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CHR I STIANITY, ISLAM 
AND THE 
NEGRO RACE . 
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,CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM 
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AND THE 
NEGRO RACE. 
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EDWARD W. BLYDEN, LL.D., 
Late Minister Plenipoieniia7"y of the Repu,blic of L iberia at the 
COU?"t 0/ St. James . 
WITH AN INTRODU OTION 
/Y THE • 
• RON. SAMUEL LEWIS, 
Ba7Tistel·.at.Law, and Member of the Legislative Council of Sierra Leone . 
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LONDON: 
W. B. WHITTINGHAM & 00., 91, GRAOEOHUROH STREET.  
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1887 . 
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w. n. WBIT'fD'GBA..lI &: co., 
I'IIINT.I!RS, 
'1, liR.lC£CUUUCIl STilE£T, E.C.; "'NO, 
"Tile CIlARTt:RBOutt PUSS," 
LOXDOS. 
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CONTENJrS . 
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PAOI:. 
PREFACE . ..  . .. ... ... l , 
INTRODUHOR'lo' BJOORAPlIIC.\L NOT1.~ ... v 
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MOBAlIM~DA!\'1Sll AS'D THE NEGRO }{ACE ... ... 1 
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CBRISTIAXITY ,,:so THE XI::GRO RACE ... ... ... 30 
CHRI STIA:ot MISSION. ... IN WeST AFRICA . .. ... 54 
THE AUIS A:s'D hll::'fHODS OF A LIBERAL EDUCATlOl\" FOR At-'RICANS ,.. 82 
ORIGL" A1I'D Pt;RP()Se; 0.' A.FRICA~ COLONIS\TIOX ... ... IDS 
ETHIOPl.\ STRETI"HIXC; OUT Kt:R H.\NDS U:-"l'Q GOD (AFRICA'S SEr.VICE 
TO THE WORLD) 130 
E.C., HOES YROl! AFRICA ... HiD 
PlllLIP AND T U B EUNUCH ... ... 174 
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MOHAlnIEDA~W'" IN W1o;STERN AFRIC.\ Ul9 
SIERRA LEONE A:\O LIOEIUA .. . ... 217 
I sL.UI ASO R\cJ..; DISTINCT IONS 277 
AFRICA AND T a E AFRICANS •. • ... ... 2DS 
LrVE"F LoRD LAWRENCE AND ITS L ESSO:"::; 325 
THE MOHA1UI ED.\N'j OF NlGRITIA ' • • ... 350 
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A FRICAN COLOSl SA'l'ION .. . . .. ... 383 
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PREFACE . 
THE Colonial (lIld Inclian Exhibition of 1886. which has brought together in London men of l\U races rmel climes, anel of ItlUlost every uegree of 
civilisation, bas been the immediate occasion-not the canse-of the 
publication of tJlis volume, and it. is boped that tbe interest in West Af.rica 
which lDay have been awakened by the "Exhibits" from this part of the 
world ma.y lend Ulany, who mighl not otherwise haxe been attrncleu by the 
suhject, to a 11erllSaJ of its pages. 
The chapten; which it containF; have, many of them. appeared, at varions 
timef;, in the f;hape of article" JD English periodicals, or in those of tbe United 
State!".. They are all attempt to deal with tbe grave questions which alrect 
Africa. and the Negro race-to set forth to Afric:'I.os and to their foreign 
he1pers, secular and religious, some of the conditions of the problem before 
:bem, as they have presented themselves to an African who has enjoyed 
exceptional opportunities of trn ,11 and obseryation in the Eastern and 
\\'eS"tern hemispheres-in Ceniral Africa, in Egypt and Syria, in Enrope, in 
~orth and South America, and in the West Indies. 
'Inch has been writ.ten about Afl:ica and the .\frican. The character, 
position ilOU destiny of the Xe~rro race have been discussed l)y Europeans 
of every nationality. Travellers from a11118.rt8 of the ci"ilisell world bave 
visited the country, and ha'-e furnished fncts-or what seemed to be facls-
for brill iant e!'sa.yists and incisive critics . But very little has been written 
by the .\frican himc;eJf of his country and people-very little, tlmt. jl::, which 
has"\ttrncted the itttC:lltion of the Ingber class of readers in Europe and 
A111el·ict\. A1.ricans at home have no problems to 501'\'e except lhose which 
penain to their local or dOlUestic affairs. They are not forced, either hy 
intellectual, or hy social, or by m• ater ial exigencies, to take interest in the 
ouhiue world . 'Yere it not for for&ign jnterference, they would never, in any 
nuulbers, have left their llncestral homes for residences in other lands . 
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It is different with the ontside, e!;pecirilly the European, worlll. Enropee. 
alld .A.lnericn, (nr the multif.'lrl 1..8 Jlurpo~n of their complex lift, and won 
derful growth, haYe during the last three hundre!l years needed lhe nia of 
Afrh·Q. and the Africa
from them, have bee•n.  And in relurn for the sen;ce! which, tbou~h forced n effectu!llly rendered, many nnd Doble have been the 
efforts put forwarll toward:-- the opening and impro\-ement of the continent. 
by those who bave been benefited by the Jo.hours of her children. Heli~inus 
conVictions amI philanthropic impulses have induce(l actin and f'elf.denyiu:::: 
exertions for the amelioration of the people; bllt the drawbacks b:we Leen. 
and are still. numerOl1"i aud diversified. 
Two great religions systellls nrc exerting their influence in Afric:L-
Chrutianity nod ::Uohatllllle(lanism. Tbese I'ysteml' hal'e many things in 
couunon. ChriAtians ~peak of Abraham as ,. the Father of the Faithful." 
and" the pattern of believer~." and ~rohalllmedl\oiBI1l professeR t9 he :\ 
re\-ivl\l of the Abrabomic faith and worship. The Komu rultlltt~ the Ui,iue 
authority of lhe Scriptures of the Old amI X ew Te!-otaments. It is with 
these two grefl.t systems in tbeir effect upon the African. through the 
methods of tbeir respective propagator!:', that many of the following pn~e!-i 
deal. 
Another !;uujl:ct dealt with in this hook is the important }lart in the denl,)p-
Ulent of Africa. that may be played by the settlement therein of chilised and 
Christian Negroes, drawn from the Western hemi"}lbE're. It is nn:' 
univer. . ally admitted that the ncclimafi"entiou of Europeao~ in Tro,rical 
Africa is impoflt;ible. No Europeans will ner be able to Li"e in the Soudau 
Ol' Congo and work a.s farmers, mechnnicR or labourers. But. without the 
example of communities engaging fit{'adily in such empioym('ots, the t:l~k 
of civilising the Dalins, in aoy large uUtub{'r~. is hnpele:-s. The Republic >f 
Lib('ria prel>ents an example of the, a.t least, cumparati,e, !-ouccei'iS which 
ntlen(}.. the efforts of ci"ili8ed Africans living nud working ill organked 
comwunities, with their farms. workbbups, store:-, school·homes 'lutl 
churches. 
The other method, of (\ few Em'opeau8 settled 11.11 missionaries. Go~ern 
ment officials, or traders, has, so far. made nry Little illlpre&:oion on tLe 
Continent. 'Ve ha\'e no exnmple in tropicnl Africa of hundrt'tlsofEurope.1ns 
living together, and engage11 in the arts aui\. practices of ci\'ili8etllife. nut. 
c,"en if this were possible, a few hunclreds of Europeans could exert no 
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influence capable of spreading civilisation among the millions in Ah.-iea, anel 
of developing the industrial and commercia.lllsources of so vast a continent. 
It is the Afrirfln com-erts to Mohammedanism and the Negro colonists 
from Christian couotrie!-.. \\ho have, thus far, done mc.lt for the permanent 
ad.ance of ci\'iwm.tioD in equatorial Africa; and it is these who seem to me 
to be the oul~' capahle and efficient agencies for the work of African re-
generation. Mohammedanism-by its simple, rigid forms of worship, by 
its literature. its politics, its orga..uisetl society, its industrial and commer-
cial activities-is rapidl~' superseding n hoary and pernicious Paganism. 
The exiled Negro in the Western hemisphere. on the other hand, in spite 
of slavery, in spite of the hitler prejudices, the dark passions of which he 
bas been tbe victim, bas come under influences which have gh'en him the 
elements of a noLler ci\'ilisatioll. The seed of a spi.ritual. intellectunl. in-
dush'iallife bas been planted in his bosom. wbieh, wben be is transfe1'l'ed to 
the land of his fatber~. will grow up into beauty. expand into Bower, and 
develop into b'uit whicb the world will be glad to welcome. 
It is gratifying to know thltt there are thousands in America looking to 
Africa as tbeir future home, who have been kept so much apart from the 
alien race in whose cOlUltry they lin, that their mce·strength hns not been 
l1l1!.lermined nor their race-\'itality ab~orbed, by surrouncling influences. 
T~ey will return to their ancestral home bearing, it is true, tbe mat'ks of 
!;.la\"ery to a foreign race. Lut it will.ye only a. superficial mark. 'Vithin they 
will have the noble and manly traits of those who, while outwnrdly sla\'es to 
foreignerf:i, have been free !;ervants to truth, to Africa. and to the race. They 
have never been cl'U!".bed nnder the pre!;SUl'e, or forced into tbe mould, of 
foreign prejudices, Christin.llf; and Mohammedan~ will meet face to face. as 
(hey haye never confronted each other berore, [lIld in a field where there are 
no other tlispu~fl.nts; the profegsors of each being of the same race, and 
Loth believing it therr tlut~· to convert the Pagruls. And it is fU1 ad\'alltage 
that the Xegro Ohrir..tian who i~ thus brought into a religious rh-alry should 
Jm4lf that class which brings nothing to the conflict but an unwa{-ering belief 
in the tnttb of Chri~tianity; for he will confront Mohammedans whose 
unreasoning adherence to their Caith bas not beeu influenced. by the iliseaRe 
of European cA!'Ouistry. The new comer from the West will infuse spiritun.llife 
into the fo rmalislll of the UUt'>lim~. a vital and spontaneous acti\rity into 
the mechanical regulnrity of their worship; while the Muslims by their 
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disciplined intellect amI respect for onler, will confront the pretensions aT 
ignorant and unlettered religtus guides, and rebul;:e the wil(l impulses of 
religious fervour, the indifference to leaming, the liccll!;e (mistaken for 
liberty) imported fl'1.11 the house of bondage. 
It is chiefly to point out these things that the following pages have been 
wri tten, with the conviction that, if Christianity cannot conqnel' the whole of 
Africn-a task which it cw never accomplish through ElU"opean agency 
.alone-it may, by the efforts and influence of its African cQu\'erts. at leaRt 
divide the empire of the Continent with Islam; Pa~anji:iU1, with nIl its 
horrors and abominations, having been forever abolished. 
LrBERIA, WgST AFRICA, 
May, 1887. 
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IXrHOTll'CT01\Y nTnOlUPHI CAL ~OTE. 
BY THE 
HON. SA)IUEL LEWIS. 
TllE opportWlity" hich has I.ceu llD("pectedly alTered to me of writing a. hril'f IJiographical iutroduction to Dr. Blydeo's work 00 .. Christianity, 
Islam and the :>\egro Race," will nut, I trust, be lJlisemployed, ii, at 
the Qntsl·t. I venture to e%pl'e~8 n. hope tha.t its bearings on the :.,rreat question 
of :Xt'~.. . o progress may secnre for it. no e)(leoE;i\'e circulation, :lS well as tbe • 
fiympalhehe Fludy of all who are interested in the condition of Africa. Nor 
caD I doubt th:l.t a. careful cOlbideratiull of its contents will ultimately 
lead. if not to the adoption of wl,tbuds altogether new. at least to an 
extensiH lIlodificati<Iu of tbose older meth(lds which ba,'C' heen, hitherto. 
regunled Ill> most conliucin to the Civilisation of the Dark Continent, 
.\ Negro mYEelf, of un;Hlnlteratcd African hlood, I1,elie"'e thlli, in the 
iden.s w hid) nuderlie and interl)enetrnte tbi:-. yolmne, Rn(l which Icad up, 1.),)' 
(lifferent Lilt conYerging paths, to the gt!nE'ral conciuf:ion, tha.t the aim of 
philanthropi~t~ should hE', not. tl) ili:-.turt. or to destroy any of the cha.rac-
teri!-tic'l which are most distinctive of the 'Negro race, Lut. to insure io 
tZ't!:w. as (I\r as possible, their norlll;ll and natural lle\,elopment, Dr. BlYllen 
is only ,:..ri\-ing eloquent expressio:J antI. emphaSIS to the sentiments and 
1If:l'iHltions (Of every enli::htenctl Olemhcr ot hi~ race. Foreign influence 
Olay-indeetl it. must-for ,",OUlI' tillle to COllIE' do milch f{lr Africa, but not 
east, 1Iy recognising the fundamental fact that when all has been said and 
(laue II,)' Europcans and d.lllericau:-. th;\1 they can either sa.y or do, the African 
bUHSc1f is, antI must alwa.ys r€'mniu, the fittest instnunent for the develop· 
meut of hi" country. He it. ill who clln best Le trained to utilise the vaht 
re50nrC('9 of Africa, not only for her own :.:ood, hut for the benefit of the 
hUUla.D race . 
What may Le the precise mC:lDS wltich are Le:ott adapted fur th(lt enil, I 
nel:11 not here enquin; nur whether it is ~rohonulledani~m (lr Cbri ... lianity 
\\' , undt'r the l'rer;cnt condition of Africa, is likely to be the most 
iml'llrtout lactor in its development. ?!any enlightened Africans are 
indined to think,oll grounds \\'hich are !;ullicientl.v explained in thil'l ,"olurne, 
that Islam iii, at ihe pl'el'ent. WllInellt, able to do more for the ro.glln ~('gro 
than its :,::reat rival, But tbolie who. like myself, Ll:lie\-e in the ultimate 
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triuwl,h, throughout NeftT0. lanll, of the Chl'i ... tia.n faitb, will, none tbe Ie::;", 
be ~Iad t{) lelU'u tllat Dr. lilJdcll dot's nut, in any dE'~;Tee, attriLute tbe ~l'rcad 
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of Mohnmmedlluism in Africa to ihi sensunlism. Such an e,;planation is, at 
once, uuwol'tby of n. great reLi~uon and insulting to the Negro race, although 
it is oue to whicb some European trayeUers of recent date-more qualified 
to traduce an unfortunate people than to engage in the philol'lophicnl investi· 
gation of their cbara~ tel' and history-have Dot been ash/uned to attribute its 
rapid spread and its wide influence. The fact~ and arguments accumulated in 
Dr. Blyden'6 Essays OD trus important subject will, I am cOll\"inced, repny the 
study of the Clu-istinn Evangelist DO le!'s than of the CIJri~tial1 Statesman. 
Edward ~Vilmot Blydell was born ill the Da.nish I sland of SL Tholllas, 
in the 'Vest Indies, and is of the purefit Negl"o parentage. Imipired, in 
early youth, with a loye for the l<'o.therland, and f1 desi.re to labour for its 
amelioration, he emigrated, in his seventeenth year, viti the United States of 
America, to Liberia, and there entered an educational institution which was 
nnder the care of an American missionary. By diligence and persevernnce 
he soon rose from his subordinate position to the headship of the institu. 
tion, and, after filling that office, for three years, to the sati!'>faction of all 
coucernen, was, in 1862, elected to a Profe!';!-;or!';bip in the newly.founded 
College of Liberia. In 1864, he was appointed Secretary of State by the 
President of Liberia, and mnnn.ged, for two years, to combine the duties of 
that office with his educational work. In 1866, he made a journey to the 
East, visiting Egypt and Syria, cbief1y with the ,·jew of studying the Arabic 
language, in order to its introduction into the cmTIculum of the (,ollege. 
In 1871, he resigned hi s Professorsh ip, !lnd, after a brief visit to Europ~, 
spent two ~'ear~ in Sien-a Leone, during which time he was sent by the 
Goyernor of the Colony-which was then under the administratio1l:;, sue· 
cessi,'ely, of Silo Arthur Kennedy and Sir John POlle Hennes"y-oD t-·o 
diplomntic missioD!'! to the powerflll ch}efs of the interior. His Report on 
one of these Expedition!'; was publi!'hed nt length in the Procee<lillgs flf tbe 
Royal Geographical Society. 
In 1877, he waf.; appointecl Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of 
Liberia at the Court of St. Jamps', a.Dd was recei,'ed by Her Majesty at 
Osborne, J Diy 30, 1878, being introduced by the Marquelis of Sa.lisbury, then 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1880, he was elected A. Fellow of 
the American Philologicn.l Association. In 1882, be wns made fI. Con-es-
ponding and Honorary Member of the Society of Science !llld Letters of 
Bengal. In 1884, be was electe(l Vice·President of the American Colorusa-
tion Society. The honorary degrees of Mastt:r of Arts, Doctor of Divinity 
and Doctor of La.ws have been conferred upon him hy different AIDe";' ._ 
Colleges. In 1885, he was nominated by the Republican Party of Liberia n. 
candidate for the Presidency of the RepUblic. 
Dr. Blyden has, in the course of his labours, been brought into contact 
-epistolary or personal-with some of the most remarkable literary men of 
his day. Among them ma," be mentioned Lord Brougham, Mr. Gladstone, 
Dean Stanley, Charles Dickens, Charles Sumner. 
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He seems from his earliest years to have bad a. central idea, a. dominant. 
conviction, about the Negro and bis cQuntrY'11whicb has, aU along, guided 
and sU!';lnined him in his efforts. He believes his views to be true, and he 
is only gradually eJaboratillg the exact method by whioh they may be 
brought borne to otbers. 1 
The following articles, though written at different times, will appear, 
when read carefully, to be linlted together. They are not only the sentiments 
(If a careful obsen'et and diligent student, but they are the exponent of a. 
purpose-the patriotic purpose of a lover of his race. 
Many of the thoughts are new, but they flre such as will be read with 
profit by all who are interested in the solution of the great problems which 
beset the work of the civilisation of Africa., a.nd the genu.ine progress of 
humanity. 
SAMUEL LE WIS. 
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, 
October 14th, 1886. 
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Mohammedanism and the 
Negro Race. 
Fralcr's JIu9CLil!(" NOl'~mb<'l", 1875. 
To students of general literature in Europe and the United States, • until ,. .. ithin the last few years, the Orientals most celebrated 
in religion or politics, in literature or learning, were known Dilly by 
name. The Oriental world, to the student aiming at practical 
achieYements, presented a field of so little promise that he scarcely 
6'\"e1' \~entured beyond a distant sun-ey of what seemeu to him a 
boundless anu impracticable area. But, thanks to the exigencies 
of commerce, to philanthropbic zeal, and to the scientific impulse, 
the East is daily getting to be "nearer seen and better known," 
Il?t only ill its outward We, but in those special aspects which, in 
religion and government, in ":~J: and policy. differentiate Eastern 
frorr~ ,Yestern races. It has been recently stated by a distinguished 
authority that ,. the intimate acquaintance with the languages, 
thoughts, history, and monuments of Eastern nations is no longer a 
luxury, but a necessity." And the visits, within the last teu years, 
of Oriental rulers to Europe-the Sultan of Turkey, tbe Khellive of 
Egypt. the Shah of Persia, and the Seyyid of Zanzibar-Layo 
stimulated in the popular mind a livelier curiosity as to tho cha-
racter, conditioll, and influence of Mohammedan countries. 
,,_."Prawn away from the beaten track of Roman and Greek antiquity 
by considerations, for the most part, of a material nature, and 
wandering into paths which, heretofore, were trodden only by such 
enthusiastic pioneers as Sir \Villiam Jones, the Western student 
fincls rewaros far rarer and ricber than he had anticipated. And 
even those who have Dot the opportunity of familiarising themselves 
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with Oriental langua.ges .fi\Jd enough in translations-inadequate 
and unsatisfactory as they often are-to inspire them '\vith a desire 
not Duly to iucrea~e their acquaintance with Eastern subjects, but 
to impart the knowledge they glean to others. 
To the latter class belongs Mr. R. Bosworth Smith, the author 
of the work before us. I He informs us at the outset that" the only 
qualification he would venture to claim for himself," as a writer on 
Islam, "is that of a sympathetic interest in his subject," his work 
having been II derived in the main from the study of books in the 
European languages." 
Mr. Bosworth Smith, who is a graduate of one of the English 
Universities, of only twelve years' standing, and therefore, we 
gather, a comparatively young man, may be regarded as ODe of the 
earliest collateral results of that increased activity in Oriental 
research which Dr. Birch has told us /I marks the advance of 
civilization." And i1 he does stand upon the shoulders of Caussin 
de Perceval, Sprenger, Muir, and Deutsch, be may, without im-
modesty. claim to be taller than they i for we are very much 
mistaken if his book does not form an important starting-point on 
the l'oad to a more tolerant-if Dot sympathetic-view among 
popular readers of the chief religion of the Oriental world. Tte 
wor~s of the writers just mention!!1 were designedly not popular, 
but written by scholars for scholars, maintaining 01' opposing 
theories for the most part of merely literary 01' historical signifi-
cance. Mr. Bosworth Smith has brought to his work not only 
a thorough appreciation of the literary and historical questions 
involved, but an earnest respect" for the deeper problems of the 
human soul," cherishing the sound and fruitful conviction, which 
he strives to impart to his readers, If that Mohammedans may 
learn much from Christians, and yet l'emain Mohammedans; that 
Christians have something at least to learn from Mohammed ...... ti".- 
1 lJ!ohammtd and llIolwmmtdanislII,-Lectures delivered ILt the Royal Institu-
tiOll of Grea.t Britain, in Febnuuy and March, 1874, by R. Bosworth ~mjth, 
.M A" Assist8.llt.!lloster in Harrow School. late Fellow of Trinity C-ollege, 
Oxford.-Lolldoll Smit.h, Elder Q.ml Co, 
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which will make them not less but male Christian than they were 
before. " 
)Ir. Bosworth Smith pursues the discussion of this important 
subject, which, as a labour of love, be entered UpOD, witb a degree 
of earnestness, perspicuity, catholicity. and force of reasoning that 
renders his work not only most instructive, but highly interesting 
as an indication of the tendency and dIrection of cultivated thought 
in England. He bas entered into the spirit of Islam in a manuel' 
which, but for the antecedent labours of Lane, Sprenger, Deutsch, 
and \\TeiJ, would be astounding in a 'Western scholar and au 
Englishman. 
Dean Stanley's lecture on the sal1le subject, though marked by 
the breadth of view, generous impa.rtiality, and geniality of spirit 
which so honourably distinguish all the ,nitings of that scholarly 
and Christian divine, is fragmentary-necessarily limited in its 
range by the nature and scope of the work. To Mr. Bosworth 
Smith, then, must be awarded the credit not only of having fully, 
fairly, and freely investigated the practical features of Islam, but 
of having rendered a clear, unbiassed, and unambiguous verdict, 
the influence of which, whether acknowledged or not, must be felt 
~.:hrougbout the literary world, Such works as those of hlaracci, 
Prideaux, and White are here.lfter impossible in polemico·religious 
lite1'ature. No cultivated man, however inquisitorial his tempera. 
ment, will ever, in the future, be tempted-or at least yield to the 
tempta.tion-to subject any religious system to ,the Procrust.ean 
ordeal. 
And, so far as Islam is concerned, schola.rs are arising within 
its ranks imbued with Westel'll learning, and ta.king the part not 
only of defenders of their faith, but of interpreters between the 
Eastern and \Vesteru world. It bas recently occasioned some 
/:>'.:., ';>rise and comment that a Mohammedan writer should have 
written an able work in the English tongue, .. cballenging Buro· 
pean and Christian thinkers on their own ground." ~ Since the 
~ Briti'h Quartt'rl!J Rct'itlD {or·.Janua.ry, ]872, in a. Review of • A Series of 
Essays on the Life of Mohammed.' .te.; by Syed Ahmed Khan Ba.hndor, C.S.l. 
Yol. I.-London, Tnibner and Co., 1870. 
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appearance of Syed Ahmed" essays, another work has appeared in 
the English language, written by a young Mohammedan, in which 
he bas briefly, temperately. and ably discussed the vo.rious subjects 
ill relation to whicli Islam is usually a.ssaileu.~ 
But it is not Duly ill recent days. as the writer in the British 
(Jue/rialy ReL'leU' would seem to imply. that MohaooroeuCtllS have 
availed themselves of the power of the pen, ill defence of their 
faith. There have always been. and there are now, able contro-
versialists among them altogether unknown to 'Western fame. 
The celebrated work of Dr. Pfnnder, the '!:Ilizau-a.l-Hakk, attacking 
the "AIohnullnedan system, has been reviewed in the Arabic 
language by a llohammedan scholar, Rahmat Allah, in a learned 
and iucisiye reply, in whicb he reveals a marvellous acquaintance 
with Europeall literatul'e. ,Ye ha\'e heard of no attempt at a 
rejoinder to the work of Rahmat Allah. "'e saw a copy of this 
book in the IH1Ulls or a West Afrie'au Mohammedan at Sierra 
Leone, who w ..\ s reading and commenting upon it to a number of 
his co-religionists, 
We are glad to notice that }I 1', Bosworth Smith's book bas 
been republisbed in the United States, and that the able adicle of 
DeuLsch on Isliul1 has been reproduced in the same volume :1S ~l 
appendix. TIley are fit companiC('~s-pflJ' nobile /ratrum. 1'be 
traveller, contemplating a yisit to J[ohatllll1edan countries, Of" the 
theologian wishing to get a clear "iew of a religious system which 
is shaping the destiny of milliong of the race, m",y now calTY in 
his pocket a complete compendium of ;'\lobammedall literature. If 
we except the '\ery remarkable article on the' Hi!;torical State-
ments in the Koran,' written in 1882, by the theu striplil)g 
renewer, 1\11'. J. Addison Alexander, of Princeton, and the able 
j Review of the Korau,' by Professor Draper, of the New York 
Univel'sity, in his History of tlie Intellcctual DC'l.;e/opmenb j 
Eu J'Ope , American scholarship bas as yet, as far as we are aware, 
produced nothing of importance in this bl'anch of literature. 
3 _<i Criti.cal Examination oj the Lijr fHld .TUfC/lillg$ 0/ _lIoJIf'/mm~d; by Syed 
Ameer Ali :\[oulvi, 1I A., LL.B., of tbe Innec Tomple, Bo.rrister-at-Lo.w, &c.-
London: Willinms and Norgo.te, 1873. 
, ( --
\ 
, 
, , 
jllolzammedallism alld tlte Negro Race. -:J 
The portion of the interesting work now before us, which we 
propose more particularly to notice, is that part of tbe first lecture 
which l'efers to the character and influence of Islam in \\'estern 
and Central Africa. Dean Stanley says:-
It canDOt. be forgotten that :'IIohnmmcda.nism IS the only higher religion 
which has hitherto made progress in the '-8.st continent of Atrica.. \\l1ate,-el' 
mas be the future fortunes of African Christianity, there ca.n be no doubt that 
they will he long affected by its rela.Gions with tbe most fo.no.t.icai and the most 
proselytising portion of the lfuasulman world in its Negro converls 
If this view is correct, then the Christian world Ci.\unot be 
indifferent to the discussion of a subject so full of importance 
affecting one branch of the philanthropic interests into which the 
Christian Church, more than eyer before, is now pouring- its most 
eager lile. ~ 
Three streams of influence have al\'\ays penetrated into Xegro-
laud: one, from Egypt, through Nubia, to Hornoll and Rausa; 
a.nother, from Abyssinia to Yoruba anel Ashantee; the third, from 
the Barbary States across the desert to Timbuktu. By the first two, 
Egypt and Arabia exchanged their productions for the raw mate-
rials of the Soudan. By the third, the ports of the Mediterranean, 
t't-L"ough the Great Desert, having Timbuktu as a centre, became 
outlets for the wealth of Nigritia. Rren in the days of IIerodotus 
then appears to have been intercourse between the region of the 
Tsad and the Mediterranean, and the valuable products collected 
at various centres by the itineraut traffic, which still flourishes iu 
the interior, shared by numerous carayans, found their way by 
meaDS of Phcenician ships to different countries of Emope and 
the Levant. 
Centra.l .Africa has never been cut off commercially from 
European and Asiatic intercourse. But it was not until the ninth 
" 
• EIUli'l'll ClIureh, p. j?5U • 
. )1t. Monier Willia..ms, tho Boden Professor of Sa.nscrit at Oxford, ha.~ 
reecntly expressed the opinion, in a.. pa.per rea.d a.t the Conference on Foreign 
~Ji",,,,io1l8, held at the Cannon S~reet Hotel in London (Ju.ne 22. 1875), thnt. 
unless a. fresh and powerful impulse is given to Chri~tin.n missionary effort. 
lIoho.mmeda.nism will speedily overrun the whole Afrlca.n continent . 
