EXTRACTS

From an Enquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties, and Literature of NEGROES; by H. GREGOIRE.

HANNIBAL.

The Czar, Peter the first, during his travels, had an opportunity of knowing Annibal, the African negro, who had received a good education; and who, under this monarch, became in Russia, lieutenant general and director of artillery. He was decorated with the red ribband of the order of St. Alexander Nenski. Bernardin St. Pierre and colonel La Harpe, knew his son, a mulatto, who had the reputation of talents. In 1784, he was lieutenant general in corps of artillery. It was he, who under the orders of prince Potemkin, minister at war, commenced the establishment of a port and fortress at Cherson, near the mouth of the Dnieper.

----------

AMO.

Antony William Amo, born in Guinea, was brought to Europe when very young, and the princess of Brunswick, Wolfenbuttle, took charge of his education. He embraced the Lutherian religion, pursued his studies at Halle, in Saxony, and at Wintemberg, and so distinguished himself by his good conduct and talents, that the rector and council of the university of the last mentioned town, thought themselves obliged to give a public testimony of these in a letter of felicitation. In this they remark that Terence also was an African; - that many martyrs, doctors, and fathers of the church were born in the same country, where learning once flourished, and which, by losing the christian faith, again fell back into barbarism.
Amo, skilled in the knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, delivered with success, private lectures on philosophy, which are highly praised in the same letter. In a syllabus, published by the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty, it is said of this learned negro, that having examined the system of ancients and moderns, he selected and taught all that was best of them.
Amo became a doctor. In 1774, he supported a Thesis at Wittemberg, and published a dissertation on the absence of sensation in the soul, and their presence in the human body. In a letter which the President addressed to him, he is named vir nobillisme et clarissime. This may be intended as a compliment, but it proves, at least, as well as the preceding, that the university of Wittemberg, concerning the difference of colour in the human species, did not possess those absurd prejudices of so many others who think themselves enlightened. He declares that the dissertion of Amo underwent no change because it was well executed. The work indicates a mind exercised in reflection. The author endeavours to ascertain the difference of phoenomena which take place in beings simply existing, and those endowed with life - a stone exists, but it is without life. It appears that our author had a particular predilection for abstruse discussions; for being appointed professor, he, the same year, supported a Thesis, analagous to the preceding, on the distinction which ought to be made between the operations of mind and those of sense. The titles of these two dissertations prove, that Amo, the author of the first, was also author of the second.

----------

L'ISLET GEOFFROY.

L'Islet Geoffroy, a mulatto, is an officer of artillery, and guardian of the Depot of maps and plans of the Isle of France. The twenty-third of August, 1786, he was named correspondent of the academy of sciences. He is acknowledged as such in the Connoissance des temps for the year 1791, published in 1789, by this learned society, to whom Lislet regularly transmitted meteorological observations and sometimes hydrographical journals. The class of physical and mathematical science of the national institute, thought it their duty to adopt the members of the academy of sciences as correspondents and associates. By what fatility it is that the Lislet forms the sole exception? Is it owing to his colour? Let us branch a suspicion which would be an outrage against my colleagues. Certainly Lislet, during the last twenty years, instead of losing reputation, has acquired new claims on the esteem of the learned.
His map of the Isles of France and Reunion, delineated according to astronomical observations, the geometrical operations of La Caille, and particular plans was published in 1797, year 5, by order of the minister of marine. A new edition corrected from drawings transmitted by the author, was published in 1802, year 10, it is the best map of those Isles that has yet appeared.
In the almanac of the Isle of France, which I have not been able to find at Paris. Lislet has inserted several memoirs, and among others the description of Pitrebot one of the highest mountains of the isle. The fact was communicated to me by Mr. Aubert du Petit Thouars, who resided ten years in this colony.
The Institute, which has become the Legatee, of several academies at Paris, will doubtless publish a precious collection of manuscript memoirs, deposited in the Archives. We find there the relation of a voyage of Lislet to the Bay of St. Luce, an island of Madagascar, it is accompanied with a map of this Bay, and of the Coast. He points out he exchangeable commodities, the resources which it presents, and which would increase, says he, if instead of exciting the natives to war, in order to have slaves, they would encourage industry by the hope of an advantageous commerce. The description he gives of the customs and manners of the Malgaches are very curious. They discover a man versed in botany, natural philosophy, geology and astronomy: - and yet this man never visited the continent to improve his taste and acquire knowledge. He has struggled against the obstacles created by the prejudices of the country. It is reasonable to suppose that he would have performed more if brought, in his youth, to Europe, and breathing the atmosphere of the learned, he had found around him something which would have powerfully stimulated his curiosity and fructified his genius.
Some person belonging to the expedition of Captain Baudin, informed me, that Lislet, having established a scientific society at the Isle of France, some whites refused to be members, merely because its founder was a black. Have they not proven by their conduct that they were unworthy of this honour?

