In America, the negro stands alone as a race. He is without mate or
fellow in the great family of man. Whatever progress he makes, it must
be mainly by his own efforts. This is an unfortunate fact, and for
which there seems to be no remedy.
All history demonstrates the truth that amalgamation is the great
civilizer of the races of men. Wherever a race, clan, or community have
kept themselves together, prohibiting by law, usage, or common consent,
inter-marriage with others, they have made little or no progress.
The Jews, a distinct and isolated people, are good only at driving a
bargain and getting rich. The Gipsies commence and stop with trading
horses. The Irish, in their own country, are dull. The Coptic race
form but a handful of what they were--those builders, unequalled in
ancient or modern times. What has become of them? Where are the Romans?
What races have they destroyed? What races have they supplanted? For
fourteen centuries they lorded it over the semi-civilized world; and
now they are of no more note than the ancient Scythians, or Mongols,
Copts, or Tartars. An un-amalgamated, inactive people will decline.
Thus it was with the Mexicans, when Cortes marched on Mexico, and the
Peruvians, when Pizarro marched on Peru.
The Britons were a dull, lethargic people before their country was
invaded, and the hot, romantic blood of Julius Cæsar and William of
Normandy coursed through their veins.
Caractacus, king of the Britons, was captured and sent to Rome in
chains. Still later, Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon generals, imposed
the most humiliating conditions upon the Britons, to which they were
compelled to submit. Then came William of Normandy, defeated Harold
at Hastings, and the blood of the most renowned land-pirates and
sea-robbers that ever disgraced humanity, mixed with the Briton and
Saxon, and gave to the world the Anglo-Saxon race, with its physical
ability, strong mind, brave and enterprising spirit. And, yet, all that
this race is, it owes to its mixed blood. Civilization, or the social
condition of man, is the result and test of the qualities of every
race. The benefit of this blood mixture, the negro is never to enjoy on
this continent. In the South where he is raised, in the North, East,
or West, it is all the same, no new blood is to be infused into his
sluggish veins.
His only hope is education, professions, trades, and copying the best
examples, no matter from what source they come.
This antipathy to amalgamation with the negro, has shown itself in all
of the States. Most of the Northern and Eastern State Legislatures have
passed upon this question years ago. Since the coming in of the present
year, Rhode Island’s Senate refused to repeal the old law forbidding
the inter-marriage of whites and blacks. Thus the colored man is left
to “paddle his own canoe” alone. Where there is no law against the
mixture of the two races, there is a public sentiment which is often
stronger than law itself. Even the wild blood of the red Indian refuses
to mingle with the sluggish blood of the negro. This is no light
matter, for race hate, prejudice and common malice all die away before
the melting power of amalgamation. The beauty of the half-breeds of
the South, the result of the crime of slavery, have long claimed the
attention of writers, and why not a lawful mixture? And then this might
help in
“Making a race far more lovely and fair,
Darker a little than white people are:
Stronger, and nobler, and better in form,
Hearts more voluptuous, kinder, and warm;
Bosoms of beauty, that heave with a pride
Nature had ever to white folks denied.”
Emigration to other States, where the blacks will come in contact with
educated and enterprising whites, will do them much good. This benefit
by commercial intercourse is seen in the four thousand colored people
who have come to Boston, where most of them are employed as servants.
They are sought after as the best domestics in the city. Some of
these people, who were in slavery before the war, are now engaged in
mercantile pursuits, doing good business, and showing what contact
will do. Many of them rank with the ablest whites in the same trades.
Indeed, the various callings are well represented by Southern men,
showing plainly the need of emigration. Although the colored man has
been sadly at fault in not vindicating his right to liberty, he has,
it is true, shown ability in other fields. Benjamin Banneker, a negro
of Maryland, who lived a hundred years ago, exhibited splendid natural
qualities. He had a quickness of apprehension, and a vivacity of
understanding, which easily took in and surmounted the most subtile and
knotty parts of mathematics and metaphysics. He possessed in a large
degree that genius which constitutes a man of letters; that quality
without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy
which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.
The rapid progress made in acquiring education and homesteads by the
colored people of the South, in the face of adverse circumstances,
commends the highest admiration from all classes.
The product of their native genius and industry, as exhibited at county
and State Agricultural Fairs, speak well for the race.
At the National Fair, held at Raleigh, N. C., in the autumn of 1879,
the exhibition did great credit to the colored citizens of the South,
who had the matter in charge. Such manifestations of intellectual and
mechanical enterprise will do much to stimulate the people to further
development of their powers, and higher facilities.
The colored people of the United States are sadly in need of a National
Scientific Association, to which may be brought yearly reports of
such investigations as may be achieved in science, philosophy, art,
philology, ethnology, jurisprudence, metaphysics, and whatever may tend
to _unite_ the race in their moral, social, intellectual and physical
improvement.
[Illustration]
We have negro artists of a high order, both in painting and sculpture;
also, discoverers who hold patents, and yet the world knows little or
nothing about them. The time for the negro to work out his destiny has
arrived. Now let him show himself equal to the hour.
In this work I frequently used the word “Negro,” and shall, no doubt,
hear from it when the negro critics get a sight of the book. And why
should I not use it? Is it not honorable? What is there in the word
that does not sound as well as “English,” “Irish,” “German,” “Italian,”
“French?”