• 
I I 
• I 
6 Christianity, Isiam and the Negro Race . 
century of the Christian era that any knowledge of the true God 
began to penetrate into Negrola.nd. To Akbab, a distinguished 
MusEm general, belongs the credit or discredit of haYing subdued 
North Africa to Islam. He marched from Damascus at the head 
of teu thousand enthusiastic follo·wersJ and in a short time spread 
his conquests along the shores of North Africa, advancing to the 
very verge of the Atlantic, whose billows alone checked his 
westward career.G But the energy which could not proceed 
westward turned northward and southward. In its southern pro· 
gress it crossed the formidable wastes of the Sahara, penetrated into 
the Soudan, and established the centre of its influence at Timbuktu, 
In less than a century from that time sevel's.l large N igritian tribes 
had yielded to the influence of Isla.m; and it shaped so rapidI y the 
• 
ideas, the manners, and the history of those tribes, that when in 
the Miudle Ages Ibn Batoutah, au Arab traveller, visited those 
regions, he [ound that Islam had taken firm root among several 
powerful peoples, bad mastered their life and habits, and dominated 
their whole social and religious policy, Among the praiseworthy 
qualities which attl'acten bis attention as a resnlt of their con-
version, be mentions their devotion to tbe study of the Koran, and 
relates the following illustrative incidents, which we gi'Ve in tile 
French version now before us :- c. 
Ils ont un gnmd zela pour apprendre par camr Ie sublime Coran, Dans fa cas 
of1 lew.'S enfn.nts font preuve de negligence it cet i!gard, ils lem' mettent des 
eni;ra,ves a.ux. pieds et De les leur Otent pas qu'ils ne Ie snchent reciter de 
memoue, La jour de In. ft!te, ~l;aDt entre chez Ie juga, et ayant. \'11 ses enIants 
encha1nes, je lui dis: "Est-ce que tu ne les mettras pn.s en liberte?" II 
rcpondit: "Je ne Ie ferai que lorsqu'ils sa-uront par cceur Ie Comn," Una n.utre 
jour, je passai devant un jeune negra, beau de figure, revetu d'hn.bits superbes, 
et podant aux pieds une lourde chaine. Je dis n la personne qui m'accom-
pagnait: "Qu'afait cego.r~ou? Est-ce qu'il a assassme quelqu'un?" Le jeune 
negra entendit mon propos et, se mit ti. rice. On me dit: "II 0, He enchaine 
uniquemen~ pour Ie forcer 1\ apprendre Ie Comn de memoire," j .,... 
Mohammedanism in Africa couuts in its ranks the most energetic 
and enterprising tribes. It clailDs as adherents the only people 
6 Gibbon's Declille and Fall, &c" chap, Ii. • 
7Voya!lelf d' TIm Batol/tiLli, texte et traduction; par Den-emery et Sa.ng:uinetti.-
Pnris, 1858; vol. iy, pp, 422-23. 
, , -
• 
, 
, 
Mohammedallism alld the Negro Race. 7 
who have any form of civil polity or bond of social organization. 
It has built and occupies the largest cities in the lieart of the 
continent. Its Jaws regulate the most powerful killgdoms-Futah, 
Masina, Rausa, Bornoll, "'aday, Darfur, KordofiLD, SeuRar, &c. 
It produces and controls the most valuable CQDUnerCe between 
Africa and Foreign countries; it is daily gaining converts from the 
ra.uks of Paganism; and it cQmmands respect among all Africans 
wherever it is known, even where the people have not submitted 
to the sway of the Koran. 
No one can travel any distance III the interior of ",,'est Africa. 
without being struck with the different aspects of society in different 
localities. accorUing as the population is Pagan or Mohammedan, • 
Not only is there a difference in the methods of government, but in 
the general regulations of society, and even in the amusements of 
the people. The love of noisy terpsichorea.n performances, so 
noticeable in Pagan communities, disappears as the people come 
under the influence of Mohammedanism, It is not a fact that 
"when the sun goes down, all Africa dances; .. but it might be a fact 
if it were not for the influence of Islam, Those who would once 
have sought pleasure in the excitement of the tom,tom. now repair 
fi~ times a,day to the mosque, where they spend a quarter of an 
hour on each occasion in devor-.nal exercises. After the labours of 
the L~y they assemble in groups ncar the mosque to hear the Koran 
recited, or the Traditions or SOUle other book read, In traversing 
the region of country between Sierra Leone and Futah J al10 in 
1873, we passed through populous Pagan towns; and the transition 
from these to Mohammedan districts "'as striking, "'hen we left 
Do Pagan and entered a Mohammedan community, we at once 
noticed that we had entered a moral atmosphere widely separated 
from, and loftier far thall, the one we had left, We discovered 
tbc.~ the character, feelings, and conditions of the people were 
profoundly altered and impro\'ed. 
It is e\'ident that, whatever may be said of the Koran, as long 
as it is in advance of the Shamanism or Fetichism of the African 
tribes wbo accept it-and no)ontl will doubt that Islam as a creed 
IS an enonnous advance not only on all idolatries, but on all 
• 
I 
• • 
8 Christianity, Islallt and the Negro Race. 
systems of purely human origin-those tribes must advance beyond 
their primitive condition . 
The Koran is, ~n its measure, an important educator. It exerts 
among a primitive people a wandel'iul influence. It has furnished 
to the adherents of its teachings in Africa a ground of union which 
bas contributed vastly to their progress. Hausas, Foulabs, Mandin-
goes, 8005005, Akus, can all read the same books and Ulingle in 
worship together, and there is to all one common authority and 
onc ultimate umpirage. They are united by a common religious 
sentiment, by a COWlDon antagonism to Paganism. Not only the 
sentiments, but the language, the l\""onls of the sacred book arc 
held in the greatest revereuce and esteem. And eyen where the 
ideas are not fully understood, the words seem to possess for them 
a nameless beauty and music, a subtle and indefinable charm, in-
comprehensible to those acquainted only \yith European languages. 
It is easy for those not acquainted with the language in which the 
Koran was written, and therefore, judging altogether as outsiders, 
to indulge in depreciation of its merits." Such critics lose sight of 
the fact that the Koran is it poetical composition, and a poetical 
composition of the earliest and most primitive kind. and that 
therefore its ideas and the language in which they arc conye)Ced 
cannot weH be separated. The genuine poet not only creates the 
conception, but the word which is its vehicle. The word be~omes 
the inseparable drapery of the idea. Hence the llighcst poetry 
cannot be translated. 'Ve see this in the numerOUS versions by 
which it has been sought in every age to reach the sense of the 
poetical portions of the Bible. No words yet furnished -by Greek, 
Roman, or l'eutonic literature have been fully adequate to bring 
out the subtle beauties of the Semitic original. Among Moham-
Inedans, written 01' printed translations of the Komn are dis-
cOUl"aged. The Chinese, Hiudoos, Persians, Turks, Mandin~es, 
" The case eited by Dr. Muhleisen .-\mold, in his work on Islalll. of an Arab 
philosopher and unbelie ... er in Mobammed, who Ihed in the eighth century, 
depreeia.ting the literary merits of the ~oran. is no more in point as an 
argument nga.il1!it the book, it appears to us, than if a MohalUlDcdan con-
troversialist werc to quote from Voltaire or Tom Paine o.gainst the Bible . 
• 
, 
Mohammedallism alld the Negro Race. 9 
Foulahs, &c., wbo have embraced Islam, speak in tbeir .. OWI1 
tongues wherein they were born," but read the Koran in Ara.bic. 
:li1'. Bosworth Smith was right to begin his preparations 
for the valuable work be bas written by a careful study of the 
Koran. But it is to be regretted that he bad not access to the 
force and beauty of the original, which neither Sale, Kasimil'sky. 
Lane, nor Rod"ell bo.'\6 been able-though they laboured hard to 
do so-to retain in their excellent translations. A distinguished 
Oriental scholar and critic says;-
There ca.n be llO doubt tha.t, to understtUld thoroughly this wonuerful book, 
the aid of those learned men, Arabs and otbers, who ha.ve uevoted t.hemsel"e~ 
to the careful study of it, is not only desirable, but necessa.ry. .. The subject 
is of sufficient importance to men of research to render it a.lh'isa.hlc that it 
should be examined from aU points of view, for by no other mea.ns Ca.ll we hope 
to obtain a.s clear an insight into the origin of Islam , as by a. ca.refu! study of 
the book wbich contains its funda.menta.l principles.' 
To the outside world, easily swayed by superficial impressions, 
and carried away by matters of mere (halllatic illtercst, there may 
be nothing attracti,e ill the progress of Islam iu Africa, because, as 
far as known to 'Westeru readers, the history of Afric&.n lIoham· 
medanislll is deficieut in great characters ana in remarkable 
ePisodes. There has been, it is supposed, no controlling mind 
deveLoped, which has moved gr~at masses of men. But the words 
of Horace are applicable here :-
Omnes illa.crima.bilcs 
Urgentur. ignotique looga. 
Nocte, earent quia. "ate sacro. 
It is not. however, that no bard has written, but they ha\'c had 
Ycry few readers in Christian countries. To those acquainted with 
the interior of Africa-to the l\!o]lammedan world. of NorLh Afl'ica 
and.  Arabia-it is well known tha.~ numerous characters have a.l'isen 
in Africa-Negl'o Muslims-who have exerted no little influence in 
the military, political, and ecclesiastical affairs of Islam, not only 
in Africa, but in the lands of their teachers. In ~he biographies of 
, 
:' W. Kassfl.U Lees, In the preface to his edition of the COIIUllt:lltal"!1 of 
/.a nwk h~h(J.ri . 
• 
• 
, 
10 Christiallity, Islam and Ihe Negro Race. 
lhn lihallikan are frequent notices of distinguished Negro Mohnm-
medaus. Koelle, in his PolY'llottaAfricalla, gi,"es a. graphic account 
of the proceedings of the great Fodie, whose zeal, enthusiasm, and 
bravery spread Islam over a. large portion of Nigritia. 
One of the most remarkable characters who b3o\"8 iu£luencetl the • 
history of the region of country between Timbuktu and the \\"est 
Coast was a native of Futah Toro, known as the Sheikh Oma.ru 
AI-lllLjJ. He is said to have been a "-aleen, II) a man of extra-
ol"<linary endowments, of commanding presence, and great personal 
influence. He was educated by the Sbeikll Tijani, a Muslim 
missionary from Arabia. IIaving spent sCleral years unuer the 
instruction of this distinguished teacher, \;siting Mecca in the 
meanwhile, he became profoundly lea.rned in the Arabic language. 
After the death of bis master, he 'went twice to 1\lecca on pilgrim-
age. On his return to his country the second time, be undertook 
n series of proselytising expeditions against the powerful pagan 
tribes on the east and south-east. of Futah Toro. He conquered 
~e\·era.l powerful chiefs and reduced their people to the faith of 
10;10.111. ITe banished Paganism from Sego, and purified the prac-
tires of several Mohaulluedan districts \vhich had become imbued 
with heathenish notions. He thus restored Jenne, and nall~l­
Allahi. and was on his way to Timbuktu, about ten ),ears ago, 
when, through the treachery of th•e  Arabs of that region, h& was 
circumvented and killed at a tOWD in Masino.. One of his sons. 
Ahmadu, is now King of Sego, another rules o .. er Hanlll-Allilhi. 
two of the largest cities in Central Africa. 
AI-Hajj Omaru wrote many Arabic works in prose and poetry. 
DIS pOCIUS are recited and sung in every Mohammedan town and 
village, from Futlah-to\\"1], in Sierra Leone, to Kallo, Hb memory 
i~ held in the greatest respect by all native students, and they 
-
10 This word is used by the :ilTobnmmedans of Negrola.nd in a. pe~uli.r scnse, 
It means one called of God, a.nd endowed with special gifts to exercise lLuthoriw 
in ecclc~ia"tical and sometimes politica.l matters, inferior in official rank,-
accordmg to theit et.timo.tion-only to lL pro~het Such men have, lrom time 
t(l timo, nrilen among African l\IohammediUlJ;, nnd have ca.rried out important. 
rpform-. in Church and State, 
• 
, 
i1Iohalllllledrlllism and the Negro Race r I 
attribute to him many extraordinary deeds, and see in his successful 
enterprises, literary and military. proofs of divine guidance. U 
We have heard of numerous instances of these" half-military, 
half-religious geniuses," as lir. Bosworth Smith calls them, "which 
Islam always seems capable of producing." 
To the Mohammedans of Negrolaud, far away from the COI11' 
plex civilisation of European life, with its multifarious interests, the 
struggle for the ascendancy of Islam is the ODe great object which 
should engage the attention of a rational being. It is a struggle 
between light and darkness, between knowledge and ignorance, 
between good and evil. The traditiona.l enthusiasm of their faith 
makes them utterly indifferent to the sufferings of any who stand 
in the way of the dissemination of the truth, and patient of any 
e\ils they may have to endure in order to ensure the triumph of 
their cause . II Paradise is under the shadow of swords," is Olle of 
their stimulating proverbs. 
There is oue passage in Mr. Bosworth Smith's book, of which 
we do not think that the author, who, as it seems, bas not himself 
beeu in ~\frica, percei~ed the full import, but which the Christian 
world, it appears to us, WOl.lld do well to ponder. It is as follows :-
C~ristio.n tra.vellers, with overy wish to think otherwise, ho..ve remarked tha.t 
the Negro 12 who accepts Uohammedanism a.cquires a.t once a scnse of the 
dignity Qf human nature not commOJ~y found even n.mong those who hn.ve 
been brought to accept Christin.nity.1~ 
Having enjoyeJ exceptional advantages for observation auu 
comparison in the United States, the West Indies, South America, 
11 Rpport on the Expedition to Timbo mnde to the Governor of Sierra 
Leone, 1873. See o,lso the African Ski-tel! Book, by Winwood Reade, vol i, p. 317. 
12 lI.lr. Bosworth Smith writes tillS word with a. sma.ll •• n;'· but we ao not see 
why. if it is used to designa.te one of the grea.t families of man. it should not 
be entitled to the !la-me distinction a.s such words as India.n, Hindoo, Chir.n· 
mnn, &c. Why give 'Wore dignity to the specific than to the genel'al? Why 
write A~ha.ntee, Congo, ~ra.ndingo. with ca.pitals, and Negro, the generic appel. 
Ja.tion, WIth a. small "n"? Is not this in deference to the sort of prejudice against 
which MI_ B. Smith himself protestsr 
1:, Lecture I, p_ 32 . 
• 
• 
, 
12 CIlristiallity, Islam and tile Negro Race. 
Egypt, Syria, \\"est and Central Africa, we ~l'e cOJllpelled, bow-
8,'e1' reluctantly, to endorse the statement made by Afr. B. Smith. 
And we are not surprised at his seizing hold, in his researches, of 
this most important fact and giving it such prominence-a promi-
nence it richly deserves-in the discussion. ,Yberever the Negro 
is found in Christian lands, bis leading trait is not docility. as has 
been often alleged, but servility. lIe is sIc,," am1 unprogressive. 
Individuals bere and there Dlay be found of extraordinary 
intelligence, elltcl'pri!;e and energy, but there is no Christian 
commuuity of Negroes anywhere "bieh is self-reliant and indepen-
dent. Hayti and Liberia, so-called Negro Republics, are merely 
struggling for existence, and hold their own by the tolerance of the 
civilised powers. II On the other hand, there are numerous Negro 
Mohammedan communities ancl states in Africa 'which are sell-
reliant, productive, independent and dominant, supporting, without 
the countenance or patronage of the parent country, Arabia, whence 
they derived them, their political, literary and ecclesiastical 
institutions. In Sierra Leone, the Mohawmedans, without any 
aid from Government-Imperin.l or loco..1-or any contributions 
from Mecca or Constantinople, erect their mosques, keep up 
their religious sen-ices, conduct their schools, amI contribuw- to 
the support of missionaries from ,<\rahia, Morocco. or Futah when 
they visit them. The same compliment cannot be paid-to the 
Negro Christians of that settlement. The most enlightened 
native Christians there look forward with serious apprebeusion-
and, perhaps, not without good grounds-to the time when, 
if ever, the instructions and influence from London will be with-
held. An able paper on the' Condition and "-ants of Liberia,' by 
an intelUgent and candid Liberian, has the following: 
We Wa.}1t, a.s 0. peoplo. the ~l)irit of liberality_ We have learned to clepend 
upon foreign institutions to support our churches. This ::;hould not be so, If. 
indeed. we ha.ve not cnough of the Ohristian religion to induce us to contribute 
libcrally to the cause of the Gospel; if we havo not enough zeal for the cl\.use 
of Ohrist to ma.ke us willing to ~o,crifice time and mouey for its good. &c" we 
11 The Oj1icial JOllrllnl, dated :May 1 .. 1875, contained intL'lligence of 0. 
conspirn.cy which hacl just been suppressed, o.uc1 0. Presidential decree ba.nishing 
forty of the conspira.tors. 
, 
Moltalllllledanism alld lite Negro Race . 13 
had as well gh'e up churches and religion .... I have known some pcrsong to 
cha.nge a. two C<:llt. piece so as to get one cent. for the church. Alas, for such 
religion! a.las for the chw'ebes thus supported I l~ 
In the recent Asbantee war the most trustworthy Negro troops 
were the Haussas, who are rigid Mohaulluedans. The ,Vest 
India Christian Negro troops were not relied on to the same extent. 
Now, what has produced this difference in the effects of the 
two systems upon the Negro mcc? In reply. we remark generally 
that the ilifi'erence must be attributed to the dillcrence in the 
conditions undel' which the systems came to those of the Negro 
race who embraced the one or the other. ~IohaUlD1edanism 
found its Negro converts at home in <1. state of freetlolU and 
• 
independence of the teachers who brought it to them. \Vhen it 
'\Tas offered to tbem they were at liberty to choose for themselves. 
The A.rab missionaries, whom we 118.ye lllet in the interior, go 
about without "purse or scrip," a.ud uisseminate their religion 
by quietly teaching tbe Koran . The natiye missionaries-MaE· 
dingoes and Foulahs-unite 'with the propagation of their faith 
active trading, Wherever they go, they produce the impression 
that they al'e not preachers only, but traders; but, on the other 
hand, that they are not traders merely. , but preachers. Alld. ~ 
in this way, silently and almost unobtrusi\'ely, they are causillg 
princes. to become obedient disc• iples and zealous propagators of 
Islam. Their converts, as a general thing, become :MuslilllS b.·om 
choice and conviction, and bring all the lllanJiness of theh' former 
condition to tbe maintenance and support of their new creed. 
• When the religion was first intt-oducetl it fountl the people 
possessing all the elements and enjoying all the priyileges of nn 
untrammelled manbood. They recei,eu it as giving them additional 
power to exert an influence in the world. It sent them forth as 
the guides and instrnctors of their less favoured neighbours, and 
endowed tbem witb the seII-respect which lDen feel who acknow-
ledge no superior. While it brought them a great dea.l tha.t 
wa.s absolutely new, and inspired them with spiritual feelings 
l~ The AJ.illual Address delivered before the City Council and CitizenB or 
Monro'ia, July 27, 1SH. by Jehu T. Dimery . 
• 
• 
, 
q Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
to which they bad before been utter strangers I it strengthened 
and hastened certain tendencies to independence and sell-reliance 
which were already at work. Their local institutions were not 
destroyed by the Arab influence introduced. They only assumed 
Dew forms , and adapted themselves to the new teachings. In 
all thriving Mohammedan communities, in West and Central Africa, 
it may be noticed that the Arab superstructure has been super-
imposed on a permanent indigenous substructure; so that what 
really took place, when the Arab met the Negro in his own home, 
was a healthy amalgamation, and not an absorption or au undue 
repressIon. 
• The Oriental aspect of Islam has become largely modified in 
Negroland, not, a.s is too generally supposed, by a degrading 
• compromise with the Pagan superstitions, hut by shaping many of 
its traditional customs to suit the milder and more conciliatory 
disposition of the Negro. As long as Tilllbuktu, which was but a 
continuation of Morocco, retained its ascendency, Islam kept up its 
strictly Arabian aspect; but since the seat of literary activity and 
ecclesiastical influence has been transferred to Kuka, and since Kana 
has become the commercial centre-two purely Negro cities grown 
up under Muslim influence-and since the religion bas taken.'_'oot 
among the large indigenous cOD~munities near the source of the 
Niger, it has been largely affected by the geographical anlf racial 
influences to which it has been exposed. The absence of political 
pressure has permitted native peculiarities to manifest themselves, 
and to take an effective part in the work of assimilating the new 
elements. 
• Christianity, on the other hand, came to the Negro as a slave, 
or at least as a subject race in a foreign land. Along with the 
Christian teaching, he and his children received lessons of their utter 
and permanent inferiority and subordination to their instructors, to 
whom they stood in the relation of chattels. Christianity tool 
them fresh fl'om the barba.rism of ages, and forced them to embrace 
its tenets. The religion of Jesus was embra.ced by them as the only 
sow'ce of consolation in their deep disasters. In their abject 
miseries, keen anguish, and hopeless suffering t11ey seized upon it 
, 
Mohammeda1lism a1ld the Negro Race. 15 
as promising a country where, aCtel' the unexampled sorrows of 
this life, If the wicked cease from troubling. and the weary are at 
rest." It found them down-troddeu, oppressed, scorned; it soothed 
their sufferings, subdued their hearts, and pointed them, in its 
exhaustless sympathy, to the (f Man of Sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief." In their condition of outcasts and pariahs, it directed 
their aspirations to a heavenly and eternal citizenship; it put Dew 
songs in their mouths-those melodies inimitable to the rest of 
the world-which, from the lips of emancipated slaves, have 
recently charmed the ears and captivated the heads of royalty 
and nobles in Europe by a tenderness, a sweetness, an earnestness, 
and a solemnity, born of adversity, in the house of bondage. A. 
popular London preacher says: 
The Negro is more really musica.l tha.n the Englishman . . .. Singing very 
often merrily with the tears wet upon his ebony cheek, no record of his joy or 
sorrowpa.ssed unaccompanied by a. cry of melody. or a. wail of pla.intiyc and 
harmonious mela.ncboly. If we could (livest owselves of prejudice, the songs 
that floa.t down the Ohio ri"er a.re one in feeling D.nd character with the 
songs of the Hebrew captives by the waters of Babylon. We find in them the 
sa.me tale of berea.vement and sepa.ra.tion, the same irreparable sorrow, the Sallie 
,vild tenderness and pa.ssiona.te sweetness, like music in the night. l !,; 
These are great and precious advantages; but, nevertheless, 
owin•g  to the physical, mental, anjl social pressure under which the 
African,s received these influences of Christianity, their development 
was necessarily partial and oue-sided, cramped and abnormal. 
All tendencies to independent individuality were repressed and 
destroyed. Their ideas and aspirations could be expressed only in 
conformity with the views and tastes of those who held rule over 
them. All avenues to intellectual improvement were closed against 
them, and they were doomed to perpetual ignorance. 
Mohammedanism and Yearning to the :Muslim Negro were 
coeval. No sooner was he converted than he was taught to read, 
and the importance of knowledge was impressed upon hill. The 
Christian Negro came in contact with mental and physical pro-
scription and the religion of Christ, contemporaneously. If the 
Mohammedan Negro had at al".y time to choose between the Koran 
}ij Rev. H. R. Hilweis in Music and Moral., p. 500.-LondoD, 1874 . 
• 
• 
16 Christianity, Islam and tile Negro Race. 
and the sword, when be chose the former, he was allowed to wield 
t.he latter as the equal of any other ),Iuslim; but DO amount of 
allegiance to the Gospel relieved the Christian Negro from the 
degradation of wearing the chain which he received with it, 01' 
... rescued him from the politica.l and, in a mensure, ecclesiastica 
proscription which he still undergoes in all the countries of his 
exile. Ii Everywhere in Christian lands be plays, at the present 
moment, the part of the 8iM'e, ape or puppet. Only a few here 
and t.here rise above the general degradation, and these become 
targets to their unappreciative bl'ethl'el1-
Al~parent ro.ri na.ntes in gurgite vnsto. 
Is it any wonder, then, that" Christian tra:\"eller~, with every 
wish to think otherwise/' in commenting upon the difference 
between Christian and l.Iohammedan Xegroes, with respect to true 
manliness, must uo so to the disaclYantage of ~he former? 
Another reason for the superior manliness and amour proprc of 
Negro Mohammedans lllay be founel in the fact that, unlike their 
Christian bretlIrell, they have not been traineu uuder the uepressing 
influence ofAxyan art. Deutsch says :-
The Shemites hom >;ome strnnge idiosyncrnsy, llerpetuo.ted by reli'i!ious 
onlinanccs, a.bhorred, 0.11 of them, 0.1; celtam stages, the making ,;slble pictul'e~ 
o[ thillgS they revered, lo,'cd or wOl"shipped,l~ 
The secona CommandmEut, with hlussuIll1ans as with Jews, is 
construed literally into tbe prohibition of all representations of 
living creatures of all kinds; not merely in sacl'ed places but 
e'ferywberC',I' Josephus tells us that tbe Jews \':ould not even 
tolerate the image of the emperor, which was represented on the 
eagles of the soldiers. ell The early Christian Pathers believed that 
painting aml sculpture were forbidden by the Scriptures, and that 
1; For an interesting discussion of this subject from the pen of a. Negro. scc 
Tanner's Apology fur African illcthodimt ill the L'lIiltd Statt',.;, 
I~ Littrary Remains, p. 161. 
1~ j}Jj.~chat 1I1-.llasabill, \'01 ii, p. 368. 
20 Anliq x\'ii:-iii, 1, &c, 
, 
Mohammedanism and the Negro Race. 17 
they were therefore \·;ickec.l arts . Among the Mohammedans 
of Negroland it is considered a sin to make e'\"en the rudest repre-
sentation of any living thing au the gronnd or 011 the side of a house. 
We shall never forget the disgust with which a Maudingo from 
Kaukan, who was, for the first time, visiting the sea-board at 
Monrovia. turned from a marble figure in the cemetery through 
which we were showing him, exclaiming, "Amal Shaitdn ! amlll 
Shaitrln.' "-the 'Work of Satan/' 
No oue can den)' the great rest.betic and moral advantages which 
have accrued to the Caucasian race from Christian art, through all 
its stages of development, from the Good Shepherd of the 
Catacombs to the Transfiguration of Raphael, from rough mosaics 
to the ine),preSSible delicacy and beauty of Giotto and Fra 
Angelico.~ But to the Negro all these exquisite rel)resentations 
exhibited only the physical characteristics of a foreign race; Rnd, 
while they tended to quicken the tastes and refine the sensibiLities 
o[ that race. they bad only a depressing influence upon the Negro, 
who felt that be had neither part nor lot, so far as bis physical 
character was concerned, in those splendid representations. A 
./ 
strict adherence to the letter of the Second Commandment 'would 
ha.,e been no urawback to the Negro. To him the painting and 
scrilpture of Europe, as instruments of education, have been worse 
than Jailures. They have really raised bal'l'iers in the way of his 
normal developement. They have set before him models fOl' 
imitation; and his very effort to conform to the canons of taste 
thus practically suggested, has impared, if not destroyed, his self~ 
respect. and made him the weakling and creeper w hieh he appears 
in Christian lanus. It 'was our lot not long siDce to hear an 
iJliterate Negro in a prayer-meeting in New York entreat the Deity 
to extend his "lily white bands" and bless the waiting congrega~ 
tion. Anotber,:.w with no greater amount of culture, preaching from 
:ll See Koran, v. 1J2. 
21 See 8. paper on the Roman Ca.tacombs, &c., tend by Dean Stanloy before 
the Royal Institution, Ma.y 29, 1874.. 
~ The put~ing forward of thorou$hly illiterate men to e::<.."})ound the Scriptures 
among the Negro Christians has been another great dra.wback to their proper 
development. 
c 
, 
• 
( 
18 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
1 John, ill, 2, <I We shall be like Him," &c./ &0., exclaimed, 
<4 Brethren, imagine a beautiful white man with blue eyes, rosy 
cheeks, and flaxen hair, and 'lce shall be like him." The conceptions 
of these worshippers were what they had gathered from pla.stic and 
pictorial representations as well as from the chara.cteristics of the 
dominant race around them. The :uohammedan Negro, who is 
not familiar with sucb representations, sees God in the great men 
of his country. The saying is attributed to an ancient philosopber'll 
t.hat if horses, oxen, and lions could paint they would certaiuly 
make gods in their own image :-
If oxen or lions had ha.nds, a.nd could work in man's fashion, 
And trace out with chisel and brush their conception of Godhead, 
Then would horses depict gods like horses, e.nd oxen Uke oxen, 
Each kind the divine with ib; own form and na.ture eudowing, 
This is no doubt true, and the Negro who grew up normally 
would certa.inly not be inferior to lions, horses, and oxen, The 
Christian Negro, abnormal in his development, pictures God and 
all beings remarkable for their moral and intellectual qualities with 
the pb ysical characteristics of Europeans, and deems it an honour 
if he can approximate-by a mixture of his blood, however irregu-
larly achieved-in outward appearance, at least, to the ideal thus 
forced upon him of the physical accompaniments of all excellei'1ce. 
In this way he loses that .. sense M the diguity of human nature" 
observable in his Mohammedan brother. 
/ A third very important influence which has retarded the 
development of the Christian Negro may be found in the social 
and literary pressure which he has undergone. It is not too 
much to say that the popular literature of the Christian world, 
since the discovery of America, or, at least for the last two hundred 
years, has been anti.Negro. The Mohammedan Negro has felt 
nothing of the withering power of caste. There is nothing in 
his colour or race to debar him from the higbes~ privileges, social 
or political, to which any other Muslim can attain . The slave 
who becomes a Mohammedan is fl'ee.1.:. Mohammedan history 
~I Xenophanes of Colophon (SIX centuries B,C,). 
-.:. Ockley's History IIf tile Slll"aCtllS, sixth edition -London, 1871, p. H. 
