Justice appears, upon the whole, to be pretty fairly
administered among the Makololo. A headman took some beads
and a blanket from one of his men who had been with us; the
matter was brought before the chief; and he immediately
ordered the goods to be restored, and decreed, moreover,
that no headman should take the property of the men who had
returned. In theory all the goods brought back belonged to
the chief; the men laid them at his feet, and made a formal
offer of them all: he looked at the articles, and told the
men to keep them. This is almost invariably the case. Tuba
Mokoro, however, fearing lest Sekeletu might take a fancy to
some of his best goods, exhibited only a few of his old and
least valuable acquisitions. Masakasa had little to show: he
had committed some breach of native law in one of the
villages on the way, and paid a heavy fine rather than have
the matter brought to the doctor's ears. Each carrier is
entitled to a portion of the goods in his bundle, though
purchased by the chief's ivory; and they never hesitate to
claim their rights; but no wages can be demanded from the
chief if he fails to respond to the first application."[76]
We have found considerable civil and criminal law among the different
tribes. We gave an account of the civil and criminal code of Dahomey
in the chapter on that empire. In the Congo country all civil suits
are brought before a judge. He sits on a mat under a large tree, and
patiently hears the arguments _pro_ and _con_. His decisions are
final. There is no higher court, and hence no appeal. The criminal
cases are brought before the _Chitomé_, or priest. He keeps a sacred
fire burning in his house that is never suffered to go out. He is
supported by the lavish and delicate gifts of the people, and is held
to be sacred. No one is allowed to approach his house except on the
most urgent business. He never dies, so say the people. When he is
seriously sick his legal successor steals quietly into his house, and
beats his brains out, or strangles him to death. It is his duty to
hear all criminal cases, and to this end he makes a periodical circuit
among the tribe. Murder, treason, adultery, killing the escaped
snakes from the fetich-house,--and often stealing,--are punished by
death, or by being sold into slavery. A girl who loses her standing,
disgraces her family by an immoral act, is banished from the tribe.
And in case of seduction the man is tied up and flogged. In case of
adultery a large sum of money must be paid. If the guilty one is
unable to pay the fine, then death or slavery is the penalty.
"Adultery is regarded by the Africans as a kind of theft. It
is a vice, therefore, and so common that one might write a
Decameron of native tales like those of Boccaccio. And what
in Boccaccio is more poignant and more vicious than this
song of the Benga, which I have often heard them sing, young
men and women together, when no old men were present?--
'The old men young girls married.
The young girls made the old men fools;
For they love to kiss the young men in the dark,
Or beneath the green leaves of the plantain-tree.
The old men then threatened the young men,
And said, "You make us look like fools;
But we will stab you with our knives till your blood runs forth!"
"Oh, stab us, stab us!" cried the young men gladly,
"_For then your wives will fasten up our wounds_."'"[77]
The laws of marriage among many tribes are very wholesome and
elevating. When the age of puberty arrives, it is the custom in many
tribes for the elderly women, who style themselves _Negemba_, to go
into the forest, and prepare for the initiation of the _igonji_, or
novice. They clear a large space, build a fire, which is kept burning
for three days. They take the young woman into the fetich-house,--a
new one for this ceremony,--where they go through some ordeal, that,
thus far, has never been understood by men. When a young man wants a
wife, there are two things necessary; viz., he must secure her
consent, and then buy her. The apparent necessary element in African
courtship is not a thing to be deprecated by the contracting parties.
