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W.E.B. Du Bois
DISCLAIMER The Negro and The Conservation of Races by W. E. B. Du Bois, is a publication of ECONaRCH Institute. This Portable Document File is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own risk. Neither ECONARCH Institute, the Editor, nor anyone associated with ECONARCH Institute assumes any responsibility for the material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any way. The Negro and The Conservation of Races by W. E. B. Du Bois, ECONARCH Institute, Electronic Classics Literature: W. E. B. Du Bois Series, the Editor, Indonesia is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classics literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them. Cover design by Rowland Copyright © 2009 Rowland Classics
........ 83 IX: THE TRADE IN MEN ...............W E B Du Bois Contents THE CONSERVATION OF RACES ....................... 28 III: ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT ....... 67 VII: THE WAR OF RACES AT LAND'S END .............................. 167 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING .............................. 109 X: THE WEST INDIES AND LATIN AMERICA........................... 46 V: GUINEA AND CONGO ................................................... 174 3 ....................... 5 PREFACE (to The Negro) ............. 35 IV: THE NIGER AND ISLAM.......................................... 56 VI: THE GREAT LAKES AND ZYMBABWE . 75 VIII: AFRICAN CULTURE .............. 19 I: AFRICA ..................................... 120 XI: THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES ...... 21 II: THE COMING OF BLACK MEN .................. 135 XII: THE NEGRO PROBLEMS....
"Peace will be my applause." – William Edward Burghardt Du Bois 4 .
at times covert opposition employed to thwart the Negro at every step of his upward struggles to establish the justness of his claim to the highest physical. Two great obstacles to this consummation are apparent: (a) The lack of unity. relentless.W E B Du Bois The American Negro Academy Occasional Papers. rests the responsibility of taking concerted steps for the employment of these agencies to uplift the race to higher planes of thought and action. and (b) The persistent. absence of a self-sacrificing spirit. and no well-defined line of policy seeking definite aims. intellectual and moral possibilities. 5 . Burghardt Du Bois 1897 Announcement THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY believes that upon those of the race who have had the advantage of higher education and culture. No. want of harmony.E. 2 THE CONSERVATION OF RACES By W.
from time to time. For it is certain that all human striving must recognize 6 . therefore. to believe intensely that out of one blood God created all nations. and the resulting problem as to the future relations of these types is not only of intense and living interest to us. in our calmer moments we must acknowledge that human beings are divided into races. to survey the whole questions of race in human philosophy and to lay. intellectual and moral status. in guiding our future development. publish such papers as in their judgment aid. on a basis of broad knowledge and careful insight. those large lines of policy and higher ideals which may form our guiding lines and boundaries in the practical difficulties of every day. have lurked certain assumptions as to his natural abilities. wage-discrimination and lynch law. in planning our movements. that in this country the two most extreme types of the world's races have met. but smaller questions of separate schools and cars. It is necessary. Nevertheless. but forms an epoch in the history of mankind. as to his political. He has.The Conservation of Races The Academy will. consequently. that at times we rise above the pressing. and the vindication of that race against vicious assaults. CONSERV RACES THE CONSERVATION OF RACES THE AMERICAN NEGRO has always felt an intense personal interest in discussions as to the origins and destinies of races: primarily because back of most discussions of race with which he is familiar. which he felt were wrong. been led to deprecate and minimize race distinctions. by their broad and scholarly treatment of the topics discussed the dissemination of principles tending to the growth and development of the Negro along right lines. therefore. and to speak of human brotherhood as though it were the possibility of an already dawning tomorrow.
perhaps three. these criteria of race are most exasperatingly intermingled. too. In measurement of heads. as color. the yellow Chinese. men vary. again. in the past. is nothing more than an acknowledgment that. from the marble-like pallor of the Scandinavian to the rich. has the science of language as yet succeeded in clearing up the relative authority of these various and contradictory criteria. or. nor does color agree with the breadth of the head. is that we have at least two. so far. is vain. which is against the constitution of the world. Color does not agree with texture of hair. the light brown Sicilian and the brown Egyptian. hair. what has. The question. so far as purely physical characteristics are concerned. then. Many criteria of race differences have in the past been proposed. for instance. which we must seriously consider is this: What is the real meaning of Race. no matter how intense and earnest. possibly the yellow race. nor. the differences between men do not explain all the differences of their history. again. again in language. All these physical characteristics are patent enough. for the yellow Tartar has a broader head than the German. It 7 . passing by the creamy Slav.W E B Du Bois the hard limits of natural law. human beings differ widely. and if they agreed with each other it would be very easy to classify mankind. Men vary. however. and what lessons has the past history of race development to teach the rising Negro people? When we thus come to inquire into the essential difference of races we find it hard to come at once to any definite conclusion. That other races have arisen from the intermingling of the blood of these two. And manifestly. dark brown of the Zulu. been the law of race development. great families of human beings—the whites and Negroes. in the texture of hair from the obstinately straight hair of the Chinese to the obstinately tufted and frizzled hair of the Bushman. from the highly-inflected Roman tongue to the monosyllabic Chinese. cranial measurements and language. Unfortunately for scientists. for many of the dark races have straight hair. in each of these respects. They vary in color. This broad division of the world's races which men like Huxley and Raetzel have introduced as more nearly true than the old five-race scheme of Blumenbach. The final word of science. from the broad-headed Tartar to the medium-headed European and the narrow-headed Hottentot. and that any striving.
Although the wonderful developments of human history teach that the grosser physical differences of color. which. as to the widespread. the race ideal. traditions and impulses. are loath to see and loath to acknowledge this patent fact of human history. is a race? It is a vast family of human beings. then the history of the world is the history. and he who ignores or seeks to override the race idea in human history ignores and overrides the central thought of all history. nay. who have been reared and trained under the individualistic philosophy of the Declaration of Independence and the laisser-faire philosophy of Adam Smith. though they may be—which have silently but definitely separated men into groups. but of groups. At all times. as Darwin himself said. first. generally of common blood and language. but of races. not of individuals. that great as is the physical unlikeness of the various races of men their likenesses are greater. yet there are differences— subtle. universal. While these subtle forces have generally followed the natural cleavage of common blood. We are apt to think in our American impatience.The Conservation of Races declares. What. while they perhaps transcend scientific definition. who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life. delicate and elusive. then. Toussaints and Napoleons of history and forget the vast races of which they were but epitomized expressions. We. nevertheless. are clearly defined to the eye of the Historian and Sociologist. the race spirit. and upon this rests the whole scientific doctrine of Human Brotherhood. however. Caesars. always of common history. they have divided human beings into races. and as to its efficiency as the vastest and most ingenious invention of human progress. Turning to real history. prevalence of the race idea. not of nations. descent and physical peculiarities. We see the Pharaohs. hair and bone go but a short way toward explaining the different roles which groups of men have played in Human Progress. that here in conglomerate America nous avons changer tout cela—we have changed all that. there can be no doubt. and have no need of this an8 . If this be true. they have at other times swept across and ignored these. that while it may have been true in the past that closed race groups made history.
W E B Du Bois cient instrument of progress. the Mongolian. the black. the Slav includes the Czech. the Romance nations of Southern and Western Europe. the most indefinite of all. the Slavs of eastern Europe. these eight great races of today follow the cleavage of physical race distinctions. with wide exceptions and qualifications. The deeper differences are spiritual. the Irish and the conglomerate American. of course. the Scandinavian and the Dutch. the English include the Scotch. the Semitic people of Western Asia and Northern Africa. the Teuton includes the German. are far from homogeneous. Among the Hindoos are traces of widely differing nations. too. where Mongolian and Teuton have blended into the Slav. in the sense in which History tells us the word must be used. the Magyar. the English and Teuton represent the white variety of mankind. the Negroes of Africa and America. other minor race groups. the yellow. Sicilian and Spaniard are comprehended. as the American Indians. They are. these larger races. the Teutons of middle Europe. Between these are many crosses and mixtures. Italian. combining the Mulattoes and Zamboes of America and the Egyptians. and that. while the great Chinese. This assumption of which the Negro people are especially fond. the Negroes. yet no mere physical distinctions would really define or explain the deeper differences—the cohesiveness and continuity of these groups. The question now is: What is the real distinction between these nations? Is it the physical differences of blood. and other mixtures have produced the Romance nations and the Semites. color and cranial measurements? Certainly we must all acknowledge that physical differences play a great part. Bantus and Bushmen of Africa. the Esquimaux and the South Sea Islanders. differences—undoubt9 . the Hindoos of Central Asia and the Mongolians of Eastern Asia. can not be established by a careful consideration of history. Corean and Japanese families fall under the one designation—Mongolian. perhaps. the English of Great Britain and America. Tartar. But while race differences have followed mainly physical race lines. The term Negro is. We find upon the world's stage today eight distinctly differentiated races. psychical. There are. Under Romance nations the widely-differing Frenchman. the Pole and the Russian.
was accompanied by an increase of the spiritual and social differences between cities.. this. to develop for civilization its particular message. The ideals of life for which the different cities struggled were different. i. The age of nomadic tribes of closely related individuals represents the maximum of physical differences. and so on. that "one far off Divine event. another warriors. there was a slight and slow breaking down of physical barriers. their race identity and common blood.e. first. the Romance nations stood for literature and art. merchants. similar habits of thought and a conscious striving together for certain ideals of life. however. common laws and religion. As the families came together to form cities the physical differences lessened. a common history. and the great characteristic of this growth has been the differentiation of spiritual and mental differences between great races of mankind and the integration of physical differences. and the sociological and historical races of men began to approximate the present division of races as indicated by physical researches. The English nation stood for constitutional liberty and commercial freedom. At the same time the spiritual and physical differences of race groups which constituted the nations became deep and decisive.The Conservation of Races edly based on the physical. and the other race groups are striving. The whole process which has brought about these race differentiations has been a growth. This. and more important. each in its own way." 10 . This city became husbandmen. hair and physical proportions were not by any means ignored. and all who lived within the city bounds became gradually to be regarded as members of the group. which shall help to guide the world nearer and nearer that perfection of human life for which we all long. The forces that bind together the Teuton nations are. but infinitely transcending them. but myriads of minor differences disappeared. They were practically vast families. and there were as many groups as families. it particular ideal. then. When at last cities began to coalesce into nations there was another breaking down of barriers which separated groups of men. the German nation for science and philosophy. The larger and broader differences of color. secondly. purity of blood was replaced by the requirement of domicile.
only Negroes bound and welded together. and that the striving of the mighty Slavs has but begun.W E B Du Bois This has been the function of race differences up to the present time. Negroes inspired by one vast ideal. then their destiny is not absorption by the white Americans. if it was not wholly Negro. That if in America it is to be proven for the first time in the modern world that not only Negroes are capable of evolving individual men like Toussaint. can work out in its fullness that great message we have for humanity. For the development of Japanese genius. not as individuals. it was certainly very closely allied. Japanese spirit. but are a nation stored with wonderful possibilities of culture. of Negro spirit.000.000 people of Negro blood in the United States of America— must soon come to realize that if they are to take their just place in the van of Pan-Negroism. the advance guard of the Negro people–the 8. only Japanese. we are subject to the same natural laws as other races.000 black hearts beating in one glad song of jubilee. Japanese inspired by one vast ideal. the Saviour. the fact still remains that the full. For the development of Negro genius. We cannot reverse history. then their des11 . What shall be its function in the future? Manifestly some of the great races of today—particularly the Negro race—have not as yet given to civilization the full spiritual message which they are capable of giving. I will not say that the Negro-race has yet given no message to the world. for it is still a mooted question among scientists as to just how far Egyptian civilization was Negro in its origin. The question is. however. then it must be placed there by black hands. For this reason. fashioned by black heads and hallowed by the travail of 200. and if the Negro is ever to be a factor in the world's history—if among the gaily-colored banners that deck the broad ramparts of civilizations is to hang one uncompromising black. of Negro literature and art. Be that as it may. bound and welded together. then: How shall this message be delivered.000. Japanese literature and art. how shall these various ideals be realized? The answer is plain: By the development of these race groups. complete Negro message of the whole Negro race has not as yet been given to the world: that the messages and ideal of the yellow race have not been completed. but as races. can work out in its fullness the wonderful message which Japan has for the nations of the earth.
in ideals of two different races. but a stalwart originality which shall unswervingly follow Negro ideals. has failed to ask himself at some time: What. I admit. that is making the present period a time of vacillation and contradiction for the American Negro. if. race responsibility is shirked. combined race action is stifled. and against which we have so long and so earnestly fought. the best energy of the Negro people cannot be marshalled to do the bidding of the race. to be nothing but the friction between different groups of people. then. It may. we find it. now. am I not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separates Black and White America? Is not my only possible practical aim the subduction of all that is Negro in me to the American? Does my black blood place upon me any more obligation to assert my nationality than German. They stand back to make room for every rascal and demagogue who chooses to cloak his selfish deviltry under the veil of race pride. after all. Is this right? Is it rational? Is it good policy? Have we in America a distinct mission as a race—a distinct sphere of action and an opportunity for race development. that our sole hope of salvation lies in our being able to lose our race identity in the commingled blood of the nation. and the best blood. it is the difference in aim. this difference exists touching territory. be objected here that the situation of our race in America renders this attitude impossible. and that any other course would merely increase the friction of races which we call race prejudice. or Irish or Italian blood would? It is such incessant self-questioning and the hesitation that arises from it. and it is a puzzling one. or even religion. race enterprises languish. laws.The Conservation of Races tiny is not a servile imitation of Anglo-Saxon culture. or is self-obliteration the highest end to which Negro blood dare aspire? If we carefully consider what race prejudice really is. historically. the best talent. at some time in life. however. is the dilemma. it is manifest that these people cannot 12 . am I? Am I an American or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be a Negro as soon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a Negro. language. No Negro who has given earnest thought to the situation of his people in America has failed. in feeling. Here. to find himself at these cross-roads.
Negro newspapers. our own belief in our great destiny. For the accomplishment of these ends we need race organizations: Negro colleges. on the other hand. Here. hated here. by race unity to the realization of that broader humanity which freely recognizes differences in men. our spiritual ideals. There is no power under God's high heaven that can stop the advance of eight thousand thousand 13 . our own implicit trust in our ability and worth. by race solidarity. our Americanism does not go. it is our duty to conserve our physical powers. a Negro school of literature and art. and an intellectual clearing house. is the reading of the riddle that puzzles so many of us. despised there and pitied everywhere. as a race we must strive by race organization. perhaps even better. not only by birth and by citizenship. Let us not deceive ourselves at our situation in this country. which we may call a Negro Academy. Negro business organizations. We are the first fruits of this new nation. We are that people whose subtle sense of song has given America its only American music. the harbinger of that black to-morrow which is yet destined to soften the whiteness of the Teutonic to-day. and but one means of advance. there is substantial agreement in laws. it seems to me. that men of different races might not strive together for their race ideals as well. Farther than that. for all these products of the Negro mind. then there is no reason why. our one haven of refuge is ourselves. it is absolutely imperative for negative defense. At that point. As such. Not only is all this necessary for positive advance. members of a vast historic race that from the very dawn of creation has slept. but half awakening in the dark forests of its African fatherland. our intellectual endowments. its only American fairy tales. Weighted with a heritage of moral iniquity from our past history. We are Americans. than in isolation. but if. hard pressed in the economic world by foreign immigrants and native prejudice. language and religion.W E B Du Bois live in the same territory without fatal collision. in the same country and on the same street. but sternly deprecates inequality in their opportunities of development. if there is a satisfactory adjustment of economic life. our language. two or three great national ideals might not thrive and develop. its only touch of pathos and humor amid its mad money-getting plutocracy. we are Negroes. our religion. but by our political ideals.
The Academy should be impartial in conduct. united to keep black boys from loafing. It aims at once to be the epitome and expression of the intellect of the black-blooded people of America. And such a people must be united. but in that it seeks to comprise something of the best thought. There are scattered in forgotten nooks and corners throughout the land. the exponent of the race ideals of one of the world's great races. who exert far too little influence. of high minds. As such. it must be inspired with the Divine faith of our black mothers. This. that out of the blood and dust of battle will march a victorious host. if successful. and ridicules itself. but united to stop the ravages of consumption among the Negro people. (c). not merely united for the organized theft of political spoils. united to guard the purity of black women and to reduce the vast army of black prostitutes that is today marching to hell. who are unknown to their fellows. not united merely to protest and pass resolutions. not in that it represents all interests or all factions. earnest. to determine by careful conference and thoughtful interchange of opinion the broad lines of policy and action for the American Negro. the most unselfish striving and the highest ideals. they must be earnest. a peculiar people. and high motives. inspired and united people.The Conservation of Races honest. a mighty nation. It must be representative in character. Firm in leadership. Impartial in conduct. These the Negro Academy should strive to bring into touch with each other and to give them a common mouthpiece. fearlessly criticising their own faults. No people that laughs at itself. and united in serious organizations. Representative in character. and wishes to God it was anything but itself ever wrote its name in history. is the reason for being which the American Negro Academy has. gambling and crime. (b). the Academy must. Negroes of some considerable training. while it aims to 14 . not united to disgrace religion with whoremongers and ward-heelers. zealously correcting them. to speak to the nations of earth a Divine truth that shall make them free. But–and here is the rub— they must be honest. be (a).
not with apologies. If we could accomplish that one task we would justify our existence. we must unflinchingly and bravely face the truth. It should continually impress the fact upon the Negro people that they must not expect to have things done for them—they must do for themselves. All this. there lie before every Negro today hundreds of questions of policy and right which must be settled and which each one settles now. The Negro Academy ought to sound a note of warning that would echo in every black cabin in the land: unless we conquer our present vices they will conquer us. The Academy should seek to gather 15 . and an alarmingly large percentage of our men and women are sexually impure. must come in time after careful organization and long conference. not in accordance with any rule. but by impulse or individual preference. we are diseased. I will not retreat a single inch. The immediate work before us should be practical and have direct bearing upon the situation of the Negro. and that a little less complaint and whining. In the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us. crying with Garrison: I will not equivocate. however. we are developing criminal tendencies. The Negro Academy should stand and proclaim this over the housetops. that they have on their hands a vast work of self-reformation to do. but with solemn earnestness. for instance: What should be the attitude of Negroes toward the educational qualification for voters? What should be our attitude toward separate schools? How should we meet discriminations on railways and in hotels? Such questions need not so much specific answers for each part as a general expression of policy. Finally. the American Negro Academy must point out a practical path of advance to the Negro people. and nobody should be better fitted to announce such a policy than a representative honest Negro Academy. First. by honesty–not by flattery.W E B Du Bois exalt the people it should aim to do so by truth–not by lies. and a little more dogged work and manly striving would do us more credit and benefit than a thousand Force or Civil Rights bills. The historical work of collecting the laws of the United States and of the various States of the Union with regard to the Negro is a work of such magnitude and importance that no body but one like this could think of undertaking it. and I will be heard.
to maintain their race identity until this mission of the Negro people is accomplished. as a body. it is entirely feasible and practicable for two races in such essential political. economic and religious harmony as the white and colored people in America. in morals. and moral worth. And grapple with his evil star. As a means to this end we advocate. and the ideal of human brotherhood has become a practical possibility. which no other race can make.The Conservation of Races about it the talented. ability. the peculiar contribution which each has to make to the culture of their common country. if he will bend his energies in the right direction. 3. We believe it the duty of the Americans of Negro descent. In science and morals. than the American Negro. I wish to suggest the following Academy Creed: 1. We believe that. give due and just consideration to culture. We believe that the Negro people. Finally. in practical policy. 4. 5. We believe that the first and greatest step toward the settlement of the present friction between the races–commonly called the Negro Problem-lies in the correction of the immorality. There does not stand today upon God's earth a race more capable in muscle. to fight an army of devils that disgraces our manhood and our womanhood. crime and 16 . to develop side by side in peace and mutual happiness. whether they be found under white or black skins. throughout all the complicated relations of life. as a race. but such a social equilibrium as would. 2. I have indicated two fields of work for the Academy. And breast the blow of circumstance. if he will Burst his birth's invidious bar And grasp the skirts of happy chance. have a contribution to make to civilization and humanity. in intellect. the pure and noble-minded women. unselfish men. not such social equality between these races as would disregard human likes and dislikes. unless modern civilization is a failure.
as American Negroes.E.W E B Du Bois laziness among the Negroes themselves. and for the rearing of a race ideal in America and Africa. which still remains as a heritage from slavery. and firmly believing in our high destiny. We believe that the second great step toward a better adjustment of the relations between races. and a greater respect for personal liberty and worth. On the basis of the foregoing declaration. to the glory of God and the uplifting of the Negro people. 7. should be a more impartial selection of ability in the economic and intellectual world. we. Burghardt Du Bois 17 . for the development of strong manhood and pure womanhood. are resolved to strive in every honorable way for the realization of the best and highest aims. W. We believe that only earnest and long continued efforts on our own part can cure these social ills. 6. We believe that only earnest efforts on the part of the white people of this country will bring much needed reform in these matters. regardless of race.
W. E. B. Du Bois 1868 – 1963 18 .
1915 TO A FAITHFUL HELPER M. Nevertheless.A. Manifestly so short a story must be mainly conclusions and generalizations with but meager 19 . Portuguese. racial prejudice against darker peoples is still too strong in so-called civilized centers for judicial appraisement of the peoples of Africa.G. 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. PREFACE THE TIME HAS NOT YET COME for a complete history of the Negro peoples. and many sources of information in Arabian. and other tongues are not fully at our command. Archæological research in Africa has just begun. and.B. it must frankly be confessed. 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. Du Bois New York: Holt. too.W E B Du Bois THE NEGRO By W.E.
New York City. 1.E. a later and larger book may be more satisfactory on these points. Possibly. W. BURGHARDT DU BOIS. 1915.indication of authorities and underlying arguments. if the Public will. 20 . Feb.
rubber. the "Kush" and "Punt" of the Egyptian. Old And white with tombs. in commerce it is the slave mart and the source of ivory. It is the "Ethiopia" of the Greek. and pixies. Its very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influ-ence. and diamonds. and its strangeness is due in no small degree to the physical peculiarities of the continent. yet all untamed." —MILLER A FRICA IS AT ONCE the most romantic and the most tragic of continents." To modern Europe it is the "Dark Continent" and "Land of Contrasts". and the Arabian "Land of the Blacks. nevertheless. the home of the dwarfs. 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. With raiment wet with tears and torn. ebony. And trampled on. The bond Of Silence is upon her. who would write universal history and leave out Africa. and the refuge of the gods. gold. With three times the 21 . But how. gnomes. and rent and shorn. asks Ratzel. in literature it is the seat of the Sphinx and the lotus eaters. Yet it is true that the history of Africa is unusual.W E B Du Bois I AFRICA "Behold! The Sphinx is Africa. What other continent can rival in interest this Ancient of Days? There are those.
and. many from other continents have been widely introduced and used. and probably tobacco and millet. the kola nut. with five million square miles. including the gum acacia. Of the ancient world gathered about the Mediterranean. It has few gulfs. bays. Africa lies in the tropics. watering the Sudan below the Sahara. To these many plants have been added in historic times. Even these waters leave room for deserts both south and north. the Zambesi. then the Nile. ebony. or islands. with its greater Niagara in the southeast. Like Europe it is a peninsula of Asia. mighty thought. where rain at all seasons brings tropical luxuriance. The flora is rich but not wide in variety. threading a dream". Even the rivers.The Negro area of Europe it has a coast line a fifth shorter. are not means of communication with the outer world. Primarily Africa is the Land of the Blacks. 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. who represent one of the most ancient of human stocks. with seven million square miles. draining the cluster of the Great Lakes and flowing northward "like some grave. finally. In the south the central plateau is three thousand or more feet above the sea. dry climate. capes. several dye woods. curving southwestward around the Indian Sea. The greatest is the Congo in the center. reaching down as far as the Gulf of Guinea and Cape Guardafui. and the peninsula which tapers toward the south. Thus two main divisions of the continent are easily distinguished: the broad northern rectangle. too. save in the central Congo region. The world has always been familiar with black men. the Niger in the northwest. they formed a part and were viewed with no surprise or dislike. with its vast curving and endless estuaries. More than any other land. because from the central high plateau they plunge in rapids and cataracts to the narrow coastlands and the sea. but the greater ones are the three million square miles of sand wastes in the north. with a warm. The fauna is rich in mammals. and here. while in the north it is a little over one thousand feet. though large and long. because this world saw them come and go and play 22 . Four great rivers and many lesser streams water the continent.
There is a certain type in the minds of most people which. one faces astounding prejudice. 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. and widespread stocks of mankind. they have been compelled more and more to limit his home even in Africa. was finally given a very small country between the Senegal and the Niger. knows the Negro chiefly as a bond slave in the West Indies and America. but still as a fellow man—an Othello or a Prester John or an Antar. and in South Africa. along the Nile." 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. At least nine-tenths of the African people do not at all conform to this type. The modern world. the answer to the apparently simple question "What is a Negro?" We find the most extraordinary confusion of thought and difference of opinion. 23 . after being denied a dwelling place in the Sudan. Add to this the fact that the darker races in other parts of the world have.W E B Du Bois their part with other men. When scientists have tried to find an extreme type of black. One who writes of the development of the Negro race must continually insist that he is writing of a normal human stock. and the typical Negro. 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. knew the black man chiefly as a legend or occasional curiosity. one of the most ancient. persistent. "The typical Negro is a rare variety even among Negroes. and even there was found to give trace of many stocks. and that whatever it is fair to predicate of the mass of human beings may be predicated of the Negro. in the last four centuries. in East Central Africa. in contrast. for instance. developing under the favorable physical conditions of the north temperate zone. as David Livingstone said. It is the silent refusal to do this which has led to so much false writing on Africa and of its inhabitants. can be found only in caricature and not in real life. Take. The result is that in writing of this. That which may be assumed as true of white men must be proven beyond peradventure if it relates to Negroes. and woolly-haired Negro. As Winwood Reade says. ugly.
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. "The question of the number of human races has quite lost its raison d'être and has become a subject rather of philosophic speculation than of scientific research. As Von Luschan says. It is reasonable. a tendency to a development of the maxillary parts of the face.The Negro In the case of no other race is so narrow a definition attempted. p. 16."1 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. This type is not fixed or definite. as some say. and it becomes often light brown or yellow. 24 . Differences. The color varies widely. 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. especially when American usage includes the mulatto in the Negro race. and a dolichocephalic head. and striking differences. there are between men and groups of men. curled or "frizzled" hair. A "yellow" man is perhaps an even vaguer conception. to include under the word "Negro" the darker peoples of Africa characterized by a brown skin. size. The hair varies from curly to a wool-like mass. 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 fact it is generally recognized to-day that no scientific definition of race is possible. or facial conformation and have endless variety of cranial measurement and physical characteristics. when scientists assumed one unvarying Negro type. every variation from that type was interpreted as meaning mixture of blood. A "white" man may be of any color. and the facial angle and cranial form show wide variation. In the past. but they fade into each other so insensibly that we can only indicate the main divisions of men in broad outlines. it is never black or bluish. To-day we recognize a broader normal Afri1 Von Luschan: in Inter-Racial Problems. full and sometimes everted lips. according to fact and historic usage.
not of kind. but the two characteristics do not vary with each other." To this race Africa in the main and parts of Asia have belonged since prehistoric times. The difference between the hair of the lighter and darker races is a difference of degree. This elliptical form of the Negro's hair causes it to curl more or less tightly. while the crispest. the full but not over-protruding lips. the larger gentle eye. Next to the color. further and more decisive differences which would serve as really scientific determinants of race. This color pigment is a protection against sunlight and consequently varies with the intensity of the sunlight. red pygmies in the forest. appearance. the second 100 by 62 to 72. and yellow Bushmen on the cooler southern plateau. This is the genuine African model. the hair is the most distinguishing characteristic of the Negro. To-day we realize that there are no hard and fast racial types among men. which is separated from the rest of mankind by no absolute physical line. a social group distinct in history. easy. it will be found that the diameter of the first is 100 by 77 to 85. Thus in Africa we find the blackest men in the fierce sunlight of the desert. Some of the blackest of the Negroes have curly rather than woolly hair. Race is a dynamic and not a static conception. working for thousands of years through the skin and other organs. we are studying the history of the darker part of the human family. In this little book. have given men their differences of color. There have been repeated efforts to discover. as a mass. may best be studied "among the statues of the Egyptian rooms of the British Museum. and can be easily measured. Gradually these efforts have been given up. Conditions of heat. and the typical races are continually changing and developing. as Palgrave says. the rounded contour. and to some extent in spiritual gift. as the color of other varieties. and moisture.W E B Du Bois can type which. while that of the Negro is 100 by 40 to 60. then. most closely curled hair is found among the yellow Hottentots and Bushmen. 25 . The color of this variety of man. by measurements of various kinds. and the good-natured. is due to climate. a European. If the hair follicles of a China-man. cold. but which nevertheless forms. and a Negro are cut across transversely. sensuous expression. amalgamating and differentiating.
Roman Africa was bounded by the desert. and English followed them. but as traders in men rather than explorers. In 26 . Barth. This began the modern exploration of Africa. Negro blood certainly appears in strong strain among the Semites. and many others. Speke. From the earliest times the Greeks have been in contact with Africa as visitors. 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. Asia. In the seventh century the All-Mother. The Spanish. The Portuguese began to raise the veil in the fifteenth century. After the breaking up of the Roman Empire the Greek and Latin Christians filtered through Africa. Eventually they rounded the Cape of Good Hope and pursued their explorations as far as the mountains of Abyssinia.The Negro We cannot study Africa without. particularly the Asiatic Semites. visiting the interior kingdoms. but at times came into contact with the blacks across the Sahara and in the valley of the Nile. and then passing by the mouth of the Congo proceeded southward." under cover of which millions of Negroids have been characteristically transferred to the "white" race by some eager scientists. traders. 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. however. and recalls to us the great names of Livingstone. noting some of the other races concerned in its history. and the obvious mulatto groups in Africa. has given rise to the term "Hamite. French. and the Persian influence came with Cambyses and others. followed finally by a Germanic invasion in 429 A. The earliest Semites came to Africa across the Red Sea. Burton. arising from ancient and modern mingling of Semite and Negro. Schweinfurth. The Portuguese explored the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea. which is a curious fairy tale. sailing down the Atlantic coast and initiating the modern slave trade. Stanley.D. 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. and colonists. Dutch.
or debilitating diseases. which made it so easily possible for the great human drama played here to hide itself from the ears of other worlds. pp. veins. on the other hand. ticks. and spinal marrow of men and other vertebrates the microorganisms which cause deadly. beasts. reptile. and nematode worms—which more than in other continents (excepting Negroid Asia) convey to the skin. "Africa is the chief stronghold of the real Devil—the reactionary forces of Nature hostile to the uprise of Humanity. yet. bird. 2 Johnston: Negro in the New World. While there is much diversity and many salubrious tracts along with vast barren wastes. marshals his vermiform and arthropod hosts—insects. intestines."2 The inhabitants of this land have had a sheer fight for physical survival comparable with that in no other great continent. or themselves create the morbid condition of the persecuted human being. with no Alps or Himalayas or Appalachians to hinder. or fish. 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. Here Beelzebub. sweeping a thousand miles. as Sir Harry Johnston well remarks.W E B Du Bois this way Africa has been made known to the modern world. 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. 27 . frog. and this must not be forgotten when we consider their history. King of the Flies. With this peculiarly uninviting coast line and the difficulties in interior segregation must be considered the climate of Africa. and. disfiguring. 14-15.