, 
Mohallllllt:dallislIl alld Ille Negro Race. 19 
abounds with examples of distinguished Negroes. The eloquent 
.\zao, or .< Ca.ll to Prayer," which to tbis day summons at the 
sarne hOllrs millions of the human race to their devotions, was 
j first uttered by a Negro, Bilal by name, whom Mohammed, in 
oheilience to a dream, appointed the first :Muezzin, or Crier . .Io' Anu 
it has been remarked that even .\lcxander the Great- is in Asia 
an unknown personage by tL.e side of tbis honoured Negro. i\Ir. 
lIuir notices the in1:lexible cons"ancy of BiLll to the faith of Islam 
under the severest trials. H Lbo Kballikan mentions a celebrated 
Negro Khalil, who reigned at Bagdad in the ninth century.!>' He 
describes him as a man of great merit, and a perfect scholar. 
~one of the sons of Kbalifs spoke with greater propriety and 
elegance, or composed verses with greater ability. The following 
lines were addressed. to him by a contemporary poe~:-
Blackness of skin ca.nnot ~les:ro.de nn ingenious. mind, or lessen the worth of 
the schola.r or the wit. Let blackness claim thc colour of your body, I cla.im 
1lh mine your fair and cn..ndid soul. 
The poet Abu Ishak Assabi, who lived ill the tenth century, 
had a black slave named Yumoa, to wbom he was greatly attached, 
and 00 whom he \Trote some remarkable verses, which are much 
quQj;ed by Muslims. Notice the follo\\ing:-
The da.rk-skinned Yumna. MdJ to oik whose colour equa.ls the whiteness of 
the eye:" Why "hould your fa.ce boast ib white complex.ion? Do you tlunk 
that by so clea.r 0. tint it gain» rulditiona.l merit! Were a. mole of my colour all 
that face it would adorn it; but onc of your colour on my cheek would tlis-
Db'l.Ue me." 
Here is another :-
Black wisbccomes you not: by it you are increo.scd in beo.uty; black is 
the only colour princes wear. Were you not mine, I should purcba."e you with 
a.ll my weo.lth. Did I not possess you, I should give my life to obtain you." 
Ibn lIuslil1leh, an enthusiastic loyer, exclaims, "If a mole be 
sct in an ugly cheek it endows it wlth beauty and grace; how tbt.n 
~ Muir's Lift of J1ahotllct, vol. iii, p. 54. 
:1 I bid., vol ii, p. 129. 
~ Bioarllplliu of 11m K/,allikan, ti"a.nsln.tc<l by Baron dc Sll\nc, \"o\. i, p. IS. 
ZI 11m Khallikan, '·01. i. p. 32 . 
• 
• 
( 
20 Cllrisliallily, Islam alld the Negro Rna. 
should the heart-stricken be blamed for looking upon bis lllistress 
as a mole all over? " llil 
Mr. Gifl'ord Palgl'ave, whose travels in Eastel'u countries Lave 
no doubt diminished the sensitiveness of his Western prejudices, 
concludes his brilliant Essays on Eastern Questions ","itb a poem 
composed by a Negl'ess in memory of her celebrated semi-Arab 
SOD, who had perished in oue of his daring aclveutul'es. 
Now, it must be evident that Kegroes trained under the in· 
fiuence of such a social and literary atmosphere must ha""re a deeper 
self-respect and higher views of the dignity of human nature than 
those trained under tbe blighting influence of caste, and under the 
guidance of a literature in which it ha.s been the fashion for more 
than two hundred years to caricature the African, to ridicule his 
personal peculiarities, and to impress him with a seuse of per-
petual and hopeless inferiority. Christian literature has nothing 
to show 011 behalf of the N egl'O comparable to Mohammedan 
literature; and there is nothing in Mohammedan literature corre-
sponding to the Negro-or" nigger," as even a liberal clergyman 
like Mr. Haweis will caB him II-of Christian caricatw;sts. A dis-
tinguished American scholar and thinker has noticed this , ile 
says :-
The hlack man in literature is cithe.[ a. weakling or ca.rico.ture. The comic 
side of him n.lone comes iuto \'iew. The single sonnet of Wordsworth ~'pon the 
cbiefto.in Toussaint. and the" spmkles dire of fiercc. vindictive song" (rom the 
American Whittier, are a.lmost the only literary allusions to the sublime a.ll<1 
tragic elelllCnlis in the Negro's nnture and condition; cedain1y the only 
oJ.1usions that, without any a.bo.tement and introduction of ludicrous tra.its. 
ally him sofely with huma.n 
.... El."UltfLtions, agouie.::, 
Andlo'l"e, and ma.n's ullconqu(-rable miml." 
No one will Chill'ge the Negro nIohallllDedaus with gi,iug ground 
lIO The d$8/:mblie3 oj AI-HariJ·j. Tro.nslated by'fhomas Chener,}'; WilliaDls 
and Norgntc, 1870. This work is n.l~o cn,lled the .lIakamat, etc . 
•' 1 JIw;ic (IUd Jllorat.~, p. 550. 
_"J Profes$ior \y, G. T. Shedd. in [lJ1 Address dcli\'ered before the Ma.l:iSilChu_ 
setts Coloni>:a.tion Society, Boston, May 27,1857. '.rhe l'emn.l"ka.ble Address of 
'Vendell Phillips on Toussaint L'OuvertllL,\U1ust not be forgotten. ~fr. Phillips 
is the only American orator who 11ns bad the temerity to la\'ish the flowers of n 
brilliant rhetoric in adorning the memory of a Negro. 
• 
Mohall/medal/ism al/d the Negro Race. 21 
for the notion, put forward recently from a very distinguished 
source, that the African entertains" a superstitious awe and dread 
of the white mall." Ibn Batoutah, cilied before, though a Moham· 
medan, experienced no greater respect among the Muslims of 
Negrolalld on account of his colour, than a Negro in the same 
position would have received. He complains of the cool and 
haughty bearing of a certain Negro prince towards himself and a 
number of European and Arab traders who appeared in the royal 
presence. "It was then," he says, "that I regretted baving 
entered the country of the Negroes on account of their bad educa-
tiOD, and the little regard they have for white men." And what 
was the evidence of this" bad education and little regard for white 
llleD ?" The chief chose to speak to them through a third party, 
H although they were very near him." ,I This was done," observes 
the sensitive traveller, "solely on account of his contempt ,. for 
them. Rene Caillie, the French traveller, wbo made the journey 
from West Africa to Morocco, rilt lJ..'imbuktu, was compelled to 
travel in strict disguise as a poor Muslim. His sojourn in Tim-
buktu was of only fourteen days; and, as he was in constant danger 
of being discovered, he could neither move about freely nor note 
dO'15'll all that he wished. Even Barth was obliged, for a short 
time, to adopt the character of q;, Muslim. Of COlli'se these things 
occun~d before the days of Sir Garnet ""\Yolseley, who, in a grave 
official document, thought it necessary to reassure his troops in 
the following terms :-
It must never be forgotten by our soldiers t.hat Providence bas implanted 
in the heart of every nati,e of Africa. a superstitious awe &·n(l dread of the 
white mall that prevents the Negro from daring to meet us face to face in 
comba.t.ll3 
But Sil' Garnet also deemed it importaut to bring to bear against 
these awe-struck Negroes armed with cheap flint muskets, all the 
appliances of mOde111 warfare, and, no doubt, bore in mind the 
Roma.n poet's adyice-Ne crede colori . As a ruse de gucrre-a 
lllilitary expedient-the statement served its purpose , and is one 
among the many evidences of Sir Garnet's skill aDd readiness ill 
• 
, Notes issued for use of lihe troops by O1'(1e1' of Sir Ga.rnet Wolseley, dated 
Cape Coast Oastle, December 20, 1873 . 
• 
• 
, 
22 Christianity, Islam a1ld the Negro Race. 
not only availing himself of advantageous elements ill the situation, 
but of creating them, if they do not exist. In this case, he adroitly 
played upon the rI superstition" of white men :-
An dolus nn yirtus, quis in hoste requira.t? 
A cool and discriminating critic at borne, however, at the close 
of the war assured us that, H without arms of precision, gUllS and 
rockets, and English skill and discipline, 110 invader could baye 
made bis way to Coomassie." 
Had Sir Garnet, even before his pl'acbical experience, read the 
history of the great Ci\"il War in America, he would have found 
in the thrilling records of many a desperate encounter, in which 
the Negro pro\'e::l himself no mean antagonist when be met the 
white man I, face to face in combat," materials for imposing a check 
upon that exuberance of imagination which tempted him to so 
sweeping an assertloll.We admit that the Negro in Cbristian lands, 
and all along the Coast where he has been under the training of 
the white man, exhibits a cringing and servile spirit; but this, 
as we have endeayolU'ed to show, is the natural result of that 
habit of mind ",bieb it was the interest of his masters to impress 
upon him. Sir Garnet's dogma is only one of the innumel'a}.'le 
lessons which the Negro is cons&..\ntly made to imbibe, e"'Q(n at 
times from bis religious guides and teachers,'" the tendedc}..ci 
which is to blunt his c. sense of the dignity of human nature." 
" Another very important element which has given the Moham· 
meda.u Negro the advantage o'\er his Christian brother is the more 
complete sympathy which has always existed between him and his 
foreign teacher. ]\[1'. Bosworth Smith says:-
The '!'I[ussulman wlssiomuies exhibit a. forhearnnce, a sympathy, a.nd a. 
respect for native customs a.nd prejudices, auu even for their more hannless 
M See an article on the' Negro' in the Church Missio!lary Intelligencei' for 
August 1, 1873. The special correspondent of the Daily Ke/tIS at Ca.pe Coo.sn, 
untler date of Oc~ober 2.1873, speaks of the Na.tive Chiefs as {onow!> :-" There 
is nothing tha~ seems to signify power abont their dignity; and knowing, as we 
<lid, that it has been OUt policy ou the Qoast'lor yea.rs to deprive these chiefs of 
aU real influence, their very solemnity of manner left on me an impres;;ion of 
the theatrical. ,. 
, 
, 
.1Iohammedanism alld Ihe Negro Racc. 23 
beliefs, which is, no doubt, one renson of their success, and which our own 
missionruies a.nd school-rna.stiers would do well to imitate.~ 
Long prior to the rise of Islam, as we have seen above, Lhe 
Arab merchant had been in communication with the interior of 
Africa, and bad opened the way for the Arab missionary. When. 
therefore, the Muslim missionary came as the propagator of a higher 
religion than any that had beeukllowll, he did not enter the country 
oJ as a stranger. The political and social institutions of the Arabs 
had already been tried and found suitable to the wants and tastes 
of the Negro tribes; indeed, the two peoples, if not of cognate origin, 
have by protracted intercommunication, and by the similarity of 
the physical influences which ha,ye, for ages, operated upon them, 
become similar in tastes; and it was Dot difficult for the Arabs to 
conform to a grea, t extent to the social and domestic customs of the 
Africans. The Muslim missionary often brought to the aid of llls 
preaching the influence of social and domestic relationships-au 
influence which in all efforts to convel't a people is Dot to be 
entirely ignored. "The conversion of the Russian nation," we are 
told by Deau Stanley, "was effected, uot by the preachiug of the 
Byzantine clergy, but by the ma.rriage of a Byzantine princess." 
So'the Arab missionaries often entered into the bonds of wedlock 
j with the daughters of K egrolancq ·"i and by their teaching, by their 
intelligence, by tbeir intermarriages with the natiYes, by the trade 
and generosity of theil' merchants, they enlisted so many interests 
and such deep sympathies, that they rapidly took abiding root in 
the country. Some of the brightest names in the annals not only 
of IsIamitic but of pre-Islamitic literature, are those of the de-
scendants of Arabs and Africans. One of the authors of the 
..LlIuallakat, for instance, was haH A.rab and half Negro. 
• The sympathy, therefore, betwecn the Arab missionary and the 
African is more complete than that between the European and the 
!j.'; P. 34. 
Eastern Church, p. 34. 
~'l 'Ir Pa.lgmve tells us tha.t interma.rriages hetween Arabs and Negroes 
ha.ve been at no period ra.re or a.bnonnal : to such a.clmixtwes. indeed, the East 
owes not a. few of her best r.elebritiec:;.-F..~.~ay.~ on Ellstern Questiolls, p 337 
, 
, 
24 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race . 
Negro. With every wish, DO doubt, to the contrary, the European 
seldom or never gets over the feeling of distance, if not of repulsion, 
which he experiences on first seeing the Negro.,jM While he joyfully 
admits the Negro to be his brother, hM"iug the same nature in all 
its essential attributes, still, owing to the di \Tersity in type and colour, 
he naturally concludes that the inferiority which to him appears on 
the surface must extend deeper than the skin. and aITect tb.e soul. 
Therefore, very often in spite of himself, he stands off from bis 
African convert, eyen wheu, under his training, he has made can· 
siderable advance in civilisation and the arts. And especially is tills 
the case ill West Africa, wbere, living among large masse.s of his 
countrymen, the African Christian, who from thB pressLU'e of cir-
cumstances has been forced into European customs, presents very 
often to the foreign observer, 1n contrast with his natiy!;! brethren, 
an artificial and a.bsurd appearance. And the missionary, looking 
from a comfortable social distance, surveys the Europeanised native, 
sometimes with pity, sometimes with dismay, seldom with thorough 
sympathy. He 
Back recoils, he knows not why, 
Even a.t the sound himself hns made. 
Or, like the stream in Racine, at the sight of the monster it qlld 
washed to the shore :- o 
Le Hot qui I'a.pportat recule epouvante !Ill • 
The African convert, under such practical teaching, lookin, g 
upon bis instructor as superior to himself-or at least apart from 
himself, not only in spiritual and temporal knowledge, but in every 
other respect--acquil'es a very low opinion of himself, learns to 
,"" Bishop Heber. in one of his lettera written on his firs~ arrival in India, 
says "There is, indeed, sOIDethlDg in n Negro which requires long habit to 
reconcile the eye to him, but for this the fea.tures and hnir, far more than the 
colour, nre responsible.'·-Life of Hcba. by Ta.ylor, 2nd ed., p. 1-17 . .A..nd wha.t 
tLis distinguished prola.te experienced ac.d so cnndidly avowed, must be ex-
perienced in n. stLll gl'eater degree by minds of less ca.libre a.nd less culture than 
his. ,. The more ignora.nt the whites are," says Dr. Cha.rles Hodge. of Princeton. 
New Jersey, " the more \"iolent o.nd unrcasonable are their prejudices on this 
subject. "-llodgc'6 1~'lilia!Js and RCL'it'1U, p. 519~ 
9 Racine: Phedu, Acte Y. Scene YI 
• 
JIo/zalllllledall;sllt aud tlte Negro Race. 
<lepl'l!ciate and deprecate his own personal characteristics, a.nL1 
loses that 1< seDse of the dignity of human nature" which observant 
travellers have noticed in the 'Mohammedan Negro. 
The Arab missionary, on the other hand, often of the same COlli-
• plexion as his hearer, does not" require any long habit to reconcile 
the eye to him.". He ta.kes up his abode in Negrolaud, often for 
lile, and, mingling his blood ,,-itq that of the inhabitants, succeeds, 
in the most natural manuel', in cngralting Mohammedan religion 
a!ld learning upon the ignorance and simplicity of the people. 
Innocent of the scientific aUaiumcnts of the day, and with no other 
appar.1..tus than his portable bed and dingy manuscripts, he ma.y be 
inferior to the theological and classical scholar fresh from College iu 
Europe or America, but he has the advantage of speaking to the 
people in a sympathetic and perfectly intelligible language. 
'Ve will conclude with one more extract from Mr. Bosworth 
Smith :-
That. ::\Ioha.mmedu.n.ism ma.y, when Ulutual misunders~a.ndillg8 arc removed, 
be clevll.ted, chastened, purified by Christ.io..n influences and a. Uhrist.in.n spirit, 
.and thnt evils such as the slave trade, which are really foreign to its na.ture, 
can be l)llt down by the heroiC efforts of Christian philanthropists, I do not 
doubt; and I can, t.herefore, look forward, if with something of anxiety, with 
still more of hope. to what seems the destiny of Afriea., tha.t Paganism and 
De\'ir~worship "ill die out, and that tbe main part of the continent, if it. ca.nnot 
become Christian, will become what is n'txt best. to it...-l\Ioha.mmedan.~!) 
• 
\\lest JUrica has been in contact with Christianity for three 
hundred years, and not one single tribe, as {£ t1ibe, has yet be-
come Christian. Nor has any influential chief adopted the religion 
brought by the European missionary. From Gambia to Gaboon, 
the native rulers, in constant intercourse with Christians, and in 
the vicinity of Christian settlements, still conduct their government 
according to the customs of their fathers, where those customs have 
not been altered or modified by Mohammedan influence. The 
Alkali of Port Loko, and the cmef of Eullom, under the shadow of 
Sierra Leone, are quasi Mohammedan. The native chiefs of Cape 
Coast and Lagos are Pagans. U So, in the territory ruled by Liberia, 
00 P.40. , 
11 See Governor Pope Hennessy's Blue Book Report. Pa.pers reln.tiug to Her 
)Iajesty's Colonia.l Possessions. Pe.rt. II. 1873, 2nd diVIsion . 
• 
, 
26 Christiallity, Is/all! alld tIle Negro Race. 
the llative chiefs in the four couuties-lresurado, Bassa, Sinou, 
and Cape Palmas-are Pagans. There is not a single spot along 
the whole coast, except, perhaps, the little island of Corisco, 
wherB Christianity has taken auy hold among large numbers of tile 
in<1igenous tribes. 
But we do not believe that these tribes are hopelessly iuae· 
ces-;iblc to the influence of the religion of the Gospel. We believe 
that ,I when mutual misunderstandings al'e removed;" when the 
race is better understood; when the effort at indiscriminate 
EUl'opeanisiug ceases; when the missionary keeps before his 
mind- if be knows, or learns if be does not kuo\\:-that II the 
idiosyncrasy of a people is a sacred gift, given for soule Divine 
purpose, to be sacredly chetished and patiently unfolded; 11 a there 
will be nothing to prevent Christianity from spreading among the 
Pagan tribes, and from eventually uprooting the imperfect Moham-
Illc:danism whicb so extensively prevails. In the meantime, we 
ought not to grudge the Africans the glimpses of truth which they 
cl\tch from the Koran; for" a knowledge of a part is better than 
ignorance of ~ the whole." ~8 
A singular a.nxiety seems to prevail in certain quarters to dis-
p,lrage and depress the character of :Mohammedan iufiu8:1ce, 
especially iu Africa, by endea\'(~.'Uring to show that wherever it 
prevails it erects an insurmo'l1ntable barrier to our further progress 
-tllat it produces a far greater than Chinese immobility. We are 
surprised that a writer, apparently so well informed as the author 
of the article on Mahomet, in the British Quarterly Rerielc fat' 
.In,nl1ary, 1872, should have put forward the following:-
Islam is Go reform which ha.s stifled n.ll other reform!!. It is a reform which 
hns chained down every na.tion which has a.ccepted it nt a certnin stOoge of moral 
and political growth. 
In keeping with this is a remarkable statement of ~rr. 
Freeman's in his History al/d Conquests of lhe Saraccns, a work 
describeu by a recent subtle and eloquent writer as If more 
.: Compare the views of Stopford BrdVkc in Sermons on Chri~t in Modem 
Life, p. 58, 
l! Abu.\.Fhh. 
• 
, 
Mohammedanism a1td the Negl'o Race. 
equitable and conscientious than Gibbon's"! Mr. Freeman says 
that Mohammedanism has "consecrated despotism; it has C011-
secrated polygamy; it bas consecrated sla.very;" and Dean 
Church, to whom we are indebted for the quotation, not ouly 
endorses it, but adds, <I It has done this directly, ill virtue of its 
being a religioll, a religious reform." I~ 
~-\.. :Mohamn~edan writer, taking the same superficial view of the 
effects of Christianity, and with the same love for epigrammatic 
terseness, might say, " Christianity has consecrated drunkenness; 
it has consecrated Negro slavery; it has consecrated war;" and 
he might gather ample materials for sustaining his position from 
the history of Christianity during the last three hundred years, 
especially in the 'Vestern hemisphere. When we see so many 
evils known to be antagomstic to the Christian religion still, after 
eighteen hundred years, prevalent in CbJ:istian lands, why should 
Mohammedanism be so fiercely assailed because, during the twelve 
hundred years of its existence, it has not extirpated from the 
countries in which it prevails all social evils? Must we not suppose 
that, as with other creeds so with Islam, its theology is capable 
of being made subservient to worldly interests? May we not 
beJj'''tve that many of the evils in lands under its sway are due, 
not to its teachings, but to huJ:J.an passions? fC As late as the 
fifteentn century," we are told by Mr. Maclear, "the Church in 
Europe was engaged in eradicating the remains of Sclavonic 
Heathenism, and protesting against a rude Fetishism and serpent 
worship." j.e 
It is to be regt'etted that statements such as those referred to 
abo\"'e continue to be made by men whose character, position, and 
literary ability make them the guides of thousands. They tend to 
perpetuate in the Christian Church the feeling of distrust in any 
effort to evangelise the Mohammedan-to keep alive the suspicion 
that "the successes of the MobaJllIDedan missionary condemu 
beforehand the labours of the Christian missionary to be in vain" 
11 Lectures on the l1!/llIellces of BITistianity, &c.; by R. W. Ohurch, M.A., 
OeM of St. Po..ul's; p.8. 
~ Apostles of iIlediael'ftl Ellropl', p. 32.  
• 
, 
28 Christianity. Islallt and the Negro Race. 
-feelings which a closer acquaintance with the facts-we speak 
especia11y for Africa-does not justily. We are satisfied, however, 
that with the light which, increasing every day, is now being 
thrown upon the religion of Mohammed, writings based more upon 
the opinions and theories of the Middle Ages-as Mr. Bosworth 
Smith has so well shown-tba.n upon the demonstrated facts of 
to·day, arB almost Sill'e, in proportion to the growth of a more 
accurate knowledge and a more thoroughly discriminating and 
literary appreciation of Islam, to be riddled out into oblivion as 
in appropriate platitudes and ban'en superfluities. I~ 
We entertain the deliberate conviction-gathered not frOID 
reading at borne, but from travels among the people-that, whatever 
it may be in other lands, in Ahica the work of Islam is preliminary 
and preparatory. Just as Ishmael came before Isaac in the history 
of the great emitic families, so here the descendant of Ishmael 
has come before tbe illustl'ious descendant of Isaac. The African 
Moha.mmedans, as far as we have observed, are tolerant and 
accessible, anxious for light and improvement from any quarter. 
They are willing to have Christian schools in their towns, to have 
the Christian Scriptures circulated among them, and to share with 
Christians the work of reclaiming the Pagans. n (: 
In view, then, of the work \7ruch Islam bas already accom-
plished for Africa and the Negro race, and the work wbich'it may 
yet accomplisb, we may expl'ess the belief of Mohler, quoted by 
the azta'rdian,·H that II one day the true labourers may find (in 
18 See an nble discussion of this subject in Syed Ameer Ali's Life alld Teai!h-
ings of Jlohamllled, cha.p. 15. 
17 Bishop Crowther, in his Report for 1874., says; "I have not met with a.. 
stem opposer of Chl'istianity, as far as I had conversa.tion with Mohammedans 
up the Niger. .... The reception of lion Arabic Bible, which ws.s presented to 
the Emir of Nupe. from the Cburch Missionary Society. with n. childlike glee, 
in the pn.sence of his courtiers, wa.s a. proof that this people desire to hear a.nd 
search after the trutb. Another copy was sent through him to Alihu. the King 
of l1orin, who is a.lso &.n Ara.bic scholar. .... In a.ll our religious COD\·crsa.tion 
with these Mohammedans we never Dlet with a.n obstina.te disputer, or a. 
bigoted dcniaJ of what we rea.d or sai,l to ~them."-Jlfolltllly RelJOl't€l' of Church 
Missiona.ry Society, Februs.ry, 1875. 
I@ November 4, 1874. 
, 
Mohammedanism alld the Negro Race. 29 
Africa) a han'est ready for their reaping, and Ute Gospel speed 
thither all its way rejoicing, and 1\laholllet prove a servant of 
Christ." Till then, all earnest Christians may consistently join in 
the prayer of Abraham, adopted in the liturgy of the Moravian 
Church, " Oh, that Ishmael may live before Thee! " 
• 
• 
, 
, 
, 
, 
C hristi ani ty and the Negro 
Race. 
Frrut,3 J.Jagazint, Yay. 1876. 
-:\ f R. GLADSTONE, in the exordium of his celebrated article 
1\,1 on the Church or England, in the COlltempoJ'(lry Ruiew 
(.July, lR7,j), says:-
To uphold the integrity of the Christian dogma, to trace its working, a.nd to 
exhibit its adaptation to human thought and hllDl&ll ""dfale, in all the varJing 
experience of the nges, is, in my \;OW, perhaps the noblc:;t of all tasks which it 
is given to the human mind to pursue. This is the guo.rdia.nship of the great 
founta.in of human hope, bappiness, and virtue. But with rcspf'ct to the 
clothing which the Gospel may ta.ko to itself, my mind bas a. large margin of 
indulgence, if not of laxity, both ways. )Iuch is to be allowed-I can hardly 
say how lUuch-to national, I;cctional, a.nd pCbonal di,'eq;encics. 
This is a view to which the ,'ery highest minds in the woa 1 
the best cultivated and the most enlightened-would at once 
readily subscribe. By the word" dogma" Mr. Glaa~tone e'(identiy 
means, not the petrified formula of any particular sect or raCe, 
deduced according to their "iew from the \\'onl of God, but the 
whole system of Christianity itselI, as a living organism, in e~~e 
and ill l)OSSC, in its essence as well as in its capabilities and poten-
tialities; for in the same paragraph he uses the word .. Go~pt:l' as 
b),nonyrnous with II dogma." Looking at the Gospel system as a 
whole, it may be called, with no inconsiderable propriety. the 
.. Christian dogma," or that system of belief which distinguishes 
the Christian world from all others. 
\\~e have said that the very higbest minds would readily sub-
scribe to the view of ~Ir. Gladstone, for only the highest minds 
would cordia.lly agree with the wlfole paragraph. :\. very large 
number-perhaps the whole Christian Church-would give their 
, 
• 
Christiauily a/ld Ihe Negro Race. 3 1 
sanction to the first two sentences; but the number is compara.· 
tively sma.ll who would l"~ad the last two sentences without feeling 
disposed to brand the author as a latitudinarian and unsafe guidC'. 
And yet those sentences contain the lessons which all practical 
experience teaches must be learned b}' the aggressive portion of 
the Church, before the Gospel can take root in /I all the world," 
and become the spiritual life of "every creature." 
There is, we doubt not, one and only one Prophet for all times 
and for all nations-the immaculate Son of God; and the teachings 
which He inculcated contain the only principles that will regenerate 
humanity of all races, climes, and countries. But the Gospel, 
though it has been promulgated for eighteen hundred years, nas, as 
let, taken extensive root only among one race-the Indo-European. 
It is esta.blished in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and on all tho 
islands of the sea, but, for the most part, in regions and localities 
occupied by different branches of the same Aryan family. 
'Vhen Dea.n Church wishing to illustra.te the • Influences of 
Christianity on National Character,' had passed in re\·iew tlw 
Greek, Latin, and Teutonic races he evidently felt that his subject 
was exhausted. Dean :llerivale went as fa.r afield as the facts 
wou~ allow him to go, 'when after concluding his lectures on 
the' Convf"rsion of the Roman J)mpire,' he proceeded to discuss 
the' Ccnversion of the Northern Nations.' Indeed, so convinced 
was the learned author tha.t his two courses of lectures embraced 
all he could say on the subJect o[ the spread of Christianity in 
the conversion of nations, that, in his preface to the second course, 
he remark~, that if, at some future time, he should print thclII 
together, be will probably give them the general title of the 
.. Conversion of the Ancient Heathens." But would such a title 
be strictly accurate in view of tbe "Ancient" Semitic, Mongolian, 
and Negro" lleathens" who have been left out of the lectur~r b 
calculations? The omission of the little word "the" froUl the 
proposed Dew title would probably meet the wish to have a COUl· 
prehensive title, without transcending tbe bounds of strict accuracy. 
It could not hase escaped t3.e distinguished lecturer, that only 
comparatiyely small portions of the Semitic, :Mongolian, and Negro 
• 
, 
32 Chl'isliallily, Islam and the Negro Race. 
famiEes of man have as yet embraced the religion of Jesus. And 
we are disposed to think that one chief reason why the progress of 
tbe Gospel among races foreign to the European has been so limited, 
lies in the fact that the last two sentences of Mr. Gladstone's 
paragraph quoted above are not yet understood and heeded by those 
who may be called the missionary nations of the earth, and who, 
having the vigorous and dominant instincts of the Aryan race, haye 
become providentially the instruments through which the Semitic 
conceptions of Deity and the Semitic inspirations of Christianity 
are to be spread through all nations. 
The object of tbis paper is to trace the influence of Christianity 
npon the Negro race, and to enquire how far the method of its 
dissemination bas affected their reception of it. And our illus-
trations will be drawn principally from the Western 'World, fiS 
containing the largest portion of the NegI'o race who have beeu 
brought uuder the influence of Ohristianity. a.nd especially from the 
United States, where the largest uumber of Negroes live together 
under the same Christian Government. 