----------

<< JAMES DERHAM>> .

<< James Derham>> , originally a slave at Philadelphia, was transferred by his master, to a physician, who gave him a subaltern employment, as a preparer of drugs. During the American war, he was sold by this physician to a surgeon, and by the surgeon to doctor Robert Dove, of New Orleans. Derham, who had never been baptized, had this ceremony performed, and was received into the English church. Learned in languages, he speaks with facility, English, French, and Spanish. In 1788, at the age of twenty-one years, he became the most distinguished physician at New Orleans. "I conversed with him on medicine," says Dr. Rush, "and found him very learned. I thought I could give him information concerning the treatment of diseases, but I learned more from him than he could expect from me." The Pennsylvania society, established in favour of the blacks, thought it their duty, in 1789, to publish these facts, which are also related by Dickson. In the domestic medicine of Buchan, and in a work named Medecine du voyageur, by Duplaint, we find an account of the cure for the bite of a rattlesnake. I know not whether Derham was the discoverer, but it is a well known fact, that for this we are indebted to a negro, who received his freedom from the generally assembly of Carolina, who also decreed him an annuity of L100 sterling.

----------

THOMAS FULLER.

Thomas Fuller, born in Africa, and residing at the distance of four miles from Alexandria, in Virginia, not knowing how to read or write, excited surprise by the facility with which he performed the most difficult calculations. Of the different methods employed to put his talents to the proof, we select the following: One day he was asked, how many seconds of time have elapsed since the birth of an individual, who had lived seventy years, seven months and as many days? In a minute and a half he answered the question. One of the interrogators takes his pen, and after a long calculation, pretended that Fuller is deceived - that the number he mentioned was too great. No, replied the negro, the error is on your side, for you have forgotten the leap years. His answer is found to be correct. We are indebted for this information to Dr. Rush, a man equally respected in Europe and America. His letter is found in the voyage of Stedman, and in the fifth volume of the American Museum, which appeared several years ago. Thomas Fuller was then seventy years old. Brissot, who had known him in Virginia, gives the same testimony of his talents. There are examples of other negroes, who, by memory performed the most difficult calculations, and for the execution of which the Europeans were obliged to have recourse to the rules of arithmetic.

December 8, 1887
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, PA

CENTENNIAL OF AFRICAN METHODISM.

-----
BY REV. E.A. JACKSON.

-----

In the city of Philadelphia, November, 1787, a body of faithful husbandmen met, cast forth from their hands a seed unnamed and unknown. This seed perchance fell into a loamy and productive soil and lay there until the illumined rays of God's love penetrated through the long years of deferred justice, bid it rise, thereby causing it to germinate and send forth one tiny shoot at first, which the faithful husbandmen named Bethel, and upon the shoot the folia appeared; then the branches. The first branch appearing there upon any very great magnitude the husbandmen called Allen, and from ecclesiastical respect Alien, and from ecclesiastical respect prefixed to that name Bishop, designing him to be a worthy overseer and reaper in the newly fallowed vineyard of God's much despised people. This much venerated and reverenced church-father, as he lifted his eyes, beheld already the fields white for the harvest of his people, was, no doubt, buoyed and urged forward forcibly by Christ's strong admonitions to his disciples: “He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit until life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeath may rejoice together.” And we note with pride that the venerable church father did not leave the field until the reaper and the sower were enable to rejoice together. Ere he had left the field this tiny school, watched over and carefully worked by faithful husbandmen and watered by the divine dews of God's approving love, sent other branches of equal or greater magnitude than the first. This shoot, in the very midst of its adversaries and the greatest thraldom the world has ever beheld, much resembled the banyan tree of India, sending forth shoots from its branches which, reaching the ground, take root and form new stalks till a single tree multiplies almost to a forest.