All these three types of men intermingled their blood freely and developed variations according to climate and environment. Ham. 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. of course. Northward and eastward primitive man became broader headed and straight-haired and spread over eastern Asia. In the original myth Canaan and not Ham was Noah's third son. the native name of Egypt. 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. and Japheth retains the interest of a primitive myth with its measure of allegorical truth. Either through the intermingling of these two types or. 28 . Toward the south appeared the primitive Negro.3 but has. HE MOVEMENTS 3 Ham is probably the Egyptian word "Khem" (black). 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. where he survives to-day as the reddish dwarfs of the center and the Bushmen of South Africa. The biblical story of Shem. long-headed and with flattened hair follicle.The Negro II THE COMING OF BLACK MEN T of prehistoric man can be seen as yet but dimly in the uncertain mists of time. He spread along southern Asia and passed over into Africa. forming the Mongolian type. no historic basis.
p. This "Aryan" theory has been practically abandoned in the light of recent research. with Negroid characteristics. The other branch proceeded to Egypt and tropical Africa. 29 . 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. and the modern Negroes. They entered on the one hand Burmah and the South Sea Islands. theory is that ancient Negroes may have entered Africa from Europe.W E B Du Bois The older "Aryan" theory assumed the migration into Europe of one dominant Asiatic race of civilized conquerors. later there developed the Mediterranean race. since 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. 7. but perhaps less probable. the brown and black curly and frizzly-haired inhabitants of North and East Africa. and Assyrian. and one stream perhaps wandered into Europe by way of Syria. but in the brunette type of all South Europe. Bishop Hopkins: Bible Views of Slavery. a large part of black Africa. and all Europe was supposed to belong. Syrian. Another. Ancient statues of Indian divinities show the Negro type with black face and close-curled hair. In Arabia the Negroes may have divided. To this "white" race Semitic Asia. and early Babylonian culture was Negroid. are not "white" men if we draw the line between white and black in any logical way. to whose blood and influence all modern culture was due. and on the other hand they came through Mesopotamia and gave curly hair and a Negroid type to Jew. The last word on this development has not yet been said. The primitive Negroid race of men developed in Asia wandered eastward as well as westward. Traces of these Negroes are manifest not only in skeletons. The blue-eyed. 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. but it is certainly proved to-day beyond doubt that the socalled Hamites of Africa. and there is still much to learn and explain. light-haired Germanic people may have arisen as a modern variation of the mixed peoples produced by the mingling of Asiatic and African elements.
As the earlier yellow Negro developed in the African tropics to the bigger. in this sense. 30 . the ancient Egyptians and modern Negroid races of Africa. It is not easy to summarize the history of these dark African peoples. From prehistoric times down to to-day Africa is. and in Africa came movements and minglings which give to the whole of Africa a distinct mulatto character. The primitive African was not an extreme type. After a lapse of perhaps thirty thousand years there entered Africa a further migration of Asiatic people. every degree of development in Negroid stocks and every degree of intermingling of these developments. in Africa to-day. 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. only in these countries the mulatto was early bleached by the climate. As we near historic times the migrations of men became more frequent from Asia and from Europe. Negroid in many characteristics. and Asiatics. too. Asia. From this Mediterranean race was developed the modern inhabitants of the shores of the Mediterranean in Europe. while in Africa he was darkened. So. was earlier Europe and Asia. Both were slowly differentiated from a common ancestry and continually remingled their blood while the differentiating was progressing.The Negro the most ancient skulls of Algeria are Negroid. and Africa and. but lighter and straighter haired than the primitive Negroes. primarily the land of the mulatto. One may judge from modern pygmy and Bushmen that his color was reddish or yellow. original Australoid stock. The mistake is continually made of considering these types as transitions between absolute Caucasians and absolute Negroes. and his skull was sometimes round like the Mongolian. No such absolute type ever existed on either side. Europeans. because so little is known and so much is still in dispute. blacker type. both among African peoples and between Africans. by mingling with the primitive Negroes. he was continually mingling his blood with similar types developed in temperate climes to sallower color and straighter hair. The primitive Negro stock was "mulatto" in the sense of being not widely differentiated from the dark. We find therefore.
so much so that to some all evidence of Negro uplift seem Egyptian in origin. They beat against the barriers north. by avoiding the real controversies and being unafraid of mere questions of definition. and even European and Asiatic influences about Lake Chad. All these movements gradually aroused the central tribes to unrest. With mulatto Egypt black Africa was always in closest touch. Centers of higher culture appeared very early along the Gulf of Guinea and curling backward met Egyptian. and one may trace throughout South Africa its wide ramifications. Three main Negro types early made their appearance: the lighter and smaller primitive stock. she was also receiving influences from beyond her shores and sending influences out. cloth. Ethiopian. that North African city of a million men. had a large caravan trade with Negroland in ivory. rather. In the earliest times we find the Negroes in the valley of the Nile. they grew by agglomeration into a warlike nation. nearer the primitive seats of the earliest African immigrants and open to Egyptian and East Indian influences. Carthage. Phoenician. the larger forest Negro in the center and on the west coast. and the tall. metals. They eventually conquered all Africa south of the Gulf of Guinea and spread their influence to the northward. To the southeast. Black men served in the Carthaginian armies and 31 . precious stones. we may trace a great human movement with considerable definiteness. Calling themselves proudly La Bantu (The People). and Roman came into touch more or less with black Africa. and slaves. but gradually settled into a great southeastward migration. that Egypt was herself always palpably Negroid. To the west of the Nile the Negroes expanded straight across the continent to the Atlantic. and from her vantage ground as almost the only African gateway received and transmitted Negro ideals. speaking one language. and after a lapse of millenniums there arose from this mingling the culture of Ethiopia and Egypt. The truth is. pressing downward from the interior. probably the first of higher human cultures. the Negro culture which culminated at Zymbabwe arose. black Nilotic Negro in the eastern Sudan. and west. Here they mingled with Semitic types. northeast. While these great movements were slowly transforming Africa.W E B Du Bois Yet. Greek.
There is a modern theory that black men are and always have been naturally slaves. in the fifteenth century. like a great wedge. the Egyptians. Mohammedan conquerors enslaved peoples of all colors in Europe. had not only Negro slaves but Negroes among their highest nobility and even among their Pharaohs. In the ancient world Africa was no more a slave hunting ground than Europe or Asia. but as an adapter and inspirer. added to those of Egypt. Then it was. but eventually their empire centered in Asia and Africa and their slaves came principally from these countries. It was natural that a stream of black slaves should have poured into Egypt. Asia submitted to Islam except in the Far East. Ethiopia. Bornu. Negro soldiers were used largely in the armies that enabled the Mohammedans to conquer North Africa and Spain. that the heart disease of Africa developed in its most virulent form. Greek and Roman influences came through the desert. By way of the Atlantic the Carthaginians reached the African west coast. Asia. and both Greece and Rome had much larger numbers of white slaves than of black. not a conqueror. themselves of Negro descent. but.The Negro marched with Hannibal on Rome. Nothing is further from the truth. and Africa. and the Byzantine Empire and Persia came into communication with Negroland by way of the valley of the Nile. In some of the North African kingdoms the infiltration of Negro blood was very large and kings like Massinissa and Jugurtha were Negroid. and gave stubborn battle to the newer culture for seven or eight centuries. which was self-protecting. and European and African trade early reached large volume. pushed upward and inward from Yoruba. Moreover. and the remaining heathen were in small states which could not effectively protect themselves against 32 . Negro Africa submitted only partially. Civilization received new impetus and a wave of Mohammedanism swept eastward. and the Hausa states. Benin. the new religion found an already existent culture and came. The older Negro culture was not overthrown. and Yoruba. because the chief line of Egyptian conquest and defense lay toward the heart of Africa. Beginning in the tenth century and slowly creeping across the desert into Negroland. the Songhay. The influence of these trade routes. stimulated centers of culture in the central and western Sudan. erecting the great kingdoms of Melle.
The third attempt at state building arose on the Guinea coast in Benin and Yoruba. town. The typical African culture was the culture of family. pressing now slowly. but the same Bantu hordes. Persia. Rome. for religious and political rather than for racial reasons. Secondly. now fiercely. gradually overthrew this state and erected on its ruins a series of smaller and more transient kingdoms. Toward the north and northeast. and small tribe. Its expansion toward the Congo valley was probably a prime cause of the original Bantu movements to the southeast. and the Negro empires were thrown into the turmoil of internal war. from the congested center of the continent. the fierce resistance of the heathen south made war continuous and slaves one of the articles of systematic commerce. these citystates met the Sudanese armed with the new imperial Mohammedan idea. They found partially disrupted Negro states on the west coast and falling empires in the Sudan. Just as Latin Rome gave the imperial idea to the Nordic races. It was then that the European slave traders came from the southwest. In four great centers state building began in Africa. and finally fell before the turbulent Bantu warriors from the interior. on the one hand. the highways of legitimate African commerce had for millenniums lain to the north. In this wise the slave trade gradually began to center in Africa. These were suddenly closed by the Moors in the sixteenth century. however. so Islam brought this idea to the Sudan. The second attempt at empire building began in the southeast.W E B Du Bois the Mohammedan slave trade. but they tottered before the onslaughts of Egypt. Two circumstances. and Byzantium. together with the old unrest of over-population and migration in the valley of the Congo. on the other hand. In the consequent attempts at imperialism in the western Sudan there arose the largest of the African empires. They 33 . It never got much beyond a federation of large industrial cities. Hence domestic slavery easily developed a slave trade through war and commerce. Was this failure to develop the great state a racial characteristic? This does not seem a fair conclusion. militated against this empire building: first. Only the integrating force of state building could have stopped this slave trade. In Ethiopia several large states were built up.
added to the demand of the Mohammedan in Africa and Asia. until their demand. 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 selfassertion there. 34 . but they increased it to an enormous degree. Under such circumstances there could be but one end: the virtual uprooting of ancient African culture. made human beings the highest priced article of commerce in Africa.The Negro not only offered a demand for the usual slave trade.
now by Negroid and Semitic blood from the east. were the Egyptians? They certainly were not white in any sense of the modern use of that word—neither in color nor physical measurement. let us scan more narrowly the his-tory of five main centers of activity and culture. AVING VIEWED 35 . we turn to the valley of the Nile. the Sudan. in language nor social customs. but they take in the main areas and the main lines in development. in hair nor countenance. They stood in relationship nearest the Negro race in earliest times. At the same time Egyptian civilization seems to have been African in its beginnings and in its main line of development. 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. now by Berber types from the north and west. Like all civilizations it drew largely from without and undoubtedly arose in the valley of the Nile. with a culture reaching back six or eight thousand years. despite strong influences from all parts of Asia. These divisions do not cover all of Negro Africa.W E B Du Bois III ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT H now the land and move-ments of African people in main out-line. perhaps the most ancient of known seats of civilization in the world. the borders of the great Gulf of Guinea. now by new infiltration of Negro blood from the south. Of what race. and certainly the oldest in Africa. and South Africa. namely: the valleys of the Nile and of the Congo. because that valley was so easily made a center for the meeting of men of all types and from all parts of the world. This stock was varied continually. First. then.
woolly-haired type to which the word "Negro" is sometimes confined. to have been this: predynastic Egypt was settled by Negroes from Ethiopia. Thus the blood of the sallower race spread south and that of the darker race north.5 Such measurements are by no means conclusive. therefore. Perhaps. Maciver and Thompson: Ancient Races of the Thebaid. curlyhaired. concerning the fable of the Dodonian Oracle. Judging from measurements in the tombs of nobles as late as the eighteenth dynasty. but they are apt to be under rather than over statements of the prevalence of Negro blood. "one of the prime reasons why no 4 [Greek: "autos de eikasa têde kai hote melanchroes eisi kai oulotriches. in an incontrovertible passage. 5 Cf. he again alludes to the swarthy color of the Egyptians as exceedingly dark and even black. Herodotus. alludes to the Egyptians as "black and curly-haired"4—a peculiarly significant statement from one used to the brunette Mediterranean type. show that in the Thebaid from one-seventh to one-third of the Egyptian population were Negroes. Modern measurements. in another passage. as Chamberlain says. Negroes form at least one-sixth of the higher class. The ethnic history of Northeast Africa would seem.The Negro Egyptian monuments show distinctly Negro and mulatto faces."] Liber II. and that of the predynastic Egyptians less than half could be classed as non-Negroid. with all their admitted limitations. mentioning a boat seen from the shore. sharper featured type. which must be considered an equally Negroid variation. while religious ceremonies and social customs all go to strengthen this evidence. Cap. the black. They were of varied type: the broad-nosed. These Negroes met and mingled with the invading Mediterranean race from North Africa and Asia. Æschylus. 36 . and Arabia is to this day thoroughly permeated with Negro blood. 104. The evidence of language also connects Egypt with Africa and the Negro race rather than with Asia. Black priests appear in Crete three thousand years before Christ. because of their black complexions. declares that its crew are Egyptians. Head measurements of Negro Americans would probably place most of them in the category of whites.
and a silence of three centuries ensued. About 4777 B. 237. both in one plane. 484. and even of the great Ramessu II. then the faces of Rahotep and Nefert. said of the Sphinx at Gizeh: "Her features are decidedly of the African or Negro type. the great modern black leader of West Africa.C. there had already existed in Egypt a culture and art arising by long evolution from the days of paleolithic man. if such a thing were at all possible. so familiar to all the world.W E B Du Bois civilization of the type of that of the Nile arose in other parts of the continent. I. It was unlike any of its neighbors and a unique type until one views the modern mulatto. and thick hair. 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. the statue from the Fayum. firm projecting lips. I. and the Colossi of Bubastis all represent black. The history of Egypt is a science in itself. with an austere and almost savage expression of power. 37 . like Khafra of the Fourth Dynasty.' If. of Aahmes and Nefertari. the Sphinx was placed 6 Journal of Race Development. of Khafra and Amenemhat I. At the end of the period the empire fell apart into Egyptian and Ethiopian halves. become curiously familiar. 7 Petrie: History of Egypt. of a strongly Negroid cast of countenance."6 To one familiar with the striking and beautiful types arising from the mingling of Negro with Latin and Germanic types in America. 51. full-blooded Negroes and are described by Petrie as "having high cheek bones. a massive nose. with 'expanded nostrils. the Sphinxes of Tanis. Aha-Mena began the first of three successive Egyptian empires. flat cheeks. with many Pharaohs. then. 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."7 Blyden. among a distinctly Negroid people. the statue of the Esquiline at Rome. The great Sphinx at Gizeh. the puzzle of the Egyptian type is easily solved. This lasted two thousand years. five thousand years or more before Christ. Before the reign of the first recorded king.
The redemption of Egypt from these barbarians came from Upper Egypt. Ra Nehesi.The Negro 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. 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. I. Petrie. 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. like Amenemhat I and III and Usertesen I. and lasted nearly twentyfour centuries. was seated on the throne of the Pharaohs and was called "The king's eldest son. "the most venerated figure of Egyptian history. 237). 114. they set up a state about this time and founded Nepata. 337. the ancient glories of Egypt were restored and surpassed.C. Nefertari. At the same time there is strong continuous pressure from the wild and unruly Negro tribes of the upper Nile valley. the new empire." This may mean that an incursion from the far south had placed a black conqueror on the throne.C. which lasted fifteen hundred years. less than one hundred years later a full-blooded Negro from the south. Under Pharaohs whose Negro descent is plainly evident. the whole empire was in some way shaken. 38 . II."10 was a 8 From West Africa to Palestine. He founded in 1703 B. 10 Petrie: History of Egypt. Notwithstanding this repulse of black men. 52-53. Hemmed in here. as an 'emblematic representation of the king'—is not the inference clear as to the peculiar type or race to which that king belonged?"8 The middle empire arose 3064 B. That Negroids largely dominated in the early history of western Asia is proven by the monuments. and two hundred years later the invasion of the Hyksos began. p. At any rate. His queen. led by the mulatto Aahmes. The domination of Hyksos kings who may have been Negroids from Asia9 lasted for five hundred years. 9 Depending partly on whether the so-called Hyksos sphinxes belong to the period of the Hyksos kings or to an earlier period (cf.
39 . and it is probable that. III). To the ancient Mediterranean world Ethiopia (i. April. His reign. the cradle of their race. 337. as had also Queen Hatshepsut. and of unusual administrative force. King of Ethiopia. "to be of greater antiquity than any other nation.. Amenhotep I."12 had a strong Negroid countenance. The center of interest is now transferred to Ethiopia. born under the sun's path. was the beginning of decline. and foes began to press Egypt from the white north and the black south. whose son." and Black Memnon.C. and in the farthest confines of Kush lay Punt. The Egyptians called this territory Kush.11 The new empire was a period of foreign conquest and internal splendor and finally of religious dispute and overthrow. The great Tahutmes III. built a great temple at Luqsor and the Colossi at Memnon. The whole of the period in a sense culminated in the great Ramessu II. 1911. Zeus and Poseidon feasted each year among the "blameless Ethiopians. was one of the greatest of heroes. who with his Egyptian. whose reign was "one of the grandest and most eventful in Egyptian history. Libyan. while the Assyrians under Nimrod overran Lower Egypt. who succeeded his father. 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." says Diodorus Siculus (Lib. its warmth may have rip11 Chamberlain: Journal of Race Development. strong personality.W E B Du Bois Negress of great beauty. "The Ethiopians conceive themselves.e. A new strain of Negro blood came to the royal line through Queen Mutemua about 1420 B. II. Amenhotep III. and Negro armies fought half the world. 12 Petrie: History of Egypt. The priests transferred their power at Thebes.. and we pass to the more shadowy history of that land. who sent the celebrated expedition to reopen ancient trade with the Hottentots of Punt. however. the oppressor of the Hebrews. She was for many years joint ruler with her son. Syria was conquered in these reigns and Asiatic civilization and influences poured in upon Egypt. the Land of the Black-faced) was a region of gods and fairies.
This new wealth of Ethiopia excited the cupidity of the Pharaohs and led to aggression and larger intercourse. nearer the boundaries of Ethiopia. 319. Ethiopia remained in comparative poverty. there was continued effort to protect that civilization against the incursion of barbarians. skins. of festivals. As soon as the civilization below the Second Cataract reached a height noticeably above that of Ethiopia. under Negroid rulers. Lower Egypt was redeemed.The Negro ened them earlier than other men. held to the old arts and customs. Ethiopia. 13 Reisner: Archeological Survey of Nubia. 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. Widespread trade in gold. 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. They suppose themselves also to be the inventors of divine worship. A separate and independent Ethiopian culture finally began to arise during the middle empire of Egypt and centered at Nepata and Meroe. in later days. and every religious practice. absorbing meantime the oncoming and wilder Negro tribes from the south and west. but the Egyptian frontier was not advanced. They affirm that the Egyptians are one of their colonies. living in a much poorer land with limited agricultural facilities. Under the old empire. The legitimate Pharaohs moved to Thebes. and at the same time lost the best elements of its population to Egypt. ivory. 40 . affirmed that they and their civilization came from the south and from the black tribes of Punt. when the dread Hyksos appeared. of sacrifices. until at last." The Egyptians themselves."13 The forging ahead of Egypt in culture was mainly from economic causes. except as some of its tribes invaded Egypt with their handicrafts. wood. I. Ethiopia became both a physical and cultural refuge for conquered Egypt. therefore. 14 Hoskins declares that the arch had its origin in Ethiopia. and works of handicraft arose. precious stones.14 The Negro began to figure as the great trader of Egypt. of solemn assemblies. and from here.
the Libyan. gradually conquered Ethiopia where her armies could not. sent expeditions into Ethiopia. therefore. and thirdly. Egypt itself was subject to the blacks. just as formerly a royal Egyptian had ruled Kush. Pankhy. Aspeluta. Both mulatto Pharaohs. Shesheng I. but the Ethiopian kings kept their independence. the Egyptian legitimate dynasty went to Nepata as king priests and established a theocratic monarchy... Shabaka. Tarharqa. "It was the heyday of the Negro. For the greater part of the century . usurped the throne of the Pharaohs in the tenth century B.C. During the century of Ethiopian rule a royal son was appointed to rule Egypt. however. the Ethiopian kingdom under this dynasty expanded north about 750 B. When. The first king. Egyptian culture.C. and for a century ruled all Egypt. although the darker kingdom continued to resist. just as in the new empire the Sudan had been subject to Egypt. Gathering strength. and Egyptian religion and civil rule began to center in the darker kingdom.W E B Du Bois The ensuing new empire witnessed the gradual incorporation of Ethiopia into Egypt. 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. by the election of kings from the various royal claimants to the throne. in the rigid custom of female succession in the kingdom. p."15 Egypt now began to fall into the hands of Asia and was conquered first by the Assyrians and then by the Persians. Trade relations were renewed with Punt under circumstances which lead us to place that land in the region of the African lakes. but his successors showed more and more evidence of Negro blood—Kashta the Kushite. The Sudanese tribes were aroused by these and other incursions. in its worship of distinctly Sudanese gods. 41 . whose mother and 15 Maciver and Wooley: Areika. until the revolts became formidable in the fourteenth century before Christ. was Egyptian bred and not noticeably Negroid. secondly.. Aahmes and Amenhotep I. and Tanutamen. 2. In many ways this Ethiopian kingdom showed its Negro peculiarities: first.
we find the wild Sudanese tribes pressing in from the west and Greek culture penetrating from the east. It was here that the famous Candaces reigned as queens. Queen of Meroe. when Semitic mulattoes appeared in the east. 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. 27. Nastosenen (525-500 B. Pseudo-Callisthenes tells an evidently fabulous story of the visit of Alexander the Great to Candace. She sent him gold. although Nepata continued to be the religious capital and the Ethiopian kings were still crowned on its golden throne. The Romans continued to have so much trouble with their Ethiopian frontier that finally. ruled from 630 to 600 B. maidens. From the fifth to the second century B.C. sphinxes.C.) made nine expeditions against the warlike tribes south of Meroe. Horsiatef (560-525 B. 16 Acts VIII. Meroe gradually became the real capital and supported at one time four thousand artisans and two hundred thousand soldiers. These Nubians eventually embraced Christianity. While the Ethiopian kings were still crowned at Nepata. The prestige of Ethiopia at this time was considerable throughout the world. and his successor. She ruled eighty tribes.The Negro sister are represented as full-blooded Negroes.C. 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. while another Candace figures in the New Testament.) was the one who repelled Cambyses. and a crown of emeralds and pearls. He also removed the capital from Nepata to Meroe. the Emperor Diocletian invited the wild Sudanese tribe of Nubians (Nobadæ) from the west to repel them.C. Pliny tells us that one Candace of the time of Nero had had forty-four predecessors on the throne. for they are whiter in soul than his white folk. who were ready to punish those who attacked her. 42 .16 It was probably this latter Candace who warred against Rome at the time of Augustus and received unusual consideration from her formidable foe. parrots. and northern Ethiopia came to be known in time as Nubia.
the capital of which. Greek. says that the Abyssinians "are generally black. Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated Fromentius as Bishop of Ethiopia. forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten.W E B Du Bois The Semitic mulattoes from the east came from the highlands bordering the Red Sea and Asia. a state of Central Abyssinia. and Roman influences spread slowly upon the Negro foundation. and a long period begins when as Gibbon says. 43 . usurped the Axumite throne. Kaleb conquered Yemen in 525 and held it fifty years. Eventually a Jewish princess. 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. the Abyssinians were expelled from Arabia. The Nubians had formed a strong league of tribes. In this way Arabian. Early legendary history declares that a queen. and the search for Prester John became one of the world quests." Throughout the middle ages. and in 330 St. Axume. which [color] they most admire. He tutored the heir to the Abyssinian kingdom and began its gradual christianization. who had already established themselves at Meroe. but most of the population of that day was nomadic." Trade and war united the two shores. writing in the seventeenth century. "encompassed by the enemies of their religion. Maqueda. predominant in Africa and influential in Asia. Ludolphus. however. Jewish. visited Solomon in 1050 B. Egyptian. and merchants have passed to and fro for thirty centuries. was a flourishing center of trade. the legend of a great Christian kingdom hidden away in Africa persisted.C. or Nikaula of Sheba. On both sides of this sea Negro blood is strongly in evidence. In the fourth century Byzantine influences began to be felt. Ptolemy Evergetes and his successors did much to open Abyssinia to the world. It was the expanding power of Abyssinia that led Rome to call in the Nubians from the western desert. the Ethiopians slept for nearly a thousand years. and as the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia declined they drove back the Abyssinians. and had her son Menelik educated in Jerusalem. Judith. This was the supposed beginning of the Axumite kingdom.
and then curled back to Somaliland. This dynasty was overthrown by the Negroid Mabas. When the Mohammedan flood finally passed over Nubia. East of Wadai and nearer the Nile lay the kindred state of Darfur. who fixed their capital at Senaar. Chief among these were the Fung. and by the twelfth century churches and brick dwellings had appeared. the Fung diverted it by declaring themselves Moslems. the older Axumite kingdom had fallen and had been succeeded by a number of petty states. Without doubt. Dongola. a civilization of some height had flourished in Abyssinia. replaced Nepata and Meroe. Far to the west. mulatto. a Nubian nation whose sultans reigned over two hundred years and which reached great prosperity in the early seventeenth century under Soliman Solon. skirted the Great Lakes. near Lake Chad. As the Mohammedan flood pressed up the Nile valley it was the Nubians that held it back for two centuries. When the Portuguese came. but all authentic records were destroyed by fire in the tenth century. against which Islam never prevailed. A new capital. who established Wadai to the eastward about 1640. 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. at the junction of the White and Blue Nile. The Sudanese kingdoms of the Sudan resisted the power of the Mameluke beys in Egypt. when the Sudan was made nominally a part of 44 . and Negro kings. in the centuries of silence.The Negro In the sixth century the Nubians were converted to Christianity by a Byzantine priest. arose in 1520 the sultanate of Baghirmi. Between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries the Egyptian Sudan became a congeries of Mohammedan kingdoms with Arab. South of Wadai lay the heathen and cannibals of the Congo valley. 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. and they immediately began to develop. which reached its highest power in the seventh century. completely isolating Abyssinia. and later the power of the Turks until the nineteenth century. Islam then swept on south in a great circle. Farther south other wild tribes pushed out of the Sudan and began a similar development.
drove Egypt and England out of the Sudan for sixteen years. led some of the charges. inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italians. was a shrewd man of predominantly Negro blood.W E B Du Bois Egypt. Osman Digna. for political. after the building of the Suez Canal. foreign rule. the trade in slaves. attempted a protectorate. stirred up eventually revolt in the Sudan. By this battle Abyssinia became independent. Mohammed Ahmad. war. determined to resist a hated religion. 1896. The entrance of England into Egypt. and at the great battle of Adua. and the able mulatto general. Such in vague and general outline is the strange story of the valley of the Nile—of Egypt. replacing her. and little of ancient Ethiopian culture survived except the slave trade. who claimed to be the Messiah (Mahdi). economic." 45 . the Sudan arose in revolt in 1881. and conquest had by this time done their work. a full-blooded Negress. the motherland of human culture and "That starr'd Ethiop Queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above The sea nymphs. killing four thousand of them and capturing two thousand prisoners. Led by a Sudanese Negro. one of the smaller kingdoms of Abyssinia. Meantime this Mahdist revolt had delayed England's designs on Abyssinia. aided by revolt among the heathen Dinka. Menelik of Shoa. and religious reasons. Menelik stoutly resisted. and interference with their chief commerce. but undoubtedly the Italians tried by this means to reduce Menelik to vassalage. The empress. The exact terms of the treaty were disputed. Taitou. Continuous upheaval. The Sudan was soon aflame. and had been induced to make a treaty with the Italians after King John had been killed by the Mahdists. one of the decisive battles of the modern world. It was not until 1898 that England reëntered the Sudan and in petty revenge desecrated the bones of the brave. and the Italians. prophet. even if misguided. the Abyssinians on March 1.
found the Great Lakes. Indigenous civilizations arose on the west coast in Yoruba and Benin. that strange and ancient center of world civilization whose inhabitants in the ancient world were considered to be the most pious and 46 T HE ARABIAN EXPRESSION "Bilad es Sudan" (Land of the . Succeeding migrations of Negroes and Negroids pushed the dwarfs gradually into the inhospitable forests and occupied the Sudan. gave rise to centers of Negro culture in the Sudan at Ghana and Melle and in Songhay. from the Atlantic to the Nile. It is thus two-thirds the size of the United States and quite as thickly settled. and has to-day a population of perhaps eighty million.The Negro IV THE NIGER AND ISLAM Blacks) was applied to the whole region south of the Sahara. Here the newcomers. Nupe. and with Egyptian and Arab from the east. pushing on to the Atlantic. curling northward. met the Mediterranean race coming down across the western desert. spread in the Nile valley. It is a territory some thirty-five hundred miles by six hundred miles. while to the southward the Negro came to the Gulf of Guinea and the thick forests of the Congo valley. In this chapter we follow the history of the Niger. and Bornu. The history of this part of Africa was probably something as follows: primitive man. The history of the Sudan thus leads us back again to Ethiopia. In the western Sudan the Niger plays the same role as the Nile in the east. entering Africa from Arabia. the Hausa states. containing two million square miles. and wandered westward to the Niger. and contact of these with the Mediterranean race in the desert. Herodotus tells of certain youths who penetrated the desert to the Niger and found there a city of black dwarfs.
and this intercourse was only interrupted by the Mohammedan conquest. the megaliths of Gambia. Islam did not found new states. The Mohammedans came chiefly as traders and found a trade already established. silver. but modified and united Negro states already ancient. Mandingoland between the Niger and the Senegal in the south and the western Sahara. 47 . These Negroes developed the original substratum of culture which later influences modified but never displaced. We know that Egyptian Pharaohs in several cases ventured into the western Sudan and that Egyptian influences are distinctly traceable. Behind all these influences. bronze. Greek and Byzantine culture and Phoenician and Carthaginian trade also penetrated. It approached from the northwest. while Islam finally made this whole land her own. and the Mohammedans gave frequent evidence of their respect for these black nations. the situation was this: Ghana was on the edge of the desert in the north. however. coming stealthily and slowly and being handed on particularly by the Mandingo Negroes. it did not initiate new commerce. According to credible legend. the art and industry of the west coast are all too deep and original evidences of civilization to be merely importations from abroad. About 1000-1200 A. cut stones. Here and there in the great cities were districts set aside for these new merchants. and to a large degree of world culture. and the Songhay on the Niger in the center. as Frobenius says. The stone figures of Sherbro. wandered not simply down the Nile. modified somewhat by Byzantine and Christian influences. To this ancient culture. tin.D. From this center the black originators of African culture. It is. stood from the first an indigenous Negro culture. Djolof was in the west on the Senegal. The people of Nupe especially were filled with pride when the Byzantine people learned certain kinds of work in bronze and glass from them. Nor was the Sudan the inert recipient of foreign influence when it came. and other treasure from the Sudan. came Islam. but also westward. the "Great King" at Byzantium imported glass. but developed a widespread trade already established.W E B Du Bois the oldest of men. Embassies were sent and states like Nupe recognized the suzerainty of the Byzantine emperor.
that the Moors destroyed Audhoghast because it paid tribute to the black town of Ghana. was founded in 757 by a Negro who ruled over the Berber inhabitants.C. Here large quantities of gold were gathered in early days. Indeed. II. and we have names of seventy-four rulers before 300 A. On the other hand. and Sidjilmessa. The essential point is the resuscitative and invigorative concentration of Negro power in the service of a new era and a Moslem propaganda. By the middle of the eleventh century Ghana was the principal 17 Frobenius: Voice of Africa. Later in the eleventh century Arabs penetrated the Sudan and Central Africa from the east. in the following century Berber and Arab armies crossed the west end of the Sahara and came to Negroland. was the son of a black woman. as well as the reaction thereby produced."17 Early in the eighth century Islam had conquered North Africa and converted the Berbers. The Arabs were too nearly akin to Negroes to draw an absolute color line. and neighboring regions. and possibly before the time when Hanno. They say. filtering through the Negro tribes of Darfur. the Moslems crossed into Spain. many towns in the Sudan and the desert were thus ruled. or about the time that Pharaoh Necho of Egypt sent out the Phoenician expedition which circumnavigated Africa. 48 . one of the great pre-Islamic poets of Arabia. Kanem. This would take us back approximately a thousand years to 700 B. In the twelfth century a learned Negro poet resided at Seville.The Negro "easily proved from chronicles written in Arabic that Islam was only effective in fact as a fertilizer and stimulant. the Carthaginian. Antar. explored the west coast of Africa. the last town in Lower Morocco toward the desert. In the west the Moslems first came into touch with the Negro kingdom of Ghana. being too proud to allow themselves to fall into the hands of white men.D. there is a story that a Berber king overthrew one of the cities of the Sudan and all the black women committed suicide. to be sure. running through twenty-one generations. but this was because the town was heathen and not because it was black. Aided by black soldiers. and one of the great poets at the court of Haroun al Raschid was black. and felt no incongruity in this arrangement.. 359-360.