Eyerybody knows how it happened that the Africans were 
carried in such large nnmbers from Africa to America; bow one 
continent was made to furnish the labourers to build up ano~bct· ; 
how the humanity of a Romish R:iest, while anxious to dry up tears 
in America, was indifferent to unsealing their fountains in. Africa. 
It was out of deep pity for the delicate Caribs, whom he saw· 
groaning nnder the arduous physical toil of the \Vestern hemi-
sphere that Las Casa.s stro,'e to repInce them by robust a.nd. 
indefatigable Africans. Hence the innumerable woes \yhich haye-
attended the Ail'ican l'ace for the last tbJ:ee hundred years ill 
Christian lands. In justice, however, to the memory of Bartolome. 
de las Casas, it should be stated that) before he died, he changed his-
mind on the subject, and declared that the captivity of the Negroes-
was as unjust as that of the Indians,l and even expressed a £el;1.1' 
that, though he had fallen into the errol' of fo.youring the 
importation of black slaves into America from ignorance aml 
, 
1 Sel' tan injusto 01 cautivcrio de los Negros como el de los Indtos.-Ticknor·s 
lIistory of S,Jallish Literature; vol. ii, chap. vi. 
• 
Christianity and the Negro Race. 33 
goodwill, he might, anel' all, fail to stand excused for it befvre the 
Diyine Justice. 
But the tardy, though commendable, repentance of Las Casas 
did not arrest the flow of that blood*red stream which, froll] the 
fountain opened by his mistaken philanthropy, poured incessantly, 
for three hundred years, from East to West. It was 'Qot long before 
• 
the transference of Negroes from Africa to the Western hemisphere 
assumed the importance of a national policy. Even England, 
under a contracti with Spain, enjoyed the monopoly of the traffic 
in slaves for thirty years.!! 
The first sla\'es w"ere landed in North America ill 1620, and men 
whose characters were otherwise irreproacbable, were induced by 
the habits of thought then prevailing, and by the supposed necessity 
and convenience of slave labour, to purchase the African capti,Yes 
brought to their shores. Some even of the most eminent divi.nes 
were so far implicated in the enol', that, with perfect ease of 
conscience, they beld Negroes in bondage. The distinguished 
\Villiam Penn, the Rev. George Whitefield, of world-wide celf'bl'ity, 
and President Edwards, author of several standard works iu the-
ology, were slave-holde1's. Good and conscientious men were led 
a~(l,y by the plausible arguments of those who, while they \\ere 
busy tUl'uing to pecuniary accou3.t the benighted Africans, alleged, 
that they were thus being brought under the influence of the Gospe1. 
But, according to 111'. Bancroft, there were among the colonists 
some far-seeing men who foresaw the mischiefs that would ultima.tely 
result from the introduction of slavery into the colonies. Yil'ginia 
and South Carolina did place some restrictions Ul)Oll the importation 
of Negroes. But the British Government, listening to her Afl'ican 
slave merchants rather than to her American colonists, not only 
neutralised those restrictions, but obliged the noble-hearted Ogle-
thorpe to relax his determinatioll that in Georgia, the colouy which 
he founded, there should be neither slavery nol' slave tl'ade.~ 
2 The Assiento contract stipulated that,. from the fll'St day of :i\Iay, 1713, to 
tho first day of },fn.y, 1743, the English should he.ve the Exclusive privilege of 
trll.usporUng Negroes into the Spo.lllkh West Indies at the rate of foUl' thousand 
eight hundred a. :rear. 
" Bancro[t's Hi~to)'y of tile United Slates, chap. xxiv. 
D 
• 
34 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
Thus, for nearly two hundred years, Negroes were poured into 
North America without restriction. During six generations, large 
interests grew up out of the system, giving it in the eyes of those 
upon whom it had been entailed, a sanction and a sanctity which it 
was regarded as sacrilegious to question. 
Of course, the slaves who were introduced during the first 
hundred years, we may presume, died Heathens, or with only im-
perfect glimpses of Christian teaching. For the Christianisation 
of their descendants, a system was invented which so shocked the 
feelings of John Wesley that, in view of its resulting enormities, he 
denounced American slavery as the" sum of all villanies." 
That which the early colonists of Virginia, South Carolina, and 
Georgia had opposed, baving now gl'own into gigantic proportions, 
was not only a.pologised for by their descendants, but eulogised as 
eminently necessary and useful to the proper development of 
society; and all the religious, political, and scientific teachings of 
the time were not ouly tinged, but deeply steeped, in pro·slavery 
sentiments. Generations descending from Huguenot and Puritan 
ancestry were trained to believe that God had endowed them with 
the l'ight to enslave the African for ever. And upon those Africans 
who became members of the Christian Church, the idea wa~ irn· 
pressed that it was their duty"to submit, in everthing, to their 
masters. Christian divines of all shades of opinion, in th6 South, 
taught this doctrine, and embodied it in books prepared specially 
for the instruction of the slaves-their <I oral instruction," for they 
were not allowed to leal'n to read. 
For example. the Rjght Rev. 'William Meade, Bishop of the diocese 
of Virginia, published a book of sermons, tracts, and dialogues, for 
masters and slaves, and recommended them to all masters and 
mistresses to be used in their families . In the preface of the book, 
the Bishop remarks :-
The editor of tbis volume offers it to 0.11 mastors and mistresses in our 
Southern Sta.tcs, with the a.n.:tious wish and devout praycr that it may prove R. 
blessing to themselves and their households. 
On page 93 he says ;_ c 
Some He ba.th made ma.sters and mhtresses for taking en.re of their children 
a.nd others thnt belong to them_ ... Some He hnth made EervlUlts and $1s\'es, 
• 
, 
Christianity and the Negro Race. 35 
to assist. and work for their mo.stcrs and mistresses, tba.t provide for them; o.nd 
ethers He bath m&de ministers o.nd tea.chers to in!o.truct the rest, to sbow them 
wha.t they ought to do, a.nd to put them in mind of their several duties. 
On pages 94 and 95 he says, addressing the slaves ;-
AlmigMy God ba.th been plea.sed to make you sla.\<es here, Mel to give you 
nothing but Ia.bour and poverty in this world, which you Ilre obliged to submit 
to, as it is His will tha.t it should be so. Your bodies, you know, are not your 
own; they Me at the disposa.l of those you belong to, &c. 
Again, on page 132 ;-
When correction is given you, you cit-her deserve it or you do not descr,e it. 
But whether you really deserve it or not, i~ is your duty, a.nd Almighty God 
requires, tha.t you bear it pa.tiently You ma.y, perha.ps, think tha.t this is hard 
doctrine, but if you consider right you must needs think otherwise of it. 
Suppose, then, tbat you deserve correction, you cannot but say tha.t it is just • 
and right you should meet with it_ Suppose you do not, or at least you do not 
deserve so much, or !OO severe 0. correction for the fault you have committed, 
you perhaps have escaped a. great mo.ny more, and lue o.t last paid for it 0.11. 
Or. suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge, and sufter 
wrongfully in that partlcular thing, is it not possible JOu ma.y b&\"e done some 
other bad thing wbich was never disco\-ered, and that Almighty God, wbo saw 
you doing it, would not let you esca.pe withou t punishment ODC! time or lUlother? 
A clergyman of another denomination wrote a catechism for the 
use of slaves, in which we find the following :-
(l Is it right for the servant to run awa.y, or is it right to barbour a. run-
away?-A. No. .J 
Q. What did the Apostle Paul to Onesimus, who was 0. runaway ') Did he 
harbour•  bim, or send him back to his master?-.l. He sent him Lack to his 
master with a. letter. ~ 
, Cattchf.IHlI of Scnpture Docirilu, alld jor tJu Oral Instrllctl(JII of ('OWllred 
Ptr801U, by C. C Joues.-Charleston, 18t5; p. 120. 
" A CuttchulII to bt ttll.lyht O/ally 10 t"Olt 1£110 CllIlIIOt Read i by Bi"hop Ives.-
~ew York. 18"'~ p 30. 
, 
• 
36 Christianity, I slalll and tile Negro Race. 
from the Scripture for "slaves," no doubt seemed to clerical 
cducaiors an incongruity which, even in those days of ardent pro-
slavery views, they hesitated to perpetrate. 
But tIle politicians were not so scrupulous. In order to up-
hold the system, they did not hesitate to brand ,,-ith folly the 
founders of the Republic, and to pOtu' contempt upon the judgment 
of the wisest of their statesmen. 
Chancellor Harper, in his JIemoir OIL SlCll:ery, takes up the 
sentence of Jefferson, that .. All men are bol'll free and equal, and 
endowecl with certain inalienable rights,," &c.; and proceeds in a 
most elaborate, but false and sophistical cliscnssioD, to demonstrate 
that J efl'ersoll was wrong. 
The most audacious utterances ',8 haye read on this subject 
are those by General Hammond in his notorious LeUers to Clarkson. 
'l'hat galla.nt and chivalrous gentleman says, under date of Januaxy 
28th, 1845, "Tiling from Silver Bluff, South Carolina:-
I fumly believe that American sla.yery is not only not a sin, but especially 
commanded by Goel himself through Moses, and approved by Ohrist through 
His Apostles ..... r endorse wjthou~ reserve the much-abused sentiment of 
Governor McDuffie, that" sla\'erYls the comer-stone of out' Republican edifice ;" 
while I repudiate n" ridiculously a.bsurd that much-Iaudetl but nowhere ac-
credited dogma. of Mr. Jefferson, that" 3.11 men a.re borD equa!." ... Sl! ..... ery 
is truly the" corner-stone" and founda\.\oo of e\'eL"j' well-designed o.nd dumble 
Republican ctufice. 
Again ;-
If the slcwo is not allowed to reacl the Bible, the sin rests upon the a.bo-
litionists; for they stand prepared to furnish him with a. key to it, which would 
make it, no~ a. book of hope, and 10\'e, and peace, hut of despair, batred, and 
blood; which would convert the reader, not jnto a. Chl'istia.n, but a. demon. 
"We wonder what key would be required when such wide doors 
into the temple of liberty as tobe following stand so constantly open 
-Jeremiah xxxi". 17; Matt. yii, 12; Luke iv. 18 anc119? 
Nor was such teaching confined to divines and politicians. 
Philologists and scienti.fic meu, brought contributions from their 
peculiar fields to strengthen and adorn the infamous fabric whose-
corner-sLone was slavery. J oho Fle~cberl of Louisiana. in Studies OR 
Slavery in Easy Lessons, published at Natchez in 1852, brings the 
resources of the Hebrew language to the support of his idoL He 
, 
Christiallity and the Negro Race . 37 
gives the public a paradigm of the Hebre" verb '~-),1  abad, to slave, in 
kal, nipJtal, picl, pltal, hiphil, hop hal, hithpacl; and a declension of the 
Ufactitious, euphonic segholatc" noun 'j.., ~ cbed, a slave. Messrs . ~. 
Nott and Gliddon contributed to the same honourable worship the 
results of their scientific researches. 
But these reasoners have. one and all, been easily beaten on 
their own fielc1s. Not one of these writers for slavery, 'whether 
political, theological, or scientific, evet" produced anything with the 
mark on it of original obsen"atian or genius. None of their effusions 
ever passed the limits of the time or place at which they were 
produced . Entirely loea,} and temporary, they have added nothing 
to the sum of human knowledge. 
At last, when Charles Sumner was hurling those thunderbolts 
against the system which made it tremble from its base to its apex 
-when he was exposing the degenerate depal'ture of the South 
from every noble American tradition, and when Calhoun, the great 
"nullifier/' was no more, and the voice of Hayne, the brilliant and 
accomplisheil orator and politician, was silent-there came ou the 
floor of the Senate a warrior from the South, not to hud back in 
impassioned oratory, as Calhoun would have done, the charges of 
Sumner; not to neutralise their immediate effect by a gorgeous 
rhetoric, as Ha:rue would have d6ne; but to appeal to brute force, 
and bi one blow to exile the great Senator from bis seat for four 
years.n NOll olJUS est verbis, sed fustibus. 
Such were the circumstances under which the Negro through-
out the lJ"uited States received Christianity. The Gospel of Christ 
was trayestied and diluted before it came to him to suit the 
"pecuJiar institution" by wruch millions of human beings were 
converted into" chattels." The highest men ill the South, magis-
trates, legislators. professors of religion, preachers of the Gospel, 
governors of states, gentlemen oC property and standing. all united 
iu upholding a system which every Negro felt was wrong. Yet 
these were the ruen from whom be got his religion, and whom he 
was obliged to regard as guides. Under such teaching and 
discipline, is it to be wonderell at that his morality is awry-that 
, Pl'eston S. Brooks. 
, 
• 
, 
38 Christianity, I slam alld the Negro Race. 
his sellse of the" dignity of human nature" is superficial-that his 
standard of family and social life is low and defective? 
Not so much by what Christianity said as by the way in which, 
through their teachers, it said it, were the Negroes influenced. 
The teachings they received conveyed for them no clear idea or 
definite impression of the religion of Christ. As regards their 
religion, they were left less to their intellectual apprehension of the 
truth than to their emotional impulses. The emotions were their guide 
on Sunday and on Monday, in the conventicle and in the cornfield. 
No change was wrought upon their moral nature. for there was 
nothing to act upon it. Nothing was imparted from without, and 
nothing was checked and stifled within. The influence of the 
Church was exerted continually to repress-to produce absolute 
outward submission. Such influence, even if it bad been whole-
some, could not penetrate deep or mould with much force the inner 
working of the soul. It produced an outward conformity to the 
views and will of their masters, while it left the heart untouched. 
Or, perhaps, it might be more accurate to say that their whole 
nature was taken possession of, and all its capacities for thought 
and feeling, for love and hope, for joy and grief, were completely 
under the control of their taskmasters. L 
Neyertbeless, by that mysteriou~ influence 'which is impar~ed to 
man independently of outward circumstances, to not a few of them 
the preaching of the Gospel, defective as was its practical exempli-
fication, opened a new world of truth and goodness. There 
streamed iuto the darkness of their sUlToundings a light hom the 
Cross of Christ, and they saw that, through suffering and affliction, 
there is a path to perfect rest abQ\'e this world; and, in the hours 
of the most degrading and exhausting toil, they sang of the eternal 
and the unseen; so that while the scrupulous among their masters 
often with J effersoll OJ trembled for their country," the slaves who 
had gained a new language and new faculties were enjoying them-
selves in l'apturous music-often labouring and suffering all day, 
and singing, all njght, sacred songs, which, in rude but impressive 
• 
language, set forth their sad fortunes and their hopes for the future . 
No traveller in the South, who passed by the piautations thronged 
• 
, 
Christianity alld the Negro Race . 39 
with dusky labourers, and listened to their cheerful Illusic, could 
ever dream that they beheld in that suffering but joyous race the 
destroyers of the Southern whites. The captive Jews could Dot 
sing by the waters of Babylon, but the Negroes in the dark dungeon 
of American slavery made themselves barps and swept them to 
some of the most thrilling melodies. From a people who were so 
full of music no mischief could have been apprehended, excepting by 
the delinquent of the drama, who" fears each bush an officer." 
It is the man "who hath DO music in his soul" who is fit for 
stratagems and treasons and all dark deeds. We do not wonder 
that the Westminstel' Review, some years ago, made the following 
remark: "Were we forced at this moment to search for the saints 
of America, we should not be suprised to find them amongst the 
despised bondsmen." 7 
Saints, no doubt, there were among the bondsmen, but they 
became so not in consequence, but in default, and often, we may 
say, in defiance of, instruction. And it cannot be expected that 
a people brought out of savagery into contact witb a new, if a 
higher life, would, under such circumstances, produce, as a rule, 
such characters as <I Uncle Tom." There have beeu II Uncle 
Ton:::s" in the South, but they were the exceptions. As a rule, the 
Christianity of the Negroes is juri; such a grotesque and misshapen 
thing as the system under which they were trained is calculated 
to produce. 
The Africans who wel'e carried to the \Vestern world were, as a 
general r.ule, of the lowest of the people in their own couutl·y. 
They did not fairly represent the qualities and endowments of the 
race. Even the traditions of their country they carried away in 
the most distorted form. And in tbe midst of their sorrows in a 
strange country, they constructed, out of their dim recollections of 
what they had seen at home, a system of religion and government 
for themselves, which they curiously combined with what they 
received from their new masters; and so the elements of civilisation 
and barbarism--of Christianity and Heathenism-not only subsisted 
side by side, but, so far as the Negro was cOllcel'Ded, were inlaid, 
7 Ja.nua.ry, 1853. 
, 
• 
, 
40 Clwistia1tity, I slam and the Negro Race. 
so to say. into each other, in a sort of inharmonious mosaic all over 
the Western hemisphere. 
This accounts for the singular fact that 11 system of Heathenish 
worship-now rare among the tribes of West Africa-is found 
among the Negroes, especially in the West Indies, where, the 
climate being more congenial and the Borll similar to the 
African, they could reproduce with greater facility the rites and 
practices of their native land. Canon Kingsley, in the record of 
his travels in the West Indies,~ gives an account of the horrible 
Obeah system prevalent in some of tho, se islands, wIDch, allowing 
for the necessary exaggerations into which 11 writer must fall who 
gathers his information during a flying trip, conveys a pretty fair 
idea of a state of things which still lingers among the more ignorant 
of the Negro population of those islands, and which the Christianity 
they haye thus far received, seems powerless to eradicate. 
Since the emancipation in the United States, tIle defective 
Christian character of the Negroes of the Southern States is con-
stantly made the theme of essay, lecture, and newspaper article. 
In the report of Dr. W. H. Ruffner, Superintendent of tIle Public 
Schools of Virginia, for 1874, we find the following:-
liuch of the glamour with which the Kegro has been co,ered by phj(,I.D' 
thropic zenl, acting at n. distance, has pak!>ed away as knowledge has increased; 
but the real character of this people cnn be learned only (rom those wl.o have 
long lived among thorn. 'l.'he Southern Negroes are polite. amiable, quiet, 
orderly, and religious; and hence it is hard to believe that ns a class they are 
without moral character. And yet such is the unhappy fact. . .. Occasionally 
a high type is manifested by individuals; and ,'Vbile there is a gre,a t deal of 
religious sincerity and erLtnestness among them, and whilst the style of piety is 
modified by the character of the religious instruction they hase received, a.nd 
whilst families and congregations which have enjoyed specia.l priyileges exhibit 
better results, yet with the masses of those who claim to be Christians, their 
piety is of an unintelligent, sometimes superstitious, and aJwlLYs spasmodic type. 
and it covers a multitude of sins. 
The American Missionary newspaper publishes the following 
from a Northern teacher who is at work among the Negroes in 
Louisiana :-
Good teachers and prea.chers are very mq<:>h needed in this Sta.te. 1 hea.rd IL 
to ,'1 Chri~lma~ ill the. Wc.,t lmlie<~. 
• 
• 
Christiallity alld the Negro Race. 
prcllcher telling his hcnrers that they must go to hell. and lenxc tlwil' ... ins on 
the mud-$ill.~ oj "t'll before they can say tbnt they arc bom 8~llil1. To prOVt' this, 
he 1'Il.id that hI! would quote the fifty-third chaplet' of Isa.iah. Now, what do 
you think he quoted? Why. Bunyan's Pilyrim', l·ro!l,.e,~, III rela.tion to 
Chri!itHUl 8 lca.,;ng the City of Destruction, and the fa.lIing-off of hi!' burden at 
the fuot of the crass. The mischief of tho thing was tha.t the people A.p~ared 
to belie,"c that wbllt be was sa.ying was rea.lly in the Bible. \Ybat it i3 to be a. 
pure Christian vcry few of these people understand. They proh'ss to be religious, 
yet the Ten COlllmandments are a. dew letter to them. 
In the Spirit of JIissio11S for June, 1875, the organ of the 
Episcopal Church in the United States, we find the following:-
It is quite llllle that Christian people at the North should b(' brou.;ht face to 
face with the !act that the snha.tioll of the nntion depends not only U(lon giving 
the ~cgro a seeula.r educa.tion, but also upon ro.dica.lly refonning hi,; notions of 
what religion is .. . The absence from his religion of the ethical element is a. 
radical defect, and one that will bring the Negro lind the na.tion to ruin together, 
ii it be not spe~dily >.upplied. 
,\Ye are le~s surprisE:d at the existence of such a state of things 
among a people of savage ancestry who have liycd two hundred 
years as "chl\ttels" in a Christian land, tban we arc at the apparent 
surprIse of the writers quoted above, ~bt:n eVl'ryuody knows the 
60rt of scbool into which the Negroes wt;!re introduced when. wild 
and untamed, they were brought from Africa. It will not be 
pos,,'ble in a generation to correct the results of the radically 
.defecti'\"e teachings of such popJlar and influential periodicals as 
• 
De Bou·'s Baicu·, the llichmolUl Examiner. tt ill gelills 01111lC. They 
established a system of political and social morality in which the 
.• ethical element," if not If absent," was wholly distorted aod carj· 
catured--allcl to this system the Negro, having DO other guide, 
eudea·mured at a bumble distance to conform. It will be a long 
time before the intelligent Negro will be able to forget the illjustice 
done to the moral instincts of his race, wLile he has access to the 
thrilliug .. naLTatives" of &uch heroic and eloquent fugitiH.'s from 
slinery as Freuerick Douglass. ,\Yilliam \Yells Brown, TIenry Bibb. 
Roper l\.C.; and he will be able to unilerstand, if his Ijuol/(!am 
oppressors will not, why it is that, with his less favoured brother, 
plunder and prayer are not su~posed to be incompatible; wby, like 
the Italian bnganu, hc can be pious without leaving a disreputable 
profession. 
• 
• 
, 
42 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
But, even now, while white Christians in the North are shocked 
at the moral character oi SoutherD Christian Negroes, they do not 
cease, by their practical teaching, to impress upon the minds of 
the blacks that there is one standard of morality for white 
and another for black men. The shadow of the slave system 
still ~hrows such a gloom over the land, that, where the Negro is 
concerned, rigbt and wrong are only indistinctly seen. 
Many prominent Christians in the South still hold to the 
opinion that it is right to enslave the African,' and these exert a 
degree of influence upon the North whicq, if it does DOt lead them 
to desire a renewal of the slave system, perpetuates among them 
the old feeling of contempt for the Negro. All the Christianity in 
the country seems helpless to remedy a state of things in which the 
following occurence is possible. 
Professor C. H. Thompson, D .D., of Straight University, a 
graduate of a theological seminary. for several years a belm"'ed 
pastor in Newark, New Jersey, chosen moderator of the Presbytery, 
of which he was the only coloured member, and whenever his turn 
comes appointed to examine candidates for licence in Greek and 
Hebrew, finds himself excluded from hotel accommodations in 
travel}jng to and h·om a N ationa.l Congregational Church, 'Wht..:h 
he has been appointed to address, ~ecallse he is a Negro. , 
"~e have before us the American. Citizen, a Negro newspaper, 
publisbed at Lexington, Kentucky, dated February 27, 1875, 
containing a most touching Appeal, addressed" to the American 
People," by the Bishops of the African Methodist Church" craving 
protection against the impositions and oppressions which they 
II In the NIl1'1'atiue of the State of Religion issued by the Southern Genera.! 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the yea.r 1864, is n. sentence which 
declared that it was the mission of the Southern Church to "cou1:Ierve the 
system of Africo.n slo.very." Against this, however, the Northern Presbyteria.n 
Church earnestly protested, and still protests. Dr. Charles Hodge, the veteran 
professor o.t Princeton, celebro.ted .for his sententious and epigrAJl1matic 
utterances, embodied the indigno.nt feeling of the North in one memora.ble 
sentence: ,. That since the dea.th of Christ no such dogma sta.ins the record of 
an ecclesiasticn.l body." Chief Justice To.nefs celebro"tcd decision in the Dred 
Scott case in 1850, t·hn.t "the Negro has no rights which white men n.re bound 
to respect," is thc political counterpart of the dogma of the Southern Assembly. 
, 
• 
CI"'istianity and the Negro Race. 43 
and their IJeople suffer. They open their pathetic Address as 
follows :-
As Bishops of the oldest and most nUlllerous orgn.nisation of coloured persons 
in the country, we beg permission to lay the distress of our peoplo before you. 
Never were Ohristie.n pastors doomed to witness the despoiling of their flocks 
as we ba.ve been. Before freedom, we were the ha.pless \'ictirns of wrong, well 
characterised by the grea.t Wesley as the ., sum of vlllanies." Since freedom, 
while we expected our liberty to cost us much, yet did we cOllsole 011rse1\'89 
with the belief tha.t the strong ann tina.t ha.d shivered the cha.ins which did 
fetter us would secure protection throughout the trying ordeal. But, ais.s, 
we have been doomed to nllsera.ble disappointment. 
Now, as long as the sad and practical lessons suggested by the 
above are still impressed upon the Negro, as long as the Christianity 
he sees stands in such striking contrast to ~he Cbl'is~ianity of Christ, 
how can the If ethical element" be prominent in his religion? How 
can he be trained to any sense of the" dignity of human nature," 
to any feeling of l.lUman brotherhood? How can he acquire un-
shaken faith in those great truths about God and man which his 
teachers would impress upon bjrn? How can he ever rise to the 
recognition of a high moral ideal? How can he ever conceive a 
pure and lofty standard of family and social life? How can his 
general character be strengthened, elevated, expanded or refined? 
'l :lIe adyantages enjoyed by th,e  Negro in the Western world, 
now tha,t he is free, are hardly greater for the attainment of true 
manhood than when he was in bondage. And a far more serious 
difficulty lies in the way of his genuine progress than the mere 
pbysical inconveniences which his colour enta.ils, and that is, the 
impossibi.llty, in the countries of his exile, of secUl'jng a proper 
individual or race development. The Negro in Christian lands, 
however learned in books, cannot be said to have such a thing as 
seU-education, His knowledge, when brought to the test, often 
fails him. And why? Because he is taugbt from tbe beginning 
to the end of his book-tra.ining-fl'om the illustrated primer to 
the illustrated scientific treatise-not to be himself, but somebody 
else. "We might illustrate what we mean by some of the most 
ludicrous and painful incidell~s-bnt this is not the place to 
record tbem-of the efforts of Christian Negroes of intelligence 
to force their outward appearance into, as near as possible, a re-
• 
• 
, 
44 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
semblance to Europeans. From the lessons he every day receives, 
the N egl'o unconsciously imbibes the conviction that to be a 
great lllan he must be like the white man. He is uot brought up 
-however he may desire it-to be the companion, the equal, the 
comrade of the white man, but bis imitator, his ape, his parasite. 
To be himself in a country where everything ridicules him, is to be 
nothing-iess, worse than nothing. To be as like the white man 
as possible-to copy his outward appearance, his peculiarities, his 
maDuers, the arrangement of his toilet, this is the aim of the 
Christian N egl'o-this is his aspil.'atio,ll. The only virtues which 
under such circumstances he develops are, of course, the parasitical 
ones. Every intelligent Negro, in the lands of his exile, must feel 
that he ~alks upon the face of God's earth a physical and moral 
incongruity, and as legitimate a subject of laughter as Horace's 
famous heterogeneous picture, the creation of "a sick man's 
dream ":-
Humo.no ca.piti cervicem pictor equina.m 
Jllngere si velit, et va.rias inducere plumas 
Undique collatis mambris, ut turpiter a.trum 
Desmat in piscem mulier formosa superne. 
Imitation is not discipleship. The Mohammedan Negro is a 
much better Mohammedan than the Christian Negro is a Chrisfian, 
because the Muslim Negro, as a fearner, is a disciple, Dot an imi-
• 
tator. A disciple, when freed from leading-strings, may become a 
producer; an imitator never rises aho,e a mere copyist. With the 
disciple progress is from within; the imitator grows by accretion 
from without. The learning acquired by a disciple 5ives him 
capacity; that gained by an imitator terminates in itself. The ODe 
becomes a capable man; the other is a. mere sciolist. This explains 
the difference between the Mohammedan and the Christian Negro. 
SiDce the proclamation of freedom in the United States, how-
ever, the etrect of the schools which have been thrown open to the 
Negro is becoming more and mOl'e palpable. ",\\'e" observe in the 
discussions in American newspapers published by Negroes, an 
incipient movement towards mental emancipation . But the effect 
of their educational training must, " for some time yet, be chiefly 
negative 01' preparatory-in removing the pressUl'e of external evils, 
• 
Christianity alld lite Negro Race. +5 
in dissipating the superstitious and prejudices of both races, and so 
opening a widf::!l' sphere for the free play and development of the 
moral and spiritual nature of the Negro. But as his mind is 
strengthened and expanded by the wide and inviting prospects 
which continually open before him, be will feel the need of 
increasing measures of freedom, social and ecclesiastical as well 
as political. By the nature of tbings. be can never enjoy this 
complete emancipation in the United States. "When this period 
arrives, when the Negro begins to feel the need of wider scope for 
the full expansion of the inherent energies of bis mind, be will seek 
refuge in bis Fatherland, for entrance iuto which Liberia is the 
most promising door_ 
,Ve have followed with deep interest :;t, discussion, which bas 
been going on recently in the leading coloured journals in the 
United States, on the relative claims of the Roman Catholic and 
Protestant Cbuxches to the respect and allegiance of the Negro. 