Then we behold with unveiled faces thirteen different branches that have sprung in the last ten decades from this shoot of one century's growth; who have and are acquitting themselves with the highest honors conferred by one mortal upon another as Bishop or spiritual overseer and adviser of God's people.
We are then encouraged to submit our growth spiritually, educationally and financially to the consideration of a candid world. Permit us to revert your minds back ten decades over the intricate and almost unsurmountable difficulties we have had to encounter. As a connection ten decades ago we consisted of only a few score of souls; but, all praises be to our God, we can, today, after a weary march of one hundred years, boast, if we may, of lay members in full connection, 1,601,072, and probable number, 1,700,000; probationers, 168,462; probable number, 200,000; Sabbath school scholars, 1,691,065; of this number 319,656 are members and probationers, giving a number of children and adults under our care and spiritual influence, 1,371,409, whose voices have been and are resounding from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf to the Lakes in Methodistical praises to our God.

“Hold the fort, for we are coming,
Jesus signals still,
Wave the answer back to heaven,
By thy grace we will.”

The echoes of this million of voices are caught upon the prayers of eve and borne to the South-land and North-land and o'er the briny deep to Afric's golden strand; she is spreading her wings as an eagle and soaring to the loftiest domes, exclaiming, Jehovah God reigneth! Jehovah God resigneth! This proclamation will continue until the remotest nations in final recognition will exclaim in God's name:

“Waft, waft, ye winds her story,
And you, ye waters, roll

Till, like a sea of glory,

It spreads from pole to pole.”

Ye brethren and sisters of the A.M.E. Church, move forward with uplifted heads, for the God of Israel hath, in our march of one hundred years, given us, in fact, or partially so, forty per cent of all the souls of African descent in al this broad land. The above facts state very largely our position as to our being a spiritual fulcra of the Church. We will now unfold the doors of our educational progress of one hundred years' growth and ask you to take a peep. At the same time we ask you to weigh well our surrounding circumstances and the material possessed by us at starting. We will now present to you fourteen of our most prominent institutions of learning: Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, O.; Allen University, Columbia, S.C.; Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas; St. James Academy and Industrial Seminary, New Orleans, La.; Kittrell Industrial School, Vance county, N.C.; Divinity and Industrial School, Jacksonville, Fla.; Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga.; Dickerson Memorial Seminary, Portsmouth, Va.; Turner College, Hernando, Miss.; Western University, Quindaro, Kan.; Normal and Preparatory School, Cartersville, Ga.; Payne High School, Cuthbert, Ga.; Sumpter School, Sumpter, S.C.; Abbeville School, Abbeville, S.C. The above schools have originated by the action of the several conferences and the money for the support of these schools and seminaries of learning has come chiefly through the generous contributions of the members of the A.M.E. Church.
From the dedicated walls of these institutions have gone forth two hundred graduates, besides thousands who have prepared themselves for the immediate work as preachers and teachers. These schools are manned with upward of fifty professors and assistants, with from two to three thousand students preparing for life-work in the various callings as African Methodists.
We note that from the early dawn of African Methodism she has shown herself as a noble army of consecrated devotees who have put into it their life and acquisitions and wrought patiently and prayerfully under God to great ends. We behold African Methodism following the advancing armies into the Southland, from which it had been debarred through that most damnable curse the world has ever beheld, even carrying there God first and schools second. Its early founders, and, in fact, our present fathers, such as Bishop Brown and others, are imbued with the idea that God first and schools second are the golden keys of knowledge that will unlock to the untutored and weak the treasures of gospel truth and the possibilities of intelligence and virtue. No doubt that from the burning plains of the Southland to the chilly plains of the West many a mother has pointed to such scholarly gentlemen of the race as Benjamin Banneker, the astronomer, Thomas Fuller, the deft calculator, << James Derham>> , the skilled physician and Dr. Blyden, the scholar and teacher, with tears in her eyes, one hand resting on the boy's head and the other pointing to these distinguished gentlemen as if saying, “Be like them and you may one day stand where they do.” Was there not in this womanly example the fundamental lesson impressively set forth by our Church that the lowly and lofty are not so far apart in their natures, and that the way upward to a better life is open to every mortal who will be industrious and true to the God-given powers he shares in common with all the human race?
We will enumerate a few of the early organs of our race. Our Discipline, setting forth our position as a Christian body, 1817; a hymn book, heralding forth in song the tidings of salvation, 1829. The Christian Herald put in its appearance 1841. In 1852 the Christian Herald was changed to the CHRISTIAN RECORDER, but its usefulness was proscribed until 1861, when, through the Christian Commission, it did valuable service as a leader and instructor in hospitals and thousands of homes that knew nothing of the outer world. Since that time we have a large circulation of the very best literature, edited by such gentlemen as Drs. J.C. Embry, Tanner, Lee, Smith and others. We therefore submit our position as an educational fulcra of the Church to a candid public. This little school one hundred years ago sprung into life under the most appalling circumstances. Surrounded with poverty, inexperience, and withal friendless, has in its march, in the midst of its adversaries, been like the sun when winter has gone, shedding abroad over the earth its warmth and light, causing the mountains and hills to shout for joy; the valleys and plains, the streams and beautiful flowers all in their own way to tell of the God-given powers in it to attract as a magnet and draw around it friends, credit and institutions of learning until it commands today upwards of $147,734,655. May her friends and foes alike, in strong acclamations cry, “Ye messengers of God, go on, like the beams of the morning fly till earth's remotest nation hath heard a Saviour's voice.”

