descendant of Ham,--who, in sacred history, is called Mizraim, and
in uninspired history he is known by the name of Menes. Yet, in the
face of this historical evidence, there are those who affirm, that
the ancient Egyptians were not of the pure African stock. The
gigantic statue of the Sphynx has the peculiar features of the
children of Ham; one of the most celebrated queens of Egypt was
Nitocris, an Ethiopian woman; yet these intellectual
resurrectionists dig through a mountain of such evidence, and
declare that these people were not Negroes.
"We learn from Herodotus, that the ancient Egyptians were black,
and had woolly hair. These people astonished the world with their
arts and sciences, in which they revelled with unbounded
prodigality. They became the masters of the East, and the lords of
the Hebrews. No arm less powerful than Jehovah's, could pluck the
children of Abraham from their hands. The plagues were marshalled
against them, and the pillars of cloud and of fire, and at last the
resistless sea. 'Then the horse and his rider sank like lead in the
mighty waters.'[5] But the kingdom of the Pharaohs was still great.
The most exalted mortal eulogium that could be spoken of Moses,
was, 'that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.'[6]
It was from them that he gathered the materials with which he
reared that grand superstructure, partaking of law, poetry, and
history, which has filled the world with wonder and praise.
Mournful reverses of fortune have passed over that illustrious
people. The star that rose in such matchless splendour above the
eastern horizon has had its setting. But Egypt, Africa's
dark-browed queen, still lives. Her pyramid tombs--her sculptured
columns, dug from the sands to adorn modern architecture--the
remnants of her once impregnable walls--the remains of her
hundred-gated city, rising over the wide-spread ruins, as if to
guard the fame of the race that gave them existence,--all proclaim
what she once was.
"Whatever may be the extent of prejudice against colour, as it is
falsely called and is so generally practised in this country,
Solomon, the most renowned of kings, possessed none of it. Among
the seven hundred wives and the three hundred concubines who filled
his houses, the most favoured queen was the beautiful Sable
daughter of one of the Pharaohs of Egypt.... When he had secured
her, he bowed his great intellect before her, that he might do her
that homage which he paid to no other woman. Solomon was a poet,
and pure love awakened the sweetest melody in his soul. To her
honour and praise he composed that beautiful poem called the
CANTICLES, or SOLOMON'S SONG. For her he wove that gorgeous wreath
which is unsurpassed in its kind, and with his own royal hand
placed it upon her dark brow.
"The interior of Ethiopia has not been explored by modern
adventurers. The antiquarian has made his way into almost every
dominion where relics of former greatness have promised to reward
him for his toil. But this country, as though she had concealed
some precious treasure, meets the traveller on the outskirts of her
dominions, with pestilence and death. Yet, in the Highlands that
have been traversed, many unequivocal traces of former civilization
have been discovered. Very lately, British enterprise has made some
important researches in that region of country, all of which go to
prove, that Homer did not misplace his regard for them, when he
associated them with the gods.
"Numerous other instances might be mentioned that would indicate
the ancient fame of our ancestors:--a fame, which arose from every
virtue and talent that render mortals pre-eminently great,--from
the conquests of love and beauty, from the prowess of their arms,
and their architecture, poetry, mathematics, generosity, and piety.
I will barely allude to the beautiful Cleopatra, who swayed and
captivated the heart of Antony;--to Hannibal, the sworn enemy and
scourge of Rome--the mighty General who crossed the Alps to meet
his foes--the Alps which had never before been crossed by an army,
nor ever since, if we except Napoleon, the ambitious Corsican;--to
Terence, Euclid, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine.
"In 1620, the very same year in which the Pilgrims landed on the
cold and rocky shores of New England, a Dutch ship, freighted with
souls, touched the banks of James river, where the wretched people
were employed as Slaves in the cultivation of that hateful weed,
tobacco. Wonderful coincidence! The angel of liberty hovered over
New England, and the demon of Slavery unfurled his black flag over
the fields of the 'sunny south.'
"But, latterly, the Slave-trade has been pronounced to be piracy by
almost all of the civilised world. Great Britain has discarded the
chattel principle throughout her dominions. In 1824, Mexico
proclaimed freedom to her Slaves. The Pope of Rome, and the
sovereigns of Turkey and Denmark, and other nations, bow at the
shrine of liberty. But France has laid the richest offering upon
the altar of freedom, that has been presented to God in these
latter days. In achieving her almost bloodless revolution, she
maintained an admirable degree of consistency. The same blast of
the trumpet of Liberty that rang through the halls of the
Tuilleries, and shattered the throne of the Bourbons, also reached
the shores of her remotest colonies, and proclaimed the redemption
of every Slave that moved on French soil. Thus does France remember
the paternal advice of La Fayette, and atone for the murder of
Toussaint. Thanks be to God, the lily is cleansed of the blood that
stained it. The nations of the earth will gaze with delight upon
its democratic purity, wherever it shall be seen, whether in the
grape-grown valleys where it first bloomed, or in the Isles of
Bourbon, Guadaloupe, Martinique, or in Guiana.[7] The Coloured
people of St. Bartholomew's, who were emancipated by a decree of
the king of Sweden last year, have lately sent an address to their
liberator. Hayti, by the heroism of her Age, Toussaint L'Ouverture,
Dessalines, Christophe, and Petion, has driven the demon of Slavery
from that island, and has buried his carcase in the sea.