The Rev. John M. Broml, a Negro<lf high culture, and a bishop of 
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote an article, which 
appeared in the Independent newspaper, warning the coloured 
people against the aggressions upon their ranks of the Roman 
CaJJ.olics. To this article George T. Downing, of \\Tashington, saId 
to be .. a coloured gentleman of Jeducatioll, property, ancl influence 
among' his people, and a special h-ienu of the late Senator Sumner," 
wrote an able and vigorous reply, ill whicb, in the course of a long 
argument, he says ;-
For oz:e. I , as a coloured ma.n, would a.sk the Turlfl'rll(/i'lil what there i!\ in 
the Catholic Church to repel me from its communion '? I would like to ask, 
also, what there is in monarchy more hideous, more to be dreaded, tha.n this 
cruel spirit of caste, which thus finds sympathy ana protection under n. 
Protestant Republic? .. . Tbe Protestant Churcb procla.ims the doctrine of 
the brotherhood. of man, and then tramples upon that which it professes to 
revere .... 11 I were 0. Russian subject to-day, I should enjoy more liberty 
under the Empire of the CZllr than I do as no coloured man in Republican 
America.. I should possess more rea.l equality, more justice, marc protection 
for all that constitutes "life," tha.n I now possess IlS an America.n citizen, 
... _ I remember when my own State slo.mmed the door of its schools in the 
face of my little ones (schools that my taxes helped to support), that the 
Catholic Church opened wide its school doors to those little ones. I remember 
gratefully that my children, thus excluded from Protestant schools, partook 
• 
• 
• 
46 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
freely. on terms of equality, of the bles'>ings of educatton and kindly ,,;~mpo.thy 
thus extended . ... The Catholic Church bas to.d&}' in it. . schools OH':[ ZOO,()(',() 
coloured children. It. i!O educating coloured youth at Rome for its missionary 
work in America p.nd Africa.. In the West Indies, Ccntral America., 8.Ild South 
America, nearly 9,000,000 of A!ric&.ns o.cknowledge its faith,lO 
"'hatever way be the ecclesiastical connection of the thoughtful 
and cultivated Protestant Negro-though he may ex animo sub· 
scribe to the tenets of the particular denomina.tion to which he 
belongs, as approaching nearest to the teachings of God's Word-
yet he can Dot read History without feeling tha.t the Negro race 
owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Roman Catholic Church . The 
• 
only Christia.n Negroes who have had the power successfully to 
throw off oppression, and maintain their position as freemen, were 
Roman Catholic Negroes-the Haitians; and the greatest Negro 
the Christian world has yet produced was a Roman Catholic-
Toussaint Louverture. 
In the ecclesiastical systCl11 of modern, as was the ca~e in the 
military systeLa of ancient ROIJle, there seems to be a place for all 
races and colours-
Colcbus an Assyriu8, Thebis nutritus an Argis. 
At Rome, the names of Negroes, males and females, who have 
been distinguished for piety and good works are found in{the 
calendar under the designation of'1 Saints." Protestantisl11 has no 
Negro saints. Mr. Ticknor tells us of a Negro at Granada', in the 
sixteenth century, who, brought as an infant from Africa, rose by 
his learning to be Professor of Latin and Greek in the school 
attached to the Cathedral of Granada. He is the sau'e person 
noticed by Cervantes as .. el Negro Juan Latino," in a poem pre-
fixed to Don Quixote. He wrote a Latin poem in two books. He 
was married to a lady of Granada, who fell in love with him, as 
Eloisa did with Abelard, \""bile he was teaching her; and after his 
10 Several ad\"l~r,.,e criticisDlfo l1l1.\'6 appea.red from influential qu'llrt,( 15 upon 
l\lr Downing's position, but \\e find him, in his lalelOt utterBllces. rcathrllllng 
hili views as follows :-" I am fully }'crsuaded that a. genera.l nllianca, on the 
part of the coloured people of Amcrico., \\ ith the Ca.tholic Church of America., 
wouhl be the mObt speedya..nd effcctivc agency to break down Awcricn.u co.::.te, 
La.scd on colour" 
, 
Christianity and the Negro Race. +7 
death his wife and children erected a monument to his lllemorv in 
the church of Bta. Ana, in that city, inscribing it with an epitaph, 
in which he is styled "Filius EthiopiutD, prolesque uigerrima 
patrwn." II No such record occurs in the annals of Protestantism. 
In what Protestant university would a Negro professor be tolerated? 
The most distinguished Negro produced by a Protestant country, of 
whom we have read, was Benjamin Banneker; and the only 
literary recognition he ever rec~ived was in all appreciative letter 
from Thomas JeffersoD, the reputed infidel. 
It is said that in all the histories of Brazil the name of Henry 
Diaz. the distinguished Negro general, is extolled. The Portuguese 
historian, Borros, says that Negroes are, in his opinion, preferable 
to Swiss soldiers, whose reputation for bravery bas generally stood 
high. In 1703 the blacks took arms for the defence of Guadaloupe, 
and were more useful than all the rest of the French troops. At 
the same time they bravely defended Martinique against the 
English. When and where has there ever been a Negro general 
in a Protestant arruy? If it is asked why Protestant Negro 
soldiers are not equally efficient-why the West India. troops did 
not distinguish themselves in the recent ~\'shantee war-we have no 
othrr reply than the query of the poet: 
Quis enim virtute"jl 9.mplectitux ipsam 
• Prremia. si toUas? 
The Negro, under Protestant rule, is kept in a state of such 
tutelage and irresponsibility as can scarcely fail to make him 
constant,l y dependent and useless whenever, thrown upon himself, 
he has to meet an emergency. 
The Deputy lor the colony of Martinique in the French National 
Assembly in 1872 was M. Pory-Papy, a Negro. The idea of repl'f~­
senting the British colonies in the House of ComDlons is often 
discussed, If it should ever be realised, would the people of 
Jamaica and Barbadoes be as liberal and enlightened as those of 
Martinique? For the present, we fear not. 
We saw published Bome years ago the" Bill of Sale of an 
American Clergyman." Thi., clergyman was a Negro, wbo on 
u Ticknor's ll,story of SpUllilh Literatl/re, \'01. ii. p. 582 . 
• 
48 Christianity, Islam and t"e Negro Race. 
acconnt of his learning bad received from a German university the 
degree of D.D. lIe was a minister of oue of the leading Protestant 
denominations 111 the United States; but he 'was it" chatiel "-a. 
fugitive from slavery. South of Mason and Dixon's line he would 
have hatl neither name nor character. His German diploma would 
have been no more than so much wa!!te paper.). His liberty had to 
be paid (or in gold before be could become a l11o.u. ~yc queotion 
whether ~mcil a thing has ever occurred, or could c\'cr occur, uuder 
the administration of the Roman Catholic Church. Iii 
The .\merican nation, by the force of its peculiar circumstances 
and the genius of its political institutions, and, perhaps, also from 
its composite character, is far more advanced in its dealing with 
the Negro than is the mother country. In Church and State, laws 
are being passed giying him larger measures of freedom. 
Th:' .\merican Episcopal Church has recently consecrated a pure 
Negro as Bishop of Ha',ti. A curious but significant circumstance 
occurred ill the Episcopal Convention held in New York in October, 
1874. at which it was decided to consecrate this Xegro Bishop. 
The only Episcopal "oice raised during the discussion of the subject, 
in a tone at all dissentient, was that of Dr. Courtenay, the English 
Bishop of ,Jamaica, who, in the course of his remarks, among ither 
things said: • 
\\"c have not, (\s ~'ct, in Jamaica, one priest o[ purely African race'. .• ' At 
the pre~(:nt moment no Negro in Holy Orders could command that respect in 
Ja.lllaica \\hich a white pficst coulJ command, Whether this condition o[ 
affairs in ,Jamait,(\, is to control the position ill Hayti is nnother question.]" 
Now, the qnestiou that must arise is: Why is it that;'nfter two 
hUUlll'ed years' residence in Christian Jamaica., and a.fter forty --
years of freedom, the Negro population, so largely outnumbering 
the whites, l!R.\·e not been able to produce one pl"icsl:) \Yby is 
it that, "at the present moment, no Negro in Holy Orders coulu 
command that respect in Jamaica which a white priest could 
cO?lmaml ?" Is this n. cl'ewtable state of things, after so many 
,~ The documents connected with the sale nnd manumiosion of Rev, J, \"Y. 
O. Pennington, 0,0., o.re llUblishcd in ,'\11 a.ppcnd.i.x to Theodore Parker's 
.Add!tioll({l ,,'pt'eel/l's, YOI. Xl, 
u The Chlll',;1t JOUr/wi, New York, Oct. 29, 1874. 
• 
Christianity and the Negro Race. 49 
years of Christianising effort? Is not this state of things owing to 
that peculiar defect in the machinery and administration of the 
Anglican Church noticed by Lord Macaulay in his review of 
Ranke's History oj the Popes, and which be says gives her less 
elasticity and less assimilating power than her Roman ancestor? 
An able writer on Jamaica, in the Quarterly Reviell' for July, 
1875, reveals the cause of the ":>ackwal'dness of the Negro in that 
island-it lies in the strong Anglo-Saxon prejudice against his 
elevation. Though the Reviewer writes ·with a degree of candour, 
sobriety. and generosity which it is refreshing to see in these days 
of sensationalism, yet he could not repress his instinctive Saxon 
aversion to the full manhood and equality, intellectual and social, 
of the Negro. Be says (p. 72) with remarkable na"ivete, as if he 
were writing in the middle of the eighteenth oentury, or in defence 
of the Assiento Contract: "The cane-field, the plantation, the 
provision ground, and the pasture-land, not [even] the work-shop 
or the engine-room, are the African 's heritage." 
On page 4J the writer had remarked with justice that t, the 
Negroes have given unmistakable evidence of a notable and con-
stantly increasing amelioration in every respect, moral and intel-
lectJa.l, no less than physical." 
) 
Now, we ask, if the Negro is "constantly" improving in those 
respects•,  why relegate him to the .. cane-field?" ",Vhy wish to 
confine him to menial occupations if he has the ability to perform 
higher work? Is his colour to be the excuse for always keeping 
him in a utate of degradation? If such be the case-if such is the 
teaching which is sought to be impressed by able reviewers and by 
Colonial Bishops upon the British public at home and in Jamaica-
then two hundred years more will roll round and the Bishop 
Courtenay of that day will have again to announce that «there is 
not, as yet, one priest of purely African race in Jamaica." 
But does it not occur to the learned revie~er that the destiny 
of man, though he be a Negro, IDay include higher spheres of 
labour than the u cane-field," and blgher purposes than to produce 
• 
sugars, 1·&ise potatoes and rear stock? And may it not be worth 
while to consider, if only briefly, whether the Negro may not lend 
E 
• 
• 
50 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
something to the intellectual as well as moral resources of an 
sland where, for generntio1l2, he bas been confined to the labour of 
the beasts that perish? 
This leads us to call attention to another remarkable fact 
which has struck us in our researches-viz., that the defenders of 
the Negro during the days of his bondage, and the adyoca.tes of his 
full manhood and equality now that he is free, are, as a rule, 
found among those who are not rega.rded as orthodox in the 
Christian Church. Not the Evangelical churches in the United 
States, but the Unitarian, have fUrQished the ablest and most 
prominent defenders of the slave. The Cbannings, Theodore 
Parkers, Garrisons, Wendell Pbillipses. Emel'SODS, Longfellows, 
have preached the most celebra.ted sermons, written the most 
brilliant essays, delivered the most stin'ing lectures, and composed 
the most touching poems on behalf of the oppressed Negro. 
American Evangelicalism caUllot show such an array of first·class 
literature in his favour . 
In England, not the Edinburgh-at least, since the days of 
Jeffrey, Brougham and Macaula.y; not the Quarterly. but the 
Westminster Rcvicu'. has been the constant and uncompromising 
defender of the Negro. It has never joined in the general m~rri· 
< 
ment of Christian civilisation at his expense. When certain 
portions of the literary world were in a buzz of gleeful amusement 
at the attacks made by 111". Carlyle on the Negro, in 1849,11 the 
Wcstminster Review did not participate in the roar of laughter, but, 
on the contrary, administered the following timely and touching 
rebuke :-
For the fir&t time in the sl\d history of his race, the good name of the Negro, 
his charact.er 8.S a man, had become of value to him-for the" chat.tel .. has 
neither name nor chara.cter. \Vas it generous, then, of tbe greatest master of 
sarcasm of his ag:e-of t.be fir"t. portrait painter of any age-to welcome into 
civilisation. this-its long-excluded guest, with nicknames and caricature:;.' to 
bra.n:i him with tbe opprobrium of Idleness, to give him a bad chara.cter as a. 
servant because his ma~t('r was wo.nting in the faculty of mastership-was 
wanting in wilidom 0.1\1.1 justlce-Wo.s himself wo.nting in industry, in the energy 
• 
u 'Occaslono.l Discourse on the Nigger Question,' Fra,er s )I(lyo.::ille, 
December, 1810. 
, 
Christianity and the Negro R ace. 
needed to work out the difficulties, a.nd supply the dema.nds of his changed 
position? 1.:; 
Who would say tha.t this able review is not entitled to bear on 
its title-page that noble sentiment of Goethe-" Wa.hrheitsliebe 
zeigt sicb darin, dass man tibetall das Gute zu findeD und zu 
scbtltzen weiss" (Love of truth shows itself in this, that one 
always knows bow to find ~Dd cherish that which is good)-which 
the .-\nglo-SaxoD, from his peculiar temperament, perhaps, does 
not, as a rule, exemplify in his dealings with foreign races-a defect 
which unfits him, in a great degree. as an instrument in the work 
of reconstructing fallen humanity in distant lands? 
On the other hand, professors of orthodox Christianity do not 
hesitate occasionally to indulge in a chuckle at the expense of 
II Qua.shee ." 
Lord Macaulay has noticed this divorce between precept and 
practice - however it is to be accounted for - in professing 
Christians, as contrasted with the proceedings of men who 
paraded their dislike and opposition to the Christian faith. 
Speaking of the sect of philosophers which arose in Paris in 
the last century, Lord Macaulay says:-
~ While they assailed Christianity with a. mncour a.nd unfa.imese disgre.ceful 
to men whQ called themselves philo~phers, they yet ha.d, in fa.r grea.ter measure 
than \heir opponents, the.t charity towards men of all classes and races which 
Christianity enjoins. Religious pertiecution, judicie.1 torture, arbitrary im-
prisonment, the unnecessary multiplication of capital punishments, the delay 
and chicanery of tribunals, the exactions of farmers of the revenue, slavery, the 
ela.ve t';l\ode. were the constant subjects of their lively sa.tire and eloquent 
disquiSltions. , . , . The ethice.l and dogmatical pe.rts of the Gospel were 
unha.pplly turned against ee.ch other. On one .. ide, was s. Church boasting of the 
purity of a. doctrme derived from the Apostles, but disgraced by the massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, by the murder of the best of ki.ngs, by the wa.r of Ce\'ennes, by 
the destruction of Port Roya.l. On the other side, was a. sect laughing a.t the 
Scriptures, shooting out the tongue e.t the sacro.ment, but ready to encounter 
principalities and powcrs in the cause of justice, mercy and toleration,I.; 
~ Such are the curious facts which history unfolds. And what 
do they teach? Only that the best and holiest of men are not 
• 
I Wntmuu;ter Rtt'iCID, April, 1853. 
It Review of Ranke's 11 i~tory of tht Popes . 
• 
• 
52 Christianity, Islam and the Neg1'O Race . 
infallible-not perfect-only what tbe Apostle Paul announced 
eighteen hundred years ago-" We have this treasure in earthen 
vessels that tbe excellency of the power may be of God, and 
not of us." 
Nevertheless, because the "treasure" does exist, notwith-
standing the base and humble material of the "vessel," the 
Negro race is largely indebted to instruments who, in spite of 
themselves, have been tbe means of conveying to thousands of 
Africans a knowledge of the true God. The anuals of orthodox:. 
Christianity are graced with innumerable llames of champions of 
• 
the Negro. The names and brilliant efforts of the Wilberforces
7 
Buxtons, Venns, Gurneys, in England; of the Beechers, Cheevers, 
Fiuneys, Whittiers, Stowes, in America, can never be forgotten. 
And if they could have infused into their adherents and followers 
the lofty philanthropic spirit which actuated them-if they could 
have imparted more of their elevated and generous enthusiasm 
-the condition of the Christian Negro would be far different 
from what it now is. But notwithstanding all disadvantages, 
the influences of direct Christian doctrine were silently infiltrating 
themselves into the Negro minds; and though, in their suffering, 
comparisons at times glanced through their minds; though troy 
could not help often making corh:;rasts which were not always 
favourable to their own church; still they understood that the 
conduct pursued by their teachers tow-ards them was not only 
not dictated by the religion they professed, but was in opposition 
to its teachings; hence the singular fact is patent, that, w'lerever 
Negroes exist iu large !luJ.tJ.bers, in Protestant countries, they are, 
for the most part, members of the orthodox denominations. The 
only ecclesiastical organisation developed among the Negroes in 
the Uuii;ed States, which nearly copes in numbers, wealth and 
aggressive power with the most favoured religious sects of the 
land, is the African JIethodist Episcopal Ghurch.'7 And we are 
persuaded that the form of Christianity which will be introduced 
into Africa by Christian Negroes from abroad will be Protestantism 
of the orthodox st amp. . 
11 See Ta.nner 's Apo{09Y for African Methodi~m in tile United States. 
-
Christianity alld the Negro Race. 53 
\Vbatever, then, the shortcomings of our teachers, they have 
been the instruments of introducing large numbers of us into 
the Kingdom of God. The lessons they have taught us, from 
its uplifting effect upon thousands of the race, we have DO doubt 
contain the elements of imperishable truth, and make their 
appeal to some deep and inextinguishable consciousness of the soul. 
While, therefore, we recognjse defects-a discrepancy, at times, on 
their part between precept and practice-we cannot withhold from 
them the tribute of our respect and gratitude. In no case would 
we apply the harsh sentence of the great Italian poet towards 
his teacher, but we may address to them these magnificent and 
touching words of that great master of song :-
Che in 1a. mente m ' e fitte., ed or m' a.ccuore. 
La. care. e buono. ima.gine paterna. 
Di voi, quando . , , , 
l\I ' insegnn.vate come I' uo m s' "'teme. ; 
Equant' io l ' abba in gra.do, mentre io vivo 
Convien che nella mia. lingua. si scerna..I~ 
111 Inferllo, xv. In my memory is fixed, and now goes to my heart, the 
dea.r, kind, pa.terna.l image of you, when you taught me how man ma.y become 
immorta.1. And, while 1 Ih'e, it becomes my tongue to show wha~ gratitude I 
ha.v.e  for it . 
) 
• 
, 
• 
• 
Christian Missions • In "Vest 
Africa.' 
I T is little more than half a generation since four millions of Africans were held ill apparently hopeless bondage in the 
United States-a condition which determined their status as one 
of social subordination and inferiority in all Christian lands. The 
emancipation in the British, French, Danish and Dutch colonies 
was able, it seems, to effect little towards improving the standing 
of the Negro. He was bound to a servile position until the 
supremacy of the cotton empire of the West was overthrown. 
The proclamation of freedom in the United States gave to the 
Negro at once a position which be had never before occupie~; 
and, though he is in America oumel-'cally weak, and, in a measure, 
personally insignificant, still the barriers in the way of his proJress 
are rapidly disappearing. 
But it is not easy to efface impressions which have been busily 
taught and cbeerfully imbibed duriug centuries. The Ch, ristian 
world, trained for the last three hundred years to look upon the 
Negro as made for the service of superior races, finds it difficult to 
shake off the notion of his absolute and perma.nent inferiority_ 
Distrust, coldness or indifference, are the feelings with which,.. 
generally speaking, any efforts on his part to advance are regarded 
by the enlightened races. The intluence of the representa.tions 
dispara.ging to his mental and moral character, which, during the-
days of his bondage, were persistently put forward without contra-
diction, is still strong in many minds. The full effect of the new 
I fra lwr's Magazine, October, 1876. 
• 
• 
Christian Missions in West Africa. 55 
status of the Negro race will not be sufficiently fe!t during the 
present generation to enable even his best friends to get rid entirely 
of the pity or contempt for him which they have inherited, and 
which is, to a gl'eat extent, to be accounted for by the fact that 
the civilised world has hitherto come in contact, for the most part, 
on1y with the more degraded tribes of the African continent. 
One of the most important of the resuHs of the labours and 
sufferings of Livingstone is the light which he bas been able to 
throw upon the subject of the African races at home, and which 
has awakened doubts even in the minds of the most apathetic a.s 
to the fairness of the representations disparaging to the Negro's 
character which have been for so long a time in unimpeded 
circulation. The whole Christia.n world has been aroused by that 
humble missionary to the importance of 0 healing the open sore 
of the world," and penetrating" the dark continent" with the 
light o[ Christianity and civilisation. Catholics and Protestants-
Christians of every name and nationality-are vying with each 
other in endeavours to promote the work of African regeneration. 
One sanguine or sensational letter from Mr. Stanley calling 
attention to a favourable opening for missionary operations in East 
ASrica fell upon the British public like seed into prepared soil, and, 
in a short time, a bountiful l)arvest was reaped, ill the sbape of 
thousands of pounds, in response to the more urgent than" Mace-
danian cry," This prompt liberality shows that there are Christian 
men and women in England who are deeply in earnest in the work 
of disseminating the truths of the Gospel in Africa . 
• 
It is evident that, at the present moment, there is no mission 
field in which the Christian public are so anxiously interested for 
the safety1  welfare and success of the missionaries as the African; 
and there is none, moreover, whose successful working by Euro-
pean missionaries must, in the long run, depend so absolutely upon 
special and constant study of the mental and moral habits of the 
people and climatic peculiarities of the countl'Y. And yet in the 
constant necessity which presses upon missionary committees at 
borne, and upon missionaries themselves, to find what may hold the 
public ear, in the impatient dema.nd for immediate visible results 
, 
• 
56 Christianity, Islam and the Negl'o Race. 
in the uDceasing strain after fresh subjects for exciting paragraphs. 
no leisure or repose is left for quiet thought, for grappling with 
new facts, or for giving due weight to views out of their accustomed 
groove of thought. 
We do not set before ourselves, in the present paper, the 
ambitious task of propounding or discussing any Dew theory of 
African Missions. To describe a.ccurately or intelligibly how 
missions in Africa ought to be conducted so as to come nearer than 
they have yet done to a realisation of the expectations of their 
supporters in Europe and America-so as in some measure to 
Christianise the African tribes-would probably be as difficult and 
impossible a task as any thinking man could well undertake . We 
are, for our own part, inclined to cut the Gordian knot by express-
ing the belief that it will not be given to the present generation 
of foreign workers in this field to solve the problem-or rather. 
problems-presented by the enormous work of African Christian-
isation. This is a privilege, we venture to believe, resel·ved for the 
" missionaries of the future." 1 
Still, it may not be altogether unprofitable to consider some of 
the results thus far attained, and the hindrances in the way of 
more satisfactory achievements. (. 
It is now nearly four hundred l';lars siDce the first attempt was 
made to introduce Christianity into the Western portion of A·frica. 
The summary of Christian Missions on this coast may pe given in 
a few words. 
The Romau Catholics come first. 10 1481 the King of P,o rtugal 
seut ten ships with 500 soldiers, 100 labourers, and a proper com-
plement of priests as missionaries, to Ehnina. The Romish missions 
thus founded, lingered on for a period of 241 years, till. at last, in 
1723, that of the Capuchins at Sierra Leone was given up, and 
they disappeared altogether from '''est Africa. They bad made 
!1 The rel(1,tions of t.he present genera.tion of Europea.ns with the AIrica.n 
rnces have not been Buch as to allow them to be unhiassed workers in the 
African field_ While, like David, they may receive commenda.tion for ba.ving 
conceived the ic1on. of building the great OhristilUl temple in Africa, it may be 
only given to them to open the wa.y, collectl the ma.terials, &c.; other ha.nds 
ma.y have to rear the superstructure. 
, 
, 
Christian Missiolls ilL West Africa. 57 
no impression, except upon their immediate dependants; and what 
little impression they made on them was soon totally obliterated. 
Protestant missionary attempts were begun by the hlol'avians 
in 1736, and continued till 1770. Five of sucb attempts cost 
eleven lives, and were not followed by visible results. 
The Wesleyans come next. In the Minutes of the Conference 
of 1792, we find Africa for the first time included in the list of 
Wesleyan missionary stations, Sierra Leone being the part 
occupied, and in the Minutes for 1796, the names of .\.. 1\lurdoch 
and W. Patten are set down as missionaries to the Foulah 
country, in Africa, to which service they were solemnly set apart 
by the Conference. 
The Church Missionary Society sent out its first missionaries in 
1804. They established and attempted to maintain ten stations 
among the aborigines, but they could make no progress owing to 
the hostility of the natives, who appear to ba'\e preferred the slave-
traders. The missionaries were forced to take refuge in Sierra 
Leone, the only place where at that time they could labour with 
safety and hope. 
The Basle Missionary Society-one of the most successful on 
the coast-had their attention directed to Western Africa as early 
as 18~6; but it was not until 1838 that their first company of 
missiona:ries reached Christian borg, near Aha, the place which the 
MOl'avians had attempted to occupy more than thirty years pre-
viously. 
The Un•i ted Presbyterian Synod of Scotland began a mission on the Old Calabar River, in the Gulf of Bellin, in Apt;l, 1846. 
Five denominations of American Christians-Baptists, Metho-
dists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans-are represented on 
the coast-in Liberia, at Lagos, the Island of Cori5co, and Gaboon. 
The first American "Mission was established on the coast in 1822. 
Now, what ha.s been the outcome of these missionary opera· 
tions? The results thus far achieved are, in many respects, highly 
interesting and important. At the European settlements estab-
lished at various points along til.e coast from Senegal to Loanda, 
and at the purely native stations, occupied by the Nigar 
, 
58 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
(native) missiona.ries, the Scotch missionaries a.nd the American 
missionaries, SOllie thousands of natives, ba.ving been brought 
under the immedia.te influence of Christian teaching, ha.ve professed 
Christia.nity. and, at the European settlements, ha.ve adopted 
Europea.n dress and habits. N umBrous churches have been 
organised, a.nd are under a. native ministry. and thousands of 
children are ga.thered into schools under Christian teachers. 
The West African Reporter, a. weekly newspaper owned and 
publisbed at Sierra. Leone exclusively by natives, a.nd itself an 
interesting evidence of the progress of civilisa.tion on the coast. 
gives. in its issue for January 4, 1876, the following;-
, 
The Niger Mission anll the na.tive pastora.te-which h,.ttcr ho.s received the 
encomiums of friends and foes-a.re standing monuments of the :Church 
l\Iis.sionary Societ.y·s labours, a.nd proofs of the pcnno.nenC'e of result! thus 
far a.chievcd Bi"hop Crowther, the first Negro Bishop, the R~'v. James Johnson 
or Ln.gos, Dr. A[rieanus Horton, the distinguished physicin.n and author, and 
numerous ot.hers. less widely known but not less useful. sat un,ler the instruc-
tions which hase been impa.rted in the Church ~IissioDary College o.t Fourah 
Bay, in Sierra. Leone. 
But other useful men besides preachers ha.ve been raised up 
under the instruction of the missiona.ries; many able and useful 
Government officials, skilful mechanics-especia.lly a.t the Basle 
Mission-anu merchants, who fY their i.ntelligence. industfj a.nd 
enterprise have risen to an equality in wealth and influe,n ce with 
the European merchants on the coast. 
Still, these results, in their largest measure, are confined almost 
exclusively to the European settleulents along the coast a.nd to 
their immediate neighbourhood. No mission station 'of any im-
portance has been established among any of the powerful tribes 
in the interior, or on the coast at a distance from European settle-
ments. In the evangelistic operations of the Niger Migsion, we 
ca.n bear of no central station of influence among auy of tbe 
leading tribes. Bishop Crowther's last Report of the II Mission 
among the Natives of the Bight of Biafra, at Bonny, Brass and 
New Calabar Rivers," after ten years' labour, is not particularly 
encouragmg . 
• Church J/u'ioliliry Inttlligtrtur, August, 1875 
• 
Christian Missio1ls in West Africa. 59 
The work done at Sierra Leone and in Liberia cannot be 
regarded as done upon the indigenous elements of those localities. 
The native populations of Sierra Leone and Liberia--the Timnehs, 
8005005, Mendis, Veys, Golahs, Bassas, Kroos, &C.-8.1'6 still 
untouched by evangelical influence. The visitor at Sierra Leone 
and at Monrovia is at once struck by the exotic appearance of 
everything. The whole black population of those settlements who 
• 
have made any progress in Gbristian civilisation have been 
imported-in the case of Sierra Leone, from other parts of Africar 
and, in that of Liberia. fl'om America. If everything extraneous or 
imported were taken away from these settlements to-morrow I the 
regions they occupy would wear an aspect similar to that which 
they presented to Sir John Ha.wkins three hundred years ago, but 
it is to be feared that the inhabitants would not present the pleasing 
moral characteristics attributed to them while they were as yet 
un-Europea.nised, by that great pioneer of English-African slave·' 
traders. Nor is even the civilising work done in the settlements· 
without its drawbacks. 
In the African Times for January I, 1876, the editor, after the 
labour of half a generation in the cause of 'Vest African progressr 
opens tJIe year with the following lam, ent :-
Lagos has grievousl}' disappointed our hopes and expectations. She is not;. 
what she ought to be after years of annexation to the British Crown. It is no 
cause for wonder, therefore, that she has not exercised that influence on the 
Heathen within her and in the neighbouring cOW1tries which we looked for 
[rom her. . The llrofessed Christians of Lagos ought to be a mighty phala.nx 
against the sWlrounding Heathenism; but we do not see that they ba.ve made 
any successful aHa.ck upon it. 