Topeka, Kansas.

May 18, 1827
FREEDOM'S JOURNAL
New York, New York

From the Abolition Intelligencer.
The surprising influence of prejudice.

That savage nations enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, inured to scenes of rapine and cruelty and murder, should become so lost to all the finer sensibilities of our nature as that "their tender mercies are cruel," is not a matter of very great astonishment. But it is really something more than marvelous that the man whose character has been humanized by civilization, whose mind has been illumined by the rays of science, and whose heart has been renovated by the power of the gospel, should become the advocate of the cruel policy of those dark and ruthless sons of nature.
Should the origin of African slavery be enquired for, it must be sought among the most barbarous nations, and will be found growing out of the most sordid and malignant passions of the human heart; while fraud and violence have in almost every instance, been the means by which our slaves were originally procured. Yet are there multitudes in our own enlightened country, in our boasted land of liberty, who, with the book of God in their hands, and a public profession of allegiance to the compassionate Saviour in their mouths, unblushingly stand forth as the advocates of this cruel system.
How shall we account for such conduct? By supposing that such characters are sturdy hypocrites, who have continued to do violence to their own sense of duty until "their consciences have become seared as with a hot iron?" This may in some instances be the fact; but we are persuaded that in most cases their conduct should be regarded merely as a specimen of the surprising influence of prejudice on the human mind. The prejudice of education, of example, and self interest, all uniting, prepare the mind to receive the most glaring sophistry and to settle down upon its deductions as securely as upon those of the most logical reasoning.
In our last we attended to the argument drawn from the colour of our slaves in support of African slavery. In the present No. we will notice that which is drawn from the assumed fact of the inferiority of the blacks in point of intellect. That the blacks are inferior to the whites in intellectual powers is constantly asserted with the utmost confidence as a fact by the advocates of the system. And from this fact they seem to think the inference fair that they were intended for slaves. But we do not hesitate to declare that the fact is gratuitously assumed, and that the history of mankind not only contradicts but abundantly refutes the assumption.
But before we refer to history we ask how is this inferiority of African intellect to be established" By comparing the slave with his master? Yes, the poor African born in the land of strangers, denied the advantages of education, excluded from all means of mental improvement, bowed down under the burden of a hopeless and perpetual slavery, without any motive to exertion, save the fear of the lash, is brought into contrast with the high minded and aspiring son of fortune, who has been dandled on the lap of affluence, favoured with all the advantages of education, and stimulated with the high hopes of distinguishing his character, immortalizing his name, and ennobling his posterity. Is this fair, is it candid, is it honest? And almost equally unfair would it be to compare the inhabitants of our own country, or of any of the civilized nations of Europe, with the barbarous and uncivilized tribes of Africa; and from the comparison to pronounce an original and permanent inferiority of mind as characterising the African. Let it be remembered that climate and manners and customs and religion and government all have influence in giving character to a nation, and that in all these respects the African labours under an obvious disadvantage. Nevertheless their character is doubtless far superior to what is generally represented by those who feel interested in defaming them.*
Now keeping in mind the many disadvantages under which for so many ages they have laboured both at home and abroad, let us turn our attention to the character of a few individuals whom history represents as having, by the energies of their own native geniuses, arisen to a degree of eminence, which not only rescues their race from the charge of original inferiority of mind, but also sheds a brilliancy and dignity over their own characters.
