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University of California Berkeley 
CLASS OF 1887 
































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HISTORY 



OF 



THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA 

1619 TO I8OO 



HISTORY 



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. 



POPULAR EDITION TWO VOLUMES IN ONE 



NEW YORK & LONDON 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

8% Jtmtkrtottar $)nss 

1885 



COPYRIGHT, 
BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

1882. 



Press of 
<G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



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. 

Co t&e JUttfitrtotifi; Kepresentattoe of tfje C|)ttrt& of C&rtet: 

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 EVER 
MORE THE ENEMY OF ANY DISTINCTION BASED 
UPON RACE, COLOR, OR PREVIOUS CON 
DITION OF SERVITUDE. 

Co tie )tfi!tinffttifli|)et[ g>tatefiman: 

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 GOV 
ERNOR 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. 



VI PREFACE. 

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 pre 
cluded an earlier completion of this task ; and, finding it absolutely im 
possible 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 foot 
notes, and thousands of pamphlets. 

After wide and careful reading, extending through three years, I con 
ceived 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 never 
theless 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 



PREFACE. vi* 

and missions, now that he can contribute something towards the improve 
ment 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 suc 
cinct account of the establishment and growth of slavery under the Eng 
lish 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 superfi 
ciality. If, however, I may be charged with seeking to escape the labor 
incident to thorough digestion, I answer, that, while men with the reputa 
tion 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 j 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 Constitu 
tion, having pledged the Constitution to the protection of slave property, 



viii PREFACE. 

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 coun 
try 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 Regi 
ment of infantry. The Twenty -fifth Regiment of infantry is at Fort Ran 
dall, 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. 



PREFACE. IX 

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," with 
out 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 mate 
rial 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 accom 
plished 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 Town- 
send, 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 denomi 
nation. And to all persons who have sent me newspapers and pamphlets 



X PREFACE. 

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 writ 
ten, 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. 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 

PAGE 

The Biblical Argument. One Race and One Language. One Blood. The Curse of 
Canaan I 

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 Peo 
ple. Capacity of the People for Civilization. Bishop Crowther. His Influence . 26 

xi 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE ASHANTEE EMPIRE. 

PAGE 

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. In 
vasion 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 



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. Me 
chanic 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 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER XI. 
RESUME'. 

PAGE 

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 
S elf-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 H. 

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 ? Litiga 
tion 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 Prohibi 
tions against Negroes. Personal Rights. Criminal Laws against Slaves. Emanci 
pation. 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 Repre 
sentatives 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 Caesar and Prince. Quack and Cuffee bur-ned at the Stake. The 
Lieutenant-Governor's Proclamation. Many White Persons accused of being Conspira 
tors. Description of Hughson's Manner of swearing those having Knowledge of the 
Plot. Conviction and Hanging of the Catholic Priest Ury. The Sudden and Unex 
pected Termination of the Trial. New Laws more stringent toward Slaves adopted . 134 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

1633-1775- 
PAGE 

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 Posi 
tion 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." Let 
ter 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 1756. 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 2 49 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT 

1646-1775. 

PAGE 

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 i7ii,reruiring 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 253 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND. 

I647-I77S- 

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 Passen 
gers, 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 
I7> I 7S7- 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 respect 
ing 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 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE COLONY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
1665-1775. 

PACK* 

The Carolinas receive two Different Charters from the Crown of Great Britain. Era of 
Slavery Legislation. Law establishing Slavery. The Slave Population of this Prov 
ince regarded as Chattel Property. Trial of Slaves. Increase of Slave Population. 
The Increase in the Rice- Trade. Severe Laws regulating the Private and Public Con 
duct of Slaves. Punishment of Slaves for running away. The Life of Slaves re 
garded 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 authoriz 
ing 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 .... 303 

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 Settle 
ments 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 3 ia 



CONTENTS. xvu 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE COLONY OF GEORGIA. 

I732-I775- 

PAGE 

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 Trus 
tees. The Opinion of Gen. Oglethorpe concerning Slavery. Long and Bitter Discus 
sion in Regard to the Admission of Slavery into the Colony. Slavery introduced. 
History of Slavery in Georgia 316 



Part Eft 

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, concern 
ing 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 Gov 
ernor 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 Representa 
tives, 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 



xvin CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

NEGROES AS SOLDIERS. 