Governor Berkeley, in his Blue Book Report of the Settlement of 
Lagos for 1872, estimates the population of the entire settlement 
at 60,221, out of which there were only 92 whites; and he adds ;-
This settlement contributes nothing towa.rds the promotion of religion or 
education. The Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Society, and the 
Roman Co.tbolics are a.U represented in the shape of ministers, churches and 
lIobools_~ 
• 
4 Papers rdatinq to H" Majesty's ColonialPo"tssioru; pa.rt i, 1874, p. 138 . 
• 
60 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
Sir Charles Adderley, after a full and careful investigation of the 
subject, says :-
B&rba.rism survives, for BU we expend in lives II.D.d ta.xes to esta.blish what 
must prove, a.fter all, a.n ineffectua.l o.dministra.tion of English power lD the 
\Vest Africa.n country.-
In the TVest A/rican Reporter (February 1, 1876) we are 
informed tha.t;-
The Timnehs of QUiaJl to this da.y look with wistful eyes to the Peninsula. 
of Sierra. Leone, the Bana.nas lsland down to Carmara.nca. Crcek, the Ribbee 
and Bompeh rivers, and their helUts are burning with rc\"cnge aga.inst the 
Powers tbo.t wrenched these pla.ces from the b&nds of their &.ncestors. Their 
chiefs are dissatisfied with the stipends they receive, as being no equiv&lent 
remuneration for the occupation Il.lld use of their Io.nds by our Government; 
and they arc only prevented from miling any mischievous move by want. 
o! power. 
The lIon. James S. Payne, the new President of Liberia, in his 
Inaugural Address, delivered January 3, 1876, refers to the actual 
state of things in Liberia, which does not exist at Sierra Leone 
only" from want of power" on the part of the aborigines. He 
says:-
Tb~ war now ra.ging (between the Americo-Liberians and t.he aborigines 
of Cape Pa.lmas) has been the subject of consideration for more tb'.m three 
yea.ra, of which frequent intima.tilns were given without being a.ceredite,l. 
It has for one of its objects the Ie-possession of the territory at the cost of 
extermina.ting the entire civilised popula.tion. It is a. war against ci\;lisation 
and Christia.nit.y. Upwards of forty years of untiring Christian mi,.!lion efiort 
a.mong them a.a preferred objects of the missions of the Presbyterian and 
Protesta.nt. Episcope.1 Missions, has ma.de t.hem ro.t}ler to ha.te than to admire 
Christian civilisation -r 
Now let us see what IS the view too often taken of 
African Mission protegh by intelligent Pagan natives. We have 
beard several expressions in regard to " Christia.nised .. natives made 
in Ou!' hearing by native chiefs in whose country we have travelled; 
but we prefer to quote the criticism of the King of Dahomey, a.s 
given to the world by Commodore Wilmot in a dispatch to 
Admiral Walker, under date of January 21, 1863. The Commodore 
was remonstrating with the King aga.inst making wa.r upon 
• Colonial PoliCY and lli:>lor-!l, p. 218. 
• 
Christiall Missions II! West Aj,·ica. 61 
the people of Abbeokuta, among whom were many professed 
Christians :-
He promised faithfully for my sake (says the Commodore) to spe.re all tbe-
Christians and send them to Wbyda.h, and that his general should ha.ve strict, 
orders to this effect. I asked him about the Christia.DS at Ishagge.. He said, 
"Who knew they were Christia.ru? The black man sa.ys he is a. white man, 
caJ.ls himseU a. Christian. and dresses himself in clothes it is an insuU to tt:e 
white man. I respect the white man, but these people are impostors, a.nd no 
better than my own people. ,. I re!l.SOoed with him no longer on this subject 
I (adds the Commodore), bece.use I thonght his observa.tions so thoTouahZy just and-
honest. (\ 
N ow here is a Christian European of intelligence and influence 
endorsing the disparaging estimate of Christia.n Africa.ns as given 
by a Pagan African of intelligence and inAuellce. 7 
Sir Charles Adderley calls attention to "the strange graft of 
skill upon barbarous fanaticism which natives acquire who have 
been played with by dilettante philanthropists in distant un-
concerned authority. "8 
The foreign virtues these natives acquire never rise above the 
parasitical. Their culture is superficial, and its effects artificial, 
presenting very often an appearance of insincerity and absurdity 
both to the foreign observer and the Pagan of intelligence. Pagans 
of disc\;l'nment know that the black man among them who .. calls 
himself a Christian and dresses hlbsel1 in clothes" adheres to 
European 'habits and customs with a reserved power of disengage-
ment, much as a limpet clings to a rock. 'rhese customs seldom strike 
root in his mind, and grow up as an independent plant. Africans 
who have blZen educated even in England, on returning to their 
own countLJ; and among their own people, have again adopted the 
native dress and habits. And it would show a very slender know-
ledge of human natUl'e to expect anything else. 
Now, why is it that the e\'angelisation of the tribes of West 
Africa, a,fter so many years of effort and so vast a sacrifice of life 
and money, is so backward? The first and most generally admitted 
II Briti,;h and Fm·t.igll Slate Papers, 1863-64; vol. liv, p. 351. 
7 ., EdUCll.ted natives" is often used py Europea.ns 011 the COll.st as 0. phrase-
of contempt. 
II Colo"ial PDlicy a"d Histo)'Y, p. 158 . 
• 
,62 Christia1lity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
cause is the unhealthiness of the climate; and this cause, we may 
premise, affects injuriously aU progress and growth in West Africa 
to a far greater extent than is generally supposed. Noone ,vill 
undertake to dispute at this day that the moral and intellectual 
character of a people is very largely dependent upon their physical 
e'bvironmellts. No great man, physically or mentally. has ever 
been developed in the inhospitable regions of Greenland or Tierra 
del Fuego. In some countries a high degree of even material 
progress is impossible. In Brazil, for instance, Mr. Buckle tells us, 
II the progress of agriculture is stopped by impassable forests, and 
the harvests are devoured by innumerable insects. The mountains 
are too high to scale-the rivers too wide to bridge." A l)ortion 
of the indomitable Anglo-Saxon race from the southern States of 
North America have had an opportunity recently of testing these 
statements. They attempted to found a colony in Brazil, but the 
obstacles presented by Nature proved insuperable. They have 
returned to the United States.o 
Now it is well known that a belt of malarious lands, which are 
hotbeds of fever, extends along tbe whole of the West Coast of 
Africa, running from forty to fifty miles back from the sea-coast. 
In tills region of country neither cattle nor horses will• • thrive. 
Horses will not live at all . () Sheep, goats and hogs drag out an 
indifferent existence. At Sierra Leone, Monrovia 'and other 
settlements on the coast, fortunes have been expended by lovers 
of horses in trying to keep them alive, but in spite of all that care 
and money can do, they pine away and die. The 6"{periment of 
keeping them constantly housed, like human beings. and imposing 
upon them the regulation, .. early to bed, and early to rise," bas, we 
believe, not yet been tried. 10 
The healthfulness of a country or district, at any given time, 
!I The Tillt~s, Janus.ry 18, 187G. 
10 In 1871, Dr. McCoy, Colonifl-l Surgeon (of Sierra. Leone), sent. to the Royal 
Veterinary College, London, a report Oil the then so-cs.lled "loin disea.se ,. (of 
horses), and the opinion formed tbereon by the Professor of the Oollege was 
t.ha.t tho disease arose out of the poiso:J.ed state of the blood, the disease being 
conveyed into the system by mes.ns of the a.tmosphere.-Sierra. Ll::one fJ'ut 
African R~porltr, Februa.ry 1, 1876. 
Christian Missio1ls in W est Africa. 
ma.y generally be determined by the condition of the animals. In 
pestilential disorders, four-footed animals are said to be first 
attacked, from their living mOl'e in the open air than man, and 
being, therefore, more exposed to the action of tbe atmosphere. 
0 ·... , ... " , '.' UP'1U'ii ~fV 1tPWTOII E7.(,tlXt'TO Kat Kt'I'US apyOl-'S. 
A l''T·U P e~ rrUT•  Ul,'70~W '"l (3'\' "(1\0 .. fXt'70t'UKt''ii, .£.'1I),u' . .,  
BaAA' .. II 
In the elevated regions of the interior of West Africa, where 
there are no dense primeval forests, extensive swamps, and pesti-
lential jungles. cattle and horses show no sign of "infection" 
or /I poisoned state of tbe blood." They flom-ish in uncounted 
herds. And in those regions men are healthy, vigorous and • 
intelligent, 
The interior tribes who have, from time to time, migl'ated to the 
coast have perished or degenerated, Every child born on the coast 
is stunted physically and mentally in the cradle by the jungle fever, 
which assails it a few days after birth. European iniants seldom 
survive such attacks, The Vey tribe , occupying the country about 
Gallinas and Cape Mount, have traditions that they came to the 
coast as conquerors, driving before them all the tribal organisations 
willel" opposed their march. They were a numerous, intelligent, 
handsome people. Now, only m~la.ncholy traces of what they 
once were can be discovered in individuals of that waning tribe. 
H It is to be observed," says the West ilfrican Reporter,l! IC that 
the Mendi, as he approaches the sea, becomes more degenerate , 
Laying asi:.de his innocent, manly exercises, he betakes himself to 
plundering." It would appear that by a process of natural selection 
tb'3 finest organisations die. Those most capable or .. fittest" 
to endure the pestilential regions, by reason of a coarser or more 
brutal nature, .. survive." Vve have, then, morally speaking, the 
" survival" of the" unfittest," 
The steady physical, if not mental, deterioration going on 
a.mong the descenda.nts of re·captives at Sierra Leone is sometimes 
11 On mules and dogs,  the infection first begllJl, 
And lll.st. the vengefullLrtow fixed in mEldl. 
12 Februa.ry 1, 1876.  
• 
64 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
attributed by superficial observers to their baving enjoyed facilities 
for European education superior to their fathers. But the same 
decay is observable among the ~fohammedan creoles who have not 
deviated much frOlD the customs of their ancestors. The Rev. S. 
W. Koelle, an experienced German missionary, called attention, 
some years ago, to the important contrast as to salubrity between 
the coast and the interior. In the preface to his Bornoll Grammar, 
he says :-
The natives of dry and arid countries, as e.tJ., Bornou, Ra.usa, the Sahara, 
&0 ., die very fas~ in Sierra. Leone; their acclimatisa.tion there seems to be 
almost IlS difficult as that of Europeans. 
In the course of thirty years, two hundred Bornouese residents 
of Sierra Leone had been reduced to thirty. And, as we have said, 
those who do not die, degenerate, and become dependent upon the 
tribes of the healthier regions. All the coast tribes, from Senegal 
to Lagos, where no alien influence interferes, are held under the 
sway of the interior tribes. Everybody DOW knows that the tribes 
of the Gold Coast are no match iu intelligence, enterprise and 
energy for the Ashautees. 
Under such circumstances, unless missionary boards or com-
mittees, and the American Colonisation Society in Americl" are 
conteut to repeat the sacrifices c~bey have already made of life and 
treasure, during another fifty years, with similar inadequate. results, 
would it not be wisdom to try operations in the healthy regious of 
the interior, where <C every prospect pleases," and" man" is not so 
"vile"? As long as the malarious vegetation and deadly mangrove 
o 
swamps occupy so large a proportion of West An'lcan territory, 
there will be no more probability of making any permanent moral, 
or even materild, progress on the coast, or of developing a great 
mind, than there is of improving the haunts of the polar bear and 
the reindeer. 13 Of course, the resources of the philanthropic world 
1.'1 Professor Draper, in bis CO'Ytict between Religioll and Science, tells UJ> of a. 
civilisation that had been accomplished in Central America. resting on a.n 
agriculture that haa neithcr horse not ox nor plough. If the wa.y could be 
discovered of accomplishing a. civilisa.tiau in these days with the slender 
appliances which such a. statement would imply, then there might be hope for 
West Africa.. 
Christian Missiolls in West Africa. 
10 men and money are inexhaustible, and they have the power of 
prolonging the experiment indefinitely; and it may be the highest 
philanthropy to labour to prepare men for the" world to come " 
in a country where they can have no reasonable hope of enjoying 
the "world that DOW is." 11800y a European visiting this coast 
returns to his country never to enjoy the vigour of health again. 
For northern constitutions, thPr effect of a residence in this country, 
generally speaking. is similar to that said to have been produced 
upon the ancients by a visit to the cave of Trophonius- they never 
smile again. 
But another drawback to the success of missions on this coast 
is the inadequate, not to say contemptuous, view often entertained 
by European missionaries of the materials with which they have to 
deal; and this may be assigned as one of the leading causes why 
DO serious effort is made to go to the bealthy <l regions beyond." They 
come to the coast imbued with the notions they have derived from 
books, of the" sanguinary customs ,. and" malignant superstitions" 
of the natives. And under the influence of their malarious sur-
roundings they gain more in irritability of temper than in liberality 
of view, often acquiring greater ignorance of the people than they 
had :}efore they came. We were startled some time ago by reading 
a remarkable description of African character, as given by an 
Americ~n missionary from 'Vest Africa in the course of an address 
delivered in the united States. He said:-
The Chinam9.n. meets you with the stolid mOl'ality of his Confucianism; thc 
Hindoo with astute logic for his Pantheism. The missionary a.mong those 
peoples is assa.ult.ing strongholds. bristling \\ith guns a.nd bayonets. When I 
catty my torch into the co.ves of Africa., I meet only filthy birds of da.rkness, 
b!l.ts, owls, and evil things of night, t.hat, bewildered by the ligbt, know not how 
to blWlder out, or out, blunderingly da.sh themael'l"ea in aga.in.H 
Similar to this are descriptions we have read from time to time 
in missionary pel'iodicalsY Now, we earnestly protest against 
such utterances as not onl y gross exaggerations, but as, to the last 
H Address delivered before the American Colonisation Society, by Re,\". n. H 
Nassa.u ltD. . January 21.18'/3. 
1J See an article on 'The Negro' in the Chlll'ch MisB'ionary TntclligcllCN' 
(London) [or August, 1873, 
F 
• 
66 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
degree, pernicious in their influence, since they are made to apply not 
only to the natives of the coast demoralised by their physical sur-
roundings and by European vices, but no aU .Africans, and they lead 
young and inexperienced missionaries entirely astray as to the 
course they should pursue with the people. Coming to the coast 
under such teaching, they are induced to adopt a method of dealing 
with the natives, and to maintain a demeanour which, in spite of 
their educational and other services, inspire the people among whom 
they labour with feelings of impatience, if Dot of dislike. And it is 
not difficult to see that the missionary entel'taining such views 
must labour under very great subjective disadvantages. From bis 
out-look, the work is magnified to enormous proportions. The 
African mind is regarded as a great blank, or worse than a blank, 
filled with everything dark and horrible ana repulsive. Everything 
is to be destroyed, and replaced by something new and foreign. 
Not such were the views entertained of Africans by the Rev. J. 
Leighton Wilson, who, having been from childhood acquainted 
with Negroes in the United Sbates, spent twenty years as a mis-
sionary in West Africa, where he had opportunities of visiting every 
place of importance along the sea-coast, and made extensive ex-
cursions in many of the maritime districts. He studied and ref.ueed 
to writing two of the leading ~llguages of the country. In the 
record of his African E:xperiences, he says :-
Looking at the Africa.n race (LS we ha.ve done, in their uative country, we have 
seen no obstacles to their eleva.tion which would not apply equally to all other 
uncultive.ted races of men. 
We do not expect Airica.ns, under any circumstances, to possesfthe energy, 
the enterprise, or the inveati,e powers of the white ma.n. Bu~ there are other 
traits, quite as commenda.ble as these, in which, if properly trained, he will 
greatly excel his white compeer. Natura.lly, the African is social, generous, 
confiding, and, when brought under the ben.ign influence of Christio..nity, he 
exemplifies the beauty a,nd consistency of his religion more than a,ny other 
human being on the face of the earth. And the time ma.y come when they may 
be held up to all the rest of the world as examllles of the purest a.nd most 
eleva.ted Christian virtue.1O 
The more slender the outfi~ as to educational training and 
experience of those who come as instructors to the coast, the more 
Ie Wilson's WcstC1'I1 Africa, cba,p. xi. 
• 
Christian Missiolls in West Africa. 
supercilious- as, of course, must be the case-is their bearing. Many 
and amusing are the instances encountered by intelligent Africans 
of the very limited qualifications, coupled with large pretensions, of 
not a few who are sent to the coast as instructors. While siUing 
au the passengers' deck of one of the African mail steamers, a few 
years ago, we heard a young Englishman who had been engaged in 
educational work on the coa~t, and was returning borne on leave, 
descanting upon the" utter infel"iority of the African "-and, by 
the way, these men who come to guide the" benighted" seldom 
hesitate (such is their high breeding) to indulge in most cou-
temptuous utterances about the race ill the hearing of any 
member of it who lllay be a stranger to them. This young man-
'we say young man, though his hair was slightly sprinkled with 
grey-overflowing with erudition, and anxious to make known 
the extent of his researches in African philology, remarked to a 
comrade, " The stolidity of these Africans is astonishing. Their 
words are mostly monosyllabic, and even those tribes whose 
vocabulary is the most copious possess no expressions for abstract 
ideas." Attracted by the Johnsonese character of the sentence, 
we turned towards him aud said, "Sir, the words in the sentence 
whic~ you just uttered, that convey any idea at all, are either 
) 
Roman pr Greek. All the pUl'ely English words you employed are 
monosyllabic, expressing no abstract thought." "Oh," he replied, 
with some surprise, .. but that only proves that we possessed 
the ability to appropriate and apply such foreign terms as we 
cOllsidereJ serviceable-a feat which your people are unable to 
achieve." To this second outburst of almost pw·e Latin we made 
no reply, but turned away, leaving our leamed pedagogue to enjoy 
the belief lhat, under the influence of his irresistible argument, we 
had succumbed; but we noticed that he took care during the 
remainder of the voyage to indulge. while in our hearing, in no 
more" high falutiu." 
We arc not of those who deprecate international prejudices; 
they will exist, probably, until the millennium; for God, "who 
• 
hath made of one blood all nations of men," hath also "appointed 
-the bounas of their habitation," and within those" bounds" special 
• 
68 Christiallity, Islalll alld the Negro Race. 
and divergent tastes will arise among the nations. We remember 
when, accompanied about six years ago, on a tour in the interior of 
Monrovia, by Mr. Winwood Reade, we arrived at Boporo,11 a town 
about seventy-five miles frolll the coast, where a. white man had 
rarely been seen, how the women and children fled in every direction 
at the appearance of Mr. Reade; and it was Dot until we had been 
there several days that the children would ventUl'e near enough to 
speak to him. We are told that a cha.ritable old woman who afforded 
Muugo Park a llleal and lodging, au the banks of tbe Niger, could 
not refrain, even in the midst of her kindness, from exclaiming, 
1/ God preserve us (rom the DEYlL," as she looked upon him . 
These deprecatory feelings doubtless arise from the erroneous 
impressions entertained by Africans of the interior of the mental 
and moral concomitants of a white skin, The white man, in the 
imagination of the unsophisticated African, is a cannibal. The 
Negro of the ordinary trMreller or missionary-and perha.ps of two· 
thirds of the Christian world-is a purely fictitious being. COD· 
structed out of the traditions of slave-traders and slave·holders, 
who have circulated all sorts of absurd stories, and also out of pre-
judices inherited from ancestors, who were taught to regard the 
Negro as a legitimate object of traffic. And, perhaps, as Fishop 
Heber has remarked, the "bair~nd fea.tures·' of the Negro, .. far 
more than his colow'," are responsible for these erroneous' concep-
tions. We entertain no resentment at sucb feeliugs on the part of 
Europeans; hut as the object of missionary iabow' is undoubtedly 
success, we may venture to suggest that sucb views, ch9rbhed by 
missionaries, and allowed in a marked manner to influence theil' 
demeanour ou missiou ground, may possibly interfere with tLc 
wholesome results at which they aim. 
But with regard to all the charges of superstitiou. &c., made 
against native Africans, and in consequence of which a. hopeless 
II incapacity of amelioration" is sometinles attributed to the wbole 
race, we may remark, that there is not a single menta.l or moral 
11 This visit is describeJ in Reade',; African Sketch Bwk, vol. ii. }orr. Reade 
correctly repre~ents the impress:o·~s of African:;; on first seeing 0. white man 
Yol. i, Pt>. 328-29 
Christiall .11 issiolls ill West Africa. 69 
deficiency now existing among AfricanS-Dot a single practice now 
indulged in by them-to which we ca.nnot find a parallel in the past 
history of Europe, and even after the people had been brought under 
the influence of a. nominal Christianity. "Out of sa.vages," says 
Professor Tyndall, U unable to count up to the number of their 
fingers, and spea1cing a language containing only Douns and verbs, 
arise at length our Newtons aud Shakespeares." I~ 
Take Polygamy. We are told by Dr. Maclear that-
Nowhere was t.he a.ncient Slavonic superstition more deeply rootel! thnD in 
Pru!lSia. Every na.tive of the countr·y WB'I allowed to have three wi\"cl:i, who we[e 
regarded All !>1a.ves, &nd on the dea.th of thea husbands they were expected to 
ascent! the runeral pile or othcnvisc put an end to their ti,'cs. I ' • 
,\nd Mr. Leeky says:-
The pra.ctice of polygo.my o.mong the barhn.rie.n king'J was for some centurics 
unchecked, or at least unsuppresf>ed, by Christianity. The KingilO Caribert e.nd 
Chilpcric ha.d both many wives a.t the ume time. Da.gobert had three wives, 
a'i well a.s 0. multitude of cont:ubines. Chn.rlemagne himself had o.t the same 
time two wives, 8.nd he indulged hugely in eoncubines.;lO 
Take Slal'cry. SIa,-ery anu the trade in slaves was almost more 
difficult to root out than Paganism, and the inhuman traffic was in 
full acti\;ty as late as the tenth century between England and 
Irela.ld-the port of Bristol being o,n e of its principal centres. 21 In 
the canons of a Council in London in 1102, it is ordered that no one 
from hen•c eforth presume to carryon that wicked tra.ffic by which 
men in England have hitherto been sold like brute animals.:l2 
Take Hilman Sacrifices. Tacitus tells us that the old Teutons, 
generally b"paring in offerings, presented on certain days bUmi\.D 
victims to ',"odan. The old Swedes every nine years, on the great 
national festival, celebrated for nine days, offered nine male anima.ls 
of every chief species, togethf'r with one man dllily, The Danes, 
assembling every nine years in their capital, Lederun, sacrificed to 
I" Address at Bellast, 187.&, p. 52. 
t!o .4po.llc30/ Me-di«t;al Europe, p. 259 . 
.. Leclcy's Hi~lory oj Eurol"'(tR Moralll, .01. Li, p. 363. 
~1 M&.Clea.r", JIcdiM'al ElI.ropt, p. 2J9. 
~ InJilUnce. 0/ Chrilliall ity on Cil:ili.:;ation; by Thomas Cra..ddock.-LongmlLl18, 
1856. 
• 
70 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
their gods, 99 horses, 99 dogs, 99 cocks, 99 hawks, and 99 men. 
The PrussiaDs, previous to an engagement, offered through their high 
priest (Criwe) an enemy to their gods, Pikollos and Potrimpos. 
The Goths thought victory impossible unless they had before offered 
a hum aD sacrifice. The Sa.xons, aiter their war ""itb Charlemagne, 
killed on the holy Harz-mountain all the Fra.nkish prisoners in 
honour of their god Wodan.D And what shall we say of those human 
hecatombs offered during a period of three hundred years by 
Christians to the god of the slave trade? 
Henrest, Thou, 0 God, those cba.ins, 
Clanking on Freeqom's plains 
By Christ.ia.ns wrought? 
Them who those chains ha.\'e worn 
Christ.io.ns have hither borne, 
Christians ha.e bought. 
We have referred to only a few of the instances we might cite, 
many of which show tbat buman sacrifices have prevailed most 
among communities tbat bad advanced in the path of civilisation; 
and wehave quoted these instances not merely as a sort of til quoque 
argument, but because so many ca.reless writers are fond of dilating 
upon the "malignant superstitions" and .. sanguinary customs" 
of the Africans, as if these things, owing to some essential infer,io rity 
or inherent disposition to walCon cruelty in the Negro, were 
peculiar to him; and as if, moreover, they could be at once abolished 
by a few homilies on the stupidity and cruelty of such customs. 21 
Now, as to the Ie sanguinary customs" of the King of Dahomey. 
Every candid mind who will take the trouble to read ca,r efully the 
descriptions of intelligent travellers who bave visited the Dahomeyan 
capital-Norris, Forbes, Wilmot, and even the cynical Burton-
will find out that the accounts often circulated of the large numbers 
killeJ are gross exaggerations, and that the customs, far from 
being the result of a wanton desire to destroy human life, are" a. 
practice founded on a pure religious basis, designed as a Silicere 
23 Knlisch's Commentary 011 Ltt:iticIII, Part I. 
~ I Seo & letter addressed to Mr. Winwood RefLde by 1'IIr. A. SW&Dzy on tho 
pos~ibility of effecting important refonns' in Dabomey by pe~oneJ inten'iews 
with the King-RefLde's ~/rictllI Skdch Book, ,"01 ii, p, 510. 
Christiall Missiolls ill West Africa. 71 
manifestation of the IGng's filia. l piety. sanctioned by long usage, 
upheld by a powerful priestbood, and believed to be closely bound 
up with the existence of Dahomey itself," It is Dot in the power 
of the King to a.brogate the custom. Its gradual extinction must 
be the result of the increasing intelligence of the people. 
Commodore Wilmot had the opportunity of witnessing one of 
the" anoual customs" at the capital of Dahomey, in reference to 
whicb tbe King said to him: 
"You ho.ye "cen that. only a. few a.re slLcrificed, a.nd not. the lbousa.nus that 
wicked men have told the world. If I were t.o give up this custom at once, my 
bead would be taken off to·morrow. These institutions ca.nnot be stopped in 
the wa.y you propose. By-ana.bye, little by little, much may be done; sorLly, 
80ftly, nut by threats. You see how I D.ID placed, a.nd the difficulties in the 
way by-and-bye, by-and·bye." 
Dr. Draper says :-
In '-a.m the Spania.rds excuse their atrocities on the plea thAt. a Dation like 
the Mexican, wluch permitted cannibalism, should not be regarded a" ha.ving 
emerged from the barbarous ~tate, and that one which, like Peru, ~acrificed 
human hecatombs at the funeral solemnities of great men, must ha.ve been 
8M·age. Let it be remembered that there is no civilised na.tion whose popular 
practices do not la.g behmd its intelligence. In America., human sa.crifico was 
pa.rt of a religious solemnity, unsusta.i.ned by passion.:t· 
B~t not only are there exaggerated tales in circuln.tion in foreign 
countries dispn.raging to the Pa~ll' natives of Africa, there a.re 
equa.lly.erroneous impressions abroad about the Mohammeda.ns_ 
There is something lamentable-we were going to sa.y grotesque-
in the ignorance of some who assume to be authorities and guideil on 
African matters, of the condition of things at even a little distance 
from the c•o ast. The editor of the Chllrch Missionary InteliigC1lcl'r. 
in what purports to be an examinn.tion of Mr. Bosworth Smith's 
statements oothe subject, informs his readers that .. in the waiting-
room of Euston Square Station all the Mohammedan Negroe~ in 
Africa who ha.ve read the Koran, even once, might be most com-
fortablyaccommodated . The priests themselves cannot djstinguish 
between • mumpsimus' and • sumpsimus' when they ja.bber the 
Koran, and do not attempt to understand other Arabic books.":MS 
, 
lI!:.tury of lilt }IItrllrl-tual Df·t·rll'p~nt of Eur·.)p~. ch"p. xix. 
III Church JJiulonary Illltlli!Jrnctr, August, 1874, p. 247 
, 
72 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
We read and explained this passage to a young Mohammedan 
from the interior; his only reply to it was an outburst of up~ 
roarious laughter, and he could not, for a long time, suppress his 
merriment at what seemed to him an extraordinary la.ck of informa-
tion on the part of one of the <I people of the book, JJ as to the 
condition of things in Africa.. Not by such weapons is Africa to 
be penetrated. The work requires earnestness and accuracy of 
information. The day is past for such summary disposition of 
important and perplexing questions. All efforts which ignore the 
importance of accurate iuformation o,f  the people and the country 
must utterly fail, as being behind the times. 
Sic fa.tus senior. telumque imbelle sine ictu 
Conjecit: ro.uco quod protenus aere repulsum, 
Et summo clypei nequidquam umbone pependit.~7 
Dnly a few bours' travel {rom Sierra Leone-if be would venture 
to visit tbe coast-would take the writer of the paragraph quoted 
above to a Mohammedan towu where he would be able to count 
hundreds of Arabic volumes read and understood by their ownel·S. 
and where he would find little boys who have read the Koran 
through. 
