diff options
Diffstat (limited to '15359-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 15359-h/15359-h.htm | 7128 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15359-h/images/i163.png | bin | 0 -> 159351 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15359-h/images/i164.png | bin | 0 -> 76976 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15359-h/images/i165.png | bin | 0 -> 155014 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15359-h/images/i166.png | bin | 0 -> 49195 bytes |
5 files changed, 7128 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/15359-h/15359-h.htm b/15359-h/15359-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b78d5d --- /dev/null +++ b/15359-h/15359-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7128 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Negro, by W.E.B. Du Bois. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 1em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro, by W.E.B. Du Bois + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Negro + +Author: W.E.B. Du Bois + +Release Date: March 14, 2005 [EBook #15359] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>THE NEGRO</h1> + +<h2>W.E.B. Du Bois</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>New York: Holt, 1915</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>[Transcriber's Notes for e-book versions:</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Hyphenation and accentuation are inconsistent, but are generally left as +found in the edition used for transcription. This edition may or may not +have completely replicated the 1915 edition of the book. Where changes +have been made, they are noted below. If you are using this book for +research, please verify any spelling or punctuation with another source.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>A missing quotation mark was inserted at the beginning of this +paragraph: "It is difficult to imagine that Egypt should have obtained it +from Europe where the oldest find (in Hallstadt) cannot be of an earlier +period than 800 B.C., or from Asia, where iron is not known before 1000 +B.C., and where, in the times of Ashur Nazir Pal, it was still used +concurrently with bronze, while iron beads have been only recently +discovered by Messrs. G.A. Wainwright and Bushe Fox in a predynastic +grave, and where a piece of this metal, possibly a tool, was found in the +masonry of the great pyramid."]</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="center"> + <a href="#I_AFRICA"><b>I<br />AFRICA</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#II_THE_COMING_OF_BLACK_MEN"><b>II<br />THE COMING OF BLACK MEN</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#III_ETHIOPIA_AND_EGYPT"><b>III<br />ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#IV_THE_NIGER_AND_ISLAM"><b>IV<br />THE NIGER AND ISLAM</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#V_GUINEA_AND_CONGO"><b>V<br />GUINEA AND CONGO</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#VI_THE_GREAT_LAKES_AND_ZYMBABWE"><b>VI<br />THE GREAT LAKES AND ZYMBABWE</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#VII_THE_WAR_OF_RACES_AT_LANDS_END"><b>VII<br />THE WAR OF RACES AT LAND'S END</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#VIII_AFRICAN_CULTURE"><b>VIII<br />AFRICAN CULTURE</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#IX_THE_TRADE_IN_MEN"><b>IX<br />THE TRADE IN MEN</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#X_THE_WEST_INDIES_AND_LATIN_AMERICA"><b>X<br />THE WEST INDIES AND LATIN AMERICA</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#XI_THE_NEGRO_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES"><b>XI<br />THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#XII_THE_NEGRO_PROBLEMS"><b>XII<br />THE NEGRO PROBLEMS</b></a><br /><br /> + <a href="#SUGGESTIONS_FOR_FURTHER_READING"><b>SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING</b></a><br /> + <br /> + <br /> + </p> + + + + + +<h2>MAPS</h2> + +<p class="center"> +<br /> +<a href="#i163">The Physical Geography of Africa</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#i164">Ancient Kingdoms of Africa</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#i165">Races in Africa</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#i166">Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern</a><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE NEGRO</h2> + + + + +<p class="center">TO +A FAITHFUL HELPER +M.G.A. +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>The time has not yet come for a complete history of the Negro +peoples. Archæological research in Africa has just begun, and many +sources of information in Arabian, Portuguese, and other tongues are +not fully at our command; and, too, it must frankly be confessed, +racial prejudice against darker peoples is still too strong in so-called +civilized centers for judicial appraisement of the peoples of Africa. +Much intensive monographic work in history and science is needed +to clear mooted points and quiet the controversialist who mistakes +present personal desire for scientific proof.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I have not been able to withstand the temptation to +essay such short general statement of the main known facts and their +fair interpretation as shall enable the general reader to know as men +a sixth or more of the human race. Manifestly so short a story must +be mainly conclusions and generalizations with but meager indication +of authorities and underlying arguments. Possibly, if the Public +will, a later and larger book may be more satisfactory on these points.</p> + +<p>W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS.</p> + +<p>New York City, Feb. 1, 1915.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i163" id="i163"></a> +<img src="images/i163.png" +alt="The Physical Geography of Africa" +title="The Physical Geography of Africa" /><br /><br /> +<span class="caption">The Physical Geography of Africa</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I_AFRICA" id="I_AFRICA" />I<br /> <br />AFRICA</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"Behold!<br /></span> +<span>The Sphinx is Africa. The bond<br /></span> +<span>Of Silence is upon her. Old<br /></span> +<span>And white with tombs, and rent and shorn;<br /></span> +<span>With raiment wet with tears and torn,<br /></span> +<span>And trampled on, yet all untamed."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>MILLER<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. +Its very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influence. +It is the "Ethiopia" of the Greek, the "Kush" and "Punt" of the +Egyptian, and the Arabian "Land of the Blacks." To modern Europe +it is the "Dark Continent" and "Land of Contrasts"; in literature it +is the seat of the Sphinx and the lotus eaters, the home of the +dwarfs, gnomes, and pixies, and the refuge of the gods; in commerce +it is the slave mart and the source of ivory, ebony, rubber, gold, and +diamonds. What other continent can rival in interest this Ancient +of Days?</p> + +<p>There are those, nevertheless, who would write universal history +and leave out Africa. But how, asks Ratzel, can one leave out the +land of Egypt and Carthage? and Frobenius declares that in future +Africa must more and more be regarded as an integral part of the +great movement of world history. Yet it is true that the history of +Africa is unusual, and its strangeness is due in no small degree to +the physical peculiarities of the continent. With three times the area +of Europe it has a coast line a fifth shorter. Like Europe it is a +peninsula of Asia, curving southwestward around the Indian Sea. +It has few gulfs, bays, capes, or islands. Even the rivers, though +large and long, are not means of communication with the outer +world, because from the central high plateau they plunge in rapids +and cataracts to the narrow coastlands and the sea.</p> + +<p>The general physical contour of Africa has been likened to an +inverted plate with one or more rows of mountains at the edge and +a low coastal belt. In the south the central plateau is three thousand +or more feet above the sea, while in the north it is a little over one +thousand feet. Thus two main divisions of the continent are easily +distinguished: the broad northern rectangle, reaching down as far +as the Gulf of Guinea and Cape Guardafui, with seven million +square miles; and the peninsula which tapers toward the south, with +five million square miles.</p> + +<p>Four great rivers and many lesser streams water the continent. +The greatest is the Congo in the center, with its vast curving and +endless estuaries; then the Nile, draining the cluster of the Great +Lakes and flowing northward "like some grave, mighty thought, +threading a dream"; the Niger in the northwest, watering the Sudan +below the Sahara; and, finally, the Zambesi, with its greater Niagara +in the southeast. Even these waters leave room for deserts both south +and north, but the greater ones are the three million square miles +of sand wastes in the north.</p> + +<p>More than any other land, Africa lies in the tropics, with a warm, +dry climate, save in the central Congo region, where rain at all seasons +brings tropical luxuriance. The flora is rich but not wide in +variety, including the gum acacia, ebony, several dye woods, the kola +nut, and probably tobacco and millet. To these many plants have +been added in historic times. The fauna is rich in mammals, and +here, too, many from other continents have been widely introduced +and used.</p> + +<p>Primarily Africa is the Land of the Blacks. The world has always +been familiar with black men, who represent one of the most ancient +of human stocks. Of the ancient world gathered about the Mediterranean, +they formed a part and were viewed with no surprise or dislike, +because this world saw them come and go and play their part +with other men. Was Clitus the brother-in-law of Alexander the +Great less to be honored because he happened to be black? Was +Terence less famous? The medieval European world, developing +under the favorable physical conditions of the north temperate zone, +knew the black man chiefly as a legend or occasional curiosity, but +still as a fellow man—an Othello or a Prester John or an Antar.</p> + +<p>The modern world, in contrast, knows the Negro chiefly as a bond +slave in the West Indies and America. Add to this the fact that the +darker races in other parts of the world have, in the last four centuries, +lagged behind the flying and even feverish footsteps of +Europe, and we face to-day a widespread assumption throughout the +dominant world that color is a mark of inferiority.</p> + +<p>The result is that in writing of this, one of the most ancient, persistent, +and widespread stocks of mankind, one faces astounding +prejudice. That which may be assumed as true of white men must be +proven beyond peradventure if it relates to Negroes. One who writes +of the development of the Negro race must continually insist that he +is writing of a normal human stock, and that whatever it is fair to +predicate of the mass of human beings may be predicated of the +Negro. It is the silent refusal to do this which has led to so much +false writing on Africa and of its inhabitants. Take, for instance, the +answer to the apparently simple question "What is a Negro?" We +find the most extraordinary confusion of thought and difference of +opinion. There is a certain type in the minds of most people which, +as David Livingstone said, can be found only in caricature and not +in real life. When scientists have tried to find an extreme type of +black, ugly, and woolly-haired Negro, they have been compelled +more and more to limit his home even in Africa. At least nine-tenths +of the African people do not at all conform to this type, and the +typical Negro, after being denied a dwelling place in the Sudan, +along the Nile, in East Central Africa, and in South Africa, was +finally given a very small country between the Senegal and the +Niger, and even there was found to give trace of many stocks. As +Winwood Reade says, "The typical Negro is a rare variety even +among Negroes."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact we cannot take such extreme and largely fanciful +stock as typifying that which we may fairly call the Negro race. +In the case of no other race is so narrow a definition attempted. A +"white" man may be of any color, size, or facial conformation and +have endless variety of cranial measurement and physical characteristics. +A "yellow" man is perhaps an even vaguer conception.</p> + +<p>In fact it is generally recognized to-day that no scientific definition +of race is possible. Differences, and striking differences, there are +between men and groups of men, but they fade into each other so +insensibly that we can only indicate the main divisions of men in +broad outlines. As Von Luschan says, "The question of the number +of human races has quite lost its <i>raison d'être</i> and has become a subject +rather of philosophic speculation than of scientific research. It +is of no more importance now to know how many human races +there are than to know how many angels can dance on the point of +a needle. Our aim now is to find out how ancient and primitive races +developed from others and how races changed or evolved through +migration and inter-breeding."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The mulatto (using the term loosely to indicate either an intermediate +type between white and black or a mingling of the two) is +as typically African as the black man and cannot logically be included +in the "white" race, especially when American usage includes +the mulatto in the Negro race.</p> + +<p>It is reasonable, according to fact and historic usage, to include +under the word "Negro" the darker peoples of Africa characterized +by a brown skin, curled or "frizzled" hair, full and sometimes everted +lips, a tendency to a development of the maxillary parts of the face, +and a dolichocephalic head. This type is not fixed or definite. The +color varies widely; it is never black or bluish, as some say, and it +becomes often light brown or yellow. The hair varies from curly to +a wool-like mass, and the facial angle and cranial form show wide +variation.</p> + +<p>It is as impossible in Africa as elsewhere to fix with any certainty +the limits of racial variation due to climate and the variation due to +intermingling. In the past, when scientists assumed one unvarying +Negro type, every variation from that type was interpreted as meaning +mixture of blood. To-day we recognize a broader normal African +type which, as Palgrave says, may best be studied "among the statues +of the Egyptian rooms of the British Museum; the larger gentle eye, +the full but not over-protruding lips, the rounded contour, and the +good-natured, easy, sensuous expression. This is the genuine African +model." To this race Africa in the main and parts of Asia have belonged +since prehistoric times.</p> + +<p>The color of this variety of man, as the color of other varieties, is +due to climate. Conditions of heat, cold, and moisture, working for +thousands of years through the skin and other organs, have given +men their differences of color. This color pigment is a protection +against sunlight and consequently varies with the intensity of the +sunlight. Thus in Africa we find the blackest men in the fierce sunlight +of the desert, red pygmies in the forest, and yellow Bushmen +on the cooler southern plateau.</p> + +<p>Next to the color, the hair is the most distinguishing characteristic +of the Negro, but the two characteristics do not vary with each +other. Some of the blackest of the Negroes have curly rather than +woolly hair, while the crispest, most closely curled hair is found +among the yellow Hottentots and Bushmen. The difference between +the hair of the lighter and darker races is a difference of degree, not +of kind, and can be easily measured. If the hair follicles of a China-man, +a European, and a Negro are cut across transversely, it will be +found that the diameter of the first is 100 by 77 to 85, the second +100 by 62 to 72, while that of the Negro is 100 by 40 to 60. This +elliptical form of the Negro's hair causes it to curl more or less +tightly.</p> + +<p>There have been repeated efforts to discover, by measurements of +various kinds, further and more decisive differences which would +serve as really scientific determinants of race. Gradually these efforts +have been given up. To-day we realize that there are no hard and +fast racial types among men. Race is a dynamic and not a static conception, +and the typical races are continually changing and developing, +amalgamating and differentiating. In this little book, then, we +are studying the history of the darker part of the human family, +which is separated from the rest of mankind by no absolute physical +line, but which nevertheless forms, as a mass, a social group distinct +in history, appearance, and to some extent in spiritual gift.</p> + +<p>We cannot study Africa without, however, noting some of the +other races concerned in its history, particularly the Asiatic Semites. +The intercourse of Africa with Arabia and other parts of Asia has +been so close and long-continued that it is impossible to-day to disentangle +the blood relationships. Negro blood certainly appears in +strong strain among the Semites, and the obvious mulatto groups in +Africa, arising from ancient and modern mingling of Semite and +Negro, has given rise to the term "Hamite," under cover of which +millions of Negroids have been characteristically transferred to the +"white" race by some eager scientists.</p> + +<p>The earliest Semites came to Africa across the Red Sea. The +Phoenicians came along the northern coasts a thousand years before +Christ and began settlements which culminated in Carthage and +extended down the Atlantic shores of North Africa nearly to the +Gulf of Guinea.</p> + +<p>From the earliest times the Greeks have been in contact with +Africa as visitors, traders, and colonists, and the Persian influence +came with Cambyses and others. Roman Africa was bounded by the +desert, but at times came into contact with the blacks across the +Sahara and in the valley of the Nile. After the breaking up of the +Roman Empire the Greek and Latin Christians filtered through +Africa, followed finally by a Germanic invasion in 429 A.D.</p> + +<p>In the seventh century the All-Mother, Asia, claimed Africa again +for her own and blew a cloud of Semitic Mohammedanism all across +North Africa, veiling the dark continent from Europe for a thousand +years and converting vast masses of the blacks to Islam. The Portuguese +began to raise the veil in the fifteenth century, sailing down +the Atlantic coast and initiating the modern slave trade. The Spanish, +French, Dutch, and English followed them, but as traders in +men rather than explorers.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese explored the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea, visiting +the interior kingdoms, and then passing by the mouth of the Congo +proceeded southward. Eventually they rounded the Cape of Good +Hope and pursued their explorations as far as the mountains of +Abyssinia. This began the modern exploration of Africa, which is a +curious fairy tale, and recalls to us the great names of Livingstone, +Burton, Speke, Stanley, Barth, Schweinfurth, and many others. In +this way Africa has been made known to the modern world.</p> + +<p>The difficulty of this modern lifting of the veil of centuries emphasizes +two physical facts that underlie all African history: the +peculiar inaccessibility of the continent to peoples from without, +which made it so easily possible for the great human drama played +here to hide itself from the ears of other worlds; and, on the other +hand, the absence of interior barriers—the great stretch of that central +plateau which placed practically every budding center of culture +at the mercy of barbarism, sweeping a thousand miles, with no Alps +or Himalayas or Appalachians to hinder.</p> + +<p>With this peculiarly uninviting coast line and the difficulties in +interior segregation must be considered the climate of Africa. While +there is much diversity and many salubrious tracts along with vast +barren wastes, yet, as Sir Harry Johnston well remarks, "Africa is +the chief stronghold of the real Devil—the reactionary forces of Nature +hostile to the uprise of Humanity. Here Beelzebub, King of the +Flies, marshals his vermiform and arthropod hosts—insects, ticks, +and nematode worms—which more than in other continents (excepting +Negroid Asia) convey to the skin, veins, intestines, and +spinal marrow of men and other vertebrates the microorganisms +which cause deadly, disfiguring, or debilitating diseases, or themselves +create the morbid condition of the persecuted human being, +beasts, bird, reptile, frog, or fish."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The inhabitants of this land have +had a sheer fight for physical survival comparable with that in no +other great continent, and this must not be forgotten when we consider +their history.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Von Luschan: in <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Johnston: <i>Negro in the New World</i>, pp. 14-15.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II_THE_COMING_OF_BLACK_MEN" id="II_THE_COMING_OF_BLACK_MEN" />II<br /><br /> THE COMING OF BLACK MEN</h2> + + +<p>The movements of prehistoric man can be seen as yet but dimly in +the uncertain mists of time. This is the story that to-day seems most +probable: from some center in southern Asia primitive human beings +began to differentiate in two directions. Toward the south appeared +the primitive Negro, long-headed and with flattened hair follicle. He +spread along southern Asia and passed over into Africa, where he +survives to-day as the reddish dwarfs of the center and the Bushmen +of South Africa.</p> + +<p>Northward and eastward primitive man became broader headed +and straight-haired and spread over eastern Asia, forming the Mongolian +type. Either through the intermingling of these two types or, +as some prefer to think, by the direct prolongation of the original +primitive man, a third intermediate type of human being appeared +with hair and cranial measurement intermediate between the primitive +Negro and Mongolian. All these three types of men intermingled +their blood freely and developed variations according to climate +and environment.</p> + +<p>Other and older theories and legends of the origin and spread of +mankind are of interest now only because so many human beings +have believed them in the past. The biblical story of Shem, Ham, +and Japheth retains the interest of a primitive myth with its measure +of allegorical truth, +<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> + but has, of course, no historic basis.</p> + +<p>The older "Aryan" theory assumed the migration into Europe of +one dominant Asiatic race of civilized conquerors, to whose blood +and influence all modern culture was due. To this "white" race Semitic +Asia, a large part of black Africa, and all Europe was supposed +to belong. This "Aryan" theory has been practically abandoned in the +light of recent research, and it seems probable now that from the +primitive Negroid stock evolved in Asia the Semites either by local +variation or intermingling with other stocks; later there developed +the Mediterranean race, with Negroid characteristics, and the modern +Negroes. The blue-eyed, light-haired Germanic people may have +arisen as a modern variation of the mixed peoples produced by the +mingling of Asiatic and African elements. The last word on this development +has not yet been said, and there is still much to learn and +explain; but it is certainly proved to-day beyond doubt that the so-called +Hamites of Africa, the brown and black curly and frizzly-haired +inhabitants of North and East Africa, are not "white" men if +we draw the line between white and black in any logical way.</p> + +<p>The primitive Negroid race of men developed in Asia wandered +eastward as well as westward. They entered on the one hand +Burmah and the South Sea Islands, and on the other hand they came +through Mesopotamia and gave curly hair and a Negroid type to +Jew, Syrian, and Assyrian. Ancient statues of Indian divinities show +the Negro type with black face and close-curled hair, and early +Babylonian culture was Negroid. In Arabia the Negroes may have +divided, and one stream perhaps wandered into Europe by way of +Syria. Traces of these Negroes are manifest not only in skeletons, +but in the brunette type of all South Europe. The other branch +proceeded to Egypt and tropical Africa. Another, but perhaps less +probable, theory is that ancient Negroes may have entered Africa +from Europe, since the most ancient skulls of Algeria are Negroid.</p> + +<p>The primitive African was not an extreme type. One may judge +from modern pygmy and Bushmen that his color was reddish or +yellow, and his skull was sometimes round like the Mongolian. He +entered Africa not less than fifty thousand years ago and settled +eventually in the broad region between Lake Chad and the Great +Lakes and remained there long stretches of years.</p> + +<p>After a lapse of perhaps thirty thousand years there entered Africa +a further migration of Asiatic people, Negroid in many characteristics, +but lighter and straighter haired than the primitive Negroes. +From this Mediterranean race was developed the modern inhabitants +of the shores of the Mediterranean in Europe, Asia, and Africa and, +by mingling with the primitive Negroes, the ancient Egyptians and +modern Negroid races of Africa.</p> + +<p>As we near historic times the migrations of men became more frequent +from Asia and from Europe, and in Africa came movements +and minglings which give to the whole of Africa a distinct mulatto +character. The primitive Negro stock was "mulatto" in the sense of +being not widely differentiated from the dark, original Australoid +stock. As the earlier yellow Negro developed in the African tropics +to the bigger, blacker type, he was continually mingling his blood +with similar types developed in temperate climes to sallower color +and straighter hair.</p> + +<p>We find therefore, in Africa to-day, every degree of development +in Negroid stocks and every degree of intermingling of these developments, +both among African peoples and between Africans, Europeans, +and Asiatics. The mistake is continually made of considering +these types as transitions between absolute Caucasians and absolute +Negroes. No such absolute type ever existed on either side. Both +were slowly differentiated from a common ancestry and continually +remingled their blood while the differentiating was progressing. +From prehistoric times down to to-day Africa is, in this sense, primarily +the land of the mulatto. So, too, was earlier Europe and Asia; +only in these countries the mulatto was early bleached by the climate, +while in Africa he was darkened.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to summarize the history of these dark African peoples, +because so little is known and so much is still in dispute. Yet, +by avoiding the real controversies and being unafraid of mere questions +of definition, we may trace a great human movement with +considerable definiteness.</p> + +<p>Three main Negro types early made their appearance: the lighter +and smaller primitive stock; the larger forest Negro in the center +and on the west coast, and the tall, black Nilotic Negro in the +eastern Sudan. In the earliest times we find the Negroes in the valley +of the Nile, pressing downward from the interior. Here they +mingled with Semitic types, and after a lapse of millenniums there +arose from this mingling the culture of Ethiopia and Egypt, probably +the first of higher human cultures.</p> + +<p>To the west of the Nile the Negroes expanded straight across the +continent to the Atlantic. Centers of higher culture appeared very +early along the Gulf of Guinea and curling backward met Egyptian, +Ethiopian, and even European and Asiatic influences about Lake +Chad. To the southeast, nearer the primitive seats of the earliest +African immigrants and open to Egyptian and East Indian influences, +the Negro culture which culminated at Zymbabwe arose, and +one may trace throughout South Africa its wide ramifications.</p> + +<p>All these movements gradually aroused the central tribes to unrest. +They beat against the barriers north, northeast, and west, but gradually +settled into a great southeastward migration. Calling themselves +proudly La Bantu (The People), they grew by agglomeration +into a warlike nation, speaking one language. They eventually conquered +all Africa south of the Gulf of Guinea and spread their influence +to the northward.</p> + +<p>While these great movements were slowly transforming Africa, she +was also receiving influences from beyond her shores and sending +influences out. With mulatto Egypt black Africa was always in +closest touch, so much so that to some all evidence of Negro uplift +seem Egyptian in origin. The truth is, rather, that Egypt was herself +always palpably Negroid, and from her vantage ground as almost +the only African gateway received and transmitted Negro ideals.</p> + +<p>Phoenician, Greek, and Roman came into touch more or less with +black Africa. Carthage, that North African city of a million men, +had a large caravan trade with Negroland in ivory, metals, cloth, +precious stones, and slaves. Black men served in the Carthaginian +armies and marched with Hannibal on Rome. In some of the North +African kingdoms the infiltration of Negro blood was very large and +kings like Massinissa and Jugurtha were Negroid. By way of the +Atlantic the Carthaginians reached the African west coast. Greek +and Roman influences came through the desert, and the Byzantine +Empire and Persia came into communication with Negroland by +way of the valley of the Nile. The influence of these trade routes, +added to those of Egypt, Ethiopia, Benin, and Yoruba, stimulated +centers of culture in the central and western Sudan, and European +and African trade early reached large volume.</p> + +<p>Negro soldiers were used largely in the armies that enabled the +Mohammedans to conquer North Africa and Spain. Beginning in +the tenth century and slowly creeping across the desert into Negroland, +the new religion found an already existent culture and came, +not a conqueror, but as an adapter and inspirer. Civilization received +new impetus and a wave of Mohammedanism swept eastward, +erecting the great kingdoms of Melle, the Songhay, Bornu, and the +Hausa states. The older Negro culture was not overthrown, but, like +a great wedge, pushed upward and inward from Yoruba, and gave +stubborn battle to the newer culture for seven or eight centuries.</p> + +<p>Then it was, in the fifteenth century, that the heart disease of +Africa developed in its most virulent form. There is a modern theory +that black men are and always have been naturally slaves. Nothing is +further from the truth. In the ancient world Africa was no more a +slave hunting ground than Europe or Asia, and both Greece and +Rome had much larger numbers of white slaves than of black. It +was natural that a stream of black slaves should have poured into +Egypt, because the chief line of Egyptian conquest and defense lay +toward the heart of Africa. Moreover, the Egyptians, themselves of +Negro descent, had not only Negro slaves but Negroes among their +highest nobility and even among their Pharaohs. Mohammedan conquerors +enslaved peoples of all colors in Europe, Asia, and Africa, +but eventually their empire centered in Asia and Africa and their +slaves came principally from these countries. Asia submitted to Islam +except in the Far East, which was self-protecting. Negro Africa submitted +only partially, and the remaining heathen were in small states +which could not effectively protect themselves against the Mohammedan +slave trade. In this wise the slave trade gradually began to +center in Africa, for religious and political rather than for racial +reasons.</p> + +<p>The typical African culture was the culture of family, town, and +small tribe. Hence domestic slavery easily developed a slave trade +through war and commerce. Only the integrating force of state +building could have stopped this slave trade. Was this failure to develop +the great state a racial characteristic? This does not seem a +fair conclusion. In four great centers state building began in Africa. +In Ethiopia several large states were built up, but they tottered before +the onslaughts of Egypt, Persia, Rome, and Byzantium, on the +one hand, and finally fell before the turbulent Bantu warriors from +the interior. The second attempt at empire building began in the +southeast, but the same Bantu hordes, pressing now slowly, now +fiercely, from the congested center of the continent, gradually overthrew +this state and erected on its ruins a series of smaller and more +transient kingdoms.</p> + +<p>The third attempt at state building arose on the Guinea coast in +Benin and Yoruba. It never got much beyond a federation of large +industrial cities. Its expansion toward the Congo valley was probably +a prime cause of the original Bantu movements to the southeast. +Toward the north and northeast, on the other hand, these city-states +met the Sudanese armed with the new imperial Mohammedan idea. +Just as Latin Rome gave the imperial idea to the Nordic races, so +Islam brought this idea to the Sudan.</p> + +<p>In the consequent attempts at imperialism in the western Sudan +there arose the largest of the African empires. Two circumstances, +however, militated against this empire building: first, the fierce resistance +of the heathen south made war continuous and slaves one +of the articles of systematic commerce. Secondly, the highways of +legitimate African commerce had for millenniums lain to the north. +These were suddenly closed by the Moors in the sixteenth century, +and the Negro empires were thrown into the turmoil of internal war.</p> + +<p>It was then that the European slave traders came from the southwest. +They found partially disrupted Negro states on the west coast +and falling empires in the Sudan, together with the old unrest of +over-population and migration in the valley of the Congo. They not +only offered a demand for the usual slave trade, but they increased +it to an enormous degree, until their demand, added to the demand +of the Mohammedan in Africa and Asia, made human beings the +highest priced article of commerce in Africa. Under such circumstances +there could be but one end: the virtual uprooting of ancient +African culture, leaving only misty reminders of the ruin in the customs +and work of the people. To complete this disaster came the +partition of the continent among European nations and the modern +attempt to exploit the country and the natives for the economic benefit +of the white world, together with the transplanting of black nations +to the new western world and their rise and self-assertion there.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ham is probably the Egyptian word "Khem" (black), the native name of +Egypt. In the original myth Canaan and not Ham was Noah's third son. +</p><p> +The biblical story of the "curse of Canaan" (Genesis IX, 24-25) has been the +basis of an astonishing literature which has to-day only a psychological interest. +It is sufficient to remember that for several centuries leaders of the Christian +Church gravely defended Negro slavery and oppression as the rightful curse of +God upon the descendants of a son who had been disrespectful to his drunken +father! Cf. Bishop Hopkins: <i>Bible Views of Slavery</i>, p. 7.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III_ETHIOPIA_AND_EGYPT" id="III_ETHIOPIA_AND_EGYPT" />III<br /><br /> ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT</h2> + + +<p>Having viewed now the land and movements of African people in +main outline, let us scan more narrowly the history of five main centers +of activity and culture, namely: the valleys of the Nile and of +the Congo, the borders of the great Gulf of Guinea, the Sudan, and +South Africa. These divisions do not cover all of Negro Africa, but +they take in the main areas and the main lines in development.</p> + +<p>First, we turn to the valley of the Nile, perhaps the most ancient +of known seats of civilization in the world, and certainly the oldest +in Africa, with a culture reaching back six or eight thousand years. +Like all civilizations it drew largely from without and undoubtedly +arose in the valley of the Nile, because that valley was so easily made +a center for the meeting of men of all types and from all parts of the +world. At the same time Egyptian civilization seems to have been +African in its beginnings and in its main line of development, despite +strong influences from all parts of Asia. Of what race, then, +were the Egyptians? They certainly were not white in any sense of +the modern use of that word—neither in color nor physical measurement, +in hair nor countenance, in language nor social customs. They +stood in relationship nearest the Negro race in earliest times, and +then gradually through the infiltration of Mediterranean and Semitic +elements became what would be described in America as a light +mulatto stock of Octoroons or Quadroons. This stock was varied +continually; now by new infiltration of Negro blood from the south, +now by Negroid and Semitic blood from the east, now by Berber +types from the north and west.</p> + +<p>Egyptian monuments show distinctly Negro and mulatto faces. +Herodotus, in an incontrovertible passage, alludes to the Egyptians +as "black and curly-haired"<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>—a peculiarly significant statement from +one used to the brunette Mediterranean type; in another passage, +concerning the fable of the Dodonian Oracle, he again alludes to the +swarthy color of the Egyptians as exceedingly dark and even black. +Æschylus, mentioning a boat seen from the shore, declares that its +crew are Egyptians, because of their black complexions.</p> + +<p>Modern measurements, with all their admitted limitations, show +that in the Thebaid from one-seventh to one-third of the Egyptian +population were Negroes, and that of the predynastic Egyptians less +than half could be classed as non-Negroid. Judging from measurements +in the tombs of nobles as late as the eighteenth dynasty, Negroes +form at least one-sixth of the higher class.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Such measurements are by no means conclusive, but they are apt +to be under rather than over statements of the prevalence of Negro +blood. Head measurements of Negro Americans would probably +place most of them in the category of whites. The evidence of language +also connects Egypt with Africa and the Negro race rather +than with Asia, while religious ceremonies and social customs all go +to strengthen this evidence.</p> + +<p>The ethnic history of Northeast Africa would seem, therefore, to +have been this: predynastic Egypt was settled by Negroes from +Ethiopia. They were of varied type: the broad-nosed, woolly-haired +type to which the word "Negro" is sometimes confined; the black, +curly-haired, sharper featured type, which must be considered an +equally Negroid variation. These Negroes met and mingled with the +invading Mediterranean race from North Africa and Asia. Thus the +blood of the sallower race spread south and that of the darker race +north. Black priests appear in Crete three thousand years before Christ, +and Arabia is to this day thoroughly permeated with Negro blood. +Perhaps, as Chamberlain says, "one of the prime reasons why no civilization +of the type of that of the Nile arose in other parts of the continent, +if such a thing were at all possible, was that Egypt acted as a +sort of channel by which the genius of Negro-land was drafted off into +the service of Mediterranean and Asiatic culture."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>To one familiar with the striking and beautiful types arising from +the mingling of Negro with Latin and Germanic types in America, +the puzzle of the Egyptian type is easily solved. It was unlike any of +its neighbors and a unique type until one views the modern mulatto; +then the faces of Rahotep and Nefert, of Khafra and Amenemhat I, +of Aahmes and Nefertari, and even of the great Ramessu II, become +curiously familiar.</p> + +<p>The history of Egypt is a science in itself. Before the reign of the +first recorded king, five thousand years or more before Christ, there +had already existed in Egypt a culture and art arising by long evolution +from the days of paleolithic man, among a distinctly Negroid +people. About 4777 B.C. Aha-Mena began the first of three successive +Egyptian empires. This lasted two thousand years, with many Pharaohs, +like Khafra of the Fourth Dynasty, of a strongly Negroid cast +of countenance.</p> + +<p>At the end of the period the empire fell apart into Egyptian and +Ethiopian halves, and a silence of three centuries ensued. It is quite +possible that an incursion of conquering black men from the south +poured over the land in these years and dotted Egypt in the next +centuries with monuments on which the full-blooded Negro type is +strongly and triumphantly impressed. The great Sphinx at Gizeh, so +familiar to all the world, the Sphinxes of Tanis, the statue from the +Fayum, the statue of the Esquiline at Rome, and the Colossi of +Bubastis all represent black, full-blooded Negroes and are described +by Petrie as "having high cheek bones, flat cheeks, both in one plane, +a massive nose, firm projecting lips, and thick hair, with an austere +and almost savage expression of power."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>Blyden, the great modern black leader of West Africa, said of the +Sphinx at Gizeh: "Her features are decidedly of the African or +Negro type, with 'expanded nostrils.' If, then, the Sphinx was placed +here—looking out in majestic and mysterious silence over the empty +plain where once stood the great city of Memphis in all its pride and +glory, as an 'emblematic representation of the king'—is not the inference +clear as to the peculiar type or race to which that king belonged?"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The middle empire arose 3064 B.C. and lasted nearly twenty-four +centuries. Under Pharaohs whose Negro descent is plainly evident, +like Amenemhat I and III and Usertesen I, the ancient glories of +Egypt were restored and surpassed. At the same time there is strong +continuous pressure from the wild and unruly Negro tribes of the +upper Nile valley, and we get some idea of the fear which they inspired +throughout Egypt when we read of the great national rejoicing +which followed the triumph of Usertesen III (c. 2660-22) over +these hordes. He drove them back and attempted to confine them to +the edge of the Nubian Desert above the Second Cataract. Hemmed +in here, they set up a state about this time and founded Nepata.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding this repulse of black men, less than one hundred +years later a full-blooded Negro from the south, Ra Nehesi, was +seated on the throne of the Pharaohs and was called "The king's +eldest son." This may mean that an incursion from the far south +had placed a black conqueror on the throne. At any rate, the whole +empire was in some way shaken, and two hundred years later the +invasion of the Hyksos began. The domination of Hyksos kings who +may have been Negroids from Asia<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> lasted for five hundred years.</p> + +<p>The redemption of Egypt from these barbarians came from Upper +Egypt, led by the mulatto Aahmes. He founded in 1703 B.C. the +new empire, which lasted fifteen hundred years. His queen, Nefertari, +"the most venerated figure of Egyptian history,"<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> was a Negress +of great beauty, strong personality, and of unusual administrative +force. She was for many years joint ruler with her son, Amenhotep +I, who succeeded his father.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The new empire was a period of foreign conquest and internal +splendor and finally of religious dispute and overthrow. Syria was +conquered in these reigns and Asiatic civilization and influences +poured in upon Egypt. The great Tahutmes III, whose reign was +"one of the grandest and most eventful in Egyptian history,"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> had a +strong Negroid countenance, as had also Queen Hatshepsut, who +sent the celebrated expedition to reopen ancient trade with the Hottentots +of Punt. A new strain of Negro blood came to the royal line +through Queen Mutemua about 1420 B.C., whose son, Amenhotep +III, built a great temple at Luqsor and the Colossi at Memnon.</p> + +<p>The whole of the period in a sense culminated in the great Ramessu +II, the oppressor of the Hebrews, who with his Egyptian, +Libyan, and Negro armies fought half the world. His reign, however, +was the beginning of decline, and foes began to press Egypt +from the white north and the black south. The priests transferred +their power at Thebes, while the Assyrians under Nimrod overran +Lower Egypt. The center of interest is now transferred to Ethiopia, +and we pass to the more shadowy history of that land.</p> + +<p>The most perfect example of Egyptian poetry left to us is a celebration +of the prowess of Usertesen III in confining the turbulent +Negro tribes to the territory below the Second Cataract of the Nile. +The Egyptians called this territory Kush, and in the farthest confines +of Kush lay Punt, the cradle of their race. To the ancient Mediterranean +world Ethiopia (i.e., the Land of the Black-faced) was a +region of gods and fairies. Zeus and Poseidon feasted each year +among the "blameless Ethiopians," and Black Memnon, King of +Ethiopia, was one of the greatest of heroes.</p> + +<p>"The Ethiopians conceive themselves," says Diodorus Siculus +(Lib. III), "to be of greater antiquity than any other nation; and it +is probable that, born under the sun's path, its warmth may have +ripened them earlier than other men. They suppose themselves also +to be the inventors of divine worship, of festivals, of solemn assemblies, +of sacrifices, and every religious practice. They affirm that the +Egyptians are one of their colonies."</p> + +<p>The Egyptians themselves, in later days, affirmed that they and +their civilization came from the south and from the black tribes of +Punt, and certainly "at the earliest period in which human remains +have been recovered Egypt and Lower Nubia appear to have formed +culturally and racially one land."