Hannibal, an African who had received a good education, rose to the rank of lieutenant-general and director of artillery under the Peter the great of Russia, in the beginning of the last century.
The son of Hannibal, above mentioned, a mulatto, was lieutenant-general in the Russian corps of artillery. Greg. p. 173.
Francis Williams, a black, was born in Jamaica about the close of the 17th century. - He was sent to England and there entered the University of Cambridge. After his return to Jamaica he opened a school and taught Latin and the mathematics. He wrote many pieces in Latin verse in which he discovered considerable talents. Greg. 207 - 219.
Antony Williams Amo was born in Guinea, and brought to Europe when very young. - Under the patronage of the princess of Brunswick, he pursued his studies at Halle in Saxony, and at Wittemburg, where he greatly distinguished himself by his talents and good conduct. In 1734 he "took the degree of doctor in philosophy at the university of Wittemberg." "Skilled in the knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages," and "having examined the system of ancients and moderns," he delivered "private lectures on philosophy" with great acceptance. "In 1744 he supported a thesis at Wittemberg, and published a dissertation, on the absence of sensation in the soul, and its presence in the human body." He was "appointed professor," and the same year supported a thesis, "on the distinction which ought to be made between the operations of mind and those of sense." Gregorie highly commends these "two dissertations," as evincive of a mind "exercised in reflection" and addicted to "abstruse discussions." In the opinion of Blumenbach they "exhibit much well digested knowledge of the best physiological works of the time." In a memoir of Amo, "published at the time by the academic council, his integrity, talents, industry, and erudition, are very highly commended." Gregoire was unable to discover what became of him afterwards. Greg. p. 173-176. Rees under man.
Job. Ben Solomon, son of the Mahometan king of Banda, on the Gambia, was taken in 1730 and sold in Maryland. He afterwards found his way to England, where his talents, dignified air, and amenity of character procured him friends, among the rest Sir Hans Sloane, for whom he translated several Arabic manuscripts. After being received with distinction at the Court of St. James, he was sent back to Bunda. The letters which he afterwards wrote to his friends in England, and America were published and perused with interest. This man is said to have been able to repeat the koran from memory. Greg. p. 160 - 161.
James Eliza John Capitein was born in Africa. At the age of eight he was purchased on the river St. Andre by a slave dealer, who made a present of him to one of his friends. By the latter he was carried to Holland, where he employed himself in painting, and acquired the elements of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaic languages. He afterwards went to the University of Leyden, where he devoted himself to the study of theology. "Having studied four years he took his degrees, and in 1742 was sent as a Calvanistic minister to Guinea." What became of him was never known. While in Holland he published an elegy in Latin verses, two Latin dissertations, (one on the calling of the Gentiles, and the other on slavery,) and a small volume of sermons. Greg. p. 196 - 207.
Ignatius Sancho was born on board a slave ship on her passage to Carthagena in South America. Before he was two years old he was carried to England, where in the course of his life he distinguished himself as a literary character. He died in England in 1780. After his death an edition of his letters was published in two octavo volumes, which were well received by the public. - Greg. p. 227 - 234. Rees under man.
Thomas Fuller, a native of Africa, and a resident near Alexandria in the district of Columbia, though unable to read or write, excited surprise by the facility with which he performed the most difficult calculations. - Being asked one day how many seconds a person had lived who was seventy years, seven months and seven days old, he answered in a minute and a half. On reckoning it up after him a different result was obtained. - "Have you not forgotten the leap years?" says the black. This omission was supplied, and the number then agreed with his answer. When this account was given by the late Dr. Rush, Fuller was seventy years old. Greg. p. 183 - 185. Rees under man.