“Don’t call me a negro; I’m an American,” said a black to me a few days
since.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Well, sir, I was born in this country, and I don’t want to be called
out of my name.”
Just then, an Irish-American came up, and shook hands with me. He had
been a neighbor of mine in Cambridge. When the young man was gone, I
inquired of the black man what countryman he thought the man was.
“Oh!” replied he, “he’s an Irishman.”
“What makes you think so?” I inquired.
“Why, his brogue is enough to tell it.”
“Then,” said I, “why is not your color enough to tell that you’re a
negro?”
“Arh!” said he, “that’s a horse of another color,” and left me with a
“Ha, ha, ha!”
Black men, don’t be ashamed to show your colors, and to own them.
The Negro in the American Rebellion
HIS HEROISM AND HIS FIDELITY.
BY WM. WELLS BROWN, M.D.
Nearly 400 pages. Handsomely bound in cloth. Price $2.00.
DR. BROWN has written a number of books, but none of them are
more interesting or instructive than this, his History of the Negro in
America.
Commencing with the first cargo of slaves landed in the colonies in
1620, he carries the race through “The War of 1812,” “The John Brown
Raid,” and “The Late Rebellion,” portraying in a most graphic manner
the horrors of the slave trade in the olden time; the different
struggles of individual negroes for the freedom of themselves and
brothers; and, finally, gives a complete and detailed history of the
part taken by the colored man in the late war, which showed to the
world the true heroism and fidelity of the race.
The history of this people, full of sorrow, blood, and tears, is
full, also, of instruction for mankind, and the story becomes doubly
interesting when told in Dr. Brown’s fascinating way, and embellished
with anecdote and adventure all through its pages.
The above work is sold by subscription, and the publishers desire to
employ active agents everywhere to canvass for subscribers, and to such
agents they will allow handsome commissions. Sample copy sent by mail,
postage paid, to any address, on receipt of $2.00.
LEE & SHEPHERD, PUBLISHERS,
BOSTON, MASS.
And may be had of
A. G. BROWN & CO., 28 EAST CANTON STREET, BOSTON.
THE RISING SON:
OR,
The Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race.
BY WM. WELLS BROWN, M.D.
Price $2.00 per copy.
This standard work has passed through ten editions, and the agents
are still selling it in large numbers. The following are some of the
comments of the press:--
“In reading Dr. Brown’s earlier works, we formed a high opinion of his
literary ability, but this, his last effort, surpasses all his former
writings, and gives him a permanent position with the most profound
historians. The foot-notes and references in _The Rising Son_ give it a
reliability that will secure for it a place in all our libraries. Every
friend of the race will get the book, and no colored man will remain
long without it. The blacks, everywhere, owe the author a lasting debt
of gratitude.”--_Boston Evening Transcript._
“This is a history of the blacks commencing with the Ethiopians coming
down the Nile to Carthage, following Hannibal in his wonderful career,
thence proceeding to Africa. The author takes up the condition of
the various tribes, giving a history of the African slave trade, the
introduction of the negroes into the West Indies, full account of the
St. Domingo revolutions, as well as the outbreak in other colonies; the
landing of the first slaves in Virginia, and the history of the rise,
progress and fall of the slave power. Dr. Brown’s long experience in
the advocacy of the rights of his people, his industry and literary
ability, eminently qualify him for the arduous task, and it will be
read with interest, astonishment, and delight.”--_Boston Commonwealth._
“_The Rising Son_ is the fruit of long research, careful study,
and a reflective mind. It is well written, and Dr. Brown deserves
hearty praise for the conception, the method, and the manner of his
work.”--_The Boston Congregationalist._
“Dr. Brown has given us, in this valuable volume, a collection of great
value to those who would know more of the negro race than has been
generally known. The book is printed on excellent paper, nicely bound,
and its typographical execution is of the best.”--_New National Era,
Washington, D.C._
“We say at once,--Let every colored man in the country buy this _Rising
Son_, and read its forty-nine chapters; and the fiftieth too, if he
have the time. There is much in it that will repay the most complete
perusal.”--_The Christian Recorder, Philadelphia._
“No book yet published regarding the colored race is as complete,
exhaustive, and valuable as this work. The author is one of the
best-informed representative colored men in the country, and the book
is as concise a history of the colored race from the earliest period to
the present time as has ever appeared.”--_Daily Chronicle, Washington,
D.C._
“We commend it heartily as one of the most valuable books yet published
for the up-lifting of the race. To the young men of America, this
work will be invaluable, both as a history and an incentive to press
forward. Its brief sketches of live men of the time, are all an
invitation to them to ‘come up higher.’”--_Our National Progress;
Harrisburgh, Pa._
“_The Rising Son_ proclaims Dr. Brown a man of versatile genius, and
gives him undisputed rank on the catalogue of American authors, without
regard to race or color.”--_The National Monitor, Brooklyn, N.Y._
Agents wanted in every State to sell this work, and to whom great
inducements are offered. Send in your orders. A Book will be sent to
any address, free of postage, on receipt of price, $2.00.
A. G. BROWN & CO., Publishers, 28 East Canton St., Boston, Mass.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.