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The forging ahead of Egypt in culture was mainly from economic +causes. Ethiopia, living in a much poorer land with limited agricultural +facilities, held to the old arts and customs, and at the same +time lost the best elements of its population to Egypt, absorbing +meantime the oncoming and wilder Negro tribes from the south and +west. Under the old empire, therefore, Ethiopia remained in comparative +poverty, except as some of its tribes invaded Egypt with +their handicrafts.</p> + +<p>As soon as the civilization below the Second Cataract reached a +height noticeably above that of Ethiopia, there was continued effort +to protect that civilization against the incursion of barbarians. Hundreds +of campaigns through thousands of years repeatedly subdued +or checked the blacks and brought them in as captives to mingle +their blood with the Egyptian nation; but the Egyptian frontier was +not advanced.</p> + +<p>A separate and independent Ethiopian culture finally began to +arise during the middle empire of Egypt and centered at Nepata and +Meroe. Widespread trade in gold, ivory, precious stones, skins, wood, +and works of handicraft arose.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The Negro began to figure as the +great trader of Egypt.</p> + +<p>This new wealth of Ethiopia excited the cupidity of the Pharaohs +and led to aggression and larger intercourse, until at last, when the +dread Hyksos appeared, Ethiopia became both a physical and cultural +refuge for conquered Egypt. The legitimate Pharaohs moved +to Thebes, nearer the boundaries of Ethiopia, and from here, under +Negroid rulers, Lower Egypt was redeemed.</p> + +<p>The ensuing new empire witnessed the gradual incorporation of +Ethiopia into Egypt, although the darker kingdom continued to +resist. Both mulatto Pharaohs, Aahmes and Amenhotep I, sent expeditions +into Ethiopia, and in the latter's day sons of the reigning +Pharaoh began to assume the title of "Royal Son of Kush" in some +such way as the son of the King of England becomes the Prince of +Wales.</p> + +<p>Trade relations were renewed with Punt under circumstances +which lead us to place that land in the region of the African lakes. +The Sudanese tribes were aroused by these and other incursions, +until the revolts became formidable in the fourteenth century before +Christ.</p> + +<p>Egyptian culture, however, gradually conquered Ethiopia where +her armies could not, and Egyptian religion and civil rule began to +center in the darker kingdom. When, therefore, Shesheng I, the +Libyan, usurped the throne of the Pharaohs in the tenth century +B.C., the Egyptian legitimate dynasty went to Nepata as king priests +and established a theocratic monarchy. Gathering strength, the +Ethiopian kingdom under this dynasty expanded north about 750 +B.C. and for a century ruled all Egypt.</p> + +<p>The first king, Pankhy, was Egyptian bred and not noticeably Negroid, +but his successors showed more and more evidence of Negro +blood—Kashta the Kushite, Shabaka, Tarharqa, and Tanutamen. +During the century of Ethiopian rule a royal son was appointed to +rule Egypt, just as formerly a royal Egyptian had ruled Kush. In +many ways this Ethiopian kingdom showed its Negro peculiarities: +first, in its worship of distinctly Sudanese gods; secondly, in the rigid +custom of female succession in the kingdom, and thirdly, by the +election of kings from the various royal claimants to the throne. "It +was the heyday of the Negro. For the greater part of the century ... Egypt +itself was subject to the blacks, just as in the new empire +the Sudan had been subject to Egypt."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>Egypt now began to fall into the hands of Asia and was conquered +first by the Assyrians and then by the Persians, but the Ethiopian +kings kept their independence. Aspeluta, whose mother and sister +are represented as full-blooded Negroes, ruled from 630 to 600 B.C. +Horsiatef (560-525 B.C.) made nine expeditions against the warlike +tribes south of Meroe, and his successor, Nastosenen (525-500 B.C.) +was the one who repelled Cambyses. He also removed the capital +from Nepata to Meroe, although Nepata continued to be the religious +capital and the Ethiopian kings were still crowned on its +golden throne.</p> + +<p>From the fifth to the second century B.C. we find the wild Sudanese +tribes pressing in from the west and Greek culture penetrating +from the east. King Arg-Amen (Ergamenes) showed strong +Greek influences and at the same time began to employ the Ethiopian +speech in writing and used a new Ethiopian alphabet.</p> + +<p>While the Ethiopian kings were still crowned at Nepata, Meroe +gradually became the real capital and supported at one time four +thousand artisans and two hundred thousand soldiers. It was here +that the famous Candaces reigned as queens. Pliny tells us that one +Candace of the time of Nero had had forty-four predecessors on the +throne, while another Candace figures in the New Testament.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>It was probably this latter Candace who warred against Rome at +the time of Augustus and received unusual consideration from her +formidable foe. The prestige of Ethiopia at this time was considerable +throughout the world. Pseudo-Callisthenes tells an evidently +fabulous story of the visit of Alexander the Great to Candace, Queen +of Meroe, which nevertheless illustrates her fame: Candace will not +let him enter Ethiopia and says he is not to scorn her people because +they are black, for they are whiter in soul than his white folk. She +sent him gold, maidens, parrots, sphinxes, and a crown of emeralds +and pearls. She ruled eighty tribes, who were ready to punish those +who attacked her.</p> + +<p>The Romans continued to have so much trouble with their Ethiopian +frontier that finally, when Semitic mulattoes appeared in the +east, the Emperor Diocletian invited the wild Sudanese tribe of +Nubians (Nobadæ) from the west to repel them. These Nubians +eventually embraced Christianity, and northern Ethiopia came to be +known in time as Nubia.</p> + +<p>The Semitic mulattoes from the east came from the highlands +bordering the Red Sea and Asia. On both sides of this sea Negro +blood is strongly in evidence, predominant in Africa and influential +in Asia. Ludolphus, writing in the seventeenth century, says that the +Abyssinians "are generally black, which [color] they most admire." +Trade and war united the two shores, and merchants have passed +to and fro for thirty centuries.</p> + +<p>In this way Arabian, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences +spread slowly upon the Negro foundation. Early legendary +history declares that a queen, Maqueda, or Nikaula of Sheba, a state +of Central Abyssinia, visited Solomon in 1050 B.C. and had her son +Menelik educated in Jerusalem. This was the supposed beginning +of the Axumite kingdom, the capital of which, Axume, was a flourishing +center of trade. Ptolemy Evergetes and his successors did +much to open Abyssinia to the world, but most of the population of +that day was nomadic. In the fourth century Byzantine influences +began to be felt, and in 330 St. Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated +Fromentius as Bishop of Ethiopia. He tutored the heir to the Abyssinian +kingdom and began its gradual christianization. By the early +part of the sixth century Abyssinia was trading with India and Byzantium +and was so far recognized as a Christian country that the +Emperor Justinian appealed to King Kaleb to protect the Christians +in southwestern Arabia. Kaleb conquered Yemen in 525 and held it +fifty years.</p> + +<p>Eventually a Jewish princess, Judith, usurped the Axumite throne; +the Abyssinians were expelled from Arabia, and a long period begins +when as Gibbon says, "encompassed by the enemies of their religion, +the Ethiopians slept for nearly a thousand years, forgetful of the +world by whom they were forgotten." Throughout the middle ages, +however, the legend of a great Christian kingdom hidden away in +Africa persisted, and the search for Prester John became one of the +world quests.</p> + +<p>It was the expanding power of Abyssinia that led Rome to call in +the Nubians from the western desert. The Nubians had formed a +strong league of tribes, and as the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia declined +they drove back the Abyssinians, who had already established +themselves at Meroe.</p> + +<p>In the sixth century the Nubians were converted to Christianity +by a Byzantine priest, and they immediately began to develop. A +new capital, Dongola, replaced Nepata and Meroe, and by the +twelfth century churches and brick dwellings had appeared. As the +Mohammedan flood pressed up the Nile valley it was the Nubians +that held it back for two centuries.</p> + +<p>Farther south other wild tribes pushed out of the Sudan and began +a similar development. Chief among these were the Fung, who fixed +their capital at Senaar, at the junction of the White and Blue Nile. +When the Mohammedan flood finally passed over Nubia, the Fung +diverted it by declaring themselves Moslems. This left the Fung as +the dominant power in the fifteenth century from the Three Cataracts +to Fazogli and from the Red Sea at Suakin to the White Nile. +Islam then swept on south in a great circle, skirted the Great Lakes, +and then curled back to Somaliland, completely isolating Abyssinia.</p> + +<p>Between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries the Egyptian +Sudan became a congeries of Mohammedan kingdoms with Arab, +mulatto, and Negro kings. Far to the west, near Lake Chad, arose +in 1520 the sultanate of Baghirmi, which reached its highest power +in the seventh century. This dynasty was overthrown by the Negroid +Mabas, who established Wadai to the eastward about 1640. +South of Wadai lay the heathen and cannibals of the Congo valley, +against which Islam never prevailed. East of Wadai and nearer the +Nile lay the kindred state of Darfur, a Nubian nation whose sultans +reigned over two hundred years and which reached great prosperity +in the early seventeenth century under Soliman Solon.</p> + +<p>Before the Mohammedan power reached Abyssinia the Portuguese +pioneers had entered the country from the east and begun to open +the country again to European knowledge. Without doubt, in the +centuries of silence, a civilization of some height had flourished in +Abyssinia, but all authentic records were destroyed by fire in the +tenth century. When the Portuguese came, the older Axumite kingdom +had fallen and had been succeeded by a number of petty states.</p> + +<p>The Sudanese kingdoms of the Sudan resisted the power of the +Mameluke beys in Egypt, and later the power of the Turks until +the nineteenth century, when the Sudan was made nominally a part +of Egypt. Continuous upheaval, war, and conquest had by this time +done their work, and little of ancient Ethiopian culture survived +except the slave trade.</p> + +<p>The entrance of England into Egypt, after the building of the +Suez Canal, stirred up eventually revolt in the Sudan, for political, +economic, and religious reasons. Led by a Sudanese Negro, Mohammed +Ahmad, who claimed to be the Messiah (Mahdi), the +Sudan arose in revolt in 1881, determined to resist a hated religion, +foreign rule, and interference with their chief commerce, the trade +in slaves. The Sudan was soon aflame, and the able mulatto general, +Osman Digna, aided by revolt among the heathen Dinka, drove +Egypt and England out of the Sudan for sixteen years. It was not +until 1898 that England reëntered the Sudan and in petty revenge +desecrated the bones of the brave, even if misguided, prophet.</p> + +<p>Meantime this Mahdist revolt had delayed England's designs on +Abyssinia, and the Italians, replacing her, attempted a protectorate. +Menelik of Shoa, one of the smaller kingdoms of Abyssinia, was a +shrewd man of predominantly Negro blood, and had been induced +to make a treaty with the Italians after King John had been killed +by the Mahdists. The exact terms of the treaty were disputed, but +undoubtedly the Italians tried by this means to reduce Menelik to +vassalage. Menelik stoutly resisted, and at the great battle of Adua, +one of the decisive battles of the modern world, the Abyssinians on +March 1, 1896, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italians, killing +four thousand of them and capturing two thousand prisoners. The +empress, Taitou, a full-blooded Negress, led some of the charges. By +this battle Abyssinia became independent.</p> + +<p>Such in vague and general outline is the strange story of the +valley of the Nile—of Egypt, the motherland of human culture and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"That starr'd Ethiop Queen that strove<br /></span> +<span>To set her beauty's praise above<br /></span> +<span>The sea nymphs."<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> [αὐτός δὲ εἵκασα τἢιδε καὶ ὅτε μελἁνχροἑς εἰσι καἰ οὐλότριχεσ. Greek: "autos de eikasa têde kai hote melanchroes eisi kai oulotriches."] Liber II, Cap. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Cf. Maciver and Thompson: <i>Ancient Races of the Thebaid</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Journal of Race Development</i>, I, 484.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Petrie: <i>History of Egypt</i>, I, 51, 237.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>From West Africa to Palestine</i>, p. 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Depending partly on whether the so-called Hyksos sphinxes belong to the +period of the Hyksos kings or to an earlier period (cf. Petrie, I, 52-53, 237). +That Negroids largely dominated in the early history of western Asia is proven +by the monuments.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Petrie: <i>History of Egypt</i>, II, 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Chamberlain: <i>Journal of Race Development</i>, April, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Petrie: <i>History of Egypt</i>, II, 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Reisner: <i>Archeological Survey of Nubia</i>, I, 319.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Hoskins declares that the arch had its origin in Ethiopia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Maciver and Wooley: <i>Areika</i>, p. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Acts VIII, 27.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV_THE_NIGER_AND_ISLAM" id="IV_THE_NIGER_AND_ISLAM" />IV<br /><br /> THE NIGER AND ISLAM</h2> + + +<p>The Arabian expression "Bilad es Sudan" (Land of the Blacks) was +applied to the whole region south of the Sahara, from the Atlantic +to the Nile. It is a territory some thirty-five hundred miles by six +hundred miles, containing two million square miles, and has to-day +a population of perhaps eighty million. It is thus two-thirds the size +of the United States and quite as thickly settled. In the western +Sudan the Niger plays the same role as the Nile in the east. In this +chapter we follow the history of the Niger.</p> + +<p>The history of this part of Africa was probably something as follows: +primitive man, entering Africa from Arabia, found the Great +Lakes, spread in the Nile valley, and wandered westward to the +Niger. Herodotus tells of certain youths who penetrated the desert +to the Niger and found there a city of black dwarfs. Succeeding +migrations of Negroes and Negroids pushed the dwarfs gradually +into the inhospitable forests and occupied the Sudan, pushing on to +the Atlantic. Here the newcomers, curling northward, met the Mediterranean +race coming down across the western desert, while to the +southward the Negro came to the Gulf of Guinea and the thick forests +of the Congo valley. Indigenous civilizations arose on the west coast in +Yoruba and Benin, and contact of these with the Mediterranean race +in the desert, and with Egyptian and Arab from the east, gave rise +to centers of Negro culture in the Sudan at Ghana and Melle and +in Songhay, Nupe, the Hausa states, and Bornu.</p> + +<p>The history of the Sudan thus leads us back again to Ethiopia, +that strange and ancient center of world civilization whose inhabitants +in the ancient world were considered to be the most pious and +the oldest of men. From this center the black originators of African +culture, and to a large degree of world culture, wandered not simply +down the Nile, but also westward. These Negroes developed the +original substratum of culture which later influences modified but +never displaced.</p> + +<p>We know that Egyptian Pharaohs in several cases ventured into +the western Sudan and that Egyptian influences are distinctly traceable. +Greek and Byzantine culture and Phoenician and Carthaginian +trade also penetrated, while Islam finally made this whole land her +own. Behind all these influences, however, stood from the first an +indigenous Negro culture. The stone figures of Sherbro, the megaliths +of Gambia, the art and industry of the west coast are all too +deep and original evidences of civilization to be merely importations +from abroad.</p> + +<p>Nor was the Sudan the inert recipient of foreign influence when +it came. According to credible legend, the "Great King" at Byzantium +imported glass, tin, silver, bronze, cut stones, and other treasure +from the Sudan. Embassies were sent and states like Nupe recognized +the suzerainty of the Byzantine emperor. The people of Nupe +especially were filled with pride when the Byzantine people learned +certain kinds of work in bronze and glass from them, and this intercourse +was only interrupted by the Mohammedan conquest.</p> + +<p>To this ancient culture, modified somewhat by Byzantine and +Christian influences, came Islam. It approached from the northwest, +coming stealthily and slowly and being handed on particularly by +the Mandingo Negroes. About 1000-1200 A.D. the situation was +this: Ghana was on the edge of the desert in the north, Mandingoland +between the Niger and the Senegal in the south and the western +Sahara, Djolof was in the west on the Senegal, and the Songhay on +the Niger in the center. The Mohammedans came chiefly as traders +and found a trade already established. Here and there in the great +cities were districts set aside for these new merchants, and the Mohammedans +gave frequent evidence of their respect for these black +nations.</p> + +<p>Islam did not found new states, but modified and united Negro +states already ancient; it did not initiate new commerce, but developed +a widespread trade already established. It is, as Frobenius says, +"easily proved from chronicles written in Arabic that Islam was only +effective in fact as a fertilizer and stimulant. The essential point is +the resuscitative and invigorative concentration of Negro power in +the service of a new era and a Moslem propaganda, as well as the +reaction thereby produced."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>Early in the eighth century Islam had conquered North Africa +and converted the Berbers. Aided by black soldiers, the Moslems +crossed into Spain; in the following century Berber and Arab armies +crossed the west end of the Sahara and came to Negroland. Later in +the eleventh century Arabs penetrated the Sudan and Central Africa +from the east, filtering through the Negro tribes of Darfur, Kanem, +and neighboring regions. The Arabs were too nearly akin to Negroes +to draw an absolute color line. Antar, one of the great pre-Islamic +poets of Arabia, was the son of a black woman, and one of the great +poets at the court of Haroun al Raschid was black. In the twelfth +century a learned Negro poet resided at Seville, and Sidjilmessa, +the last town in Lower Morocco toward the desert, was founded in +757 by a Negro who ruled over the Berber inhabitants. Indeed, +many towns in the Sudan and the desert were thus ruled, and felt +no incongruity in this arrangement. They say, to be sure, that the +Moors destroyed Audhoghast because it paid tribute to the black +town of Ghana, but this was because the town was heathen and not +because it was black. On the other hand, there is a story that a +Berber king overthrew one of the cities of the Sudan and all the +black women committed suicide, being too proud to allow themselves +to fall into the hands of white men.</p> + +<p>In the west the Moslems first came into touch with the Negro +kingdom of Ghana. Here large quantities of gold were gathered in +early days, and we have names of seventy-four rulers before 300 A.D. +running through twenty-one generations. This would take us back +approximately a thousand years to 700 B.C., or about the time that +Pharaoh Necho of Egypt sent out the Phoenician expedition which +circumnavigated Africa, and possibly before the time when Hanno, +the Carthaginian, explored the west coast of Africa.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the eleventh century Ghana was the principal +kingdom in the western Sudan. Already the town had a native and +a Mussulman quarter, and was built of wood and stone with surrounding +gardens. The king had an army of two hundred thousand +and the wealth of the country was great. A century later the king +had become Mohammedan in faith and had a palace with sculptures +and glass windows. The great reason for this development was the +desert trade. Gold, skins, ivory, kola nuts, gums, honey, wheat, and +cotton were exported, and the whole Mediterranean coast traded in +the Sudan. Other and lesser black kingdoms like Tekrou, Silla, and +Masina surrounded Ghana.</p> + +<p>In the early part of the thirteenth century the prestige of Ghana +began to fall before the rising Mandingan kingdom to the west. +Melle, as it was called, was founded in 1235 and formed an open +door for Moslem and Moorish traders. The new kingdom, helped +by its expanding trade, began to grow, and Islam slowly surrounded +the older Negro culture west, north, and east. However, a great mass +of the older heathen culture, pushing itself upward from the Guinea +coast, stood firmly against Islam down to the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Steadily Mohammedanism triumphed in the growing states which +almost encircled the protagonists of ancient Atlantic culture. Mandingan +Melle eventually supplanted Ghana in prestige and power, +after Ghana had been overthrown by the heathen Su Su from the +south.</p> + +<p>The territory of Melle lay southeast of Ghana and some five +hundred miles north of the Gulf of Guinea. Its kings were known +by the title of Mansa, and from the middle of the thirteenth century +to the middle of the fourteenth the Mellestine, as its dominion was +called, was the leading power in the land of the blacks. Its greatest +king, Mari Jalak (Mansa Musa), made his pilgrimage to Mecca in +1324, with a caravan of sixty thousand persons, including twelve +thousand young slaves gowned in figured cotton and Persian silk. +He took eighty camel loads of gold dust (worth about five million +dollars) to defray his expenses, and greatly impressed the people of +the East with his magnificence.</p> + +<p>On his return he found that Timbuktu had been sacked by the +Mossi, but he rebuilt the town and filled the new mosque with +learned blacks from the University of Fez. Mansa Musa reigned +twenty-five years and "was distinguished by his ability and by the +holiness of his life. The justice of his administration was such that +the memory of it still lives."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The Mellestine preserved its preëminence +until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the rod +of Sudanese empire passed to Songhay, the largest and most famous +of the black empires.</p> + +<p>The known history of Songhay covers a thousand years and three +dynasties and centers in the great bend of the Niger. There were +thirty kings of the First Dynasty, reigning from 700 to 1335. During +the reign of one of these the Songhay kingdom became the vassal +kingdom of Melle, then at the height of its glory. In addition to this +the Mossi crossed the valley, plundered Timbuktu in 1339, and +separated Jenne, the original seat of the Songhay, from the main +empire. The sixteenth king was converted to Mohammedanism in +1009, and after that all the Songhay princes were Mohammedans. +Mansa Musa took two young Songhay princes to the court of Melle +to be educated in 1326. These boys when grown ran away and +founded a new dynasty in Songhay, that of the Sonnis, in 1355. +Seventeen of these kings reigned, the last and greatest being Sonni +Ali, who ascended the throne in 1464. Melle was at this time declining, +other cities like Jenne, with its seven thousand villages, were +rising, and the Tuaregs (Berbers with Negro blood) had captured +Timbuktu.</p> + +<p>Sonni Ali was a soldier and began his career with the conquest +of Timbuktu in 1469. He also succeeded in capturing Jenne and +attacked the Mossi and other enemies on all sides. Finally he concentrated +his forces for the destruction of Melle and subdued nearly +the whole empire on the west bend of the Niger. In summing up +Sonni Ali's military career the chronicle says of him, "He surpassed +all his predecessors in the numbers and valor of his soldiery. His +conquests were many and his renown extended from the rising to +the setting of the sun. If it is the will of God, he will be long +spoken of."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Sonni Ali was a Songhay Negro whose father was a Berber. He +was succeeded by a full-blooded black, Mohammed Abou Bekr, who +had been his prime minister. Mohammed was hailed as "Askia" +(usurper) and is best known as Mohammed Askia. He was strictly +orthodox where Ali was rather a scoffer, and an organizer where Ali +was a warrior. On his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1495 there was nothing +of the barbaric splendor of Mansa Musa, but a brilliant group +of scholars and holy men with a small escort of fifteen hundred soldiers +and nine hundred thousand dollars in gold. He stopped and +consulted with scholars and politicians and studied matters of taxation, +weights and measures, trade, religious tolerance, and manners. +In Cairo, where he was invested by the reigning caliph of Egypt, he +may have heard of the struggle of Europe for the trade of the Indies, +and perhaps of the parceling of the new world between Portugal +and Spain. He returned to the Sudan in 1497, instituted a standing +army of slaves, undertook a holy war against the indomitable Mossi, +and finally marched against the Hausa. He subdued these cities and +even imposed the rule of black men on the Berber town of Agades, +a rich city of merchants and artificers with stately mansions. In fine +Askia, during his reign, conquered and consolidated an empire two +thousand miles long by one thousand wide at its greatest diameters; +a territory as large as all Europe. The territory was divided into four +vice royalties, and the system of Melle, with its semi-independent +native dynasties, was carried out. His empire extended from the +Atlantic to Lake Chad and from the salt mines of Tegazza and the +town of Augila in the north to the 10th degree of north latitude toward +the south.</p> + +<p>It was a six months' journey across the empire and, it is said, "he +was obeyed with as much docility on the farthest limits of the empire +as he was in his own palace, and there reigned everywhere +great plenty and absolute peace."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The University of Sankore became +a center of learning in correspondence with Egypt and North +Africa and had a swarm of black Sudanese students. Law, literature, +grammar, geography and surgery were studied. Askia the Great +reigned thirty-six years, and his dynasty continued on the throne +until after the Moorish conquest in 1591.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, to the eastward, two powerful states appeared. They +never disputed the military supremacy of Songhay, but their industrial +development was marvelous. The Hausa states were formed by +seven original cities, of which Kano was the oldest and Katsena the +most famous. Their greatest leaders, Mohammed Rimpa and Ahmadu +Kesoke, arose in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. +The land was subject to the Songhay, but the cities became industrious +centers of smelting, weaving, and dyeing. Katsena especially, +in the middle of the sixteenth century, is described as a place thirteen +or fourteen miles in circumference, divided into quarters for +strangers, for visitors from various other states, and for the different +trades and industries, as saddlers, shoemakers, dyers, etc.</p> + +<p>Beyond the Hausa states and bordering on Lake Chad was Bornu. +The people of Bornu had a large infiltration of Berber blood, but +were predominantly Negro. Berber mulattoes had been kings in +early days, but they were soon replaced by black men. Under the +early kings, who can be traced back to the third century, these people +had ruled nearly all the territory between the Nile and Lake +Chad. The country was known as Kanem, and the pagan dynasty +of Dugu reigned there from the middle of the ninth to the end of +the eleventh century. Mohammedanism was introduced from Egypt +at the end of the eleventh century, and under the Mohammedan +kings Kanem became one of the first powers of the Sudan. By the +end of the twelfth century the armies of Kanem were very powerful +and its rulers were known as "Kings of Kanem and Lords of Bornu." +In the thirteenth century the kings even dared to invade the southern +country down toward the valley of the Congo.</p> + +<p>Meantime great things were happening in the world beyond the +desert, the ocean, and the Nile. Arabian Mohammedanism had succumbed +to the wild fanaticism of the Seljukian Turks. These new +conquerors were not only firmly planted at the gates of Vienna, but +had swept the shores of the Mediterranean and sent all Europe +scouring the seas for their lost trade connections with the riches of +India. Religious zeal, fear of conquest, and commercial greed inflamed +Europe against the Mohammedan and led to the discovery +of a new world, the riches of which poured first on Spain. Oppression +of the Moors followed, and in 1502 they were driven back into +Africa, despoiled and humbled. Here the Spaniards followed and +harassed them and here the Turks, fighting the Christians, captured +the Mediterranean ports and cut the Moors off permanently from +Europe. In the slow years that followed, huddled in Northwest +Africa, they became a decadent people and finally cast their eyes +toward Negroland.</p> + +<p>The Moors in Morocco had come to look upon the Sudan as a +gold mine, and knew that the Sudan was especially dependent upon +salt. In 1545 Morocco claimed the principal salt mines at Tegazza, +but the reigning Askia refused to recognize the claim.</p> + +<p>When the Sultan Elmansour came to the throne of Morocco, he +increased the efficiency of his army by supplying it with fire arms +and cannon. Elmansour determined to attack the Sudan and sent +four hundred men under Pasha Djouder, who left Morocco in 1590. +The Songhay, with their bows and arrows, were helpless against +powder and shot, and they were defeated at Tenkadibou April 12, +1591. Askia Ishak, the king, offered terms, and Djouder Pasha +referred them to Morocco. The sultan, angry with his general's delay, +deposed him and sent another, who crushed and treacherously +murdered the king and set up a puppet. Thereafter there were two +Askias, one under the Moors at Timbuktu and one who maintained +himself in the Hausa states, which the Moors could not subdue. +Anarchy reigned in Songhay. The Moors tried to put down disorder +with a high hand, drove out and murdered the distinguished men of +Timbuktu, and as a result let loose a riot of robbery and decadence +throughout the Sudan. Pasha now succeeded pasha with revolt and +misrule until in 1612 the soldiers elected their own pasha and deliberately +shut themselves up in the Sudan by cutting off approach +from the north.</p> + +<p>Hausaland and Bornu were still open to Turkish and Mohammedan +influence from the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the slave +trade from the south, but the face of the finest Negro civilization +the modern world had ever produced was veiled from Europe and +given to the defilement of wild Moorish soldiers. In 1623 it is written +"excesses of every kind are now committed unchecked by the +soldiery," and "the country is profoundly convulsed and oppressed."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +The Tuaregs marched down from the desert and deprived the Moors +of many of the principal towns. The rest of the empire of the Songhay +was by the end of the eighteenth century divided among separate +Moorish chiefs, who bought supplies from the Negro peasantry +and were "at once the vainest, proudest, and perhaps the most bigoted, +ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations of the south."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> They +lived a nomadic life, plundering the Negroes. To such depths did the +mighty Songhay fall.</p> + +<p>As the Songhay declined a new power arose in the nineteenth +century, the Fula. The Fula, who vary in race from Berber mulattoes +to full-blooded Negroes, may be the result of a westward migration +of some people like the "Leukoæthiopi" of Pliny, or they may have +arisen from the migration of Berber mulattoes in the western oases, +driven south by Romans and Arabs.</p> + +<p>These wandering herdsmen lived on the Senegal River and the +ocean in very early times and were not heard of until the nineteenth +century. By this time they had changed to a Negro or dark mulatto +people and lived scattered in small communities between the Atlantic +and Darfur. They were without political union or national +sentiment, but were all Mohammedans. Then came a sudden +change, and led by a religious fanatic, these despised and persecuted +people became masters of the central Sudan. They were the ones +who at last broke down that great wedge of resisting Atlantic culture, +after it had been undermined and disintegrated by the American +slave trade.</p> + +<p>Thus Islam finally triumphed in the Sudan and the ancient culture +combined with the new. In the Sudan to-day one may find +evidences of the union of two classes of people. The representatives +of the older civilization dwell as peasants in small communities, +carrying on industries and speaking a large number of different languages. +With them or above them is the ruling Mohammedan caste, +speaking four main languages: Mandingo, Hausa, Fula, and Arabic. +These latter form the state builders. Negro blood predominates among +both classes, but naturally there is more Berber blood among the +Mohammedan invaders.</p> + +<p>Europe during the middle ages had some knowledge of these +movements in the Sudan and Africa. Melle and Songhay appear on +medieval maps. In literature we have many allusions: the mulatto +king, Feirifis, was one of Wolfram von Eschenbach's heroes; Prester +John furnished endless lore; Othello, the warrior, and the black king +represented by medieval art as among the three wise men, and the +various black Virgin Marys' all show legendary knowledge of what +African civilization was at that time doing.</p> + +<p>It is a curious commentary on modern prejudice that most of this +splendid history of civilization and uplift is unknown to-day, and +men confidently assert that Negroes have no history.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, II, 359-360.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Ibn Khaldun, quoted in Lugard, p. 128.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Quoted in Lugard, p. 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Es-Sa 'di, quoted by Lugard, p. 199.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Lugard, p. 373.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Mungo Park, quoted in Lugard, p. 374.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V_GUINEA_AND_CONGO" id="V_GUINEA_AND_CONGO" />V <br /><br />GUINEA AND CONGO</h2> + + +<p>One of the great cities of the Sudan was Jenne. The chronicle says +"that its markets are held every day of the week and its populations +are very enormous. Its seven thousand villages are so near to one +another that the chief of Jenne has no need of messengers. If he +wishes to send a note to Lake Dibo, for instance, it is cried from +the gate of the town and repeated from village to village, by which +means it reaches its destination almost instantly."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + + +<p>From the name of this city we get the modern name Guinea, +which is used to-day to designate the country contiguous to the great +gulf of that name—a territory often referred to in general as West +Africa. Here, reaching from the mouth of the Gambia to the mouth +of the Niger, is a coast of six hundred miles, where a marvelous +drama of world history has been enacted. The coast and its hinterland +comprehends many well-known names. First comes ancient +Guinea, then, modern Sierra Leone and Liberia; then follow the +various "coasts" of ancient traffic—the grain, ivory, gold, and slave +coasts—with the adjoining territories of Ashanti, Dahomey, Lagos, +and Benin, and farther back such tribal and territorial names as +those of the Mandingoes, Yorubas, the Mossi, Nupe, Borgu, and +others.</p> + +<p>Recent investigation makes it certain that an ancient civilization +existed on this coast which may have gone back as far as three thousand +years before Christ. Frobenius, perhaps fancifully, identified +this African coast with the Atlantis of the Greeks and as part of +that great western movement in human culture, "beyond the pillars +of Hercules," which thirteen centuries before Christ strove with +Egypt and the East. It is, at any rate, clear that ancient commerce +reached down the west coast. The Phoenicians, 600 B.C., and the +Carthaginians, a century or more later, record voyages, and these +may have been attempted revivals of still more ancient intercourse.</p> + +<p>These coasts at some unknown prehistoric period were peopled +from the Niger plateau toward the north and west by the black +West African type of Negro, while along the west end of the desert +these Negroes mingled with the Berbers, forming various Negroid +races.</p> + +<p>Movement and migration is evident along this coast in ancient and +modern times. The Yoruba-Benin-Dahomey peoples were among the +earliest arrivals, with their remarkable art and industry, which places +them in some lines of technique abreast with the modern world. +Behind them came the Mossi from the north, and many other peoples +in recent days have filtered through, like the Limba and Temni +of Sierra Leone and the Agni-Ashanti, who moved from Borgu some +two thousand years ago to the Gold and Ivory coasts.</p> + +<p>We have already noted in the main the history of black men along +the wonderful Niger and seen how, pushing up from the Gulf of +Guinea, a powerful wedge of ancient culture held back Islam for +a thousand years, now victorious, now stubbornly disputing every +inch of retreat. The center of this culture lay probably, in oldest +times, above the Bight of Benin, along the Slave Coast, and reached +east, west, and north. We trace it to-day not only in the remarkable +tradition of the natives, but in stone monuments, architecture, industrial +and social organization, and works of art in bronze, glass, +and terra cotta.</p> + +<p>Benin art has been practiced without interruption for centuries, +and Von Luschan says that it is "of extraordinary significance that +by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a local and monumental +art had been learned in Benin which in many respects equaled +European art and developed a technique of the very highest accomplishment."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>Summing up Yoruban civilization, Frobenius concluded that "the +technical summit of that civilization was reached in the terra-cotta +industry, and that the most important achievements in art were not +expressed in stone, but in fine clay baked in the furnace; that hollow +casting was thoroughly known, too, and practiced by these people; +that iron was mainly used for decoration; that, whatever their purpose, +they kept their glass beads in stoneware urns within their own +locality, and that they manufactured both earthen and glass ware; +that the art of weaving was highly developed among them; that the +stone monuments, it is true, show some dexterity in handling and +are so far instructive, but in other respects evidence a cultural condition +insufficiently matured to grasp the utility of stone monumental +material; and, above all, that the then great and significant idea of +the universe as imaged in the Templum was current in those +days."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Effort has naturally been made to ascribe this civilization to white +people. First it was ascribed to Portuguese influence, but much of it +is evidently older than the Portuguese discovery. Egypt and India +have been evoked and Greece and Carthage. But all these explanations +are far-fetched. If ever a people exhibited unanswerable evidence +of indigenous civilization, it is the west-coast Africans. Undoubtedly +they adapted much that came to them, utilized new +ideas, and grew from contact. But their art and culture is Negro +through and through.</p> + +<p>Yoruba forms one of the three city groups of West Africa; another +is around Timbuktu, and a third in the Hausa states. The Timbuktu +cities have from five to fifteen hundred towns, while the Yoruba +cities have one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants and more. +The Hausa cities are many of them important, but few are as large +as the Yoruba cities and they lie farther apart. AH three centers, +however, are connected with the Niger, and the group nearest the +coast—that is, the Yoruba cities—has the greatest numbers of towns, +the most developed architectural styles, and the oldest institutions.</p> + +<p>The Yoruba cities are not only different from the Sudanese in +population, but in their social relations. The Sudanese cities were +influenced from the desert and the Mediterranean, and form nuclei +of larger surrounding monarchial states. The Yoruba cities, on the +other hand, remained comparatively autonomous organizations down +to modern times, and their relative importance changed from time +to time without developing an imperialistic idea or subordinating +the group to one overpowering city.</p> + +<p>This social and industrial state of the Yorubas formerly spread +and wielded great influence. We find Yoruba reaching out and subduing +states like Nupe toward the northward. But the industrial +democracy and city autonomy of Yoruba lent itself indifferently to +conquest, and the state fell eventually a victim to the fanatical +Fula Mohammedans and was made a part of the modern sultanate +of Gando.</p> + +<p>West of Yoruba on the lower courses of the Niger is Benin, an +ancient state which in 1897 traced its twenty-three kings back one +thousand years; some legends even named a line of sixty kings. It +seems probable that Benin developed the imperial idea and once extended +its rule into the Congo valley. Later and also to the west of +the Yoruba come two states showing a fiercer and ruder culture, +Dahomey and Ashanti. The state of Dahomey was founded by +Tacondomi early in the seventeenth century, and developed into a +fierce and bloody tyranny with wholesale murder. The king had a +body of two thousand to five thousand Amazons renowned for their +bravery and armed with rifles. The kingdom was overthrown by the +French in 1892-93. Under Sai Tutu, Ashanti arose to power in the +seventeenth century. A military aristocracy with cruel blood sacrifices +was formed. By 1816 the king had at his disposal two hundred +thousand soldiers. The Ashanti power was crushed by the English +in the war of 1873-74.</p> + +<p>In these states and in later years in Benin the whole character of +west-coast culture seems to change. In place of the Yoruban culture, +with its city democracy, its elevated religious ideas, its finely organized +industry, and its noble art, came Ashanti and Dahomey. What +was it that changed the character of the west coast from this to the +orgies of war and blood sacrifice which we read of later in these +lands?</p> + +<p>There can be but one answer: the slave trade. Not simply the +sale of men, but an organized traffic of such proportions and widely +organized ramifications as to turn the attention and energies of men +from nearly all other industries, encourage war and all the cruelest +passions of war, and concentrate this traffic in precisely that part of +Africa farthest from the ancient Mediterranean lines of trade.</p> + +<p>We need not assume that the cultural change was sudden or absolute. +Ancient Yoruba had the cruelty of a semi-civilized land, but it +was not dominant or tyrannical. Modern Benin and Dahomey +showed traces of skill, culture, and industry along with inexplicable +cruelty and bloodthirstiness. But it was the slave trade that turned +the balance and set these lands backward. Dahomey was the last +word in a series of human disasters which began with the defeat of +the Askias at Tenkadibou.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>From the middle of the fifteenth to the last half of the nineteenth +centuries the American slave trade centered in Guinea and devastated +the coast morally, socially, and physically. European rum and +fire arms were traded for human beings, and it was not until 1787 +that any measures were taken to counteract this terrible scourge. In +that year the idea arose of repatriating stolen Negroes on that coast +and establishing civilized centers to supplant the slave trade. About +four hundred Negroes from England were sent to Sierra Leone, to +whom the promoters considerately added sixty white prostitutes as +wives. The climate on the low coast, however, was so deadly that +new recruits were soon needed. An American Negro, Thomas +Peters, who had served as sergeant under Sir Henry Clinton in the +British army in America, went to England seeking an allotment of +land for his fellows. The Sierra Leone Company welcomed him +and offered free passage and land in Sierra Leone to the Negroes of +Nova Scotia. As a result fifteen vessels sailed with eleven hundred +and ninety Negroes in 1792. Arriving in Africa, they found the +chief white man in control there so drunk that he soon died of +delirium tremens. John Clarkson, however, brother of Thomas +Clarkson, the abolitionist, eventually took the lead, founded Freetown, +and the colony began its checkered career. In 1896 the colony +was saved from insurrection by the exiled Maroon Negroes from +Jamaica. After 1833, when emancipation in English colonies took +place, severer measures against the slave trade was possible and the +colony began to grow. To-day its imports and exports amount to +fifteen million dollars a year.