W E B Du Bois kingdom in the western Sudan. after Ghana had been overthrown by the heathen Su Su from the south. The territory of Melle lay southeast of Ghana and some five hundred miles north of the Gulf of Guinea. and was built of wood and stone with surrounding gardens. Already the town had a native and a Mussulman quarter. pushing itself upward from the Guinea coast. was founded in 1235 and formed an open door for Moslem and Moorish traders. ivory. Other and lesser black kingdoms like Tekrou. A century later the king had become Mohammedan in faith and had a palace with sculptures and glass windows. and east. Mari Jalak (Mansa Musa). and the whole Mediterranean coast traded in the Sudan. north. began to grow. as its dominion was called. gums. including twelve thousand young slaves gowned in figured cotton and Persian silk. skins. However. Mandingan Melle eventually supplanted Ghana in prestige and power. Gold. The great reason for this development was the desert trade. helped by its expanding trade. and Masina surrounded Ghana. and Islam slowly surrounded the older Negro culture west. as it was called. In the early part of the thirteenth century the prestige of Ghana began to fall before the rising Mandingan kingdom to the west. but he rebuilt the town and filled the new mosque with 49 . and greatly impressed the people of the East with his magnificence. Its kings were known by the title of Mansa. stood firmly against Islam down to the nineteenth century. Melle. and from the middle of the thirteenth century to the middle of the fourteenth the Mellestine. He took eighty camel loads of gold dust (worth about five million dollars) to defray his expenses. wheat. a great mass of the older heathen culture. was the leading power in the land of the blacks. and cotton were exported. kola nuts. On his return he found that Timbuktu had been sacked by the Mossi. The king had an army of two hundred thousand and the wealth of the country was great. Its greatest king. with a caravan of sixty thousand persons. Steadily Mohammedanism triumphed in the growing states which almost encircled the protagonists of ancient Atlantic culture. made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. honey. Silla. The new kingdom.
then at the height of its glory. who ascended the throne in 1464. the largest and most famous of the black empires. Melle was at this time declining. plundered Timbuktu in 1339. There were thirty kings of the First Dynasty.The Negro learned blacks from the University of Fez. he will be long spoken of. 50 . The sixteenth king was converted to Mohammedanism in 1009."19 Sonni Ali was a Songhay Negro whose father was a Berber. Mohammed Abou Bekr. and after that all the Songhay princes were Mohammedans." 18 The Mellestine preserved its preëminence until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Mansa Musa took two young Songhay princes to the court of Melle to be educated in 1326. and separated Jenne. "He surpassed all his predecessors in the numbers and valor of his soldiery. 128. If it is the will of God. 180. p. These boys when grown ran away and founded a new dynasty in Songhay. 18 Ibn Khaldun. He was succeeded by a full-blooded black. the original seat of the Songhay. when the rod of Sudanese empire passed to Songhay. reigning from 700 to 1335. with its seven thousand villages. p. and the Tuaregs (Berbers with Negro blood) had captured Timbuktu. in 1355. The known history of Songhay covers a thousand years and three dynasties and centers in the great bend of the Niger. Finally he concentrated his forces for the destruction of Melle and subdued nearly the whole empire on the west bend of the Niger. Mansa Musa reigned twenty-five years and "was distinguished by his ability and by the holiness of his life. were rising. During the reign of one of these the Songhay kingdom became the vassal kingdom of Melle. Sonni Ali was a soldier and began his career with the conquest of Timbuktu in 1469. that of the Sonnis. His conquests were many and his renown extended from the rising to the setting of the sun. quoted in Lugard. other cities like Jenne. In addition to this the Mossi crossed the valley. He also succeeded in capturing Jenne and attacked the Mossi and other enemies on all sides. The justice of his administration was such that the memory of it still lives. Seventeen of these kings reigned. the last and greatest being Sonni Ali. In summing up Sonni Ali's military career the chronicle says of him. from the main empire. 19 Quoted in Lugard.
was carried out. quoted by Lugard. to the eastward. but a brilliant group of scholars and holy men with a small escort of fifteen hundred soldiers and nine hundred thousand dollars in gold. literature. where he was invested by the reigning caliph of Egypt. 199. and finally marched against the Hausa. a territory as large as all Europe. geography and surgery were studied. and perhaps of the parceling of the new world between Portugal and Spain.W E B Du Bois who had been his prime minister. In Cairo. 51 . It was a six months' journey across the empire and. and an organizer where Ali was a warrior. during his reign. he may have heard of the struggle of Europe for the trade of the Indies. "he was obeyed with as much docility on the farthest limits of the empire as he was in his own palace. Law. p. religious tolerance. He subdued these cities and even imposed the rule of black men on the Berber town of Agades. with its semi-independent native dynasties. On his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1495 there was nothing of the barbaric splendor of Mansa Musa. grammar. Meanwhile. He stopped and consulted with scholars and politicians and studied matters of taxation. trade. Askia the Great reigned thirty-six years. They 20 Es-Sa 'di. two powerful states appeared. and manners. and his dynasty continued on the throne until after the Moorish conquest in 1591. undertook a holy war against the indomitable Mossi. 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. and the system of Melle. it is said. The territory was divided into four vice royalties. and there reigned everywhere great plenty and absolute peace. instituted a standing army of slaves. He returned to the Sudan in 1497. conquered and consolidated an empire two thousand miles long by one thousand wide at its greatest diameters."20 The University of Sankore became a center of learning in correspondence with Egypt and North Africa and had a swarm of black Sudanese students. He was strictly orthodox where Ali was rather a scoffer. In fine Askia. weights and measures. a rich city of merchants and artificers with stately mansions. Mohammed was hailed as "Askia" (usurper) and is best known as Mohammed Askia.
the riches of which poured first on Spain. Katsena especially. fear of conquest. and commercial greed inflamed Europe against the Mohammedan and led to the discovery of a new world. of which Kano was the oldest and Katsena the most famous. and dyeing.The Negro never disputed the military supremacy of Songhay. The land was subject to the Songhay. and in 1502 they were driven back into Africa. who can be traced back to the third century. but they were soon replaced by black men. as saddlers. dyers. and for the different trades and industries. in the middle of the sixteenth century. Beyond the Hausa states and bordering on Lake Chad was Bornu. The Hausa states were formed by seven original cities. arose in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. weaving. but their industrial development was marvelous. divided into quarters for strangers. Their greatest leaders. Mohammed Rimpa and Ahmadu Kesoke. and the Nile. These new conquerors were not only firmly planted at the gates of Vienna. these people had ruled nearly all the territory between the Nile and Lake Chad. but were predominantly Negro. for visitors from various other states. and the pagan dynasty of Dugu reigned there from the middle of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. 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. despoiled and humbled. Oppression of the Moors followed. Under the early kings. Arabian Mohammedanism had succumbed to the wild fanaticism of the Seljukian Turks. The people of Bornu had a large infiltration of Berber blood. Meantime great things were happening in the world beyond the desert. but the cities became industrious centers of smelting. etc. Berber mulattoes had been kings in early days. Religious zeal. Here the Spaniards followed and harassed them 52 . shoemakers. the ocean. Mohammedanism was introduced from Egypt at the end of the eleventh century. The country was known as Kanem. 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. is described as a place thirteen or fourteen miles in circumference. and under the Mohammedan kings Kanem became one of the first powers of the Sudan.
In the slow years that followed. they became a decadent people and finally cast their eyes toward Negroland. 373."21 The Tuaregs marched down from the desert and de21 Lugard. Thereafter there were two Askias. Elmansour determined to attack the Sudan and sent four hundred men under Pasha Djouder. the king. 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. fighting the Christians. who left Morocco in 1590. 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. p. and the Gulf of Guinea to the slave trade from the south. and they were defeated at Tenkadibou April 12. with their bows and arrows. The Songhay. When the Sultan Elmansour came to the throne of Morocco. drove out and murdered the distinguished men of Timbuktu. and knew that the Sudan was especially dependent upon salt. 53 . huddled in Northwest Africa. The sultan. In 1623 it is written "excesses of every kind are now committed unchecked by the soldiery.W E B Du Bois and here the Turks. The Moors tried to put down disorder with a high hand. Hausaland and Bornu were still open to Turkish and Mohammedan influence from the east. Askia Ishak. he increased the efficiency of his army by supplying it with fire arms and cannon. offered terms. were helpless against powder and shot. and Djouder Pasha referred them to Morocco. one under the Moors at Timbuktu and one who maintained himself in the Hausa states. angry with his general's delay. In 1545 Morocco claimed the principal salt mines at Tegazza. and as a result let loose a riot of robbery and decadence throughout the Sudan. The Moors in Morocco had come to look upon the Sudan as a gold mine. captured the Mediterranean ports and cut the Moors off permanently from Europe." and "the country is profoundly convulsed and oppressed. who crushed and treacherously murdered the king and set up a puppet. 1591. but the reigning Askia refused to recognize the claim. deposed him and sent another. Anarchy reigned in Songhay. which the Moors could not subdue.
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. 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. plundering the Negroes. carrying on industries and speaking a large number of different languages. and Arabic. The Fula. With them or above them is the ruling Mohammedan caste. They were without political union or national sentiment. proudest. These wandering herdsmen lived on the Senegal River and the ocean in very early times and were not heard of until the nineteenth century. driven south by Romans and Arabs. They were the ones who at last broke down that great wedge of resisting Atlantic culture. As the Songhay declined a new power arose in the nineteenth century. To such depths did the mighty Songhay fall. and intolerant of all the nations of the south. The rest of the empire of the Songhay was by the end of the eighteenth century divided among separate Moorish chiefs. By this time they had changed to a Negro or dark mulatto people and lived scattered in small communities between the Atlantic and Darfur. Fula."22 They lived a nomadic life. but naturally there is more Berber blood among the Mohammedan invaders. The representatives of the older civilization dwell as peasants in small communities. the Fula.The Negro prived the Moors of many of the principal towns. who vary in race from Berber mulattoes to full-blooded Negroes. Then came a sudden change. ferocious. Hausa. who bought supplies from the Negro peasantry and were "at once the vainest. and perhaps the most bigoted. 54 . Negro blood predominates among both classes. Europe during the middle ages had some knowledge of these 22 Mungo Park. 374. quoted in Lugard. but were all Mohammedans. and led by a religious fanatic. p. speaking four main languages: Mandingo. these despised and persecuted people became masters of the central Sudan. These latter form the state builders. after it had been undermined and disintegrated by the American slave trade.
the warrior. was one of Wolfram von Eschenbach's heroes.W E B Du Bois movements in the Sudan and Africa. and men confidently assert that Negroes have no history. Feirifis. and the various black Virgin Marys' all show legendary knowledge of what African civilization was at that time doing. It is a curious commentary on modern prejudice that most of this splendid history of civilization and uplift is unknown to-day. Othello. and the black king represented by medieval art as among the three wise men. 55 . Prester John furnished endless lore. Melle and Songhay appear on medieval maps. In literature we have many allusions: the mulatto king.
identified this African coast with the Atlantis of the Greeks and as part of that great NE OF THE GREAT CITIES O 23 Quoted in Du Bois: Timbuktu.The Negro V GUINEA AND CONGO of the Sudan was Jenne. 56 . The coast and its hinterland comprehends many well-known names. perhaps fancifully."23 From the name of this city we get the modern name Guinea. If he wishes to send a note to Lake Dibo. The chronicle says "that its markets are held every day of the week and its populations are very enormous. Frobenius. Dahomey. Lagos. it is cried from the gate of the town and repeated from village to village. and slave coasts—with the adjoining territories of Ashanti. 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. by which means it reaches its destination almost instantly. gold. reaching from the mouth of the Gambia to the mouth of the Niger. Yorubas. Nupe. then follow the various "coasts" of ancient traffic—the grain. Here. and others. for instance. ivory. 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. modern Sierra Leone and Liberia. where a marvelous drama of world history has been enacted. then. and farther back such tribal and territorial names as those of the Mandingoes. First comes ancient Guinea. is a coast of six hundred miles. and Benin. Borgu. the Mossi. Its seven thousand villages are so near to one another that the chief of Jenne has no need of messengers.
W E B Du Bois
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. 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. 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. 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. 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."24 24 Von Luschan: Verhandlungen der berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, etc., 1898. 57
The Negro
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."25 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. 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. All 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. The Yoruba cities are not only different from the Sudanese in population, but in their social relations. The Sudanese cities were 25 Frobenius: Voice of Africa, Vol. I. 58
W E B Du Bois
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. 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. 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. 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? There can be but one answer: the slave trade. Not simply the sale of men, but an organized traffic of such proportions and widely 59
went to England seeking an allotment of land for his fellows. Arriving in Africa. who had served as sergeant under Sir Henry Clinton in the British army in America. but it was not dominant or tyrannical. when emancipation in English colonies 26 Cf.26 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. Dahomey was the last word in a series of human disasters which began with the defeat of the Askias at Tenkadibou. The climate on the low coast. We need not assume that the cultural change was sudden or absolute. Ancient Yoruba had the cruelty of a semi-civilized land. they found the chief white man in control there so drunk that he soon died of delirium tremens. and industry along with inexplicable cruelty and bloodthirstiness. culture. In 1896 the colony was saved from insurrection by the exiled Maroon Negroes from Jamaica. and concentrate this traffic in precisely that part of Africa farthest from the ancient Mediterranean lines of trade. founded Freetown. and physically. and it was not until 1787 that any measures were taken to counteract this terrible scourge. The Sierra Leone Company welcomed him and offered free passage and land in Sierra Leone to the Negroes of Nova Scotia. brother of Thomas Clarkson. and the colony began its checkered career. to whom the promoters considerately added sixty white prostitutes as wives. 60 . About four hundred Negroes from England were sent to Sierra Leone. John Clarkson. p. encourage war and all the cruelest passions of war. In that year the idea arose of repatriating stolen Negroes on that coast and establishing civilized centers to supplant the slave trade. European rum and fire arms were traded for human beings. socially. was so deadly that new recruits were soon needed. Thomas Peters. however. however. eventually took the lead. 58. As a result fifteen vessels sailed with eleven hundred and ninety Negroes in 1792.The Negro organized ramifications as to turn the attention and energies of men from nearly all other industries. An American Negro. After 1833. the abolitionist. But it was the slave trade that turned the balance and set these lands backward. Modern Benin and Dahomey showed traces of skill.
provided for in the Act of 1819. has been put in charge of the making of roads and drilling a constabu61 . Considerable territory was lost by treaty. the ranking Negro officer in the United States army. Joseph J. and eighty-eight Negroes were sent. Gradually this settlement was merged with the settlement of the Colonization Society. Liberia was saddled with a debt of four hundred thousand dollars. The last white governor of Liberia died in 1841 and was succeeded by the first colored governor. The total population in 1843 was about twenty-seven hundred and ninety. and in the effort to get capital to develop the rest. was established and an agent was sent to Africa to form a settlement. did not recognize Liberia until 1862. In 1816 American philanthropists decided that slavery was bound to die out. As a result territory was bought in the present confines of Liberia. Finally the Liberians turned to the United States for capital and protection. It was first thought to encourage migration to Sierra Leone. not wishing to receive a Negro minister. and colonists began to arrive. of which she received less than one hundred thousand dollars in actual cash. 1817. but that the problem lay in getting rid of the freed Negroes. of which there were then two hundred thousand in the United States. with Bushrod Washington as President. A little later an African depot for recaptured slaves taken in the contraband slave trade. No sooner was the independence of Liberia announced than England and France began a long series of aggressions to limit her territory and sovereignty. As a result the Liberian customs have been put under international control and Major Charles Young. To-day its imports and exports amount to fifteen million dollars a year. December 15. but they were not welcomed. and with this as a beginning in 1847 Governor Roberts declared the independence of the state. Roberts. with several colored assistants. and from this union Liberia was finally evolved. The United States.W E B Du Bois took place. Accordingly the American Colonization Society was proposed this year and founded January 1. a Virginian. Liberia was a similar American experiment. The recognition of Liberian independence by all countries except the United States followed in 1849. severer measures against the slave trade was possible and the colony began to grow. 1821.
It is possible. Turning now from Guinea we pass down the west coast. 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. piassava fiber. 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. however. about three hundred and fifty miles of coast line. The latter consisted chiefly of rubber. 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. ginger. therefore. The history or these invasions we must to-day largely imagine. too. palm oil and kernels. sailing this coast. coffee. They are not a unified people.857 and the exports $1. who migrated in early life from the Danish West Indies and became a prophet of the renaissance of the Negro race. the center of the making of what we know to-day as the Bantu nations. The Congo valley became." but which eventually came to be known by the name of the powerful Negro kingdom through which it flowed—the Congo. 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.199. In 1482 Diego Cam of Portugal.500. and arnotto. The imports in 1912 were $1. united by the compelling bond of language and other customs imposed on the conquered by invading conquerors. To-day Liberia has an area of forty thousand square miles. where fearful cannibals dwelt and where no Egyptian or Ethiopian or Sudanese armies dared to go. moving usually from north to east and from south to west. This was always a land of shadows and legends. ivory.667.The Negro lary to keep order in the interior. developing culture around the Great 62 . Perhaps. Perhaps Liberia's greatest citizen was the late Edward Wilmot Blyden. camwood. and an estimated total population of two million of which fifty thousand are civilized. but a congeries of tribes of considerable physical diversity.152. The revenue amounted in 1913 to $531. set a stone at the mouth of a great river which he called "The Mighty.
beans. Here two paths beckoned: the lakes and the sea to the east. Another horde of invaders turned westward and entered the valley of the Congo in three columns. fruit. In the Congo valley the invaders settled in village and plain. raising in some localities a profusion of cereals. now in wild forays. another branch turned south and approached the Zambesi. ground nuts. They became skilled agriculturists. Many tribes developed intelligence of a high order. where we shall meet it again. and pottery. cloth. and other metals. while the third column moved into Damaraland and mingled with Bushman and Hottentot. peas. cabinet makers. Everywhere they showed skill in mining and the welding of iron. wire and ingots. the Congo to the west. Some tribes extracted rubber from the talamba root. and 63 . some of which required hours to traverse from end to end. and vegetables such as manioc. The main movement. maize. They made weapons. and plantains. gourds. A great stream of men swept toward the ocean and. turned northward and fought its way down the Nile valley and into the Abyssinian highlands. sorghum. and speakers. copper.W E B Du Bois Lakes in the east beckoned or the riotous fertility of the Congo valleys became known. and immediately began to develop industry and political organization. armorers. others had remarkable breeds of fowl and cattle. smiths. bananas. The northern column moved along the Lualaba and Congo rivers to the Cameroons. Large towns were built. and still others divided their people by crafts into farmers. sweet potatoes. brave to foolhardiness. and a widespread system of trade arose. At any rate the movement commenced. yams. now by slow stages. the second column became the industrial and state-building Luba and Lunda peoples in the southern Congo valley and Angola. warriors. Women here and there took part in public assemblies and were rulers in some cases. skirting the Congo forests and passing down by the Victoria Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika. There may have been a preliminary movement from east to west to the Gulf of Guinea. however. dividing." Bateman found them "thoroughly and unimpeachably honest. boat builders. absorbed such indigenous inhabitants as they found or drove them deeper into the forest. was eastward. Wissmann called the Ba Luba "a nation of thinkers.
Meantime the Luba-Lunda people to the eastward founded Kantanga and other states. which rising culture beyond kept in unrest and turmoil. who are intelligent traders and boat builders. cloth. There were no natural protecting barriers like the narrow Nile valley or the Kong mountains or the forests below Lake Chad. with its capital at the city now known as San Salvador."27 These beginnings of human culture were. and in the sixteenth century the larger and more ambitious realm of the Mwata Yamvo. Thus suddenly there arose a Catholic kingdom south of the valley of the Congo. Once the pathways to the valley were open and for hundreds of years the newcomers kept arriving. and salt. but was partially overthrown by invading barbarians from the interior in the seventeenth century. skins." One of their kings. or emperor. There several were raised to the Catholic priesthood and one became bishop. 64 . was eventually induced to accept Christianity. II. Against these intruders there was but one defense. A king of Congo still reigns as pensioner of Portugal. His territory included about one hundred thousand square miles and two million or more inhabitants. but when the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century. Eventually this state became 27 Keane: Africa. How early it started we cannot say." Bateman says would "amongst any people be a remarkable and indeed in many respects a magnificent man. and on the coast to-day are the remains of the kingdom in the civilized blacks and mulattoes. especially from the welter of tribes south of the Sudan and west of the Nile. who paid him tribute in ivory. peculiarly vulnerable to invading hosts of later comers. 117-118. there had existed for centuries a large state among the BaCongo. corn. others distinguished themselves at the universities. The last of the fourteen rulers of this line was feudal lord of about three hundred chiefs. "a really princely prince.The Negro faithful to each other and to their superiors. Calemba. State building was thus forced on the Congo valley. the State. The Negro Mfumu. however. which lasted three centuries. His sons and many young Negroes of high birth were taken to Portugal to be educated.
Stations were established. the Arabian traffic increased. which numbers nobleminded men of several nations. among the Ba-Lolo and the Ba-Songo. as on the west coast. and Leopold II was 28 The Congo. It is not a religious society. and the new "State" appealed to the world for recognition. Industry was deranged and many tribes forced to take refuge in caves and other hiding places. if possible. artistic tastes and savage customs. When. The result was a curious blending of war and industry. where thousands of miles of river navigation were thus opened. but my instructions are entirely of that spirit." which was at last made a sovereign power under international guarantees by the Congress of Berlin in the year 1885. "to open and keep open. 65 . especially by attacks from the south across the Congo-Zambesi divide. and by 1884 Stanley returned armed with four hundred and fifty "treaties" with the native chiefs. the mission must withdraw to seek another field. and wherever rejected. III. 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. The United States first recognized the "Congo Free State. No violence must be used. disintegration and retrogression followed." he said. Consequently there was formed in 1878 an international committee to study the region. I. "I am charged. the village policy persisted and the cannibals of the northeast pressed down on the more settled tribes."28 The Bula Matadi or Stone Breaker. all such districts and countries as I may explore. Farther north. threw himself energetically into the work and had by 1881 built a road past the falls to the plateau. Chap. for as the American traffic lessened. Leopold II of Belgium conceived the idea of founding here a free international state which was to bring civilization to the heart of Africa.W E B Du Bois torn by internal strife and revolt. The mission is supported by a philanthropic society. as the natives called Stanley. Stanley was finally commissioned to inquire as to the best way of introducing European trade and culture. Stanley opened the Congo valley to modern knowledge. for the benefit of the commercial world. Here. therefore.
The land was confiscated by the state and farmed out to private Belgian corporations. Harris declares that King Leopold's regime meant the death of twelve million natives. who were behind the scenes."29 So notorious did the exploitation and misrule become that Leopold was forced to take measures toward reform. the ruthless destruction of every social barrier. however. but in a year or two the Arabs and their allies were subdued. felt most keenly was the fact that the real catastrophe in the Congo was the desolation and murder in the larger sense. the reigning king in the Kantanga country. and scourged and mutilated if they failed to pay. and when the English and Congo state overthrew Mzidi. a veritable avalanche of filth and immorality overwhelmed the Congo tribes. a general revolt of the Arabs and mulattoes took place. The state had an area of about nine hundred thousand square miles. "Europe was staggered at the Leopoldian atrocities. 29 Harris: Dawn in Africa.The Negro chosen its king. The wilder cannibal tribes were formed into a militia to prey on the industrious. the introduction of criminal practices which struck the chiefs of the people dumb with horror—in a word. One of the first tasks before the new state was to check the Arab slave traders. the shattering of every tribal law. For a time. with a population of about thirty million. Rather European greed and serfdom were substituted. but the valley of the Congo will long stand as a monument of shame to Christianity and European civilization. and they were terrible indeed. the whites were driven out. did not replace the Arab slave traders. and finally in 1909 the Free State became a Belgian colony. who were taxed with specific amounts of ivory and rubber. The invasion of family life. but what we. 1892-93. 66 . The Arabs had hitherto acted as traders and middlemen along the upper Congo. Humanity and commerce. Some reforms have been inaugurated and others may follow.
Here lay the ancient Punt of the Egyptians (whether we place it in Somaliland or. gold. 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. which makes the cultural history of the Great Lakes region very difficult to understand. south of Ethiopia. This brought them into the ancient and mysterious land far up the Nile. The earliest inhabitants of the land were apparently of the Bushman or Hottentot type of Negro. Five thousand years before Christ the mulatto Egyptians were in the Nile valley below the First Cataract. These mixed elements became the ancestors of the modern Somali.W E B Du Bois VI THE GREAT LAKES AND ZYMBABWE W E HA ALREADY SEEN how a branch VE of the conquering Bantus turned eastward by the Great Lakes and thus reached the sea and eventually both the Nile and South Africa. 67 . birds. leopard skins. These were gradually pushed southward and westward by the intrusion of the Nilotic Negroes. The Nilotic Negroes to the south early became great traders in ivory. as the Egyptians thought. and slaves. beasts. Three great elements are. Bishari. as seems far more likely. their civilization began. gums. and Beja and spread Negro blood into Arabia beyond the Red Sea. around the Great Lakes) and here. The result was endless movement and migration both in ancient and modern days. and they opened up systematic trade between Egypt and the Great Lakes. Gala.
sinking pits. 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. silver. and one estimate is that at least three hundred and seventy-five million dollars' worth of gold had been extracted. and mining of gold. and those ruins are the oldest that are known in that region. a vassal of Benomotapa. Five hundred groups. and carrying underground galleries. the Negro influences from western and central Africa. They are all in a plain. As we have shown. Some have thought that the older workings must date back to one or even three thousand years before the Christian era. lie between the Limpopo and Zambesi rivers. which is otherwise known as the kingdom of Butua." writes De Barros in the seventeenth century. the Semitic influence from Arabia and Persia. This land is near the other which we said consisted of extensive plains. third. they began to move southward at least a thousand years before Christ. Mining operations have been carried on in these plains for generations. clear: first.The Negro however. This may have been the source of the gold of the Ophir. it carried out a system of irrigation and built stone buildings and fortifications. 68 . by the northward migration of the Negro ancestors of predynastic Egypt and the southern conquests and trade of dynastic Egypt. There exists to-day many remains of these building operations in the Kalahari desert and in northern Rhodesia. The state that thus arose became in time strongly organized. covering over an area of one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. whose ruler is a prince. and precious stones started a trade that penetrated to Asia and North Africa. the Egyptian element. in the middle of which stands a square 30 Quoted in Bent: Ruined Cities of Mashonaland. "There are other mines. The migration of the Bantu is the first clearly defined movement of modern times.30 "in a district called Toroa. What did they find in this land? We do not know certainly. Widespread agriculture. by name Burrow. second. 203 ff. skirting the Congo forests and wandering along the Great Lakes and down to the Zambesi. it employed slave labor in crushing the hard quartz. pp.
and at Umtali there are no fortifications. and also workshops and cattle kraals. for every place where Benomotapa stays is so called. nor say what writing it was. the use of iron originated in Africa. the walls of which are over twenty-five hands thick. So far. On the other hand the culmination of this culture has been placed by some as late as the modern middle ages..W E B Du Bois fortress. and bronze and made beautiful pottery. Farther south at Inyanga there is less strong defense. The surrounding residences in the valley were evidently occupied by wealthy traders and were not fortified. which with them means a court." Later investigation has shown that these buildings were in many cases carefully planned and built fortifications. the earliest limit was 1000 B. well wrought and of marvelous size. especially if. nine or ten hills are fortified on concentric walls thirty to fifty feet in number. tin. How far back this civilization dates it is difficult to say. all of dressed stones within and without. 69 . These people worked in gold. There is evidence of religious significance in the buildings. And above the gateway of that edifice is an inscription which some Moorish [Arab] traders who were there could not read. At Niekerk. showing that builders feared invasion from the north. silver. miniature citadels. as seems probable. with a place for the village at the top. Iron implements and handsome pottery were found here. If it was the same as in the Mediterranean regions. have been much earlier. however. a great deal depending upon the dating of the iron age in South Africa. The buildings are forts. for instance. without any lime showing the joinings. however. and art are characteristically African and there is no evident connection with outside sources. it might. Here the gold was received from surrounding districts and bartered with traders. and close to the Zambesi there are extraordinary fortifications.C. All these structures the people of this country call Symbaoe [Zymbabwe]. weapons. As usual there have been repeated attempts to find an external and especially an Asiatic origin for this culture. The implements. copper. archeological research seems to confirm its African origin. and what is called the temple was the royal residence and served as a sort of acropolis. but the height is not so great compared to the thickness.
was in great terror. Dos Santos. while panther skin was largely used for clothing. leaving their own country. it is told how the Zimbas came. Macoudi. The Bantu. "Ethiopia Oriental. where they bordered upon the Bushmen. who. or cannibals. too. but there were no Asiatic settlements on the African shore. Again in 1602 a horde of people came from the interior called the Cabires.31 The Arab writer. "a strange people never before seen there. For instance. or as he calls them. Zenji. "such an inundation of pagans that they could not be numbered. farther up the coast. VII. They used oxen as beasts of burden and the country produced gold in abundance. inhabited the country as far south as Sofala. and the reigning king. which ran with great speed. 70 . in Theal's Records of South Africa. They came from that part of Monomotapa where is the great lake from which spring these great rivers. Thus gradually the Monomotapa fell. Ivory was sold to Asia and the Bantu used iron for personal adornment instead of gold or silver." just as four hundred years later the Zulu impi marched. He found the Indian Sea at that time frequented by Arab and Persian vessels. They rode on their oxen. Inland among the Bantu arose later the line of rulers called the Monomotapa among the gifted Makalanga. Vol. Their state was very 31 Cf. and its power was scattered until the Kaffir-Zulu raids of our day. They entered the kingdom of Monomotapa." by J. and they ate millet and honey and the flesh of animals. They were twenty thousand strong and marched without children or women." So. in 1570 there came upon the country of Mozambique. He was paramount over all the other tribes of the north and could put three hundred thousand men in the field. in the tenth century visited the East African coast somewhere north of the equator.The Negro What was it that overthrew this civilization? Undoubtedly the same sort of raids of barbarous warriors that we have known in our day. They left no other signs of the towns they passed but the heaps of ruins and the bones of inhabitants. being weak. These Bantus were under a ruler with the dynastic title of Waklimi. traversed a great part of this Ethiopia like a scourge of God. destroying every living thing they came across.
