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THE COLONY OF GEORGIA.

Georgia once included in the Territory of Carolina.--The Thirteenth Colony planted in North America by the English Government.--Slaves ruled out altogether by the Trustees.--The Opinion of Gen. Oglethorpe concerning Slavery.--Long and Bitter Discussion in Regard to the Admission of Slavery into the Colony.--Slavery introduced.--History of Slavery in Georgia. 316

MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES.

The Colonial States in 1715.--Ratification of the Non-Importation Act by the Southern Colonies.--George Washington presents Resolutions against Slavery, in a Meeting at Fairfax Court-House, Va.--Letter written by Benjamin Franklin to Dean Woodward, pertaining to Slavery.--Letter to the Freemen of Virginia from a Committee, concerning the Slaves brought from Jamaica.--Severe Treatment of Slaves in the Colonies modified.--Advertisement in "The Boston Gazette" of the Runaway Slave Crispus Attucks.--The Boston Massacre.--Its Results.--Crispus Attucks shows his Loyalty.--His Spirited Letter to the Tory Governor of the Province.--Slaves admitted into the Army.--The Condition of the Continental Army.--Spirited Debate in the Continental Congress, over the Draught of a Letter to Gen. Washington.--Instructions to discharge all Slaves and Free Negroes in his Army.--Minutes of the Meeting held at Cambridge.--Lord Dunmore's Proclamation.--Prejudice in the Southern Colonies.--Negroes in Virginia flock to the British Army.--Caution to the Negroes printed in a Williamsburg Paper.--The Virginia Convention answers the Proclamation of Lord Dunmore.--Gen. Greene, in a Letter to Gen. Washington, calls Attention to the raising of a Negro Regiment on Staten Island.--Letter from a Hessian Officer.--Connecticut Legislature on the Subject of Employment of Negroes as Soldiers.--Gen. Varnum's Letter to Gen. Washington, suggesting the Employment of Negroes, sent to Gov. Cooke.--The Governor refers Varnum's Letter to the General Assembly.--Minority Protest against enlisting Slaves to serve in the Army.--Massachusetts tries to secure Legal Enlistments of Negro Troops.--Letter of Thomas Kench to the Council and House of Representatives, Boston, Mass.--Negroes serve in White Organizations until the Close of the American Revolution.--Negro Soldiers serve in Virginia.--Maryland employs Negroes.--New York passes an Act providing for the Raising of two Colored Regiments.--War in the Middle and Southern Colonies.--Hamilton's Letter to John Jay.--Col. Laurens's Efforts to raise Negro Troops in South Carolina.--Proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton inducing Negroes to desert the Rebel Army.--Lord Cornwallis issues a Proclamation offering Protection to all Negroes seeking his Command,--Col. Laurens is called to France on Important Business.--His Plan for securing Black Levies for the South upon his Return.--His Letters to Gen. Washington in Regard to his Fruitless Plans.--Capt David Humphreys recruits a Company of Colored Infantry in Connecticut.--Return of Negroes in the Army in 1778. 324

NEGROES AS SOLDIERS.

The Negro as a Soldier.--Battle of Bunker Hill--Gallantry of Negro Soldiers.--Peter Salem, the Intrepid Black Soldier.--Bunker-hill Monument.--The Negro Salem Poor distinguishes himself by Deeds of Desperate Valor.--Capture of Gen. Lee.--Capture of Gen. Prescott--Battle of Rhode Island.--Col. Greene commands a Negro Regiment.--Murder of Col. Greene in 1781.--The Valor of the Negro Soldiers. 363

LEGAL STATUS OF THE NEGRO DURING THE REVOLUTION

The Negro was Chattel or Real Property.--His Legal Status during his New Relation as a Soldier--Resolution introduced in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to prevent the selling of Two Negroes captured upon the High Seas--The Continental Congress appoints a Committee to consider what should be done with Negroes taken by Vessels of War in the Service of the United Colonies.--Confederation of the New States.--Spirited Debate in Congress respecting the Disposal of Recaptures.--The Spanish Ship "Victoria" captures an English Vessel having on Board Thirty-four Negroes taken from South Carolina.--The Negroes recaptured by Vessels belonging to the State of Massachusetts.--They are delivered to Thomas Knox, and conveyed to Castle Island.--Col. Paul Revere has Charge of the Slaves on Castle Island--Massachusetts passes a Law providing for the Security, Support, and Exchange of Prisoners brought into the State.--Gen Hancock receives a Letter from the Governor of South Carolina respecting the Detention of Negroes--In the Provincial Articles between the United States of America and His Britannic Majesty, Negroes were rated as Property.--And also in the Definite Treaty of Peace between the United States of America and His Britannic Majesty.--And also in the Treaty of Peace of 1814, between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, Negroes were designated as Property.--Gen. Washington's Letter to Brig-Gen Rufus Putnam in regard to a Negro in his Regiment claimed by Mr. Hobby.--Enlistment in the Army did not always work a Practical Emancipation. 370

THE NEGRO INTELLECT.--BANNEKER THE ASTRONOMER.--FULLER THE MATHEMATICIAN.--DERHAM THE PHYSICIAN.