On the other hand, it is the _sine qua non_ of matrimony. It is proof
positive when a suitor gives cattle for his sweetheart, first, that he
is wealthy; and, second, that he greatly values the lady he fain would
make his bride. He first seeks the favor of the girl's parents. If she
have none, then her next of kin, as in Israel in the days of Boaz. For
it is a law among many tribes, that a young girl shall never be
without a guardian. When the relatives are favorably impressed with
the suitor, they are at great pains to sound his praise in the
presence of the girl; who, after a while, consents to see him. The
news is conveyed to him by a friend or relative of the girl. The
suitor takes a bath, rubs his body with palm-oil, dons his best armor,
and with beating heart and proud stride hastens to the presence of the
fastidious charmer. She does not speak. He sits down, rises, turns
around, runs, and goes through many exercises to show her that he is
sound and healthy. The girl retires, and the anxious suitor receives
the warm congratulations of the spectators on his noble bearing. The
fair lady conveys her assent to the waiting lover, and the village
rings with shouts of gladness. Next come the preliminary matters
before the wedding. Marriage among most African tribes is a coetaneous
contract. The bride is delivered when the price is paid by the
bridegroom. No goods, no wife. Then follow the wedding and feasting,
firing of guns, blowing of horns, music, and dancing.[78]
Polygamy is almost universal in Africa, and poor woman is the greater
sufferer from the accursed system. It is not enough that she is
drained of her beauty and strength by the savage passions of man: she
is the merest abject slave everywhere. The young women are beautiful,
but it is only for a brief season: it soon passes like the fragile
rose into the ashes of premature old age. In Dahomey she is a soldier;
in Kaffir-land she tends the herds, and builds houses; and in Congo
without her industry man would starve. Everywhere man's cruel hand is
against her. Everywhere she is the slave of his unholy passions.[79]
It is a mistaken notion that has obtained for many years, that the
Negro in Africa is physically the most loathsome of all mankind. True,
the Negro has been deformed by degradation and abuse; but this is not
his normal condition. We have seen native Africans who were jet black,
woolly-haired, and yet possessing fine teeth, beautiful features,
tall, graceful, and athletic.
"In reference to the status of the Africans among the
nations of the earth, we have seen nothing to justify the
notion that they are of a different 'breed' or 'species'
from the most civilized. The African is a man with every
attribute of human kind. Centuries of barbarism have had
the same deteriorating effects on Africans as Prichard
describes them to have had on certain of the Irish who were
driven, some generations back, to the hills in Ulster and
Connaught; and these depressing influences have had such
moral and physical effects on some tribes, that ages
probably will be required to undo what ages have done. This
degradation, however, would hardly be given as a reason for
holding any race in bondage, unless the advocate had sunk
morally to the same low state. Apart from the frightful loss
of life in the process by which, it is pretended, the
Negroes are better provided for than in a state of liberty
in their own country, it is this very system that
perpetuates, if not causes, the unhappy condition with which
the comparative comfort of some of them in slavery is
contrasted.
"Ethnologists reckon the African as by no means the lowest
of the human family. He is nearly as strong physically as
the European; and, as a race, is wonderfully persistent
among the nations of the earth. Neither the diseases nor the
ardent spirits which proved so fatal to North-American
Indians, South-Sea Islanders, and Australians, seem capable
of annihilating the Negroes. Even when subjected to that
system so destructive to human life, by which they are torn
from their native soil, they spring up irrepressibly, and
darken half the new continent. They are gifted by nature
with physical strength capable of withstanding the sorest
privations, and a lightheartedness which, as a sort of
compensation, enables them to make the best of the worst
situations. It is like that power which the human frame
possesses of withstanding heat, and to an extent which we
should never have known, had not an adventurous surgeon gone
into an oven, and burnt his fingers with his own watch. The
Africans have wonderfully borne up under unnatural
conditions that would have proved fatal to most races.
"It is remarkable that the power of resistance under
calamity, or, as some would say, adaptation for a life of
servitude, is peculiar only to certain tribes on the
continent of Africa. Climate cannot be made to account for
the fact that many would pine in a state of slavery, or
voluntarily perish. No Krooman can be converted into a
slave, and yet he is an inhabitant of the low, unhealthy
west coast; nor can any of the Zulu or Kaffir tribes be
reduced to bondage, though all these live on comparatively
elevated regions. We have heard it stated by men familiar
with some of the Kaffirs, that a blow, given even in play by
a European, must be returned. A love of liberty is
observable in all who have the Zulu blood, as the Makololo,
the Watuta, and probably the Masai. But blood does not
explain the fact. A beautiful Barotse woman at NHLe, on
refusing to marry a man whom she did not like, was in a pet
given by the headman to some Mambari slave-traders from
Benguela. Seeing her fate, she seized one of their spears,
and, stabbing herself, fell down dead."[80]
Dr. David Livingstone is certainly entitled to our utmost confidence
in all matters that he writes about. Mr. Archibald Forbes says he has
seen Africans dead upon the field of battle that would measure nine
feet, and it was only a few months ago that we had the privilege of
seeing a Zulu who was eight feet and eleven inches in height. As to
the beauty of the Negro, nearly all African travellers agree.