"Briefly and imperfectly have I noticed the former condition of the
Coloured race. Let us turn for a moment to survey our present
state. The woeful volume of our history, as it now lies open to the
world, is written with tears and bound with blood. As I trace it,
my eyes ache and my heart is filled with grief. No other people
have suffered so much, and none have been more innocent. If I
might apostrophise that bleeding country, I would say, O Africa,
thou hast bled, freely bled, at every pore! Thy sorrow has been
mocked, and thy grief has not been heeded. Thy children are
scattered over the whole earth, and the great nations have been
enriched by them. The wild beasts of thy forests are treated with
more mercy than they. The Libyan lion and the fierce tiger are
caged to gratify the curiosity of men, and the keeper's hands are
not laid heavily upon them. But thy children are tortured, taunted,
and hurried out of life by unprecedented cruelty. Brave men, formed
in the divinest mould, are bartered, sold, and mortgaged. Stripped
of every sacred right, they are scourged if they affirm that they
belong to God. Women, sustaining the dear relation of mothers, are
yoked with the horned cattle, to till the soil, and their
heart-strings are torn to pieces by cruel separations from their
children. Our sisters, ever manifesting the purest kindness,
whether in the wilderness of their father-land, or amid the sorrows
of the middle passage, or in crowded cities, are unprotected from
the lust of tyrants. They have a regard for virtue, and they
possess a sense of honour, but there is no respect paid to these
jewels of noble character. Driven into unwilling concubinage, their
offspring are sold by their Anglo-Saxon fathers. To them, the
marriage institution is but a name, for their despoilers break down
the hymenial altar and scatter its sacred ashes on the winds.
"Our young men are brutalised in intellect, and their manly
energies are chilled by the frosts of Slavery. Sometimes they are
called to witness the agonies of the mothers who bore them,
writhing under the lash, and as if to fill to overflowing the
already full cup of demonism, they are sometimes compelled to apply
the lash with their own hands. Hell itself cannot overmatch a deed
like this--and dark damnation shudders as it sinks into its bosom
and seeks to hide itself from the indignant eye of God."
The writer of the foregoing Discourse was formerly a Slave; his
forefathers, stolen from Africa, lived and died in Slavery; he himself
was born a Slave, and would have remained in that condition until the
present time, had he not been so fortunate as to escape from the galling
yoke of fetters and chains. Such an example of elevated humanity as he
affords, compels the conviction, that out of the countless millions now
doomed to perpetual bondage, many of them, though forcibly degraded to a
level with the brute, are qualified to become ornaments, not only to
their race but to humanity.
The contents of these pages demonstrate the Negro race to be possessed
of intelligent and reflecting minds, capable of occupying a very
different station in life to that which has been generally assigned to
them, and which they now mostly occupy. Although their sufferings in
Slavery have long excited the interest and sympathy of the benevolent,
little has been done to advance their position in society. Almost
insurmountable obstacles exist, tending to counteract that improvement
and elevation of character, to which, under more favourable
circumstances, they are capable of attaining.
It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned, whether any other people could
have endured the privations or the sufferings to which they have been
subjected, without becoming still _more_ degraded in the scale of
humanity. Nothing has been left undone, to cripple their intellects, to
darken their minds, to debase their moral nature, and to obliterate all
traces of their relationship to mankind; yet, how wonderfully they have
sustained the mighty load of oppression, under which they have been
groaning for centuries!
The supporters and advocates of Slavery, in order to justify their
oppressive conduct, allege, either in ignorance or from an affected
philosophy, an inherent defect in the mental constitution of the Negro
race, sufficient to exclude them from the enjoyment of the blessings of
freedom, or the exercise of those rights which are equally bestowed by a
beneficent Creator upon all his rational creatures.
Prejudice and misinformation have, for a long series of years, been
fostered with unremitting assiduity by those interested in upholding the
Slave system, and their corrupt influence has enabled them to gain
possession of the public ear, and to abuse public credulity to an extent
not generally appreciated. They strenuously maintain that the Negro is
only fitted and designed for a servile condition. The contents of these
pages prove to the contrary, and will surely stop the mouths of those
who, from ignorance or something worse, affirm an absolute difference in
specific character between the two races, and hence, justify the
consignment of the Black to a fate which only proves the fingering
barbarism of the White.