In January, 1873, tbe present writer visited, in company, w ith 
Governor Pope Hennessy, of eierra Leone, the 1fobammedan 
Literary Institution at Billeb, on the Great Scarcies River, about 
sixty miles N .E. of Freetown; and in an interview with Fode 
TarawaHy, the venerable head of the institution, we had au oppor· 
tunityof examining his library, By order of the Gov,e rnor, the 
Arabic writer to the Government took down the names of the 
principal works. In the list submitted were the ~itles of eighty· 
nine volumes, among which we noticed the following: Commentary 
of Jelaladdin on the Koran, Commentary of BeidhalL'i, Traditions oj 
BukhaTi; Law Book, by Khalil Ishak (2 vols.); Rizalat ~f Imam, 
llIalik, Medical Treatise, Metrical Gltidc, Gramma1', Rhetoric, 
Prosody, JIakamat oj Hariri, Ancient History, &c., written by 
.-\rabs, There were also volumes of Prayers, Poetry. Rhetoric, 
History, composed by 1\landingo an(l Foulab authors. The library 
:17 Virgil's .1:.'neid, Book lI, pp. 543~545. 
Christian Missions in West A/rica. 73 
of this distinguished Sheikh, who is considered to be the most learned 
Moha..mmedan in this portion of West Ahica, embracecl well·nigb 
a ll the branches of human knowledge and research-theology I 
medicine, history, astronomy, grammar, &c. He entered into an 
interesting discussion on the respective merits of the different 
commentaries OD the Koran, and seemed to give the preference to 
Beidhawi. Among his co-religionists, complete confidence is placed 
in the exactness of his traditional information, and au all doubtful 
questions his opinion is fi:oal. Oue of his sons composed calamo 
cu,1'l"cntc, an acrostic poem in Arabic on the name of Goveruor 
HeDuessy.~ 
At a town not far from Billeh, a Foulah boy, not more than 
fourteen years old, was introduced to us as a Hafiz-one who knows 
the Koran by heart. We tried him on several long chapters, and 
he recited them verbatim, literatim, et punctu(r.tim, without the 
slightest hesitation. But be was only one of a number of such 
youths, whom we met in subsequent travels in the interior, who 
could recite Dot only the Koran, but many of the standard Arabic 
poems. Are there many youths in Christian lands who could recite 
even one book of the Bible from memory? 
Eyery traveller who enters the Mohammedan regions of West 
and Central Africa with sufficient bitsis of information to understand 
what be' sees and bears, is forced to admit that the man makes a 
great mistake who approaches the Negro Muslims with the idea 
that they are" benighted Africans." 
lIoharqrnedamsm in Africa, instead of being treated in the off-
hand and contemptuous manner adopted by some, who seem to 
have gathered all their knowledge of the religion from the Arabian. 
Nights, ought to be approached with earnestness and respect; for 
there is much in it which Christians may profitably study, and 
from which they might glean important lessons. Mr. Bosworth 
Smith remarks, in bis Lectw"es on Mohammed anll Moham-
medani:"n, that U Christians have something at least to Jearn from 
Mohammedans which will make them not less but more Christian 
:3tI See a. pa.per read by Governor Hennessy before the Society of Arts, April29, 
1873 i and Rea.de·s African S/;etch Book, "01. i, p" 312 (foot-note) . 
• 
74 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
than they were before," ~ and no ODe who bas seriously studied 
tbe subject will deny tbe trutb of tbe remark. In tb. pending 
controversy, for example, about religious and secular educa.tion~ 
Christians might profit by the exa.mple of Mohammeilan communi-
ties where the ODe involves and is inseparable (rom the other. 
Their education is religious and their religion educational. The 
example set by them in the constant and unremitting study of their 
sacred book, the Koran, is Dot unworthy of imitatioD. Sir Wilfrid 
La.wson, again, in his laudable efforts in behalf of temperance, 
might appeal to the effective Mo,h ammedan legislation on the 
subject, and gather encouragement from the practical exemplifiea· 
tion in all Mohammedan countries of the ultimate result of his 
theories. The advocates of a "beneficent Erastianism "might study 
Islam with profit. The Mohammedans have certainly attained, 
though on a lower ground, a degree of religious unity not yet wit-
nessed in the Christian Church. At all events, those who are 
engaged in missionary work in Mohammedau countries would not 
lose anything by heeding the thoughtful and common-sense advice 
of Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire :-
II y a. aujourd'hui da.n$ trois parties du monl1e plus de cent millions de 
Uussulmans, at voila douze cents ans pas!';es que lour religion regne sur uno 
bonne pa.rtie de l'Asic, de l'Afrique at(}nfme de l"Europe. A moins de t•r a.iter 
avec une h?gerete (weugle cette portion considerable de l'humanite, qui a. 
cependant t\ peu pri>s Ips m~mes idees que nous sur Dieu et sa. provil1en~e, it fa.ut 
bien prendre a.u serieux un fait aussi vaste et a.\Issi dura.blo. Le )[abometisme 
n'est pa.s pres de disparrutre , et pour faciliter les ra.pports qu'on a necessaire-
ment Mec lui, il faut tllcber do Ie eomprendre dans tout co qu'il a de \"ra.i et do 
bon, et de ne pas I'exclurc, malgr(! ses dMauts trop reels, de cettel:i.en\·eilla.nee 
uni\'cnoelle que recommande In. cba.rite Cbn!tieune.$O 
Growing out of the general misunderstanding of the people, the 
first and constant effort of the missionaries is to Europeanise them. 
without reference to their race peculiarities or the climatic 
conditions of the country, and this course has been attended with 
many serious drawba.cks, preventing any healthy or permanent 
result. The missionary, often young and inexperienced, and having 
• 
rI illohamm~d alld Moho IIIm~dani~m; prefa.cc to fir:;;t edJtioD, p. D. 
flO Mallomtl tt la Corall, p. 213. 
• 
Christiall Missiolls ill lVest Africa. 75 
no model before him but that which he has left at home, endeavours 
to bring things in his new field as nearly as possible into COIl-
formity to the old. Everything is new and strange to bim, and nearly 
everything he regards with contempt for being so un-European; 
and with the earnest vigour and sanguine temper which belong to 
youth he preaches a crusade against the harmless customs and 
prejudices of the people-superseding many customs and habits 
necessary and useful in the climate and for the people by practices 
which, however useful they might be in Europe, become, when intro-
duced indiscriminately iuto Africa, artificial, ineffective and absurd. 
The <c thin varnish of European civilisatiou," which tbe native thus 
receives, is mistaken for a genuine mental metamorphosis, when, as 
a rule, owing to the imprudent burry by which the convert's 
reformation has been brought about, his Christianity, instead of 
being pure is superstitious, instead of being genuine is only 
nominal, instead of being deep is utterly superficial, and, not having 
fairly taken root, it cannot flourish and be~ome reproductive. And 
here we cannot do better tha,u quote from the utterances of a, 
native clergyman of ability who, educated ou the coast under 
roJsslonary teaching, has felt the drawbacks of the system. He 
says:- • 
In the work of elevating Africans, foleign tea.chers have a.lwa.ys proceeded 
with ,heL') work on the assumption that the Negro or the African is in every one 
of his normal susceptibilities an inferior race, and that it is needful in every-
thing to give him a foreign model to copy; no o.ccount has been made of OUt 
peculiMities-our languages, enriched with the tra.ditions of centuries; our 
parableR, ma... ny of them the quintessence of fa.mily and na.tional histories; our 
modes of thought, influenced more or less by local circumstn.nces; our poetry 
n.nd manufactUres. which, though rude, had their own tu.les to tell; our social 
habits a.nd even the necessities of our climate. It has been forgot.ten that. 
, Europeo.n. ideas, t.astes, languages and social habits, like those of other nations, 
have been influenced more or le"s by geographical positions Bond climatic 
• 
peculiarities; &hat what is e:;teemed by one country polite, ma.y be justly 
esteemed by a.nother rude and barbs.rous; and that God does not intend 
to have t.he races confounded, but that the Negro or African should be raised 
upon his own idiosyncrasies. The result has been that we, as 0. people, think 
more of everything tha.t is foreign, a.nd less of ths.t which is purely native; ha.ve 
lost our self-respect and our love for our own race, o.re becoUle 0. sort of non-
descript people, and are, in many tbiDgs, inferior to our brethren in the interior 
countries. There is evidently a fetter upon our minds e\'en when the body is 
• 
I 
76 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
lree; mental weo.kness, even where there is physice.l strength, a.nd barrenness 
even where there n.ppears fertility .31 
Such is the able and pathetic protest of a highly inteUigent 
native, well known as a hard worker for the improvement of his 
people in the right direction . And as the natives advance in 
jntelligence and culture, they will see things more and more as 
Mr. J OhUSOD sees them; their views ou social questions will 
diverge in important particulars from those of their European 
teachers. We regret to notice that there has been an outcry, 
among some who should rejoice, against those distinctive features 
and really moral and beneficial restilts of the contact of the native 
mind with EUl'opean culture. The objectors to such deprecatory 
utterances from intelligent natives seem blind to the embarrassing 
social problems which must spring up among a distinct race from 
the new conditions. But it ought to be evident to them that there 
is no solution to be found in sneering at the aspirations and 
yearnings of the people and in scorning their I< instincts." If there 
is danger for the future of West Africa, it does not arise h'om the 
new aspect which things are assuming, and will, more and more, 
assume, among the enlightened natives, but from the insufficiency 
of the agency ~ll1ployed to cope with the new conditions and to 
direct and organise the forces eVCllved. • 
The attempt to Europeanise the Negro in Africa will alwr,ys be a 
profitless task. This is the feeling of the most a~vanced minds 
of the race. If it were possible-which, happily, it is not-to 
civilise and Christianise the whole of Africa according to the 
notions of some Europeans. neither would the people themselves • 
nor the outside world he any great gainers by it; for the African 
would then fail of the ability to perform his specific part in the 
world's work, as a distinct portion of the human race. The 
• 
warnings of history on this subject are numerous. 
Neither Greek science nor ROlUa.n culture (sa.ys the Rev_ Stopford Brooke) 
had power to spree.d beyond itseU.. . The fe.ct wa.s that Rome did not try 
to civillse in the right way. Instea.cl of drawing forth the native energies of 
11\ From a letter addressed by Hev. James J ohneon, na.tive pe.stor of Sierra 
Leone (now of Lagos), to Governor Pope Hennessy, dated December 24th, 1872, 
and published in the Ntgro newspaper, Jo.nUllIy 1, 1873. 
Christiall Missiolls ill West Aj"ica. 77 
these nations, while it left them free to develop their own na.tiona.l peculia.rities 
in their owo we.y, it imposed upon them from without the RornD.n educa.tion 
It tried to turn them into Roma.ns. Where this effort wa.! unsuccesful, the men 
remained ba.rbarous; where it wa.s successful, the nation lost its distinctive 
elements in the Roman elements. a.t leasl;, till a.£ter some centurie::; the o~e[· 
whelming influence of Rome ba.d perished. Mee.ntime they were not Britons 
nor Gauls, but spurious Romans. Tbe na.tura.l growth of the people was a rrested. 
Men living 'but of their native element beca.me stunted and spiritless, "-l 
The same mista.ke is being committed in Africa., and, probably, 
from the sa.me leading cause which is assigned by Mr. Brooke for 
the mista.ke of the Roma.ns: <I The Romans," he says, .. considered 
the barbarous ".,. estern nations incapable of culture. " 
There is a. solidarity of humanity which requires the complete 
development of each part in ordm' to the effective working of the 
whole. To make the African a parasite upon the Europeau would 
be no gain to mankiud. The problem, it appears to us, which 
the imagination, the wisdom, and tbe Christian charity of the 
missionary worla has to soh"'e is. bow to elevate the African, or 
enable him to elevate himself, according to the true Christian 
standard, upon the basis, as Mr. Johnson suggests, of "his own 
idiosyncrasies." Any progress made otherwise must be unreal . 
unsatisfa•ct ory, precarious. t11ln"itory. 
If the A1rican is a part of huma)lity. there need be no fear-if his 
progress be normal-that he will not eventually come into thorough 
harmony with the laws of huma.nity. rejecting whatever may be the 
result of any distortions or eccentricities in his individuality. \\'e 
are unwilling, for one moment, to admit the idea that Africans 
cannot acquire those trusts and com;ctions and that mOl'al and 
spiritual de\'elopment essential to human peace and guidance in 
this world, and to life everlasting in the world to come, without 
being cast in the European mould. We believe that Africans can 
attain to a knowledge of science, receive intellectual cultul'e, acquire 
skill to develop the resources of their country, and be marle If wise 
unto salva.tion," without becoming Europeans; "fol' God is no 
respecter of persons; but in every nation be that feareth Him, and 
worketh righteousness, is accep~ed with Him." 
• 
CJII'istianil)" I sla1/! and the Negro Race. 
Some of the best Buropea.n thinkers deprecate any effort to 
ca.use the African to part with his special characteristics. A distin-
guished American writer says;-
When t.he epoch of the civilisation of the Negro family anives, In the lapse 
of a.gCI!I, they will display in their no.tive land some vcry peculiar o.nrl interesting 
tr8.1t5 of chara.cter, of which we, a distinct branch of the huma.n fnmily, can at 
prescnt form no conception. It will be-indeed, it must be-a. cl\"ilisallc.n of n. 
peculiar sto.mp. perhaps. we venture to conjecture. not 80 much ili!>tinguished 
by art as a. certa.in beautiful na.ture, not so mll.rkcd or adorned by srit>llCC as 
exalted and refined by a new a.nd lovely theology-a reflection of the light of 
heaven more perfect and endearing tba.n tbo.t which the intellects of the 
Ca.uclLsia.n raco have O\'cr exhibit-cd, Tuere is morc of the child, of unsophis-
tica.ted naturc, in the Negro mcc than in the Ew·opean.' 
With this corresponds the view of Governor Pope Hennessy as 
sta.ted in his reply to Mr. Johnson's letter quoted above. He says:-
Fortunately, the injurious influences to which you refer blLl'e left almost 
untouched and uninjured tho great mllSS of your race, It is only along the 
coast tha.t the elegenemting effect is seen. Dr. Livingstone bears tebtimony to 
the high intelligence nnel honourable character of your countrymen, 8.i be has 
met thcm in the heart of Southern Ncgrola.nd. Dr. Barth and othf'rs ha.\"e 
done this for Central Nigritia.. The many chiefs and messcngers who ha\'e 
come to me from tho northern valleys of the Niger ha\'e been in thelUseh'es 
witnesses of the so.me fact. In these times, when sceptical 0.0,1 irreverent 
inquiries ha.ve become the fa.~hion in wha.t are called the leading nation! of 
Europe, it is slLti~fnctory to know tho.lyour race is distinguished by a child-like 
capacity for faith. By keeping your mee pure, you will preserve tho.t all-
important characteristic. .As a studem of hil>tory and 8. clergyman, you C&nDot 
llll,ve failed to see that mixed mces are in this respect mferior to your own.,'1 
Another drawback-and the last we shall notice at prescnt-
to the success of missions on the coast, is the pernicious example 
of European traders and other non-missionary residents, J'rom 
the time of the discovery of the Negro country by the Portuguese 
to the present., Europe has sent to the const as tra.ders some of its 
vilest chara.cters. 
They (Europeo.ns) spread themselves (;;ays 8. lea.ding a.rticle in the Tim!:, of 
December 21, 1872) o\'er the world, following everywhere the bent of thf'ir own 
nature, doing their 0\\0"'0 will, following tbelt own gam. too generally being and 
doing nothing that a Heathen will recognise ns better tbo.n himself These 
Alexo.nder KinlDont, qnoted by Dr. W. E. Channing in his Work.s, \·01. vi. 
l"4 Publisbeu ill the .\'tgro nem.paper for January I, 1873. 
ChristialL iII issiolLs in West A/rica. 79 
preach something. and ha.ye their own mischievous mission. They pree.cb 
irreligion, a.nd the views that go with it. Their gospel does its work and rea.ps 
its lruit.. 
No stoDe should be lef~ unturned (says the Sta/ldard, August 27,1874) to 
convince both Mussulma.n and Bra.hmin, Caflre a.nd New Zea.la.nder, Fa.ntee 
n.nd Asha.ntes, that Christianity is the religion of the best men whom Europe 
boa.sts of, and tha.t the leaders of scienca and philosophy, of government and 
society, profess the same flLith a.s is preached to them by the humble mis-
SIODEUY· 
The settlements along the coast where i~ has been thought fit 
to establish and keep up missionary operations are commercial sea-
ports, with all the disadvantages attaching to such localities. The 
population consists of a heterogeneous crowd-Government officials, 
itinerant mercantile agents. traders from the interior, and permanent 
native merchants, all intent upon worldly gains. ::\Iobammedans 
or Pagaus coming from the interior, and forming the larger part 
of the floating population, do not get the most favourable view of 
Christianity. But such a view as they get they carry back to their 
country. The intelligent natives of the interior with whom we ha.ve 
conversed in our tra.vels between Sierra Leone and the head-waters 
of the Niger, look, with hardly an exception, upon the religion and 
books of the white man as intended not to teach men the way to 
heaven, but how to become rich and great in this world. 
n is unIortunate for the English and other European languages 
that, in this part of Africa, they have come to the greater portion of 
the natives associated with profligacy, plunder, and cruelty, and 
devoid of any connection with spiritual things; while the Arabic is 
Tegarded bJ them as the language of prayer and devotion, of religion 
and piety, of all that is uD\'\"orldly and spiritual. 
'11he Church Missionary Society bas wisely de\~oted a great deal 
of time and money to the task of l'educlng to writing some of the 
leading languages of West and Central Africa. The indigenous 
tongues will be far more effective instruments of conveying to the 
natiYe mind the truths of the Gospel than any European language. 
The Rev. James Johnson-himself an adept in bis nati\~e tongue, 
the Aku-in a speech delivered , at a reGent meeting of the Lagos 
branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society, made the sagacious 
rema..rk that" as the African Cburch failed once in North Afcica in 
, 
80 Christianity, Islam and tile Negro Race. 
days gODe by, so it will fail again, unless we read the Bible III our 
own native tongue." M 
We need bardly mention that ODe of the most pernicious elements 
in the demoralisation of the coast tribes is ardent spirits. It is So 
very fortunate circumstance for Africa that the Mohammedans of 
the interior present so formidable and impenetrable a harrier to the 
desolating flood which, but for tbem, would sweep across the 
continent. The abstemiousness of I slam is one of its good qualities 
which we should like Africans to retain, whatever may be the future 
fortunes of that faith on this con,t inent. The Negro race, in their 
debili~ating climate, do not possess the hardihood of ~he Nor~h 
American Indian or of the New Zealander; and, under the influence 
of that apparently inseparable concomitant of European civilisation, 
they would, in a much shorter time than it has taken the last· 
named nations, reach the deplorable distinction of being II civilised 
off the face of the earth." And Mr. Galton, by a much easier 
process than be proposed, would have an opportunity of introducing 
his .. hardy and prolific Chinese" proUyes to take tbe place of the 
H lazy, palavering savages," who, according to that accomplished 
traveller, now" cumber the ground" of a whole continent.',a 
And we cannot help thinking that it would be a step in advance 
in the intercourse of European t00verumeuts with the Pagan tribes 
along the coast if their agents were discouraged in the injudicious 
practice of giving ardent spirits as presents to the chiefs-a practice 
inaugurated by Europeans in the, days of the slave trade. The 
correspondent of the Doily Neu's refers to the practice; as he 8MV 
it at Cape Coast in 1873, as follows;-
At the end of the speech (Sir Ga.rnet Wolseley's) it was announced by the 
interpreter tbn.t the" usual present" would be made to the kings. This present 
consisted of 0. certain quantity of gin, which, according to immemorial usage, 
appears, on these occasions, to have been issued to the chief!!. It would clee.rly 
not have been possible to have broken through the rule a.t that moment; but as 
meeting after meeting subsequently took place, a.t which the chiefs begged for 
more gin. one begnn to doubt the n.dvanto.ges of the system.~7 
~ Reported in the Aj,-icall l'imes, Jo.nuo.ry 1, 1876. 
:~l The Times, Jtme 5, 1873 . 
.7  As}ullItl'f' Wa,', by the Daily New, Special Correspondent; p. 52. 
Christiall .1lissiolls ill West Africa. 81 
Commodore Wilmot states in an official despatch that, during 
his visit to Dahomey, he distributed rum to the people in the way 
of" dash," 
'\"c may remark, in conclusion, tha.t, in vie'" of tbe great work to 
Le done in .\frica, and lhe innumerable hindrances thereto, it will be 
~een that a profound cOllviction of the exclusive truth of the Gospel 
and an earnest zeal for the cOD\'crsion cf souls-though necessary 
nnd indispensable-are not the only qualifications needed by the 
11llsslOuary. The Christian missionaries iu .\friea. should not only 
be well trained, highly educated, and large-minded men, hut they 
l"hould be men of imagination, logical power, and philosophic !-;pirit, 
understanding how to set most ciJectivel)' to work in cl('arin~ away 
what is really evil, in order to lay a durable foundation n.uo Neet a 
l'ermanent superstructure of good. They should be men who 
understand that it is useless to pour Dew wiDe into old bottles, and 
who will be content to prepare the soil by the rninCul and judicious 
11usbandry of years, if not of generations. 
The following weighty words of Dean Stanley nre s~lggesti"e 
ana reassuring for the future of missionary work :-
Above all, it is n!)\\ beginning to be (cit that education I;; in it;:;eif a. powerful, 
almost. illdi;;pl:nsaLlo, l'ngine, for the introduction of the Gospel. Fl'Olll time to 
hme the truth hag bl'cn recognised that Cluistia.nity dep.:-n<1s for its duo effect 
on the condition of those who recl:ivc jt. It WIUI recognised Ly Gregor) thc 
(;'[(:at. when he warned the bast.y missionary who fin;t planted it among!>t. our 
SUOD fMda.thcnI. that we move by "teps, Dot lea~. It was rccosnised by 
Innocent. III . WhCD he warned the fir:;t enmgeliscrs of Prussia tha.t. they mu!>t 
rut. ncw wine into new bottles. It was recognbed by the Moravians in thcir 
6implc phrase thal they must teach their com'erts to count the numl.l'r lhru 
hdore they ~a.ught. them the doctrine of th(' Trinity Il 
• Briti.~h and J'oreiIJl' Statt. Paptrs, 18G3-1SGi, p. ~25. 
J-' Sermon on the' Prospect of Christian :\lis.sions ' 
G 
• 
THE 
Aims and Methods of a Liberal 
Education for Africans. ' 
AC OLLEGE in Wes~ Africa, for the education of AlI-jean youtlt by African instructors, under a Christian government conducted 
by Negroes, is something so unique in the history of Christian 
civilisation, that wherever, ill the civilised world, the existence of 
such au institution is heard of, there will be curiosity ::LS to its 
character, its work, and its prospects. A college suited, in all 
respects, to the exigencies of this nation and to the needs of the 
race caunot come into existence all at once. It must be the result 
of years of experience, of trial, of experiment. 
Every thinking man will allow that all W8 have been doing in 
this country so far, whether in oo.urch, in state, or in school-our 
forms of religion, our politics, our literature, such as it is---. is only 
temporary and transitional. When we advance further into Africa,. 
and become oue with the great tribes on the continent, these things 
will take the form which the genius of the race shall prescribe. 
The civilisation of that vast population, untouched by foreign 
influence, not yet affected by Enropean habits, is not to be organised 
according to foreign patterns, but will organise itself according to 
the nature of the people anJ the country. N otbing that we are 
doing now can be absolute or permanent, because nothing is normal 
or regular. Everything is provisional or tentative. 
The College is only a machine, an instrument to assist in carry-
ing forward our regular work-devised not only for intellectual ends, 
I InEtuguroJ Ac1dress 0.5 President of Liberia. CoUege, delivered at ~Ionrovio.._ 
Jo.nuary 5, lSSI. 
Liberal Education for Africalls. 
but for social purposes, for religious duty. for patriotic aims, for 
ra.cial development; and when as an instrument, as a means, it fails, 
for any reason whatever, to fulfil its legitimate functions, it is the 
Juty of the country, as well as the interest of the country, to see 
that it is stimulated into healthful activity; or, if this is impossible. 
to see that it is set aside as a pernicious obstruction. ,Ve cannot 
afford to waste time in dealing with insoluble problems under im-
possible conditions. When the College was first founded, according 
to the generous conception of our friends abroad, they probably 
supposed that they were founding a.n institution which w"as to be at 
once complete in its appointments. and to go on working regularly 
and effectively as colleges usually do in countries where people have 
come to understand, from years of experience and trial, their inte}· 
lectual, social, and political needs, and the methods for supplying 
those needs. In their efforts to assist us to become sharers in the 
advantages of theh' civilisation, they have aimed at establishing in· 
stitutions a priori for our developrnent. That is, they have, by a. 
course of reasoning natural to them, concluded that certain methods 
and agencies which have been successful among themselves must 
be successful among Africans. They have, on general considerations, 
come to certain conclusions as to what onght to apply to us. They 
have not. perhaps, sufficiently bol-ne in mind that a college in a 
new coi.\ntry and among an inexperienced people must be, at least 
in the earlier periods of its existence, different from a college in 
an old country and among a people who understand themselves 
and their) work. But, from the little experience we bave had on 
this side of the water, we have len.rned enough to Imo'W that no 
a priori arrangements can be successfully employed in the pro· 
motion of our progress. We are aniving at the principles necessary 
for our guidanc~, through experience, through difficulties, through 
failures. The process is slow and sometimes discouraging, but, anel' 
So while, we shall reach the methods of growth that are adapted 
to our wnnts. The work of a college like ours, and aUlong a people 
like our people, must be at first ye71aatil-c. It must create a 
sentiment favourable to its existence. It must generate the intel-
lectual and moral state in the comm.unity which will gi\'e it not 
• 
84 Christia11ity, Islam alld the Neg1'o Race. 
only a congenial atmosphere in which to thrive, but food and 
uutriment for its enlargement and growth; and out of this win 
naturally come the material conditions of its success. 
Liberia College has gOlle through one stage of experience. We 
are, to-day, at the threshold of aDo~her. It has, to a great extent, 
created a public sentiment in its favour; but it has DOt yet done its 
generative work. It is now proposed to take a new departUl'e and, 
by a system of instruction more suited to the necessities of the 
country and the race-that is to say, more suited to the develop-
ment of the individuality an~ manhood of the Airican-to bring 
the institution more ,\'ithin the scope of the co-operation and 
enthusiasm of the people. It is proposed also, as soon as we can 
command the necessary means, to remove the College operations 
to an interior site. where health of body, the indispensable condition 
of health of mind, can be secured; where the students may devote 
a portion of their time to manual labour in the cultivation of the 
fertile lands which will be accessible, and thus assist in procuring 
from the soil the means for meeting a large part of the necessary 
expenses; and where access to the institution will be convenient to 
the aborigines . The work immediately before us, then, is one of 
reconstruction, and the usuaJ difficulties which attend reCOllstruc· 
tion of auy sort beset OUt' first step. The people generally are not 
yet prepared to unuerstand their own interest in the great ·. ...' ork to 
be done for themselves and their children, and the part they should 
take in it; and we shall be obliged to work for some time to come, 
not ouly without the popular sympathy ,,"h.icb \,e think our clue, 
but with utterly inadequate resources. 
This is inevitable in the present condition of our progress. All 
we can hope is that the work will go on, hampered though it may 
be, uutil, in spite of misappreciation and disparagement, there can 
be raiRed up a class of minds who will give a healthy tone to 
society, and exert an influence widespread enough to bring to the 
institution that indigenous sympathy and support without which 
it canuot thrive. It is our hope and expectation that there will 
rise up men, aided by instruction and culture in this College, im-
bued with public Spilit, who will know ho\\" to live and work and 
Liberal Education for Africans. 85 
prosper in this country, how to use all favoUl'jug outwilrd condi· 
tions, ho'w to triumph by intelligence, by tact, by industry, by 
perseverance, over the indifference of their own people, and how 
to overcome the scorn and opposition of the enemies of the race-
men who will be determined to make this nation honourable 
a.mong the nations of tbe earth. 
We ba'\e in our curriculum, adopted some years ago, a course 
of study corresponding, to SODle extent, to that pursued in European 
and American coileges. To this we shall adhere as nearly as 
possible; but experience bas already suggested, and will, no doubt, 
from time to time suggest, such modifications as are required by 
our peculiar circumstances. 
The object or all educa.tion is to secure growth and efficiency, 
to make a man all that his natura.l gifts will allow him to become; 
to produce seli-re~pect, a pl'oper appreciation of our own powers 
and of the powers of other people; to beget a fitness for one's 
sphere of life and action, and an ability to discharge the duties it 
imposes. Now, if we take these qualities as the true outcome of 
a. correct education, then everyone who is acquainted with the 
facts must admit that, as a rule, in the entire civilised world, the 
Negro, notwithstanding his two hundred years' residence with 
Christian and ciyilised races, ha~ nowhere received anything 1ike 
a COl'rict education. ~7e find bim everywhere-in the United 
States, in the West Indies, in South America-largely unable to 
cope with the responsibilities which devolve upon him. Not on ly 
is he not sought after for any position of influence in the political 
movemen•t s of those countries, but he is even denied admission to 
ecclesiastical appointments of importance. 
The Rev. Henry Venn, late Secretary of the Church Missionary 
Society, writing in 1867 to tho Bishop of Kingston, Jamaica, of the 
Negro of that island, says :-
There co.n be no doubt in the millds of those who have watched the 
progress of modern missions tha.t 0. chief CB.uae of the failure of the Jamaica 
Mission ho.s been ~hedeJicil!l1ry of Xl'gro l,achers fo), the Neyro ,.ace. 2 
, 
~ .1I~moi'·s oj Ret·. lIenry Venn, B.D., p. 215 . 