1775-1783. 

PAGE 

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 Regi 
ment. Murder of Col. Greene in 1781. The Valor of the Negro Soldiers . . . 363 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
LEGAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 



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 pre 
vent 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 Cas 
tle Island. Col. Paul Revere has Charge of the Slaves on Castle Island. Massachu 
setts 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 Britan 
nic Majesty and the United States, Negroes were designated as Property. Gen. Wash 
ington's Letter to Brig.-Gen. Rufus Putnam in regard to a Negro in his Regimen 
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 1 789. 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 



CONTENTS. xix 

PAGE 

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 Medi 
cine 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. 



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. Advertise 
ment from "The Independent Chronicle." Petition of Massachusetts Slaves. An 
Act preventing the Practice of holding Persons fti 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. Slave 
ry recognized under the New Government. Anti-Slavery Agitation in the States. 
Attempted Legislation against Slavery. Articles of Confederation. Their Adoption 
in 1778. Discussion concerning the Disposal of the Western Territory. Mr. Jeffer 
son'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 Introduc 
tion 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. Ben 
jamin Franklin's Address to the Public for promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Memo 
rial 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 Ser 
vice." 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. 



PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 

THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT. ONE RACE AND ONE LANGUAGE. ONE BLOOD. THB 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, for 
tunately 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 ; " r 
that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 



2 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a 
living soul ;" l and that "the Lord God took the man, and put him 
into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." 2 It is notice 
able 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." 3 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 expul 
sion 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.4 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 

x 
1 Gen. ii. 7. 2 Gen. ii. 15. 3 Gen. i. 28. 4 Gen. vi. 5 sq. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 3; 

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 theii 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 ta 
disperse them, to confound their speech, and bring to nought 
their haughty work. Evidently this was the beginning of differ 
ent 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 im 
portant facts : their language was confused, and they were "scat 
tered." They were not only "scattered," they were "scattered 
abroad upon the face of all the earth." That is, they were dis 
persed 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 She- 
mitic, 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 consid 
erations. Enough has been said "to show that there is a curious, if not a 
remarkable, analogy between the predictions of Noah on the future descend 
ants 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 corre? 



4 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

sponds 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 sec 
tions, 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." J 

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." 2 The Apostle Paul was a mis 
sionary. 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 at 
tractions ; 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 off 
spring 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 bounda 
ries, had fixed the limits of their habitation. 

We find two leading thoughts in the twenty-sixth verse ; viz., 

1 Encycl. of Geo., p. 255. 

2 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. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 5 

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. 1 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 dis 
cussion 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. 2 His Epistle to the Romans abounds in passages which 
prove very plainly the unity of mankind. The Acts of the Apos 
tles, 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 state 
ment : " 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." 3 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.4 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 

1 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." 

3 Rom. v. 12, 14-21. 

3 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 as they came out, they found a 
jman of Cyrene, Simon by name : him they compelled to bear his cross." 

4 See Melville's Sermons. 



6 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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." l 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 peo 
ple. Candace was the queen that made war against Augustus 
Caesar twenty years before Christ, and, though not victorious, 
secured an honorable peace. 2 She reigned in Upper Egypt, up 
the Nile, and lived at Meroe, that ancient city, the very cradle 
of Egyptian civilization. 3 

" In the time of our Saviour (and indeed from that time forward), by Ethi 
opia 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 XavdaKrj), 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." 4 

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," 

1 Acts viii. 27. 

2 Pliny says the Ethiopian government subsisted for several generations in the hands of 
queens whose name was Candace. 

3 See Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon. 

4 Jones's Biblical Cyclopaedia, p. 311. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 7 

the country of the blacks. 1 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 Herod 
otus, 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." 2 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." 3 

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 avoca 
tion as a preacher. He became a husbandman ; he kept a vine 
yard ; and, more than all, he drank of the wine and got drunk ! 

1 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. 