</p> + +<p>Liberia was a similar American experiment. In 1816 American +philanthropists decided that slavery was bound to die out, but that +the problem lay in getting rid of the freed Negroes, of which there +were then two hundred thousand in the United States. Accordingly +the American Colonization Society was proposed this year and +founded January 1, 1817, with Bushrod Washington as President. +It was first thought to encourage migration to Sierra Leone, and +eighty-eight Negroes were sent, but they were not welcomed. As a +result territory was bought in the present confines of Liberia, December +15, 1821, and colonists began to arrive. A little later an African +depot for recaptured slaves taken in the contraband slave trade, +provided for in the Act of 1819, was established and an agent was +sent to Africa to form a settlement. Gradually this settlement was +merged with the settlement of the Colonization Society, and from +this union Liberia was finally evolved.</p> + +<p>The last white governor of Liberia died in 1841 and was succeeded +by the first colored governor, Joseph J. Roberts, a Virginian. +The total population in 1843 was about twenty-seven hundred and +ninety, and with this as a beginning in 1847 Governor Roberts declared +the independence of the state. The recognition of Liberian +independence by all countries except the United States followed in +1849. The United States, not wishing to receive a Negro minister, +did not recognize Liberia until 1862.</p> + +<p>No sooner was the independence of Liberia announced than England +and France began a long series of aggressions to limit her territory +and sovereignty. Considerable territory was lost by treaty, and +in the effort to get capital to develop the rest, Liberia was saddled +with a debt of four hundred thousand dollars, of which she received +less than one hundred thousand dollars in actual cash. Finally the +Liberians turned to the United States for capital and protection. As +a result the Liberian customs have been put under international +control and Major Charles Young, the ranking Negro officer in the +United States army, with several colored assistants, has been put in +charge of the making of roads and drilling a constabulary to keep +order in the interior.</p> + +<p>To-day Liberia has an area of forty thousand square miles, about +three hundred and fifty miles of coast line, and an estimated total +population of two million of which fifty thousand are civilized. The +revenue amounted in 1913 to $531,500. The imports in 1912 were +$1,667,857 and the exports $1,199,152. The latter consisted chiefly +of rubber, palm oil and kernels, coffee, piassava fiber, ivory, ginger, +camwood, and arnotto.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Liberia's greatest citizen was the late Edward Wilmot +Blyden, who migrated in early life from the Danish West Indies +and became a prophet of the renaissance of the Negro race.</p> + +<p>Turning now from Guinea we pass down the west coast. In 1482 +Diego Cam of Portugal, sailing this coast, set a stone at the mouth +of a great river which he called "The Mighty," but which eventually +came to be known by the name of the powerful Negro kingdom +through which it flowed—the Congo.</p> + +<p>We must think of the valley of the Congo with its intricate interlacing +of water routes and jungle of forests as a vast caldron shut +away at first from the African world by known and unknown physical +hindrances. Then it was penetrated by the tiny red dwarfs and +afterward horde after horde of tall black men swirled into the valley +like a maelstrom, moving usually from north to east and from south +to west.</p> + +<p>The Congo valley became, therefore, the center of the making of +what we know to-day as the Bantu nations. They are not a unified +people, but a congeries of tribes of considerable physical diversity, +united by the compelling bond of language and other customs imposed +on the conquered by invading conquerors.</p> + +<p>The history or these invasions we must to-day largely imagine. +Between two and three thousand years ago the wilder tribes of +Negroes began to move out of the region south or southeast of Lake +Chad. This was always a land of shadows and legends, where fearful +cannibals dwelt and where no Egyptian or Ethiopian or Sudanese +armies dared to go. It is possible, however, that pressure from civilization +in the Nile valley and rising culture around Lake Chad was +at this time reënforced by expansion of the Yoruba-Benin culture +on the west coast. Perhaps, too, developing culture around the +Great Lakes in the east beckoned or the riotous fertility of the +Congo valleys became known. At any rate the movement commenced, +now by slow stages, now in wild forays. There may have +been a preliminary movement from east to west to the Gulf of +Guinea. The main movement, however, was eastward, skirting the +Congo forests and passing down by the Victoria Nyanza and Lake +Tanganyika. Here two paths beckoned: the lakes and the sea to the +east, the Congo to the west. A great stream of men swept toward the +ocean and, dividing, turned northward and fought its way down the +Nile valley and into the Abyssinian highlands; another branch +turned south and approached the Zambesi, where we shall meet it +again.</p> + +<p>Another horde of invaders turned westward and entered the valley +of the Congo in three columns. The northern column moved along +the Lualaba and Congo rivers to the Cameroons; the second column +became the industrial and state-building Luba and Lunda peoples in +the southern Congo valley and Angola; while the third column +moved into Damaraland and mingled with Bushman and Hottentot.</p> + +<p>In the Congo valley the invaders settled in village and plain, +absorbed such indigenous inhabitants as they found or drove them +deeper into the forest, and immediately began to develop industry +and political organization. They became skilled agriculturists, raising +in some localities a profusion of cereals, fruit, and vegetables such +as manioc, maize, yams, sweet potatoes, ground nuts, sorghum, +gourds, beans, peas, bananas, and plantains. Everywhere they +showed skill in mining and the welding of iron, copper, and other +metals. They made weapons, wire and ingots, cloth, and pottery, and +a widespread system of trade arose. Some tribes extracted rubber +from the talamba root; others had remarkable breeds of fowl and +cattle, and still others divided their people by crafts into farmers, +smiths, boat builders, warriors, cabinet makers, armorers, and +speakers. Women here and there took part in public assemblies and +were rulers in some cases. Large towns were built, some of which +required hours to traverse from end to end.</p> + +<p>Many tribes developed intelligence of a high order. Wissmann +called the Ba Luba "a nation of thinkers." Bateman found them +"thoroughly and unimpeachably honest, brave to foolhardiness, and +faithful to each other and to their superiors." One of their kings, +Calemba, "a really princely prince," Bateman says would "amongst +any people be a remarkable and indeed in many respects a magnificent +man."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>These beginnings of human culture were, however, peculiarly +vulnerable to invading hosts of later comers. There were no natural +protecting barriers like the narrow Nile valley or the Kong mountains +or the forests below Lake Chad. Once the pathways to the valley +were open and for hundreds of years the newcomers kept arriving, +especially from the welter of tribes south of the Sudan and west +of the Nile, which rising culture beyond kept in unrest and turmoil.</p> + +<p>Against these intruders there was but one defense, the State. +State building was thus forced on the Congo valley. How early it +started we cannot say, but when the Portuguese arrived in the +fifteenth century, there had existed for centuries a large state +among the Ba-Congo, with its capital at the city now known as San +Salvador.</p> + +<p>The Negro Mfumu, or emperor, was eventually induced to accept +Christianity. His sons and many young Negroes of high birth +were taken to Portugal to be educated. There several were raised to +the Catholic priesthood and one became bishop; others distinguished +themselves at the universities. Thus suddenly there arose a Catholic +kingdom south of the valley of the Congo, which lasted three centuries, +but was partially overthrown by invading barbarians from the +interior in the seventeenth century. A king of Congo still reigns as +pensioner of Portugal, and on the coast to-day are the remains of +the kingdom in the civilized blacks and mulattoes, who are intelligent +traders and boat builders.</p> + +<p>Meantime the Luba-Lunda people to the eastward founded Kantanga +and other states, and in the sixteenth century the larger and +more ambitious realm of the Mwata Yamvo. The last of the fourteen +rulers of this line was feudal lord of about three hundred chiefs, who +paid him tribute in ivory, skins, corn, cloth, and salt. His territory +included about one hundred thousand square miles and two million +or more inhabitants. Eventually this state became torn by internal +strife and revolt, especially by attacks from the south across the +Congo-Zambesi divide.</p> + +<p>Farther north, among the Ba-Lolo and the Ba-Songo, the village +policy persisted and the cannibals of the northeast pressed down on +the more settled tribes. The result was a curious blending of war +and industry, artistic tastes and savage customs.</p> + +<p>The organized slave trade of the Arabs penetrated the Congo valley +in the sixteenth century and soon was aiding all the forces of +unrest and turmoil. Industry was deranged and many tribes forced +to take refuge in caves and other hiding places.</p> + +<p>Here, as on the west coast, disintegration and retrogression followed, +for as the American traffic lessened, the Arabian traffic increased. +When, therefore, Stanley opened the Congo valley to +modern knowledge, Leopold II of Belgium conceived the idea of +founding here a free international state which was to bring civilization +to the heart of Africa. Consequently there was formed in 1878 +an international committee to study the region. Stanley was finally +commissioned to inquire as to the best way of introducing European +trade and culture. "I am charged," he said, "to open and keep open, +if possible, all such districts and countries as I may explore, for the +benefit of the commercial world. The mission is supported by a +philanthropic society, which numbers nobleminded men of several +nations. It is not a religious society, but my instructions are entirely +of that spirit. No violence must be used, and wherever rejected, the +mission must withdraw to seek another field."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>The Bula Matadi or Stone Breaker, as the natives called Stanley, +threw himself energetically into the work and had by 1881 built a +road past the falls to the plateau, where thousands of miles of river +navigation were thus opened. Stations were established, and by 1884 +Stanley returned armed with four hundred and fifty "treaties" with +the native chiefs, and the new "State" appealed to the world for +recognition.</p> + +<p>The United States first recognized the "Congo Free State," which +was at last made a sovereign power under international guarantees +by the Congress of Berlin in the year 1885, and Leopold II was +chosen its king. The state had an area of about nine hundred thousand +square miles, with a population of about thirty million.</p> + +<p>One of the first tasks before the new state was to check the Arab +slave traders. The Arabs had hitherto acted as traders and middlemen +along the upper Congo, and when the English and Congo state +overthrew Mzidi, the reigning king in the Kantanga country, a general +revolt of the Arabs and mulattoes took place. For a time, 1892-93, +the whites were driven out, but in a year or two the Arabs and +their allies were subdued.</p> + +<p>Humanity and commerce, however, did not replace the Arab slave +traders. Rather European greed and serfdom were substituted. The +land was confiscated by the state and farmed out to private Belgian +corporations. The wilder cannibal tribes were formed into a militia +to prey on the industrious, who were taxed with specific amounts of +ivory and rubber, and scourged and mutilated if they failed to pay. +Harris declares that King Leopold's regime meant the death of +twelve million natives.</p> + +<p>"Europe was staggered at the Leopoldian atrocities, and they were +terrible indeed; but what we, who were behind the scenes, felt most +keenly was the fact that the real catastrophe in the Congo was the +desolation and murder in the larger sense. The invasion of family +life, the ruthless destruction of every social barrier, the shattering of +every tribal law, the introduction of criminal practices which struck +the chiefs of the people dumb with horror—in a word, a veritable +avalanche of filth and immorality overwhelmed the Congo tribes."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>So notorious did the exploitation and misrule become that Leopold +was forced to take measures toward reform, and finally in 1909 +the Free State became a Belgian colony. Some reforms have been +inaugurated and others may follow, but the valley of the Congo will +long stand as a monument of shame to Christianity and European +civilization.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Quoted in Du Bois: <i>Timbuktu</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Von Luschan: <i>Verhandlungen der berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie</i>, +etc., 1898.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, Vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Cf. p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Keane: <i>Africa</i>, II, 117-118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>The Congo</i>, I, Chap. III.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Harris: <i>Dawn in Africa</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI_THE_GREAT_LAKES_AND_ZYMBABWE" id="VI_THE_GREAT_LAKES_AND_ZYMBABWE" />VI<br /><br /> THE GREAT LAKES AND ZYMBABWE</h2> + + +<p>We have already seen how a branch of the conquering Bantus +turned eastward by the Great Lakes and thus reached the sea and +eventually both the Nile and South Africa.</p> + +<p>This brought them into the ancient and mysterious land far up +the Nile, south of Ethiopia. Here lay the ancient Punt of the +Egyptians (whether we place it in Somaliland or, as seems far more +likely, around the Great Lakes) and here, as the Egyptians thought, +their civilization began. The earliest inhabitants of the land were +apparently of the Bushman or Hottentot type of Negro. These were +gradually pushed southward and westward by the intrusion of the +Nilotic Negroes. Five thousand years before Christ the mulatto +Egyptians were in the Nile valley below the First Cataract. The +Negroes were in the Nile valley down as far as the Second Cataract +and between the First and Second Cataracts were Negroes into +whose veins Semitic blood had penetrated more or less. These +mixed elements became the ancestors of the modern Somali, Gala, +Bishari, and Beja and spread Negro blood into Arabia beyond the +Red Sea. The Nilotic Negroes to the south early became great +traders in ivory, gold, leopard skins, gums, beasts, birds, and slaves, +and they opened up systematic trade between Egypt and the Great +Lakes.</p> + +<p>The result was endless movement and migration both in ancient +and modern days, which makes the cultural history of the Great +Lakes region very difficult to understand. Three great elements are, +however, clear: first, the Egyptian element, by the northward migration +of the Negro ancestors of predynastic Egypt and the southern +conquests and trade of dynastic Egypt; second, the Semitic influence +from Arabia and Persia; third, the Negro influences from +western and central Africa.</p> + +<p>The migration of the Bantu is the first clearly defined movement +of modern times. As we have shown, they began to move southward +at least a thousand years before Christ, skirting the Congo forests +and wandering along the Great Lakes and down to the Zambesi. +What did they find in this land?</p> + +<p>We do not know certainly, but from what we do know we may +reconstruct the situation in this way: the primitive culture of the +Hottentots of Punt had been further developed by them and by +other stronger Negro stocks until it reached a highly developed culture. +Widespread agriculture, and mining of gold, silver, and precious +stones started a trade that penetrated to Asia and North Africa. +This may have been the source of the gold of the Ophir.</p> + +<p>The state that thus arose became in time strongly organized; it +employed slave labor in crushing the hard quartz, sinking pits, and +carrying underground galleries; it carried out a system of irrigation +and built stone buildings and fortifications. There exists to-day +many remains of these building operations in the Kalahari desert +and in northern Rhodesia. Five hundred groups, covering over an +area of one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, lie between +the Limpopo and Zambesi rivers. Mining operations have been carried +on in these plains for generations, and one estimate is that at +least three hundred and seventy-five million dollars' worth of gold +had been extracted. Some have thought that the older workings +must date back to one or even three thousand years before the +Christian era.</p> + +<p>"There are other mines," writes De Barros in the seventeenth century,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> +"in a district called Toroa, which is otherwise known as the +kingdom of Butua, whose ruler is a prince, by name Burrow, a vassal +of Benomotapa. This land is near the other which we said consisted +of extensive plains, and those ruins are the oldest that are known in +that region. They are all in a plain, in the middle of which stands +a square fortress, all of dressed stones within and without, well +wrought and of marvelous size, without any lime showing the +joinings, the walls of which are over twenty-five hands thick, but +the height is not so great compared to the thickness. And above the +gateway of that edifice is an inscription which some Moorish [Arab] +traders who were there could not read, nor say what writing it was. +All these structures the people of this country call Symbaoe [Zymbabwe], +which with them means a court, for every place where +Benomotapa stays is so called."</p> + +<p>Later investigation has shown that these buildings were in many +cases carefully planned and built fortifications. At Niekerk, for instance, +nine or ten hills are fortified on concentric walls thirty to +fifty feet in number, with a place for the village at the top. The +buildings are forts, miniature citadels, and also workshops and cattle +kraals. Iron implements and handsome pottery were found here, and +close to the Zambesi there are extraordinary fortifications. Farther +south at Inyanga there is less strong defense, and at Umtali there +are no fortifications, showing that builders feared invasion from the +north.</p> + +<p>These people worked in gold, silver, tin, copper, and bronze and +made beautiful pottery. There is evidence of religious significance +in the buildings, and what is called the temple was the royal residence +and served as a sort of acropolis. The surrounding residences +in the valley were evidently occupied by wealthy traders and were +not fortified. Here the gold was received from surrounding districts +and bartered with traders.</p> + +<p>As usual there have been repeated attempts to find an external +and especially an Asiatic origin for this culture. So far, however, +archeological research seems to confirm its African origin. The implements, +weapons, and art are characteristically African and there +is no evident connection with outside sources. How far back this +civilization dates it is difficult to say, a great deal depending upon +the dating of the iron age in South Africa. If it was the same as in +the Mediterranean regions, the earliest limit was 1000 B.C.; it might, +however, have been much earlier, especially if, as seems probable, +the use of iron originated in Africa. On the other hand the culmination +of this culture has been placed by some as late as the modern +middle ages.</p> + +<p>What was it that overthrew this civilization? Undoubtedly the +same sort of raids of barbarous warriors that we have known in our +day. For instance, in 1570 there came upon the country of Mozambique, +farther up the coast, "such an inundation of pagans that they +could not be numbered. They came from that part of Monomotapa +where is the great lake from which spring these great rivers. They +left no other signs of the towns they passed but the heaps of ruins +and the bones of inhabitants." So, too, it is told how the Zimbas +came, "a strange people never before seen there, who, leaving their +own country, traversed a great part of this Ethiopia like a scourge +of God, destroying every living thing they came across. They were +twenty thousand strong and marched without children or women," +just as four hundred years later the Zulu impi marched. Again in +1602 a horde of people came from the interior called the Cabires, +or cannibals. They entered the kingdom of Monomotapa, and the +reigning king, being weak, was in great terror. Thus gradually the +Monomotapa fell, and its power was scattered until the Kaffir-Zulu +raids of our day.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>The Arab writer, Macoudi, in the tenth century visited the East +African coast somewhere north of the equator. He found the Indian +Sea at that time frequented by Arab and Persian vessels, but there +were no Asiatic settlements on the African shore. The Bantu, or as +he calls them, Zenji, inhabited the country as far south as Sofala, +where they bordered upon the Bushmen. These Bantus were under +a ruler with the dynastic title of Waklimi. He was paramount over +all the other tribes of the north and could put three hundred thousand +men in the field. They used oxen as beasts of burden and the +country produced gold in abundance, while panther skin was largely +used for clothing. Ivory was sold to Asia and the Bantu used iron +for personal adornment instead of gold or silver. They rode on their +oxen, which ran with great speed, and they ate millet and honey +and the flesh of animals.</p> + +<p>Inland among the Bantu arose later the line of rulers called the +Monomotapa among the gifted Makalanga. Their state was very +extensive, ranging from the coast far into the interior and from +Mozambique down to the Limpopo. It was strongly organized, with +feudatory allied states, and carried on an extensive commerce by +means of the traders on the coast. The kings were converted to +nominal Christianity by the Portuguese.</p> + +<p>There are indications of trade between Nupe in West Africa and +Sofala on the east coast, and certainly trade between Asia and East +Africa is earlier than the beginning of the Christian era. The Asiatic +traders settled on the coast and by means of mulatto and Negro +merchants brought Central Africa into contact with Arabia, India, +China, and Malaysia.</p> + +<p>The coming of the Asiatics was in this wise: Zaide, great-grandson +of Ali, nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed, was banished from +Arabia as a heretic. He passed over to Africa and formed temporary +settlements. His people mingled with the blacks, and the resulting +mulatto traders, known as the Emoxaidi, seem to have wandered as +far south as the equator. Soon other Arabian families came over on +account of oppression and founded the towns of Magadosho and +Brava, both not far north of the equator. The first town became a +place of importance and other settlements were made. The Emoxaidi, +whom the later immigrants regarded as heretics, were driven +inland and became the interpreting traders between the coast and +the Bantu. Some wanderers from Magadosho came into the Port of +Sofala and there learned that gold could be obtained. This led to a +small Arab settlement at that place.</p> + +<p>Seventy years later, and about fifty years before the Norman +conquest of England, certain Persians settled at Kilwa in East Africa, +led by Ali, who had been despised in his land because he was the +son of a black Abyssinian slave mother. Kilwa, because of this, +eventually became the most important commercial station on the +East African coast, and in this and all these settlements a very large +mulatto population grew up, so that very soon the whole settlement +was indistinguishable in color from the Bantu.</p> + +<p>In 1330 Ibn Batuta visited Kilwa. He found an abundance of +ivory and some gold and heard that the inhabitants of Kilwa had +gained victories over the Zenji or Bantu. Kilwa had at that time +three hundred mosques and was "built of handsome houses of stone +and lime, and very lofty, with their windows like those of the +Christians; in the same way it has streets, and these houses have got +terraces, and the wood-work is with the masonry, with plenty of +gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much water."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +Kilwa after a time captured Sofala, seizing it from Magadosho. +Eventually Kilwa became mistress of the island of Zanzibar, of +Mozambique, and of much other territory. The forty-third ruler of +Kilwa after Ali was named Abraham, and he was ruling when the +Portuguese arrived. The latter reported that these people cultivated +rice and cocoa, built ships, and had considerable commerce with +Asia. All the people, of whatever color, were Mohammedans, and +the richer were clothed in gorgeous robes of silk and velvet. They +traded with the inland Bantus and met numerous tribes, receiving +gold, ivory, millet, rice, cattle, poultry, and honey.</p> + +<p>On the islands the Asiatics were independent, but on the main +lands south of Kilwa the sheiks ruled only their own people, under +the overlordship of the Bantus, to whom they were compelled to +pay large tribute each year.</p> + +<p>Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and +went north on the east coast as far as India. In the next ten years +the Portuguese had occupied more than six different points on that +coast, including Sofala.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Thus civilization waxed and waned in East Africa among prehistoric +Negroes, Arab and Persian mulattoes on the coast, in the +Zend or Zeng empire of Bantu Negroes, and later in the Bantu rule +of the Monomotapa. And thus, too, among later throngs of the +fiercer, warlike Bantu, the ancient culture of the land largely died. +Yet something survived, and in the modern Bantu state, language, +and industry can be found clear links that establish the essential +identity of the absorbed peoples with the builders of Zymbabwe.</p> + +<p>So far we have traced the history of the lands into which the +southward stream of invading Bantus turned, and have followed +them to the Limpopo River. We turn now to the lands north from +Lake Nyassa.</p> + +<p>The aboriginal Negroes sustained in prehistoric time invasions +from the northeast by Negroids of a type like the ancient Egyptians +and like the modern Gallas, Masai, and Somalis. To these migrations +were added attacks from the Nile Negroes to the north and +the Bantu invaders from the south. This has led to great differences +among the groups of the population and in their customs. Some are +fierce mountaineers, occupying hilly plateaus six thousand feet above +the sea level; others, like the Wa Swahili, are traders on the coast. +There are the Masai, chocolate-colored and frizzly-haired, organized +for war and cattle lifting; and Negroids like the Gallas, who, blending +with the Bantus, have produced the race of modern Uganda.</p> + +<p>It was in this region that the kingdom of Kitwara was founded +by the Galla chief, Kintu. About the beginning of the nineteenth +century the empire was dismembered, the largest share falling to +Uganda. The ensuing history of Uganda is of great interest. When +King Mutesa came to the throne in 1862, he found Mohammedan +influences in his land and was induced to admit English Protestants +and French Catholics. Uganda thereupon became an extraordinary +religious battlefield between these three beliefs. Mutesa's successor, +Mwanga, caused an English bishop to be killed in 1885, believing +(as has since proven quite true) that the religion he offered would +be used as a cloak for conquest. The final result was that, after +open war between the religions, Uganda was made an English protectorate +in 1894.</p> + +<p>The Negroes of Uganda are an intelligent people who had organized +a complex feudal state. At the head stood the king, and +under him twelve feudal lords. The present king, Daudi Chua, is +the young grandson of Mutesa and rules under the overlordship of +England.</p> + +<p>Many things show the connection between Egypt and this part of +Africa. The same glass beads are found in Uganda and Upper +Egypt, and similar canoes are built. Harps and other instruments +bear great resemblance. Finally the Bahima, as the Galla invaders +are called, are startlingly Egyptian in type; at the same time they +are undoubtedly Negro in hair and color. Perhaps we have here the +best racial picture of what ancient Egyptian and upper Nile regions +were in predynastic times and later.</p> + +<p>Thus in outline was seen the mission of The People—La Bantu +as they called themselves. They migrated, they settled, they tore +down, and they learned, and they in turn were often overthrown by +succeeding tribes of their own folk. They rule with their tongue +and their power all Africa south of the equator, save where the +Europeans have entered. They have never been conquered, although +the gold and diamond traders have sought to debauch them, and +the ivory and rubber capitalists have cruelly wronged their weaker +groups. They are the Africans with whom the world of to-morrow +must reckon, just as the world of yesterday knew them to its cost.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Quoted in Bent: <i>Ruined Cities of Mashonaland</i>, pp. 203 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Cf. "Ethiopia Oriental," by J. Dos Santos, in Theal's <i>Records of South +Africa</i>, Vol. VII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Barbosa, quoted in Keane, II, 482.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> It was called Sofala, from an Arabic word, and may be associated with the +Ophir of Solomon. So, too, the river Sabi, a little off Sofala, may be associated +with the name of the Queen of Sheba, whose lineage was supposed to be perpetuated +in the powerful Monomotapa as well as the Abyssinians.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII_THE_WAR_OF_RACES_AT_LANDS_END" id="VII_THE_WAR_OF_RACES_AT_LANDS_END" />VII <br /><br />THE WAR OF RACES AT LAND'S END</h2> + + +<p>Primitive man in Africa is found in the interior jungles and down +at Land's End in South Africa. The Pygmy people in the jungles +represent to-day a small survival from the past, but a survival of +curious interest, pushed aside by the torrent of conquest. Also pushed +on by these waves of Bantu conquest, moved the ancient Abatwa or +Bushmen. They are small in stature, yellow in color, with crisp-curled +hair. The traditions of the Bushmen say that they came southward +from the regions of the Great Lakes, and indeed the king and +queen of Punt, as depicted by the Egyptians, were Bushmen or +Hottentots.</p> + +<p>Their tribes may be divided, in accordance with their noticeable +artistic talents, into the painters and the sculptors. The sculptors +entered South Africa by moving southward through the more central +portions of the country, crossing the Zambesi, and coming down +to the Cape. The painters, on the other hand, came through Damaraland +on the west coast; when they came to the great mountain +regions, they turned eastward and can be traced as far as the mountains +opposite Delagoa Bay. The mass of them settled down in the +lower part of the Cape and in the Kalahari desert. The painters were +true cave dwellers, but the sculptors lived in large communities on +the stony hills, which they marked with their carvings.</p> + +<p>These Bushmen believed in an ancient race of people who preceded +them in South Africa. They attributed magic power to these +unknown folk, and said that some of them had been translated as +stars to the sky. Before their groups were dispersed the Bushmen +had regular government. Tribes with their chiefs occupied well-defined +tracts of country and were subdivided into branch tribes +under subsidiary chiefs. The great cave represented the dignity and +glory of the entire tribe.</p> + +<p>The Bushmen suffered most cruelly in the succeeding migrations +and conquests of South Africa. They fought desperately in self-defense; +they saw their women and children carried into bondage +and they themselves hunted like wild beasts. Both savage and civilized +men appropriated their land. Still they were brave people. "In +this struggle for existence their bitterest enemies, of whatever shade +of color they might be, were forced to make an unqualified acknowledgement +of the courage and daring they so invariably exhibited."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>Here, to a remote corner of the world, where, as one of their +number said, they had supposed that the only beings in the world +were Bushmen and lions, came a series of invaders. It was the outer +ripples of civilization starting far away, the indigenous and external +civilizations of Africa beating with great impulse among the Ethiopians +and the Egyptian mulattoes and Sudanese Negroes and +Yorubans, and driving the Bantu race southward. The Bantus +crowded more and more upon the primitive Bushmen, and probably +a mingling of the Bushmen and the Bantus gave rise to the Hottentots.</p> + +<p>The Hottentots, or as they called themselves, Khoi Khoin (Men +of Men), were physically a stronger race than the Abatwa and gave +many evidences of degeneration from a high culture, especially in +the "phenomenal perfection" of a language which "is so highly developed, +both in its rich phonetic system, as represented by a very +delicately graduated series of vowels and diphthongs, and in its +varied grammatical structure, that Lepsius sought for its affinities in +the Egyptian at the other end of the continent."</p> + +<p>When South Africa was first discovered there were two distinct +types of Hottentot. The more savage Hottentots were simply large, +strong Bushmen, using weapons superior to the Bushmen, without +domestic cattle or sheep. Other tribes nearer the center of South +Africa were handsomer in appearance and raised an Egyptian breed +of cattle which they rode.</p> + +<p>In general the Hottentots were yellow, with close-curled hair, +high cheek bones, and somewhat oblique eyes. Their migration commenced +about the end of the fourteenth century and was, as is usual +in such cases, a scattered, straggling movement. The traditions of +the Hottentots point to the lake country of Central Africa as their +place of origin, whence they were driven by the Bechuana tribes of +the Bantu. They fled westward to the ocean and then turned south +and came upon the Bushmen, whom they had only partially subdued +when the Dutch arrived as settlers in 1652.</p> + +<p>The Dutch "Boers" began by purchasing land from the Hottentots +and then, as they grew more powerful, they dispossessed the dark +men and tried to enslave them. There grew up a large Dutch-Hottentot +class. Indeed the filtration of Negro blood noticeable in +modern Boers accounts for much curious history. Soon after the +advent of the Dutch some of the Hottentots, of whom there were +not more than thirty or forty thousand, led by the Korana clans, +began slowly to retreat northward, followed by the invading Dutch +and fighting the Dutch, each other, and the wretched Bushmen. In +the latter part of the eighteenth century the Hottentots had reached +the great interior plain and met the on-coming outposts of the Bantu +nations.</p> + +<p>The Bechuana, whom the Hottentots first met, were the most +advanced of the Negro tribes of Central Africa. They had crossed +the Zambesi in the fourteenth or fifteenth century; their government +was a sort of feudal system with hereditary chiefs and vassals; they +were careful agriculturists, laid out large towns with great regularity, +and were the most skilled of smiths. They used stone in building, +carved on wood, and many of them, too, were keen traders. These +tribes, coming southward, occupied the east-central part of South +Africa comprising modern Bechuanaland. Apparently they had +started from the central lake country somewhere late in the fifteenth +century, and by the middle of the eighteenth century one of their +great chiefs, Tao, met the on-coming Hottentots.</p> + +<p>The Hottentots compelled Tao to retreat, but the mulatto Gricquas +arrived from the south, and, allying themselves with the +Bechuana, stopped the rout. The Gricquas sprang from and took +their name from an old Hottentot tribe. They were led by Kok and +Barends, and by adding other elements they became, partly through +their own efforts and partly through the efforts of the missionaries, a +community of fairly well civilized people. In Gricqualand West the +mulatto Gricquas, under their chiefs Kok and Waterboer, lived until +the discovery of diamonds.</p> + +<p>The Griquas and Bechuana tribes were thus gradually checking +the Hottentots when, in the nineteenth century, there came two +new developments: first, the English took possession of Cape Colony, +and the Dutch began to move in larger numbers toward the +interior; secondly, a newer and fiercer element of the Bantu tribes, +the Zulu-Kaffirs, appeared. The Kaffirs, or as they called themselves, +the Amazosas, claimed descent from Zuide, a great chief of the fifteenth +century in the lake country. They are among the tallest people +in the world, averaging five feet ten inches, and are slim, well-proportioned, +and muscular. The more warlike tribes were usually +clothed in leopard or ox skins. Cattle formed their chief wealth, +stock breeding and hunting and fighting their main pursuits. Mentally +they were men of tact and intelligence, with a national religion +based upon ancestor worship, while their government was a +patriarchal monarchy limited by an aristocracy and almost feudal in +character. The common law which had grown up from the decisions +of the chiefs made the head of the family responsible for the conduct +of its branches, a village for all its residents, and the clan for +all its villages. Finally there was a paramount chief, who was the +civil and military father of his people. These people laid waste to +the coast regions and in 1779 came in contact with the Dutch. A +series of Dutch-Kaffir wars ensued between 1779 and 1795 in which +the Dutch were hard pressed.</p> + +<p>In 1806 the English took final possession of Cape Colony. At that +time there were twenty-five thousand Boers, twenty-five thousand +pure and mixed Hottentots, and twenty-five thousand slaves secured +from the east coast. Between 1811 and 1877 there were six Kaffir-English +wars. One of these in 1818 grew out of the ignorant interference +of the English with the Kaffir tribal system; then there came +a terrible war between 1834 and 1835, followed by the annexation +of all the country as far as the Kei River. The war of the Axe +(1846-48) led to further annexation by the British.</p> + +<p>Hostilities broke out again in 1856 and 1863. In the former year, +despairing of resistance to invading England, a prophet arose who +advised the wholesale destruction of all Kaffir property except weapons, +in order that this faith might bring back their dead heroes. The +result was that almost a third of the nation perished from hunger. +Fresh troubles occurred in 1877, when the Ama-Xosa confederacy +was finally broken up, and to-day gradually these tribes are passing +from independence to a state of mild vassalage to the British.</p> + +<p>Meantime the more formidable part of the Zulu-Kaffirs had been +united under the terrible Chief Chaka. He had organized a military +system, not a new one by any means, but one of which we hear +rumors back in the lake regions in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries. McDonald says, "There has probably never been a more +perfect system of discipline than that by which Chaka ruled his +army and kingdom. At a review an order might be given in the most +unexpected manner, which meant death to hundreds. If the regiment +hesitated or dared to remonstrate, so perfect was the discipline +and so great the jealousy that another was ready to cut them down. +A warrior returning from battle without his arms was put to death +without trial. A general returning unsuccessful in the main purpose +of his expedition shared the same fate. Whoever displeased the king +was immediately executed. The traditional courts practically ceased +to exist so far as the will and action of the tyrant was concerned." +With this army Chaka fell on tribe after tribe. The Bechuana fled +before him and some tribes of them were entirely destroyed. The +Hottentots suffered severely and one of his rival Zulu tribes under +Umsilikatsi fled into Matabililand, pushing back the Bechuana. By +the time the English came to Port Natal, Chaka was ruling over +the whole southeastern seaboard, from the Limpopo River to Cape +Colony, including the Orange and Transvaal states and the whole +of Natal. Chaka was killed in 1828 and was eventually succeeded +by his brother Dingan, who reigned twelve years. It was during +Dingan's reign that England tried to abolish slavery in Cape +Colony, but did not pay promptly for the slaves, as she had promised; +the result was the so-called "Great Trek," about 1834, when +thousands of Boers went into the interior across the Orange and +Vaal rivers.</p> + +<p>Dingan and these Boers were soon engaged in a death struggle in +which the Zulus were repulsed and Dingan replaced by Panda. +Under this chief there was something like repose for sixteen years, +but in 1856 civil war broke out between his sons, one of whom, +Cetewayo, succeeded his father in 1882. He fell into border disputes +with the English, and the result was one of the fiercest clashes +of Europe and Africa in modern days. The Zulus fought desperately, +annihilating at one time a whole detachment and killing the young +prince Napoleon. But after all it was assagais against machine guns, +and the Zulus were finally defeated at Ulundi, July 4, 1879. Thereupon +Zululand was divided among thirteen semi-independent chiefs +and became a British protectorate.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i164" id="i164"></a> +<img src="images/i164.png" +alt="Ancient Kingdom of Africa" +title="Ancient Kingdom of Africa" /><br /><br /> +<span class="caption">Ancient Kingdoms of Africa</span> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Since then the best lands have been gradually reoccupied by a +large number of tribes—Kaffirs from the south and Zulus from the +north. The tribal organization, without being actually broken up, +has been deprived of its dangerous features by appointing paid village +headmen and transforming the hereditary chief into a British +government official. In Natal there are about one hundred and +seventy tribal chiefs, and nearly half of these have been appointed +by the governor.</p> + +<p>Umsilikatsi, who had been driven into Matabililand by the terrible +Chaka in 1828 and defeated by the Dutch in 1837, had finally +reestablished his headquarters in Rhodesia in 1838. Here he introduced +the Zulu military system and terrorized the peaceful and +industrious Bechuana populations. Lobengula succeeded Umsilikatsi +in 1870 and, realizing that his power was waning, began to retreat +northward toward the Zambesi. He was finally defeated by the +British and native forces in 1893 and the land was incorporated into +South Central Africa.</p> + +<p>The result of all these movements was to break the inhabitants +of Bechuanaland into numerous fragments. There were small numbers +of mulatto Gricquas in the southwest and similar Bastaards in +the northwest. The Hottentots and Bushmen were dispersed into +groups and seem doomed to extinction, the last Hottentot chief being +deposed in 1810 and replaced by an English magistrate. Partially +civilized Hottentots still live grouped together in their kraals and +are members of Christian churches. The Bechuana hold their own +in several centers; one is in Basutoland, west of Natal, where a +number of tribes were welded together under the far-sighted Moshesh +into a modern and fairly well civilized nation. In the north part +of Bechuanaland are the self-governing Bamangwato and the Batwana, +the former ruled by Khama, one of the canniest of modern +rulers in Africa.</p> + +<p>Meantime, in Portuguese territory south of the Zambesi, there +arose Gaza, a contemporary and rival of Chaka. His son, Manikus, +was deputed by Dingan, Chaka's successor, to drive out the Portuguese. +This Manikus failed to do, and to escape vengeance he +migrated north of the Limpopo. Here he established his military +kraal in a district thirty-six hundred and fifty feet above the sea and +one hundred and twenty miles inland from Sofala. From this place +his soldiery nearly succeeded in driving the Portuguese out of East +Africa. He was succeeded by his son, Umzila, and Umzila's brother, +Guzana (better known as Gungunyana), who exercised for a time +joint authority. Gungunyana was finally overthrown in November, +1895, captured, and removed to the Azores.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i165" id="i165"></a> +<img src="images/i165.png" +alt="Races in Africa" +title="Races in Africa" /><br /><br /> +<span class="caption">Races in Africa</span> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>North of the Zambesi, in British territory, the chief role in recent +times has been played by the Bechuana, the first of the Bantu to +return northward after the South African migration. Livingstone +found there the Makolo, who with other tribes had moved northward +on account of the pressure of the Dutch and Zulus below, and +by conquering various tribes in the Zambesi region had established +a strong power. This kingdom was nearly overthrown by the rebellion +of the Barotse, and in 1875 the Barotse kingdom comprised a large +territory. To-day their king, Lewanika, rules directly and indirectly +fifty thousand square miles, with a population between one and two +and a half million. They are under a protectorate of the British.