Seventy years later. His people mingled with the blacks. both not far north of the equator. known as the Emoxaidi. This led to a small Arab settlement at that place. Kilwa. and the resulting mulatto traders. Kilwa had at that time three hundred mosques and was "built of handsome houses of stone 71 . The kings were converted to nominal Christianity by the Portuguese. whom the later immigrants regarded as heretics. He found an abundance of ivory and some gold and heard that the inhabitants of Kilwa had gained victories over the Zenji or Bantu. There are indications of trade between Nupe in West Africa and Sofala on the east coast. Some wanderers from Magadosho came into the Port of Sofala and there learned that gold could be obtained. certain Persians settled at Kilwa in East Africa. Soon other Arabian families came over on account of oppression and founded the towns of Magadosho and Brava. China. so that very soon the whole settlement was indistinguishable in color from the Bantu. India. He passed over to Africa and formed temporary settlements. and about fifty years before the Norman conquest of England. nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed. seem to have wandered as far south as the equator. was banished from Arabia as a heretic. who had been despised in his land because he was the son of a black Abyssinian slave mother. and certainly trade between Asia and East Africa is earlier than the beginning of the Christian era. because of this. The coming of the Asiatics was in this wise: Zaide. The Asiatic traders settled on the coast and by means of mulatto and Negro merchants brought Central Africa into contact with Arabia. led by Ali. with feudatory allied states. 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. The Emoxaidi.W E B Du Bois extensive. and carried on an extensive commerce by means of the traders on the coast. The first town became a place of importance and other settlements were made. great-grandson of Ali. In 1330 Ibn Batuta visited Kilwa. It was strongly organized. and Malaysia. were driven inland and became the interpreting traders between the coast and the Bantu. ranging from the coast far into the interior and from Mozambique down to the Limpopo.
a little off Sofala. Eventually Kilwa became mistress of the island of Zanzibar. and the richer were clothed in gorgeous robes of silk and velvet. and in the modern Bantu state. and he was ruling when the Portuguese arrived. Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and went north on the east coast as far as India. So. ivory. And thus. from an Arabic word. poultry.33 Thus civilization waxed and waned in East Africa among prehistoric Negroes.The Negro and lime. receiving gold. and later in the Bantu rule of the Monomotapa. the river Sabi. were Mohammedans. and very lofty. They traded with the inland Bantus and met numerous tribes. 32 Barbosa. and may be associated with the Ophir of Solomon. language. and had considerable commerce with Asia. too. under the overlordship of the Bantus. in which there are many fruit trees and much water. millet. 72 . 33 It was called Sofala. rice. of whatever color. seizing it from Magadosho. and the wood-work is with the masonry. All the people. in the Zend or Zeng empire of Bantu Negroes. In the next ten years the Portuguese had occupied more than six different points on that coast. Yet something survived. of Mozambique. Arab and Persian mulattoes on the coast. among later throngs of the fiercer."32 Kilwa after a time captured Sofala. and these houses have got terraces. with their windows like those of the Christians. warlike Bantu. 482. and honey. in the same way it has streets. The latter reported that these people cultivated rice and cocoa. the ancient culture of the land largely died. quoted in Keane. including Sofala. and of much other territory. The forty-third ruler of Kilwa after Ali was named Abraham. built ships. On the islands the Asiatics were independent. II. and industry can be found clear links that establish the essential identity of the absorbed peoples with the builders of Zymbabwe. with plenty of gardens. cattle. to whom they were compelled to pay large tribute each year. but on the main lands south of Kilwa the sheiks ruled only their own people. whose lineage was supposed to be perpetuated in the powerful Monomotapa as well as the Abyssinians. may be associated with the name of the Queen of Sheba. too.
and Somalis. Harps and other instruments bear great resemblance. chocolate-colored and frizzly-haired. Mutesa's successor. have produced the race of modern Uganda. This has led to great differences among the groups of the population and in their customs. organized for war and cattle lifting. at the same time they are undoubt73 . The final result was that. are startlingly Egyptian in type. The Negroes of Uganda are an intelligent people who had organized a complex feudal state. like the Wa Swahili. We turn now to the lands north from Lake Nyassa. he found Mohammedan influences in his land and was induced to admit English Protestants and French Catholics. who. The ensuing history of Uganda is of great interest. Finally the Bahima. About the beginning of the nineteenth century the empire was dismembered. Kintu. 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. caused an English bishop to be killed in 1885. Uganda thereupon became an extraordinary religious battlefield between these three beliefs. and under him twelve feudal lords. after open war between the religions. Daudi Chua. as the Galla invaders are called. Many things show the connection between Egypt and this part of Africa. the largest share falling to Uganda. The present king. There are the Masai. is the young grandson of Mutesa and rules under the overlordship of England. To these migrations were added attacks from the Nile Negroes to the north and the Bantu invaders from the south.W E B Du Bois So far we have traced the history of the lands into which the southward stream of invading Bantus turned. Mwanga. occupying hilly plateaus six thousand feet above the sea level. When King Mutesa came to the throne in 1862. Uganda was made an English protectorate in 1894. Masai. believing (as has since proven quite true) that the religion he offered would be used as a cloak for conquest. blending with the Bantus. are traders on the coast. others. and Negroids like the Gallas. Some are fierce mountaineers. At the head stood the king. It was in this region that the kingdom of Kitwara was founded by the Galla chief. and have followed them to the Limpopo River. The same glass beads are found in Uganda and Upper Egypt. and similar canoes are built.
Perhaps we have here the best racial picture of what ancient Egyptian and upper Nile regions were in predynastic times and later. although the gold and diamond traders have sought to debauch them. and the ivory and rubber capitalists have cruelly wronged their weaker groups.The Negro edly Negro in hair and color. Thus in outline was seen the mission of The People—La Bantu as they called themselves. they tore down. 74 . and they learned. just as the world of yesterday knew them to its cost. save where the Europeans have entered. They are the Africans with whom the world of to-morrow must reckon. They rule with their tongue and their power all Africa south of the equator. They migrated. and they in turn were often overthrown by succeeding tribes of their own folk. they settled. They have never been conquered.
They are small in stature. came through Damaraland on the west coast. crossing the Zambesi. Also pushed on by these waves of Bantu conquest. and coming down to the Cape. with crisp-curled hair. moved the ancient Abatwa or Bushmen. they turned eastward and can be traced as far as the mountains opposite Delagoa Bay. The sculptors entered South Africa by moving southward through the more central portions of the country. which they marked with their carvings. Their tribes may be divided. These Bushmen believed in an ancient race of people who preceded them in South Africa. pushed aside by the torrent of conquest. They attributed magic power to these unknown folk. but a survival of curious interest. and indeed the king and queen of Punt. The Pygmy people in the jungles repre-sent to-day a small survival from the past. The painters were true cave dwellers. The mass of them settled down in the lower part of the Cape and in the Kalahari desert. on the other hand. Before their groups were dispersed the Bushmen had RIMITIVE MAN P 75 . The traditions of the Bushmen say that they came southward from the regions of the Great Lakes. and said that some of them had been translated as stars to the sky. when they came to the great mountain regions. The painters.W E B Du Bois VII THE WAR OF RACES AT LAND'S END in Africa is found in the interior jungles and down at Land's End in South Af-rica. in accordance with their noticeable artistic talents. but the sculptors lived in large communities on the stony hills. were Bushmen or Hottentots. into the painters and the sculptors. as depicted by the Egyptians. yellow in color.
both in its rich phonetic system. using weapons superior to the Bushmen. They fought desperately in self-defense." When South Africa was first discovered there were two distinct types of Hottentot. strong Bushmen."34 Here. pp. Khoi Khoin (Men of Men). were physically a stronger race than the Abatwa and gave many evidences of degeneration from a high culture. It was the outer ripples of civilization starting far away. and probably a mingling of the Bushmen and the Bantus gave rise to the Hottentots. Both savage and civilized men appropriated their land. without domestic cattle or sheep. The Bantus crowded more and more upon the primitive Bushmen. especially in the "phenomenal perfection" of a language which "is so highly developed. The great cave represented the dignity and glory of the entire tribe. the indigenous and external civilizations of Africa beating with great impulse among the Ethiopians and the Egyptian mulattoes and Sudanese Negroes and Yorubans. that Lepsius sought for its affinities in the Egyptian at the other end of the continent. came a series of invaders. as one of their number said. as represented by a very delicately graduated series of vowels and diphthongs. 76 . where. Tribes with their chiefs occupied well-defined tracts of country and were subdivided into branch tribes under subsidiary chiefs. Other tribes nearer the center of South 34 Stowe: Native Races of South Africa. they saw their women and children carried into bondage and they themselves hunted like wild beasts. The Hottentots. 215-216. The more savage Hottentots were simply large. and in its varied grammatical structure. to a remote corner of the world. "In this struggle for existence their bitterest enemies. The Bushmen suffered most cruelly in the succeeding migrations and conquests of South Africa. or as they called themselves. were forced to make an unqualified acknowledgement of the courage and daring they so invariably exhibited. of whatever shade of color they might be. and driving the Bantu race southward.The Negro regular government. Still they were brave people. they had supposed that the only beings in the world were Bushmen and lions.
were the most advanced of the Negro tribes of Central Africa. high cheek bones. Soon after the advent of the Dutch some of the Hottentots. 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. They had crossed the Zambesi in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. followed by the invading Dutch and fighting the Dutch. laid out large towns with great regularity. they were careful agriculturists. There grew up a large DutchHottentot class. The Hottentots compelled Tao to retreat. and were the most skilled of smiths.W E B Du Bois Africa were handsomer in appearance and raised an Egyptian breed of cattle which they rode. coming southward. and many of them. too. Tao. they dispossessed the dark men and tried to enslave them. of whom there were not more than thirty or forty thousand. and. whom they had only partially subdued when the Dutch arrived as settlers in 1652. Indeed the filtration of Negro blood noticeable in modern Boers accounts for much curious history. and the wretched Bushmen. began slowly to retreat northward. and by the middle of the eighteenth century one of their great chiefs. The Dutch "Boers" began by purchasing land from the Hottentots and then. were keen traders. The Bechuana. Their migration commenced about the end of the fourteenth century and was. each other. as is usual in such cases. allying themselves with the Bechuana. 77 . They used stone in building. carved on wood. They fled westward to the ocean and then turned south and came upon the Bushmen. met the on-coming Hottentots. as they grew more powerful. led by the Korana clans. straggling movement. In general the Hottentots were yellow. 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. their government was a sort of feudal system with hereditary chiefs and vassals. with close-curled hair. These tribes. The traditions of the Hottentots point to the lake country of Central Africa as their place of origin. but the mulatto Gricquas arrived from the south. a scattered. and somewhat oblique eyes. whom the Hottentots first met. whence they were driven by the Bechuana tribes of the Bantu.
partly through their own efforts and partly through the efforts of the missionaries. the Amazosas. the Zulu-Kaffirs. under their chiefs Kok and Waterboer. while their government was a patriarchal monarchy limited by an aristocracy and almost feudal in character. They are among the tallest people in the world. and by adding other elements they became. The Gricquas sprang from and took their name from an old Hottentot tribe. in the nineteenth century. In Gricqualand West the mulatto Gricquas. a community of fairly well civilized people. and muscular. and the clan for all its villages. well-proportioned. Finally there was a paramount chief. lived until the discovery of diamonds.The Negro stopped the rout. The more warlike tribes were usually clothed in leopard or ox skins. The Kaffirs. with a national religion based upon ancestor worship. Between 1811 and 1877 there were six Kaffir-English wars. there came two new developments: first. 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. Mentally they were men of tact and intelligence. and twenty-five thousand slaves secured from the east coast. The Griquas and Bechuana tribes were thus gradually checking the Hottentots when. In 1806 the English took final possession of Cape Colony. who was the civil and military father of his people. a newer and fiercer element of the Bantu tribes. the English took possession of Cape Colony. followed by the an78 . appeared. and are slim. At that time there were twenty-five thousand Boers. or as they called themselves. These people laid waste to the coast regions and in 1779 came in contact with the Dutch. a great chief of the fifteenth century in the lake country. secondly. One of these in 1818 grew out of the ignorant interference of the English with the Kaffir tribal system. twenty-five thousand pure and mixed Hottentots. and the Dutch began to move in larger numbers toward the interior. a village for all its residents. They were led by Kok and Barends. Cattle formed their chief wealth. claimed descent from Zuide. A series of Dutch-Kaffir wars ensued between 1779 and 1795 in which the Dutch were hard pressed. stock breeding and hunting and fighting their main pursuits. then there came a terrible war between 1834 and 1835. averaging five feet ten inches.
in order that this faith might bring back their dead heroes. If the regiment hesitated or dared to remonstrate. Fresh troubles occurred in 1877. The war of the Axe (1846-48) led to further annexation by the British. McDonald says. In the former year. "There has probably never been a more perfect system of discipline than that by which Chaka ruled his army and kingdom. The Hottentots suffered severely and one of his rival Zulu tribes under Umsilikatsi fled into Matabililand. but did not pay promptly for the slaves. Meantime the more formidable part of the Zulu-Kaffirs had been united under the terrible Chief Chaka. which meant death to hundreds. It was during Dingan's reign that England tried to abolish slavery in Cape Colony. and to-day gradually these tribes are passing from independence to a state of mild vassalage to the British. A general returning unsuccessful in the main purpose of his expedition shared the same fate. At a review an order might be given in the most unexpected manner. the result was the so-called "Great Trek. A warrior returning from battle without his arms was put to death without trial. The result was that almost a third of the nation perished from hunger. including the Orange and Transvaal states and the whole of Natal. who reigned twelve years. He had organized a military system. not a new one by any means. so perfect was the discipline and so great the jealousy that another was ready to cut them down." about 1834. but one of which we hear rumors back in the lake regions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. pushing back the Bechuana. despairing of resistance to invading England. a prophet arose who advised the wholesale destruction of all Kaffir property except weapons. By the time the English came to Port Natal. The traditional courts practically ceased to exist so far as the will and action of the tyrant was concerned. Hostilities broke out again in 1856 and 1863. when the Ama-Xosa confederacy was finally broken up.W E B Du Bois nexation of all the country as far as the Kei River. Chaka was ruling over the whole southeastern seaboard. as she had promised. when thousands of Boers went into the interior 79 ." With this army Chaka fell on tribe after tribe. Chaka was killed in 1828 and was eventually succeeded by his brother Dingan. from the Limpopo River to Cape Colony. Whoever displeased the king was immediately executed. The Bechuana fled before him and some tribes of them were entirely destroyed.
Thereupon Zululand was divided among thirteen semi-independent chiefs and became a British protectorate. Lobengula succeeded Umsilikatsi in 1870 and. The Zulus fought desperately. The Hottentots and Bushmen were dispersed into groups and seem doomed to extinction. Here he introduced the Zulu military system and terrorized the peaceful and industrious Bechuana populations. annihilating at one time a whole detachment and killing the young prince Napoleon. without being actually broken up. Under this chief there was something like repose for sixteen years. and nearly half of these have been appointed by the governor. He fell into border disputes with the English. but in 1856 civil war broke out between his sons. succeeded his father in 1882. Dingan and these Boers were soon engaged in a death struggle in which the Zulus were repulsed and Dingan replaced by Panda. began to retreat northward toward the Zambesi. had finally reestablished his headquarters in Rhodesia in 1838. He was finally defeated by the British and native forces in 1893 and the land was incorporated into South Central Africa.The Negro across the Orange and Vaal rivers. realizing that his power was waning. In Natal there are about one hundred and seventy tribal chiefs. Cetewayo. 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. Since then the best lands have been gradually reoccupied by a large number of tribes—Kaffirs from the south and Zulus from the north. July 4. the last Hottentot chief being deposed in 1810 and replaced by an English magistrate. But after all it was assagais against machine guns. has been deprived of its dangerous features by appointing paid village headmen and transforming the hereditary chief into a British government official. Umsilikatsi. Partially civilized Hottentots still live grouped together in their kraals 80 . who had been driven into Matabililand by the terrible Chaka in 1828 and defeated by the Dutch in 1837. one of whom. and the Zulus were finally defeated at Ulundi. and the result was one of the fiercest clashes of Europe and Africa in modern days. 1879. The tribal organization.
where they fought fiercely with the Bantu Ova-Hereros. these Namakwa Hottentots threatened Portuguese West Africa. To-day their king. Meantime. His son. and in 1875 the Barotse kingdom comprised a large territory. From this place his soldiery nearly succeeded in driving the Portuguese out of East Africa. In Southwest Africa. was deputed by Dingan. 1895. there arose Gaza. and to escape vengeance he migrated north of the Limpopo. and by conquering various tribes in the Zambesi region had established a strong power. one is in Basutoland. who exercised for a time joint authority. ostensibly to pro81 . who with other tribes had moved northward on account of the pressure of the Dutch and Zulus below. This Manikus failed to do. In the north part of Bechuanaland are the self-governing Bamangwato and the Batwana. Armed with fire arms. but Germany intervened. They were strong men and daring fighters and soon became dominant in what is now German Southwest Africa. with a population between one and two and a half million. North of the Zambesi. 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. to drive out the Portuguese. He was succeeded by his son. The Bechuana hold their own in several centers.W E B Du Bois and are members of Christian churches. in Portuguese territory south of the Zambesi. one of the canniest of modern rulers in Africa. Guzana (better known as Gungunyana). Lewanika. captured. This kingdom was nearly overthrown by the rebellion of the Barotse. rules directly and indirectly fifty thousand square miles. where a number of tribes were welded together under the far-sighted Moshesh into a modern and fairly well civilized nation. They are under a protectorate of the British. a contemporary and rival of Chaka. and removed to the Azores. and Umzila's brother. the chief role in recent times has been played by the Bechuana. the former ruled by Khama. Manikus. Gungunyana was finally overthrown in November. Hottentot mulattoes crossing from the Cape caused widespread change. Chaka's successor. west of Natal. in British territory. Livingstone found there the Makolo. Umzila. the first of the Bantu to return northward after the South African migration.
Thus we have between the years 1400 and 1900 a great period of migration up to 1750. where the ship of the Flying Dutchman beats back and forth on its endless quest.The Negro tect missionaries. in the latter half of the nineteenth century. followed in the nineteenth century by the terrible wars of Chaka. when Bushmen. The resulting racial problem in South Africa is one of great intricacy. so that the future of the Negro race is peculiarly bound up in developments here at Land's End. the Kaffirs. 82 . In the latter part of the eighteenth century we have the clash of the Hottentots and Bechuana. Bantu. To the racial problem has been added the tremendous problem of modern capital brought by the discovery of gold and diamond mines. By spending millions of dollars and thousands of soldiers Germany has nearly exterminated these brave men. Finally. we see the gradual subjection of the Kaffir-Zulus and the Bechuana under the English and the final conquest of the Dutch. and Dutch appeared in succession at Land's End. and Matabili. Hottentot.
W E B Du Bois VIII AFRICAN CULTURE E HAVE FOLLOWED the history of mankind in Africa down the val-ley of the Nile. south. to enlighten the land. Early Babylon was founded by a Negroid race. but they represented the highest attainment of mankind after tens of thousands of years in unawakened savagery. The supposed infe- W 83 . That Negro peoples were the beginners of civilization along the Ganges. the Euphrates. We have seen the remnants of mankind at Land's End. the most ancient known. past Ethiopia to Egypt. and the Nile seems proven. and west to their greatest center in the vast jungle of the Congo valleys. modern science gives no authority for such an assumption." The Assyrians show a distinct Negroid strain and early Egypt was predominantly Negro. says "Anna and Bel called me. the worshiper of the gods. Hammurabi's code. to cause justice to prevail in the land. These earliest of cultures were crude and primitive. and followed the invading Bantu east. 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. the ancient culture at Punt and Zymbabwe. we have seen kingdoms arise along the great bend of the Niger and strive with the ancient culture at its mouth. to destroy the wicked. Hammurabi the exalted prince. and to further the welfare of the people. to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak. It has often been assumed that the Negro is physically inferior to other races and markedly distinguishable from them. to go forth like the sun over the black-head race.
and finally. but this is as yet an unproved assumption. "neither size nor weight of the brain seems to be of importance" as an index of mental capacity. The variations are numerous. moisture. 39 Ratzel: quoted in Spiller: Inter-Racial Problems. The bony skeleton presents no distinctly racial lines of variation. p.35 for that is "due to the combined influences of a great number of factors of environment working through physiological processes. the vast majority of Negro brain weights fall within the same limits as the whites. 35. Prognathism "presents too many individual varieties to be taken as a distinctive character of race. but do not go deep. p." and "however marked the contrasts may be. say with Ratzel. 38 G. 58. We may. "There is only one species of man."37 Difference in physical measurements does not show the Negro to be a more primitive evolutionary form. and the like. Finot: Race Prejudice. in disdain of our complexions. 36 Ripley: Races of Europe. p."40 35 "Some authors write that the Ethiopians paint the devil white. too."36 So. 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. 37 Denniker: Races of Men. 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. and physique. difference in texture of hair is a matter of degree. therefore. Even if future measurement prove the average Negro brain lighter. F. 62. enterprise. p. and is caused by heat. 31."—Ludolf: History of Ethiopia. not kind. pp. Herz: Moderne Rassentheorien."39 To this we may add the word of the Secretary of the First Races Congress: "We are. 84 . 72. 63. based on the uncritical measurement of less than a thousand Negro brains as compared with eleven thousand or more European brains. there is no corresponding difference in anatomical structure discoverable. 40 Spiller: Inter-Racial Problems."38 Much has been made of the supposed smaller brain of the Negro race. morality. then. exposure.The Negro riority cannot rest on color.
the grassy highlands bordering the Great Lakes and connecting these two regions. Herdsmen and their cattle cover the steppes and highlands. now northward. kingdoms. its deserts. Among the forest farmers the village is the center of life. It is. In the open forests and grassy highlands are the agriculturists. Three principal zones of habitation appear: first. secondly. the steppes and deserts around the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari desert in the south. A minority despise agriculture and breed cattle. some but a few years. and cities. and hurling their force against states. from the interior to the coast and from the coast inland. its rainfall. Political integration is. and art well worth the attention of students. and which makes it so difficult to trace this changing past. the forests and rivers of Central and West Africa. the Negroes are the best and keenest tillers of the ground. industry. Among the genuine tillers the whole 85 . this sudden change and the fear of it that marks African culture. religion. In the deserts are the nomads. Elsewhere communication was all too easy. and the peculiar inaccessibility of the coast. but this only temporarily. On the whole Africa from the Sahara to the Cape offered no great physical barrier to the invader. while in the open steppes political life tends to spread into larger political units. The narrow Nile valley alone presented physical barriers formidable enough to keep back the invading barbarians of the south. many combine both occupations. however. we learn that "among all the great groups of the 'natural' races. Some resisted for generations. and even then with difficulty. and such has actually been the fact. save where the tsetse fly prevents. Starting with agriculture. then. and we continually have whirlwinds of invading hosts rushing now southward. hindered by an ease of internal communication almost as great as the difficulty of reaching outer worlds beyond the continent.W E B Du Bois If these conclusions are true. and the Pygmies are in the forest fastnesses. Nevertheless beneath all change rests the strong substructure of custom. we should expect to see in Africa the human drama play itself out much as in other lands. For a while the Congo forests fended away the restless. particularly in its political aspects. some for centuries. thirdly. At the same time we must expect peculiarities arising from the physiography of the land—its climate.
86 . Lenz (1884). In the middle of the fields rise the light watch-towers. in which no one knows whether he will in the end be able to harvest what he has sown. the people were lying about slain. Bosman (1805). Bouet-Williaumez (1848). 47. cattle raising."42 Sheep.The Negro life of the family is taken up in agriculture. and fruit culture. also from cassava. 42 Industrial Evolution."41 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. The rapidity with which. Industries. Livingstone gives somewhere a graphic description of the devastations wrought by slave hunts. In the eastern Sudan. or the manufacture of cotton. are widely known and sedulously fostered. which may be called agricultural. the grain was ripening and there was none to harvest it. II. An African cultivated landscape is incomplete without barns. again. and the assiduous care of the Negro women shines in all the brighter light when we consider the insecurity of life. like the preparation of meal from millet and other crops. when newly imported. and Schweinfurth (1878) tells us of great cattle parks with two to 41 Ratzel: History of Mankind. Hecquard (1854). Constant clearings change forests to fields. and among the great Bantu tribes extending from the Sudan down toward the south. p. however. Northeastern Africa especially is noted for agriculture. in the fields. and hence the months are by preference called after the operations which they demand. goat. for instance. cattle are evidences of wealth. one tribe. from which a watchman scares grain-eating birds and other thieves. and Von Franzius considers Africa the home of the house cattle and the Negro as the original tamer. "In the more thickly populated parts of Africa these fields often stretch for many a mile. 380 ff. the constant feuds and pillages. the most various forms of cultivation spread in Africa says much for the attention which is devoted to this branch of economy. the dwellings were demolished. and Baker (1868) all bear witness to this. and chickens are domestic animals all over Africa. having so many oxen that each village had ten or twelve thousand head. and the ground is manured with the ashes of the burnt thicket. the fabrication of fermented drinks from grain.
Among them we find axes. On this agricultural and cattle-raising economic foundation has arisen the organized industry of the artisan. and cattle. The Ashantis of the Gold Coast know how to make "cotton fabrics. nails. and set gold and precious stones. shields. goats. shoes. hoes. turn and glaze earthenware. cattle raising with stall feed. and spoons made of wood and ivory. In the dressing of skins and furs. quite generally turn to manufacturing. make no iron or stone implements. being well versed in the manufacture of clothing. and the manufacturer. we find evidences of their workmanship. The people of the millet zone. The Hottentots are further advanced in the industrial arts. grass cloth. and utensils. hatchets. 87 . the fertilizing of the fields."43 Among the people of the banana zone we find rough basket work. Shutt (1884) found the tribes in the southwestern basin of the Congo with sheep. Hulub (1881) and Chapman (1868) tell of agriculture and fruit raising in South Africa. forge iron. Von der Decken (1859-61) described the paradise of the dwellers about Kilimanjaro—the bananas. Soap is manufactured in the Bautschi district. While the Pygmies. glass is 43 These and other references in this chapter are from Schneider: Culturfähigkeit des Negers. embroider rugs and carpets. weapons. sandals. swine. Cloaks. they seem to know how to make bark cloth and fiber baskets and simple outfits for hunting and fishing. fabricate instruments and arms. and water and oil vessels are made from leather which the natives have dressed. because of uncertain agricultural resources. The Negroid Gallas have seven or eight cattle to each inhabitant. Livingstone bears witness to the busy cattle raising of the Bantus and Kaffirs. beans and peas.W E B Du Bois three thousand head and of numerous agricultural and cattle-raising tribes. Among the Bushmen the art of making weapons and working in hides is quite common. using the sheepskin bellows for this purpose. the trader. Charcoal is prepared by the smiths. still living in the age of wood. coarse pottery. scythes. and numerous implements are manufactured. as well as in the plaiting of cords and the weaving of mats. and other hardware. and irrigation. knives. fruit. In addition they are good workers in iron and copper. iron is smelted.
Barth tells us that the weaving of cotton was known in the Sudan as early as the eleventh century. and in almost every city cotton is spun and woven and dyed." Arrows made east of Lake Nyanza were found to be nearly as good as the best Swedish iron in Birmingham. goatskins prepared better than a European tanner could do. Kaffirs and Zulus. Thornton says. Cameron (1877) tells of villages so clean. Livingstone assures us that the mortar and pestle. "The masterpieces of the Monbutto [Mangbettu] smiths are the fine chains worn as ornaments. Pottery and basketry and careful hut building distinguish many tribes. The Bantu huts contain spoons." Shubotz in 1911 called the Mangbettu "a highly cultivated people" in architecture and handicraft. pointing to a migration southwestward. and colored by the people of Nupeland. The Mangbettu work both iron and copper.. handmills. on the Zambesi. in the extreme south. and the 88 . calabashes. and polished clay floors. There is also extensive manufacture of wooden ware. save in book knowledge. milk pails. "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. implements. are good smiths. found fine workers in iron and bronze. Barth found copper exported from Central Africa in competition with European copper at Kano. and which in perfection of form and fineness compare well with our best steel chains. Baker and Felkin tell of smiths of wonderful adroitness. size. and axes. the people occupied no low plane of civilization. Holub (1879). wooden dishes. Nor is the iron industry confined to the Sudan.The Negro made. Schweinfurth says. the goatskin bellows. tools. drinking cups and kegs of remarkable symmetry. and utensils. About the Great Lakes and other parts of Central Africa it is widely distributed. could do if furnished with steel tools. formed. and Makololo. "The arrow and the spear heads are of the finest and most artistic work. From Egypt to the Cape. etc." Excellent wood carving is found among the Bongo. In describing particular tribes. the long-handled axe. and with the rudest tools to do such skilled work. that. their bristlelike barbs and points are baffling when one knows how few tools these smiths have. have the same form. etc. Ovambo. with huts so artistic. It is unnecessary to be reminded what a people without instruction..
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. also wood and ivory carving and pottery making are pursued. Pompeii. Negroes in Uganda and other parts have made guns after seeing European models." The Mandingo in the northwest are remarkable workers in iron. which circulated even to the coast. according to Kranz (1880). we are told by Mungo Park (1800). He found tribes which no Europeans had ever visited. and dyeing. and many wooden figures of fetishes in the Ethnographical Museum of Berlin show some understanding of the proportions of the human body. silver. Cameron (1878) saw vases made near Lake Tanganyika which reminded him of the amphorae in the Villa of Diomedes. "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. tin. too. Horn (1882) praises tribes here for iron and copper work. and the Hausa make soap. while there is a mass of testimony as to the work in the north-west of Africa in gold. Lenz and Du Chaillu (1861) found iron workers with charcoal. and tribes who used knives in eating. Gabriel de Mortillet (1883) 89 . Stanley (1878) found wonderful examples of smith work: figures worked out of brass and much work in copper. In equatorial West Africa. and also carvers of bone and ivory. Andrew's cross. HübbeSchleiden found tribes making ivory needles inlaid with ebony. Gold Coast Negroes make gold rings and chains.W E B Du Bois latter melt copper and tin together and draw wire from it." Great Bassam is called by Hecquard the "Fatherland of Smiths. and Cameron came across bellows with valves. Soyaux says. Caille found the Negroes in Bambana manufacturing gunpowder (1824-28). who made ingots of copper in the form of the St. Near Cape Lopez. Wilson (1856) found natives in West Africa who could repair American watches. weaving. while the arms and dishes of the Osaka are found among many tribes even as far as the Atlantic Ocean. In the southern Congo basin iron and copper are worked. Livingstone (1871) passed thirty smelting houses in one journey. West of the Great Lakes. so. and gold. forming the metal into all kinds of forms.