Statutory Prohibition against the Education of Negroes.--Benjamin Banneker, the Negro Astronomer and Philosopher.--His Antecedents--Young Banneker as a Farmer and Inventor--The Mills of Ellicott & Co.--Banneker cultivates his Mechanical Genius and Mathematical Tastes.--Banneker's first Calculation of an Eclipse submitted for Inspection in 1789.--His Letter to Mr Ellicott.--The Testimony of a Personal Acquaintance of Banneker as to his Upright Character.--His Home becomes a Place of Interest to Visitors.--Record of his Business Transactions.--Mrs. Mason's Visit to him.--She addresses him in Verse.--Banneker replies by Letter to her.--Prepares his First Almanac for Publication in 1792.--Title of his Almanac--Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson.--Thomas Jefferson's Reply.--Banneker invited to accompany the Commissioners to run the Lines of the District of Columbia.--Banneker's Habits of studying the Heavenly Bodies.--Minute Description given to his Sisters in Reference to the Disposition of his Personal Property after Death.--His Death.--Regarded as the most Distinguished Negro of his Time.--Fuller the Mathematician, or "The Virginia Calculator."--Fuller of African Birth, but stolen and sold as a Slave into Virginia.--Visited by Men of Learning.--He was pronounced to be a Prodigy in the Manipulation of Figures.--His Death.--Derham the Physician.--Science of Medicine regarded as the most Intricate Pursuit of Man.--Early Life of James Derham.--His Knowledge of Medicine, how acquired.--He becomes a Prominent Physician in New Orleans.--Dr. Rush gives an Account of an Interview with him.--What the Negro Race produced by their Genius in America. 385

SLAVERY DURING THE REVOLUTION.

Progress of the Slave-Trade.--A Great War for the Emancipation of the Colonies from Political Bondage.--Condition of the Southern States during the War.--The Virginia Declaration of Rights.--Immediate Legislation against Slavery demanded.--Advertisement from "The Independent Chronicle."--Petition of Massachusetts Slaves.--An Act preventing the Practice of holding Persons in Slavery.--Advertisements from "The Continental Journal."--A Law passed in Virginia limiting the Rights of Slaves.--Law emancipating all Slaves who served in the Army.--New York promises her Negro Soldiers Freedom.--A Conscientious Minority in Favor of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade.--Slavery flourishes during the Entire Revolutionary Period. 402

SLAVERY AS A POLITICAL AND LEGAL PROBLEM.

British Colonies in North America declare their Independence.--A New Government established.--Slavery the Bane of American Civilization.--The Tory Party accept the Doctrine of Property in Man.--The Doctrine of the Locke Constitution in the South.--The Whig Party the Dominant Political Organization in the Northern States.--Slavery recognized under the New Government.--Anti Slavery Agitation in the States.--Attempted Legislation against Slavery.--Articles of Confederation.--Then Adoption in 1778.--Discussion concerning the Disposal of the Western Territory.--Mr. Jefferson's Recommendation.--Amendment by Mr. Spaight.--Congress in New York in 1787.--Discussion respecting the Government of the Western Territory.--Convention at Philadelphia to frame the Federal Constitution.--Proceedings of the Convention.--The Southern States still advocate Slavery.--Speeches on the Slavery Question by Leading Statesmen.--Constitution adopted by the Convention in 1787.--First Session of Congress under the Federal Constitution held in New York in 1789.--The Introduction of a Tariff-Bill.--An Attempt to amend it by inserting a Clause levying a Tax on Slaves brought by Water.--Extinction of Slavery in Massachusetts.--A Change in the Public Opinion of the Middle and Eastern States on the Subject of Slavery.--Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Address to the Public for promoting the Abolition of Slavery.--Memorial to the United-States Congress.--Congress in 1790.--Bitter Discussion on the Restriction of the Slave-Trade.--Slave-Population.--Vermont and Kentucky admitted into the Union.--A Law providing for the Return of Fugitives from "Labor and Service."--Convention of Friends held in Philadelphia.--An Act against the Foreign Slave-Trade.--Mississippi Territory.--Constitution of Georgia revised.--New York passes a Bill for the Gradual Extinction of Slavery.--Constitution of Kentucky revised.--Slavery as an Institution firmly established. 412

HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA.

THE UNITY OF MANKIND.

THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT.--ONE RACE AND ONE LANGUAGE.--ONE BLOOD.--THE CURSE OF CANAAN.