Belinda was brought from Africa at the age of twelve, and sold in Massachusetts. - After being a slave to one man forty years, she addressed to the legislature of that state, in 1782, an eloquent petition for the freedom of herself and daughter, which has been preserved in one of the volumes of the American Museum. Greg. p. 167 - 168.
An African by the name of Maddocks, was a Methodist preacher in England. Rees under men.
Othello published at Baltimore in 1789, an essay against the slavery of negroes. "Few works can be compared with this for force of reasoning and fire of eloquence. Greg. p. 185 - 187.
Caesar, a black of North Carolina, was the "author of different pieces of printed poetry which have become popular." Greg. p. 168.
Ottobah Cugoano was born on the coast of Fantin in Africa. He was dragged from his country and carried to the island of Grenada. Having obtained his freedom he went to England, where he was in 1788. - Hiatoli, a distinguished Italian, was for a long time acquainted with him in London, "and speaks in strong terms of his piety, his mild character and modesty, his integrity and talents." Cugoano published a work on the slave trade and the slavery of negroes, which discovered a sound and vigorous mind, and which has been translated into French. Greg. p. 288 - 299.
Gustavus Vasa, whose African name was Olando Equiano, was born in the kingdom of Benin in 1746. At the age of twelve he was torn from his country and carried to Barbadoes. After passing into various hands and making several voyages to Europe, he at length obtained his freedom, and in 1781 established himself in London. There he "published his Memoirs, which have been several times reprinted in both hemispheres" and read with great interest. "Vasa published a poem containing 1122 verses;" and in 1789 he presented to the British parliament a petition for the suppression of the slave trade. His life and works are familiarly known in England. Greg. p. 219 - 227. Rees under man.
Phillis Wheatly, born in Africa in 1753, was torn from her country at the age of seven, and sold in 1761 to John Wheatly of Boston.
Allowed to employ herself in study, she "rapidly attained a knowledge of the Latin language." In 1762, at the age of nineteen and still a slave," she published a little volume "of religious and moral poetry, which contains 39 pieces," and has run through several editions in England and the United States." She obtained her freedom in 1775, and died in 1780. Greg. p. 234, 241.
Benjamin Banaker, a black, of Maryland, applied himself to astronomy with so much success, that he published almanacks in Philadelphia for the years 1794 and 1795. - Greg. p. 185, 188.
The son of Nimbana, of Niambanna, "king of the region of Sierra Leone," who "ceded a portion of his territory for the use of the colony," (New York Spectator, No. 2019,) "came to England to study." "He rapidly acquired different sciences, and in a short time was so well acquainted with the Hebrew as to be able to read the Bible in the original. This young man who gave such promising hopes, died a short time after his return to Africa. Greg. p. 161, 162.
<< James Derham>> , born 1767, was formerly a slave in Philadelphia. "In 1738, at the age of twenty-one, he became the most distinguished physician at New Orleans." "I conversed with him on medicine," says Dr. Rush, "and found him very learned. I thought I could give him information concerning the treatment of diseases, but I learned more from him than he could expect from me." Greg. p. 182, 183.
Toussaint Louverture, general of St. Domingo, was once a slave. He was a man of "prodigious memory," brave, active, indefatigable, and really great. Greg. p. 102, 105.
Christophe, the late king of Hayti, arose from slavery to a throne, and has displayed great energy of character.

*The African," says Sir James Yeo, who has for a considerable time been stationed upon the coast of Africa, "is very superior in intellect and capacity to the generality of Indians in North America. They are more sociable and friendly to strangers, and except in the vicinity of European settlements, are a fine and noble race of men." (Sir James Lucas Yeo's letter to John Wilson Croker, Esq. published in the New York Spectator for Nov. 7th, 1817.)