2 Gen. ix. 24, 25. See also the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses. 

3 Bible Views of Slavery, p. 7. 



8 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 shoul 
ders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their 
father ; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their 
father's nakedness." * It is quite natural to suppose, that, humil 
iated and chagrined at his sinful conduct, and angered at the 
behavior of his son and grandson, Ham and Canaan, Noah ex 
pressed 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 bond 
age, free! If this prophecy granting this point to the learned 
bishop for argument's sake has not been fulfilled, then we con 
clude 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 Car 
thaginians, as is admitted by the majority of writers on this 
subject. From Ham proceeded the Egyptians, Libyans, the Phu- 

1 Gen. ix. 23. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 9 

tim, and the Cushim or Ethiopians, who, colonizing the African 
side of the Red Sea, subsequently extended themselves indefi 
nitely 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. 1 The Carthaginians were successful in numerous wars 
against the sturdy Romans. So in this, as in many other in 
stances, 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 
Luclim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Cas- 
luhim (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 Gomor 
rah, 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." 2 ^ 

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 achieve- 

1 Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride. See also Dr. Morton, and Ethnological Journal, 4th No- 
p. 172. 

2 Gen. x. 6-20. 



10 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

inents 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. Mel- 
chizedek, whose name was expressive of his character, king of 
rigJiteousness (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." x Melchize- 
dek and Abimelech were Canaanites, and the most sacred and 
honorable characters in Old-Testament history. It was Abra 
ham, 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 Shem 
ites. 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." 2 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 humilia 
ted parent lacking divine authority. No doubt he and his other 

Dr. Bush. 2 Gen. ix. i. 



THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 1 1 

two sons conformed their conduct to the spirit of the curse pro 
nounced, and treated the Hamites accordingly. The scholarly 
Dr. William Jones r 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. 2 The Hamites 
were the offspring of Noah, and one of the three great families 
that have peopled the earth.3 

1 Jones's Biblical Cyclopaedia, p. 393. Ps. Ixxviii. 51. 

2 Ps. cv. 23. 

3 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. 



12 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 



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;" 1 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. 2 Zonaras says, 
" Chus is the person from whom the Cuseans are derived. They 
are the same people as the Ethiopians." This view is corrobo 
rated by Josephus,3 Apuleius, and Eusebius. The Hebrew term 
"Gush "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 

1 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." 
2 Prichard, vol. ii. p. 44. 3 Josephus, Antiq., lib. i, chap. 6. 



THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY. 13 

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." J 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 9 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 ' Gush- 
ite,' 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 min 
gled people' (Ezek. xxx. 5) ; 'that is to say,' says Faber, 'it was 
a nation of Negroes who are represented as very numerous, 
#// the mingled people.' " 2 

The term " Ethiopia " was anciently given to all those whose 
color was darkened by the sun. Herodotus, therefore, distin 
guishes the Eastern Ethiopians who had straight hair, from the 
Western Ethiopians who had curly or woolly hair.3 "They are a 
twofold people, lying extended in a long tract from the rising to 
the setting sun." 4 

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 



1 Poole. 2 Smyth's Unity Human Races, chap, n, p. 41. 

3 Herodotus, vii., 69, 70. Ancient Univ. Hist., vol. xviii. pp. 254, 255. * Strabo, vol. i. p. 60. 



14 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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. 1 

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 con 
tinued down to the present time. The scholarly Gliddon says, 
that " the hieroglyphical designation of ' KeSH,' exclusively ap 
plied 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 

1 It is not wise, to say the least, for intelligent Negroes in America to seek to drop the word 
11 Negro." It is a good, strong, and healthy word, and ought to live. It should be covered with 
glory : let Negroes do it. 



THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY. 15 

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." J 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. Negrqes 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 gal 
lant soldiers at Moncha and in South Arabia. 2 And Herodotus 
assures us that Negroes were found in the armies of Sesostris 
and Xerxes ; and, at the present time, they are no inconsider 
able part of the standing army of Egypt.3 Herodotus states 
that eighteen of the Egyptian kings were Ethiopians.4 

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 ^he following : 

"Every rational mind must, therefore, readily conclude that the African 
race has been in existence, as a distinct people, over four thousand two hun 
dred 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." s 

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 testimo 
nies 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 contem 
porary with the earliest Egyptians." 6 

In 1829 there was a remarkable Theban tomb opened by Mr. 
Wilkinson, and in 1840 it was carefully examined by Harris and 

1 Journal of Ethnology, No. 7, p. 310. 2 Pickering's Races of Men, pp. 185-89. 

3 Burckhardt's Travels, p. 341. 4 Euterpe, lib. 6. 

* Jeffries's Nat. Hist, of Human Race, p. 315. b Types of Mankind, p. 259. 