</p> + +<p>In Southwest Africa, Hottentot mulattoes crossing from the Cape +caused widespread change. They were strong men and daring fighters +and soon became dominant in what is now German Southwest +Africa, where they fought fiercely with the Bantu Ova-Hereros. +Armed with fire arms, these Namakwa Hottentots threatened Portuguese +West Africa, but Germany intervened, ostensibly to protect +missionaries. By spending millions of dollars and thousands of soldiers +Germany has nearly exterminated these brave men.</p> + +<p>Thus we have between the years 1400 and 1900 a great period +of migration up to 1750, when Bushmen, Hottentot, Bantu, and +Dutch appeared in succession at Land's End. In the latter part of +the eighteenth century we have the clash of the Hottentots and +Bechuana, followed in the nineteenth century by the terrible wars +of Chaka, the Kaffirs, and Matabili. Finally, in the latter half of +the nineteenth century, we see the gradual subjection of the Kaffir-Zulus +and the Bechuana under the English and the final conquest +of the Dutch. The resulting racial problem in South Africa is one +of great intricacy.</p> + +<p>To the racial problem has been added the tremendous problem +of modern capital brought by the discovery of gold and diamond +mines, so that the future of the Negro race is peculiarly bound up +in developments here at Land's End, where the ship of the Flying +Dutchman beats back and forth on its endless quest.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Stowe: Native Races of South Africa, pp. 215-216.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII_AFRICAN_CULTURE" id="VIII_AFRICAN_CULTURE" />VIII <br /><br />AFRICAN CULTURE</h2> + + +<p>We have followed the history of mankind in Africa down the valley +of the Nile, past Ethiopia to Egypt; we have seen kingdoms arise +along the great bend of the Niger and strive with the ancient culture +at its mouth. We have seen the remnants of mankind at Land's +End, the ancient culture at Punt and Zymbabwe, and followed the +invading Bantu east, south, and west to their greatest center in the +vast jungle of the Congo valleys.</p> + +<p>We must now gather these threads together and ask what manner +of men these were and how far and in what way they progressed +on the road of human culture.</p> + +<p>That Negro peoples were the beginners of civilization along the +Ganges, the Euphrates, and the Nile seems proven. Early Babylon +was founded by a Negroid race. Hammurabi's code, the most ancient +known, says "Anna and Bel called me, Hammurabi the exalted +prince, the worshiper of the gods; to cause justice to prevail in the +land, to destroy the wicked, to prevent the strong from oppressing +the weak, to go forth like the sun over the black-head race, to +enlighten the land, and to further the welfare of the people." The +Assyrians show a distinct Negroid strain and early Egypt was predominantly +Negro. These earliest of cultures were crude and primitive, +but they represented the highest attainment of mankind after +tens of thousands of years in unawakened savagery.</p> + +<p>It has often been assumed that the Negro is physically inferior +to other races and markedly distinguishable from them; modern +science gives no authority for such an assumption. The supposed +inferiority cannot rest on color,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> for that is "due to the combined +influences of a great number of factors of environment working +through physiological processes," and "however marked the contrasts +may be, there is no corresponding difference in anatomical structure +discoverable."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> So, too, difference in texture of hair is a matter of +degree, not kind, and is caused by heat, moisture, exposure, and the +like.</p> + +<p>The bony skeleton presents no distinctly racial lines of variation. +Prognathism "presents too many individual varieties to be taken as +a distinctive character of race."<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> Difference in physical measurements +does not show the Negro to be a more primitive evolutionary form. +Comparative ethnology to-day affords "no support to the view which +sees in the so-called lower races of mankind a transition stage from +beast to man."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>Much has been made of the supposed smaller brain of the Negro +race; but this is as yet an unproved assumption, based on the uncritical +measurement of less than a thousand Negro brains as compared +with eleven thousand or more European brains. Even if future +measurement prove the average Negro brain lighter, the vast majority +of Negro brain weights fall within the same limits as the whites; +and finally, "neither size nor weight of the brain seems to be of +importance" as an index of mental capacity. We may, therefore, say +with Ratzel, "There is only one species of man. The variations are +numerous, but do not go deep."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>To this we may add the word of the Secretary of the First Races +Congress: "We are, then, under the necessity of concluding that an +impartial investigator would be inclined to look upon the various +important peoples of the world as to all intents and purposes essentially +equal in intellect, enterprise, morality, and physique."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>If these conclusions are true, we should expect to see in Africa +the human drama play itself out much as in other lands, and such +has actually been the fact. At the same time we must expect peculiarities +arising from the physiography of the land—its climate, its +rainfall, its deserts, and the peculiar inaccessibility of the coast.</p> + +<p>Three principal zones of habitation appear: first, the steppes and +deserts around the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari desert in +the south; secondly, the grassy highlands bordering the Great Lakes +and connecting these two regions; thirdly, the forests and rivers of +Central and West Africa. In the deserts are the nomads, and the +Pygmies are in the forest fastnesses. Herdsmen and their cattle cover +the steppes and highlands, save where the tsetse fly prevents. In the +open forests and grassy highlands are the agriculturists.</p> + +<p>Among the forest farmers the village is the center of life, while +in the open steppes political life tends to spread into larger political +units. Political integration is, however, hindered by an ease of internal +communication almost as great as the difficulty of reaching +outer worlds beyond the continent. The narrow Nile valley alone +presented physical barriers formidable enough to keep back the +invading barbarians of the south, and even then with difficulty. +Elsewhere communication was all too easy. For a while the Congo +forests fended away the restless, but this only temporarily.</p> + +<p>On the whole Africa from the Sahara to the Cape offered no +great physical barrier to the invader, and we continually have whirlwinds +of invading hosts rushing now southward, now northward, +from the interior to the coast and from the coast inland, and hurling +their force against states, kingdoms, and cities. Some resisted for +generations, some for centuries, some but a few years. It is, then, +this sudden change and the fear of it that marks African culture, +particularly in its political aspects, and which makes it so difficult +to trace this changing past. Nevertheless beneath all change rests +the strong substructure of custom, religion, industry, and art well +worth the attention of students.</p> + +<p>Starting with agriculture, we learn that "among all the great +groups of the 'natural' races, the Negroes are the best and keenest +tillers of the ground. A minority despise agriculture and breed +cattle; many combine both occupations. Among the genuine tillers +the whole life of the family is taken up in agriculture, and hence +the months are by preference called after the operations which they +demand. Constant clearings change forests to fields, and the ground +is manured with the ashes of the burnt thicket. In the middle of +the fields rise the light watch-towers, from which a watchman scares +grain-eating birds and other thieves. An African cultivated landscape +is incomplete without barns. The rapidity with which, when +newly imported, the most various forms of cultivation spread in +Africa says much for the attention which is devoted to this branch +of economy. Industries, again, which may be called agricultural, like +the preparation of meal from millet and other crops, also from +cassava, the fabrication of fermented drinks from grain, or the manufacture +of cotton, are widely known and sedulously fostered."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>Bücher reminds us of the deep impression made upon travelers +when they sight suddenly the well-attended fields of the natives on +emerging from the primeval forests. "In the more thickly populated +parts of Africa these fields often stretch for many a mile, and the +assiduous care of the Negro women shines in all the brighter light +when we consider the insecurity of life, the constant feuds and +pillages, in which no one knows whether he will in the end be able +to harvest what he has sown. Livingstone gives somewhere a graphic +description of the devastations wrought by slave hunts; the people +were lying about slain, the dwellings were demolished; in the fields, +however, the grain was ripening and there was none to harvest it."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>Sheep, goat, and chickens are domestic animals all over Africa, +and Von Franzius considers Africa the home of the house cattle and +the Negro as the original tamer. Northeastern Africa especially is +noted for agriculture, cattle raising, and fruit culture. In the eastern +Sudan, and among the great Bantu tribes extending from the Sudan +down toward the south, cattle are evidences of wealth; one tribe, +for instance, having so many oxen that each village had ten or +twelve thousand head. Lenz (1884), Bouet-Williaumez (1848), +Hecquard (1854), Bosman (1805), and Baker (1868) all bear witness +to this, and Schweinfurth (1878) tells us of great cattle parks +with two to three thousand head and of numerous agricultural and +cattle-raising tribes. Von der Decken (1859-61) described the +paradise of the dwellers about Kilimanjaro—the bananas, fruit, beans +and peas, cattle raising with stall feed, the fertilizing of the fields, +and irrigation. The Negroid Gallas have seven or eight cattle to +each inhabitant. Livingstone bears witness to the busy cattle raising +of the Bantus and Kaffirs. Hulub (1881) and Chapman (1868) tell +of agriculture and fruit raising in South Africa. Shutt (1884) found +the tribes in the southwestern basin of the Congo with sheep, swine, +goats, and cattle. On this agricultural and cattle-raising economic +foundation has arisen the organized industry of the artisan, the +trader, and the manufacturer.</p> + +<p>While the Pygmies, still living in the age of wood, make no iron +or stone implements, they seem to know how to make bark cloth +and fiber baskets and simple outfits for hunting and fishing. Among +the Bushmen the art of making weapons and working in hides is +quite common. The Hottentots are further advanced in the industrial +arts, being well versed in the manufacture of clothing, weapons, +and utensils. In the dressing of skins and furs, as well as in the +plaiting of cords and the weaving of mats, we find evidences of their +workmanship. In addition they are good workers in iron and copper, +using the sheepskin bellows for this purpose. The Ashantis of the +Gold Coast know how to make "cotton fabrics, turn and glaze +earthenware, forge iron, fabricate instruments and arms, embroider +rugs and carpets, and set gold and precious stones."<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Among the +people of the banana zone we find rough basket work, coarse pottery, +grass cloth, and spoons made of wood and ivory. The people +of the millet zone, because of uncertain agricultural resources, quite +generally turn to manufacturing. Charcoal is prepared by the smiths, +iron is smelted, and numerous implements are manufactured. Among +them we find axes, hatchets, hoes, knives, nails, scythes, and other +hardware. Cloaks, shoes, sandals, shields, and water and oil vessels +are made from leather which the natives have dressed. Soap is manufactured +in the Bautschi district, glass is made, formed, and colored +by the people of Nupeland, and in almost every city cotton is spun +and woven and dyed. Barth tells us that the weaving of cotton was +known in the Sudan as early as the eleventh century. There is also +extensive manufacture of wooden ware, tools, implements, and +utensils.</p> + +<p>In describing particular tribes, Baker and Felkin tell of smiths of +wonderful adroitness, goatskins prepared better than a European +tanner could do, drinking cups and kegs of remarkable symmetry, +and polished clay floors. Schweinfurth says, "The arrow and the +spear heads are of the finest and most artistic work; their bristlelike +barbs and points are baffling when one knows how few tools these +smiths have." Excellent wood carving is found among the Bongo, +Ovambo, and Makololo. Pottery and basketry and careful hut building +distinguish many tribes. Cameron (1877) tells of villages so +clean, with huts so artistic, that, save in book knowledge, the people +occupied no low plane of civilization. The Mangbettu work both +iron and copper. "The masterpieces of the Monbutto [Mangbettu] +smiths are the fine chains worn as ornaments, and which in perfection +of form and fineness compare well with our best steel chains." +Shubotz in 1911 called the Mangbettu "a highly cultivated people" +in architecture and handicraft. Barth found copper exported from +Central Africa in competition with European copper at Kano.</p> + +<p>Nor is the iron industry confined to the Sudan. About the Great +Lakes and other parts of Central Africa it is widely distributed. +Thornton says, "This iron industry proves that the East Africans +stand by no means on so low a plane of culture as many travelers +would have us think. It is unnecessary to be reminded what a people +without instruction, and with the rudest tools to do such skilled +work, could do if furnished with steel tools." Arrows made east of +Lake Nyanza were found to be nearly as good as the best Swedish +iron in Birmingham. From Egypt to the Cape, Livingstone assures +us that the mortar and pestle, the long-handled axe, the goatskin +bellows, etc., have the same form, size, etc., pointing to a migration +southwestward. Holub (1879), on the Zambesi, found fine workers +in iron and bronze. The Bantu huts contain spoons, wooden dishes, +milk pails, calabashes, handmills, and axes.</p> + +<p>Kaffirs and Zulus, in the extreme south, are good smiths, and the +latter melt copper and tin together and draw wire from it, according +to Kranz (1880). West of the Great Lakes, Stanley (1878) found +wonderful examples of smith work: figures worked out of brass and +much work in copper. Cameron (1878) saw vases made near Lake +Tanganyika which reminded him of the amphorae in the Villa of +Diomedes, Pompeii. Horn (1882) praises tribes here for iron and +copper work. Livingstone (1871) passed thirty smelting houses in +one journey, and Cameron came across bellows with valves, and +tribes who used knives in eating. He found tribes which no Europeans +had ever visited, who made ingots of copper in the form of +the St. Andrew's cross, which circulated even to the coast. In the +southern Congo basin iron and copper are worked; also wood and +ivory carving and pottery making are pursued. In equatorial West +Africa, Lenz and Du Chaillu (1861) found iron workers with +charcoal, and also carvers of bone and ivory. Near Cape Lopez, +Hübbe-Schleiden found tribes making ivory needles inlaid with +ebony, while the arms and dishes of the Osaka are found among +many tribes even as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Wilson (1856) +found natives in West Africa who could repair American watches.</p> + +<p>Gold Coast Negroes make gold rings and chains, forming the +metal into all kinds of forms. Soyaux says, "The works in relief +which natives of Lower Guinea carve with their own knives out +of ivory and hippopotamus teeth are really entitled to be called +works of art, and many wooden figures of fetishes in the Ethnographical +Museum of Berlin show some understanding of the proportions +of the human body." Great Bassam is called by Hecquard +the "Fatherland of Smiths." The Mandingo in the northwest are +remarkable workers in iron, silver, and gold, we are told by Mungo +Park (1800), while there is a mass of testimony as to the work in the +north-west of Africa in gold, tin, weaving, and dyeing. Caille found +the Negroes in Bambana manufacturing gunpowder (1824-28), and +the Hausa make soap; so, too, Negroes in Uganda and other parts +have made guns after seeing European models.</p> + +<p>So marked has been the work of Negro artisans and traders in the +manufacture and exchange of iron implements that a growing number +of archeologists are disposed to-day to consider the Negro as the +originator of the art of smelting iron. Gabriel de Mortillet (1883) +declared Negroes the only iron users among primitive people. Some +would, therefore, argue that the Negro learned it from other folk, +but Andree declares that the Negro developed his own "Iron Kingdom." +Schweinfurth, Von Luschan, Boaz, and others incline to the +belief that the Negroes invented the smelting of iron and passed it +on to the Egyptians and to modern Europe.</p> + +<p>Boaz says, "It seems likely that at a time when the European was +still satisfied with rude stone tools, the African had invented or +adopted the art of smelting iron. Consider for a moment what this +invention has meant for the advance of the human race. As long as +the hammer, knife, saw, drill, the spade, and the hoe had to be +chipped out of stone, or had to be made of shell or hard wood, +effective industrial work was not impossible, but difficult. A great +progress was made when copper found in large nuggets was hammered +out into tools and later on shaped by melting, and when +bronze was introduced; but the true advancement of industrial life +did not begin until the hard iron was discovered. It seems not unlikely +that the people who made the marvelous discovery of reducing +iron ores by smelting were the African Negroes. Neither ancient +Europe, nor ancient western Asia, nor ancient China knew the iron, +and everything points to its introduction from Africa. At the time of +the great African discoveries toward the end of the past century, the +trade of the blacksmith was found all over Africa, from north to +south and from east to west. With his simple bellows and a charcoal +fire he reduced the ore that is found in many parts of the continent +and forged implements of great usefulness and beauty."<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>Torday has argued recently, "I feel convinced by certain arguments +that seem to prove to my satisfaction that we are indebted to +the Negro for the very keystone of our modern civilization and that +we owe him the discovery of iron. That iron could be discovered by +accident in Africa seems beyond doubt: if this is so in other parts of +the world, I am not competent to say. I will only remind you that +Schweinfurth and Petherick record the fact that in the northern +part of East Africa smelting furnaces are worked without artificial +air current and, on the other hand, Stuhlmann and Kollmann found +near Victoria Nyanza that the natives simply mixed powdered ore +with charcoal and by introduction of air currents obtained the metal. +These simple processes make it simple that iron should have been +discovered in East or Central Africa. No bronze implements have +ever been found in black Africa; had the Africans received iron +from the Egyptians, bronze would have preceded this metal and all +traces of it would not have disappeared. Black Africa was for a long +time an exporter of iron, and even in the twelfth century exports to +India and Java are recorded by Idrisi.</p> + +<p>"It is difficult to imagine that Egypt should have obtained it from +Europe where the oldest find (in Hallstadt) cannot be of an earlier +period than 800 B.C., or from Asia, where iron is not known before +1000 B.C., and where, in the times of Ashur Nazir Pal, it was still +used concurrently with bronze, while iron beads have been only +recently discovered by Messrs. G.A. Wainwright and Bushe Fox +in a predynastic grave, and where a piece of this metal, possibly a +tool, was found in the masonry of the great pyramid."<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>The Negro is a born trader. Lenz says, "our sharpest European +merchants, even Jews and Armenians, can learn much of the cunning +and trade of the Negroes." We know that the trade between +Central Africa and Egypt was in the hands of Negroes for thousands +of years, and in early days the cities of the Sudan and North Africa +grew rich through Negro trade.</p> + +<p>Leo Africanus, writing of Timbuktu in the sixteenth century, +said, "It is a wonder to see what plentie of Merchandize is daily +brought hither and how costly and sumptuous all things be.... +Here are many shops of artificers and merchants and especially of +such as weave linnen and cloth."</p> + +<p>Long before cotton weaving was a British industry, West Africa +and the Sudan were supplying a large part of the world with cotton +cloth. Even to-day cities like Kuka on the west shore of Lake Chad +and Sokota are manufacturing centers where cotton is spun and +woven, skins tanned, implements and iron ornaments made.</p> + +<p>"Travelers," says Bücher, "have often observed this tribal or local +development of industrial technique. 'The native villages,' relates +a Belgian observer of the Lower Congo, 'are often situated in +groups. Their activities are based upon reciprocality, and they are to +a certain extent the complements of one another. Each group has its +more or less strongly defined specialty. One carries on fishing; another +produces palm wine; a third devotes itself to trade and is broker +for the others, supplying the community with all products from outside; +another has reserved to itself work in iron and copper, making +weapons for war and hunting, various utensils, etc. None may, however, +pass beyond the sphere of its own specialty without exposing +itself to the risk of being universally proscribed.'"</p> + +<p>From the Loango Coast, Bastian tells of a great number of centers +for special products of domestic industry. "Loango excels in mats +and fishing baskets, while the carving of elephants' tusks is specially +followed in Chilungo. The so-called Mafooka hats with raised patterns +are drawn chiefly from the bordering country of Kakongo and +Mayyume. In Bakunya are made potter's wares, which are in great +demand; in Basanza, excellent swords; in Basundi, especially beautiful +ornamented copper rings; on the Congo, clever wood and tablet +carvings; in Loango, ornamented clothes and intricately designed +mats; in Mayumbe, clothing of finely woven mat-work; in Kakongo, +embroidered hats and also burnt clay pitchers; and among the +Bayakas and Mantetjes, stuffs of woven grass."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>A native Negro student tells of the development of trade among +the Ashanti. "It was a part of the state system of Ashanti to encourage +trade. The king once in every forty days, at the Adai custom, +distributed among a number of chiefs various sums of gold +dust with a charge to turn the same to good account. These chiefs +then sent down to the coast caravans of tradesmen, some of whom +would be their slaves, sometimes some two or three hundred strong, +to barter ivory for European goods, or buy such goods with gold dust, +which the king obtained from the royal alluvial workings. Down to +1873 a constant stream of Ashanti traders might be seen daily +wending their way to the merchants of the coast and back again, +yielding more certain wealth and prosperity to the merchants of the +Gold Coast and Great Britain than may be expected for some time +yet to come from the mining industry and railway development put +together. The trade chiefs would, in due time, render a faithful +account to the king's stewards, being allowed to retain a fair portion +of the profit. In the king's household, too, he would have special +men who directly traded for him. Important chiefs carried on the +same system of trading with the coast as did the king. Thus every +member of the state, from the king downward, took an active interest +in the promotion of trade and in the keeping open of trade routes +into the interior."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>The trade thus encouraged and carried on in various parts of West +Africa reached wide areas. From the Fish River to Kuka, and from +Lagos to Zanzibar, the markets have become great centers of trade, +the leading implement to civilization. Permanent markets are found +in places like Ujiji and Nyangwe, where everything can be bought +and sold from earthenware to wives; from the one to three thousand +traders flocked here.</p> + +<p>"How like is the market traffic, with all its uproar and sound of +human voices, to one of our own markets! There is the same rivalry +in praising the goods, the violent, brisk movements, the expressive +gesture, the inquiring, searching glance, the changing looks of +depreciation or triumph, of apprehension, delight, approbation. So +says Stanley. Trade customs are not everywhere alike. If when +negotiating with the Bangalas of Angola you do not quickly give +them what they want, they go away and do not come back. Then +perhaps they try to get possession of the coveted object by means of +theft. It is otherwise with the Songos and Kiokos, who let you deal +with them in the usual way. To buy even a small article you must +go to the market; people avoid trading anywhere else. If a man says +to another; 'Sell me this hen' or 'that fruit,' the answer as a rule will +be, 'Come to the market place.' The crowd gives confidence to individuals, +and the inviolability of the visitor to the market, and of the +market itself, looks like an idea of justice consecrated by long +practice. Does not this remind us of the old Germanic 'market +place'?"<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>Turning now to Negro family and social life we find, as among +all primitive peoples, polygamy and marriage by actual or simulated +purchase. Out of the family develops the typical African village +organization, which is thus described in Ashanti by a native Gold +Coast writer: "The headman, as his name implies, is the head of a +village community, a ward in a township, or of a family. His position +is important, inasmuch as he has directly to deal with the composite +elements of the general bulk of the people.</p> + +<p>"It is the duty of the head of a family to bring up the members +thereof in the way they should go; and by 'family' you must understand +the entire lineal descendants of a materfamilias, if I may coin a +convenient phrase. It is expected of him by the state to bring up his +charge in the knowledge of matters political and traditional. It is +his work to train up his wards in the ways of loyalty and obedience +to the powers that be. He is held responsible for the freaks of recalcitrant +members of his family, and he is looked to to keep them within +bounds and to insist upon conformity of their party with the customs, +laws, and traditional observances of the community. In early +times he could send off to exile by sale a troublesome relative who +would not observe the laws of the community.</p> + +<p>"It is a difficult task that he is set to, but in this matter he has all-powerful +helpers in the female members of the family, who will be +either the aunts, or the sisters, or the cousins, or the nieces of the +headman; and as their interests are identical with his in every particular, +the good women spontaneously train up their children to implicit +obedience to the headman, whose rule in the family thus becomes +a simple and an easy matter. 'The hand that rocks the cradle +rules the world.' What a power for good in the native state system +would the mothers of the Gold Coast and Ashanti become by judicious +training upon native lines!</p> + +<p>"The headman is par excellence the judge of his family or ward. +Not only is he called upon to settle domestic squabbles, but frequently +he sits judge over more serious matters arising between one +member of the ward and another; and where he is a man of ability +and influence, men from other wards bring him their disputes to +settle. When he so settles disputes, he is entitled to a hearing fee, +which, however, is not so much as would be payable in the regular +court of the king or chief.</p> + +<p>"The headman is naturally an important member of his company +and often is a captain thereof. When he combines the two +offices of headman and captain, he renders to the community a very +important service. For in times of war, where the members of the +ward would not serve cordially under a stranger, they would in all +cases face any danger with their own kinsman as their leader. The +headman is always succeeded by his uterine brother, cousin, or +nephew—the line of succession, that is to say, following the customary +law."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>We may contrast this picture with the more warlike Bantus of +Southeast Africa. Each tribe lived by itself in a town with from +five to fifteen thousand inhabitants, surrounded by gardens of millet, +beans, and watermelon. Beyond these roamed their cattle, sheep, and +goats. Their religion was ancestor worship with sacrifice to spirits +and the dead, and some of the tribes made mummies of the corpses +and clothed them for burial. They wove cloth of cotton and bark, +they carved wood and built walls of unhewn stone. They had a +standing military organization, and the tribes had their various +totems, so that they were known as the Men of Iron, the Men of the +Sun, the Men of the Serpents, Sons of the Corn Cleaners, and the +like. Their system of common law was well conceived and there +were organized tribunals of justice. In difficult cases precedents +were sought and learned antiquaries consulted. At the age of fifteen +or sixteen the boys were circumcised and formed into guilds. The +land was owned by the tribe and apportioned to the chief by each +family, and the main wealth of the tribe was in its cattle.</p> + +<p>In general, among the African clans the idea of private property +was but imperfectly developed and never included land. The main +mass of visible wealth belonged to the family and clan rather than +to the individual; only in the matter of weapons and ornaments was +exclusive private ownership generally recognized.</p> + +<p>The government, vested in fathers and chiefs, varied in different +tribes from absolute despotisms to limited monarchies, almost republican. +Viewing the Basuto National Assembly in South Africa, +Lord Bryce recently wrote, "The resemblance to the primary assemblies +of the early peoples of Europe is close enough to add another +to the arguments which discredit the theory that there is any such +thing as an Aryan type of institutions."<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>While women are sold into marriage throughout Africa, nevertheless +their status is far removed from slavery. In the first place the +tracing of relationships through the female line, which is all but +universal in Africa, gives the mother great influence. Parental affection +is very strong, and throughout Negro Africa the mother is the +most influential councilor, even in cases of tyrants like Chaka or +Mutesa.</p> + +<p>"No mother can love more tenderly or be more deeply beloved +than the Negro mother. Robin tells of a slave in Martinique who, +with his savings, freed his mother instead of himself. 'Everywhere in +Africa,' writes Mungo Park, 'I have noticed that no greater affront +can be offered a Negro than insulting his mother. 'Strike me,' cried +a Mandingo to his enemy, 'but revile not my mother!' ... The +Herero swears 'By my mother's tears!'.. The Angola Negroes have +a saying, 'As a mist lingers on the swamps, so lingers the love of +father and mother.'"<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + +<p>Black queens have often ruled African tribes. Among the Ba-Lolo, +we are told, women take part in public assemblies where all-important +questions are discussed. The system of educating children +among such tribes as the Yoruba is worthy of emulation by many +more civilized peoples.</p> + +<p>Close knit with the family and social organization comes the religious +life of the Negro. The religion of Africa is the universal animism +or fetishism of primitive peoples, rising to polytheism and approaching +monotheism chiefly, but not wholly, as a result of +Christian and Islamic missions. Of fetishism there is much misapprehension. +It is not mere senseless degradation. It is a philosophy +of life. Among primitive Negroes there can be, as Miss Kingsley reminds +us, no such divorce of religion from practical life as is common +in civilized lands. Religion is life, and fetish an expression of +the practical recognition of dominant forces in which the Negro +lives. To him all the world is spirit. Miss Kingsley says, "If you +want, for example, to understand the position of man in nature +according to fetish, there is, as far as I know, no clearer statement +of it made than is made by Goethe in his superb 'Prometheus.'"<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> +Fetish is a severely logical way of accounting for the world in terms +of good and malignant spirits.</p> + +<p>"It is this power of being able logically to account for everything +that is, I believe, at the back of the tremendous permanency of fetish +in Africa, and the cause of many of the relapses into it by Africans +converted to other religions; it is also the explanation of the fact that +white men who live in the districts where death and danger are +everyday affairs, under a grim pall of boredom, are liable to believe +in fetish, though ashamed of so doing. For the African, whose mind +has been soaked in fetish during his early and most impressionable +years, the voice of fetish is almost irresistible when affliction comes +to him."<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>Ellis tells us of the spirit belief of the Ewe people, who believe +that men and all nature have the indwelling "Kra," which is immortal; +that the man himself after death may exist as a ghost, which +is often conceived of as departed from the "Kra," a shadowy continuing +of the man. Bryce, speaking of the Kaffirs of South Africa, +says, "To the Kaffirs, as to the most savage races, the world was full +of spirits—spirits of the rivers, the mountains, and the woods. Most +important were the ghosts of the dead, who had power to injure or +help the living, and who were, therefore, propitiated by offerings at +stated periods, as well as on occasions when their aid was especially +desired. This kind of worship, the worship once most generally diffused +throughout the world, and which held its ground among the +Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing period of ancient civilization, +as it does in China and Japan to-day, was, and is, virtually the +religion of the Kaffirs."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>African religion does not, however, stop with fetish, but, as in the +case of other peoples, tends toward polytheism and monotheism. +Among the Yoruba, for instance, Frobenius shows that religion and +city-state go hand in hand.</p> + +<p>"The first experienced glance will here detect the fact that this +nation originally possessed a clear and definite organization so duly +ordered and so logical that we but seldom meet with its like among +all the peoples of the earth. And the basic idea of every clan's progeniture +is a powerful God; the legitimate order in which the +descendants of a particular clan unite in marriage to found new +families, the essential origin of every new-born babe's descent in the +founder of its race and its consideration as a part of the God in +Chief; the security with which the newly wedded wife not only may, +but should, minister to her own God in an unfamiliar home."<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> + +<p>The Yoruba have a legend of a dying divinity. "This people ... +give evidence of a generalized system; a theocratic scheme, a well-conceived +perceptible organization, reared in rhythmically proportioned +manner."</p> + +<p>Miss Kingsley says, "The African has a great Over God."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> Nassau, +the missionary, declares, "After more than forty years' residence +among these tribes, fluently using their language, conversant with +their customs, dwelling intimately in their huts, associating with +them in the various relations of teacher, pastor, friend, master, +fellow-traveler, and guest, and in my special office as missionary, +searching after their religious thought (and therefore being allowed +a deeper entrance into the arcana of their soul than would be accorded +to a passing explorer), I am able unhesitatingly to say that +among all the multitude of degraded ones with whom I have met, I +have seen or heard of none whose religious thought was only a +superstition.</p> + +<p>"Standing in the village street, surrounded by a company whom +their chief has courteously summoned at my request, when I say to +him, 'I have come to speak to your people,' I do not need to begin +by telling them that there is a God. Looking on that motley assemblage +of villagers,—the bold, gaunt cannibal with his armament of +gun, spear, and dagger; the artisan with rude adze in hand, or hands +soiled at the antique bellows of the village smithy; women who have +hasted from their kitchen fire with hands white with the manioc +dough or still grasping the partly scaled fish; and children checked +in their play with tiny bow and arrow or startled from their dusty +street pursuit of dog or goat,—I have yet to be asked, 'Who is +God?'"<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + +<p>The basis of Egyptian religion was "of a purely Nigritian character,"<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> +and in its developed form Sudanese tribal gods were invoked +and venerated by the priests. In Upper Egypt, near the confines of +Ethiopia, paintings repeatedly represent black priests conferring on +red Egyptian priests the instruments and symbols of priesthood. In +the Sudan to-day Frobenius distinguishes four principal religions: +first, earthly ancestor worship; next, the social cosmogony of the +Atlantic races; third, the religion of the Bori, and fourth, Islam. The +Bori religion spreads from Nubia as far as the Hausa, and from Lake +Chad in the Niger as far as the Yoruba. It is the religion of possession +and has been connected by some with Asiatic influences.</p> + +<p>From without have come two great religious influences, Islam and +Christianity. Islam came by conquest, trade, and proselytism. As a +conqueror it reached Egypt in the seventh century and had by the +end of the fourteenth century firm footing in the Egyptian Sudan. +It overran the central Sudan by the close of the seventeenth century, +and at the beginning of the nineteenth century had swept over +Senegambia and the whole valley of the Niger down to the Gulf of +Guinea. On the east Islam approached as a trader in the eighth century; +it spread into Somaliland and overran Nubia in the fourteenth +century. To-day Islam dominates Africa north of ten degrees north +latitude and is strong between five and ten degrees north latitude. +In the east it reaches below the Victoria Nyanza.</p> + +<p>Christianity early entered Africa; indeed, as Mommsen says, "It +was through Africa that Christianity became the religion of the +world. Tertullian and Cyprian were from Carthage, Arnobius from +Sicca Veneria, Lactantius, and probably in like manner Minucius +Felix, in spite of their Latin names, were natives of Africa, and not +less so Augustine. In Africa the Church found its most zealous confessors +of the faith and its most gifted defenders."<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>The Africa referred to here, however, was not Negroland, but +Africa above the desert, where Negro blood was represented in the +ancient Mediterranean race and by intercourse across the desert. On +the other hand Christianity was early represented in the valley of +the Nile under "the most holy pope and patriarch of the great city +of Alexandria and of all of the land of Egypt, of Jerusalem, the +holy city, of Nubia, Abyssinia, and Pentapolis, and all the preaching +of St. Mark." This patriarchate had a hundred bishoprics in +the fourth century and included thousands of black Christians. +Through it the Cross preceded the Crescent in some of the remotest +parts of black Africa.</p> + +<p>All these beginnings were gradually overthrown by Islam except +among the Copts in Egypt, and in Abyssinia. The Portuguese in the +sixteenth century began to replant the Christian religion and for a +while had great success, both on the east and west coasts. Roman +Catholic enterprise halted in the eighteenth century and the Protestants +began. To-day the west coast is studded with English and German +missions, South Africa is largely Christian through French and +English influence, and the region about the Great Lakes is becoming +christianized. The Roman Catholics have lately increased their activities, +and above all the Negroes of America have entered with +their own churches and with the curiously significant "Ethiopian" +movement.</p> + +<p>Coming now to other spiritual aspects of African culture, we can +speak at present only in a fragmentary way. Roughly speaking, +Africa can be divided into two language zones: north of the fifth +degree of north latitude is the zone of diversity, with at least a hundred +groups of widely divergent languages; south of the line there +is one minor language (Bushman-Hottentot), spoken by less than +fifty thousand people, and elsewhere the predominant Bantu tongue +with its various dialects, spoken by at least fifty million. The Bantu +tongue, which thus rules all Central, West, and South Africa, is an +agglutinative tongue which makes especial use of prefixes. The hundreds +of Negro tongues or dialects in the north represent most probably +the result of war and migration and the breaking up of ancient +centers of culture. In Abyssinia and the great horn of East Africa +the influence of Semitic tongues is noted. Despite much effort on +the part of students, it has been impossible to show any Asiatic origin +for the Egyptian language. As Sergi maintains, "everything +favors an African origin."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> The most brilliant suggestion of modern +days links together the Egyptian of North Africa and the Hottentot +and Bushmen tongues of South Africa.</p> + +<p>Language was reduced to writing among the Egyptians and Ethiopians +and to some extent elsewhere in Africa. Over 100 manuscripts +of Ethiopian and Ethiopic-Arabian literature are extant, including a +version of the Bible and historical chronicles. The Arabic was used +as the written tongue of the Sudan, and Negroland has given us in +this tongue many chronicles and other works of black authors. The +greatest of these, the Epic of the Sudan (Tarikh-es-Soudan), deserves +to be placed among the classics of all literature. In other +parts of Africa there was no written language, but there was, on the +other hand, an unusual perfection of oral tradition through bards, +and extraordinary efficiency in telegraphy by drum and horn.</p> + +<p>The folklore and proverbs of the African tribes are exceedingly +rich. Some of these have been made familiar to English writers +through the work of "Uncle Remus." Others have been collected by +Johnston, Ellis, and Theal.</p> + +<p>A black bard of our own day has described the onslaught of the +Matabili in poetry of singular force and beauty:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>They saw the clouds ascend from the plains:<br /></span> +<span>It was the smoke of burning towns.<br /></span> +<span>The confusion of the whirlwind<br /></span> +<span>Was in the heart of the great chief of the blue-colored cattle.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The shout was raised,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"They are friends!"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But they shouted again,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"They are foes!"<br /></span> +<span>Till their near approach proclaimed them Matabili.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The men seized their arms,<br /></span> +<span>And rushed out as if to chase the antelope.<br /></span> +<span>The onset was as the voice of lightning,<br /></span> +<span>And their javelins as the shaking of the forest in the autumn storm.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There can be no doubt of the Negro's deep and delicate sense of +beauty in form, color, and sound. Soyaux says of African industry, +"Whoever denies to them independent invention and individual +taste in their work either shuts his eyes intentionally before perfectly +evident facts, or lack of knowledge renders him an incompetent +judge."<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> M. Rutot had lately told us how the Negro race +brought art and sculpture to pre-historic Europe. The bones of the +European Negroids are almost without exception found in company +with drawings and sculpture in high and low relief; some of their +sculptures, like the Wellendorff "Venus," are unusually well finished +for primitive man. So, too, the painting and carving of the +Bushmen and their forerunners in South Africa has drawn the admiration +of students. The Negro has been prolific in the invention +of musical instruments and has given a new and original music to +the western world.