"But if the women of Africa are brutal, the men of Africa
are feminine. Their faces are smooth; their breasts are
frequently as full as those of European women; their voices
are never gruff or deep; their fingers are long; and they
can be very proud of their rosy nails. While the women are
nearly always ill-shaped after their girlhood, the men have
gracefully moulded limbs, and always after a feminine
type,--the arms rounded, the legs elegantly formed, without
too much muscular development, and the feet delicate and
small.
"When I first went ashore on Africa, viz., at Bathurst, I
thought all the men who passed me, covered in their long
robes, were women, till I saw one of the latter sex, and was
thereby disenchanted.
"While no African's face ever yet reminded me of a man whom
I had known in England, I saw again and again faces which
reminded me of women; and on one occasion, in Angola, being
about to chastise a _carregadore_, he sank on his knees as I
raised my stick, clasped his hands, and looked up
imploringly toward me,--was so like a young lady I had once
felt an affection for, that, in spite of myself, I flung the
stick away, fearing to commit a sacrilege.
"Ladies on reading this will open their eyes, and suppose
that either I have very bad taste, or that I am writing
fiction. But I can assure them that among the Angolas, and
the Mpongwe, and the Mandingoes, and the Fula, I have seen
men whose form and features would disgrace no
petticoats,--not even satin ones at a drawing-room.
"While the women are stupid, sulky, and phlegmatic, the men
are vivacious, timid, inquisitive, and garrulous beyond
belief. They make excellent domestic servants, are cleanly,
and even tedious in the nicety with which they arrange
dishes on a table or clothes on a bed. They have also their
friendships after the manner of woman, embracing one
another, sleeping on the same mat, telling one another their
secrets, betraying them, and getting terribly jealous of one
another (from pecuniary motives) when they happen to serve
the same master.
"They have none of that austerity, that reserve, that
pertinacity, that perseverance, that strong-headed stubborn
determination, or that ferocious courage, which are the
common attributes of our sex. They have, on the other hand,
that delicate tact, that intuition, that nervous
imagination, that quick perception of character, which have
become the proverbial characteristics of cultivated women.
They know how to render themselves impenetrable; and if they
desire to be perfidious, they wear a mask which few eyes can
see through, while at the same time a certain sameness of
purpose models their character in similar moulds. Their
nature is an enigma: but solve it, and you have solved the
race. They are inordinately vain: they buy looking-glasses;
they will pass hours at their toilet, in which their wives
must act as _femmes de chambre_; they will spend all their
money on ornaments and dress, in which they can display a
charming taste. They are fond of music, of dancing, and are
not insensible to the beauties of nature. They are indolent,
and have little ambition except to be admired and well
spoken of. They are so sensitive that a harsh word will
rankle in then hearts, and make them unhappy for a length of
time; and they will strip themselves to pay the _grills_ for
their flattery, and to escape their satire. Though naturally
timid, and loath to shed blood, they witness without horror
the most revolting spectacles which their religion
sanctions; and, though awed by us their superiors, a real
injury will transform their natures, and they will take a
speedy and merciless revenge.
"According to popular belief, the Africans are treacherous
and hostile. The fact is, that all Africans are supposed to
be Negroes, and that which is criminal is ever associated
with that which is hideous. But, with the exception of some
Mohammedan tribes toward the north, one may travel all over
Africa without risking one's life. They may detain you, they
may rob you, if you are rich; they may insult you, and
refuse to let you enter their country, if you are poor: but
your life is always safe till you sacrifice it by some
imprudence.
"In ancient times the blacks were known to be so gentle to
strangers that many believed that the gods spran
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/15735