Some would. on the other hand. Neither ancient Europe. 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. 90 . nor ancient western Asia. Boaz. therefore. As long as the hammer. effective industrial work was not impossible. 19. but Andree declares that the Negro developed his own "Iron Kingdom. Boaz says. the trade of the blacksmith was found all over Africa. "It seems likely that at a time when the European was still satisfied with rude stone tools. from north to south and from east to west. drill. Von Luschan. and the hoe had to be chipped out of stone. but the true advancement of industrial life did not begin until the hard iron was discovered. That iron could be discovered by accident in Africa seems beyond doubt: if this is so in other parts of the world. It seems not unlikely that the people who made the marvelous discovery of reducing iron ores by smelting were the African Negroes. and when bronze was introduced. 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. or had to be made of shell or hard wood. Stuhlmann and Kollmann found 44 Atlanta University Leaflet. A great progress was made when copper found in large nuggets was hammered out into tools and later on shaped by melting. nor ancient China knew the iron. but difficult.The Negro declared Negroes the only iron users among primitive people. No. the spade. "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. 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."44 Torday has argued recently. Consider for a moment what this invention has meant for the advance of the human race. the African had invented or adopted the art of smelting iron. and everything points to its introduction from Africa." Schweinfurth. knife. argue that the Negro learned it from other folk. At the time of the great African discoveries toward the end of the past century. saw. I am not competent to say.
where iron is not known before 1000 B. "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. "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. and in early days the cities of the Sudan and North Africa grew rich through Negro trade. and where a piece of this metal. Wainwright and Bushe Fox in a predynastic grave." We know that the trade between Central Africa and Egypt was in the hands of Negroes for thousands of years. Cf. even Jews and Armenians.A. while iron beads have been only recently discovered by Messrs. Lenz says. "have often observed this tribal or local 45 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.. and where.W E B Du Bois near Victoria Nyanza that the natives simply mixed powdered ore with charcoal and by introduction of air currents obtained the metal. XLIII."45 The Negro is a born trader." says Bücher. bronze would have preceded this metal and all traces of it would not have disappeared. "Travelers." Long before cotton weaving was a British industry. Black Africa was for a long time an exporter of iron. IX. West Africa and the Sudan were supplying a large part of the world with cotton cloth. in the times of Ashur Nazir Pal.. possibly a tool.. These simple processes make it simple that iron should have been discovered in East or Central Africa. G. had the Africans received iron from the Egyptians. No bronze implements have ever been found in black Africa. implements and iron ornaments made.. it was still used concurrently with bronze.. also The Crisis. writing of Timbuktu in the sixteenth century. was found in the masonry of the great pyramid. said.C. and even in the twelfth century exports to India and Java are recorded by Idrisi. or from Asia. can learn much of the cunning and trade of the Negroes. 91 . 414. p. skins tanned. 234. "our sharpest European merchants.C. Even to-day cities like Kuka on the west shore of Lake Chad and Sokota are manufacturing centers where cotton is spun and woven. Vol. 415. Leo Africanus.
supplying the community with all products from outside. in Kakongo. various utensils. Bastian tells of a great number of centers for special products of domestic industry. One carries on fishing."46 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. ornamented clothes and intricately designed mats. clothing of finely woven mat-work. etc. sometimes some two or three hundred strong. which are in great demand.The Negro development of industrial technique. a third devotes itself to trade and is broker for the others. yielding more certain wealth and prosperity to the merchants of the Gold 46 Bücher: Industrial Revolution (tr. in Loango. excellent swords. another has reserved to itself work in iron and copper. In Bakunya are made potter's wares.' relates a Belgian observer of the Lower Congo. distributed among a number of chiefs various sums of gold dust with a charge to turn the same to good account. pass beyond the sphere of its own specialty without exposing itself to the risk of being universally proscribed. The king once in every forty days. Each group has its more or less strongly defined specialty. making weapons for war and hunting. to barter ivory for European goods. 'are often situated in groups. in Basanza. while the carving of elephants' tusks is specially followed in Chilungo. "Loango excels in mats and fishing baskets. however. and among the Bayakas and Mantetjes. The so-called Mafooka hats with raised patterns are drawn chiefly from the bordering country of Kakongo and Mayyume. 'The native villages. These chiefs then sent down to the coast caravans of tradesmen. 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. which the king obtained from the royal alluvial workings. some of whom would be their slaves. or buy such goods with gold dust. embroidered hats and also burnt clay pitchers. especially beautiful ornamented copper rings. stuffs of woven grass. on the Congo. in Basundi. another produces palm wine. 57-58. None may. by Wickett). in Mayumbe. Their activities are based upon reciprocality. pp. 92 .'" From the Loango Coast. clever wood and tablet carvings. and they are to a certain extent the complements of one another. at the Adai custom.
Then perhaps they try to get possession of the coveted object by means of theft. pp. If when negotiating with the Bangalas of Angola you do not quickly give them what they want. and from Lagos to Zanzibar. 93 . It is otherwise with the Songos and Kiokos. the violent. and of the market itself. took an active interest in the promotion of trade and in the keeping open of trade routes into the interior. from the king downward. the inquiring. too. Does not this remind us of the old Germanic 'market place'?"48 47 Hayford: Native Institutions. The trade chiefs would. "How like is the market traffic.' the answer as a rule will be. Important chiefs carried on the same system of trading with the coast as did the king. people avoid trading anywhere else. From the Fish River to Kuka. approbation. searching glance. 'Come to the market place. Trade customs are not everywhere alike. To buy even a small article you must go to the market. the expressive gesture. 48 Ratzel. render a faithful account to the king's stewards. who let you deal with them in the usual way. So says Stanley.' The crowd gives confidence to individuals. where everything can be bought and sold from earthenware to wives. 95-96. 376. they go away and do not come back. the leading implement to civilization. Permanent markets are found in places like Ujiji and Nyangwe. the changing looks of depreciation or triumph. he would have special men who directly traded for him. Thus every member of the state. to one of our own markets! There is the same rivalry in praising the goods. of apprehension. If a man says to another."47 The trade thus encouraged and carried on in various parts of West Africa reached wide areas. brisk movements. being allowed to retain a fair portion of the profit. II. from the one to three thousand traders flocked here. with all its uproar and sound of human voices. looks like an idea of justice consecrated by long practice. 'Sell me this hen' or 'that fruit. In the king's household.W E B Du Bois Coast and Great Britain than may be expected for some time yet to come from the mining industry and railway development put together. and the inviolability of the visitor to the market. the markets have become great centers of trade. delight. in due time.
It is his work to train up his wards in the ways of loyalty and obedience to the powers that be. a ward in a township. Out of the family develops the typical African village organization. he is entitled to a hearing fee. as his name implies. men from other wards bring him their disputes to settle. 94 . and by 'family' you must understand the entire lineal descendants of a materfamilias. inasmuch as he has directly to deal with the composite elements of the general bulk of the people. and as their interests are identical with his in every particular. and where he is a man of ability and influence. but in this matter he has allpowerful helpers in the female members of the family.' 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! "The headman is par excellence the judge of his family or ward. polygamy and marriage by actual or simulated purchase. which. or the sisters. or the cousins. if I may coin a convenient phrase. which is thus described in Ashanti by a native Gold Coast writer: "The headman. "It is the duty of the head of a family to bring up the members thereof in the way they should go. and he is looked to to keep them within bounds and to insist upon conformity of their party with the customs. laws. is not so much as would be payable in the regular court of the king or chief. When he so settles disputes. however. Not only is he called upon to settle domestic squabbles. "It is a difficult task that he is set to. and traditional observances of the community. or the nieces of the headman. 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. He is held responsible for the freaks of recalcitrant members of his family. His position is important.The Negro Turning now to Negro family and social life we find. who will be either the aunts. In early times he could send off to exile by sale a troublesome relative who would not observe the laws of the community. but frequently he sits judge over more serious matters arising between one member of the ward and another. is the head of a village community. or of a family. It is expected of him by the state to bring up his charge in the knowledge of matters political and traditional. whose rule in the family thus becomes a simple and an easy matter. as among all primitive peoples. the good women spontaneously train up their children to implicit obedience to the headman.
cousin. the Men of the Serpents. beans. only in the matter of weapons and ornaments was exclusive private ownership generally recognized. pp. Beyond these roamed their cattle. they carved wood and built walls of unhewn stone. and goats. "The resemblance to the primary assemblies of the early peoples of Europe is close enough to add an49 Hayford: Native Institutions. vested in fathers and chiefs. The headman is always succeeded by his uterine brother. almost republican. Lord Bryce recently wrote. They had a standing military organization. Their system of common law was well conceived and there were organized tribunals of justice. that is to say. Each tribe lived by itself in a town with from five to fifteen thousand inhabitants."49 We may contrast this picture with the more warlike Bantus of Southeast Africa. Their religion was ancestor worship with sacrifice to spirits and the dead. In difficult cases precedents were sought and learned antiquaries consulted. 95 . and the like. 76 ff. For in times of war. following the customary law. and the tribes had their various totems. Sons of the Corn Cleaners. Viewing the Basuto National Assembly in South Africa. In general. where the members of the ward would not serve cordially under a stranger. the Men of the Sun. surrounded by gardens of millet. among the African clans the idea of private property was but imperfectly developed and never included land. and the main wealth of the tribe was in its cattle. The main mass of visible wealth belonged to the family and clan rather than to the individual. When he combines the two offices of headman and captain. sheep. The land was owned by the tribe and apportioned to the chief by each family. and some of the tribes made mummies of the corpses and clothed them for burial. varied in different tribes from absolute despotisms to limited monarchies. and watermelon. The government. At the age of fifteen or sixteen the boys were circumcised and formed into guilds. he renders to the community a very important service. so that they were known as the Men of Iron. or nephew—the line of succession. they would in all cases face any danger with their own kinsman as their leader. They wove cloth of cotton and bark.W E B Du Bois "The headman is naturally an important member of his company and often is a captain thereof.
'"51 Black queens have often ruled African tribes. p. women take part in public assemblies where all-important questions are discussed. Close knit with the family and social organization comes the religious life of the Negro.. 96 . "No mother can love more tenderly or be more deeply beloved than the Negro mother. 'but revile not my mother!' . which is all but universal in Africa."50 While women are sold into marriage throughout Africa. and fetish an expression of the practical recognition of dominant forces in which the Negro lives. The Angola Negroes have a saying. It is a philosophy of life.' writes Mungo Park. so lingers the love of father and mother. 50 Impressions of South Africa. It is not mere senseless degradation.. 'Strike me. and throughout Negro Africa the mother is the most influential councilor. with his savings. Among primitive Negroes there can be. 'As a mist lingers on the swamps. gives the mother great influence.. freed his mother instead of himself. 'Everywhere in Africa. 'I have noticed that no greater affront can be offered a Negro than insulting his mother. Of fetishism there is much misapprehension. 51 William Schneider. as Miss Kingsley reminds us. rising to polytheism and approaching monotheism chiefly. "If you want. we are told.The Negro other to the arguments which discredit the theory that there is any such thing as an Aryan type of institutions. but not wholly. Miss Kingsley says. The system of educating children among such tribes as the Yoruba is worthy of emulation by many more civilized peoples. Religion is life. The religion of Africa is the universal animism or fetishism of primitive peoples. 3d ed. Robin tells of a slave in Martinique who.. as a result of Christian and Islamic missions. no such divorce of religion from practical life as is common in civilized lands. even in cases of tyrants like Chaka or Mutesa. nevertheless their status is far removed from slavery. In the first place the tracing of relationships through the female line. The Herero swears 'By my mother's tears!'. Parental affection is very strong. To him all the world is spirit.' cried a Mandingo to his enemy. Among the Ba-Lolo. 352.
cit. who believe that men and all nature have the indwelling "Kra. was. therefore. at the back of the tremendous permanency of fetish in Africa. as it does in China and Japan to-day.W E B Du Bois for example. This kind of worship. V. virtually the religion of the Kaffirs. and who were."53 Ellis tells us of the spirit belief of the Ewe people. Bryce. whose mind has been soaked in fetish during his early and most impressionable years. no clearer statement of it made than is made by Goethe in his superb 'Prometheus. stop with fetish. the world was full of spirits—spirits of the rivers. 97 . propitiated by offerings at stated periods. and which held its ground among the Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing period of ancient civilization. that the man himself after death may exist as a ghost. though ashamed of so doing. "It is this power of being able logically to account for everything that is. "To the Kaffirs. Among the Yoruba. as far as I know. it is also the explanation of the fact that white men who live in the districts where death and danger are everyday affairs. I believe. are liable to believe in fetish. but. and the woods. 53 Op. Most important were the ghosts of the dead. says." a shadowy continuing of the man. under a grim pall of boredom. For the African. however. and the cause of many of the relapses into it by Africans converted to other religions. and is. the mountains. the worship once most generally diffused throughout the world. speaking of the Kaffirs of South Africa. Frobenius shows that religion and 52 West African Studies. which is often conceived of as departed from the "Kra. 54 Impressions of South Africa. who had power to injure or help the living. as in the case of other peoples. the voice of fetish is almost irresistible when affliction comes to him. for instance."54 African religion does not." which is immortal. there is.'"52 Fetish is a severely logical way of accounting for the world in terms of good and malignant spirits. to understand the position of man in nature according to fetish. Chap. as well as on occasions when their aid was especially desired. as to the most savage races. tends toward polytheism and monotheism.
and dagger. 98 . I have seen or heard of none whose religious thought was only a superstition. 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)."56 Nassau. pastor. a theocratic scheme. the artisan with rude adze in hand. but should. gaunt cannibal with his armament of gun. reared in rhythmically proportioned manner. I. a wellconceived perceptible organization. women who have hasted from their kitchen fire with hands white with the man55 Frobenius: Voice of Africa. 'I have come to speak to your people. fluently using their language.—the bold. and guest. Vol. fellow-traveler. and in my special office as missionary. friend. And the basic idea of every clan's progeniture is a powerful God. "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. the legitimate order in which the descendants of a particular clan unite in marriage to found new families. associating with them in the various relations of teacher. 56 West African Studies. I am able unhesitatingly to say that among all the multitude of degraded ones with whom I have met. declares. minister to her own God in an unfamiliar home." Miss Kingsley says.' I do not need to begin by telling them that there is a God. "After more than forty years' residence among these tribes. "The African has a great Over God. or hands soiled at the antique bellows of the village smithy. conversant with their customs. "Standing in the village street. dwelling intimately in their huts. "This people … give evidence of a generalized system. the missionary. when I say to him. Looking on that motley assemblage of villagers. master. the security with which the newly wedded wife not only may. 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. p. spear. surrounded by a company whom their chief has courteously summoned at my request."55 The Yoruba have a legend of a dying divinity. 107.The Negro city-state go hand in hand.
near the confines of Ethiopia. as Mommsen says.. 'Who is God?'"57 The basis of Egyptian religion was "of a purely Nigritian character. In the east it reaches below the Victoria Nyanza. and proselytism. "It was through Africa that Christianity became the religion of the world. trade.—I have yet to be asked. It overran the central Sudan by the close of the seventeenth century. Lactantius. indeed. the social cosmogony of the Atlantic races. were natives of Africa. and not less so Augustine. it spread into Somaliland and overran Nubia in the fourteenth century. Islam and Christianity. and fourth. paintings repeatedly represent black priests conferring on red Egyptian priests the instruments and symbols of priesthood. next. Tertullian and Cyprian were from Carthage."58 and in its developed form Sudanese tribal gods were invoked and venerated by the priests. In Upper Egypt. 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. 362. XX. in spite of their Latin names. 36. From without have come two great religious influences. earthly ancestor worship. To-day Islam dominates Africa north of ten degrees north latitude and is strong between five and ten degrees north latitude. It is the religion of possession and has been connected by some with Asiatic influences. In the Sudan to-day Frobenius distinguishes four principal religions: first. p. On the east Islam approached as a trader in the eighth century. Islam came by conquest. 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.W E B Du Bois ioc dough or still grasping the partly scaled fish. Arnobius from Sicca Veneria. third. In Africa the Church found its most zealous con57 Nassau: Fetishism in West Africa. the religion of the Bori. 58 Encyclopædia Britannica. and children checked in their play with tiny bow and arrow or startled from their dusty street pursuit of dog or goat. and from Lake Chad in the Niger as far as the Yoruba. Christianity early entered Africa. Islam. 99 . The Bori religion spreads from Nubia as far as the Hausa. 9th ed. and probably in like manner Minucius Felix.
and all the preaching of St. Mark. Abyssinia. of Jerusalem. Coming now to other spiritual aspects of African culture. and above all the Negroes of America have entered with their own churches and with the curiously significant "Ethiopian" movement. The Roman Catholics have lately increased their activities. of Nubia. West. and Pentapolis. The Portuguese in the sixteenth century began to replant the Christian religion and for a while had great success. The Bantu tongue. both on the east and west coasts. Roman Catholic enterprise halted in the eighteenth century and the Protestants began. 100 . we can speak at present only in a fragmentary way." This patriarchate had a hundred bishoprics in the fourth century and included thousands of black Christians. Roughly speaking. All these beginnings were gradually overthrown by Islam except among the Copts in Egypt. was not Negroland. however. the holy city. and in Abyssinia. where Negro blood was represented in the ancient Mediterranean race and by intercourse across the desert. and the region about the Great Lakes is becoming christianized. Through it the Cross preceded the Crescent in some of the remotest parts of black Africa. II. Africa can be divided into two language zones: north of the fifth degree of north latitude is the zone of diversity. spoken by less than fifty thousand people. South Africa is largely Christian through French and English influence.The Negro fessors of the faith and its most gifted defenders. spoken by at least fifty million. 345. and South Africa. To-day the west coast is studded with English and German missions. but Africa above the desert. south of the line there is one minor language (Bushman-Hottentot)."59 The Africa referred to here. with at least a hundred groups of widely divergent languages. and elsewhere the predominant Bantu tongue with its various dialects. The hundreds of Negro tongues or dialects in the north represent most probably 59 The African Provinces. which thus rules all Central. 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. is an agglutinative tongue which makes especial use of prefixes.
W E B Du Bois
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."60 The most brilliant suggestion of modern days links together the Egyptian of North Africa and the Hottentot and Bushmen tongues of South Africa. 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. 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. A black bard of our own day has described the onslaught of the Matabili in poetry of singular force and beauty: They saw the clouds ascend from the plains: It was the smoke of burning towns. The confusion of the whirlwind Was in the heart of the great chief of the blue-colored cattle. The shout was raised, "They are friends!" But they shouted again, "They are foes!" Till their near approach proclaimed them Matabili. 60 Mediterranean Race, p. 10. 101
The Negro
The men seized their arms, And rushed out as if to chase the antelope. The onset was as the voice of lightning, And their javelins as the shaking of the forest in the autumn storm.61 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."62 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. 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."63 61 Stowe: Native Races, etc., pp. 553-554. 62 Quoted in Schneider. 63 Frobenius: Voice of Africa, Vol. I, Chap. XIV. 102
W E B Du Bois
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. 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. 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." 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."64 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. Even when we contemplate such revolting survivals of savagery as 64 Frobenius: Voice of Africa, Vol. I. 103
Before the Arabic and European invasion they did not dwell in 'hamlets. This highway was destroyed by the 'missionaries of civilization' from Arabia only toward the close of the eighteenth century. Their pottery would be fertile in suggestion to every art craftsman in Europe. Moreover. either in the simplicity of the country or the refinements of the town. it is on record that these well-governed towns often waged an internecine warfare.' but in towns with twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants. 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. whose careful tillage of the suburbs made them able competitors of any gardener in Europe.' For every scrap of imported iron was carried over it. 104 ."65 65 Frobenius: Voice of Africa. Originally their political and municipal system was organized on the lines of a representative republic. yet the very tribes who practice cannibalism show often other traits of industry and power. one of those rare nations of the African interior which can be classed with the most esthetic and skilled. Their sexual and parental relations evidenced an amount of tact and delicacy of feelings unsurpassed among ourselves. in towns whose highways were shaded by avenues of splendid palms planted at regular intervals and laid out with the symmetry of colonnades. even in times of strife. to keep the trade routes open and to allow their own and foreign merchants to go their ways unharmed. Their weapons of iron were so perfectly fashioned that no industrial art from abroad could improve upon their workmanship. most discreet and intelligent of all those generally known to us as the so-called natural races.The Negro cannibalism we cannot jump too quickly at conclusions. running from Itimbiri to Batubenge. 14-15. "These cannibal Bassonga were. they were most industrious and capable husbandmen. and the hilts artistically inlaid with the same metal. I. Cannibalism is spread over many parts of Negro Africa. The iron blades were cunningly ornamented with damascened copper. about six hundred miles in length. but in spite of this it had been their invariable custom from time immemorial. True. according to the types we met with. And the commerce of these nations ebbed and flowed along a road of unknown age.
I. but among men of education and knowledge? One reason lies undoubtedly in the connotation of the term "Negro. 105 . 272." "When Ilifian men or women salute each other. 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. after all. the words of Stanley and hundreds of others to realize this." In North America a Negro may be seven-eights white. Primitive life among them is. no matter which. as bare and cruel as among primitive Germans or Chinese. Everyone may. a devoted earnestness in the manner of its doing. be it with a plain and easy curtsey (which is here the simplest form adopted). with every fold of clothing. the strong expressions of Livingstone. there is yet a deliberateness. which brings to light with every gesture. Livingstone again and again reminds us of "true African dignity. 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. Ceremony and courtesy mark Negro life.W E B Du Bois In disposition the Negro is among the most lovable of men. since the term refers to any person of Negro descent. a majesty. If we use the term in the same sense concerning the inhabitants of the rest of world. or kissing the dust with one's forehead."66 All this does not mean that the African Negro is not human with the all-too-well-known foibles of humanity. that they have contributed wonderful gifts in 66 Frobenius: Voice of Africa. a dignity. then. 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. not simply among the unthinking mass. or kneeling down. the deep significance and essential import of every single action. that so much of misinformation and contempt is widespread concerning Africa and its people. without too greatly straining his attention. Why is it. One has but to remember the classic story of Mungo Park. or throwing oneself upon the ground. notice the very striking precision and weight with which the upper and lower native classes observe these niceties of intercourse.
Ratzel says. We are here in the presence of a refinement of science which to an unprejudiced eye will hardly hold water. which the fancy of observers once saw all over Africa. is really to be seen only as a sign in front of tobacco shops. political organization. If we understand that an extreme case may have been taken for the genuine and pure form. we find that the hideous Negro type. 106 . woolly-haired men dwell. late in the last century. "If we ask what justifies so narrow a limitation. to settle no one knows how in just this region. says. or ability. as Livingstone says. 11. declared that the great mass of the black and brown people of Africa were not Negroes at all. culture. for the simple fact that such human beings as have history and evidence culture and ability are not Negroes! Between these two extreme definitions. industry. 313. but which. of being fitted into the complex scheme of our 67 Ratzel: History of Mankind. and that the "real" Negro dwells in a small space between the Niger and the Senegal. 68 Atlanta University Publications. Boaz. the most extraordinary and contradictory conclusions have been reached. once for all. II."67 In this restricted sense the Negro has no history. this ugly type also crops up. 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. has on closer inspection evaporated from all parts of Africa. that racial inferiority is not the cause of anti-Negro prejudice. No. Let it therefore be said. and religion.The Negro art. even so we do not comprehend the ground of its geographical limitation and location. under proper guidance. for wherever dark. with unconscious adroitness. In sharp contrast to this usage the term "Negro" in Africa has been more and more restricted until some scientists. and that they are doing the same to-day in all parts of the world. the anthropologist."68 "We have every reason to suppose that all races are capable. "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 are rather the exception. Candace and Ergamenes in Ethiopia. 1914. of Abyssinia. and Menelik. not to mention the alleged Negro strain in Æsop and Robert Browning. Instead of being. Benedict. who are making the new American syncopated music.W E B Du Bois modern civilization. Bishop Crowther. if not in certain of the popes. Ira Aldridge. In music and art we recall Bridgewater. Gomez in Spain. the elder Dumas in France. and Johnson. the Mahdi who drove England from the Sudan. In the Church we know that Negro blood coursed in the veins of many of the Catholic African fathers. and Burleigh. then. the actor. Sept. Hannivalov in Russia. Mansa Musa. and Mohammed Askai in the Sudan. As rulers and warriors we remember such Negroes as Queen Nefertari and Amenhotep III among many others in Egypt. Es-Sa'di in the Sudan. St. the numberless black leaders of India. and the policy of artificially excluding them from its benefits is as unjustifiable scientifically as it is ethically abhorrent." In nearly every age and land men of Negro descent have distinguished themselves. and Dunbar in the United States. Dumas in France. Heredia in the West Indies. and the mulatto strain of Alexander Hamilton. this so-called "instinctive" modern prejudice against black folk? Lord Bryce says of the intermingling of blacks and whites in South America. Sonni Ali. and there were in modern days Benoit of Palermo. the friend of Beethoven. for in the ancient world there seems to have been little race repulsion. Cazembe and Chaka among the Bantu."69 What is. Tanner in America. 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. as we Teutons suppose. Sakanouye Tamuramaro in Japan. Nosseyeb and Antar in Arabia. Coleridge-Taylor in England. and 69 Robert Lowie in the New Review. the rule in the matter. Al Kanemi in Spain. Cook. 107 . "The ease with which the Spaniards have intermingled by marriage with the Indian tribes—and the Portuguese have done the like. and the unexplained complexion of Beethoven's own father.. Toussaint L'Ouverture in Hayti. Diaz in Brazil. Pushkin in Russia. not only with the Indians. In literature there is Terence in Rome.
Wood. Lot Carey. and invention the Negroes claim Lislet Geoffroy of the French Academy. 108 . And we shall find the answer in modern Negro slavery and the slave trade. and in America the explorers Dorantes and Henson. McCoy. Here are names representing all degrees of genius and talent from the mediocre to the highest. who revolutionized shoemaking. inventor of modern lubrication. but to historic facts.The Negro Americans like Allen. In science. We must. Banneker. well known in European university circles. look for the origin of modern color prejudice not to physical or cultural causes. the almanac maker. the telephone improver. and Alexander Crummell. but they are strong human testimony to the ability of this race. Matseliger. then. discovery. Latino and Amo.
a "rev-erend herald" OLOR WAS NEVER Of visage solemn. there were also more blacks among her nobles and Pharaohs. and both facts are explained by her racial origin and geographical position. sad. Homer sings of a black man. Short. and finally the modern trade in Negroes. in whose large soul alone. woolly curls. o'erfleeced his bending head. 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. Such slavery has been common among all peoples and was wide-spread in Africa. but sable hue.W E B Du Bois IX THE TRADE IN MEN C a badge of slavery in the ancient or medieval world. thus releasing the warriors for systematic fighting and the women for leisure. nor has it been in the modern world outside of Christian states. but after a long interval came the white slave trade of the Saracens and Moors. Ulysses viewed an image of his own. Remembering that in the fifteenth century there was no great 109 . Greece and Rome had their chief supplies of slaves from Europe and Asia. The fall of Rome led to a cessation of the slave trade. 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. and if there were more blacks than others among her slaves. Egypt enslaved races of all colors.… Eurybiates.
The Negro
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. 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. 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. 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. 110
W E B Du Bois
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. 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." 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 111
The Negro
collect and may promise them ease if they work well."70 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. After this time frequent notices show that Negroes were common in the new world.71 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. 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 Indians72." 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 152873. Thus the American trade became established and gradually grew, passing successively into the hands of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the English. 70 Cf. Helps: Spanish Conquest, IV, 401. 71 Helps, op. cit., I, 219-220. 72 Helps, op. cit., II, 18-19. 73 Helps, op. cit., III, 211-212. 112
and even the Asiatic Malay. the Mandingo and Songhay. To this must be added the large slave trade of Mussulman lands. in 1482. but the strong Bantu. inculcated more disrespect for and neglect of humanity. the east coast. and Raphael. a greater callousness to suffering. and Madagascar. We may excuse and palliate it. and more petty. 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. and this caste was made the foundation of a new industrial system. The Portuguese built the first slave-trading fort at Elmina. Not simply the degraded and weaker types of Negroes were seized. unchecked demand for brute labor in the West Indies and on the continent of America grew until it culminated in the eighteenth century. human hatred than can well be calculated. economic. however. Haroun-al-Raschid and Abraham Lincoln. These were not days of decadence. which began with the seventh century and raged almost unchecked until the end of the nineteenth century. the Fula. were represented in the raids. This called for slave raiding on a scale that drew upon every part of Africa—upon the west coast. European civilization carried on a systematic trade in human beings of such tremendous proportions that the physical. on the Gold Coast. In the midst of this advance and uplift this slave trade and slavery spread more human misery. the American trade developed. Under them the abominable traffic grew larger 113 . it remains the most inexcusable and despicable blot on modern human history. For four hundred years.W E B Du Bois At first the trade was of the same kind and volume as that already passing northward over the desert routes. the western and Egyptian Sudan. and moral effects are still plainly to be remarked throughout the world. Abyssinia. from 1450 to 1850. but a period that gave the world Shakespeare. because more and more it came in time to be founded on racial caste. There was thus begun in modern days a new slavery and slave trade. the valley of the Congo. It was different from that of the past. A strong. cruel. and extended their trade down the west coast and up the east coast. and write history so as to let men forget it. Martin Luther. the lake regions. the Nubian and Nile Negroes. when Negro slaves were crossing the Atlantic at the rate of fifty to one hundred thousand a year. Soon.
surrendered New Netherlands to England and opened the way for England to become henceforth the world's greatest slave trader. our chiefe shippe" played a leading part. the queen dowager. when English chartered slave-trading companies began to appear. invested in the trade. 476. 114 . which became the world's chief slave trader. they made their first voyage to Guinea. until it became far the most important in money value of all the commerce of the Zambesi basin. carried the slaves to the West Indies or Brazil. in 1595. in which "the Jesus. which sent in four years fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty Negroes to Brazil. 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. and gradually became the great slave carrier of the day. They began their fight for freedom from Spain in 1579. Desultory trade was kept up by the English until the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1662 the "Royal Adventurers. There could be no extension of agriculture. was formed in 1672 and carried on a growing trade for a quarter of a century. and finally the Royal African Company. however. The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the envy and emulation of the English." including the king. who launched the oversea slave trade as a regular institution. no progress of any kind where it was so extensively carried on74. supplied even the English plantations. got slaves in exchange for their goods. In 1621 the private companies trading in the west were all merged into the Dutch West India Company. carried on war with Spain. Ships sailed from Holland to Africa. and the Duke of York. among other things. no mining. 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. as a war measure against Spain. The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 was aimed at them. I. and returned home laden with sugar.The Negro and larger. Jamaica had fi74 Theal: History and Ethnography of South Africa before 1795. It was the Dutch. The English trade began with Sir John Hawkins' voyages in 1562 and later. who at that time was dominating Portugal.
1493. industry. The trade centered at Liverpool. and Nupe had exhausted itself in a desperate attempt to stem the on-coming flood of Mohammedan culture. 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. which carried forty-nine thousand two hundred and thirteen slaves in one year. The slave trade thus begun by the Portuguese. From this agreement the slave traders reaped a harvest. and at the beginning of the nineteenth century one hundred and eighty-five. encouraged by Parliamentary subsidies which amounted to nearly half a million dollars between 1729 and 1750. in 1640 the Dutch received it. although they had to go to war over it in 1739.W E B Du Bois nally been captured and held by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 and formed a West Indian base for the trade in men. debarred Spain from African possessions. and in 1701 the French. Benin. enlarged by the Dutch. 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 War of the Spanish Succession brought this monopoly to England. and art. It had developed strong resistance 115 . It has succeeded in maintaining its small. 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. This contract was in the hands of the Portuguese in 1600. eighty-six in 1765. The English held the monopoly until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). The culture of Yoruba. and that city's commercial greatness was built largely on this foundation. It came at a critical time. The English counted this prize as the greatest result of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). The Pope's Bull or Demarkation. the trade amounted to fifty-three ships in 1751. loosely federated city-states suited to trade. and compelled her to contract with other nations for slaves. which ended the mighty struggle against the power of Louis XIV. In 1709 it sent out one slaver of thirty tons' burden. Mossiland. 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.
on the contrary. Ashanti. began its conquests in 1719 and grew with the slave trade. penetrated. was now clear. coupled with Christian rum and Mohammedan raiding. From 1680 to 1688 we know that the English African Company alone sent 249 ships to Africa. Thus state building in West Africa began to replace the city economy. continent wide and centuries long and an economic. social. 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. reaching its highest power early in the nineteenth century. The exact proportions of the slave trade can be estimated only approximately. and political catastrophe probably unparalleled in human history. but behind this warlike resistance lay the peaceful city life which gave industrial ideas to Byzantium and shared something of Ethiopian and Mediterranean culture. It was. forced itself forward in the Niger delta. The powerful state of Dahomey arose early in the eighteenth century and became a devastating tyranny. Family ties and government were weakened. The native industries were changed and disorganized. The full significance of the battle of Tenkadibou. shipped there 60.783 Negro slaves. for it was not bronze metal but bronze flesh that Europe wanted. A new tyranny. deliv116 . but it was a state built on war and on war supported and encouraged largely for the sake of trade in human flesh. not as the land of gold and ivory. as in the case of the fighting Mossi. The face of Africa was turned south on these slave traders instead of northward toward the Mediterranean. but soon this was pushed into the background. and after losing 14. of Mansa Musa and Meroe. The first advent of the slave traders increased and encouraged native industry. a similar kingdom.387 on the middle passage. Hereafter Africa for centuries was to appear before the world. bloodthirsty. and built on war. cruel. which overthrew the Askias. Far into the heart of Africa this devilish disintegration. dumb and degraded.The Negro toward the Sudan state builders toward the north. as is evidenced by the bronze work of Benin. but as a bound and captive slave. where for two thousand years and more Europe and Africa had met in legitimate trade and mutual respect.