</p> + +<p>Schweinfurth, who has preserved for us much of the industrial art +of the Negroes, speaks of their delight in the production of works of +art for the embellishment and convenience of life. Frobenius expressed +his astonishment at the originality of the African in the Yoruba +temple which he visited. "The lofty veranda was divided from +the passageway by fantastically carved and colored pillars. On the +pillars were sculptured knights, men climbing trees, women, gods, +and mythical beings. The dark chamber lying beyond showed a +splendid red room with stone hatchets, wooden figures, cowry beads, +and jars. The whole picture, the columns carved in colors in front +of the colored altar, the old man sitting in the circle of those who +reverenced him, the open scaffolding of ninety rafters, made a magnificent +impression."<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>The Germans have found, in Kamarun, towns built, castellated, +and fortified in a manner that reminds one of the prehistoric cities +of Crete. The buildings and fortifications of Zymbabwe have already +been described and something has been said of the art of Benin, +with its brass and bronze and ivory. All the work of Benin in bronze +and brass was executed by casting, and by methods so complicated +that it would be no easy task for a modern European craftsman to +imitate them.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no race has shown in its earlier development a more magnificent +art impulse than the Negro, and the student must not forget +how far Negro genius entered into the art in the valley of the +Nile from Meroe and Nepata down to the great temples of Egypt.</p> + +<p>Frobenius has recently directed the world's attention to art in +West Africa. Quartz and granite he found treated with great dexterity. +But more magnificent than the stone monument is the proof +that at some remote era glass was made and molded in Yorubaland +and that the people here were brilliant in the production of terra-cotta +images. The great mass of potsherds, lumps of glass, heaps of +slag, etc., "proves, at all events, that the glass industry flourished in +this locality in ages past. It is plain that the glass beads found to +have been so very common in Africa were not only not imported, +but were actually manufactured in great quantities at home."</p> + +<p>The terra-cotta pieces are "remains of another ancient and fine +type of art" and were "eloquent of a symmetry, a vitality, a delicacy +of form, and practically a reminiscence of the ancient Greeks." The +antique bronze head Frobenius describes as "a head of marvelous +beauty, wonderfully cast," and "almost equal in beauty and, at least, +no less noble in form, and as ancient as the terra-cotta heads."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<p>In a park of monuments Frobenius saw the celebrated forge and +hammer: a mighty mass of iron, like a falling drop in shape, and a +block of quartz fashioned like a drum. Frobenius thinks these were +relics dating from past ages of culture, when the manipulation of +quartz and granite was thoroughly understood and when iron manipulation +gave evidence of a skill not met with to-day.</p> + +<p>Even when we contemplate such revolting survivals of savagery +as cannibalism we cannot jump too quickly at conclusions. Cannibalism +is spread over many parts of Negro Africa, yet the very tribes +who practice cannibalism show often other traits of industry and +power. "These cannibal Bassonga were, according to the types we +met with, one of those rare nations of the African interior which +can be classed with the most esthetic and skilled, most discreet and +intelligent of all those generally known to us as the so-called natural +races. Before the Arabic and European invasion they did not dwell +in 'hamlets,' but in towns with twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants, +in towns whose highways were shaded by avenues of splendid palms +planted at regular intervals and laid out with the symmetry of +colonnades. Their pottery would be fertile in suggestion to every +art craftsman in Europe. Their weapons of iron were so perfectly +fashioned that no industrial art from abroad could improve upon +their workmanship. The iron blades were cunningly ornamented +with damascened copper, and the hilts artistically inlaid with the +same metal. Moreover, they were most industrious and capable husbandmen, +whose careful tillage of the suburbs made them able competitors +of any gardener in Europe. Their sexual and parental relations +evidenced an amount of tact and delicacy of feelings unsurpassed +among ourselves, either in the simplicity of the country or the +refinements of the town. Originally their political and municipal +system was organized on the lines of a representative republic. True, +it is on record that these well-governed towns often waged an internecine +warfare; but in spite of this it had been their invariable +custom from time immemorial, even in times of strife, to keep the +trade routes open and to allow their own and foreign merchants to +go their ways unharmed. And the commerce of these nations ebbed +and flowed along a road of unknown age, running from Itimbiri to +Batubenge, about six hundred miles in length. This highway was +destroyed by the 'missionaries of civilization' from Arabia only toward +the close of the eighteenth century. But even in my own time +there were still smiths who knew the names of places along that +wonderful trade route driven through the heart of the 'impenetrable +forests of the Congo.' For every scrap of imported iron was carried +over it."<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> + +<p>In disposition the Negro is among the most lovable of men. Practically +all the great travelers who have spent any considerable time in +Africa testify to this and pay deep tribute to the kindness with +which they were received. One has but to remember the classic +story of Mungo Park, the strong expressions of Livingstone, the +words of Stanley and hundreds of others to realize this.</p> + +<p>Ceremony and courtesy mark Negro life. Livingstone again and +again reminds us of "true African dignity." "When Ilifian men or +women salute each other, be it with a plain and easy curtsey (which +is here the simplest form adopted), or kneeling down, or throwing +oneself upon the ground, or kissing the dust with one's forehead, no +matter which, there is yet a deliberateness, a majesty, a dignity, a +devoted earnestness in the manner of its doing, which brings to light +with every gesture, with every fold of clothing, the deep significance +and essential import of every single action. Everyone may, without +too greatly straining his attention, notice the very striking precision +and weight with which the upper and lower native classes observe +these niceties of intercourse."<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>All this does not mean that the African Negro is not human with +the all-too-well-known foibles of humanity. Primitive life among +them is, after all, as bare and cruel as among primitive Germans or +Chinese, but it is not more so, and the more we study the Negro the +more we realize that we are dealing with a normal human stock +which under reasonable conditions has developed and will develop +in the same lines as other men. Why is it, then, that so much of +misinformation and contempt is widespread concerning Africa and +its people, not simply among the unthinking mass, but among men +of education and knowledge?</p> + +<p>One reason lies undoubtedly in the connotation of the term +"Negro." In North America a Negro may be seven-eights white, +since the term refers to any person of Negro descent. If we use the +term in the same sense concerning the inhabitants of the rest of +world, we may say truthfully that Negroes have been among the +leaders of civilization in every age of the world's history from ancient +Babylon to modern America; that they have contributed wonderful +gifts in art, industry, political organization, and religion, and that +they are doing the same to-day in all parts of the world.</p> + +<p>In sharp contrast to this usage the term "Negro" in Africa has +been more and more restricted until some scientists, late in the last +century, declared that the great mass of the black and brown +people of Africa were not Negroes at all, and that the "real" Negro +dwells in a small space between the Niger and the Senegal. Ratzel +says, "If we ask what justifies so narrow a limitation, we find that +the hideous Negro type, which the fancy of observers once saw all +over Africa, but which, as Livingstone says, is really to be seen only +as a sign in front of tobacco shops, has on closer inspection evaporated +from all parts of Africa, to settle no one knows how in just +this region. If we understand that an extreme case may have been +taken for the genuine and pure form, even so we do not comprehend +the ground of its geographical limitation and location; for wherever +dark, woolly-haired men dwell, this ugly type also crops up. We +are here in the presence of a refinement of science which to an unprejudiced +eye will hardly hold water."<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<p>In this restricted sense the Negro has no history, culture, or +ability, for the simple fact that such human beings as have history +and evidence culture and ability are not Negroes! Between these +two extreme definitions, with unconscious adroitness, the most +extraordinary and contradictory conclusions have been reached.</p> + +<p>Let it therefore be said, once for all, that racial inferiority is not +the cause of anti-Negro prejudice. Boaz, the anthropologist, says, +"An unbiased estimate of the anthropological evidence so far brought +forward does not permit us to countenance the belief in a racial inferiority +which would unfit an individual of the Negro race to take +his part in modern civilization. We do not know of any demand +made on the human body or mind in modern life that anatomical or +ethnological evidence would prove to be beyond the powers of the +Negro."<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p>"We have every reason to suppose that all races are capable, +under proper guidance, of being fitted into the complex scheme of +our modern civilization, and the policy of artificially excluding them +from its benefits is as unjustifiable scientifically as it is ethically abhorrent."<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> +What is, then, this so-called "instinctive" modern prejudice +against black folk?</p> + +<p>Lord Bryce says of the intermingling of blacks and whites in +South America, "The ease with which the Spaniards have intermingled +by marriage with the Indian tribes—and the Portuguese +have done the like, not only with the Indians, but with the more +physically dissimilar Negroes—shows that race repugnance is no +such constant and permanent factor in human affairs as members +of the Teutonic peoples are apt to assume. Instead of being, as we +Teutons suppose, the rule in the matter, we are rather the exception, +for in the ancient world there seems to have been little race +repulsion."</p> + +<p>In nearly every age and land men of Negro descent have distinguished +themselves. In literature there is Terence in Rome, +Nosseyeb and Antar in Arabia, Es-Sa'di in the Sudan, Pushkin in +Russia, Dumas in France, Al Kanemi in Spain, Heredia in the West +Indies, and Dunbar in the United States, not to mention the alleged +Negro strain in Æsop and Robert Browning. As rulers and warriors +we remember such Negroes as Queen Nefertari and Amenhotep III +among many others in Egypt; Candace and Ergamenes in Ethiopia; +Mansa Musa, Sonni Ali, and Mohammed Askai in the Sudan; Diaz +in Brazil, Toussaint L'Ouverture in Hayti, Hannivalov in Russia, +Sakanouye Tamuramaro in Japan, the elder Dumas in France, +Cazembe and Chaka among the Bantu, and Menelik, of Abyssinia; +the numberless black leaders of India, and the mulatto strain of +Alexander Hamilton. In music and art we recall Bridgewater, the +friend of Beethoven, and the unexplained complexion of Beethoven's +own father; Coleridge-Taylor in England, Tanner in America, Gomez +in Spain; Ira Aldridge, the actor, and Johnson, Cook, and Burleigh, +who are making the new American syncopated music. In the +Church we know that Negro blood coursed in the veins of many of +the Catholic African fathers, if not in certain of the popes; and +there were in modern days Benoit of Palermo, St. Benedict, Bishop +Crowther, the Mahdi who drove England from the Sudan, and +Americans like Allen, Lot Carey, and Alexander Crummell. In science, +discovery, and invention the Negroes claim Lislet Geoffroy of +the French Academy, Latino and Amo, well known in European +university circles; and in America the explorers Dorantes and Henson; +Banneker, the almanac maker; Wood, the telephone improver; +McCoy, inventor of modern lubrication; Matseliger, who revolutionized +shoemaking. Here are names representing all degrees of +genius and talent from the mediocre to the highest, but they are +strong human testimony to the ability of this race.</p> + +<p>We must, then, look for the origin of modern color prejudice not +to physical or cultural causes, but to historic facts. And we shall +find the answer in modern Negro slavery and the slave trade.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> "Some authors write that the Ethiopians paint the devil white, in disdain of +our complexions."—Ludolf: <i>History of Ethiopia</i>, p. 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Ripley: <i>Races of Europe</i>, pp. 58, 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Denniker: <i>Races of Men</i>, p. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> G. Finot: <i>Race Prejudice</i>. F. Herz: <i>Moderne Rassentheorien</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Ratzel: quoted in Spiller: <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Spiller: <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Ratzel: <i>History of Mankind</i>, II, 380 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Industrial Evolution</i>, p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> These and other references in this chapter are from Schneider: Culturfähigkeit +des Negers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute</i>, XLIII, 414, 415. Cf. also +<i>The Crisis</i>, Vol. IX, p. 234.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Bücher: <i>Industrial Revolution</i> (tr. by Wickett), pp. 57-58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Hayford: <i>Native Institutions</i>, pp. 95-96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Ratzel, II, 376.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Hayford: <i>Native Institutions</i>, pp. 76 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Impressions of South Africa</i>, 3d ed., p. 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> William Schneider.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>West African Studies</i>, Chap. V.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Impressions of South Africa.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, Vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>West African Studies</i>, p. 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Nassau: <i>Fetishism in West Africa</i>, p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>, 9th ed., XX, 362.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>The African Provinces</i>, II, 345.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Mediterranean Race</i>, p. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Stowe: <i>Native Races</i>, etc., pp. 553-554.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Quoted in Schneider.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, Vol. I, Chap. XIV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, Vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, I, 14-15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Frobenius: <i>Voice of Africa</i>, I, 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Ratzel: <i>History of Mankind</i>, II, 313.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Atlanta University Publications, No. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Robert Lowie in the <i>New Review</i>, Sept., 1914.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX_THE_TRADE_IN_MEN" id="IX_THE_TRADE_IN_MEN" />IX <br /><br />THE TRADE IN MEN</h2> + + +<p>Color was never a badge of slavery in the ancient or medieval +world, nor has it been in the modern world outside of Christian +states. Homer sings of a black man, a "reverend herald"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Of visage solemn, sad, but sable hue,<br /></span> +<span>Short, woolly curls, o'erfleeced his bending head,...<br /></span> +<span>Eurybiates, in whose large soul alone,<br /></span> +<span>Ulysses viewed an image of his own.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Greece and Rome had their chief supplies of slaves from Europe +and Asia. Egypt enslaved races of all colors, and if there were more +blacks than others among her slaves, there were also more blacks +among her nobles and Pharaohs, and both facts are explained by her +racial origin and geographical position. The fall of Rome led to a +cessation of the slave trade, but after a long interval came the white +slave trade of the Saracens and Moors, and finally the modern trade +in Negroes.</p> + +<p>Slavery as it exists universally among primitive people is a system +whereby captives in war are put to tasks about the homes and in the +fields, thus releasing the warriors for systematic fighting and the +women for leisure. Such slavery has been common among all peoples +and was wide-spread in Africa. The relative number of African +slaves under these conditions was small and the labor not hard; they +were members of the family and might and did often rise to high +position in the tribe.</p> + +<p>Remembering that in the fifteenth century there was no great disparity +between the civilization of Negroland and that of Europe, +what made the striking difference in subsequent development? European +civilization, cut off by physical barriers from further incursions +of barbaric races, settled more and more to systematic industry and +to the domination of one religion; African culture and industries were +threatened by powerful barbarians from the west and central regions +of the continent and by the Moors in the north, and Islam had only +partially converted the leading peoples.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, a demand for workmen arose in America, European +exportation was limited by religious ties and economic stability. +African exportation was encouraged not simply by the Christian attitude +toward heathen, but also by the Moslem enmity toward the +unconverted Negroes. Two great modern religions, therefore, agreed +at least in the policy of enslaving heathen blacks, while the overthrow +of black Askias by the Moors at Tenkadibou brought that +economic chaos among the advanced Negro peoples and movement +among the more barbarous tribes which proved of prime advantage +to the development of a systematic trade in men.</p> + +<p>The modern slave trade began with the Mohammedan conquests +in Africa, when heathen Negroes were seized to supply the harems, +and as soldiers and servants. They were bought from the masters +and seized in war, until the growing wealth and luxury of the conquerors +demanded larger numbers. Then Negroes from the Egyptian +Sudan, Abyssinia, and Zanzibar began to pass into Arabia, Persia, +and India in increased numbers. As Negro kingdoms and tribes rose +to power they found the slave trade lucrative and natural, since the +raids in which slaves were captured were ordinary inter-tribal wars. +It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the demand +for slaves in Christian lands made slaves the object, and not +the incident, of African wars.</p> + +<p>In Mohammedan countries there were gleams of hope in slavery. +In fiction and in truth the black slave had a chance. Once converted +to Islam, he became a brother to the best, and the brotherhood of the +faith was not the sort of idle lie that Christian slave masters made +it. In Arabia black leaders arose like Antar; in India black slaves +carved out principalities where their descendants still rule.</p> + +<p>Some Negro slaves were brought to Europe by the Spaniards in +the fourteenth century, and a small trade was continued by the Portuguese, +who conquered territory from the "tawny" Moors of North +Africa in the early fifteenth century. Later, after their severe repulse +at Al-Kasr-Al-Kabu, the Portuguese began to creep down the west +coast in quest of trade. They reached the River of Gold in 1441, +and their story is that their leader seized certain free Moors and the +next year exchanged them for ten black slaves, a target of hide, +ostrich eggs, and some gold dust. The trade was easily justified on +the ground that the Moors were Mohammedans and refused to be +converted to Christianity, while heathen Negroes would be better +subjects for conversion and stronger laborers. In the next few years +a small number of Negroes continued to be imported into Spain +and Portugal as servants. We find, for instance, in 1474, that Negro +slaves were common in Seville. There is a letter from Ferdinand +and Isabella in the year 1474 to a celebrated Negro, Juan de Valladolid, +commonly called the "Negro Count" (El Conde Negro), nominating +him to the office of "mayoral of the Negroes" in Seville. +The slaves were apparently treated kindly, allowed to keep their +own dances and festivals, and to have their own chief, who represented +them in the courts, as against their own masters, and settled +their private quarrels.</p> + +<p>Between 1455 and 1492 little mention is made of slaves in the +trade with Africa. Columbus is said to have suggested Negroes for +America, but Ferdinand and Isabella refused. Nevertheless, by 1501, +we have the first incidental mention of Negroes going to America in +a declaration that Negro slaves "born in the power of Christians +were to be allowed to pass to the Indies, and the officers of the royal +revenue were to receive the money to be paid for their permits."</p> + +<p>About 1501 Ovando, Governor of Spanish America, was objecting +to Negro slaves and "solicited that no Negro slaves should be sent to +Hispaniola, for they fled amongst the Indians and taught them bad +customs, and never could be captured." Nevertheless a letter from +the king to Ovando, dated Segovia, the fifteenth of September, 1505, +says, "I will send more Negro slaves as you request; I think there +may be a hundred. At each time a trustworthy person will go with +them who may have some share in the gold they may collect and +may promise them ease if they work well."<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> There is a record of a +hundred slaves being sent out this very year, and Diego Columbus +was notified of fifty to be sent from Seville for the mines in 1510.</p> + +<p>After this time frequent notices show that Negroes were common +in the new world.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> When Pizarro, for instance, had been slain in +Peru, his body was dragged to the cathedral by two Negroes. After +the battle of Anaquito the head of the viceroy was cut off by a Negro, +and during the great earthquake in Guatemala a most remarkable +figure was a gigantic Negro seen in various parts of the city. +Nunez had thirty Negroes with him on the top of the Sierras, and +there was rumor of an aboriginal tribe of Negroes in South America. +One of the last acts of King Ferdinand was to urge that no more +Negroes be sent to the West Indies, but under Charles V, Bishop +Las Casas drew up a plan of assisted migration to America and asked +in 1517 the right for immigrants to import twelve Negro slaves, in +return for which the Indians were to be freed.</p> + +<p>Las Casas, writing in his old age, owns his error: "This advice that +license should be given to bring Negro slaves to these lands, the +Clerigo Casas first gave, not considering the injustice with which +the Portuguese take them and make them slaves; which advice, +after he had apprehended the nature of the thing, he would not +have given for all he had in the world. For he always held that +they had been made slaves unjustly and tyrannically; for the same +reason holds good of them as of the Indians<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>."</p> + +<p>As soon as the plan was broached a Savoyard, Lorens de Gomenot, +Governor of Bresa, obtained a monopoly of this proposed trade and +shrewdly sold it to the Genoese for twenty-five thousand ducats. +Other monopolies were granted in 1523, 1527, and 1528<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a>. Thus the +American trade became established and gradually grew, passing successively +into the hands of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, +and the English.</p> + +<p>At first the trade was of the same kind and volume as that already +passing northward over the desert routes. Soon, however, the American +trade developed. A strong, unchecked demand for brute labor +in the West Indies and on the continent of America grew until it +culminated in the eighteenth century, when Negro slaves were +crossing the Atlantic at the rate of fifty to one hundred thousand a +year. This called for slave raiding on a scale that drew upon every +part of Africa—upon the west coast, the western and Egyptian Sudan, +the valley of the Congo, Abyssinia, the lake regions, the east +coast, and Madagascar. Not simply the degraded and weaker types +of Negroes were seized, but the strong Bantu, the Mandingo and +Songhay, the Nubian and Nile Negroes, the Fula, and even the +Asiatic Malay, were represented in the raids.</p> + +<p>There was thus begun in modern days a new slavery and slave +trade. It was different from that of the past, because more and more +it came in time to be founded on racial caste, and this caste was +made the foundation of a new industrial system. For four hundred +years, from 1450 to 1850, European civilization carried on a systematic +trade in human beings of such tremendous proportions that +the physical, economic, and moral effects are still plainly to be remarked +throughout the world. To this must be added the large slave +trade of Mussulman lands, which began with the seventh century +and raged almost unchecked until the end of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>These were not days of decadence, but a period that gave the +world Shakespeare, Martin Luther, and Raphael, Haroun-al-Raschid +and Abraham Lincoln. It was the day of the greatest expansion of +two of the world's most pretentious religions and of the beginnings +of the modern organization of industry. In the midst of this advance +and uplift this slave trade and slavery spread more human misery, +inculcated more disrespect for and neglect of humanity, a greater +callousness to suffering, and more petty, cruel, human hatred than +can well be calculated. We may excuse and palliate it, and write +history so as to let men forget it; it remains the most inexcusable +and despicable blot on modern human history.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese built the first slave-trading fort at Elmina, on the +Gold Coast, in 1482, and extended their trade down the west coast +and up the east coast. Under them the abominable traffic grew +larger and larger, until it became far the most important in money +value of all the commerce of the Zambesi basin. There could be no +extension of agriculture, no mining, no progress of any kind where +it was so extensively carried on<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a>.</p> + +<p>It was the Dutch, however, who launched the oversea slave trade +as a regular institution. They began their fight for freedom from +Spain in 1579; in 1595, as a war measure against Spain, who at +that time was dominating Portugal, they made their first voyage to +Guinea. By 1621 they had captured Portugal's various slave forts +on the west coast and they proceeded to open sixteen forts along +the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Ships sailed from Holland to +Africa, got slaves in exchange for their goods, carried the slaves to +the West Indies or Brazil, and returned home laden with sugar. In +1621 the private companies trading in the west were all merged +into the Dutch West India Company, which sent in four years +fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty Negroes to Brazil, carried +on war with Spain, supplied even the English plantations, and gradually +became the great slave carrier of the day.</p> + +<p>The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the envy +and emulation of the English. The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 +was aimed at them, and two wars were necessary to wrest the slave +trade from them and place it in the hands of the English. The final +terms of peace, among other things, surrendered New Netherlands +to England and opened the way for England to become henceforth +the world's greatest slave trader.</p> + +<p>The English trade began with Sir John Hawkins' voyages in 1562 +and later, in which "the Jesus, our chiefe shippe" played a leading +part. Desultory trade was kept up by the English until the middle +of the seventeenth century, when English chartered slave-trading +companies began to appear. In 1662 the "Royal Adventurers," including +the king, the queen dowager, and the Duke of York, invested +in the trade, and finally the Royal African Company, which +became the world's chief slave trader, was formed in 1672 and carried +on a growing trade for a quarter of a century. Jamaica had +finally been captured and held by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 and +formed a West Indian base for the trade in men.</p> + +<p>The chief contract for trade in Negroes was the celebrated +"Asiento" or agreement of the King of Spain to the importation of +slaves into Spanish domains. The Pope's Bull or Demarkation, 1493, +debarred Spain from African possessions, and compelled her to +contract with other nations for slaves. This contract was in the +hands of the Portuguese in 1600; in 1640 the Dutch received it, +and in 1701 the French. The War of the Spanish Succession +brought this monopoly to England.</p> + +<p>This Asiento of 1713 was an agreement between England and +Spain by which the latter granted the former a monopoly of the +Spanish colonial slave trade for thirty years, and England engaged +to supply the colonies within that time with at least one hundred +and forty-four thousand slaves at the rate of forty-eight hundred per +year. The English counted this prize as the greatest result of the +Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which ended the mighty struggle against +the power of Louis XIV. The English held the monopoly until the +Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), although they had to go to war +over it in 1739.</p> + +<p>From this agreement the slave traders reaped a harvest. The trade +centered at Liverpool, and that city's commercial greatness was built +largely on this foundation. In 1709 it sent out one slaver of +thirty tons' burden; encouraged by Parliamentary subsidies which +amounted to nearly half a million dollars between 1729 and 1750, +the trade amounted to fifty-three ships in 1751; eighty-six in 1765, +and at the beginning of the nineteenth century one hundred and +eighty-five, which carried forty-nine thousand two hundred and +thirteen slaves in one year.</p> + +<p>The slave trade thus begun by the Portuguese, enlarged by the +Dutch, and carried to its culmination by the English centered on +the west coast near the seat of perhaps the oldest and most interesting +culture of Africa. It came at a critical time. The culture of +Yoruba, Benin, Mossiland, and Nupe had exhausted itself in a +desperate attempt to stem the on-coming flood of Mohammedan culture. +It has succeeded in maintaining its small, loosely federated +city-states suited to trade, industry, and art. It had developed strong +resistance toward the Sudan state builders toward the north, as in +the case of the fighting Mossi; but behind this warlike resistance lay +the peaceful city life which gave industrial ideas to Byzantium and +shared something of Ethiopian and Mediterranean culture.</p> + +<p>The first advent of the slave traders increased and encouraged +native industry, as is evidenced by the bronze work of Benin; but +soon this was pushed into the background, for it was not bronze +metal but bronze flesh that Europe wanted. A new tyranny, blood-thirsty, +cruel, and built on war, forced itself forward in the Niger +delta. The powerful state of Dahomey arose early in the eighteenth +century and became a devastating tyranny, reaching its highest +power early in the nineteenth century. Ashanti, a similar kingdom, +began its conquests in 1719 and grew with the slave trade. Thus +state building in West Africa began to replace the city economy, +but it was a state built on war and on war supported and encouraged +largely for the sake of trade in human flesh. The native industries +were changed and disorganized. Family ties and government were +weakened. Far into the heart of Africa this devilish disintegration, +coupled with Christian rum and Mohammedan raiding, penetrated. +The face of Africa was turned south on these slave traders instead +of northward toward the Mediterranean, where for two thousand +years and more Europe and Africa had met in legitimate trade and +mutual respect. The full significance of the battle of Tenkadibou, +which overthrew the Askias, was now clear. Hereafter Africa for +centuries was to appear before the world, not as the land of gold +and ivory, of Mansa Musa and Meroe, but as a bound and captive +slave, dumb and degraded.</p> + +<p>The natural desire to avoid a painful subject has led historians to +gloss over the details of the slave trade and leave the impression that +it was a local west-coast phenomenon and confined to a few years. +It was, on the contrary, continent wide and centuries long and an +economic, social, and political catastrophe probably unparalleled in +human history.</p> + +<p>The exact proportions of the slave trade can be estimated only +approximately. From 1680 to 1688 we know that the English African +Company alone sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there 60,783 +Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the middle passage, delivered +46,396 in America.</p> + +<p>It seems probable that 25,000 Negroes a year arrived in America +between 1698 and 1707. After the Asiento of 1713 this number rose +to 30,000 annually, and before the Revolutionary War it had reached +at least 40,000 and perhaps 100,000 slaves a year.</p> + +<p>The total number of slaves imported is not known. Dunbar estimates +that nearly 900,000 came to America in the sixteenth century, +2,750,000 in the seventeenth, 7,000,000 in the eighteenth, and over +4,000,000 in the nineteenth, perhaps 15,000,000 in all. Certainly it +seems that at least 10,000,000 Negroes were expatriated. Probably +every slave imported represented on the average five corpses in +Africa or on the high seas. The American slave trade, therefore, +meant the elimination of at least 60,000,000 Negroes from their fatherland. +The Mohammedan slave trade meant the expatriation or +forcible migration in Africa of nearly as many more. It would be +conservative, then, to say that the slave trade cost Negro Africa +100,000,000 souls. And yet people ask to-day the cause of the stagnation +of culture in that land since 1600!</p> + +<p>Such a large number of slaves could be supplied only by organized +slave raiding in every corner of Africa. The African continent gradually +became revolutionized. Whole regions were depopulated, +whole tribes disappeared; villages were built in caves and on hills +or in forest fastnesses; the character of peoples like those of Benin +developed their worst excesses of cruelty instead of the already +flourishing arts of peace. The dark, irresistible grasp of fetish took +firmer hold on men's minds.</p> + +<p>Further advances toward civilization became impossible. Not only +was there the immense demand for slaves which had its outlet on the +west coast, but the slave caravans were streaming up through the +desert to the Mediterranean coast and down the valley of the Nile +to the centers of Mohammedanism. It was a rape of a continent to +an extent never paralleled in ancient or modern times.</p> + +<p>In the American trade there was not only the horrors of the slave +raid, which lined the winding paths of the African jungles with +bleached bones, but there was also the horrors of what was called +the "middle passage," that is, the voyage across the Atlantic. As Sir +William Dolben said, "The Negroes were chained to each other +hand and foot, and stowed so close that they were not allowed above +a foot and a half for each in breadth. Thus crammed together like +herrings in a barrel, they contracted putrid and fatal disorders; so +that they who came to inspect them in a morning had occasionally +to pick dead slaves out of their rows, and to unchain their carcases +from the bodies of their wretched fellow-sufferers to whom they had +been fastened<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a>."</p> + +<p>It was estimated that out of every one hundred lot shipped from +Africa only about fifty lived to be effective laborers across the sea, +and among the whites more seamen died in that trade in one year +than in the whole remaining trade of England in two. The full +realization of the horrors of the slave trade was slow in reaching +the ears and conscience of the modern world, just as to-day the +treatment of dark natives in European colonies is brought to publicity +with the greatest difficulty. The first move against the slave +trade in England came in Parliament in 1776, but it was not until +thirty-one years later, in 1807, that the trade was banned through +the arduous labors of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Sharpe, and others.</p> + +<p>Denmark had already abolished the trade, and the United States +attempted to do so the following year. Portugal and Spain were induced +to abolish the trade between 1815 and 1830. Notwithstanding +these laws, the contraband trade went on until the beginning +of the Civil War in America. The reasons for this were the enormous +profit of the trade and the continued demand of the American slave +barons, who had no sympathy with the efforts to stop their source +of cheap labor supply.</p> + +<p>However, philanthropy was not working alone to overthrow Negro +slavery and the slave trade. It was seen, first in England and +later in other countries, that slavery as an industrial system could +not be made to work satisfactorily in modern times. Its cost was too +great, and one of the causes of this cost was the slave insurrections +from the very beginning, when the slaves rose on the plantation of +Diego Columbus down to the Civil War in America. Actual and +potential slave insurrection in the West Indies, in North and South +America, kept the slave owners in apprehension and turmoil, or +called for a police system difficult to maintain. In North America +revolt finally took the form of organized running away to the North, +and this, with the growing scarcity of suitable land and the moral +revolt, led to the Civil War and the disappearance of the American +slave trade.</p> + +<p>There was still, however, the Mohammedan slave trade to deal +with, and this has been the work of the nineteenth and early twentieth +centuries. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century ten +thousand slaves annually were being distributed on the southern +and eastern coast of the Mediterranean and at the great slave market +in Bornu.</p> + +<p>On the east coast of Africa in 1862 nineteen thousand slaves were +passed into Zanzibar and thence into Arabia and Persia. As late as +1880, three thousand annually were being thus transplanted, but +now the trade is about stopped. To-day the only centers of actual +slave trading may be said to be the cocoa plantations of the Portuguese +Islands on the west coast of Africa, and the Congo Free State.</p> + +<p>Such is the story of the Rape of Ethiopia—a sordid, pitiful, cruel +tale. Raphael painted, Luther preached, Corneille wrote, and Milton +sung; and through it all, for four hundred years, the dark captives +wound to the sea amid the bleaching bones of the dead; for four +hundred years the sharks followed the scurrying ships; for four hundred +years America was strewn with the living and dying millions of +a transplanted race; for four hundred years Ethiopia stretched forth +her hands unto God.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Cf. Helps: <i>Spanish Conquest</i>, IV, 401.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Helps, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 219-220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Helps, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 18-19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Helps, <i>op. cit.</i>, III, 211-212.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Theal: <i>History and Ethnography of South Africa before 1795</i>, I, 476.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Ingram: <i>History of Slavery</i>, p. 152.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X_THE_WEST_INDIES_AND_LATIN_AMERICA" id="X_THE_WEST_INDIES_AND_LATIN_AMERICA" />X <br /><br />THE WEST INDIES AND LATIN AMERICA</h2> + + +<p>That was a wonderful century, the fifteenth, when men realized +that beyond the scowling waste of western waters were dreams come +true. Curious and yet crassly human it is that, with all this poetry +and romance, arose at once the filthiest institution of the modern +world and the costliest. For on Negro slavery in America was built, +not simply the abortive cotton kingdom, but the foundations of that +modern imperialism which is based on the despising of backward +men.</p> + +<p>According to some accounts Alonzo, "the Negro," piloted one of +the ships of Columbus, and certainly there was Negro blood among +his sailors. As early as 1528 there were nearly ten thousand Negroes +in the new world. We hear of them in all parts. In Honduras, for +instance, a Negro is sent to burn a native village; in 1555 the town +council of Santiago de Chile voted to allow an enfranchised Negro +possession of land in the town, and evidently treated him just as +white applicants were treated. D'Allyon, who explored the coast of +Virginia in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, used Negro +slaves (who afterward revolted) to build his ships and help in exploration; +Balboa had with him thirty Negroes, who, in 1513, helped +to build the first ships on the Pacific coast; Cortez had three hundred +Negro porters in 1522.</p> + +<p>Before 1530 there were enough Negroes in Mexico to lead to an +insurrection, where the Negroes fought desperately, but were overcome +and their ringleaders executed. Later the followers of another +Negro insurgent, Bayano, were captured and sent back to Spain. +Negroes founded the town of Santiago del Principe in 1570, and in +1540 a Negro slave of Hernandez de Alarcon was the only one of +the party to carry a message across the country to the Zunis of New +Mexico. A Negro, Stephen Dorantes, discovered New Mexico. This +Stephen or "Estevanico" was sent ahead by certain Spanish friars +to the "Seven Cities of Cibola." "As soon as Stephen had left said +friars, he determined to earn all the reputation and honor for himself, +and that the boldness and daring of having alone discovered +those villages of high stories so much spoken of throughout that +country should be attributed to him; and carrying along with him +the people who followed him, he endeavored to cross the wilderness +which is between Cibola and the country he had gone through, and +he was so far ahead of the friars that when they arrived at Chichilticalli, +which is on the edge of the wilderness, he was already at +Cibola, which is eighty leagues of wilderness beyond." But the Indians +of the new and strange country took alarm and concluded that +Stephen "must be a spy or guide for some nations who intended to +come and conquer them, because it seemed to them unreasonable +for him to say that the people were white in the country from which +he came, being black himself and being sent by them."<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<p>Slaves imported under the Asiento treaties went to all parts of +the Americas. Spanish America had by the close of the eighteenth +century ten thousand in Santo Domingo, eighty-four thousand in +Cuba, fifty thousand in Porto Rico, sixty thousand in Louisiana and +Florida, and sixty thousand in Central and South America.</p> + +<p>The history of the Negro in Spanish America centered in Cuba, +Venezuela, and Central America. In the sixteenth century slaves +began to arrive in Cuba and Negroes joined many of the exploring +expeditions from there to various parts of America. The slave trade +greatly increased in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and +after the revolution in Hayti large numbers of French emigrants +from that island settled in Cuba. This and Spanish greed increased +the harshness of slavery and eventually led to revolt among the +Negroes. In 1844 Governor O'Donnell began a cruel persecution of +the blacks on account of a plot discovered among them. Finally in +1866 the Ten Years' War broke out in which Negro and white +rebels joined. They demanded the abolition of slavery and equal +political rights for natives and foreigners, whites and blacks. The +war was cruel and bloody but ended in 1878 with the abolition of +slavery, while a further uprising the following year secured civil +rights for Negroes. Spanish economic oppression continued, however, +and the leading chiefs of the Ten Years' War including such +leaders as the mulatto, Antonio Maceo, with large numbers of +Negro soldiers, took the field again in 1895. The result was the +freeing of Cuba by the intervention of the United States. Negro +regiments from the United States played here a leading role. A +number of leaders in Cuba in political, industrial, and literary lines +have been men of Negro descent.</p> + +<p>Slavery was abolished by Guatemala in 1824 and by Mexico in +1829. Argentine, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay ceased to recognize +it about 1825. Between 1840 and 1845 it came to an end in +Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecquador. Bolivar, Paez, Sucre, and +other South American leaders used Negro soldiers in fighting for +freedom (1814-16), and Hayti twice at critical times rendered +assistance and received Bolivar twice as a refugee.