George Williams - History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 (Vol. 1&2)

George Washington Williams

Account of African Americans as Slaves, as Soldiers and as Citizens

e-artnow, 2021

Contact: info@e-artnow.org

EAN 4064066498467

Volume 1

Volume 2

Table of Contents

Part I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

CHAPTER I. THE UNITY OF MANKIND.

CHAPTER II. THE NEGRO IN THE LIGHT OF PHILOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND EGYPTOLOGY.

CHAPTER III. PRIMITIVE NEGRO CIVILIZATION.

CHAPTER IV. NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA.

CHAPTER V. THE ASHANTEE EMPIRE.

CHAPTER VI. THE NEGRO TYPE.

CHAPTER VII. AFRICAN IDIOSYNCRASIES.

CHAPTER VIII. LANGUAGES, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION.

CHAPTER IX. SIERRA LEONE.

CHAPTER X. THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.

CHAPTER XI. RÉSUMÉ.

Part II. SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.119

CHAPTER XII. THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER XIII. THE COLONY OF NEW YORK.

CHAPTER XIV. THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER XV. THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS—CONTINUED.

CHAPTER XVI. THE COLONY OF MARYLAND.

CHAPTER XVII. THE COLONY OF DELAWARE.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT.

CHAPTER XIX. THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND.

CHAPTER XX. THE COLONY OF NEW JERSEY.

CHAPTER XXI. THE COLONY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER XXII. THE COLONY OF NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER XXIII. THE COLONY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE COLONY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

CHAPTER XXV. THE COLONY OF GEORGIA.

Part III. THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER XXVI. MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES.

CHAPTER XXVII. NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

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

CHAPTER XXIX. THE NEGRO INTELLECT.—BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.611.— FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN.—DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.

CHAPTER XXX. SLAVERY DURING THE REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER XXXI. SLAVERY AS A POLITICAL AND LEGAL PROBLEM.

APPENDIX.

Part I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

Part II SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

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

During the last half-century, many writers on ethnology, anthropology, and slavery have strenuously striven to place the Negro outside of the human family; and the disciples of these teachers have endeavored to justify their views by the most dehumanizing treatment of the Negro. But, fortunately for the Negro and for humanity at large, we live now in an epoch when race malice and sectional hate are disappearing beneath the horizon of a brighter and better future. The Negro in America is free. He is now an acknowledged factor in the affairs of the continent; and no community, state, or government, in this period of the world's history, can afford to be indifferent to his moral, social, intellectual, or political well-being.

It is proposed, in the first place, to call the attention to the absurd charge that the Negro does not belong to the human family. Happily, there are few left upon the face of the earth who still maintain this belief.

In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis it is clearly stated that "God created man," "male and female created he them;" 1that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;" 2and that "the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." 3It is noticeable that the sacred historian, in every reference to Adam, speaks of him as " man ;" and that the divine injunction to them was—Adam and Eve—"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 4As among the animals, so here in the higher order, there were two—a pair—"male and female," of the human species. We may begin with man, and run down the scale, and we are sure to find two of a kind, "male and female." This was the divine order. But they were to "be fruitful," were to "replenish the earth." That they did "multiply," we have the trustworthy testimony of God; and it was true that man and beast, fowl and fish, increased. We read that after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Eve bore Adam a family. Cain and Abel; and that they "peopled the earth."

After a number of years we find that wickedness increased in the earth; so much so that the Lord was provoked to destroy the earth with a flood, with the exception of Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives—eight souls in all. 5Of the animals, two of each kind were saved.

But the most interesting portion of Bible history comes after the Flood. We then have the history of the confusion of tongues, and the subsequent and consequent dispersion of mankind. In the eleventh chapter and first verse of Genesis it is recorded: " And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." "The whole earth" here means all the inhabitants of the earth—all mankind. The medium of communication was common. Everybody used one language. In the sixth verse occurs this remarkable language: "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one , and they have all one language." Attention is called to this verse, because we have here the testimony of the Lord that "the people is one ," and that the language of the people is one. This verse establishes two very important facts; i.e., there was but one nationality, and hence but one language. The fact that they had but one language furnishes reasonable proof that they were of one blood; and the historian has covered the whole question very carefully by recording the great truth that they were one people , and had but one language . The seventh, eighth, and ninth verses of the eleventh chapter are not irrelevant: "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

It was the wickedness of the people that caused the Lord to disperse them, to confound their speech, and bring to nought their haughty work. Evidently this was the beginning of different families of men—different nationalities, and hence different languages. In the ninth verse it reads, that "from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." There is no ambiguity about this language. He did not only "confound their language," but "scattered them from thence," from Babel, "upon the face of all the earth." Here, then, are two very important facts: their language was confused , and they were " scattered ." They were not only "scattered," they were "scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth." That is, they were dispersed very widely, sent into the various and remote parts of the earth; and their nationality received its being from the latitudes to which the divinely appointed wave of dispersion bore them; and their subsequent racial character was to borrow its tone and color from climateric influences. Three great families, the Shemitic, Hamitic, and Japhetic, were suddenly built up. Many other families, or tribes, sprang from these; but these were the three great heads of all subsequent races of men.