As Sir William Dolben said.000 Negroes a year arrived in America between 1698 and 1707.000." that is. the voyage across the Atlantic.W E B Du Bois ered 46. Not only was there the immense demand for slaves which had its outlet on the west coast. The total number of slaves imported is not known.000 and perhaps 100. and over 4. Probably every slave imported represented on the average five corpses in Africa or on the high seas. It was a rape of a continent to an extent never paralleled in ancient or modern times. Dunbar estimates that nearly 900. and before the Revolutionary War it had reached at least 40. perhaps 15.000 in the seventeenth. whole tribes disappeared.000 annually. It seems probable that 25.000 souls.000.000. 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. therefore. Certainly it seems that at least 10.000 Negroes were expatriated. The African continent gradually became revolutionized. then. 2. Whole regions were depopulated. In the American trade there was not only the horrors of the slave raid. The American slave trade.000. meant the elimination of at least 60. Further advances toward civilization became impossible.000 came to America in the sixteenth century. villages were built in caves and on hills or in forest fastnesses. After the Asiento of 1713 this number rose to 30.000 in the nineteenth. which lined the winding paths of the African jungles with bleached bones.000. "The Negroes were chained to each other 117 . 7.000. irresistible grasp of fetish took firmer hold on men's minds.000 in all. to say that the slave trade cost Negro Africa 100. The dark. And yet people ask to-day the cause of the stagnation of culture in that land since 1600! Such a large number of slaves could be supplied only by organized slave raiding in every corner of Africa. the character of peoples like those of Benin developed their worst excesses of cruelty instead of the already flourishing arts of peace.750.000 Negroes from their fatherland.396 in America. The Mohammedan slave trade meant the expatriation or forcible migration in Africa of nearly as many more. It would be conservative.000 slaves a year.000 in the eighteenth. but there was also the horrors of what was called the "middle passage.
that slavery as an industrial system could not be made to work satisfactorily in modern times. when the slaves rose on the plantation of Diego Columbus down to the Civil War in America. However. in 1807." It was estimated that out of every one hundred lot shipped from Africa only about fifty lived to be effective laborers across the sea. Wilberforce. and one of the causes of this cost was the slave insurrections from the very beginning. so that they who came to inspect them in a morning had occasionally to pick dead slaves out of their rows. and the United States attempted to do so the following year. Notwithstanding these laws. It was seen. first in England and later in other countries. Portugal and Spain were induced to abolish the trade between 1815 and 1830. Its cost was too great. The full realization of the horrors of the slave trade was slow in reaching the ears and conscience of the modern world.The Negro hand and foot. 152. the contraband trade went on until the beginning of the Civil War in America. in North and South America. just as to-day the treatment of dark natives in European colonies is brought to publicity with the greatest difficulty. kept the slave owners in apprehension and turmoil. who had no sympathy with the efforts to stop their source of cheap labor supply. but it was not until thirty-one years later. and to unchain their carcases from the bodies of their wretched fellow-sufferers to whom they had been fastened75. Thus crammed together like herrings in a barrel. 118 . and others. and among the whites more seamen died in that trade in one year than in the whole remaining trade of England in two. or 75 Ingram: History of Slavery. p. philanthropy was not working alone to overthrow Negro slavery and the slave trade. The reasons for this were the enormous profit of the trade and the continued demand of the American slave barons. they contracted putrid and fatal disorders. Denmark had already abolished the trade. The first move against the slave trade in England came in Parliament in 1776. Sharpe. Actual and potential slave insurrection in the West Indies. that the trade was banned through the arduous labors of Clarkson. and stowed so close that they were not allowed above a foot and a half for each in breadth.
In North America revolt finally took the form of organized running away to the North. Such is the story of the Rape of Ethiopia—a sordid. for four hundred years the sharks followed the scurrying ships. three thousand annually were being thus transplanted. for four hundred years Ethiopia stretched forth her hands unto God. 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. the dark captives wound to the sea amid the bleaching bones of the dead. and the Congo Free State. There was still.W E B Du Bois called for a police system difficult to maintain. As late as 1880. and Milton sung. On the east coast of Africa in 1862 nineteen thousand slaves were passed into Zanzibar and thence into Arabia and Persia. for four hundred years America was strewn with the living and dying millions of a transplanted race. Luther preached. and through it all. led to the Civil War and the disappearance of the American slave trade. however. cruel tale. pitiful. Raphael painted. for four hundred years. Corneille wrote. and this has been the work of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 119 . but now the trade is about stopped. the Mohammedan slave trade to deal with. with the growing scarcity of suitable land and the moral revolt. and this. 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.
who explored the coast of Virginia in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Before 1530 there were enough Negroes in Mexico to lead to an insurrection. for instance. where the Negroes fought desperately. According to some accounts Alonzo.The Negro X THE WEST INDIES AND LATIN AMERICA the fif-teenth. when men realized that beyond the scowling waste of western waters were dreams come true. Balboa had with him thirty Negroes. a Negro is sent to burn a native village. and evidently treated him just as white applicants were treated." piloted one of the ships of Columbus. For on Negro slavery in America was built. "the Negro. Later the followers of another 120 T HAT WAS A WONDERFUL CENTURY. arose at once the filthiest institution of the modern world and the costliest. but the foundations of that modern imperialism which is based on the despising of backward men. As early as 1528 there were nearly ten thousand Negroes in the new world. Curious and yet crassly human it is that. D'Allyon. with all this poetry and romance. but were overcome and their ringleaders executed. used Negro slaves (who afterward revolted) to build his ships and help in exploration. in 1513. . in 1555 the town council of Santiago de Chile voted to allow an enfranchised Negro possession of land in the town. and certainly there was Negro blood among his sailors. helped to build the first ships on the Pacific coast. Cortez had three hundred Negro porters in 1522. not simply the abortive cotton kingdom. who. In Honduras. We hear of them in all parts.
" 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. he was already at Cibola. The slave trade greatly increased in the latter part of the eighteenth century. which is eighty leagues of wilderness beyond. he endeavored to cross the wilderness which is between Cibola and the country he had gone through. and Central America. The history of the Negro in Spanish America centered in Cuba. fifty thousand in Porto Rico. 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.O. 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. This Stephen or "Estevanico" was sent ahead by certain Spanish friars to the "Seven Cities of Cibola. which is on the edge of the wilderness. Flipper's translation of Castaneda de Nafera's narrative. 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. and carrying along with him the people who followed him. This and Spanish greed increased the harshness of slavery and eventually led to revolt among the Negroes." "As soon as Stephen had left said friars. because it seemed to them unreasonable for him to say that the people were white in the country from which he came. 121 . he determined to earn all the reputation and honor for himself. were captured and sent back to Spain. In 1844 Governor O'Donnell began a cruel persecution 76 H. discovered New Mexico. and after the revolution in Hayti large numbers of French emigrants from that island settled in Cuba. and sixty thousand in Central and South America. sixty thousand in Louisiana and Florida. eighty-four thousand in Cuba. Spanish America had by the close of the eighteenth century ten thousand in Santo Domingo. Negroes founded the town of Santiago del Principe in 1570."76 Slaves imported under the Asiento treaties went to all parts of the Americas.W E B Du Bois Negro insurgent. and he was so far ahead of the friars that when they arrived at Chichilticalli. A Negro. Bayano. Venezuela. being black himself and being sent by them. Stephen Dorantes.
Brazil was the center of Portuguese slavery. and other South American leaders used Negro soldiers in fighting for freedom (1814-16). Between 1840 and 1845 it came to an end in Colombia. Bolivia. Venezuela. Paez. The result was the freeing of Cuba by the intervention of the United States. and Hayti twice at critical times rendered assistance and received Bolivar twice as a refugee. Brazilian slavery allowed the slave to purchase his freedom. Even in the eighteenth century there were black clergy and bishops. Chile. and the color line was not strict. industrial. Sucre. Bolivar. They demanded the abolition of slavery and equal political rights for natives and foreigners. Antonio Maceo. Peru. and literary lines have been men of Negro descent. and Paraguay ceased to recognize it about 1825. and the leading chiefs of the Ten Years' War including such leaders as the mulatto. Gradually the seaboard from Pernambuco to Rio Janeiro and beyond became filled with Negroes. In 1695 a tribe of revolted slaves 122 . Negro regiments from the United States played here a leading role. while a further uprising the following year secured civil rights for Negroes. with large numbers of Negro soldiers. Finally in 1866 the Ten Years' War broke out in which Negro and white rebels joined. Insurrection was often attempted.The Negro of the blacks on account of a plot discovered among them. Not until Brazil abolished slavery in 1888 did the importation wholly cease. Spanish economic oppression continued. however. Slavery was abolished by Guatemala in 1824 and by Mexico in 1829. took the field again in 1895. and Ecquador. nevertheless between 1825 and 1850 over a million and a quarter of Negroes were introduced. whites and blacks. when diamonds were discovered in the territory above Rio Janeiro. and by Brazil in these regions in 1826 and 1830. but slaves were not introduced in large numbers until about 1720. indeed the Negro clergy seem to have been on a higher moral level than the whites. especially among the Mohammedan Negroes around Bahia. and although the slave trade north of the equator was theoretically abolished by Portugal in 1815 and south of the equator in 1830. Argentine. The war was cruel and bloody but ended in 1878 with the abolition of slavery. A number of leaders in Cuba in political.
From 1831 to 1837 revolt was in the air.W E B Du Bois held out for a long time. but were finally defeated. While Mohammedan Negroes still gave trouble and were in some cases sent back to Africa. 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. the Brazilian middle class intermarries with mulattoes and Quadroons. indeed I have never heard of a lynching anywhere in South America except occasionally as part of a political convulsion. and whites. The doctrines of human equality and human solidarity have here their perfect work. but many of the leaders fled to the forest. yet on the whole emancipation was peaceful. The Negroes fought with furious bravery. in which a fusion of the European and African races is proceeding unchecked by law or custom. The Brazilian lower class intermarries freely with the black people. so that emancipation did not come as a shock."77 Lord Bryce says. 123 . One of the ablest and most refined Brazilians 77 Johnston: Negro in the New World. In 1719 a widespread conspiracy failed. it will not necessarily reduce the intellectual standard. Negroes. and Indians are to-day amalgamating into a new race. and again in 1830. the black population predominates …. 109. and in 1835 came the great revolt of the Mohammedans. The white man does not lynch or maltreat the Negro. "It is hardly too much to say that along the coast from Rio to Bahia and Pernambuco. p. besides the Portuguese colonies on the east and west coasts of Africa. Brazil is the one country in the world. If one may judge from a few remarkable cases. "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. The result is so far satisfactory that there is little or no class friction. as well as in parts of the interior behind these two cities. In 1828 a thousand rose in revolt at Bahia. who attempted to enthrone a queen. "What ultimate effect the intermixture of blood will have on the European element in Brazil I will not venture to predict. By 1872 the number of free Negroes had very greatly increased.
The Negro
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."78 A Brazilian writer said at the First Races Congress: "The coöperation of the metis79 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 metis 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."80 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."81 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. 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. 78 Bryce: South America, pp. 479-480. 79 I.e., mulattoes. 80 Inter-Racial Problems, p. 381. 81 Smith: General History of Virginia. 124
W E B Du Bois
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. 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. 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. 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 125
The Negro
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. 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. 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. 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."82 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 82 La Croix: Mémoires sur la Révolution, I, 253, 408. 126
having lost most of their forces by yellow fever. bound. and trade was practically free. Nicholas to Toussaint and departed. and Toussaint in 1800 was master of Hayti. surrendered Mole St. He became supreme in the north. and replied to Toussaint's new government by sending twenty-five thousand men under his brother-inlaw to subdue the presumptuous Negroes. with the power to name his successor. after studied humiliations. p. as soon as possible. 127 . He was courteously received with military honors and then. but Napoleon made his way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. at the age of fifty-six. Toussaint was to be president for life. This at once won back Toussaint from the Spaniards. treacherously seized. Thus perished the greatest of American Negroes and one of the great men of all time. Indeed that was all that Toussaint himself had as yet demanded. 158. all men were equal before the law. induced Toussaint to join the Spaniards. had at this time dreams of a great American empire. Napoleon Bonaparte. 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. Rigaud finally left for France. Fierce fighting and yellow fever decimated the French."83 Wendell Phillips said. "God in his terrestrial globe did not commune with a purer spirit. 1803. leader of the mulattoes. together with the beheading of the king (an impious act in the eyes of Negroes). Cf. The planters intrigued with the British and this. I would call him Napoleon. He was imprisoned at Fort Joux and died. but matters went hard with the Negroes too. April 7. By 1798 the British. "Some doubt the courage of the Negro. held the south and the west. A French planter said. perhaps of poison. He promulgated a constitution under which Hayti was to be a self-governing colony. and sent to France. This man 83 Marquis d'Hermonas.W E B Du Bois emancipation. In 1793 British troops were landed and the French commissioners in desperation declared the slaves emancipated. as a preliminary step to his occupation and development of the Mississippi valley. master of France. Johnston: Negro in the New World. while Rigaud. and Toussaint finally offered to yield.
dipping her pen in the sunlight. but Cromwell was only a soldier. You think me a fanatic. above them all. consummate flower of our earlier civilization. not with your eyes. who was indirectly the means of America's expansion by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. if you will. Dessalines. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave trade in the humblest village of his dominions. and all of Washington and Oregon states. Brutus for the Roman. Toussaint L'Ouverture. the statesman. The Haytian leaders united upon Dessalines to maintain the independence of the republic. Hampden for the English. in Christian Herald. without education or religious instruction. for you read history. The effect of all this was far-reaching. was noted in slavery days for his severity toward his fellows and the discipline which he insisted on. crushed by a cruel servitude. the martyr. arose and all the eight thousand remaining French surrendered to the blockading British fleet. I would call him Cromwell. and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. the work of a Robert Livingstone or a Jefferson. Praise. came to us as the indirect work of a despised Negro. Dessalines. but with your prejudices. I would call him Washington. and most of Colorado and Minnesota.The Negro never broke his word. A new colored leader. "Thus. 1906. the Muse of history will put Phocion for the Greek. He had other characteristics of African chieftains. all of Indian Territory. all of Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and Wyoming and Montana and the Dakotas. but the great Virginian held slaves. Napoleon gave up his dream of American empire and sold Louisiana for a song."84 With the freedom of Hayti in 1801 came a century of struggle to fit the people for the freedom they had won. But fifty years hence. when Truth gets a hearing. La Fayette for France. choose Washington as the bright. then. will write in the clear blue. but to-day let us not forget our debt to Toussaint L'Ouverture." The treacherous killing of Toussaint did not conquer Hayti. "There were seasons when he broke through his natural sullenness and showed himself open. In 1802 and 1803 some forty thousand French soldiers died of war and fever. like Toussaint and his lieutenant Christophe. November 28. 84 DeWitt Talmage. 128 . They were yet slaves. the name of the soldier.
II. the independence of Hayti was declared by the military leaders. who carried it out with rigor. and the rest went to the chiefs. and the laborers were bound to the soil and worked under rigorous inspection. part of the products were reserved for their support. but was killed in ambush in October. at the place whence Toussaint had been treacherously seized and sent to France. the king. and even generous. The severity with which Dessalines enforced the laws soon began to turn many against him. 25. with elective hereditary chiefs. His vanity was excessive and manifested itself in singular perversities. 1804. and regencies. 158-159. royal families. and the army. 1806. from whom he formed a national guard for patrolling the land. Women did much of the agricultural labor. the general government. 86 Brown: History of San Domingo."86 The population was divided into soldiers and laborers. These 85 Aimes: African Institutions in America (reprinted from Journal of American Folk Lore). councils. which had already cost the Frenchmen fifty thousand lives. The army was under stern discipline and military service was compulsory. This was not an act of grandiloquence and mimicry. Under Toussaint the administration of this system was committed to Dessalines. The territory was parceled out to chiefs. where the organization of society was despotic. "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.W E B Du Bois affable. These regulations brought back for a time a large part of the former prosperity of the island."85 He was a man of great personal bravery and succeeded in maintaining the independence of Hayti. Dessalines was made governor-general for life and afterward proclaimed himself emperor. The educated mulattoes especially objected to submission to the savage African mores. Dessalines started to suppress their revolt. 129 . The latter even imported four thousand Negroes from Africa. p. On January 1. There was nothing in the constitution which did not have its companion in Africa. Great Britain now began to intrigue for a protectorate over the island and the Spanish end of the island threatened attack. it was afterward followed by Christophe. polygamic marriages.
gained the mastery there. not simply for Hayti. but also. Eight hundred young freedmen. Commodore Aury. offered to take part in the expedition. The British had captured Savannah in 1778. under Charles X. 130 . blacks and mulattoes. before the revolution in Hayti. Petion was a man of considerable ability and did much. in the extreme southwest. Christophe committed suicide the following year and Boyer became not simply ruler of western Hayti. Goman. Very soon. Rigaud in the south."87 Petion died in 1818 and was succeeded by his friend Boyer. a man of much ability. and last and best a printing press. provisions. Among the men who fought there was Christophe. however. France. Chap. He also settled some international quarrels among members of the groups. by arrangement with the eastern end of the island. and a semi-brigand. The French fleet appeared on the coast of Georgia late that year and was ordered to recruit men in Hayti.The Negro difficulties were overcome. and Bolivar expressed himself afterward as being "overwhelmed with magnanimous favors. When Simon Bolivar. the Haytian Negroes had helped the United States. but at a cost of great internal strain. XI. and many Venezuelan families were driven from their country in 1815. the rivalry narrowed down to Petion and Christophe. It was this legion that made the charge on the British and saved the retreating American army. and they fought valiantly in the siege and covered themselves with glory. Thus from 1822 to 1843 Boyer. Already as early as 1779. but for South America. Petion as president at Port au Prince. Notwithstanding the embarrassed condition of the republic. Petion received them and gave them four thousand rifles with ammunition. demanded an indemnity of thirty million dollars to reimburse the planters for confiscated lands and prop87 See Leger: Hayti. At one time Christophe was ruling as king in the north. After the death of Dessalines it seemed that Hayti was about to dissolve into a number of petty subdivisions. they and their ships took temporary refuge in Hayti. ruled the whole of the island and gained the recognition of Haytian independence from France and other nations. where they were afraid of Spanish aggression.
Further negotiations were entered into. The result has been reaction and savagery under Soulouque. but in economic life she has succeeded in placing on their own little farms the happiest and most contented peasantry in the world. Within.W E B Du Bois erty. which for a time meant the difference between educated liberalism and reactionary ignorance. In Guadeloupe they helped the French drive out the British. and finally in 1860 the church placed under the French hierarchy. In other parts of the French-American dominion the slaves achieved freedom also by insurrection. leaving the treasury well filled. and the payment of it for years crippled the island. 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. and Hyppolite. and decided advance under presidents like Nissage-Saget. A concordat was arranged with the Pope for governing the church in Hayti. Even this was a large burden for Hayti. This difference has largely disappeared. 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. after raising them from a veritable hell of slavery. In 131 . Thus Boyer did unusually well. Legitime. The United States and Great Britain in 1825-26 recognized the independence of Hayti. but with his withdrawal the Spanish portion of the island was lost to Hayti. This Hayti tried to pay. but some vestiges of the color line remain. In political life Hayti is still in the sixteenth century. but his necessary concessions to France weakened his influence at home. the old antagonism between the freedman and the slave settled into a color line between the mulatto and the black. He resigned in 1843. which the little nation rightly feared. and Nord Alexis. Solomon. which destroyed several towns in 1842. raised the superstitious of the populace against him. Dominique. and thus gained emancipation. but outside capital meant political influence from abroad. but the annual installment was a tremendous burden to the impoverished country. and finally an earthquake. Finally in 1838 France recognized the independence of the republic and the indemnity was reduced to twelve million dollars.
and in the United States. Juan de Bolas. however. in his zeal for God and the slave trade. besides murdering planters. The English found the mountains already infested with runaway slaves known as "Maroons. driven off there. took Jamaica in 1655. in 1844 and 1847 further uprisings took place. Washington Franklin. and the result was attempted slave insurrections in 1674. and 1702. Indians. They were granted twentyfive hundred acres and their freedom was recognized. 1692. The peace lasted until 1795. in the following year. In 1663 the freedom of the Maroons was acknowledged. Jamaica and the lesser islands. Bloodhounds again were imported. and from 1664 to 1738 the three thousand or more black Maroons fought the British Empire in guerrilla warfare. The chief island domain of English slavery was Jamaica. He was killed. The Maroons offered to surrender on the express condition that none of their number should be deported from the island.The Negro Martinique it took three revolts and a civil war to bring freedom. and the repeal of bad laws and eventual enfranchisement of the colored people followed. has held the position of chief justice in the island and was knighted. as the legislature wished. His fleet. and finally in 1738 Captain Cudjo and other chiefs made a formal treaty of peace with Governor Trelawney." and more Negroes joined them when the English arrived. land was given them. Barbadoes. Soldiers. These were not successful. was made a colonel in the militia. and dogs were sent against them. Sir Conrad Reeves. but a rising in 1816 destroyed much property under the leadership of a mulatto. General Walpole hesitated. The English slave empire in America centered in the Bermudas. and their leader. A Negro insurrection in Dominica under Farcel greatly exercised England in 1791 and 1794 and delayed slave trade abolition. and these continued from 1853 to 1893. Barbadoes developed a savage slave code. The Maroons surrendered their arms. It was Oliver Cromwell who. One Barbadian mulatto. but could get peace on no other terms and gave his word. 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 132 . sent an expedition to seize Hayti. when they rebelled again and gave the British a severe drubbing.
which he indignantly refused to accept. Despite the Moravian missions and other efforts late in the eighteenth century. Chapter V. George William Gordon. The white officials sent out in these days were arbitrary and corrupt. There ensued a discouraging condition of industry. arose in revolt and destroyed nearly three and a half million dollars' worth of property. Eventually these exiled Maroons found their way to Sierra Leone. Children 88 Cf. Little was done for the mass of the people and there was outrageous over-taxation. and between 1700 and 1786 six hundred and ten thousand slaves were imported.88 The pressing desire for peace with the Maroons on the part of the white planters arose from the new sugar culture introduced in 1673. called a meeting. 69. 133 . 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. There was an insurrection in 1796. nevertheless. and in addition to this killed without trial 85. Nevertheless the backwardness of the colony was attributed to the Negro. in time to save that colony to the British crown. and a mulatto. The result was that Governor Eyre tried and executed by courtmartial 354 persons. for which the planters were paid nearly thirty million dollars. so severely were they driven. One thousand Negro homes were burned to the ground and thousands of Negroes flogged or mutilated. This aroused the colored people. unrest among the Jamaica slaves and freedmen grew and was increased by the anti-slavery agitation in England and the revolt in Hayti. a total of 439. only a few of whom were white. well-nigh ruining the planters there. Other meetings were afterward held. West Africa. The next year two hundred and fifty-five thousand slaves were set free. and finally the Negro peasantry began a riot in 1861. impatient because of the slow progress of the emancipation. and in 1831 again the Negroes of northwest Jamaica. in which eighteen people were killed. A greatly increased demand for slaves followed. that there were only three hundred thousand Negroes in Jamaica in the latter year. p.W E B Du Bois twenty-five hundred dollars to General Walpole.
and after hard fighting signed a treaty in 1773. and given representation in the legislature in 1886.The Negro had their brains dashed out. They afterward helped the French against the British. The British took possession in 1763. off Honduras. Indians first sought to enslave the fugitive Negroes wrecked there. "reckless and positively barbarous. 89 Johnston: Negro in the New World. but the Negroes took the Carib women and then drove the Indian men away. These "black Caribs" fought with Indians. receiving one-third of the island as their property. Other parts of South America must be dismissed briefly. The black Caribs resisted. and were finally deported to the island of Ruatan. Here Simon Bolivar with his Negro. Colombia and Venezuela. because of insufficient data. until the Indians were exterminated. In fact the punishment was. with perhaps eight million people. and others for three quarters of a century. 134 . while Argentine and Uruguay have very little."89 This high-handed act aroused England. Bolivia and Peru have small amounts of Negro blood. and Indian forces began the war that liberated South America. have at least one-third of their population of Negro and Indian descent. and Gordon was tried by court-martial and hanged. Vincent. Eyre was not punished. perhaps one hundred thousand in all. Central America has a smaller proportion of Negroids. as the royal commissioners said. mulatto. English. but the island was made a crown colony in 1866. pregnant women were murdered. The Negro population in these lands is everywhere in process of rapid amalgamation with whites and Indians. In the island of St. In Trinidad and British Guiana there have been mutinies and rioting of slaves and a curious mingling of races.
in 1910. Before that Northern States like New York had received some slaves from the Dutch. seventeenth. 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. brought to America in the sixteenth. These persons are almost entirely descendants of African slaves. and New England had early develHERE WERE HALF A MILLION SLAVES T 135 . The importation of Negroes to the mainland of North America was small until the British got the coveted privilege of the Asiento in 1713. liberty. that among these are life. eighteenth. And this experiment was on such a scale and so long-continued that it is profitable for study and reflection. not including the considerable infiltration of Negro blood which is not acknowledged and often not known.828.W E B Du Bois XI THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES in the confines of the United States when the Declaration of Independence declared "that all men are created equal. that they are en-dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. 9. and nineteenth centuries.294 persons of acknowledged Negro descent. To-day the number of persons called Negroes is probably about ten and a quarter million. 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. There were in the United States in its dependencies.
060 mulattoes.686 mulattoes. This blending of the races has led to interesting human types. 1910. After the Asiento treaty the Negro population increased in the eighteenth century from about 50. The present so-called Negro population of the United States is: 1. sold the rum. 405. the foreign slave trade was soon made illegal. When the colonies became independent. 1860. Probably one-third of the Negroes of the United States have distinct traces of white blood.751 mulattoes.050. 1890. and brought the slaves to the West Indies. Ships went out to the African coast with rum.The Negro oped a trade by which she imported a number of house servants. mulattoes formed 13. 585. 1. 1910. but racial prejudice has hitherto prevented any scientific study of the matter. The figures as to mulattoes90 have been from time to time officially acknowledged to be understatements. to be made into rum for further exploits. Berber. 588. Or in actual numbers: 1850.000 in 1750 and to 462. mulattoes formed 12 per cent of the total Negro population. 2.000 in 1710 to 220. 1860. but illicit trade.2 per cent of the total Negro population. and Semitic blood. A mixture of these strains with the blood of white Americans through a system of concubinage of colored women in slavery days. mulattoes formed 15. mulattoes formed 20. 1870. Bantu. 1870.2 per cent of the total Negro population. Sudanese. mulattoes formed 11. together with some legal intermarriage. A mixture of the various African populations.2 per cent of the total Negro population. west-coast Negroes. 2.9 per cent of the total Negro population. darkening to almost black and shading off in the 90 The figures given by the census are as follows: 1850. 1890.601 mulattoes. 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. some dwarfs. In general the Negro population in the United States is brown in color. 136 .000 in 1770.352 mulattoes. there they exchanged the slaves for sugar and molasses and brought the molasses back to New England. and some traces of Arab.132.
how they reacted against it. were reluctant in the seventeenth century to have their slaves receive Christian instruction. Connecticut adopted similar legislation in 1650. Much has been written of the black man in America. 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. 381. but most of this has been from the point of view of the whites. 137 . 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. and Virginia declared in 1661 that Negroes "are 91 Cf. however." quoted in Helps: Spanish Conquest. and what they are doing with their partial freedom to-day. 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. Masters therefore. For a long time there was in law no distinction between the indented white servant from England and the black servant from Africa. so that we know of the effect of Negro slavery on the whites. what they did to secure their freedom. except in the term of their service. and the consequent problem of the Negro so far as the white population is concerned."91 meaning by "strangers" apparently heathen. The corollary was that when a slave was converted he became free. IV. is dealing with the matter more from the point of view of the Negro group itself. and is indistinguishable in some cases from the white population. and seeking to show what slavery meant to them. 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. but saying nothing as to the effect of conversion. but they were met by certain moral difficulties. The slaves landing from 1619 onward were received by the colonies at first as laborers. the strife among the whites for and against abolition. on the same plane as other laborers. "The Spanish Jurist Solorzaris. Even here the distinction was not always observed. This chapter.W E B Du Bois other direction to yellow and white.
therefore. Maryland declared in 1663 that Negro slaves should serve durante vita. and as the one who expressed. The internal slave trade tended further to weaken natural ties. a weak community life. his realm alone—the province of religion and medicine—remained largely unaffected by the plantation system. Marriage became geographical and transient. less effective. At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed every vestige of spontaneous movement among the Negroes. That powerful institution.The Negro incapable of making satisfaction" for time lost in running away by lengthening their time of services. in order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity. meals. the greatest social effect of American slavery was to substitute for the polygamous Negro home a new polygamy less guarded. From such beginnings arose and spread with marvelous rapidity the Negro church. broadly speaking. rudely but picturesquely. A small number of favored house servants and artisans were raised above this—had their private homes. independent unit did not exist. the longing and disappointment and resentment of a stolen people. thus implying that they were slaves for life. The private home as a self-protective. with common dwelling. was almost completely destroyed. The vast power of the priest in the African state is well known. and assimilated much of American civilization. This is not strictly true."92 The transplanting of the Negro from his African clan life to the West Indian plantation was a social revolution. and in its place in America arose sexual promiscuity. 138 . and child nurseries. however. the first distinc92 Hurd: Law of Freedom and Bondage. the comforter of the sorrowing. while women and girls were without protection. early became an important figure on the plantation and found his function as the interpreter of the supernatural. This was. and less civilized. the polygamous African home. The Negro priest. 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. exceptional. came in contact with the culture of the master class.
but restraining him in extreme cases and providing for care of the slaves and of the aged. however. Cf. was at first a feudal domain. or Obron. 1819. that the Negro church of to-day bases itself upon the sole surviving social institution of the African fatherland. Johnston: Negro in the New World. 65-66. or Obia) is the adjective. 106-119. the church became Christian. In some cases the cruelty was as great as on the worst West Indian plantations. No.' The Witch of Endor is called Oub or Ob. he began 93 "Obi (Obeah. With the power. Obe or Obi. II. and particularly in Virginia. It was not at first by any means a Christian church. 'the Ancient Deity of Africa.. but a mere adaptation of those rites of fetish which in America is termed obe worship. the noun. or "voodooism. It is this historic fact.'"—Edwards: West Indies. pp. and above them the master class. his power over the slave was practically what he wished it to be. emblem of the Sun. ed. On these plantations the master was practically supreme.' Moses forbids Israelites ever to consult the demon Ob. meaning 'serpent. 139 . The feudalism called for the plantation system. Obiah. It is of African origin.W E B Du Bois tively Negro American social institution. In other cases the rule was mild and paternal. 8. Above them came the artisans. 5-6. and with the master supreme on his own plantation. The slave codes in early days were but moderately harsh. The slave codes at first were really labor codes based on an attempt to reestablish in America the waning feudalism of Europe. also Atlanta University Publications. 'Charmer. but with many of the old customs still clinging to the services.e. according to Horus Appollo. allowing punishment by the master. that accounts for its extraordinary growth and vitality. probably connected with Egyptian Ob. Up through this American feudalism the Negro began to rise. and the plantation system as developed in America. after two centuries. Oubaois is the name of the Baselisk or Royal Serpent. pp. free whites with a few blacks. and. The laborers were mainly black and were held for life. He learned in the eighteenth century the English language. with a simple Calvinistic creed. i. Wizard. Aub."93 Association and missionary effort soon gave these rites a veneer of Christianity and gradually. solely in the hands of the master class.
the advantage of the strong personal tie and disadvantage of unyielding caste distinctions. in the southern South the type of slavery which corresponds to the modern factory system in its worst conceivable form. and the number of free Negroes gradually increased. and the extension of the area of this system southward and westward marked the aggressive world-conquering visions of the slave barons. of the staid and gentle patriarchy. with the resultant immoralities. between the owner and laborer were interposed the overseer and the drivers. of house service in the great country seats and in the towns. Which is the true picture? The answer is simple: both are true. Out of this older type of slavery in the northern South there developed. on the one hand. At its worst. House service was the older feudal idea of personal retainership. on the other hand one hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridled power and wide oppression of men. The slaves were whipped and driven to a mechanical task system. but of that which represented different degrees in the development of the economic system. during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The Negro to be identified with the Christian church. We have thus not only carelessly mixed pictures of what were really different kinds of slavery. developed in Virginia and Carolina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They are not opposite sides of the same shield. in some cases receiving education. the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers. he mingled his blood to a considerable extent with the master class. 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. rice. Wide territory was needed. it was a matter primarily of human relationships. on the one hand. The house servants particularly were favored. and cotton crops. ease and happiness. One hears. and on the other hand of the field laborers who raised the great tobacco. they are different shields. however. They are pictures. so that at last absentee landlordship was common. It was this latter type of slavery that marked the cotton kingdom. It had all the advantages and disadvantages of such a system. it was this that impressed their imagi140 . It represented production of a staple product on a large scale. Present-day students are often puzzled at the apparent contradictions of Southern slavery.
and a large number of Negroes were members of the continental armies elsewhere.W E B Du Bois nations and which they have so vividly portrayed. because of the part which they played in the Revolutionary War. The Negroes. In fact. emancipation was accomplished in New Hampshire in 1783. acquired property. "In the colonies freed Negroes. There soon came a series of laws emancipating slaves in the North: Vermont began in 1779."94 The humanitarian movement of the eighteenth century was active toward Negroes. followed by judicial decision in Massachusetts in 1780 and gradual emancipation in Pennsylvania beginning the same year. and fortune to get the necessary property. in New England towns Negro "governors" were elected. and gradual emancipation began in New York and New Jersey in 1799 and 1804. as Albert Bushnell Hart says. This was partly an African custom transplanted and partly an endeavor to put the regulation of the slaves into their own hands. Negro regiments and companies were raised in Connecticut and Rhode Island. however. Individual Negroes distinguished themselves. knew the other side. Nearly every town of any size in Virginia in the early eighteenth century had Negro organizations for caring for the sick and 94 Boston Transcript. There early began to be some internal development and growth of self-consciousness among the Negroes: for instance. and in Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784. March 24. Negroes voted in those days: for instance. for it was under the harsher. thrift. 141 . and when Negroes were disfranchised in 1835. heartless driving of the fields that fully nine-tenths of them lived. like freed indentured white servants. The momentous exclusion of slavery in the Northwest Territory took place in 1787. several hundred colored men were deprived of the vote. founded families. It is estimated that five thousand Negroes fought in the American armies. in North Carolina until 1835 the Constitution extended the franchise to every freeman. Beneficial and insurance societies began to appear among colored people. The mass of the Americans considered at the time of the adoption of the Constitution that Negro slavery was doomed. 1906. and came into the political community if they had the energy.
was another. This series included the invention of the fly shuttle. 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. a Negro girl. 142 . Benjamin Banneker. He started a school for young white men in North Carolina and had among his pupils a United States senator. Negroes began to be received into the white church bodies in separate congregations. Richard Allen. a governor of the state. the carding machine. and the mulatto. It 95 Bassett: North Carolina. He was received socially among the best whites and asked to table. This eventually became the present African Methodist Church. who passed through a regular course of studies at what is now Washington and Lee University. and the power loom. Channing. however. Phyllis Wheatley. As the number of free Negroes increased. and numbers fought in New York State and in the navy under Perry. and before 1807 there is the record of the formation of eight such Negro churches. In the South there was John Chavis. the founder of the African Methodist Church. the steam engine. Lot Carey. which has to-day half a million members and over eleven million dollars' worth of property."95 In the war of 1812 thirty-three hundred Negroes helped Jackson win the battle of New Orleans. sons of a chief justice of North Carolina. one of the founders of Liberia. published one of the first American series of almanacs.The Negro burying the dead. wrote poetry. This brought forth leaders who were usually preachers in these churches. One of the earliest was the Free African Society of Philadelphia. and it is directly traceable to the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. a man's chance. In fine. between 1820 and 1830. in time. was one. particularly in the North. these financial societies began to be openly formed. and others. He was a full-blooded Negro. The world began to look about for a cheaper and larger supply of fiber for weaving. and many others. but a Southern writer says that "all accounts agree that John Chavis was a gentleman. Between 1738 and 1830 there had come a remarkable series of inventions which revolutionized the methods of making cloth. 73-76. pp. A change came.