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

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

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

We find two leading thoughts in the twenty-sixth verse; viz., that this passage establishes clearly and unmistakably the unity of mankind, in that God created them of one blood; second, he hath determined "the bounds of their habitation,"--hath located them geographically. The language quoted is very explicit. "He hath determined the bounds of their habitation," that is, "all the nations of men. We have, then, the fact, that there are different "nations of men," and that they are all "of one blood," and, therefore, have a common parent. This declaration was made by the Apostle Paul, an inspired writer, a teacher of great erudition, and a scholar in both the Hebrew and the Greek languages.

It should not be forgotten either, that in Paul's masterly discussion of the doctrine of sin,--the fall of man,--he always refers to Adam as the "one man" by whom sin came into the world. His Epistle to the Romans abounds in passages which prove very plainly the unity of mankind. The Acts of the Apostles, as well as the Gospels, prove the unity we seek to establish.

But there are a few who would admit the unity of mankind, and still insist that the Negro does not belong to the human family. It is so preposterous, that one has a keen sense of humiliation in the assured consciousness that he goes rather low to meet the enemies of God's poor; but it can certainly do no harm to meet them with the everlasting truth.

"In the time of our Saviour , by Ethiopia was meant, in a general sense, the countries south of Egypt, then but imperfectly known; of one of which that Candace was queen whose eunuch was baptized by Philip. Mr. Bruce, on his return from Abyssinia, found in latitude 16? 38' a place called Chendi, where the reigning sovereign was then a queen; and where a tradition existed that a woman, by name Hendaque , once governed all that country. Near this place are extensive ruins, consisting of broken pedestals and obelisks, which Bruce conjectures to be those of Meroe, the capital of the African Ethiopia, which is described by Herodotus as a great city in his time, namely, four hundred years before Christ; and where, separated from the rest of the world by almost impassable deserts, and enriched by the commercial expeditions of their travelling brethren, the Cushites continued to cultivate, so late as the first century of the Christian era, some portions of those arts and sciences to which the settlers in the cities had always more or less devoted themselves."

But a few writers have asserted, and striven to prove, that the Egyptians and Ethiopians are quite a different people from the Negro. Jeremiah seems to have understood that these people about whom we have been writing were Negroes,--we mean black. "Can the Ethiopian," asks the prophet, "change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" The prophet was as thoroughly aware that the Ethiopian was black, as that the leopard had spots; and Luther's German has for the word "Ethiopia," "Negro-land,"--the country of the blacks. The word "Ethiop" in the Greek literally means "sunburn."

That these Ethiopians were black, we have, in addition to the valuable testimony of Jeremiah, the scholarly evidence of Herodotus, Homer, Josephus, Eusebius, Strabo, and others.

It will be necessary for us to use the term "Cush" farther along in this discussion: so we call attention at this time to the fact, that the Cushites, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures, are the same as the Ethiopians.

Driven from unscriptural and untenable ground on the unity of the races of mankind, the enemies of the Negro, falling back in confusion, intrench themselves in the curse of Canaan. "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." This passage was the leading theme of the defenders of slavery in the pulpit for many years. Bishop Hopkins says,--

Following the chapter containing the prophecy of Noah, the historian records the genealogy of the descendants of Ham and Canaan. We will quote the entire account that we may be assisted to the truth.

"And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan; and the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim , and Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations."

Here is a very minute account of the family of Ham, who it is said was to share the fate of his son Canaan, and a clear account of the children of Canaan. "Nimrod," says the record, "began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.... And the beginning of his kingdom," etc. We find that Cush was the oldest son of Ham, and the father of Nimrod the "mighty one in the earth," whose "kingdom" was so extensive. He founded the Babylonian empire, and was the father of the founder of the city of Nineveh, one of the grandest cities of the ancient world. These wonderful achievements were of the children of Cush, the ancestor of the Negroes. It is fair to suppose that this line of Ham's posterity was not lacking in powers necessary to found cities and kingdoms, and maintain government.

FOOTNOTES:

Gen. i. 27.

Gen. ii. 7.

Gen. ii. 15.

Gen. i. 28.

Encycl. of Geo., p. 255.

If the Apostle Paul had asserted that all men resembled each other in the color of their skin and the texture of their hair, or even in their physiological make-up, he would have been at war with observation and critical investigation. But, having announced a wonderful truth in reference to the unity of the human race as based upon one blood, science comes to his support, and through the microscope reveals the corpuscles of the blood, and shows that the globule is the same in all human blood.

Deut. xxxii. 8, 9: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance."

Rom. v. 12, 14-21.

Luke xxiii, 26: Acts vi. 9, also second chapter, tenth verse. Matthew records the same fact in the twenty-seventh chapter, thirty-second verse. "And at they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross."

See Melville's Sermons.

Acts viii. 27.

See Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.

Jones's Biblical Cyclopaedia, p. 311.

Gen. ix. 24, 25. See also the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses.

Bible Views of Slavery, p. 7.

Gen. ix. 23.

Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride. See also Dr. Morton, and Ethnological Journal, 4th No p. 172.

Gen. x. 6-20.

Dr. Bush.

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