16 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 offer 
ings in this tomb of a 'royal son of KeS^ Amunoph,' who may have been 
her husband." 

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 hus 
band ! 

There is little room here to question the political and social 
conditions of the Negroes. 2 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 ser 
vants ; they attended on the guests when invited to the house of their mas- 

1 Types of Mankind, p. 262. 

2 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. 



THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY. 17 

ter ; 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 sub 
sequent 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 pur 
chased 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 represen 
tations 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. 1 Osiris, one of the 
principal deities of the Egyptians, is frequently represented as 
black. 2 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 sitting figure.3 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.4 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.' " s 

1 See Ambassades Memorables de la Companie des Indes orientales des Provinces Unies vers 
les Empereurs du Japan, Amst., 1680 ; and Kaempfer. 

2 Wilkinson's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 340. 

3 Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 91. Dr. William Jones, vol. iii., p. 377. 

4 Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. pp. 436-448. 

5 Heber's Narrative, vol. i. p. 254. 



1 8 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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." " 

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 ex 
cavations 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 in 
dubitable facts may induce no ill-grounded opinion, that Ethiopia and Hindus 
tan were peopled or colonized by the same extraordinary race ; in confirmation 
of which it maybe 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." 2 

There is little room for speculation here to the candid searcher 
after truth. The evidence accumulates as we pursue our investiga 
tions. 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 conclu 
sion, 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." 3 

Taking the whole southern portion of Asia westward to Ara 
bia, this conjecture which likewise was a conclusion drawn, 

1 Nat. Hist, of the Human Species, pp. 209, 214, 217. ' 

2 Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 427. Also Sir William Jones, vol. iii. 3d disc. 

3 Nat. Hist. Human Species, p. 126. 



THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY. 19 

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. 1 

But it is unnecessary to multiply evidence in proof of the 
antiquity of the Negro. His presence in this world was coetane- 
ous 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 pro 
nounced against Canaan. These two explanations were comfort 
ing 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 shoul 
ders ; but they themselves will not move them with one of their 
fingers." 2 But science has, of later years, attempted a solution of 
this problem. Peter Barrere, 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.3 This theory, however, has drawn the 
fire of a number of European scholars, who have combated it withi 
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 as 
sumed 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 

1 Prichard, pp. 188-219. 2 Matt, xxiii. 4. 

3 Discours sur la cause physicale de la couleur des negres. 



20 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 perfec 
tion, from the equatorial to the polar regions, in proportion to the tempera 
tures, 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 gradu 
ally 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." l 

The learned professor seeks to carry out his famous geographi 
cal 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 his 
tory 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 

1 Earth and Man. Lecture x. pp. 254, 255. 



THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY. 21 

region, the pictures of the blessed Virgin and other saints are painted of the 
same color." 1 

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 sub 
stance various in consistence, and scarcely perceptible : here is 
the home and seat of color ; and these may be regarded as secre 
tions 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 appear 
ances : and it is described sometimes as a sort of organized net 
work or reticular tissue ; at others, as a mere mucous or slimy 
layer ; and it is odd that these somewhat incompatible ideas are 
l>oth conveyed by the term reticulum mucosum given to the inter 
mediate 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 cudm, 
"to burn," and coy, "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 adaptibility 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." 

1 Blumenbach, p. 107. 



22 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 



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 char 
acter 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 gor 
geous 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 cease 
less 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 hiero 
glyphic, flowed adown the Nile, and, like spray, spread over the 
delta of that time-honored stream, on by the beautiful and vener 
able city of Thebes, the city of a hundred gates, another monu 
ment 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 cen 
turies 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.) 



PRIMITIVE NEGRO CIVILIZATION. 23 

" 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 make 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 Arme 
nia 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 irri 
gation, 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, cir 
cumscribed by nature within natural limits. Each has its religion, its social 
principles, its civilization severally. But nature, as we have seen, has sep 
arated 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." 

1 Earth and Man, pp. 300-302. 



24 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 ! l 

Centuries have flown apace, tribes have perished, cities have 
risen and fallen, and even empires, whose boast was their dura 
tion, 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 un 
folded. 