Virginia declared in 1831 that neither slaves nor free Negroes might preach. in 1831. Nat Turner led his insurrection in Virginia and killed fifty-one persons. failed in a well-laid plot. Denmark Vesey.W E B Du Bois was found in the cotton plant.000 bales in 1820.000 bales in 1850. in plenty. and rich land. when Gabriel in Virginia made an abortive attempt. prohibiting the slaves from learning to read and write. The change in the attitude toward slavery was manifest in various ways. There was land. The result of this insurrection was to crystallize tendencies toward harshness which the economic revolution was making advisable. The invention of the cotton gin removed the last difficulties. There was no further plotting on any scale until the Haytian revolt. and before they became intelligent enough to cooperate the chance of emancipation was held before them. The result was that the cotton crop in the United States increased from 8. There had not been in the United States before this many attempts at insurrection. and ten years after that. and one by Cato at Stono in 1740 caused widespread alarm. The Negro plot in New York in 1712 put the city into hysterics. The enforcement of the slave trade laws became notoriously lax and there was a tendency to make slave codes harsher.000 bales in 1860. nor could they attend religious service at night without permission.000 bales in 1790 to 650. The South no longer excused slavery.000. The South now had a crop which could be attended to by unskilled labor and for which there was practically unlimited demand. and to 4. The slaves were distributed over a wide territory. 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. This led to retaliation on the part of the Negroes. A wave of legislation passed over the South. Several small insurrections are alluded to in South Carolina early in the eighteenth century. forbidding Negroes to preach. to 2. in South Carolina. and the southern United States was especially adapted to its culture. In North Caro143 .500. but began to defend it as an economic system. In 1822 a free Negro. and interfering with Negro religious meetings. Manifestly the fatal procrastination in dealing with slavery in the eighteenth century received in the nineteenth century its terrible reward.
At first. almost hys144 . however. This gave rise to the Negro element among the Indians in Florida and led to the two Seminole wars of 1817 and 1835. following the rise of the cotton kingdom. leading southward. From the beginning of the nineteenth century slaves began to escape in considerable numbers. usually to the North. was the safest path northward. 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. 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. The wars cost the United States ten million dollars and two thousand lives. As the new industrial slavery. but by running away. Virginia. The real effective revolt of the Negro against slavery was not. These wars were really slave raids to make the Indians give up the Negro and half-breed slaves domiciled among them. among slaves and recent fugitives a distinct reversion to the older idea of revolt. exhort.The Negro lina slaves and free Negroes were forbidden to preach. Four geographical paths were chiefly followed: one. with its abutting mountains. Maryland and Georgia and other states had similar laws. and the valley of the Mississippi was the western tunnel. began to press harder. was the line of swamps along the coast from Norfolk. The first part of the nineteenth century brought two movements: among the free Negroes an effort at self-development and protection through organization. a period of storm and stress ensued in the black world. to the northern border of Florida. The great Appalachian range. there was but one thought: revolt and revenge. and in 1829 came the first full-voiced. using the limestone caverns. They passed through many psychological changes of attitude in the years from 1700 to 1850. Through Tennessee and Kentucky and the heart of the Cumberland Mountains. was the third route. 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. by fighting. which had been recently freed from slavery. in the early part of the eighteenth century.
Between 1830 and 1850 the concerted coöperation to assist fugitives came to be known as the Underground Railroad. In 1830-31 the first Negro conventions were called in Philadelphia to consider the desperate condition of the Negro population. while Ohio Negroes had ten thousand acres of land. and the growth of the Negro churches all indicated advancement. Aroused. The decade 1830-40 was a severe period of trial. A system of separate Negro schools was established and the little band of abolitionists led by Garrison and others appeared. The first Negro paper was issued in New York in 1827. in 1838. the establishment of the Negro Odd Fellows. but in the North the free Negro was beginning to feel the ostracism and competition of white workingmen. the internal development of the free Negro in the North went on. In Philadelphia. Harboring or concealing fugitives was heavily fined. The slave mutiny on the Creole. 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. In spite of all the untoward circumstances. which aroused Southern legislatures to action.W E B Du Bois terical protest of a Negro against slavery and the color line in David Walker's Appeal. Not only were the chains of slavery tighter in the South. native and foreign. Philadelphia had. Fully two thousand migrated from Ohio. while later emancipation in the British West Indies brought some cheer in the darkness. one hundred small beneficial societies. the Negroes sent a deputation to Canada where they were offered asylum. and no Negro could give evidence in any case where a white man was party. It was an organization not simply of white philanthropists. six mobs of hoodlums and foreigners murdered and maltreated Negroes. therefore. between 1829 and 1849. In the Middle West harsh black laws which had been enacted in earlier days were hauled from their hiding places and put into effect. and in 1833 the convention met again and local societies were formed. These laws began to be enforced in 1829 and for three days riots went on in Cincinnati and Negroes were shot and killed. The Negro population increased twenty-three per cent between 1830 and 1840. but the 145 . Later large numbers from other parts of the United States joined them.
A new series of national conventions began to assemble late in the forties. The Colonization Society encouraged this 146 .The Negro coöperation of Negroes in the most difficult part of the work made it possible. The decade 1840-50 was a period of hope and uplift for the Negro group. and colored men took their place among the abolition orators. A few well-trained lawyers and physicians appeared. known as the League of Freedom. Harriet Tubman was one of the most energetic of these slave conductors and brought away several thousand slaves. and some small merchants arose here and there. The catering business in Philadelphia and other cities fell largely into their hands. showing a great increase of efficiency in the rank and file of the free Negroes. One particularly. As early as 1788 a Negro union of Newport. started in 1815 for Africa. By 1850 the Negroes had increased to three and a half million. organizing an expedition at their own expense which cost four thousand dollars. Lot Carey organized the African Mission Society in 1813. In Canada and in the northern United States there was a secret society. Those in Canada were being organized in settlements and were accumulating property. Hundreds of Negroes visited the slave states to entice the slaves away. Above all. Frederick Douglass made his first speech in 1841 and thereafter became one of the most prominent figures in the abolition crusade. a colored man. and the list of Underground Railroad operators given by Siebert contains one hundred and twenty-eight names of Negroes. grappled frankly with the problem of emigration. had proposed a general exodus to Africa. Rhode Island. and the delegates were drawn from the artisans and higher servants. with clear evidences of distinct self-assertion and advance. and the first Negro college graduate went to Liberia in 1829 and became superintendent of public schools. John and Paul Cuffe. after petitioning for the right to vote in 1780. It looked as though it was going to be impossible for Negroes to remain in the United States and be free. William Lambert. which especially worked to help slaves run away. The escape of fugitive slaves was systematized and some of the most representative conventions met. was reputed between 1829 and 1862 to have aided in the escape of thirty thousand. in 1854.
In 1853 Negroes like Purvis and Barbadoes helped in the formation of the American Anti-slavery society. Mexico and the fugitive slave law aroused deep opposition in the North. One went to the Niger valley. but of the civilized world. and a fugitive slave law was passed which endangered the liberty of every free Negro. 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.W E B Du Bois migration. but nevertheless emissaries were sent in various directions to see what inducements could be offered. As it was. and the Negroes themselves had organized the Canadian exodus. Slavery was forced north of Mason and Dixon's line in 1820. It was fought to protect free white laborers against the competition of slaves. who immediately began to arrive in increasing numbers. six or seven of his twenty-two followers were Negroes. and one to Hayti. a new slave empire with thousands of slaves was annexed in 1850. and Halleck caught and returned them. but each step cost more than the last. but nothing came of it. The Haytian trip was successful and about two thousand black emigrants eventually settled in Hayti. Delaney. The first thing that vexed the Northern armies on Southern soil during the war was the question of the disposition of the fugitive slaves. Fremont freed them. The result was war. Meantime the slave power was impelled by the high price of slaves and the exhaustion of cotton land to make increased demands. Missouri gave rise to the early abolitionist movement. The Rochester Negro convention in 1853 pronounced against migration. and Kansas developed an attack upon the free labor system. one to Central America. who went to Africa. It looked like a triumphal march for the slave barons. Butler confiscated them. but their numbers swelled to such large pro147 . not simply of the North. and less effective but powerful movements arose to annex more slave territory to the south and to reopen the African slave trade. but the war was not against slavery. concluded a treaty with eight kings offering inducements to Negroes. and it was thought possible to do this by segregating slavery. finally a determined attempt was made to force slavery into the Northwest in competition with free white labor.
especially after the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln was glad to have them come after once he realized their strength to the Confederacy. Wilson: The Black Phalanx. In the meantime the war did not go as well as the North had hoped." General Hunter tried to raise a regiment in South Carolina.The Negro portions that the mere economic problem of their presence overshadowed everything else. defending and acquiring Union territory …. and on the twenty-sixth of January. the Secretary of War authorized the Governor of Massachusetts to raise two regiments of Negro troops. At Fort Pillow. "Their conduct was heroic. They were indispensable in camp duties and brave on the field. General Banks wrote. but also by the necessity of employing Negro soldiers. is one of the greatest deeds of desperate bravery on record. the colored regiment was indiscriminately butchered and some of them were buried alive. On the other hand the treatment of Negro soldiers when captured by the Confederates was barbarous. where they fought in two hundred and thirteen battles. No troops could be more determined or more daring. Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by black men. The Emancipation Proclamation was forced. after the surrender of the federal troops. not simply by the necessity of paralyzing industry in the South. It would sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. It was declared to be a "white man's war. take two hundred thou96 Cf. led by a thousand black soldiers under the white Colonel Shaw. and in the end one hundred and eighty-seven thousand Negroes enlisted in the Northern armies. Frederick Douglass and others began the work with enthusiasm."96 The assault on Fort Wagner. 1863. "The slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed with Democratic strategy. but the War Department disavowed the act. There are now in the service of the United States near two hundred thousand able-bodied colored men. During the first two years of the war no one wanted Negro soldiers. of whom seventy thousand were killed and wounded. Abraham Lincoln said. The conduct of these troops was exemplary. most of them under arms. but were held off. 148 . In Louisiana the Negroes were anxious to enlist.
XV. the only result of a fearful four years' war which in any degree justified it. However. (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. 98 American Historical Review. and these were so striking that they have since obscured the others in the eyes of students. who traversed the South just after the war. after all. preserve the Union. Vol. two hundred and forty-four years of slavery could not be stopped by edict. There were legal difficulties. 108. The Negro found scant justice in the local courts against the white man. Once the deed was done. "A veritable reign of terror prevailed in many parts of the South. It would have meant that the war had been fought in vain."98 This Freedmen's Bureau was proposed by 97 Wilson: The Black Phalanx. the majority of the nation was glad and recognized that this was. the whole slow problem of economic readjustment. The peculiar circumstances of emancipation forced the legal and political difficulties to the front. To leave the Negroes helpless after a paper edict of emancipation was manifestly impossible.W E B Du Bois sand men from our side and put them in the battlefield or cornfield against us. because the first had utterly failed and the second was thought too "paternal" and especially too costly. 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. Carl Schurz. and gain the sympathy of the civilized world. Quite unexpectedly and without forethought the nation had emancipated four million slaves. and we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks. 149 . 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. said."97 Emancipation thus came as a war measure to break the power of the Confederacy. p. and the subtle and far-reaching questions of future race relations. 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.
Even with such tutelage extending over a period of two or three decades. It gave the freedmen's sons a chance to begin their education. etc. How a sensible people could expect really to conduct a slave into freedom with less than this it is hard to see. and it was probably the only quick method of doing this. If it had been presented to-day instead of fifty years ago. outdoor relief stations. When. It diverted 150 . To establish schools. however. it would have been regarded as a proposal far less revolutionary than the state insurance of England and Germany. therefore. To furnish the freedmen with a minimum of land and of capital. 4. 5. and in a country which gave the laisser faire economics their extremest trial. To oversee the making and enforcement of wage contracts for freedmen. but finding this not in accordance with law. To appear in the courts as the freedmen's best friend. but with all its manifest mistakes it succeeded to an astonishing degree. A half century ago. save as a very temporary expedient and to relieve the more pointed forms of distress following war. To furnish such institutions of relief as hospitals. They did not want the Negro trained or really freed. Yet the proposals of the Bureau were both simple and sensible: 1. 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.The Negro Charles Sumner. 2. This was without a doubt a tremendous experiment. The North at first thought to pay for the main cost of the Freedmen's Bureau by confiscating the property of former slave owners. they determined to put the responsibility on the Negro himself. and they criticized mercilessly the many mistakes of the new Bureau. 3. they realized that they were embarking on an enterprise which bade fair to add many millions to the already staggering cost of the war. 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. It made the immediate reëstablishment of the old slavery impossible. the ultimate end had to be enfranchisement and political and social freedom for those freedmen who attained a certain set standard. the Freedmen's Bureau struck the whole nation as unthinkable.
W E B Du Bois the energy of the white South slavery to the recovery of political power. felt warranted in saying that "not half of the labor that has been done in the South this year. was regarded as a makeshift. "cautiously" suggested to Louisiana's private consideration "whether some of the colored people may not be let in as. for instance. and pay taxes thereon. Carl Schurz." Indeed. you would completely disarm the 99 Report to President Johnson. who else was to be intrusted with the "jewel"? Later and for different reasons Johnson. in 1865. or will be done there next year. to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. the very intelligent. "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. The difficulties that stared reconstruction politicians in the face were these: (1) They must act quickly. They would probably help in some trying time to come. 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? The Freedmen's Bureau in its short life accomplished a great task. wrote to Mississippi."99 Notwithstanding this the Bureau was temporary. the Negro took his first steps toward economic freedom. and to all persons of color who own real estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars. the "family of freedom" in Louisiana being somewhat small just then. Lincoln. 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. and in this interval. in defense of slavery. and especially those who fought gallantly in our ranks. (2) Emancipation had increased the political power of the South by one-sixth. and soon abandoned. in 1865. 151 . would have been or would be done but for the exertions of the Freedmen's Bureau …. in 1864. Could this increased political power be put in the hands of those who. but almost inevitable. small as it was. Meantime partial Negro suffrage seemed not only just.
yet with these in many cases went harsh and unbearable regulations which largely neutralized the concessions and certainly gave ground for an assumption that. I hope and trust your convention will do this.The Negro adversary and set an example the other states will follow. and you thus place the Southern States. cool. In Tennessee alone was any action attempted that even suggested possible Negro suffrage in the future. word. 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. the South would virtually reenslave the Negro. once free. To some extent this expectation was fulfilled." The Negroes themselves began to ask for the suffrage. The colored people themselves naturally feared this. or practically reënslave them. thoughtful action on the part of the white South. 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. Their economic condition was pitiable. As Burgess says. not consonant with good taste and good manners as well as good morals. "Almost every act. protesting. as in Mississippi. or gesture of the Negro."100 All things considered. The abolition of slavery was recognized on the statute book." The codes spoke for themselves. 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. it was not a time to look for calm. To be sure. 152 . and that failed. In all other states the "Black Codes" adopted were certainly not reassuring to the friends of freedom. upon the same basis with the free states. it seems probable that. Yet it was reasonable to expect from them something less than repression and utter reaction toward slavery. "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. their fear of Negro freedom genuine. This you can do with perfect safety. if he could not pay the bill. if the South had 100 Reconstruction and the Constitution." The reply of the South to these suggestions was decisive. in reference to free persons of color.
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. but that in most other respects the blacks would have remained in slavery. 52. 102 McPherson: Reconstruction. and so as to make it possible for a Negro to hold property and appear in some cases in court. at least. But the country would not listen to such a comprehensive plan. etc. will favorably regard the placing in our hands the ballot with which to save ourselves. In Louisiana. for instance. for the ballot may be necessary to him to secure his education. "It is idle to say that it will be time to speak of Negro suffrage when the whole colored race will be educated. 153 ."102 Carl Schurz wrote."101 Thus the arguments for universal Negro suffrage from the start were strong and are still strong. "Your noble and humane predecessor placed in our hands the sword to assist in saving the nation. Frederick Douglass said to President Johnson."103 The granting of full Negro suffrage meant one of two alternatives to the South: (1) The uplift of the Negro for sheer self-preservation. 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.W E B Du Bois been permitted to have its way in 1865. 103 Report to the President. or forty years. and we do hope that you. This is what Schurz and the saner North expected. and no one would question their strength were it not for the assumption that the experiment failed. 1865. As one 101 Brewster: Sketches. twenty. There was no such disposition evident. with a careful distribution of land and capital and a system of education for the children. the harshness of Negro slavery would have been mitigated so as to make slave trading difficult. What could prevent this? A Freedmen's Bureau established for ten. the increased political power of the South. p. his able successor. under the proposed reconstruction "not one Negro was allowed to vote. might have prevented such an extension of slavery.
Finally the United States said the last word of simple justice: the states may regulate the suffrage. Next the restored state governments were directed to enfranchise all citizens. and bad results arising from Negro suffrage. only too eager to take advantage of such a situation for feathering their own nests. It took ten years to nullify Negro suffrage in part and twenty years to escape the fear of federal intervention. For such reasons the Negro was enfranchised. Northern and Southern. "The elevation of this class is a matter of prime importance. The steps toward the Fifteenth Amendment were taken slowly." 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. black and white. nor was Negro suffrage the prime cause of many of them. Much evil must result in such case. There were bad results. but even here the new Negro landholder appeared. struck the death knell of slavery. Debt peonage could be fastened on part of the rural South and was. but no state may deprive a person of the right to vote simply because he is a Negro or has been a slave. but to charge the evil to Negro 154 . This last is what really happened. men. Thus despite everything the Fifteenth Amendment. This is not true. that besides this there were. But even in this case. or have their representation in Congress cut down proportionately. 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. as might be expected. black or white. In these twenty years a vast number of Negroes had arisen so far as to escape slavery forever. since a ballot in the hands of a black citizen is quite as potent as in the hands of a white one. but those results were not so bad as usually painted.The Negro Southern school superintendent said. 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. This was inevitable if loyal governments were to be obtained. and that alone. What was the result? No language has been spared to describe these results as the worst imaginable. First Negroes were allowed to take part in reconstructing the state governments.
dishonest. Under the circumstances occurring directly after the war. In fact the extravagance. been execrated as extravagant. the land frauds of South Carolina. advocating the state purchase of farm lands. and thus their votes were secured by deliberate misrepresentation. but the anger and poverty were the almost inevitable aftermath of war. one man owning his thousand. predicting ruin and revolution. and incompetency of officials. poverty. They refused to believe that these novices in government and their friends were aught but scamps and fools. and incompetent. A wise Negro leader of that state. another his twenty. The South had been terribly impoverished and saddled with new social burdens. These charges are in part undoubtedly true. the fault was not theirs and they took the initiative to correct it. they appealed to secret societies. the wisest statesman would have been compelled to resort to increased taxation and would have. The property holders were aghast. and murder. But two considerations must be added: much of the legislation which resulted in fraud was represented to the Negroes as good legislation. said. venality. The chief charges against the Negro governments are extravagance. It may be charged to anger. Take. but they are often exaggerated. but. states with smaller resources were asked not only to do a work of restoration. It is easy. was not universal. for instance. although great. to intimidation. another fifty thousand acres of land. in turn. to see what flaming and incredible stories of Reconstruction governments could gain wide currency and belief. force. and I maintain that our freedom will be of no 155 . therefore. That the Negroes led by the astute thieves. became at first tools and received some small share of the spoils is true. and while ignorance was the curse of Negroes. There is no serious charge that these governments threatened civilization or the foundations of social order. They not only demurred. This is the only way by which we will break up that system. but a larger social work. "One of the greatest of slavery bulwarks was the infernal plantation system.W E B Du Bois suffrage is unfair. and much of it was due to the extravagant spirit pervading the whole country in a day of inflated currency and speculation. the venality was much greater among whites than Negroes both North and South. The charge is that they threatened property and that they were inefficient. theft. In other words. and ignorance.
No one has expressed this more convincingly than a Negro who was himself a member of the Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina. The most inexcusable cheating of the Negroes took place through the Freedmen's Bank. but that. but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will. it still preferred a Reign of Terror to a campaign of education and disfranchised Negroes instead of punishing rascals. when it saw the reform movements growing and even in some cases triumphing. but more were ignorant and deceived. Vol. and who spoke at the convention which disfranchised 104 American Historical Review. No. and a larger and larger number of black voters learning to vote for honesty and ability. 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. XV. and second. 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. William Cullen Bryan and John Jay. 4. First they strove for schools to abolish ignorance.The Negro effect if we allow it to continue. 156 . 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. learn the right and best course by bitter experience. and joined with the best elements to institute reform. Yet the bank was allowed to fail in 1874 owing the freedmen their first savings of over three millions of dollars. Many Negroes were undoubtedly venal. a large and growing number of them revolted against the extravagance and stealing that marred the beginning of Reconstruction. The greatest stigma on the white South is not that it opposed Negro suffrage and resented theft and incompetence. They have never been reimbursed. if given a chance. Let the lands of the South be similarly divided. This is precisely what the Negro voters showed indubitable signs of doing. Yet a large part of eight hundred thousand dollars appropriated was wasted and went to the white landholders' pockets."104 From such arguments the Negroes were induced to aid a scheme to buy land and distribute it.
They reduced capital felonies from about twenty to two or three. They abolished the whipping post. and reestablished the ferries. 6. built and maintained the penitentiary system. They introduced home rule into the South. before the Republican Negroes and their white allies came into power. (2) free public schools. a white "carpet bagger. and efficiency. rebuilt the bridges. In short. counties. In general.W E B Du Bois him against one of the onslaughts of Tillman. instituted reforms. "We were eight years in power. 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. and that was Negro honesty. In an age of extravagance they were 105 Occasional Papers. Unfortunately there was one thing that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty. we had reconstructed the state and placed it upon the road to prosperity. ignorance. and at the same time. and other barbarous forms of punishment which had up to that time prevailed. "They obeyed the Constitution of the United States and annulled the bonds of states. (3) new social legislation. joining with the Democrats. in Louisiana in 1872. American Negro Academy. too."105 So. knowledge. the stocks. provided for the education of the deaf and dumb. 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. the better element of the Republicans triumphed at the polls and. No. established charitable institutions. rebuilt the jails and court houses. They instituted a public school system in a realm where public schools had been unknown. by our acts of financial reform. and incompetency. Tourgee. repudiated the worst extravagance. the words of Judge Albion W. 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. 157 ." are true when he says of the Negro governments. We had built school houses. and started toward better things. and cities which had been issued to carry on the War of Rebellion and maintain armies in the field against the Union. the branding iron. and in Mississippi later.
but the main body of Reconstruction legislation stood. John R."108 Jonathan C. was a graduate of Dartmouth. American Negro Academy. Every Democrat's life. "I have never heard one word or seen one act of Mr. 82. p. marking the return of property to power. 158 . 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. The Reconstruction democracy brought forth new leaders and definitely overthrew the old Southern aristocracy. there was a sweeping change of officials. 1873. Lynch. In all of that time no man's rights of persons were invaded under the forms of law. a colored man and the first state superintendent of instruction in Florida. that the conservatives cheerfully joined in the testimonial."106 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. No. There were sharp and often hurtful economies introduced. and the leading white paper said. when Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He established the system and brought it to success. and under all circumstances. or boycotted him on account of his political faith. "His bearing in office had been so proper. dying in harness in 1874. 107 Jackson (Miss."107 Of the colored treasurer of South Carolina the white Governor Chamberlain said. and business were safe. was given a public testimonial by Republicans and Democrats. fireside. 6. 108 Allen: Governor Chamberlain's Administration. Such men—and there were others—ought not to be forgot106 Occasional Papers. On every occasion. interfered with his freedom of speech. Among these new men were Negroes of worth and ability. home. Gibbs.The Negro extravagant in the sums appropriated for public works. he has been against fraud and robbery and in favor of good measures and good men.) Clarion. No man obstructed any white man's way to the ballot box. April 24. 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.
It was the question upon which black voters and legislators insisted more than anything else. There is no doubt that the thirst of the black man for knowledge. in spite of a retrogressive movement following the overthrow of the Negro governments. gave birth to the public school system of the South. twenty-seven years. seventeen years. 1868-85. As a result Negroes were systematically arrested on the slightest pretext and the labor of convicts leased to private parties. with elaborations and development.W E B Du Bois ten or confounded with other types of colored and white Reconstruction leaders. Finally. 1870-1902. 1868-90. 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. South Carolina. the punishment of crime and the like. This "convict lease system" was almost universal in the South until about 1890. 159 . Mississippi. were kept in Florida. and while it is possible to find some vestiges of free schools in some of the Southern States before the war. well-established system dates from the day that the black man got political power. The attempt to replace individual slavery had been frustrated by the Freedmen's Bureau and the Fifteenth Amendment. still stands on the statute books of the South. and labor contracts were enacted and large discretion given judge and jury in cases of petty crime. when its outrageous abuses and cruelties aroused 109 Reconstruction Constitutions. and the economic disfranchisement of the Southern working class. guardianship.109 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. yet a universal. practically unaltered. in legislation covering property. but they were so wise and so well suited to the needs of the new South that. The disfranchisement of 1876 was followed by the widespread rise of "crime" peonage. the wider functions of the state. Virginia. twenty-two years. 1868-95. the rise of the Negro metayer. a thirst which has been too persistent and durable to be mere curiosity or whim. Stringent laws on vagrancy. the mass of this legislation. thirtytwo years.
It soon was evident. In theory the laborer was furnishing capital. land. that the change was only partial. In this way the whole face of the labor contract in the South was. in the decade 1880-90. The great plantations were apparently broken up into forty and eighty acre farms with black farmers. The landlord still held the land in large parcels. In more normal economic lines the employers began with the labor contract system. and statutes against the "enticement" of laborers. The black laborers became deeply dissatisfied under this system and began to migrate from the country to the cities. 160 . Nevertheless competition compelled the landholders to offer more inducements to the farm hand. The laborer was hired and the subsistence "advanced" to him while the crop was growing. Before the war they owned labor. To many it seemed that emancipation was accomplished. but retained direct control. It still survives over wide areas. So severe were these laws that it was often impossible for a laborer to stop work without committing a felony. and allowed the laborers to be cheated by high interest charges on the subsistence advanced and actual cheating often in book accounts. 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. but in the majority of cases he was borrowing at least a part of this capital from some merchant. and subsistence." and secured the enactment of harsher vagrancy and labor contract laws. After the war they still held the land and subsistence. however. The employing farmers complained bitterly of the scarcity of labor and of Negro "laziness. where there was an increasing demand for labor. and the black folk were especially filled with joy and hope.The Negro the whole country. and is not only responsible for the impression that the Negro is a natural criminal. in process of change from a nominal wage contract to a system of tenantry. The fall of the Freedmen's Bureau hindered the transmutation of this system into a modern wage system. 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. furnishing his own tools and seed and practically raising his own subsistence. He rented this in small farms to tenants.
and the mass were laborers working for scant board and clothes. which had long been the custom in the South. or is it necessary to erect further artificial barriers to restrain the advance of the Negroes? The answer was clear and unmistakable. All these new enactments meant not simply separation. therefore. In 1890.W E B Du Bois The retail merchant in this way entered on the scene as middle man between landlord and laborer. and he began to get rich. separate seats in street cars. and took a mortgage on the growing crop. these things were added to the separation in schools and churches. Up to this time disfranchisement was illegal and based on intimidation. metayer. and small capitalist. The advance of the freedmen had been too rapid and the South feared it. it also brought some benefits to the black laborers. To this was added a series of laws designed publicly to humiliate and stigmatize Negro blood: as. Numbers of these were still held in peonage. every effort must be made to "keep the Negro in his place" as a servile caste. He guaranteed the landowner his rent and relieved him of details by taking over the furnishing of supplies to the laborer. and the like. He tempted the laborer by a larger stock of more attractive goods. 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. To this end the South strove to make the disfranchisement of the Negroes effective and final. but above these began to rise a large number of independent tenants and farm owners. Thus he soon became the middle man to whom the profit of the transaction largely flowed. To all this was added a series of labor laws making the exploitation of Negro labor more secure. and flagrant injustice. All this legislation had to be ac161 . caste. for example. and the denial of redress to seduced colored women. but subordination. with only such handicaps as naturally impede the poor and ignorant. In fact they could be administered so as to exclude nearly all Negroes. If the new system benefited the merchant and the landlord. the South was faced by this question: Are we willing to allow the Negro to advance as a free worker. humiliation. peasant farmer. separate railway cars. made a direct contract with him.