</p> + +<p>Brazil was the center of Portuguese slavery, but slaves were not +introduced in large numbers until about 1720, when diamonds were +discovered in the territory above Rio Janeiro. Gradually the seaboard +from Pernambuco to Rio Janeiro and beyond became filled +with Negroes, and although the slave trade north of the equator +was theoretically abolished by Portugal in 1815 and south of the +equator in 1830, and by Brazil in these regions in 1826 and 1830, +nevertheless between 1825 and 1850 over a million and a quarter of +Negroes were introduced. Not until Brazil abolished slavery in 1888 +did the importation wholly cease. Brazilian slavery allowed the slave +to purchase his freedom, and the color line was not strict. Even in +the eighteenth century there were black clergy and bishops; indeed +the Negro clergy seem to have been on a higher moral level than the +whites.</p> + +<p>Insurrection was often attempted, especially among the Mohammedan +Negroes around Bahia. In 1695 a tribe of revolted slaves held +out for a long time. In 1719 a widespread conspiracy failed, but +many of the leaders fled to the forest. In 1828 a thousand rose in +revolt at Bahia, and again in 1830. From 1831 to 1837 revolt was in +the air, and in 1835 came the great revolt of the Mohammedans, +who attempted to enthrone a queen. The Negroes fought with +furious bravery, but were finally defeated.</p> + +<p>By 1872 the number of free Negroes had very greatly increased, +so that emancipation did not come as a shock. While Mohammedan +Negroes still gave trouble and were in some cases sent back to +Africa, yet on the whole emancipation was peaceful, and whites, +Negroes, and Indians are to-day amalgamating into a new race. "At +the present moment there is scarcely a lowly or a highly placed +federal or provincial official at the head of or within any of the great +departments of state that has not more or less Negro or Amer-Indian +blood in his veins."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + +<p>Lord Bryce says, "It is hardly too much to say that along the coast +from Rio to Bahia and Pernambuco, as well as in parts of the interior +behind these two cities, the black population predominates.... +The Brazilian lower class intermarries freely with the black +people; the Brazilian middle class intermarries with mulattoes and +Quadroons. Brazil is the one country in the world, besides the +Portuguese colonies on the east and west coasts of Africa, in which +a fusion of the European and African races is proceeding unchecked +by law or custom. The doctrines of human equality and human +solidarity have here their perfect work. The result is so far satisfactory +that there is little or no class friction. The white man does not +lynch or maltreat the Negro; indeed I have never heard of a lynching +anywhere in South America except occasionally as part of a +political convulsion. The Negro is not accused of insolence and does +not seem to develop any more criminality than naturally belongs to +any ignorant population with loose notions of morality and property.</p> + +<p>"What ultimate effect the intermixture of blood will have on the +European element in Brazil I will not venture to predict. If one may +judge from a few remarkable cases, it will not necessarily reduce +the intellectual standard. One of the ablest and most refined Brazilians +I have known had some color; and other such cases have been +mentioned to me. Assumptions and preconceptions must be eschewed, +however plausible they may seem."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>A Brazilian writer said at the First Races Congress: "The coöperation +of the <i>metis</i><a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> in the advance of Brazil is notorious and far from +inconsiderable. They played the chief part during many years in +Brazil in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. I could quote +celebrated names of more than one of these <i>metis</i> who put themselves +at the head of the literary movement. They fought with +firmness and intrepidity in the press and on the platform. They faced +with courage the gravest perils to which they were exposed in their +struggle against the powerful slave owners, who had the protection +of a conservative government. They gave evidence of sentiments of +patriotism, self-denial, and appreciation during the long campaign +in Paraguay, fighting heroically at the boarding of the ships in the +naval battle of Riachuelo and in the attacks on the Brazilian army, +on numerous occasions in the course of this long South American +war. It was owing to their support that the republic was erected on +the ruins of the empire."<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<p>The Dutch brought the first slaves to the North American continent. +John Rolfe relates that the last of August, 1619, there came +to Virginia "a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars."<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> +This was probably one of the ships of the numerous private Dutch +trading companies which early entered into the developed and the +lucrative African slave trade. Although the Dutch thus commenced +the continental slave trade they did not actually furnish a very large +number of slaves to the English colonies outside the West Indies. A +small trade had by 1698 brought a few thousand to New York and +still fewer to New Jersey.</p> + +<p>The Dutch found better scope for slaves in Guiana, which they +settled in 1616. Sugar cane became the staple crop, but the Negroes +early began to revolt and the Dutch brought in East Indian coolies. +The slaves were badly treated and the runaways joined the revolted +Bush Negroes in the interior. From 1715 to 1775 there was continuous +fighting with the Bush Negroes or insurrections, until at last +in 1749 a formal treaty between sixteen hundred Negroes and the +Dutch was made. Immediately a new group revolted under a Mohammedan, +Arabi, and they obtained land and liberty. In 1763 the +coast Negroes revolted. They were checked, but made terms and +settled in the interior. The Bush Negroes fought against both French +and English to save Guiana to the Dutch, but Guiana was eventually +divided between the three. The Bush Negroes still maintain +their independence and vigor.</p> + +<p>The French encouraged settlements in the West Indies in the +seventeenth century, but at last, finding that French immigrants +would not come, they began about 1642 to import Negroes. Owing +to wars with England, slaves were supplied by the Dutch and Portuguese, +although the Royal Senegal Company held the coveted Asiento +from 1701 to 1713.</p> + +<p>It was in the island of Hayti, however, that French slavery centered. +Pirates from many nations, but chiefly French, began to frequent +the island, and in 1663 the French annexed the eastern part, +thus dividing the island between France and Spain. By 1680 there +were so many slaves and mulattoes that Louis XIV issued his celebrated +Code Noir, which was notable in compelling bachelor masters, +fathers of slave children, to marry their concubines. Children +followed the condition of the mother as to slavery or freedom; they +could have no property; harsh punishments were provided for, but +families could not be separated by sale except in the case of grown +children; emancipation with full civil rights was made possible for +any slave twenty years of age or more. When Louisiana was settled +and the Alabama coast, slaves were introduced there. Louisiana was +transferred to Spain in 1762, against the resistance of both settlers +and slaves, but Spain took possession in 1769 and introduced more +Negroes.</p> + +<p>Later, in Hayti, a more liberal policy encouraged trade; war was +over and capital and slaves poured in. Sugar, coffee, chocolate, +indigo, dyes, and spices were raised. There were large numbers of +mulattoes, many of whom were educated in France, and many masters +married Negro women who had inherited large properties, just +as in the United States to-day white men are marrying eagerly the +landed Indian women in the West. When white immigration increased +in 1749, however, prejudice arose against these mulattoes +and severe laws were passed depriving them of civil rights, entrance +into the professions, and the right to hold office; severe edicts were +enforced as to clothing, names, and social intercourse. Finally, after +1777, mulattoes were forbidden to come to France.</p> + +<p>When the French Revolution broke out, the Haytians managed +to send two delegates to Paris. Nevertheless the planters maintained +the upper hand, and one of the colored delegates, Oge, on returning, +started a small rebellion. He and his companions were killed +with great brutality. This led the French government to grant full +civil rights to free Negroes, Immediately planters and free Negroes +flew to arms against each other and then, suddenly, August 22, 1791, +the black slaves, of whom there were four hundred and fifty-two +thousand, arose in revolt to help the free Negroes.</p> + +<p>For many years runaway slaves had hidden in the mountains under +their own chiefs. One of the earliest of these chiefs was Polydor, in +1724, who was succeeded by Macandal. The great chief of these +runaways or "Maroons" at the time of the slave revolt was Jean +François, who was soon succeeded by Biassou.</p> + +<p>Pierre Dominic Toussaint, known as Toussaint L'Ouverture, +joined these Maroon bands, where he was called "the doctor of the +armies of the king," and soon became chief aid to Jean François and +Biassou. Upon their deaths Toussaint rose to the chief command. He +acquired complete control over the blacks, not only in military matters, +but in politics and social organization; "the soldiers regarded +him as a superior being, and the farmers prostrated themselves before +him. All his generals trembled before him (Dessalines did not +dare to look in his face), and all the world trembled before his +generals."<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p>The revolt once started, blacks and mulattoes murdered whites +without mercy and the whites retaliated. Commissioners were sent +from France, who asked simply civil rights for freedmen, and not +emancipation. Indeed that was all that Toussaint himself had as yet +demanded. The planters intrigued with the British and this, together +with the beheading of the king (an impious act in the eyes of Negroes), +induced Toussaint to join the Spaniards. In 1793 British +troops were landed and the French commissioners in desperation declared +the slaves emancipated. This at once won back Toussaint from +the Spaniards. He became supreme in the north, while Rigaud, +leader of the mulattoes, held the south and the west. By 1798 the +British, having lost most of their forces by yellow fever, surrendered +Mole St. Nicholas to Toussaint and departed. Rigaud finally left for +France, and Toussaint in 1800 was master of Hayti. He promulgated +a constitution under which Hayti was to be a self-governing colony; +all men were equal before the law, and trade was practically free. +Toussaint was to be president for life, with the power to name his +successor.</p> + +<p>Napoleon Bonaparte, master of France, had at this time dreams +of a great American empire, and replied to Toussaint's new government +by sending twenty-five thousand men under his brother-in-law +to subdue the presumptuous Negroes, as a preliminary step to his +occupation and development of the Mississippi valley. Fierce fighting +and yellow fever decimated the French, but matters went hard +with the Negroes too, and Toussaint finally offered to yield. He +was courteously received with military honors and then, as soon as +possible, treacherously seized, bound, and sent to France. He was +imprisoned at Fort Joux and died, perhaps of poison, after studied +humiliations, April 7, 1803.</p> + +<p>Thus perished the greatest of American Negroes and one of the +great men of all time, at the age of fifty-six. A French planter said, +"God in his terrestrial globe did not commune with a purer spirit."<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> +Wendell Phillips said, "Some doubt the courage of the Negro. Go +to Hayti and stand on those fifty thousand graves of the best soldiers +France ever had and ask them what they think of the Negro's sword. +I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his way to empire +over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. This man never broke +his word. I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a +soldier, and the state he founded went down with him into his +grave. I would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held +slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave +trade in the humblest village of his dominions. You think me a +fanatic, for you read history, not with your eyes, but with your +prejudices. But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the +Muse of history will put Phocion for the Greek, Brutus for the +Roman, Hampden for the English, La Fayette for France, choose +Washington as the bright, consummate flower of our earlier civilization, +then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear +blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the +martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture."</p> + +<p>The treacherous killing of Toussaint did not conquer Hayti. In +1802 and 1803 some forty thousand French soldiers died of war +and fever. A new colored leader, Dessalines, arose and all the eight +thousand remaining French surrendered to the blockading British +fleet.</p> + +<p>The effect of all this was far-reaching. Napoleon gave up his +dream of American empire and sold Louisiana for a song. "Thus, all +of Indian Territory, all of Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and +Wyoming and Montana and the Dakotas, and most of Colorado +and Minnesota, and all of Washington and Oregon states, came to +us as the indirect work of a despised Negro. Praise, if you will, the +work of a Robert Livingstone or a Jefferson, but to-day let us not +forget our debt to Toussaint L'Ouverture, who was indirectly the +means of America's expansion by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803."<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> + +<p>With the freedom of Hayti in 1801 came a century of struggle +to fit the people for the freedom they had won. They were yet slaves, +crushed by a cruel servitude, without education or religious instruction. +The Haytian leaders united upon Dessalines to maintain +the independence of the republic. Dessalines, like Toussaint and +his lieutenant Christophe, was noted in slavery days for his severity +toward his fellows and the discipline which he insisted on. He had +other characteristics of African chieftains. "There were seasons +when he broke through his natural sullenness and showed himself +open, affable, and even generous. His vanity was excessive and +manifested itself in singular perversities."<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> He was a man of great +personal bravery and succeeded in maintaining the independence of +Hayti, which had already cost the Frenchmen fifty thousand lives.</p> + +<p>On January 1, 1804, at the place whence Toussaint had been +treacherously seized and sent to France, the independence of Hayti +was declared by the military leaders. Dessalines was made governor-general +for life and afterward proclaimed himself emperor. This +was not an act of grandiloquence and mimicry. "It is truer to say +that in it both Dessalines and later Christophe were actuated by a +clear insight into the social history and peculiarities of their people. +There was nothing in the constitution which did not have its companion +in Africa, where the organization of society was despotic, +with elective hereditary chiefs, royal families, polygamic marriages, +councils, and regencies."<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> + +<p>The population was divided into soldiers and laborers. The territory +was parceled out to chiefs, and the laborers were bound to the +soil and worked under rigorous inspection; part of the products were +reserved for their support, and the rest went to the chiefs, the king, +the general government, and the army. The army was under stern +discipline and military service was compulsory. Women did much +of the agricultural labor. Under Toussaint the administration of this +system was committed to Dessalines, who carried it out with rigor; +it was afterward followed by Christophe. The latter even imported +four thousand Negroes from Africa, from whom he formed a national +guard for patrolling the land. These regulations brought back +for a time a large part of the former prosperity of the island.</p> + +<p>The severity with which Dessalines enforced the laws soon began +to turn many against him. The educated mulattoes especially objected +to submission to the savage African <i>mores</i>. Dessalines started +to suppress their revolt, but was killed in ambush in October, 1806.</p> + +<p>Great Britain now began to intrigue for a protectorate over the +island and the Spanish end of the island threatened attack. These +difficulties were overcome, but at a cost of great internal strain. After +the death of Dessalines it seemed that Hayti was about to dissolve +into a number of petty subdivisions. At one time Christophe was +ruling as king in the north, Petion as president at Port au Prince, +Rigaud in the south, and a semi-brigand, Goman, in the extreme +southwest. Very soon, however, the rivalry narrowed down to Petion +and Christophe. Petion was a man of considerable ability and did +much, not simply for Hayti, but for South America. Already as early +as 1779, before the revolution in Hayti, the Haytian Negroes had +helped the United States. The British had captured Savannah in +1778. The French fleet appeared on the coast of Georgia late that +year and was ordered to recruit men in Hayti. Eight hundred young +freedmen, blacks and mulattoes, offered to take part in the expedition, +and they fought valiantly in the siege and covered themselves +with glory. It was this legion that made the charge on the British +and saved the retreating American army. Among the men who +fought there was Christophe.</p> + +<p>When Simon Bolivar, Commodore Aury, and many Venezuelan +families were driven from their country in 1815, they and their ships +took temporary refuge in Hayti. Notwithstanding the embarrassed +condition of the republic, Petion received them and gave them four +thousand rifles with ammunition, provisions, and last and best a +printing press. He also settled some international quarrels among +members of the groups, and Bolivar expressed himself afterward as +being "overwhelmed with magnanimous favors."<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>Petion died in 1818 and was succeeded by his friend Boyer. +Christophe committed suicide the following year and Boyer became +not simply ruler of western Hayti, but also, by arrangement with +the eastern end of the island, gained the mastery there, where they +were afraid of Spanish aggression. Thus from 1822 to 1843 Boyer, +a man of much ability, ruled the whole of the island and gained +the recognition of Haytian independence from France and other +nations.</p> + +<p>France, under Charles X, demanded an indemnity of thirty million +dollars to reimburse the planters for confiscated lands and +property. This Hayti tried to pay, but the annual installment was a +tremendous burden to the impoverished country. Further negotiations +were entered into. Finally in 1838 France recognized the independence +of the republic and the indemnity was reduced to twelve +million dollars. Even this was a large burden for Hayti, and the +payment of it for years crippled the island.</p> + +<p>The United States and Great Britain in 1825-26 recognized the +independence of Hayti. A concordat was arranged with the Pope +for governing the church in Hayti, and finally in 1860 the church +placed under the French hierarchy. Thus Boyer did unusually well; +but his necessary concessions to France weakened his influence at +home, and finally an earthquake, which destroyed several towns in +1842, raised the superstitious of the populace against him. He resigned +in 1843, leaving the treasury well filled; but with his withdrawal +the Spanish portion of the island was lost to Hayti.</p> + +<p>The subsequent history of Hayti since 1843 has been the struggle +of a small divided country to maintain political independence. The +rich resources of the country called for foreign capital, but outside +capital meant political influence from abroad, which the little nation +rightly feared. Within, the old antagonism between the freedman +and the slave settled into a color line between the mulatto and +the black, which for a time meant the difference between educated +liberalism and reactionary ignorance. This difference has largely disappeared, +but some vestiges of the color line remain. The result has +been reaction and savagery under Soulouque, Dominique, and Nord +Alexis, and decided advance under presidents like Nissage-Saget, +Solomon, Legitime, and Hyppolite.</p> + +<p>In political life Hayti is still in the sixteenth century; but in economic +life she has succeeded in placing on their own little farms +the happiest and most contented peasantry in the world, after raising +them from a veritable hell of slavery. If modern capitalistic +greed can be restrained from interference until the best elements of +Hayti secure permanent political leadership the triumph of the +revolution will be complete.</p> + +<p>In other parts of the French-American dominion the slaves +achieved freedom also by insurrection. In Guadeloupe they helped +the French drive out the British, and thus gained emancipation. In +Martinique it took three revolts and a civil war to bring freedom.</p> + +<p>The English slave empire in America centered in the Bermudas, +Barbadoes, Jamaica and the lesser islands, and in the United States. +Barbadoes developed a savage slave code, and the result was attempted +slave insurrections in 1674, 1692, and 1702. These were +not successful, but a rising in 1816 destroyed much property under +the leadership of a mulatto, Washington Franklin, and the repeal +of bad laws and eventual enfranchisement of the colored people +followed. One Barbadian mulatto, Sir Conrad Reeves, has held the +position of chief justice in the island and was knighted. A Negro +insurrection in Dominica under Farcel greatly exercised England in +1791 and 1794 and delayed slave trade abolition; in 1844 and 1847 +further uprisings took place, and these continued from 1853 to +1893.</p> + +<p>The chief island domain of English slavery was Jamaica. It was +Oliver Cromwell who, in his zeal for God and the slave trade, sent +an expedition to seize Hayti. His fleet, driven off there, took Jamaica +in 1655. The English found the mountains already infested with +runaway slaves known as "Maroons," and more Negroes joined +them when the English arrived. In 1663 the freedom of the Maroons +was acknowledged, land was given them, and their leader, Juan de +Bolas, was made a colonel in the militia. He was killed, however, in +the following year, and from 1664 to 1738 the three thousand or +more black Maroons fought the British Empire in guerrilla warfare. +Soldiers, Indians, and dogs were sent against them, and finally in +1738 Captain Cudjo and other chiefs made a formal treaty of peace +with Governor Trelawney. They were granted twenty-five hundred +acres and their freedom was recognized.</p> + +<p>The peace lasted until 1795, when they rebelled again and gave +the British a severe drubbing, besides murdering planters. Bloodhounds +again were imported. The Maroons offered to surrender on +the express condition that none of their number should be deported +from the island, as the legislature wished. General Walpole +hesitated, but could get peace on no other terms and gave his word. +The Maroons surrendered their arms, and immediately the whites +seized six hundred of the ringleaders and transported them to the +snows of Nova Scotia! The legislature then voted a sword worth +twenty-five hundred dollars to General Walpole, which he indignantly +refused to accept. Eventually these exiled Maroons found +their way to Sierra Leone, West Africa, in time to save that colony +to the British crown.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<p>The pressing desire for peace with the Maroons on the part of +the white planters arose from the new sugar culture introduced in +1673. A greatly increased demand for slaves followed, and between +1700 and 1786 six hundred and ten thousand slaves were imported; +nevertheless, so severely were they driven, that there were only three +hundred thousand Negroes in Jamaica in the latter year.</p> + +<p>Despite the Moravian missions and other efforts late in the eighteenth +century, unrest among the Jamaica slaves and freedmen grew +and was increased by the anti-slavery agitation in England and the +revolt in Hayti. There was an insurrection in 1796; and in 1831 +again the Negroes of northwest Jamaica, impatient because of the +slow progress of the emancipation, arose in revolt and destroyed +nearly three and a half million dollars' worth of property, well-nigh +ruining the planters there. The next year two hundred and fifty-five +thousand slaves were set free, for which the planters were paid +nearly thirty million dollars. There ensued a discouraging condition +of industry. The white officials sent out in these days were arbitrary +and corrupt. Little was done for the mass of the people and there +was outrageous over-taxation. Nevertheless the backwardness of the +colony was attributed to the Negro. Governor Eyre complained in +1865 that the young and strong were good for nothing and were +filling the jails; but a simultaneous report by a missionary told the +truth concerning the officials. This aroused the colored people, and +a mulatto, George William Gordon, called a meeting. Other meetings +were afterward held, and finally the Negro peasantry began +a riot in 1861, in which eighteen people were killed, only a few of +whom were white.</p> + +<p>The result was that Governor Eyre tried and executed by court-martial +354 persons, and in addition to this killed without trial 85, +a total of 439. One thousand Negro homes were burned to the +ground and thousands of Negroes flogged or mutilated. Children +had their brains dashed out, pregnant women were murdered, and +Gordon was tried by court-martial and hanged. In fact the punishment +was, as the royal commissioners said, "reckless and positively +barbarous."<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> + +<p>This high-handed act aroused England. Eyre was not punished, +but the island was made a crown colony in 1866, and given representation +in the legislature in 1886.</p> + +<p>In the island of St. Vincent, Indians first sought to enslave the +fugitive Negroes wrecked there, but the Negroes took the Carib +women and then drove the Indian men away. These "black Caribs" +fought with Indians, English, and others for three quarters of a +century, until the Indians were exterminated. The British took possession +in 1763. The black Caribs resisted, and after hard fighting +signed a treaty in 1773, receiving one-third of the island as their +property. They afterward helped the French against the British, and +were finally deported to the island of Ruatan, off Honduras. In +Trinidad and British Guiana there have been mutinies and rioting +of slaves and a curious mingling of races.</p> + +<p>Other parts of South America must be dismissed briefly, because +of insufficient data. Colombia and Venezuela, with perhaps eight +million people, have at least one-third of their population of Negro +and Indian descent. Here Simon Bolivar with his Negro, mulatto, +and Indian forces began the war that liberated South America. Central +America has a smaller proportion of Negroids, perhaps one hundred +thousand in all. Bolivia and Peru have small amounts of Negro +blood, while Argentine and Uruguay have very little. The Negro +population in these lands is everywhere in process of rapid amalgamation +with whites and Indians.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> H.O. Flipper's translation of Castaneda de Nafera's narrative.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Johnston: <i>Negro in the New World</i>, p. 109.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Bryce: <i>South America</i>, pp. 479-480.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> I.e., mulattoes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, p. 381.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Smith: <i>General History of Virginia</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> La Croix: <i>Mémoires sur la Révolution</i>, I, 253, 408.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Marquis d'Hermonas. Cf. Johnston: <i>Negro in the New World</i>, p. 158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> DeWitt Talmage, in Christian Herald, November 28, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Aimes: <i>African Institutions in America</i> (reprinted from <i>Journal of American +Folk Lore</i>), p. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Brown: <i>History of San Domingo</i>, II, 158-159.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> See Leger: <i>Hayti</i>, Chap. XI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Cf. Chapter V, p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Johnston: <i>Negro in the New World</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI_THE_NEGRO_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES" id="XI_THE_NEGRO_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES" />XI <br /><br />THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES</h2> + + +<p>There were half a million slaves in the confines of the United States +when the Declaration of Independence declared "that all men are +created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain +unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit +of happiness." The land that thus magniloquently heralded its +advent into the family of nations had supported the institution of +human slavery for one hundred and fifty-seven years and was destined +to cling to it eighty-seven years longer.</p> + +<p>The greatest experiment in Negro slavery as a modern industrial +system was made on the mainland of North America and in the +confines of the present United States. And this experiment was on +such a scale and so long-continued that it is profitable for study and +reflection. There were in the United States in its dependencies, in +1910, 9,828,294 persons of acknowledged Negro descent, not including +the considerable infiltration of Negro blood which is not +acknowledged and often not known. To-day the number of persons +called Negroes is probably about ten and a quarter million. These +persons are almost entirely descendants of African slaves, brought to +America in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth +centuries.</p> + +<p>The importation of Negroes to the mainland of North America +was small until the British got the coveted privilege of the Asiento +in 1713. Before that Northern States like New York had received +some slaves from the Dutch, and New England had early developed +a trade by which she imported a number of house servants. Ships +went out to the African coast with rum, sold the rum, and brought +the slaves to the West Indies; there they exchanged the slaves for +sugar and molasses and brought the molasses back to New England, +to be made into rum for further exploits. After the Asiento treaty +the Negro population increased in the eighteenth century from +about 50,000 in 1710 to 220,000 in 1750 and to 462,000 in 1770. +When the colonies became independent, the foreign slave trade was +soon made illegal; but illicit trade, annexation of territory and +natural increase enlarged the Negro population from a little over a +million at the beginning of the nineteenth century to four and a +half millions at the outbreak of the Civil War and to about ten +and a quarter millions in 1914.</p> + +<p>The present so-called Negro population of the United States is:</p> + +<p>1. A mixture of the various African populations, Bantu, Sudanese, +west-coast Negroes, some dwarfs, and some traces of Arab, Berber, +and Semitic blood.</p> + +<p>2. A mixture of these strains with the blood of white Americans +through a system of concubinage of colored women in slavery days, +together with some legal intermarriage.</p> + +<p>The figures as to mulattoes<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> have been from time to time officially +acknowledged to be understatements. Probably one-third of the +Negroes of the United States have distinct traces of white blood. +This blending of the races has led to interesting human types, but +racial prejudice has hitherto prevented any scientific study of the +matter. In general the Negro population in the United States is +brown in color, darkening to almost black and shading off in the +other direction to yellow and white, and is indistinguishable in +some cases from the white population.</p> + +<p>Much has been written of the black man in America, but most +of this has been from the point of view of the whites, so that we +know of the effect of Negro slavery on the whites, the strife among +the whites for and against abolition, and the consequent problem +of the Negro so far as the white population is concerned.</p> + +<p>This chapter, however, is dealing with the matter more from the +point of view of the Negro group itself, and seeking to show what +slavery meant to them, how they reacted against it, what they did +to secure their freedom, and what they are doing with their partial +freedom to-day.</p> + +<p>The slaves landing from 1619 onward were received by the +colonies at first as laborers, on the same plane as other laborers. For +a long time there was in law no distinction between the indented white +servant from England and the black servant from Africa, except in +the term of their service. Even here the distinction was not always +observed, some of the whites being kept beyond term of their service +and Negroes now and then securing their freedom. Gradually +the planters realized the advantage of laborers held for life, but they +were met by certain moral difficulties. The opposition to slavery had +from the first been largely stilled when it was stated that this was a +method of converting the heathen to Christianity. The corollary was +that when a slave was converted he became free. Up to 1660 or +thereabouts it seemed accepted in most colonies and in the English +West Indies that baptism into a Christian church would free a +Negro slave. Masters therefore, were reluctant in the seventeenth +century to have their slaves receive Christian instruction. Massachusetts +first apparently legislated on this matter by enacting in 1641 +that slavery should be confined to captives in just wars "and such +strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us,"<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> meaning by +"strangers" apparently heathen, but saying nothing as to the effect +of conversion. Connecticut adopted similar legislation in 1650, and +Virginia declared in 1661 that Negroes "are incapable of making +satisfaction" for time lost in running away by lengthening their +time of services, thus implying that they were slaves for life. Maryland +declared in 1663 that Negro slaves should serve <i>durante vita</i>, +but it was not until 1667 that Virginia finally plucked up courage +to attack the issue squarely and declared by law: "Baptism doth not +alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom, in +order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may more carefully +endeavor the propagation of Christianity."<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> + +<p>The transplanting of the Negro from his African clan life to the +West Indian plantation was a social revolution. Marriage became +geographical and transient, while women and girls were without +protection.</p> + +<p>The private home as a self-protective, independent unit did not +exist. That powerful institution, the polygamous African home, was +almost completely destroyed, and in its place in America arose sexual +promiscuity, a weak community life, with common dwelling, meals, +and child nurseries. The internal slave trade tended further to +weaken natural ties. A small number of favored house servants and +artisans were raised above this—had their private homes, came in +contact with the culture of the master class, and assimilated much +of American civilization. This was, however, exceptional; broadly +speaking, the greatest social effect of American slavery was to substitute +for the polygamous Negro home a new polygamy less +guarded, less effective, and less civilized.</p> + +<p>At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed +every vestige of spontaneous movement among the Negroes. This is +not strictly true. The vast power of the priest in the African state is +well known; his realm alone—the province of religion and medicine—remained +largely unaffected by the plantation system. The Negro +priest, therefore, early became an important figure on the plantation +and found his function as the interpreter of the supernatural, the +comforter of the sorrowing, and as the one who expressed, rudely +but picturesquely, the longing and disappointment and resentment +of a stolen people. From such beginnings arose and spread with marvelous +rapidity the Negro church, the first distinctively Negro +American social institution. It was not at first by any means a Christian +church, but a mere adaptation of those rites of fetish which in +America is termed obe worship, or "voodooism."<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> Association and +missionary effort soon gave these rites a veneer of Christianity and +gradually, after two centuries, the church became Christian, with a +simple Calvinistic creed, but with many of the old customs still +clinging to the services. It is this historic fact, that the Negro church +of to-day bases itself upon the sole surviving social institution of the +African fatherland, that accounts for its extraordinary growth and +vitality.</p> + +<p>The slave codes at first were really labor codes based on an attempt +to reestablish in America the waning feudalism of Europe. +The laborers were mainly black and were held for life. Above them +came the artisans, free whites with a few blacks, and above them +the master class. The feudalism called for the plantation system, +and the plantation system as developed in America, and particularly +in Virginia, was at first a feudal domain. On these plantations the +master was practically supreme. The slave codes in early days were +but moderately harsh, allowing punishment by the master, but restraining +him in extreme cases and providing for care of the slaves +and of the aged. With the power, however, solely in the hands of +the master class, and with the master supreme on his own plantation, +his power over the slave was practically what he wished it to +be. In some cases the cruelty was as great as on the worst West +Indian plantations. In other cases the rule was mild and paternal.</p> + +<p>Up through this American feudalism the Negro began to rise. +He learned in the eighteenth century the English language, he +began to be identified with the Christian church, he mingled his +blood to a considerable extent with the master class. The house +servants particularly were favored, in some cases receiving education, +and the number of free Negroes gradually increased.</p> + +<p>Present-day students are often puzzled at the apparent contradictions +of Southern slavery. One hears, on the one hand, of the staid +and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and +retainers, ease and happiness; on the other hand one hears of barbarous +cruelty and unbridled power and wide oppression of men. +Which is the true picture? The answer is simple: both are true. +They are not opposite sides of the same shield; they are different +shields. They are pictures, on the one hand, of house service in the +great country seats and in the towns, and on the other hand of the +field laborers who raised the great tobacco, rice, and cotton crops. +We have thus not only carelessly mixed pictures of what were really +different kinds of slavery, but of that which represented different +degrees in the development of the economic system. House service +was the older feudal idea of personal retainership, developed in Virginia +and Carolina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It +had all the advantages and disadvantages of such a system; the advantage +of the strong personal tie and disadvantage of unyielding +caste distinctions, with the resultant immoralities. At its worst, however, +it was a matter primarily of human relationships.</p> + +<p>Out of this older type of slavery in the northern South there developed, +during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the +southern South the type of slavery which corresponds to the modern +factory system in its worst conceivable form. It represented production +of a staple product on a large scale; between the owner and +laborer were interposed the overseer and the drivers. The slaves were +whipped and driven to a mechanical task system. Wide territory +was needed, so that at last absentee landlordship was common. It +was this latter type of slavery that marked the cotton kingdom, and +the extension of the area of this system southward and westward +marked the aggressive world-conquering visions of the slave barons. +On the other hand it was the milder and far different Virginia house +service and the personal retainership of town life in which most +white children grew up; it was this that impressed their imaginations +and which they have so vividly portrayed. The Negroes, however, +knew the other side, for it was under the harsher, heartless driving +of the fields that fully nine-tenths of them lived.</p> + +<p>There early began to be some internal development and growth +of self-consciousness among the Negroes: for instance, in New +England towns Negro "governors" were elected. This was partly an +African custom transplanted and partly an endeavor to put the regulation +of the slaves into their own hands. Negroes voted in those +days: for instance, in North Carolina until 1835 the Constitution +extended the franchise to every freeman, and when Negroes were +disfranchised in 1835, several hundred colored men were deprived +of the vote. In fact, as Albert Bushnell Hart says, "In the colonies +freed Negroes, like freed indentured white servants, acquired property, +founded families, and came into the political community if +they had the energy, thrift, and fortune to get the necessary property."<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p>The humanitarian movement of the eighteenth century was active +toward Negroes, because of the part which they played in the Revolutionary +War. Negro regiments and companies were raised in Connecticut +and Rhode Island, and a large number of Negroes were +members of the continental armies elsewhere. Individual Negroes +distinguished themselves. It is estimated that five thousand Negroes +fought in the American armies.</p> + +<p>The mass of the Americans considered at the time of the adoption +of the Constitution that Negro slavery was doomed. There soon +came a series of laws emancipating slaves in the North: Vermont +began in 1779, followed by judicial decision in Massachusetts in +1780 and gradual emancipation in Pennsylvania beginning the same +year; emancipation was accomplished in New Hampshire in 1783, +and in Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784. The momentous +exclusion of slavery in the Northwest Territory took place in 1787, +and gradual emancipation began in New York and New Jersey in +1799 and 1804.</p> + +<p>Beneficial and insurance societies began to appear among colored +people. Nearly every town of any size in Virginia in the early eighteenth +century had Negro organizations for caring for the sick and +burying the dead. As the number of free Negroes increased, particularly +in the North, these financial societies began to be openly +formed. One of the earliest was the Free African Society of Philadelphia. +This eventually became the present African Methodist +Church, which has to-day half a million members and over eleven +million dollars' worth of property.</p> + +<p>Negroes began to be received into the white church bodies in +separate congregations, and before 1807 there is the record of the +formation of eight such Negro churches. This brought forth leaders +who were usually preachers in these churches. Richard Allen, the +founder of the African Methodist Church, was one; Lot Carey, one +of the founders of Liberia, was another. In the South there was John +Chavis, who passed through a regular course of studies at what is +now Washington and Lee University. He started a school for young +white men in North Carolina and had among his pupils a United +States senator, sons of a chief justice of North Carolina, a governor +of the state, and many others. He was a full-blooded Negro, but a +Southern writer says that "all accounts agree that John Chavis was +a gentleman. He was received socially among the best whites and +asked to table."<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + +<p>In the war of 1812 thirty-three hundred Negroes helped Jackson +win the battle of New Orleans, and numbers fought in New York +State and in the navy under Perry, Channing, and others. Phyllis +Wheatley, a Negro girl, wrote poetry, and the mulatto, Benjamin +Banneker, published one of the first American series of almanacs.</p> + +<p>In fine, it seemed in the early years of the nineteenth century that +slavery in the United States would gradually disappear and that the +Negro would have, in time, a man's chance. A change came, however, +between 1820 and 1830, and it is directly traceable to the industrial +revolution of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Between 1738 and 1830 there had come a remarkable series of +inventions which revolutionized the methods of making cloth. This +series included the invention of the fly shuttle, the carding machine, +the steam engine, and the power loom. The world began to look +about for a cheaper and larger supply of fiber for weaving. It was +found in the cotton plant, and the southern United States was especially +adapted to its culture. The invention of the cotton gin removed +the last difficulties. The South now had a crop which could +be attended to by unskilled labor and for which there was practically +unlimited demand. There was land, and rich land, in plenty. +The result was that the cotton crop in the United States increased +from 8,000 bales in 1790 to 650,000 bales in 1820, to 2,500,000 bales +in 1850, and to 4,000,000 bales in 1860.