But, again, what was the cause of the Negro's fall from his 
high state of civilization ? It was forgetfulness of God, idolatry F 
" 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 sur 
roundings, 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 

1 It is a remarkable fact, that the absence of salt in the food of the Eastern nations, espe 
cially 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. 



PRIMITIVE NEGRO CIVILIZATION. 25 

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 improve 
ments 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 unprogres- 
sive 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 under 
stood ; 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." 

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 con 
sidered 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 uncertain 
ties of war, found their way to the horrors of the middle passage, 
and finally to the rice and cotton fields of the Carolinas and Vir 
ginias. So, in speaking of the race in this country, in subsequent 
chapters, I shall refer to them as colored people or Negroes. 

1 Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46. 



26 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 



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. CAP 
TURE 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. 

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 ambas 
sador 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 



NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA. 27 

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 sav 
age 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. Gat on grew. The mis 
sionary 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 light 
ning. They lost their influence over the people. They estab 
lished 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 mis 
sionaries. 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 inno 
cent 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. 



28 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 inhab 
itants, 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 am 
bitious, 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 consider 
ation, 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 



NEGRO. KINGDOMS OF AFRICA. 29 

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 sacri 
fices, to pour the blood of the victims on the graves of their ances 
tors yearly, and to secure human skulls to pave the court of the 
king and to ornament the walls about the palace ! After a suc 
cessful war, the captives are brought to the capital of the king 
dom. 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 cow 
ries 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. 1 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 



1 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.. 



30 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

would appear that he is attempting to rival the king. The robust 
women are consigned to the military service. But the real con 
dition 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 hun 
dreds 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 bor 
rowed 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 con 
venes, tries and condemns the criminal. If it be a death sen 
tence, he is delivered to a man called the Milgan, or equivalent 
to our sheriff, who is the ranking officer in the state. If the crim 
inal 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 supersti 
tion. 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 con 
sciousness 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 



NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA. 31 

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 ? " * 

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 encour 
aging tokens of success. . . . The king, it is thought, is more favorable to 
Christian missions now than he formerly was." 2 

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 sea 
port 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 lucra 
tive 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-hunt 
ers. Their common danger gave them a commonality of inter 
ests. 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 

1 Savage Africa, p. 51. 2 Western Africa, p. 207. 



32 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

hundred thousand (100,000) ; and Abeokuta, named for their cave, 
contains at present nearly three hundred thousand souls. 

In 1839 som e 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 educa 
tion. Their visit, therefore, was attended with no ordinary inter 
est. 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 sea- 
coast, and then moved overland to Abeokuta, where they intended 
to make their home. In this company of noble men were mer 
chants, mechanics, physicians, school-teachers, and clergymen. 
Their people had fought for deliverance from physical bondage : 
these brave missionaries had come to deliver them from intel 
lectual 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 skil 
ful 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 Crow- 
ther, in English, was a native of this country. In 1822 he was 



NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA. 33 

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 remarka 
ble, 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 satis 
faction 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, benevo 
lent face, a rich cadence in his voice, the "black Bishop" 
Crowther is a princely looking man, who would attract the atten 
tion 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 
darkness of that land of night. 



34 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 



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 KlNG OF DAHOMEY. INVA 
SION OF THE ASHANTEE COUNTRY BY THE KING OF DAHOMEY. His DEFEAT SHARED BY HIS 
ALLIES. AKVVASI PURSUES THE ARMY OF DAHOMEY INTO ITS OWN COUNTRY. GETS A MOR 
TAL WOUND AND SUFFERS A HUMILIATING DEFEAT. THE KlNG 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 con 
quest 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 Moham 
medan 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 Aximi 
unwittingly united his forces to those of the discomforted Den 
kera, 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 



THE ASH ANTE E EMPIRE. 35 

enraged the Ashantees, and they reeked vengeance on the heads 
of the inhabitants of Kromanti, who laid the disastrous ambus 
cade. 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 states 
man, 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 fugi 
tive. The whole country was astounded by the marvellous achieve 
ments 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, over 
joyed 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 



36 HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 

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 recal 
citrant 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, con 
gratulating 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 
tould no longer give his personal attention to public affairs, dis 
sensions 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 Kumasi 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 king 
dom. 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