Booker T. 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. No method of inflaming the darkest passions of men was unused. This was accomplished easily. The reaction of the Negro Americans upon this wholesale and open attempt to reduce them to serfdom has been interesting. so far as possible. The acquiescence of the white labor vote of the South was further insured by throwing white and black laborers. Then. to their astonishment. however. and through the fatalistic attitude common both in America and Europe toward the possibility of real advance on the part of the darker nations. and particularly in the South. state. Washington. by an appeal to race prejudice. where it was beginning to enter among the white workers. there arose a colored leader. 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. Under the flame of this outward noise went the more subtle and dangerous work. Naturally they began to organize and protest and in some cases to appeal to the courts. and the white North thought they saw here a chance for peace in the racial conflict and safety for their Southern investments. Negro schools were cut off with small appropriations or wholly neglected. 162 . The neutrality of the white people of the North was secured through their fear for the safety of large investments in the South. The election laws passed in the states where three-fourths of the Negroes live. Mr. Labor laws were so arranged that imprisonment for debt was possible and leaving an employer could be made a penitentiary offense.The Negro complished in the face of the labor movement throughout the world. 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. Washington. The white South naturally agreed with Mr. 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. or national law. into rival competing groups and making each feel that the one was the cause of the other's troubles.
These slaves could be bought and sold. The launching of the "Niagara Movement" by twenty-nine daring colored men in 1905. 2. Washington for shrewdness and recognized the wisdom of his homely insistence on thrift and hard work. there were in the United States ten and a quarter million persons of Negro descent. stripped of political power and emasculated by caste. were forbidden to learn to read or write. This latter organization. with its monthly organ. could move from place to place only with permission. followed by the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1910. an increase of one hundred and five per cent. 163 . Legal slavery has been abolished leaving. Ninety per cent were totally illiterate. The struggle tended at first to bitter personal dissension within the group. Earned a living as free and partially free laborers. marked an epoch in the advance of the Negro. They began. The mass of the freedmen and their sons have 1. however. Fifty years later. therefore. is now waging a nation-wide fight for justice to Negroes. 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. and only one adult in six was a nominal Christian.W E B Du Bois For a time the colored people hesitated. Shared the responsibilities of government. The Crisis. Developed the internal organization of their race. with renewed persistence to fight for their fundamental rights as American citizens. in 1913. and legally could never hold property or marry. peonage. Aspired to spiritual self-expression. four million and more were just being released from slavery. What has been the net result of this struggle of half a century? In 1863 there were about five million persons of Negro descent in the United States. and the convict lease system. They also realized that any lull in their protests would be taken advantage of by Negro haters to push their caste program. Other organizations. They respected Mr. 4. 3. they could never gain sufficient economic strength to take their place as modern men. Of these. vestiges in debt slavery. and a number of strong Negro weekly papers are aiding in this fight. but gradually they came to see more and more clearly that.
41. 134.972 in 1910. and stone. we must not forget 2. with their housewives. but ninety-nine per cent of the race in the South were penniless field hands and servants.750 teachers.639 in 1900 to $440. or eighty-one per cent.000. officials.000. There were in all 62. This makes a total of 5.245 in wholesale and retail trade. trained nurses. cab drivers. naked.000.170 in the public service.000 homes out of a total of 2.739 iron and steel workers. By 1875 the Negroes probably had gotten hold of something between 2. 133.000 by the American Economic Association. but were themselves assessed as real estate.000 acres. glass.000 acres of land through their bounties as soldiers and the low price of land after the war. Finally. including 29. On the same 164 . Fifty years ago the overwhelming mass of these people were not only penniless. Their total property in 1900 was estimated at $300.000 children in school.796.000.972 farm owners and 319.471 in professional service.992.822 draymen.000 owners and managers of farms and businesses.000. dentists.620.000.755 miners. 32. To-day there are two and a half million laborers.000 acres. The value of these farms increased from $179.346 cash farm tenants and managers.000 acres.192. in 1890 to about 8.546 physicians.175.The Negro The Negro was freed as a penniless. ignorant laborer. 28.175. Above these are more than a million servants and tenant farmers. cash tenants.000 Negro homes. and 4. in 1900 to over 12.515 workers in clay. 17.000.495 clergymen. 62. etc.141 in the building and hand trades. landless. and 1.000 and 4.102 employees on railways.000 acres. The 120.000. skilled and semi-skilled workers make another million and at the top of the economic column are 600. and a larger number who owned property in the North.738 farms owned by Negroes in 1890 increased to 218. More specifically these breadwinners include 218. 288. In 1910 this land had increased to nearly 20. There were a few free Negroes who owned property in the South. and liverymen. Negroes owned in 1910 about 500. and professional men. and 69. a realm as large as Ireland. By 1880 this was increased to about 6. the majority of whom are efficient wage earners.439 in 1910.535 colored breadwinners in 1910.
American Negroes are gaining their own leaders. They raise themselves $7.000 of the votes which rule the Union.000. Despite the disfranchisement of three-fourths of his voting population. Instead of being led and defended by others. music. while within their own souls they have arisen from apathy and timid complaint to open protest and more and more manly self-assertion. as in the past. To-day Negroes have nearly 40. He holds 7. Above and beyond this material growth has gone the spiritual uplift of a great human race. Already in poetry. their own ideals. and their voice and expression are compelling attention. Five millions a year are raised by Negro secret and beneficial societies which hold at least $6.500.000. There are 200 private schools and colleges managed and almost entirely supported by Negroes. with edifices worth at least $75. literature. and he furnishes 500. and fear on the part of their neighbors.W E B Du Bois basis of calculation it would be worth to-day not less than $800.000 a year for these churches.000 small retail businesses and 40 banks.000.000 in real estate.000 members. In these same years the Negro has relearned the lost art of organization. Their organized commercial life is extending rapidly and includes over 22. and 500 cemeteries.000 other offices. From contempt and amusement they have passed to the pity.000 churches.000. In the state and municipal service he holds nearly 20. their own voices. and these and other public and private Negro schools have received in 40 years $45. and painting the work of Americans of Negro descent has gained notable recognition. Negroes support wholly or in part over 100 old folks' homes and orphanages.000. they have 300 papers and periodicals. 30 hospitals. Self-realization is thus coming slowly but surely to another of the 165 . to-day over two-thirds can.000 and controlling nearly 4. perplexity. the Negro to-day is a recognized part of the American government. Where nine-tenths of them could not read or write in 1860.000. besides furnishing four regiments in the army and a large number of sailors.000 of Negro money in taxes and donations.500 offices in the executive service of the nation. Slavery was the almost absolute denial of initiative and responsibility.
democratic government. 166 . universal peace. the socialization of wealth. but for the ideals of the greater world in which they live: the emancipation of women. and human brotherhood. not simply for their own rights as men. and they are to-day girding themselves to fight in the van of progress.The Negro world's great races.
000. Of the 150. eighteenth.000. On the contrary. but nevertheless equal sharers of and contributors to the civilization of the West) would be the descendants of the wretched victims of the seventeenth. lodging in the minds of few present-day thinkers.000. Ethiopia. since that is no scientific criterion by which to divide races. however.000.000.591. 121. such an 110 Sir Harry Johnston estimates 135. and nineteenth century slave trade. roughly into African Negroes and Negroids. and Asiatic and American brown and yellow peoples. while in the United States a large part of its citizenship (showing for perhaps centuries their dark descent. built in the very pathway of the new highway of commerce between East and West—the real sea route to India. and Yoruba.000. 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.000 Negroes.000 Negroes.000. overseas the West Indies would become a new and nobler Africa.000 in Asia. 500. See Inter-Racial Problems. 335.000 live in Africa.000 Negroes.W E B Du Bois XII THE NEGRO PROBLEMS separate the population of the world accurately by race. He would expect the Negro race to develop along the lines of other human races. however. and 900. and 2. 167 I T IS IMPOSSIBLE to . we have approximately 150.000110 in the new world. European whites. of whom 24. This natural assumption of a stranger finds. p.000.000 whites. 27. If we divide the world.000 yellow and brown peoples.000 live in America. In Africa his economic and political development would restore and eventually outrun the ancient glories of Egypt.
will either be content to serve the interests of the whites or die out before their all-conquering march. By means of political power the laborers slowly but surely began to demand a larger share in the profiting industry. the bottom fell out of the commercial slave trade and its suppression became possible. These better investments were the fruit of the new industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. As the emancipation of millions of dark workers took place in the West Indies. with its factory system. followed by the modern theory of colonial expansion. and commodities capable of manufacture and exploitation in Europe out of materials furnishable by America. In the United States their demand bade fair to be halted by the competition of slave labor. became enhanced in value. and particularly the Negro race. Slaves as an article of commerce were shipped as long as the traffic paid. the moral action of the eighteenth century had a chance to make its faint voice heard. and humanity. Commodities other than gold. religion. This philosophy is the child of the African slave trade and of the expansion of Europe during the nineteenth century. it was natural to assume that the uplift of this working class lay along the same 168 . brought about by slavery and the slave trade to the new world. The moral repugnance was powerfully reënforced by the revolt of the slaves in the West Indies and South America. The labor vote. North and South America.The Negro outcome is usually dismissed summarily. and by the fact that North America early began to regard itself as the seat of advanced ideas in politics. therefore. and when the slave power sought to exceed these territorial limits. it was suddenly and unintentionally abolished. 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. The middle of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of the rise of the modern working class. The Negro slave trade was the first step in modern world commerce. they were also in part the result of the cheapened price of gold and silver. and parts of Africa at this time. When the Americas had enough black laborers for their immediate demand. Finally European capital began to find better investments than slave shipping and flew to them. first confined slavery to limits in which it could not live.
W E B Du Bois paths with that of European and American whites. dreamed of an African empire from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. turned to Africa." "Japs. Uganda and Zanzibar.106. Germany desired economic expansion and. Portugal sought to make good her ancient claim to the larger part of the whole southern peninsula. including nearly all North Africa (except Tripoli) west 169 . Bechuanaland and Rhodesia. and some of the elementary rights of wage earners and property holders. Nigeria.950 square miles. While the project was under discussion. It was Leopold of Belgium who started to make the exploration and civilization of Africa an international movement. Italy became ambitious for Tripoli and Abyssinia. long before they were strong enough to assert the rights thus granted or to gather intelligence enough for proper group leadership. The French hold 4.600." and "Niggers. Thus in 1875 something less than onetenth of Africa was under nominal European control. the beginnings of education.000 square miles. while the independence of Liberia and Hayti was recognized. France. humiliated in war. the international scramble for Africa began.101. For the purpose of carrying out this idea the European and white American working class was practically invited to share in this new exploitation. Consequently these Negroes received partial enfranchisement. This project failed. This was the first suggested solution of the Negro problem. East Africa. being shut out from America by the Monroe Doctrine. but the FrancoPrussian War and the exploration of the Congo led to new and fateful things. in addition to Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan with 1. However. but found herself largely checkmated by the jealousy of all Europe. the new colonialism of the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries began to dawn. This includes South Africa. As a result the Berlin Conference and subsequent wars and treaties gave Great Britain control of 2. and British West Africa. and particularly were flattered by popular appeals to their inherent superiority to "Dagoes." This tendency was strengthened by the fact that the new colonial expansion centered in Africa." "Chinks.411 square miles of African territory. Great Britain began to take new interest in her African realm. and the Congo Free State became in time simply a Belgian colony. 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.
and America were to be forced to work by land monopoly. and the electoral franchise when the workers desired no change. in an appeal to the English Parliament. The Italians have about 600. show in an astonishing way the confiscation of their land by the English.000 acres of land. This new slavery or "forced" labor was stoutly defended as a necessary foundation for implanting modern industry in a barbarous land. It called for the virtual enslavement of natives in certain industries.150 square miles. 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! 170 . while the 4. to push a continent of black workers along the paths of social uplift by education. In this way a docile industrial class working for low wages. and little or no education.000 whites own 264. while Liberia (43.250. cocoa raising in Portuguese Angola. The Portuguese retain 787. principally in Southeast and South-west Africa and the Kamerun. property holding. was to be developed.000 natives have only 21. but not wholly abolished.000 square miles) are independent.000 acres.500 square miles in Southeast and Southwest Africa. The Belgians have 900. the West Indies. Why was it necessary. and diamond mining in South Africa.000 square miles and the Spanish less than 100. but its likeness to slavery was too clear and it has been modified. The Germans have 910. To this is added the Island of Madagascar. They say that in the Union of South Africa 1. taxation.000 square miles. This partition of Africa brought revision of the ideas of Negro uplift.000 square miles. and not intelligent enough to unite in labor unions. and the rate of European profit would suffer? There quickly arose then the second suggestion for settling the Negro problem.500. as rubber and ivory collecting in the Belgian Congo.000. Negroes in Africa. trades-unionism.111 It is also illus111 The South African natives.The Negro of the Niger valley and Libyan Desert.000 square miles) and Abyssinia (350.000. and touching the Atlantic at four points. 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. The third attempted solution of the Negro sought the result of the second by less direct methods. the European investors argued.
in Uganda and Rhodesia to leave so far as possible the outward structure of native life intact.W E B Du Bois trated in many of the West Indian islands where we have a predominant Negro population. and the people. and have to be carried on with a certain concealment and half-hypocrisy which is not only distasteful in itself. Land and capital. The problem is now going to be intensified when the world's commerce begins to sweep through the Panama Canal. the encouragement of peaceful industry. All these solutions and methods. however. therefore. the native courts adjudicate. therefore. gradually merging into a fourth solution. is subject to the veto and command of a European magistracy supported by a native army with European officers. and industry is degraded and changed to the demands of European markets. and native social and family life and religion prevail. and protected by a concerted attempt to deify white men as such in the eyes of the native and in 171 . the land. but along their own native lines. which is to-day very popular. however. run directly counter to modern philanthropy. This solution says: Negroes differ from whites in their inherent genius and stage of development. sound political development is sternly frowned upon. but always liable to be discovered and exposed by some liberal or religious movement of the masses of men and suddenly overthrown. On the other hand. the king or chief reigns. the suppression of war and feud. The advantage of this method is that on its face it carries no clue to its real working. however. Indeed it can always point to certain undoubted advantages: the abolition of the slave trade. Their development must not. and this population freed from slavery and partially enfranchised. These solutions are. the popular assemblies meet and act. The most ruthless class of white mercantile exploiters is allowed large liberty. but for the benefit of white Europe. 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. modern religious ideas are carefully limited. back of practically all these experiments stands the economic motive—the determination to use the organization. All this. Consequently the effort is made to-day in British Nigeria. if not a free hand. in the French Congo and Sudan. For this reason education is seldom encouraged. not for their own benefit. be sought along European lines.
in education. to this must be added the labor value of Negroes in South Africa. and the debauchery of the almost unrestricted rum traffic goes far to neutralize missionary effort. The black West Indies export nearly one hundred million dollars' worth of goods. North. and its economic development has scarcely begun. 172 . and ready to rise to the billions tomorrow. the West Indies. and in public life."113 What do Negroes themselves think of these their problems and the attitude of the world toward them? First and most significant. 112 The traveler Glave writes in the Century Magazine (LIII. 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.The Negro their own imagination. Egypt. Morel. 913): "Formerly [in the Congo Free State] an ordinary white man was merely called 'bwana' or 'Mzunga'. in the Nineteenth Century. etc. civil rights. and their separation as far as possible from contact with civilization in dwelling place." 113 E. Ostensibly this is "separation" of the races in society. and South America. but at the same time white merchants are sending at least twenty million dollars' worth of European liquor into Africa each year.112 White missionary societies are spending perhaps as much as five million dollars a year in Africa and accomplishing much good. Black Africa to-day exports annually nearly two hundred million dollars' worth of goods. In practice it is the subordination of colored people of all grades under white tutelage. now the merest insect of a pale face earns the title of 'bwana Mkubwa' [big master]. On the other hand the economic significance of the Negro to-day is tremendous. where the result is blended in the common output of many races. "Tropical Africa and its peoples are being brought more irrevocably every year into the vortex of the economic influences that sway the western world.D. The economic foundation of the Negro problem can easily be seen to be a matter of many hundreds of millions to-day. Central. Such figures and facts give some slight idea of the economic meaning of the Negro to-day as a worker and industrial factor.
the character of the Negro race is the best and greatest hope. a new unity of men. so long as black laborers are slaves. Nigeria. but there are centers which are growing larger and larger and touching edges. Most men in this world are colored. be what colored men make it. in his support of militarism and colonial expansion. and the Sudan. a unity of the colored races. Already the more far-seeing Negroes sense the coming unities: a unity of the working classes everywhere. In a conscious sense of unity among colored races there is to-day only a growing interest. 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. The most significant centers of this new thinking are. in all reasonable probability. snarling human beasts. with faint beginnings in East Central Africa. white laborers cannot be free. but the common cause of the darker races against the intolerable assumptions and insults of Europeans has already found expression. this is followed by South Africa and West Africa and then. more vaguely. or will Reason and Good Will prevail? That such may be true. outside Africa and in America: in the United States and in the West Indies. There is slowly arising not only a curiously strong brotherhood of Negro blood throughout the world. In order for this colored world to come into its heritage. be merely a narrow racial propaganda. The future world will. He is beginning to say to these workingmen that. Already there are signs in South Africa and the United States of the beginning of understanding between the two classes.W E B Du Bois they are thinking. by South America. for in its normal condition it is at once the strongest and gentlest of the races of men: "Semper novi quid ex Africa!" 173 . must the earth again be drenched in the blood of fighting. however. A belief in humanity means a belief in colored men. There is as yet no great single centralizing of thought or unification of opinion. The Pan-African movement when it comes will not. perhaps naturally.
Reclus: Universal Geography. The latter are starred. and Brown's Story of Africa and its Explorers brings together much material in readable form. THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AFRICA A.A. Joyce.. The compendiums by Keltie and White. Johnston. except the ridiculous article on the "Negro" by T. or with anything but incidental acknowledgment of the existence or value of his history. in his various works on Africa. 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.H. and Johnston's Opening up of Africa are the best among the shorter treatises. set down certain books under the various subjects which the chapters have treated.The Negro SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING THERE IS NO GENERAL HISTORY of the Negro race. by A.S. Perhaps Sir Harry H. White: The Development of Africa. 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 Encyclopædia Britannica are of some value. 2d ed. 174 .. but his valuable books have puzzling inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Frobenius' newly published Voice of Africa is broad-minded and informing. Stanford's Compendium of Geography: Africa. Keane's Africa is a helpful compendium. 1892. None of these authors write from the point of view of the Negro as a man. however. We may. 2d ed. Vols. Keane. has come as near covering the subject as any one writer. X-XIII. 1904-7. E.
etc. Vol. by G. *Jacques Loeb: in The Crisis.W E B Du Bois RACIAL DIFFERENCES AND THE ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS OF NEGROES J. p. etc. IX. 1911. etc. C. New York. Vol. 84. New York. *Franz Boas: The Mind of Primitive Man. Finot: Race Prejudice (tr. etc.. 1899.. London. 92. Sergi: The Mediterranean Race. (ed. *J. 1904. *W. 1901.B. 1907. *G. New York. Ripley: The Races of Europe. 1911. Spiller). 1913. *Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress. by Wade-Evans). 175 . Deniker: The Races of Man. New York. Davenport: Heredity of Skin Color in Negro-White Crosses. VIII. p.Z..
1910. Theal). by G. —— A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races. and his article in Vol. and Deniker. London. Johnston: The Opening up of Africa (Home University Library).M.) 176 . XLIII of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.W. (Consult also Johnston's other works on Africa. *G. Stowe: The Native Races of South Africa (ed. also Inter-Racial Problems.The Negro EARLY MOVEMENTS OF THE NEGRO RACE *Sir Harry H. 1905. noted above. Cambridge.
H. T. 1905.. etc. 1907. W.S. I. Chamberlain: "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization" (Journal of Race Development.E. Randal McIver: The Ancient Races of the Thebaid. etc. *A. Thompson and D. *Archeological Survey of Nubia. London. 1913. April. Budge: The Egyptian Sudan. 177 . but incidentally and often slightingly. They mention the Negro. Maspero.A. 2 vols. New Haven. 2 vols. Ferris: The African Abroad. E.F. Budge and Newberry and Garstang are the standard books on Egypt.. Scholes: Glimpses of the Ages.W E B Du Bois NEGRO IN ETHIOPIA AND EGYPT (The works of Breasted and Petrie. 1905. Vol.) *A.W.. 1911)..
. 178 . 1844. etc.The Negro ABYSSINIA Job Ludolphus: A New History of Ethiopia (tr. London. W. Whiteway: The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia … as narrated by Castanhosa. London. 1682. Harris: Highlands of Æthiopia.S. 3 vols.S. 1902. by Gent). R..
1900." Otherwise her book is excellent. 179 . 1799. *Leo Africanus: The History and Description of Africa. Islam. *Ibn Batuta: Travels. Brown). and the Negro Race. 1857-58.. (The reader may dismiss as worthless Lady Lugard's definition of "Negro..D. Mungo Park: Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. Houdas.) *Es-Sa'di. *W. DuBois: Timbuktu the Mysterious (tr. *F. *Leo Frobenius: The Voice of Africa (tr. *E. translated into French by O.. 1829. Cooley: The Negroland of the Arabs. (tr. 2 vols.. *H. etc. Barth: Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa. by White). etc.. etc. 1913. 5 vols. 3 vols. etc. by R. by Pory. etc. Paris. 1896.L. by Blind). Abderrahman Ben Abdallah. (tr. etc.W. Blyden: Christianity. London. 1841. ed. Shaw (Lady Lugard): A Tropical Dependency. 1906. by Lee). 1896..W E B Du Bois THE NIGER RIVER AND ISLAM *F..
Roth: Great Benin and Its Customs...W. Jay: An Inquiry. 1904. 1902. ed. H.T.. Read and O. 1903. 1887.H. 2d. Morel: Affairs of West Africa. *F. Ellis: The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast. 1899. 1859.H. —— The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast. W. Starr: Liberia. McPherson: A History of Liberia. E. 180 . 1890.L. Dalton: Antiquities from the City of Benin. etc.H. *G. London. C. etc. *A. Foote: Africa and the American Flag. 1835. New York. 1913. Kingsley: West African Studies.B. *M.. Ellis: Negro Culture in West Africa (Vai-speaking peoples). Baltimore. H. Johnston: Liberia. New York. Sir Harry H. Alldridge: A Transformed Colony (Sierra Leone).M.D. —— The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast. 1910.J. 1914. 1906. T. Johns Hopkins Studies. T. 2 vols.H. 1894.The Negro THE NEGRO ON THE GUINEA COAST *Leo Frobenius (as above).
2 vols. 1891. 181 . Fox-Bourne: Civilization in Congoland. 1906. 2 vols. 1908. *H. H. 1873. 1878... Vol. London. etc..W E B Du Bois THE CONGO VALLEY *G. *E. 1890. Johnston: George Grenfell and the Congo. 2 vols.D.M. —— In Darkest Africa... 1885. London. *H. von Wissman: My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa. Morel: Red Rubber. II. London. Sir Harry H. 1903. Stanley: Through the Dark Continent. —— The Congo. 2 vols.R. Schweinfurth: The Heart of Africa.
Burton: Lake Regions of Central Africa. 1906.The Negro THE NEGRO IN THE REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES *Sir Harry H. De Barros: De Asia. by H. Randal McIver: Mediæval Rhodesia. *D.. 1897. J. Waller). Vol. Peters: "Ophir and Punt in South Africa" (African Society Journal. —— British Central Africa. Dos Santos: Ethiopia Oriental (Theal's Records of South Africa. as above. Ashe: Chronicles of Uganda. *The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa (ed. —— The Nile Quest. Johnston: The Uganda Protectorate.P. R. 2 vols. 2d ed. I). VII). C.. 1894. Vol. (See also Stanley's works.) 182 . 1860. 1874. 1904. 1903. R.
1897. 1898-1903.. 1904-5. Theal: History and Ethnography of South Africa of the Zambesi to 1795. Lagden: The Basutos. 5 vols. 9 vols. London. 3 vols.W E B Du Bois THE NEGRO IN SOUTH AFRICA *G. (See also Stowe. 1908. Reports. J. —— Records of South Eastern Africa. —— History of South Africa since September. 5 vols. G. *South African Native Affairs Commission. 1909.. D. 1907-10. Livingstone: Missionary Travels in South Africa.. Stewart: Lovedale.) 183 ... 1903-5. 1857. as above. *J. Cape Town. Bryce: Impressions of South Africa. etc. 1795.M. 1884.
A. 1810. —— Commencement Address (Atlanta University Leaflet. 184 . December. Duke of Mecklenburg: From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile (English tr. Gregoire: An Inquiry concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes. R. *G. Schweinfurth: Artes Africanae. etc. 1907. 1904.. *F. Crawford: Thinking Black. *William Schneider: Die Culturfähigkeit des Negers. Hayford: Gold Coast Institutions. 1914.B. Nassau: Fetishism in West Africa. Bücher: Industrial Evolution (tr. Camphor: Missionary Sketches and Folk Lore from Africa. Brooklyn. 1910). Frankfort.. 1907. 1885.H.The Negro ON NEGRO CIVILIZATION J. D. New York. *Franz Boas: "The Real Race Problem" (The Crisis.). by Warden). 1909. 1875. 1914. C. (tr. No. 3 vols. 1903. Dowd: The Negro Races. by Butler). etc. 1904. *H. 19). by Wickett). Ratzel: The History of Mankind (tr. C. Philadelphia.
2 vols. Ellis.H.. H. D.N. 1906. 1908. Chatelain: The Folk Lore of Angola.) 185 . —— Kaffir Socialism and the Dawn of Individualism. —— Savage Childhood. Kidd: The Essential Kaffir.W E B Du Bois R. Stowe. Frobenius. Miss Kingsley. Theal. Sir Harry H. Johnston. and particularly Chamberlain's article in the Journal of Race Development. Oxford. Tongue: Bushman Paintings. 1883. Cust: Sketch of Modern Language of Africa.B. (See also the works of A. and Ibn Batuta. M. 1904. 1909.
etc. 1789. etc.A. Spears: The American Slave Trade.. *B.) 186 . Ingram: History of Slavery and Serfdom.. *Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council. W..S. etc. Buxton: The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy. *T. R.) John R.E. T.F. Mayer: Captain Canot or Twenty Years of an African Slaver.The Negro THE SLAVE TRADE T.B. 1895. London. etc. (See also Bryan Edwards' West Indies. London. DuBois: The suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the U. 1808. 1860.. (Same article revised in Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 vols.. 1896. 1854. Clarkson: History … of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.. New York. 1896.K. 1900. 11th edition. Drake: Revelations of a Slave Smuggler.
Brawley: A Short History of the American Negro.T. 1882. B.W. *G. THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES *Walker's Appeal.. 1909. 1910. 1793-1819. *Sir Harry H. 1914. Vols. 1899. Bryce: South America. Johnston: The Negro in the New World.. 1879. *J. 1907. etc. de Lacerda: "The Metis or Half-Breeds of Brazil" (InterRacial Problems. II-V. 187 . J. 1619-1880. T. Williams: History of the Negro Race in America. —— The Story of the Negro. 2 vols. Washington: Up from Slavery. 5 editions.W E B Du Bois THE WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA Fletcher and Kidder: Brazil and the Brazilians.G. 1829. J. Steward: The Haitian Revolution.K. etc. 1791-1804. etc. 1913.N. 1901. Leger: Haiti.G. *Bryan Edwards: History … of the British West Indies. Fiske: History of the West Indies. 1912.) A.B. B..
1855. W.The Negro *The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Giddings: The Exiles of Florida. Nell: The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution. etc. Dunbar: Lyrics of Lowly Life. *G.B.. Atlanta.).E. 1913 (ed.. 1899. W. 1858.B.E. 1914.E. October. 1912. 1901. 1867.P. DuBois: "Reconstruction and its Benefits" (American 188 . *J. Chesnutt: The Marrow of Tradition.E. C.W. —— The Philadelphia Negro. P. 1827. revised edition. 1892. W. McCulloch). 1901.J. Fenner and others: Cabin and Plantation Songs.E. W. Allen and others: Slave Songs of the United States. 1896. etc. 1887. W. —— John Brown.R.L. Simmons: Men of Mark. DuBois: "The Negro Race in the United States of America" (Inter-Racial Problems.E. *H. 1911).F.. T. *Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. 3d ed. etc. by J.. Kreihbel: Afro-American Folk Songs. —— "The Economics of Negro Emancipation" (Sociological Review. etc. The Human Way: Addresses on Race Problems at the Southern Sociological Congress. Stroud: Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery.
No. 11. 1906. The Common School and the Negro American. No. 17. A. 1901. 1911. 1896. No. No. 1897. 1906. *J.S. Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment. 1905. 1910. 1897. 6.R.. 1904. Cable: The Silent South. 1913.T. 10. 1908. Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans. The Negro American Artisan. 1912. No. Notes on Negro Crime. The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races.W.B. No. No. 14. 1913. The Atlanta University Studies: No. Lynch: The Facts of Reconstruction. No. The Negro American Family. 1910.W E B Du Bois Historical Review. 1899. 9. 1885. No. —— editor. No. 1907. The Negro Church. 18. No. 1898. 16. etc. No. 13. Merriam: The Negro and the Nation. Hart: The Southern South. *J. 1902. monthly. 8. 1900. 4. The Negro Artisan. 3. 7. 1903. 2. No. No. —— editor. Vol. No. 1909. The Negro in Business. 15. Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in Cities. Morals and Manners among Negro Americans. The College Bred Negro American. Health and Physique of the Negro American. Wilson: The Black Phalanx. The Negro Common School. A Select Bibliography of the Negro American. The College Bred Negro. No. XV. 189 . 1910. No. *G. 1. Mortality Among Negroes in Cities. Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans. G. 4). William Goodell: Slavery and Anti-Slavery. 12. No. 5. 1852.
Hartshorn and Penniman: An Era of Progress and Promise. Treason. and Murder. Willcox and DuBois: Negroes in the United States (United States Census of 1900. 1910 (profusely illustrated). 190 .The Negro *G. Bulletin No. 1862. etc. Livermore: An Historical Research respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on Negroes. *James Brewster: Sketches of Southern Mystery.. 8).
2d ed.S. 1908.S. *R. Washington: The Future of the Negro. W. B. 1913. 1895. etc. Keltie: The Partition of Africa. (See also Finot. No. —— Quest of the Silver Fleece. DuBois: "The Future of the Negro Race in America" (East and West. N.E. Morel: "Free Labor in Tropical Africa" (Nineteenth Century and After. 1908.. Shaler: The Neighbor. II. —— Race Adjustment. 2d ed.D.. Vol. 1911. Inter-Racial Problems. E. 5). and White's Development of Africa. Royce: Race Questions. Kelly Miller: Out of the House of Bondage.W E B Du Bois THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO RACE *J. 1862. 1908. 1914).T.S. —— Souls of Black Folk. *Casely Hayford: Ethiopia Unbound.B. Boas. Baker: Following the Color Line. *J..) 191 . 1914. Alexander Crummell: The Future of Africa.
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