</p> + +<p>In this growth one sees the economic foundation of the new +slavery in the United States, which rose in the second decade of the +nineteenth century. Manifestly the fatal procrastination in dealing +with slavery in the eighteenth century received in the nineteenth +century its terrible reward. The change in the attitude toward slavery +was manifest in various ways. The South no longer excused slavery, +but began to defend it as an economic system. The enforcement of +the slave trade laws became notoriously lax and there was a tendency +to make slave codes harsher.</p> + +<p>This led to retaliation on the part of the Negroes. There had not +been in the United States before this many attempts at insurrection. +The slaves were distributed over a wide territory, and before they +became intelligent enough to cooperate the chance of emancipation +was held before them. Several small insurrections are alluded to in +South Carolina early in the eighteenth century, and one by Cato at +Stono in 1740 caused widespread alarm. The Negro plot in New +York in 1712 put the city into hysterics. There was no further plotting +on any scale until the Haytian revolt, when Gabriel in Virginia +made an abortive attempt. In 1822 a free Negro, Denmark Vesey, +in South Carolina, failed in a well-laid plot, and ten years after that, +in 1831, Nat Turner led his insurrection in Virginia and killed +fifty-one persons. The result of this insurrection was to crystallize +tendencies toward harshness which the economic revolution was +making advisable.</p> + +<p>A wave of legislation passed over the South, prohibiting the slaves +from learning to read and write, forbidding Negroes to preach, and +interfering with Negro religious meetings. Virginia declared in 1831 +that neither slaves nor free Negroes might preach, nor could they +attend religious service at night without permission. In North Carolina +slaves and free Negroes were forbidden to preach, exhort, or +teach "in any prayer meeting or other association for worship where +slaves of different families are collected together" on penalty of not +more than thirty-nine lashes. Maryland and Georgia and other states +had similar laws.</p> + +<p>The real effective revolt of the Negro against slavery was not, +however, by fighting, but by running away, usually to the North, +which had been recently freed from slavery. From the beginning of +the nineteenth century slaves began to escape in considerable numbers. +Four geographical paths were chiefly followed: one, leading +southward, was the line of swamps along the coast from Norfolk, +Virginia, to the northern border of Florida. This gave rise to the +Negro element among the Indians in Florida and led to the two +Seminole wars of 1817 and 1835. These wars were really slave raids +to make the Indians give up the Negro and half-breed slaves domiciled +among them. The wars cost the United States ten million +dollars and two thousand lives.</p> + +<p>The great Appalachian range, with its abutting mountains, was +the safest path northward. Through Tennessee and Kentucky and +the heart of the Cumberland Mountains, using the limestone caverns, +was the third route, and the valley of the Mississippi was the +western tunnel.</p> + +<p>These runaways and the freedmen of the North soon began to +form a group of people who sought to consider the problem of +slavery and the destiny of the Negro in America. They passed +through many psychological changes of attitude in the years from +1700 to 1850. At first, in the early part of the eighteenth century, +there was but one thought: revolt and revenge. The development +of the latter half of the century brought an attitude of hope and +adjustment and emphasized the differences between the slave and +the free Negro. The first part of the nineteenth century brought +two movements: among the free Negroes an effort at self-development +and protection through organization; among slaves and recent +fugitives a distinct reversion to the older idea of revolt.</p> + +<p>As the new industrial slavery, following the rise of the cotton +kingdom, began to press harder, a period of storm and stress ensued +in the black world, and in 1829 came the first full-voiced, almost +hysterical protest of a Negro against slavery and the color line in +David Walker's Appeal, which aroused Southern legislatures to +action.</p> + +<p>The decade 1830-40 was a severe period of trial. Not only were +the chains of slavery tighter in the South, but in the North the +free Negro was beginning to feel the ostracism and competition of +white workingmen, native and foreign. In Philadelphia, between +1829 and 1849, six mobs of hoodlums and foreigners murdered and +maltreated Negroes. In the Middle West harsh black laws which +had been enacted in earlier days were hauled from their hiding places +and put into effect. No Negro was allowed to settle in Ohio unless +he gave bond within twenty days to the amount of five thousand +dollars to guarantee his good behavior and support. Harboring or +concealing fugitives was heavily fined, and no Negro could give +evidence in any case where a white man was party. These laws +began to be enforced in 1829 and for three days riots went on in +Cincinnati and Negroes were shot and killed. Aroused, the Negroes +sent a deputation to Canada where they were offered asylum. Fully +two thousand migrated from Ohio. Later large numbers from other +parts of the United States joined them.</p> + +<p>In 1830-31 the first Negro conventions were called in Philadelphia +to consider the desperate condition of the Negro population, +and in 1833 the convention met again and local societies were +formed. The first Negro paper was issued in New York in 1827, +while later emancipation in the British West Indies brought some +cheer in the darkness.</p> + +<p>A system of separate Negro schools was established and the little +band of abolitionists led by Garrison and others appeared. In spite +of all the untoward circumstances, therefore, the internal development +of the free Negro in the North went on. The Negro population +increased twenty-three per cent between 1830 and 1840; Philadelphia +had, in 1838, one hundred small beneficial societies, while +Ohio Negroes had ten thousand acres of land. The slave mutiny on +the Creole, the establishment of the Negro Odd Fellows, and the +growth of the Negro churches all indicated advancement.</p> + +<p>Between 1830 and 1850 the concerted coöperation to assist fugitives +came to be known as the Underground Railroad. It was an organization +not simply of white philanthropists, but the coöperation of +Negroes in the most difficult part of the work made it possible. +Hundreds of Negroes visited the slave states to entice the slaves +away, and the list of Underground Railroad operators given by +Siebert contains one hundred and twenty-eight names of Negroes. +In Canada and in the northern United States there was a secret +society, known as the League of Freedom, which especially worked +to help slaves run away. Harriet Tubman was one of the most +energetic of these slave conductors and brought away several thousand +slaves. William Lambert, a colored man, was reputed between +1829 and 1862 to have aided in the escape of thirty thousand.</p> + +<p>The decade 1840-50 was a period of hope and uplift for the +Negro group, with clear evidences of distinct self-assertion and advance. +A few well-trained lawyers and physicians appeared, and +colored men took their place among the abolition orators. The catering +business in Philadelphia and other cities fell largely into their +hands, and some small merchants arose here and there. Above all, +Frederick Douglass made his first speech in 1841 and thereafter +became one of the most prominent figures in the abolition crusade. +A new series of national conventions began to assemble late in the +forties, and the delegates were drawn from the artisans and higher +servants, showing a great increase of efficiency in the rank and file +of the free Negroes.</p> + +<p>By 1850 the Negroes had increased to three and a half million. +Those in Canada were being organized in settlements and were +accumulating property. The escape of fugitive slaves was systematized +and some of the most representative conventions met. One +particularly, in 1854, grappled frankly with the problem of emigration. +It looked as though it was going to be impossible for Negroes +to remain in the United States and be free. As early as 1788 a +Negro union of Newport, Rhode Island, had proposed a general +exodus to Africa. John and Paul Cuffe, after petitioning for the +right to vote in 1780, started in 1815 for Africa, organizing an expedition +at their own expense which cost four thousand dollars. Lot +Carey organized the African Mission Society in 1813, and the first +Negro college graduate went to Liberia in 1829 and became superintendent +of public schools. The Colonization Society encouraged +this migration, and the Negroes themselves had organized the Canadian +exodus.</p> + +<p>The Rochester Negro convention in 1853 pronounced against +migration, but nevertheless emissaries were sent in various directions +to see what inducements could be offered. One went to the Niger +valley, one to Central America, and one to Hayti. The Haytian trip +was successful and about two thousand black emigrants eventually +settled in Hayti.</p> + +<p>Delaney, who went to Africa, concluded a treaty with eight kings +offering inducements to Negroes, but nothing came of it. In 1853 +Negroes like Purvis and Barbadoes helped in the formation of the +American Anti-slavery society, and for a while colored men coöperated +with John Brown and probably would have given him considerable +help if they had thoroughly known his plans. As it was, +six or seven of his twenty-two followers were Negroes.</p> + +<p>Meantime the slave power was impelled by the high price of slaves +and the exhaustion of cotton land to make increased demands. Slavery +was forced north of Mason and Dixon's line in 1820; a new slave +empire with thousands of slaves was annexed in 1850, and a fugitive +slave law was passed which endangered the liberty of every free +Negro; finally a determined attempt was made to force slavery into +the Northwest in competition with free white labor, and less effective +but powerful movements arose to annex more slave territory to +the south and to reopen the African slave trade.</p> + +<p>It looked like a triumphal march for the slave barons, but each +step cost more than the last. Missouri gave rise to the early abolitionist +movement. Mexico and the fugitive slave law aroused deep +opposition in the North, and Kansas developed an attack upon the +free labor system, not simply of the North, but of the civilized world. +The result was war; but the war was not against slavery. It was +fought to protect free white laborers against the competition of +slaves, and it was thought possible to do this by segregating slavery.</p> + +<p>The first thing that vexed the Northern armies on Southern soil +during the war was the question of the disposition of the fugitive +slaves, who immediately began to arrive in increasing numbers. +Butler confiscated them, Fremont freed them, and Halleck caught +and returned them; but their numbers swelled to such large proportions +that the mere economic problem of their presence overshadowed +everything else, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation. +Lincoln was glad to have them come after once he realized +their strength to the Confederacy.</p> + +<p>The Emancipation Proclamation was forced, not simply by the +necessity of paralyzing industry in the South, but also by the necessity +of employing Negro soldiers. During the first two years of the +war no one wanted Negro soldiers. It was declared to be a "white +man's war." General Hunter tried to raise a regiment in South +Carolina, but the War Department disavowed the act. In Louisiana +the Negroes were anxious to enlist, but were held off. In the meantime +the war did not go as well as the North had hoped, and on +the twenty-sixth of January, 1863, the Secretary of War authorized +the Governor of Massachusetts to raise two regiments of Negro +troops. Frederick Douglass and others began the work with enthusiasm, +and in the end one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +Negroes enlisted in the Northern armies, of whom seventy thousand +were killed and wounded. The conduct of these troops was exemplary. +They were indispensable in camp duties and brave on the +field, where they fought in two hundred and thirteen battles. General +Banks wrote, "Their conduct was heroic. No troops could be more +determined or more daring."<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>The assault on Fort Wagner, led by a thousand black soldiers +under the white Colonel Shaw, is one of the greatest deeds of desperate +bravery on record. On the other hand the treatment of Negro +soldiers when captured by the Confederates was barbarous. At Fort +Pillow, after the surrender of the federal troops, the colored regiment +was indiscriminately butchered and some of them were buried +alive.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln said, "The slightest knowledge of arithmetic +will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed +with Democratic strategy. It would sacrifice all the white men of the +North to do it. There are now in the service of the United States +near two hundred thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them +under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory.... Abandon +all the posts now garrisoned by black men; take two hundred +thousand men from our side and put them in the battlefield or cornfield +against us, and we would be compelled to abandon the war in +three weeks."<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> Emancipation thus came as a war measure to break +the power of the Confederacy, preserve the Union, and gain the +sympathy of the civilized world.</p> + +<p>However, two hundred and forty-four years of slavery could not be +stopped by edict. There were legal difficulties, the whole slow problem +of economic readjustment, and the subtle and far-reaching questions +of future race relations.</p> + +<p>The peculiar circumstances of emancipation forced the legal and +political difficulties to the front, and these were so striking that they +have since obscured the others in the eyes of students. Quite unexpectedly +and without forethought the nation had emancipated +four million slaves. Once the deed was done, the majority of the +nation was glad and recognized that this was, after all, the only +result of a fearful four years' war which in any degree justified it. +But how was the result to be secured for all time? There were three +possibilities: (1) to declare the slave free and leave him at the +mercy of his former masters; (2) to establish a careful government +guardianship designed to guide the slave from legal to real economic +freedom; (3) to give the Negro the political power to guard +himself as well as he could during this development. It is very easy +to forget that the United States government tried each one of these +in succession and was literally forced to adopt the third, because +the first had utterly failed and the second was thought too "paternal" +and especially too costly. To leave the Negroes helpless after +a paper edict of emancipation was manifestly impossible. It would +have meant that the war had been fought in vain.</p> + +<p>Carl Schurz, who traversed the South just after the war, said, "A +veritable reign of terror prevailed in many parts of the South. The +Negro found scant justice in the local courts against the white man. +He could look for protection only to the military forces of the +United States still garrisoning the states lately in rebellion and to +the Freedmen's Bureau."<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> This Freedmen's Bureau was proposed +by Charles Sumner. If it had been presented to-day instead of fifty +years ago, it would have been regarded as a proposal far less revolutionary +than the state insurance of England and Germany. A half +century ago, however, and in a country which gave the <i>laisser faire</i> +economics their extremest trial, the Freedmen's Bureau struck the +whole nation as unthinkable, save as a very temporary expedient +and to relieve the more pointed forms of distress following war. Yet +the proposals of the Bureau were both simple and sensible:</p> + +<p>1. To oversee the making and enforcement of wage contracts for +freedmen.</p> + +<p>2. To appear in the courts as the freedmen's best friend.</p> + +<p>3. To furnish the freedmen with a minimum of land and of +capital.</p> + +<p>4. To establish schools.</p> + +<p>5. To furnish such institutions of relief as hospitals, outdoor relief +stations, etc.</p> + +<p>How a sensible people could expect really to conduct a slave +into freedom with less than this it is hard to see. Even with such +tutelage extending over a period of two or three decades, the ultimate +end had to be enfranchisement and political and social freedom +for those freedmen who attained a certain set standard. Otherwise +the whole training had neither object nor guarantee. Precisely +on this account the former masters opposed the Freedmen's Bureau +with all their influence. They did not want the Negro trained or +really freed, and they criticized mercilessly the many mistakes of the +new Bureau.</p> + +<p>The North at first thought to pay for the main cost of the Freedmen's +Bureau by confiscating the property of former slave owners; +but finding this not in accordance with law, they realized that they +were embarking on an enterprise which bade fair to add many millions +to the already staggering cost of the war. When, therefore, +they saw that the abolition of slavery could not be left to the white +South and could not be done by the North without time and money, +they determined to put the responsibility on the Negro himself. This +was without a doubt a tremendous experiment, but with all its +manifest mistakes it succeeded to an astonishing degree. It made +the immediate reëstablishment of the old slavery impossible, and it +was probably the only quick method of doing this. It gave the freedmen's +sons a chance to begin their education. It diverted the energy +of the white South slavery to the recovery of political power, and +in this interval, small as it was, the Negro took his first steps toward +economic freedom.</p> + +<p>The difficulties that stared reconstruction politicians in the face +were these: (1) They must act quickly. (2) Emancipation had increased +the political power of the South by one-sixth. Could this +increased political power be put in the hands of those who, in defense +of slavery, had disrupted the Union? (3) How was the abolition +of slavery to be made effective? (4) What was to be the political +position of the freedmen?</p> + +<p>The Freedmen's Bureau in its short life accomplished a great task. +Carl Schurz, in 1865, felt warranted in saying that "not half of the +labor that has been done in the South this year, or will be done +there next year, would have been or would be done but for the exertions +of the Freedmen's Bureau.... No other agency except one +placed there by the national government could have wielded that +moral power whose interposition was so necessary to prevent Southern +society from falling at once into the chaos of a general collision +between its different elements."<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> Notwithstanding this the Bureau +was temporary, was regarded as a makeshift, and soon abandoned.</p> + +<p>Meantime partial Negro suffrage seemed not only just, but almost +inevitable. Lincoln, in 1864, "cautiously" suggested to Louisiana's +private consideration "whether some of the colored people +may not be let in as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially +those who fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help +in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family +of freedom." Indeed, the "family of freedom" in Louisiana being +somewhat small just then, who else was to be intrusted with the +"jewel"? Later and for different reasons Johnson, in 1865, wrote to +Mississippi, "If you could extend the elective franchise to all persons +of color who can read the Constitution of the United States in English +and write their name, and to all persons of color who own real +estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, and pay +taxes thereon, you would completely disarm the adversary and set +an example the other states will follow. This you can do with perfect +safety, and you thus place the Southern States, in reference to +free persons of color, upon the same basis with the free states. I hope +and trust your convention will do this."</p> + +<p>The Negroes themselves began to ask for the suffrage. The +Georgia convention in Augusta (1866) advocated "a proposition to +give those who could write and read well and possessed a certain +property qualification the right of suffrage." The reply of the South +to these suggestions was decisive. In Tennessee alone was any action +attempted that even suggested possible Negro suffrage in the future, +and that failed. In all other states the "Black Codes" adopted were +certainly not reassuring to the friends of freedom. To be sure, it was +not a time to look for calm, cool, thoughtful action on the part of +the white South. Their economic condition was pitiable, their fear +of Negro freedom genuine. Yet it was reasonable to expect from +them something less than repression and utter reaction toward +slavery. To some extent this expectation was fulfilled. The abolition +of slavery was recognized on the statute book, and the civil rights of +owning property and appearing as a witness in cases in which he +was a party were generally granted the Negro; yet with these in +many cases went harsh and unbearable regulations which largely +neutralized the concessions and certainly gave ground for an assumption +that, once free, the South would virtually reenslave the Negro. +The colored people themselves naturally feared this, protesting, as in +Mississippi, "against the reactionary policy prevailing and expressing +the fear that the legislature will pass such prescriptive laws as will +drive the freedmen from the state, or practically reënslave them."</p> + +<p>The codes spoke for themselves. As Burgess says, "Almost every +act, word, or gesture of the Negro, not consonant with good taste +and good manners as well as good morals, was made a crime or misdemeanor +for which he could first be fined by the magistrates and +then be consigned to a condition of almost slavery for an indefinite +time, if he could not pay the bill."<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> + +<p>All things considered, it seems probable that, if the South had +been permitted to have its way in 1865, the harshness of Negro +slavery would have been mitigated so as to make slave trading difficult, +and so as to make it possible for a Negro to hold property and +appear in some cases in court; but that in most other respects the +blacks would have remained in slavery.</p> + +<p>What could prevent this? A Freedmen's Bureau established for +ten, twenty, or forty years, with a careful distribution of land and +capital and a system of education for the children, might have prevented +such an extension of slavery. But the country would not +listen to such a comprehensive plan. A restricted grant of the suffrage +voluntarily made by the states would have been a reassuring +proof of a desire to treat the freedmen fairly and would have balanced +in part, at least, the increased political power of the South. +There was no such disposition evident.</p> + +<p>In Louisiana, for instance, under the proposed reconstruction "not +one Negro was allowed to vote, though at that very time the wealthy +intelligent free colored people of the state paid taxes on property +assessed at fifteen million dollars and many of them were well +known for their patriotic zeal and love for the Union."<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the arguments for universal Negro suffrage from the start +were strong and are still strong, and no one would question their +strength were it not for the assumption that the experiment failed. +Frederick Douglass said to President Johnson, "Your noble and +humane predecessor placed in our hands the sword to assist in saving +the nation, and we do hope that you, his able successor, will +favorably regard the placing in our hands the ballot with which to +save ourselves."<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<p>Carl Schurz wrote, "It is idle to say that it will be time to speak +of Negro suffrage when the whole colored race will be educated, for +the ballot may be necessary to him to secure his education."<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>The granting of full Negro suffrage meant one of two alternatives +to the South: (1) The uplift of the Negro for sheer self-preservation. +This is what Schurz and the saner North expected. As one +Southern school superintendent said, "The elevation of this class is +a matter of prime importance, since a ballot in the hands of a black +citizen is quite as potent as in the hands of a white one." Or (2) +Negro suffrage meant a determined concentration of Southern effort +by actual force to deprive the Negro of the ballot or nullify its use. +This last is what really happened. But even in this case, so much +energy was taken in keeping the Negro from voting that the plan +for keeping him in virtual slavery and denying him education partially +failed. It took ten years to nullify Negro suffrage in part and +twenty years to escape the fear of federal intervention. In these +twenty years a vast number of Negroes had arisen so far as to escape +slavery forever. Debt peonage could be fastened on part of the rural +South and was; but even here the new Negro landholder appeared. +Thus despite everything the Fifteenth Amendment, and that alone, +struck the death knell of slavery.</p> + +<p>The steps toward the Fifteenth Amendment were taken slowly. +First Negroes were allowed to take part in reconstructing the state +governments. This was inevitable if loyal governments were to be +obtained. Next the restored state governments were directed to enfranchise +all citizens, black or white, or have their representation in +Congress cut down proportionately. Finally the United States said +the last word of simple justice: the states may regulate the suffrage, +but no state may deprive a person of the right to vote simply because +he is a Negro or has been a slave.</p> + +<p>For such reasons the Negro was enfranchised. What was the result? +No language has been spared to describe these results as the +worst imaginable. This is not true. There were bad results, and bad +results arising from Negro suffrage; but those results were not so bad +as usually painted, nor was Negro suffrage the prime cause of many +of them. Let us not forget that the white South believed it to be of +vital interest to its welfare that the experiment of Negro suffrage +should fail ignominiously and that almost to a man the whites were +willing to insure this failure either by active force or passive acquiescence; +that besides this there were, as might be expected, men, +black and white, Northern and Southern, only too eager to take +advantage of such a situation for feathering their own nests. Much +evil must result in such case; but to charge the evil to Negro suffrage +is unfair. It may be charged to anger, poverty, venality, and ignorance, +but the anger and poverty were the almost inevitable aftermath +of war; the venality was much greater among whites than +Negroes both North and South, and while ignorance was the curse +of Negroes, the fault was not theirs and they took the initiative to +correct it.</p> + +<p>The chief charges against the Negro governments are extravagance, +theft, and incompetency of officials. There is no serious +charge that these governments threatened civilization or the foundations +of social order. The charge is that they threatened property and +that they were inefficient. These charges are in part undoubtedly +true, but they are often exaggerated. The South had been terribly +impoverished and saddled with new social burdens. In other words, +states with smaller resources were asked not only to do a work of +restoration, but a larger social work. The property holders were +aghast. They not only demurred, but, predicting ruin and revolution, +they appealed to secret societies, to intimidation, force, and +murder. They refused to believe that these novices in government +and their friends were aught but scamps and fools. Under the circumstances +occurring directly after the war, the wisest statesman +would have been compelled to resort to increased taxation and would +have, in turn, been execrated as extravagant, dishonest, and incompetent. +It is easy, therefore, to see what flaming and incredible stories +of Reconstruction governments could gain wide currency and belief. +In fact the extravagance, although great, was not universal, and +much of it was due to the extravagant spirit pervading the whole +country in a day of inflated currency and speculation.</p> + +<p>That the Negroes led by the astute thieves, became at first tools +and received some small share of the spoils is true. But two considerations +must be added: much of the legislation which resulted in +fraud was represented to the Negroes as good legislation, and thus +their votes were secured by deliberate misrepresentation. Take, for +instance, the land frauds of South Carolina. A wise Negro leader +of that state, advocating the state purchase of farm lands, said, "One +of the greatest of slavery bulwarks was the infernal plantation system, +one man owning his thousand, another his twenty, another +fifty thousand acres of land. This is the only way by which we will +break up that system, and I maintain that our freedom will be of no +effect if we allow it to continue. What is the main cause of the +prosperity of the North? It is because every man has his own farm +and is free and independent. Let the lands of the South be similarly +divided."<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> + +<p>From such arguments the Negroes were induced to aid a scheme +to buy land and distribute it. Yet a large part of eight hundred thousand +dollars appropriated was wasted and went to the white landholders' +pockets.</p> + +<p>The most inexcusable cheating of the Negroes took place through +the Freedmen's Bank. This bank was incorporated by Congress in +1865 and had in its list of incorporators some of the greatest names +in America including Peter Cooper, William Cullen Bryan and +John Jay. Yet the bank was allowed to fail in 1874 owing the freedmen +their first savings of over three millions of dollars. They have +never been reimbursed.</p> + +<p>Many Negroes were undoubtedly venal, but more were ignorant +and deceived. The question is: Did they show any signs of a disposition +to learn to better things? The theory of democratic government +is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather +that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a +chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience. This +is precisely what the Negro voters showed indubitable signs of +doing. First they strove for schools to abolish ignorance, and second, +a large and growing number of them revolted against the extravagance +and stealing that marred the beginning of Reconstruction, and +joined with the best elements to institute reform. The greatest stigma +on the white South is not that it opposed Negro suffrage and resented +theft and incompetence, but that, when it saw the reform +movements growing and even in some cases triumphing, and a larger +and larger number of black voters learning to vote for honesty and +ability, it still preferred a Reign of Terror to a campaign of education +and disfranchised Negroes instead of punishing rascals.</p> + +<p>No one has expressed this more convincingly than a Negro who +was himself a member of the Reconstruction legislature of South +Carolina, and who spoke at the convention which disfranchised +him against one of the onslaughts of Tillman. "We were eight years +in power. We had built school houses, established charitable institutions, +built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided for +the education of the deaf and dumb, rebuilt the jails and court +houses, rebuilt the bridges, and reestablished the ferries. In short, +we had reconstructed the state and placed it upon the road to prosperity, +and at the same time, by our acts of financial reform, transmitted +to the Hampton government an indebtedness not greater by +more than two and a half million dollars than was the bonded debt +of the state in 1868, before the Republican Negroes and their white +allies came into power."<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> + +<p>So, too, in Louisiana in 1872, and in Mississippi later, the better +element of the Republicans triumphed at the polls and, joining with +the Democrats, instituted reforms, repudiated the worst extravagance, +and started toward better things. Unfortunately there was one thing +that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance, +and incompetency, and that was Negro honesty, knowledge, and +efficiency.</p> + +<p>In the midst of all these difficulties the Negro governments in the +South accomplished much of positive good. We may recognize three +things which Negro rule gave to the South: (1) democratic government, +(2) free public schools, (3) new social legislation.</p> + +<p>In general, the words of Judge Albion W. Tourgee, a white "carpet +bagger," are true when he says of the Negro governments, +"They obeyed the Constitution of the United States and annulled +the bonds of states, counties, and cities which had been issued to +carry on the War of Rebellion and maintain armies in the field +against the Union. They instituted a public school system in a realm +where public schools had been unknown. They opened the ballot +box and the jury box to thousands of white men who had been +debarred from them by a lack of earthly possessions. They introduced +home rule into the South. They abolished the whipping post, +the branding iron, the stocks, and other barbarous forms of punishment +which had up to that time prevailed. They reduced capital +felonies from about twenty to two or three. In an age of extravagance +they were extravagant in the sums appropriated for public works. +In all of that time no man's rights of persons were invaded under +the forms of law. Every Democrat's life, home, fireside, and business +were safe. No man obstructed any white man's way to the ballot +box, interfered with his freedom of speech, or boycotted him on account +of his political faith."<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>A thorough study of the legislation accompanying these constitutions +and its changes since shows the comparatively small amount +of change in law and government which the overthrow of Negro +rule brought about. There were sharp and often hurtful economies +introduced, marking the return of property to power; there was a +sweeping change of officials, but the main body of Reconstruction +legislation stood. The Reconstruction democracy brought forth new +leaders and definitely overthrew the old Southern aristocracy. Among +these new men were Negroes of worth and ability. John R. Lynch, +when Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, was +given a public testimonial by Republicans and Democrats, and the +leading white paper said, "His bearing in office had been so proper, +and his rulings in such marked contrasts to the partisan conduct of +the ignoble whites of his party who have aspired to be leaders of the +blacks, that the conservatives cheerfully joined in the testimonial."<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> + +<p>Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina the white Governor +Chamberlain said, "I have never heard one word or seen one act of +Mr. Cardoza's which did not confirm my confidence in his personal +integrity and his political honor and zeal for the honest administration +of the state government. On every occasion, and under all circumstances, +he has been against fraud and robbery and in favor of +good measures and good men."<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<p>Jonathan C. Gibbs, a colored man and the first state superintendent +of instruction in Florida, was a graduate of Dartmouth. He +established the system and brought it to success, dying in harness +in 1874. Such men—and there were others—ought not to be forgotten +or confounded with other types of colored and white Reconstruction +leaders.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that the thirst of the black man for knowledge, +a thirst which has been too persistent and durable to be mere +curiosity or whim, gave birth to the public school system of the +South. It was the question upon which black voters and legislators +insisted more than anything else, and while it is possible to find +some vestiges of free schools in some of the Southern States before +the war, yet a universal, well-established system dates from the day +that the black man got political power.</p> + +<p>Finally, in legislation covering property, the wider functions of +the state, the punishment of crime and the like, it is sufficient to +say that the laws on these points established by Reconstruction legislatures +were not only different from and even revolutionary to the +laws in the older South, but they were so wise and so well suited to +the needs of the new South that, in spite of a retrogressive movement +following the overthrow of the Negro governments, the mass +of this legislation, with elaborations and development, still stands +on the statute books of the South.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></p> + +<p>The triumph of reaction in the South inaugurated a new era in +which we may distinguish three phases: the renewed attempt to +reduce the Negroes to serfdom, the rise of the Negro metayer, and +the economic disfranchisement of the Southern working class.</p> + +<p>The attempt to replace individual slavery had been frustrated by +the Freedmen's Bureau and the Fifteenth Amendment. The disfranchisement +of 1876 was followed by the widespread rise of +"crime" peonage. Stringent laws on vagrancy, guardianship, and +labor contracts were enacted and large discretion given judge and +jury in cases of petty crime. As a result Negroes were systematically +arrested on the slightest pretext and the labor of convicts leased to +private parties. This "convict lease system" was almost universal in +the South until about 1890, when its outrageous abuses and cruelties +aroused the whole country. It still survives over wide areas, and +is not only responsible for the impression that the Negro is a natural +criminal, but also for the inability of the Southern courts to +perform their normal functions after so long a prostitution to ends +far removed from justice.</p> + +<p>In more normal economic lines the employers began with the +labor contract system. Before the war they owned labor, land, and +subsistence. After the war they still held the land and subsistence. +The laborer was hired and the subsistence "advanced" to him while +the crop was growing. The fall of the Freedmen's Bureau hindered +the transmutation of this system into a modern wage system, and +allowed the laborers to be cheated by high interest charges on the +subsistence advanced and actual cheating often in book accounts.</p> + +<p>The black laborers became deeply dissatisfied under this system +and began to migrate from the country to the cities, where there was +an increasing demand for labor. The employing farmers complained +bitterly of the scarcity of labor and of Negro "laziness," and secured +the enactment of harsher vagrancy and labor contract laws, and +statutes against the "enticement" of laborers. So severe were these +laws that it was often impossible for a laborer to stop work without +committing a felony. Nevertheless competition compelled the landholders +to offer more inducements to the farm hand. The result was +the rise of the black share tenant: the laborer securing better wages +saved a little capital and began to hire land in parcels of forty to +eighty acres, furnishing his own tools and seed and practically raising +his own subsistence. In this way the whole face of the labor +contract in the South was, in the decade 1880-90, in process of +change from a nominal wage contract to a system of tenantry. The +great plantations were apparently broken up into forty and eighty +acre farms with black farmers. To many it seemed that emancipation +was accomplished, and the black folk were especially filled with +joy and hope.</p> + +<p>It soon was evident, however, that the change was only partial. +The landlord still held the land in large parcels. He rented this in +small farms to tenants, but retained direct control. In theory the +laborer was furnishing capital, but in the majority of cases he was +borrowing at least a part of this capital from some merchant.</p> + +<p>The retail merchant in this way entered on the scene as middle +man between landlord and laborer. He guaranteed the landowner +his rent and relieved him of details by taking over the furnishing of +supplies to the laborer. He tempted the laborer by a larger stock of +more attractive goods, made a direct contract with him, and took a +mortgage on the growing crop. Thus he soon became the middle +man to whom the profit of the transaction largely flowed, and he +began to get rich.</p> + +<p>If the new system benefited the merchant and the landlord, it also +brought some benefits to the black laborers. Numbers of these were +still held in peonage, and the mass were laborers working for scant +board and clothes; but above these began to rise a large number of +independent tenants and farm owners.</p> + +<p>In 1890, therefore, the South was faced by this question: Are we +willing to allow the Negro to advance as a free worker, peasant +farmer, metayer, and small capitalist, with only such handicaps as +naturally impede the poor and ignorant, or is it necessary to erect +further artificial barriers to restrain the advance of the Negroes? The +answer was clear and unmistakable. The advance of the freedmen +had been too rapid and the South feared it; every effort must be +made to "keep the Negro in his place" as a servile caste.</p> + +<p>To this end the South strove to make the disfranchisement of the +Negroes effective and final. Up to this time disfranchisement was +illegal and based on intimidation. The new laws passed between +1890 and 1910 sought on their face to base the right to vote on +property and education in such a way as to exclude poor and illiterate +Negroes and admit all whites. In fact they could be administered +so as to exclude nearly all Negroes. To this was added a series +of laws designed publicly to humiliate and stigmatize Negro blood: +as, for example, separate railway cars; separate seats in street cars, +and the like; these things were added to the separation in schools +and churches, and the denial of redress to seduced colored women, +which had long been the custom in the South. All these new enactments +meant not simply separation, but subordination, caste, humiliation, +and flagrant injustice.</p> + +<p>To all this was added a series of labor laws making the exploitation +of Negro labor more secure. All this legislation had to be accomplished +in the face of the labor movement throughout the +world, and particularly in the South, where it was beginning to enter +among the white workers. This was accomplished easily, however, +by an appeal to race prejudice. No method of inflaming the darkest +passions of men was unused. The lynching mob was given its glut +of blood and egged on by purposely exaggerated and often wholly +invented tales of crime on the part of perhaps the most peaceful and +sweet-tempered race the world has ever known. Under the flame +of this outward noise went the more subtle and dangerous work. +The election laws passed in the states where three-fourths of the +Negroes live, were so ingeniously framed that a black university +graduate could be prevented from voting and the most ignorant +white hoodlum could be admitted to the polls. Labor laws were so +arranged that imprisonment for debt was possible and leaving an +employer could be made a penitentiary offense. Negro schools were +cut off with small appropriations or wholly neglected, and a determined +effort was made with wide success to see that no Negro had +any voice either in the making or the administration of local, state, +or national law.</p> + +<p>The acquiescence of the white labor vote of the South was further +insured by throwing white and black laborers, so far as possible, +into rival competing groups and making each feel that the one +was the cause of the other's troubles. The neutrality of the white +people of the North was secured through their fear for the safety of +large investments in the South, and through the fatalistic attitude +common both in America and Europe toward the possibility of real +advance on the part of the darker nations.</p> + +<p>The reaction of the Negro Americans upon this wholesale and +open attempt to reduce them to serfdom has been interesting. Naturally +they began to organize and protest and in some cases to appeal +to the courts. Then, to their astonishment, there arose a colored +leader, Mr. Booker T. Washington, who advised them to yield to +disfranchisement and caste and wait for greater economic strength +and general efficiency before demanding full rights as American +citizens. The white South naturally agreed with Mr. Washington, +and the white North thought they saw here a chance for peace +in the racial conflict and safety for their Southern investments.</p> + +<p>For a time the colored people hesitated. They respected Mr. +Washington for shrewdness and recognized the wisdom of his +homely insistence on thrift and hard work; but gradually they came +to see more and more clearly that, stripped of political power and +emasculated by caste, they could never gain sufficient economic +strength to take their place as modern men. They also realized that +any lull in their protests would be taken advantage of by Negro +haters to push their caste program. They began, therefore, with +renewed persistence to fight for their fundamental rights as American +citizens. The struggle tended at first to bitter personal dissension +within the group. But wiser counsels and the advice of white friends +eventually prevailed and raised it to the broad level of a fight for the +fundamental principles of democracy. The launching of the "Niagara +Movement" by twenty-nine daring colored men in 1905, followed +by the formation of the National Association for the Advancement +of Colored People in 1910, marked an epoch in the advance +of the Negro. This latter organization, with its monthly organ, <i>The +Crisis</i>, is now waging a nation-wide fight for justice to Negroes. +Other organizations, and a number of strong Negro weekly papers +are aiding in this fight. What has been the net result of this struggle +of half a century?