But, should the cases here recorded be considered of too isolated a
nature to elucidate a theory of general equality of races, it may be
observed, that they are only a very fractional part of what might have
been adduced. A mass of facts is still in reserve, teeming with
unequivocal evidence, that the Almighty has not left the Negro
destitute or deficient of those talents and capabilities which he has
bestowed upon all his rational creatures, and which, however modified by
circumstances in various cases, leave no section of the human family a
right to boast that it inherits by birth a superiority, which might not,
in the course of events, be manifested and claimed, with equal justice,
by those whom they most despise.
In order more fully to demonstrate the capabilities of the Black races
of Africa, the writer has selected a mass of facts illustrative of the
subject, which he has recently published, entitled "A TRIBUTE FOR THE
NEGRO," in which their moral, intellectual, and religious capabilities
are fully established. This Volume, including many engravings and
portraits of eminent Negroes, embraces upwards of one hundred
biographical sketches and anecdotes of this calumniated race, many of
them not before published, which afford striking evidence that inferior
abilities are not the necessary accompaniment of a Coloured skin, but
demonstrating, on the contrary, that the Negro race are endowed with
every characteristic constituting an identity with the great family of
man, and consequently entitled to those inalienable rights which have
been denied them, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," any
infringement on which is a daring usurpation of the prerogative of the
Most High!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] America.
[2] "Truth is powerful, and will ultimately prevail."
[3] Gen. ii. 8, 9, 15.
[4] Prov. xiv. 34.
[5] Exod. xv. 1, 10.
[6] Acts vii. 22.
[7] The number of Slaves in the French colonies was almost 300,000.
ANTHONY PICKARD, PRINTER, TOP OF BRIGGATE, LEEDS.
JUST PUBLISHED,
A TRIBUTE FOR THE NEGRO,
BEING
A VINDICATION
OF THE
MORAL, INTELLECTUAL, AND RELIGIOUS CAPABILITIES
OF THE
COLOURED PORTION OF MANKIND,
WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE AFRICAN RACE
BY
WILSON ARMISTEAD,
LEEDS.
LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT;
AND WILLIAM IRWIN, 39, OLDHAM-STREET, MANCHESTER;
G. W. TAYLOR, PHILADELPHIA;
WILLIAM HARNED, ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
REMARKS OF THE PRESS,
RESPECTING "A TRIBUTE FOR THE NEGRO."
"We are gratified to announce the publication of a Volume under this
designation; and, especially, that it will emanate from the pen--we may
add, also, from the heart--of a gentleman whose feelings and sympathies,
no less than mental powers, so well fit him for the task of preparing
it. It will be embellished with ten engravings, enriched by an
Introductory Poem by Mr. Bernard Barton, and the profits devoted to the
Anti-Slavery cause."--_The Universe._
"It is scarcely needful to do more than read the Prospectus, to be
convinced that the Volume is likely to be one of no common interest,
both to the Christian and to the Philanthropist. Indeed, it seems to
promise a high treat to the Anti-Slavery public in particular; and, from
the great labour and cost the author has bestowed on it, we trust an
extensive sale awaits it."--_British Friend._
"From our acquaintance with the author of the '_Tribute for the Negro_,'
we feel no hesitation in saying that it will be one of deep research, as
well as of intense interest, being on a subject most intimately
connected with the happiness or misery of a large portion of the human
family."--_The Citizen._
"It is with sincere pleasure we announce the appearance of this
interesting publication. It includes upwards of one hundred biographical
sketches of Africans, or their descendants, besides facts and anecdotes,
testimonies of travellers, missionaries, &c., exhibiting an undoubted
refutation of the unfounded calumnies which have been heaped on the
unfortunate race of Africa. In addition to illustrative engravings, it
will contain the portraits of several distinguished men of Colour. From
the character of the gentleman who has undertaken the pleasing, though
arduous, task, and who contemplates no other reward but that of service
to the deeply-oppressed race of Africa, we may with confidence recommend
his production to the early and earnest attention of our readers,
feeling assured that they will be both cheered and profited by its
perusal. We are glad to perceive that, in addition to the names of many
friends of the Negro, the subscription list is headed by the
Queen."--_Anti-Slavery Reporter._
* * * * *
The Volume contains upwards of 550 Pages, Demy 8vo., and Ten superior
Portraits and Engravings, Price 16s.
May also be had in Morocco, gilt edges, and Proof Plates, at 25s.; the
Morocco Copies include Two additional Engravings.
N.B.--All profits arising from the Sale of "A Tribute for the Negro"
will be devoted on behalf of the oppressed.