</p> + +<p>In 1863 there were about five million persons of Negro descent in +the United States. Of these, four million and more were just being +released from slavery. These slaves could be bought and sold, could +move from place to place only with permission, were forbidden to +learn to read or write, and legally could never hold property or +marry. Ninety per cent were totally illiterate, and only one adult in +six was a nominal Christian.</p> + +<p>Fifty years later, in 1913, there were in the United States ten and +a quarter million persons of Negro descent, an increase of one hundred +and five per cent. Legal slavery has been abolished leaving, +however, vestiges in debt slavery, peonage, and the convict lease +system. The mass of the freedmen and their sons have</p> + +<p>1. Earned a living as free and partially free laborers.</p> + +<p>2. Shared the responsibilities of government.</p> + +<p>3. Developed the internal organization of their race.</p> + +<p>4. Aspired to spiritual self-expression.</p> + +<p>The Negro was freed as a penniless, landless, naked, ignorant +laborer. There were a few free Negroes who owned property in the +South, and a larger number who owned property in the North; but +ninety-nine per cent of the race in the South were penniless field +hands and servants.</p> + +<p>To-day there are two and a half million laborers, the majority of +whom are efficient wage earners. Above these are more than a +million servants and tenant farmers; skilled and semi-skilled workers +make another million and at the top of the economic column are +600,000 owners and managers of farms and businesses, cash tenants, +officials, and professional men. This makes a total of 5,192,535 +colored breadwinners in 1910.</p> + +<p>More specifically these breadwinners include 218,972 farm owners +and 319,346 cash farm tenants and managers. There were in all +62,755 miners, 288,141 in the building and hand trades; 28,515 +workers in clay, glass, and stone; 41,739 iron and steel workers; +134,102 employees on railways; 62,822 draymen, cab drivers, and +liverymen; 133,245 in wholesale and retail trade; 32,170 in the public +service; and 69,471 in professional service, including 29,750 +teachers, 17,495 clergymen, and 4,546 physicians, dentists, trained +nurses, etc. Finally, we must not forget 2,175,000 Negro homes, +with their housewives, and 1,620,000 children in school.</p> + +<p>Fifty years ago the overwhelming mass of these people were not +only penniless, but were themselves assessed as real estate. By 1875 +the Negroes probably had gotten hold of something between 2,000,000 +and 4,000,000 acres of land through their bounties as soldiers +and the low price of land after the war. By 1880 this was increased +to about 6,000,000 acres; in 1890 to about 8,000,000 acres; in 1900 +to over 12,000,000 acres. In 1910 this land had increased to nearly +20,000,000 acres, a realm as large as Ireland.</p> + +<p>The 120,738 farms owned by Negroes in 1890 increased to +218,972 in 1910, or eighty-one per cent. The value of these farms +increased from $179,796,639 in 1900 to $440,992,439 in 1910; Negroes +owned in 1910 about 500,000 homes out of a total of 2,175,000. +Their total property in 1900 was estimated at $300,000,000 by +the American Economic Association. On the same basis of calculation +it would be worth to-day not less than $800,000,000.</p> + +<p>Despite the disfranchisement of three-fourths of his voting population, +the Negro to-day is a recognized part of the American government. +He holds 7,500 offices in the executive service of the +nation, besides furnishing four regiments in the army and a large +number of sailors. In the state and municipal service he holds nearly +20,000 other offices, and he furnishes 500,000 of the votes which +rule the Union.</p> + +<p>In these same years the Negro has relearned the lost art of organization. +Slavery was the almost absolute denial of initiative and +responsibility. To-day Negroes have nearly 40,000 churches, with +edifices worth at least $75,000,000 and controlling nearly 4,000,000 +members. They raise themselves $7,500,000 a year for these +churches.</p> + +<p>There are 200 private schools and colleges managed and almost +entirely supported by Negroes, and these and other public and +private Negro schools have received in 40 years $45,000,000 of +Negro money in taxes and donations. Five millions a year are raised +by Negro secret and beneficial societies which hold at least $6,000,000 +in real estate. Negroes support wholly or in part over 100 old +folks' homes and orphanages, 30 hospitals, and 500 cemeteries. Their +organized commercial life is extending rapidly and includes over +22,000 small retail businesses and 40 banks.</p> + +<p>Above and beyond this material growth has gone the spiritual +uplift of a great human race. From contempt and amusement they +have passed to the pity, perplexity, and fear on the part of their +neighbors, while within their own souls they have arisen from +apathy and timid complaint to open protest and more and more +manly self-assertion. Where nine-tenths of them could not read or +write in 1860, to-day over two-thirds can; they have 300 papers and +periodicals, and their voice and expression are compelling attention. +Already in poetry, literature, music, and painting the work of +Americans of Negro descent has gained notable recognition. Instead +of being led and defended by others, as in the past, American +Negroes are gaining their own leaders, their own voices, their own +ideals. Self-realization is thus coming slowly but surely to another +of the world's great races, and they are to-day girding themselves to +fight in the van of progress, not simply for their own rights as men, +but for the ideals of the greater world in which they live: the +emancipation of women, universal peace, democratic government, +the socialization of wealth, and human brotherhood.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> + +The figures given by the census are as follows:<br /> +1850, mulattoes formed 11.2 per cent of the total Negro population.<br /> +1860, mulattoes formed 13.2 per cent of the total Negro population.<br /> +1870, mulattoes formed 12 per cent of the total Negro population.<br /> +1890, mulattoes formed 15.2 per cent of the total Negro population.<br /> +1910, mulattoes formed 20.9 per cent of the total Negro population.<br /><br /> +Or in actual numbers:<br /> +1850, 405,751 mulattoes.<br /> +1860, 588,352 mulattoes.<br /> +1870, 585,601 mulattoes.<br /> +1890, 1,132,060 mulattoes.<br /> +1910, 2,050,686 mulattoes.<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Cf. "The Spanish Jurist Solorzaris," quoted in Helps: <i>Spanish Conquest</i>, +IV, 381.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Hurd: <i>Law of Freedom and Bondage</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> "Obi (Obeah, Obiah, or Obia) is the adjective; Obe or Obi, the noun. It is +of African origin, probably connected with Egyptian Ob, Aub, or Obron, meaning +'serpent.' Moses forbids Israelites ever to consult the demon Ob, i.e., +'Charmer, Wizard.' The Witch of Endor is called Oub or Ob. Oubaois is the +name of the Baselisk or Royal Serpent, emblem of the Sun, and, according to +Horus Appollo, 'the Ancient Deity of Africa.'"—Edwards: <i>West Indies</i>, ed. +1819, II. 106-119. Cf. Johnston: <i>Negro in the New World</i>, pp. 65-66; <i>also +Atlanta University Publications</i>, No. 8, pp. 5-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>Boston Transcript</i>, March 24, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Bassett: <i>North Carolina</i>, pp. 73-76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Cf. Wilson: <i>The Black Phalanx</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Wilson: <i>The Black Phalanx</i>, p. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>American Historical Review</i>, Vol. XV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Report to President Johnson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>Reconstruction and the Constitution.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Brewster: <i>Sketches</i>, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> McPherson: <i>Reconstruction</i>, p. 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Report to the President, 1865.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> <i>American Historical Review</i>, Vol. XV, No. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Occasional Papers</i>, American Negro Academy, No. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Occasional Papers</i>, American Negro Academy, No. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <i>Jackson (Miss.) Clarion</i>, April 24, 1873.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Allen: <i>Governor Chamberlain's Administration</i>, p. 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Reconstruction Constitutions, practically unaltered, were kept in Florida, +1868-85, seventeen years; Virginia, 1870-1902, thirty-two years; South Carolina, +1868-95, twenty-seven years; Mississippi, 1868-90, twenty-two years.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII_THE_NEGRO_PROBLEMS" id="XII_THE_NEGRO_PROBLEMS" />XII <br /><br />THE NEGRO PROBLEMS</h2> + + +<p>It is impossible to separate the population of the world accurately +by race, since that is no scientific criterion by which to divide races. +If we divide the world, however, roughly into African Negroes and +Negroids, European whites, and Asiatic and American brown and +yellow peoples, we have approximately 150,000,000 Negroes, 500,000,000 +whites, and 900,000,000 yellow and brown peoples. Of the +150,000,000 Negroes, 121,000,000 live in Africa, 27,000,000<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> in the +new world, and 2,000,000 in Asia.</p> + +<p>What is to be the future relation of the Negro race to the rest of +the world? The visitor from Altruria might see here no peculiar +problem. He would expect the Negro race to develop along the lines +of other human races. In Africa his economic and political development +would restore and eventually outrun the ancient glories of +Egypt, Ethiopia, and Yoruba; overseas the West Indies would become +a new and nobler Africa, built in the very pathway of the +new highway of commerce between East and West—the real sea +route to India; while in the United States a large part of its citizenship +(showing for perhaps centuries their dark descent, but nevertheless +equal sharers of and contributors to the civilization of the +West) would be the descendants of the wretched victims of the +seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century slave trade.</p> + +<p>This natural assumption of a stranger finds, however, lodging in +the minds of few present-day thinkers. On the contrary, such an +outcome is usually dismissed summarily. Most persons have accepted +that tacit but clear modern philosophy which assigns to the white +race alone the hegemony of the world and assumes that other races, +and particularly the Negro race, will either be content to serve the +interests of the whites or die out before their all-conquering march. +This philosophy is the child of the African slave trade and of the +expansion of Europe during the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>The Negro slave trade was the first step in modern world commerce, +followed by the modern theory of colonial expansion. Slaves +as an article of commerce were shipped as long as the traffic paid. +When the Americas had enough black laborers for their immediate +demand, the moral action of the eighteenth century had a chance +to make its faint voice heard.</p> + +<p>The moral repugnance was powerfully reënforced by the revolt +of the slaves in the West Indies and South America, and by the fact +that North America early began to regard itself as the seat of advanced +ideas in politics, religion, and humanity.</p> + +<p>Finally European capital began to find better investments than +slave shipping and flew to them. These better investments were the +fruit of the new industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, +with its factory system; they were also in part the result of the +cheapened price of gold and silver, brought about by slavery and +the slave trade to the new world. Commodities other than gold, and +commodities capable of manufacture and exploitation in Europe out +of materials furnishable by America, became enhanced in value; the +bottom fell out of the commercial slave trade and its suppression +became possible.</p> + +<p>The middle of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of the +rise of the modern working class. By means of political power the laborers +slowly but surely began to demand a larger share in the +profiting industry. In the United States their demand bade fair to +be halted by the competition of slave labor. The labor vote, therefore, +first confined slavery to limits in which it could not live, and +when the slave power sought to exceed these territorial limits, it +was suddenly and unintentionally abolished.</p> + +<p>As the emancipation of millions of dark workers took place in +the West Indies, North and South America, and parts of Africa at +this time, it was natural to assume that the uplift of this working +class lay along the same paths with that of European and American +whites. This was the <i>first</i> suggested solution of the Negro problem. +Consequently these Negroes received partial enfranchisement, the +beginnings of education, and some of the elementary rights of wage +earners and property holders, while the independence of Liberia +and Hayti was recognized. However, long before they were strong +enough to assert the rights thus granted or to gather intelligence +enough for proper group leadership, the new colonialism of the +later nineteenth and twentieth centuries began to dawn. The new +colonial theory transferred the reign of commercial privilege and +extraordinary profit from the exploitation of the European working +class to the exploitation of backward races under the political domination +of Europe. For the purpose of carrying out this idea the +European and white American working class was practically invited +to share in this new exploitation, and particularly were flattered by +popular appeals to their inherent superiority to "Dagoes," "Chinks," +"Japs," and "Niggers."</p> + +<p>This tendency was strengthened by the fact that the new colonial +expansion centered in Africa. Thus in 1875 something less than +one-tenth of Africa was under nominal European control, but the +Franco-Prussian War and the exploration of the Congo led to new +and fateful things. Germany desired economic expansion and, being +shut out from America by the Monroe Doctrine, turned to Africa. +France, humiliated in war, dreamed of an African empire from the +Atlantic to the Red Sea. Italy became ambitious for Tripoli and +Abyssinia. Great Britain began to take new interest in her African +realm, but found herself largely checkmated by the jealousy of all +Europe. Portugal sought to make good her ancient claim to the +larger part of the whole southern peninsula. It was Leopold of Belgium +who started to make the exploration and civilization of Africa +an international movement. This project failed, and the Congo Free +State became in time simply a Belgian colony. While the project +was under discussion, the international scramble for Africa began. +As a result the Berlin Conference and subsequent wars and treaties +gave Great Britain control of 2,101,411 square miles of African territory, +in addition to Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan with 1,600,000 +square miles. This includes South Africa, Bechuanaland and Rhodesia, +East Africa, Uganda and Zanzibar, Nigeria, and British +West Africa. The French hold 4,106,950 square miles, including +nearly all North Africa (except Tripoli) west of the Niger valley +and Libyan Desert, and touching the Atlantic at four points. To +this is added the Island of Madagascar. The Germans have 910,150 +square miles, principally in Southeast and South-west Africa and +the Kamerun. The Portuguese retain 787,500 square miles in Southeast +and Southwest Africa. The Belgians have 900,000 square miles, +while Liberia (43,000 square miles) and Abyssinia (350,000 square +miles) are independent. The Italians have about 600,000 square +miles and the Spanish less than 100,000 square miles.</p> + +<p>This partition of Africa brought revision of the ideas of Negro +uplift. Why was it necessary, the European investors argued, to +push a continent of black workers along the paths of social uplift +by education, trades-unionism, property holding, and the electoral +franchise when the workers desired no change, and the rate of +European profit would suffer?</p> + +<p>There quickly arose then the <i>second</i> suggestion for settling the +Negro problem. It called for the virtual enslavement of natives in +certain industries, as rubber and ivory collecting in the Belgian +Congo, cocoa raising in Portuguese Angola, and diamond mining in +South Africa. This new slavery or "forced" labor was stoutly defended +as a necessary foundation for implanting modern industry +in a barbarous land; but its likeness to slavery was too clear and it +has been modified, but not wholly abolished.</p> + +<p>The <i>third</i> attempted solution of the Negro sought the result of +the <i>second</i> by less direct methods. Negroes in Africa, the West +Indies, and America were to be forced to work by land monopoly, +taxation, and little or no education. In this way a docile industrial +class working for low wages, and not intelligent enough to unite in +labor unions, was to be developed. The peonage systems in parts of +the United States and the labor systems of many of the African +colonies of Great Britain and Germany illustrate this phase of solution.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> +It is also illustrated in many of the West Indian islands where +we have a predominant Negro population, and this population freed +from slavery and partially enfranchised. Land and capital, however, +have for the most part been so managed and monopolized that the +black peasantry have been reduced to straits to earn a living in one +of the richest parts of the world. The problem is now going to be +intensified when the world's commerce begins to sweep through +the Panama Canal.</p> + +<p>All these solutions and methods, however, run directly counter to +modern philanthropy, and have to be carried on with a certain concealment +and half-hypocrisy which is not only distasteful in itself, +but always liable to be discovered and exposed by some liberal or +religious movement of the masses of men and suddenly overthrown. +These solutions are, therefore, gradually merging into a <i>fourth</i> +solution, which is to-day very popular. This solution says: Negroes +differ from whites in their inherent genius and stage of development. +Their development must not, therefore, be sought along European +lines, but along their own native lines. Consequently the effort is +made to-day in British Nigeria, in the French Congo and Sudan, +in Uganda and Rhodesia to leave so far as possible the outward +structure of native life intact; the king or chief reigns, the popular +assemblies meet and act, the native courts adjudicate, and native +social and family life and religion prevail. All this, however, is subject +to the veto and command of a European magistracy supported +by a native army with European officers. The advantage of this +method is that on its face it carries no clue to its real working. Indeed +it can always point to certain undoubted advantages: the +abolition of the slave trade, the suppression of war and feud, the +encouragement of peaceful industry. On the other hand, back of +practically all these experiments stands the economic motive—the +determination to use the organization, the land, and the people, not +for their own benefit, but for the benefit of white Europe. For this +reason education is seldom encouraged, modern religious ideas are +carefully limited, sound political development is sternly frowned +upon, and industry is degraded and changed to the demands of +European markets. The most ruthless class of white mercantile exploiters +is allowed large liberty, if not a free hand, and protected by +a concerted attempt to deify white men as such in the eyes of the +native and in their own imagination.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>White missionary societies are spending perhaps as much as five +million dollars a year in Africa and accomplishing much good, but +at the same time white merchants are sending at least twenty million +dollars' worth of European liquor into Africa each year, and +the debauchery of the almost unrestricted rum traffic goes far to +neutralize missionary effort.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i166" id="i166"></a> +<img src="images/i166.png" +alt="Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern" +title="Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern" /><br /><br /> +<span class="caption">Distribution of Negro Blood, Ancient and Modern</span> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Under this last mentioned solution of the Negro problems we +may put the attempts at the segregation of Negroes and mulattoes +in the United States and to some extent in the West Indies. Ostensibly +this is "separation" of the races in society, civil rights, etc. In +practice it is the subordination of colored people of all grades under +white tutelage, and their separation as far as possible from contact +with civilization in dwelling place, in education, and in public life.</p> + +<p>On the other hand the economic significance of the Negro to-day +is tremendous. Black Africa to-day exports annually nearly two +hundred million dollars' worth of goods, and its economic development +has scarcely begun. The black West Indies export nearly one +hundred million dollars' worth of goods; to this must be added the +labor value of Negroes in South Africa, Egypt, the West Indies, +North, Central, and South America, where the result is blended +in the common output of many races. The economic foundation of +the Negro problem can easily be seen to be a matter of many hundreds +of millions to-day, and ready to rise to the billions tomorrow.</p> + +<p>Such figures and facts give some slight idea of the economic +meaning of the Negro to-day as a worker and industrial factor. +"Tropical Africa and its peoples are being brought more irrevocably +every year into the vortex of the economic influences that sway the +western world."<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>What do Negroes themselves think of these their problems and +the attitude of the world toward them? First and most significant, +they are thinking. There is as yet no great single centralizing of +thought or unification of opinion, but there are centers which are +growing larger and larger and touching edges. The most significant +centers of this new thinking are, perhaps naturally, outside Africa +and in America: in the United States and in the West Indies; this +is followed by South Africa and West Africa and then, more +vaguely, by South America, with faint beginnings in East Central +Africa, Nigeria, and the Sudan.</p> + +<p>The Pan-African movement when it comes will not, however, be +merely a narrow racial propaganda. Already the more far-seeing +Negroes sense the coming unities: a unity of the working classes +everywhere, a unity of the colored races, a new unity of men. The +proposed economic solution of the Negro problem in Africa and +America has turned the thoughts of Negroes toward a realization of +the fact that the modern white laborer of Europe and America has +the key to the serfdom of black folk, in his support of militarism +and colonial expansion. He is beginning to say to these workingmen +that, so long as black laborers are slaves, white laborers cannot be +free. Already there are signs in South Africa and the United States +of the beginning of understanding between the two classes.</p> + +<p>In a conscious sense of unity among colored races there is to-day +only a growing interest. There is slowly arising not only a curiously +strong brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world, but the +common cause of the darker races against the intolerable assumptions +and insults of Europeans has already found expression. Most men +in this world are colored. A belief in humanity means a belief in +colored men. The future world will, in all reasonable probability, be +what colored men make it. In order for this colored world to come +into its heritage, must the earth again be drenched in the blood of +fighting, snarling human beasts, or will Reason and Good Will prevail? +That such may be true, the character of the Negro race is the +best and greatest hope; for in its normal condition it is at once the +strongest and gentlest of the races of men: "Semper novi quid ex +Africa!"<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Sir Harry Johnston estimates 135,000,000 Negroes, of whom 24,591,000 +live in America. See <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, p. 335.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> The South African natives, in an appeal to the English Parliament, show +in an astonishing way the confiscation of their land by the English. They say +that in the Union of South Africa 1,250,000 whites own 264,000,000 acres of +land, while the 4,500,000 natives have only 21,000,000 acres. On top of this +the Union Parliament has passed a law making even the future purchase of +land by Negroes illegal save in restricted areas!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> The traveler Glave writes in the <i>Century Magazine</i> (LIII, 913): "Formerly +[in the Congo Free State] an ordinary white man was merely called 'bwana' or +'Mzunga'; now the merest insect of a pale face earns the title of 'bwana +Mkubwa' [big master]."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> E.D. Morel, in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SUGGESTIONS_FOR_FURTHER_READING" id="SUGGESTIONS_FOR_FURTHER_READING" />SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING</h2> + + +<p>There is no general history of the Negro race. Perhaps Sir Harry +H. Johnston, in his various works on Africa, has come as near covering +the subject as any one writer, but his valuable books have +puzzling inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Keane's <i>Africa</i> is a helpful +compendium, despite the fact that whenever Keane discovers +intelligence in an African he immediately discovers that its possessor +is no "Negro." The articles in the latest edition of the <i>Encyclopædia +Britannica</i> are of some value, except the ridiculous article on the +"Negro" by T.A. Joyce. Frobenius' newly published <i>Voice of +Africa</i> is broad-minded and informing, and Brown's <i>Story of Africa +and its Explorers</i> brings together much material in readable form. +The compendiums by Keltie and White, and Johnston's <i>Opening +up of Africa</i> are the best among the shorter treatises.</p> + +<p>None of these authors write from the point of view of the Negro +as a man, or with anything but incidental acknowledgment of the +existence or value of his history. We may, however, set down certain +books under the various subjects which the chapters have +treated. These books will consist of (1) standard works for wider +reading and (2) special works on which the author has relied for his +statements or which amplify his point of view. <i>The latter are starred</i>.</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AFRICA</b></p> + +<p> +A.S. White: <i>The Development of Africa</i>, 2d ed., 1892.<br /> +<br /> +Stanford's Compendium of Geography: <i>Africa</i>, by A.H. Keane, 2d ed., 1904-7.<br /> +<br /> +E. Reclus: <i>Universal Geography</i>, Vols. X-XIII.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>RACIAL DIFFERENCES AND THE ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS +OF NEGROES</b></p> + +<p> +J. Deniker: <i>The Races of Man</i>, etc., New York, 1904.<br /> +<br /> +*J. Finot: <i>Race Prejudice</i> (tr. by Wade-Evans), New York, 1907.<br /> +<br /> +*W.Z. Ripley: <i>The Races of Europe</i>, etc., New York, 1899.<br /> +<br /> +*Jacques Loeb: in <i>The Crisis</i>, Vol. VIII, p. 84, Vol. IX, p. 92.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal +Races Congress</i>, etc. (ed. by G. Spiller), 1911.<br /> +<br /> +*G. Sergi: <i>The Mediterranean Race</i>, etc., London, 1901.<br /> +<br /> +*Franz Boas: <i>The Mind of Primitive Man</i>, New York, 1911.<br /> +<br /> +C.B. Davenport: <i>Heredity of Skin Color in Negro-White Crosses</i>, 1913.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>EARLY MOVEMENTS OF THE NEGRO RACE</b></p> + +<p> +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: <i>The Opening up of Africa</i> (Home University Library).<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races</i>, Cambridge, 1905.<br /> +<br /> +*G.W. Stowe: <i>The Native Races of South Africa</i> (ed. by G.M. Theal), London, 1910.<br /> +</p> + +<p>(Consult also Johnston's other works on Africa, and his article in Vol. +XLIII of the <i>Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great +Britain and Ireland</i>; also <i>Inter-Racial Problems, and</i> Deniker, noted above.)</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>NEGRO IN ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT</b></p> + +<p>(The works of Breasted and Petrie, Maspero, Budge and Newberry +and Garstang are the standard books on Egypt. They mention the Negro, +but incidentally and often slightingly.)</p> + +<p> +*A.F. Chamberlain: "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization" +(<i>Journal of Race Development</i>, Vol. I, April, 1911).<br /> +<br /> +T.E.S. Scholes: <i>Glimpses of the Ages</i>, etc., London, 1905.<br /> +<br /> +W.H. Ferris: <i>The African Abroad</i>, etc., 2 vols., New Haven, 1913.<br /> +<br /> +E.A.W. Budge: <i>The Egyptian Sudan</i>, 2 vols., 1907.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>Archeological Survey of Nubia</i>.<br /> +<br /> +*A. Thompson and D. Randal McIver: <i>The Ancient Races of the Thebaid</i>, 1905.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>ABYSSINIA</b></p> + +<p> +Job Ludolphus: <i>A New History of Ethiopia</i> (tr. by Gent), London, 1682.<br /> +<br /> +W.S. Harris: <i>Highlands of Æthiopia</i>, 3 vols., London, 1844.<br /> +<br /> +R.S. Whiteway: <i>The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia</i> ... as narrated +by Castanhosa, etc., 1902.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE NIGER RIVER AND ISLAM</b></p> + +<p> +*F.L. Shaw (Lady Lugard): <i>A Tropical Dependency</i>, etc., London, +1906.<br /> +<br /> +(The reader may dismiss as worthless Lady Lugard's definition of "Negro." +Otherwise her book is excellent.)<br /> +<br /> +*Es-Sa'di, Abderrahman Ben Abdallah, etc., translated into French by +O. Houdas, Paris, 1900.<br /> +<br /> +*F. DuBois: <i>Timbuktu the Mysterious</i> (tr. by White), 1896.<br /> +<br /> +*W.D. Cooley: <i>The Negroland of the Arabs</i>, etc., 1841.<br /> +<br /> +*H. Barth: <i>Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa</i>, etc., 5 +vols., 1857-58.<br /> +<br /> +*Ibn Batuta: <i>Travels</i>, etc. (tr. by Lee), 1829.<br /> +<br /> +*Leo Africanus: <i>The History and Description of Africa</i>, etc. (tr. by Pory, +ed. by R. Brown), 3 vols., 1896.<br /> +<br /> +*E.W. Blyden: <i>Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race</i>.<br /> +<br /> +*Leo Frobenius: <i>The Voice of Africa</i> (tr. by Blind), 2 vols., 1913.<br /> +<br /> +Mungo Park: <i>Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa</i>, 1799.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE NEGRO ON THE GUINEA COAST</b></p> + +<p> +*Leo Frobenius (as above).<br /> +<br /> +Sir Harry H. Johnston: <i>Liberia</i>, 2 vols., New York, 1906.<br /> +<br /> +H.H. Foote: <i>Africa and the American Flag</i>, New York, 1859.<br /> +<br /> +T.H.T. McPherson: <i>A History of Liberia</i>, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins +Studies.<br /> +<br /> +T.J. Alldridge: <i>A Transformed Colony</i> (Sierra Leone), London, 1910.<br /> +<br /> +E.D. Morel: <i>Affairs of West Africa</i>, 1902.<br /> +<br /> +H.L. Roth: <i>Great Benin and Its Customs</i>, 1903.<br /> +<br /> +*F. Starr: <i>Liberia</i>, 1913.<br /> +<br /> +W. Jay: <i>An Inquiry</i>, etc., 1835.<br /> +<br /> +*A.B. Ellis: <i>The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast</i>, 1887.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast</i>, 1890.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast</i>, 1894.<br /> +<br /> +C.H. Read and O.M. Dalton: <i>Antiquities from the City of Benin</i>, etc., +1899.<br /> +<br /> +*M.H. Kingsley: <i>West African Studies</i>, 2d. ed., 1904.<br /> +<br /> +*G.W. Ellis: <i>Negro Culture in West Africa</i> (Vai-speaking peoples), +1914.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE CONGO VALLEY</b></p> + +<p> +*G. Schweinfurth: <i>The Heart of Africa</i>, Vol. II, 1873.<br /> +<br /> +*H.M. Stanley: <i>Through the Dark Continent</i>, 2 vols., 1878.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>In Darkest Africa</i>, 2 vols., 1890.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Congo</i>, etc., 2 vols., London, 1885.<br /> +<br /> +H. von Wissman: <i>My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa</i>, 1891.<br /> +<br /> +*H.R. Fox-Bourne: <i>Civilization in Congoland</i>, 1903.<br /> +<br /> +Sir Harry H. Johnston: <i>George Grenfell and the Congo</i>, 2 vols., London, +1908.<br /> +<br /> +*E.D. Morel: <i>Red Rubber</i>, London, 1906.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE NEGRO IN THE REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES</b></p> + +<p> +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: <i>The Uganda Protectorate</i>, 2d ed., 2 vols., 1904.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>British Central Africa</i>, 1897.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Nile Quest</i>, 1903.<br /> +<br /> +*D. Randal McIver: <i>Mediæval Rhodesia</i>, 1906.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa</i> (ed. by +H. Waller), 1874.<br /> +<br /> +J. Dos Santos: <i>Ethiopia Oriental</i> (Theal's <i>Records of South Africa</i>, Vol. +VII).><br /> +<br /> +C. Peters: "Ophir and Punt in South Africa" (<i>African Society Journal</i>, +Vol. I).<br /> +<br /> +De Barros: <i>De Asia</i>.<br /> +<br /> +R. Burton: <i>Lake Regions of Central Africa</i>, 1860.<br /> +<br /> +R.P. Ashe: <i>Chronicles of Uganda</i>, 1894.<br /> +<br /> +(See also Stanley's works, as above.)<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE NEGRO IN SOUTH AFRICA</b></p> + +<p> +*G.M. Theal: <i>History and Ethnography of South Africa of the Zambesi +to 1795</i>, 3 vols., 1907-10.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>History of South Africa since September, 1795</i>, 5 vols., 1908.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Records of South Eastern Africa</i>, 9 vols., 1898-1903.<br /> +<br /> +*J. Bryce: <i>Impressions of South Africa</i>, 1897.<br /> +<br /> +D. Livingstone: <i>Missionary Travels in South Africa</i>, 1857.<br /> +<br /> +*South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-5, <i>Reports</i>, etc., 5 vols., +Cape Town, 1904-5.><br /> +<br /> +G. Lagden: <i>The Basutos</i>, London, 1909.<br /> +<br /> +J. Stewart: <i>Lovedale</i>, 1884.<br /> +<br /> +(See also Stowe, as above.)<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>ON NEGRO CIVILIZATION</b></p> + +<p> +J. Dowd: <i>The Negro Races</i>, 1907, 1914.<br /> +<br /> +*H. Gregoire: <i>An Inquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties +and Literature of Negroes</i>, etc. (tr. by Warden), Brooklyn, +1810.<br /> +<br /> +C. Bücher: <i>Industrial Evolution</i> (tr. by Wickett), New York, 1904.<br /> +<br /> +*Franz Boas: "The Real Race Problem" (<i>The Crisis</i>, December, 1910).<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Commencement Address</i> (Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19).<br /> +<br /> +*F. Ratzel: <i>The History of Mankind</i> (tr. by Butler), 3 vols., 1904.<br /> +<br /> +C. Hayford: <i>Gold Coast Institutions</i>, 1903.<br /> +<br /> +A.B. Camphor: <i>Missionary Sketches and Folk Lore from Africa</i>, 1909.<br /> +<br /> +R.H. Nassau: <i>Fetishism in West Africa</i>, 1907.<br /> +<br /> +*William Schneider: <i>Die Culturfähigkeit des Negers</i>, Frankfort, 1885.<br /> +<br /> +*G. Schweinfurth: <i>Artes Africanae</i>, etc., 1875.<br /> +<br /> +Duke of Mecklenburg: <i>From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile</i> (English +tr.), Philadelphia, 1914.<br /> +<br /> +D. Crawford: <i>Thinking Black</i>.<br /> +<br /> +R.N. Cust: <i>Sketch of Modern Language of Africa</i>, 2 vols., 1883.<br /> +<br /> +H. Chatelain: <i>The Folk Lore of Angola</i>.<br /> +<br /> +D. Kidd: <i>The Essential Kaffir</i>, 1904.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Savage Childhood</i>, 1906.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Kaffir Socialism and the Dawn of Individualism</i>, 1908.<br /> +<br /> +M.H. Tongue: <i>Bushman Paintings</i>, Oxford, 1909.<br /> +</p> + +<p>(See also the works of A.B. Ellis, Miss Kingsley, Sir Harry H. Johnston, +Frobenius, Stowe, Theal, and Ibn Batuta; and particularly +Chamberlain's article in the <i>Journal of Race Development</i>.)</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE SLAVE TRADE</b></p> + +<p> +T.K. Ingram: <i>History of Slavery and Serfdom</i>, London, 1895. (Same +article revised in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition.) +John R. Spears: The American Slave Trade, 1900.<br /> +<br /> +*T.F. Buxton: <i>The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy</i>, etc., 1896.<br /> +<br /> +T. Clarkson: <i>History ... of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade</i>, +etc., 2 vols., 1808.<br /> +<br /> +R. Drake: <i>Revelations of a Slave Smuggler</i>, New York, 1860.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council</i>, etc., London, 1789.<br /> +<br /> +*B. Mayer: <i>Captain Canot or Twenty Years of an African Slaver</i>, etc., +1854.<br /> +<br /> +W.E.B. DuBois: <i>The suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the +U.S.A.</i>, 1896.<br /> +</p> + +<p>(See also Bryan Edwards' <i>West Indies</i>.)</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA</b></p> + +<p> +Fletcher and Kidder: <i>Brazil and the Brazilians</i>, 1879.<br /> +<br /> +*Bryan Edwards: <i>History ... of the British West Indies</i>, 5 editions, +Vols. II-V, 1793-1819.<br /> +<br /> +*Sir Harry H. Johnston: <i>The Negro in the New World</i>, 1910.<br /> +<br /> +T.G. Steward: <i>The Haitian Revolution</i>, 1791-1804, 1914.<br /> +<br /> +J.N. Leger: <i>Haiti</i>, etc., 1907.<br /> +<br /> +J. Bryce: <i>South America</i>, etc., 1912.<br /> +<br /> +*J.B. de Lacerda: "The Metis or Half-Breeds of Brazil" (<i>Inter-Racial +Problems</i>, etc.)<br /> +<br /> +A.K. Fiske: <i>History of the West Indies</i>, 1899.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES</b></p> + +<p> +*<i>Walker's Appeal</i>, 1829.<br /> +<br /> +*G.W. Williams: <i>History of the Negro Race in America</i>, 1619-1880, +1882.<br /> +<br /> +B.G. Brawley: <i>A Short History of the American Negro</i>, 1913.<br /> +<br /> +B.T. Washington: <i>Up from Slavery</i>, 1901.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Story of the Negro</i>, 2 vols., 1909.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man</i>, 1912.<br /> +<br /> +*G.E. Stroud: <i>Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery</i>, etc., 1827.<br /> +<br /> +<i>The Human Way</i>: Addresses on Race Problems at the Southern Sociological +Congress, Atlanta, 1913 (ed. by J.E. McCulloch).<br /> +<br /> +W.J. Simmons: <i>Men of Mark</i>, 1887.<br /> +<br /> +*J.R. Giddings: <i>The Exiles of Florida</i>, 1858.<br /> +<br /> +W.E. Nell: <i>The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution</i>, etc., 1855.<br /> +<br /> +C.W. Chesnutt: <i>The Marrow of Tradition</i>, 1901.<br /> +<br /> +P.L. Dunbar: <i>Lyrics of Lowly Life</i>, 1896.<br /> +<br /> +*<i>Life and Times of Frederick Douglass</i>, revised edition, 1892.<br /> +<br /> +*H.E. Kreihbel: <i>Afro-American Folk Songs</i>, etc., 1914.<br /> +<br /> +T.P. Fenner and others: <i>Cabin and Plantation Songs</i>, 3d ed., 1901.<br /> +<br /> +W.F. Allen and others: <i>Slave Songs of the United States</i>, 1867.<br /> +<br /> +W.E.B. DuBois: "The Negro Race in the United States of America" +(<i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, etc.).<br /> +<br /> +---- "The Economics of Negro Emancipation" (<i>Sociological Review</i>, +October, 1911).<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>John Brown</i>.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>The Philadelphia Negro</i>, 1899.<br /> +<br /> +W.E.B. DuBois: "Reconstruction and its Benefits" (<i>American Historical +Review</i>, Vol. XV, No. 4).<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>editor</i>, The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, monthly, 1910.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>editor</i>, The Atlanta University Studies:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 1. <i>Mortality Among Negroes in Cities</i>, 1896.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 2. <i>Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in Cities</i>, 1897.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 3. <i>Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment</i>, 1898.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 4. <i>The Negro in Business</i>, 1899.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 5. <i>The College Bred Negro</i>, 1900.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 6. <i>The Negro Common School</i>, 1901.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 7. <i>The Negro Artisan</i>, 1902.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 8. <i>The Negro Church</i>, 1903.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 9. <i>Notes on Negro Crime</i>, 1904.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 10. <i>A Select Bibliography of the Negro American</i>, 1905.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 11. <i>Health and Physique of the Negro American</i>, 1906.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 12. <i>Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans</i>, 1907.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 13. <i>The Negro American Family</i>, 1908.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 14. <i>Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans</i>, 1909.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 15. <i>The College Bred Negro American</i>, 1910.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 16. <i>The Common School and the Negro American</i>, 1911.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 17. <i>The Negro American Artisan</i>, 1912.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No. 18. <i>Morals and Manners among Negro Americans</i>, 1913.</span><br /> +<br /> +*G.W. Cable: <i>The Silent South</i>, etc., 1885.<br /> +<br /> +*J.R. Lynch: <i>The Facts of Reconstruction</i>, 1913.<br /> +<br /> +*J.T. Wilson: <i>The Black Phalanx</i>, 1897.<br /> +<br /> +William Goodell: <i>Slavery and Anti-Slavery</i>, 1852.<br /> +<br /> +G.S. Merriam: <i>The Negro and the Nation</i>, 1906.<br /> +<br /> +A.B. Hart: <i>The Southern South</i>, 1910.<br /> +<br /> +*G. Livermore: <i>An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the +Founders of the Republic on Negroes</i>, etc., 1862.<br /> +<br /> +Hartshorn and Penniman: <i>An Era of Progress and Promise</i>, 1910 (profusely +illustrated).<br /> +<br /> +*James Brewster: <i>Sketches of Southern Mystery, Treason, and Murder</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Willcox and DuBois: <i>Negroes in the United States</i> (United States Census +of 1900, Bulletin No. 8).><br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> +<p><b>THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO RACE</b></p> + +<p> +*J.S. Keltie: <i>The Partition of Africa</i>, 2d ed., 1895.<br /> +<br /> +B.T. Washington: <i>The Future of the Negro</i>.<br /> +<br /> +W.E.B. DuBois: "The Future of the Negro Race in America" (<i>East +and West</i>, Vol. II, No. 5).<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Souls of Black Folk</i>, 1913.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Quest of the Silver Fleece</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Alexander Crummell: <i>The Future of Africa</i>, 2d ed., 1862.<br /> +<br /> +*Casely Hayford: <i>Ethiopia Unbound</i>, 1911.<br /> +<br /> +Kelly Miller: <i>Out of the House of Bondage</i>, 1914.<br /> +<br /> +---- <i>Race Adjustment</i>, 1908.<br /> +<br /> +*J. Royce: <i>Race Questions</i>, etc., 1908.<br /> +<br /> +*R.S. Baker: <i>Following the Color Line</i>, 1908.<br /> +<br /> +N.S. Shaler: <i>The Neighbor</i>.<br /> +<br /> +E.D. Morel: "Free Labor in Tropical Africa" (<i>Nineteenth Century and +After</i>, 1914).<br /> +</p> + +<p>(See also Finot, Boas, <i>Inter-Racial Problems</i>, and White's <i>Development +of Africa</i>.)</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Negro, by W.E.B. Du Bois + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEGRO *** + +***** This file should be named 15359-h.htm or 15359-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/3/5/15359/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/15359-h/images/i163.png b/15359-h/images/i163.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cab815 --- /dev/null +++ b/15359-h/images/i163.png diff --git a/15359-h/images/i164.png b/15359-h/images/i164.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83842a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/15359-h/images/i164.png diff --git a/15359-h/images/i165.png b/15359-h/images/i165.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6dd27c --- /dev/null +++ b/15359-h/images/i165.png diff --git a/15359-h/images/i166.png b/15359-h/images/i166.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..515131c --- /dev/null +++ b/15359-h/images/i166.png |