• 
86 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race . 
With regard to the same island, Bishop Courtenay, in an address 
before the American Episcopal Convention in 1874, said ;-
We ha.ve not, as yet, in In.maico., one priest of purely Africa.n race. At the 
prescnt moment no Negro in boly aldel's could comma.nd that respect in 
Jamaica. which a. white mn.u could command. 0 
Bishop Mitchinson, of Barbadoes, at the Pan-Anglican Conneil 
in LondoD, in 1878, said with regard to his diocese:-
Experience in my diocese bas ta.ught me to be mistrustful of intellectual 
gifts in the coloured race, for they do not seem gencrnJ.ly to connote sterling 
work e..nd fitness for the Christinn ministry. . . . I do not think the time 
has come, or is even neal', when th<e ranks of the clergy will be largely recruited 
In the \\' est IndIes by the Negro race. ~ 
But tbis testimony is borne not only by white people, who 
might be supposed to be influenced by prejudice; it is tbe expe-
rience also of all thinking Negroes who set themselves earnestly to 
consider the work and disqualifications of the Negro in civilised 
lauds. All along this coast, in the civilised settlements, there is a 
dissatisfaction with the results, so far, of the training of native 
Africans in Europe anti America, and even with their training on ••  
the coast under European teachers. 
The West African Reporter, of Sierra Leone, complains as 
follows :- , 
We find our children, as a. result of their foreign culture (we do nq.t say, ill 
spite of their foreign culture, but as a. rC811U of their foreign culture), aimless 
El.Ild purposelees for the race-crammed with Ew·opean formulas of thought 
ft.Ud expression so as to astonish their bewildered relati~es. Their friends 
wonder at the words of their mouth; but they wonder at other things besides 
their words. Theya.re the Polyphemus of civilisation, huge but sigtltless-cui 
lumelt ademptllm. 
This paragraph has been quoted in several American periodicals. 
The American Jlissionary, the organ of the American Missionary 
Association, in commenting, adds: II To some extent, the sa.me 
holds true of Negroes frOID the South, educated in the North, for 
work ill their old homes." The Foreign Missionary, organ of the 
, 
9 The C/lIlrcll Journal,. New York, October 29, 1874. 
4 Till Guardian, July 3, 1878. 
Liberal Education/or A/rica1ls. 
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, referring to the saUle 
paragraph, says:-
We would further add, tha.t Negroes educated anywberc out of Africo. 
labour under certain disadvantages in becoming missionaries to the Heathen of 
thei.r own mce. As jOTtigntrl, ,,'i.th foreign habits, they fa.il to exert the 
influence \\;elded by Anglo-So.:tons, We cannot hand over the eva.ngclisation 
of AfriclL to the coloured race, except so fru;t a.nd so far a.s they can be trained, 
like Bishop Crowther's men, on the soil. 
To 0. certain extent-perhaps to a very important extent-
Negroes trained on the soil of Abica have the ad\'autage of those 
trained in foreign countries; but in all, a.s a rule, the intellectual and 
moral results, thus far, have been far from satisfactory. There are 
many men of book-learning, but few, very few, of any capability-
eVt!ll few who have [ha~ amount, or that sort, of culture, which pro-
duces self-respect, confidence in one's self, and efficiency in work. 
Now, why is this? The e\il, it is considered, lies in the system and 
method of European training to wh.ich Negroes are, everywhere in 
Christian lauds, subjected, and which everywhere affects them 
unfavourably. Of a different race, different susceptibility, different 
bent of cha.racter from that of the European, they have been 
tro.ined under influences in many respects adapted only to the 
Caucasian race. Nearly all the books they read, the ,ery instru-
ments of their culture, have been)such as to force them from the 
groove which is natural to thew, where they would be strong and 
effecti\-e, without furnishing them with any avenue through which 
they may mo,e naturally and free from obstruction . Christian 
and so-ca,l led ci,ilised Negroes live, for the most part, in foreign 
countries, where they are only passive spectators of the deeds of a 
foreign race; and where, with other impressions which they 
receive from 'without, an element of doubt as to their own capacity 
and their own destiny is fa.stened upon them, and inheres in their 
intellectual t..nd social constitution. They deprecate their own 
individuality, and would escape from it if they could. And in 
countries like tlus, where they are free from the hampering 
surroundings of an a.lien race, they still read and study the books 
of foreigners, and form their iUaa of everything that man may do, 
or ought to do, according to the standard held up in those 
• 
88 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
teachings. Hence, without the physical or mental aptitude for tho 
enterprises which they are taught to admire and revere, they 
attempt to copy and imitate them, a.nd share the fate of all 
copyists and imitators. Bound to move on a lower level, they 
acquire and retain a practical inferiority I transcribing, very often, 
the faults rather than the virtues of their models. 
Besides this result of involuntary impressions, they of len re-
ceive direct teachings which are not only incompatible with, but 
destructive of, their self-respect. 
In all English-speaking countries the mind of the intelligent 
Negro child revolts against the descriptions given in elementary 
books-geographies. tl'avels, histories-of the Negro; but, though 
lle experiences an instincti ve revulsion from these caricatures and 
misrepresentations, he is obliged to continue, as he grows in rea.rs. 
to study such pernicious teachings. Arter leaving school lle finds 
the same things in newspapers, in reviews, in novels, in quasi 
scientific works; and after a while-stepe cadewlo-tbey begin to 
seem to him the propel' things to say and to feel about his race, 
and he accepts wha.t, at first, his fresh and unbiassed feelings 
naturally and indignantly repelled. Such is the effect of repetitio:1. 
Having embraced, 01' at least assented, to these errors and false-
hoods about himself, he couclu{:es that his only hope of rising in 
the scale of respectable manhood is to strive after whateve» is most 
unlike himself and most alien to his peculiar tastes. And whatever 
his literary attainments or acquired ability, he fancies that he mU3t 
grind at the mill which is provided for him, putting in the material 
furnished to his hands, bringing no contribution from his own field. 
and of course nothing comes out but what is put in. Thus he can 
never bring any real assistance to the European. He can never 
attain to that essence of progress which Mr. llerbert Spencer 
describes as difference .. and therefore. he never acquires the self-
respect or self-reliance of an independent contributor. He is not an 
independent help, ouly a subordinate help; so that the European ft!els 
tha.t he owes him no debt, and moves on in contemptuous in-
difference of the Negro, teaching him to contemn himself. 
Those who have lived in chilised communities, 'where there are 
Liberal Edllcation for Africans. 89 
different race!,il, know the disparaging views which are entertained 
of the blacks by their neighbours-a.nd often, alas! by tbemselve!=l. 
The standard of all physicai and intellectual excellencies in the 
present civilisation being the white complexion, whatever deviates 
irom that favoured colour is proportionally depreciated, until the 
black, which is the opposite, becomes not only the most unpopular 
but the most unprofitable colour. Black men, and especially black 
","omen, in such communities. experience the greatest imaginable in-
convenience. They never feel at horne. In the depth of their being 
they always feel themseh'es strangers in the land of their exile, and 
the only escape from this feeling is to escape from themselves . 
And this feeling of self-depreciation i3 not diminished, as I have 
intimated above, by the books they read. ,Yomen, especially, are 
fond of reading novels and light literature; and it is in these 
wrilings that flippant and eulogistic reference is constantly made 
to the superior physical and mental characteristics of the Caucasian 
race, whicb, by contrast, suggests tbe inferiority of other races-
especially of that race wbich is furthest removed from it III 
appearance. 
It is painful in America to see the efforts which are made by 
Negroes to secure outward conformity to the appearance of the 
dominant mce. ) 
This is by no mea.ns surprising; but what is surprising is that, 
under the circumstances, any Negro has retained a particle of self-
respect . Now in Africa, where the colour of the majority is black. 
the fashion in personal matters is naturally suggested by the 
• 
personal characteristics of the race, and we are free from the 
necessity of submitting to the use of H incongruous fe athers awk-
wardly stuck on." Still, we are held in bondage by our indis-
criminate and injudicious use of a foreign literature; and we strive 
to advance by the methods of a foreign race. In this effort we 
struggle with the odds against u~. We fight at the disadvantage 
which David would ha.ve experienced in Saul's armOUT. The 
African must advance by methods of bis own. He must possess a. 
power distinct from that of the ~uropean. It has been proved that 
he knows how to take a<1Yantage of European culture, and that 
• 
go Cl!risliallily, Islam and lite Negro Race. 
he can be benefited by it. This proof was perhaps necessary, but 
it is not sufficient. We must show that we are able to go alone, to 
carve out our own way. We must not be satisfied that, in this 
natioD, European influence shapes our polity. makes ow' laws, rules 
in our tribunals, and impregnates our social atmosphere. We 
must not suppose that the Anglo·Saxon methods are final, that 
there is nothing for us to find out for our own guidance, and that we 
have nothing to teach the 'World. There is inspiration for us also. 
\Ve must study our brethren in the interior, who know bettel' than 
we do the laws of growth,  for the race. We see among them the 
Tudiments of that which, with fair play and opportunity, will 
uevelop iuto important and effective agencies for our wOlk 'Ve 
look too much to foreigners, and are dazzled almost to blindness 
by their exploits-so as to fancy that they have exhausted the 
possibilities of humanity. In our estimation they, like Longfellow's 
lagoo, have done and can do everything better than anybody 
else :-
Never beard be an a.dventure 
But himseH had made a greater; 
Never any deed of daring, 
But himself had done a bolder 
Never a.ny marvellous story 
But himself cq:lld tell a stra.nger. 
No one ever shot a.n arrow , 
Half so fa(and high as he had ; 
Ever caught so many fishes, 
Ever killed so mnny reindeer, 
Ever tra.pped so ma.ny beaver. 
None cou1cl1'un so fast as he could; , 
None could dive so deep as be could; 
None could swim so far as he could; 
None ha.d made so rua.ny journeys; 
None had seen so ma.ny wonders, 
As this wonderful Iagoo. 
But there are possibilities before us not yet dreamed of by the 
lagoes of civilisation. Dr. Alexander Winchell, Professor in one of 
the American universities-who bas lately written a book, in the 
name of Science, in which he reproduces all the old slanders against 
• 
the Negro, and writes of the African at home as if Livingstone, 
Liberal Education for Africal/s. 91 
Eartb, Stanley and Cameron bad never written-mentions it, as 
ODe of the evidences of Negro inferiority. that in .. Liberia. be is 
indifferent to the benefits of civilisation." ~ I stand here to-day to 
justify and commend tbe Negro of Liberia-and of everywhere else 
in Africa-for rejecting with scoru, "always and every time," the 
4. benefits" of a civilisation \\""bose theories are to degraue him in the 
scale of humanity. and of which such sciolists as Dr. "'inchell are the 
exponents and representative elements. \Ve recommend. all Africans 
to treat such II benefits" with even more decided II indifference" 
than that with which the guide in Dante treated the despicable 
herd-
Non ragionam dl lor. rna guarda, c po.sso.. 
Those of us who have travelled in foreign countries, and who 
witness the general results of European influence along this coast, 
have many reason!; for misgiting<3 and reserves l:I.ud anxieties about 
European ci,;lisation for this country. Things which have been of 
great advantage to Europe may work ruin to us; and there is often 
such a striking resemblance, or such a close cOllnection between 
the bm·trul and the beneficial. that we are not always able to dis-
criminate. I have heard of a native in one of the settlements on 
the coast who, hanng grown up in the use of the simple but efficient 
remedies of the country doctors, anc,baving prospered in business, 
conceived I the idea that he must ava.il himself of the medicines he 
saw used by the European traders. Suffering from sleeplessness he 
was advised to take Dover's powders, but, in his inexperience, 
took instead an overdose of morphine, and next morning he was a 
corpse. So 've bave reason to apprehend that in our indiscriminate 
appropriations of European agencies or methods in our political, 
educational, nnd social life, we are often imbibing overdoses of 
morphine, when we fancy we are only taking Dover's powders! 
And it is for this reason, while we are anxions for immigration 
from America and desirous that the immigrants shall push as fast 
as possible into the interior, that we look with anxiety and concern 
at the difficulties and troubles which must a.rise from their miscon-
ception of the work to be done iu this country. I apprehend that 
'. Pr~·AdamlU Mal!, p. 265 . 
• 
92 Christiallity, Is/alii and the Negro Race. 
in their progress towards the interior there will be friction, irritations 
and couf:licts; and our brethren, in certain portions of the United 
States, are, at this moment, witnessing a state of things among their 
superiors which they will naturally want to reproduce in tbis 
country, and which, if reproduced here, will utterly extinguish the 
Bickering light of the Lone Star, and close forever this open door of 
Christian civilisation into Africa. 
illr. Matthew .Arnold rerniuds us" that when some one talked to 
Themistocles of au art of memory, he answered, "Teach me rather 
to forget." The full wC,aniug of this aspiration must be realised in 
the life of the Christian Negro before he can become a full man, or 
a successful worker in his eatherla.nd. 
In the prosecution of the work of a college in Americe for the 
education of Negro youth, it seems to me, lherefore, that the aim 
should be, to a great extent, to assist their power of forgetfulness-
an achie\'cment of extreme difficulty, I imagine, in that country 
where, from the very action of the surrounding atmosphere, " the 
inlerstices with which Nature has provided the human memory, 
through which many things once known pass inlo oblh;on, are kept 
constantly closed," 
In the prosecution of the work of a college for the training of 
youth in this country, the aim~' it occurs to me, should be to study 
the causes of Negro inefficiency in civilised lands; and, bO far as it 
bas resulted from the training they b8.\'e receh'ed, to enc1eavoUl' 
to avoid what we conceive to be the sinister clements in that 
training. 
In the curriculum of Liberia. College, therefore, it will be our 
aim to increase the amount of purely disciplinary agencies, and to 
reduce to its minimum the amount of those distracting influences 
to which I ba\'c referred, as hindering the proper growth of 
the race. 
The true principle of mental culture is perhaps this: to preserve 
an nccurate balance between the studies wbich.carry the mind out 
of itself, and those which recall it home again. 'When we recel''t& 
G Prd(\ce to Johnson's Lit'es of the Po<:l$, 
Liberal Edllcatioll for £lfricalls. 93 
impressions from without we must bring from our owu conscious-
ness the idea that gives them sbape; we must mould them by our 
own individuality. Now, in looking over the whole civilised world 
I see DO plac~ where this sort of culture for the Negro can be better 
secured than in Liberia-wbere he may, with less interruption from 
surrounding influences, fino out his place and his work, develop bis 
peculiar gifts and powers; and for the training of Negro youth 
upon the basis of their own idiosyncracy I with a sense of race-
iudividuality, self-respect, and liberty. there is DO institution so well 
adapted as Liberia College with its Negro faculty and Negro 
students. 
\Ve are oCten told of the advantages which students of the 
African race are enjoying in the institutions established for their 
training in America; but listen to the testimony of Dr, '\Yinchell 
with regard to the position of the students in one of the best of 
them, namely, ~lsk University, Nashville, Tennessee, He says:-
I bo.vc somt:times, when visiting Fisk Uoi\'ersity at No.sbville, looked with 
admiro.tion a.t some magnificently formed heo.ds which are there working, 
under 0.11 tlJe discoID'agements of socia.! repression, for knowledge, culture, s.nd 
high respectabiUty, My sJlllpathics ba.ve beeu deeply mo\'cd o.t the evidences 
of their eanlestness and conscious strength. coupled with a keen a.nd crushing 
rerceptioD of the weight of the social bllrn which theil' race brings UPOD them, 
1 will not refro.in from exptessi.og here the hope tba.t such ca.ses ma.y receive 
e\'ery encouragement a.nd mark of appreciat!on. 7 
This testimony, corning from one who is ostentatiously anti-
Negro, is peculiarly striking; but one is amused at the na'ivettJ 
exhibited in the expressioll of the" hope" reconled in the last 
sentence by '). man who has assailed the Negro with every weapon 
of antipatlry which could be drawn from his imagination, and is 
doing all in his po~er to swell the N egrophobic literature, a.nd to 
intensify a public sentiment sufficiently hostile to that class of 
people. 
It has always been to me, let me sa.y in passing, a matter of 
surprise tha.t there should be found white men who-in spite of this 
anti-Negro literature, with the Notts and Gliddons and ,Vinchells 
and Bakers to instruct them, with the prophets of iU on every haud 
"1 p,'I!-Jdalllite JIan, p. 182 tnote) . 
• 
94 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
-are still wilJing and ready to give their means and their time and 
their labour for the promotion of the intellectual training of such a. 
race. It is astonishing, not that 50 little money is spent on Alrican 
education, but that any at all is spent by men who, from their 
childhood, have been imbibing from the books they read, and from 
their surroundings, sentiments of disparagement and distrust of the 
possibilities of the African race. 
,Ye may conclude, then, that there is no field so well adapted 
for the work of Negro training as Liberia; and it must be our aim 
to bring Liberia CoUege ,up to the work to be done in tills peculiar 
and interesting field. Now, what is the COUl'se to be adopted in the 
education of youth in tills College? 
I have endeavoured to give careful consideration to this im-
pOl'tant subject; and I propose now to sketch the outlines of a. 
programme for the education of the studen.ts in Liberia College, 
and, I may venture to add, of the Negro youth everywhere in Africa 
who hope to take a leading part in the work of the race a.nd of the 
country. I will premise that, generally, in the teaching of Ollr 
youth, far more is made of the importance of imparting information 
than of training the mind. Their minds are too much taken 
possession of by mere information drawn from European sources. 
Lord Bacon says that .. r&ading makes a full man;" but the 
indiscriminate reading by the Negro of European literature has 
made him, in many instances, too full, 01' has rather destroyed his 
balance. "The value of a cargo," says Huxley, fC does not com-
pensate for a ship being out of trim ;" and the amount o,f  knowledge 
that a man has does not secure his usefulness if he bas so taken it 
in that he is lop-sided. 
We shall devote attention principally. both for mental discipline 
and information, to the eadieI' epochs of the world's history. It is 
decided that there are five or six leading epochs ill the history of 
civilisation. I am following Mr. Frederic Harrison's classification. 
First, there was the great permanent, stationary system of human 
society, held together by a religious belief, 01' by social custom 
growing out of that belief. Thic. has been called the Theocratic 
state of society. The type of that phase of cirilisatioll was the old 
Liberal Education f or Africans. 95 
Eastern empires. The second great type was the Greek Age of 
intellectual activity and civic freedom. Next came the Roman 
type of civilisation, au age of empire, of conquest, of consolidation 
of nations, of law and goyernment. The fourth great system was 
the phase of civilisation which prevailed from the fall of the Roman 
Empil'e until comparatively modern times, and was called the 
hledireval Age, when the Church and Feudalism existed side by side. 
The fifth phase of history was that which began with the breaking-
up of the power of the Church on the ODe side, and of feudalism on 
the other-the fouudation of modern history, or the J\ifoderu Age. 
That system bas continued down to the present; but, if sub-
divided, it would form the sixth type, which is the Age since the 
French Revolution-the Age of social and popular development, 
al modern science and industry. 
We shall permit in our curriculum the unrestricted study of the 
first four epochs, but especially the second, third and fourth, from 
which the present civilisation of 'Western Europe is mainly derived. 
There bas been DO period of history morc full of suggestive energy. 
both pbysical and intellectual, than those epochs. Modern Europe 
boasts of its period of intellectual activity. but none can equal, for 
life and freshness, the Greek and Roman prime. No model'll writers 
will ever influence the destiny of tho! race to the same extent that 
the Greekt. and Romans have done. 
"Te can afford to exclude, then, as subjects of study, at least in 
the earlier college years, the events of the fifth and sixth epochs, 
and the works which, in large numbers, have been written during 
those epochs. I know that during these periods SOUle of the 
greatest works of human genius have been composed. I know that 
Shakespeare and Milton, Gibbon and Macaulay. Hallam and Lecky. 
Froude, StuLbs and Green, belong to these periods. It is Dot in 
my power, even if I had the will, to disparage the works of these 
masters; but what I wish to say is, that these are Dot the works 011 
which the mind of the youthful African should be trained. It was 
during the sixth period that the transatlantic slave-trade arose, and 
those theories-theological, social,. and political~were invented for 
the degradation and proscription of the Negro. This epoch con· 
• 
96 Christianity, Islam a.ld tlte Negro Race . 
tinues to this dfl.Y. and has an abundant literature anu a prolific 
<1utbol'srup. It bas produced that whole tribe of declamatory 
Negrophobists, whose views, in spite of their emptiness and imper-
tinence, are baving their effect upon the epbemeral literature of 
the day-a literature whicb is shaping the life of the Negro in 
Christian lands. His whole theol'Y of life, quite contrary to what 
his nature intends, is being influenced, consciously and uncon-
sciously, by the general conceptions of his race entertained by the 
manufacturers of this literatm-e-a great portion of which, made 
for to-day, will not survive the next generation. 
I admit that in this period there have been able defences of the 
race written, but they have all been in the patrouising or apolo-
getic tone-in the spirit of that good-natured man who assured the 
world Ihat-
Fleecy locks and dark complexion 
Cannot forfeit Nn.ture's claim. 
POOl' Phillis Wheatly, a native African educated in America, in 
her attempts at poetry is made to say, in what her biographer calls 
" spirited lines "-
Remember, Christian, Negroes, black as Cain, 
Uay be refined, and join the angelic tra,iu. 
The arguments of 'Wilberforce, the eloquence 01 "r endell Phillips, 
the l)athos of Uncle Tom's Cabin, are all in the same strain-that 
Negroes have souls to save just as white men have, aUtl that the 
strength of nature's claim is not impaireu by their complexion and 
hair. \Ve surely cannot indulge, with the same feelings of exul,ta-
tion that the Englishman or American experiences, ilt the prou(l 
boast thal-
We Bl,enk the language Shakespeare spoke, 
The fa.ith anel mornls hold which :Milton heW; 
for that It language," in some of its finest utterances, patronises 
and apologises for us, and that <l faith" has been hitherto power-
less to save us from proscription and insult. 
It is true that culture is one, and the general effects of true 
culture are the same; but the na~ive capacities of mankind differ, 
• • 
n.nd their wOl'k and destiny differ) so that the road by which one 
Liberal Edllcation for Africalls. 97 
man may attain to the highest efficiency, is not that which would 
conduce to the success of another. The speciall'oad which has led 
to the success and elevation of the Anglo-Saxon is not that which 
would lead to the success and elevation of the Negro, though we 
shalll'esort to the same means of general culture which has enabled 
the Anglo-Saxon to find out for himself the way in which he ought 
to go. 
The instruments of culture which we shall employ in the College 
will be chiefly the Classics and MaLhematics. By Classics I Dlean 
the Greek and Latin languages and their literature. In those 
languages there is not, as far as I know, a sentence, a word, 01' a 
syUable disparaging to the Negro. He LOa)' get nourishment from 
them without taking in any race-poison. They will perform no 
sinister work upon his consciousness, and give no unholy bias to 
his inclinations." 
II I ha.ve noliiced a few lines in a. poem, by some, a.ttributed to Virgil, de· 
scribing a. Negress of the lower class, which a.re ma.de to do duty on all occa.siolls 
when the modem traducers of the Negro would draw countena.nce for thei r 
theones from the cla.ssical writers; but similar descriptions of tbe lower European 
ra.ces abound in t.heir own literature. The lines are the following, used by 
Nott a.nd Gliddon, and recently quoted by Dr. Winchell;-
• 
, Inlerdum clamal C,balen; ernt unica tustos; Atn. geIlUll, tola palriam leslaute bgum ; 
Torl!!. eomam, Jabroque tumeDII. et fusca coiorem, 
Pectore iaUl, jacell~ malumia, eompressior ail'o, 
Ororibull wis, SlJau06a Prodilill plauta: 
Contiouis riroiB calfll.uca 6ei>;aa rigebant 
, 
preaDwhile be cails Cybale. She was hiS only (house) keeper. Airican by 
race , her wbole figure attesting her fa.therland; with crisped hair, swcllmg lip, 
and dll.tk complexion; broad in chest, with pendant dugs a.nd very contra.cted 
a.bdomen; with spindle shanks and b1'ooo enormous feet; her lacerated heels 
wer(l rigid with continuous cracks.~ 
But hea.r bow Homer, Virgil's superior and model, sings the prOolses of the 
Negro Eurybntes, who signalised himself a.t tbe siege of Troy;-
A. reverend beralll in his tmin I knew, 
Of viB&g1! solemn, !lJ\d, but .able hUI!. 
Sbort ><'00[111 cu~l. o'er-fleeced bu. bending helld, 
O'er which a llrowontory ,,~ou.lder ~llread; 
Elll'Jb&tes, in whOlie large soul aloue, 
UJyues viewed an imase of ilia 011'0. 
H 
• 
98 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
The present civilisation of Europe is greatly indebted to the 
influence of the rich inheritance left by the civilisations of Greece 
and Rome. It is impossible to imagine what would be the COD-
dition of Europe but for the influence of the so-called dead 
languages and the treasures they contain. 
Had the Western World been left to itself in Chinese isolation, sa.ys 
Professor Huxley, there is no sa.ying how long that state of things might ha.ve 
endured; but ha.ppily it was not leH to itself. Even ea.rlier tha.n the 13th 
century the development of Moorish civilisat·ion in Spain, a.nd the movement of 
the Crusa.des, had introduced the leEl.ven which from tha.t. da.y to this has never 
cea.sed to work. At first, through the intermedia.tion of Ara.bic transla.tions. 
afterwards by the study of t'he origina.ls, the Western nations of Europe beca.me 
a.cqua.in~ed with the writings of the ancient philosophers and poets, a.nd, in time. 
with the whole of the vast literature of antiquity, Whatever there was of higb 
intellectual aspiration or dominant capacity , in Haly, FrtlJlce, Germany and 
England, spent itself for centuries in taking possession of the rich inheritance 
leU by the dead civilisations of Greece a.nd Rome. Marvellously a.ided by the 
invention of printing, classical learning spread a.nd flourished. Those who 
possessed it prided themselves on having atta.ined the highest culture then 
within the reach of mankind.D 
Passing over, then, for a cedain time, the current literature of 
"Western Europe, which is, after all, derived and secondary, we will 
resort to the fountain bead; and in the study of the great masters, 
in the languages in which they wrote, we sha.ll get the required 
mental discipline without ut.'favourably affecting our sense of race 
individuality or our own self,respect. There is nothing that we 
need to know for the work of building up this country, in its moral, 
political and religious cha.racter, which we may not learn from the 
ancients. There is nothing in the domain of literature, philosophy, 
or religion for which we need be dependent upon the moderns. 
Law and philosophy we may get from the Romans and the Greeks, 
religion hom the Hebrews. 
Even Europeans, advanced a.s they are, are every day devoting 
more and more attention to the Classics. A very recent WI'iter 
remarks :-
We have not dOlle with the H ellenes yet, in spite of all the la.bour spent and 
all the books written on them, a.nd their literature bequee.thed to us. It h as 
:J Inaugural Address at the opening of Mason Science College, Bhmingha.m. 
September, 1880. 
Liberal Education/or rI/l'icalls. 99 
indeed, been said tha.t we know nearly as much about the Greeks and Romans 
as we shaJ.l ever know; but tbis CtUl ocJy be irue of the mass of facts, to WhiCh, 
without some new disco\"eries, we a.re not likely to add grea.t1y. It is not tn the 
least true III rega.rd to the significance of H ellenic history and litera.ture. 
Beyond n.nd a.bo'-e the vo.riOUl> interpretations placed by different ages upon the 
grea.t writers a.£ Greece, lies the mea.ning which longer experience and more 
improved methods of criticism, and the test of time declare, to be the true one. 
From this point of \;ew, much rema.ins, and will long rema.m, to be clone. 
whether we look to the work of the schola.r or to the i.n1luence of Hellenic 
thought on civilisa.tion. We ha.ve not yet found all the scattered limbs of 
Truth: it ma.r be that we a.re only commencing the sca.rch .. . The Gorgla, 
of Plalo and the Ethic! o[ Aristotle are more va.lua.ble tha.n modem books on the 
sa.me subjects, for the simple reason tha.t they u.re nearer the beginning. They 
haye a. greater freshness, and appeaJ more directly to the growing mind. 10 
II we turn to Borne, we find equal instruction in all the elements 
of a correct and prosperous nationality. .. The education of the 
world in the principles of a sound jurisprudence." says Dean 
Merivale, .. was the most wonderful work of the Roman conquerors. 
It was complete, it was universal; and in permanence it has far 
outlasted at least, in its distinct results-the duration of the 
empire itseU. ' 
"As supernatural wisdom came from God through the mouths 
of the prophets," said St. Augustine, "so also natural wisdom, 
social justice, came from the same God through the mouth of the 
Roman legislators," U [Leges Romallolumdivinttus per ora prineiplt11/, 
cmanarwlt. ) 
Roman civilisa.t.ion produced not only arcat men but !Jood men, of high \'leW8 
of huma.n life and huma.a responsibility, with a. high standard of wbat men 
ought to aim a.t, with a. high belief of what they ought to do And it not only 
produced indi~idua.ls, it produced a. atrong and perma.nent force of sentiment, 
It produced a. eha.racter shu.rec1 very unequally e.mong the people, but powerful 
enough to determine the cour"e of history .. Ccrtalnly, in no people wlueh 
the world has cver seen ha.s the sense of public duty been keener or stronger 
than in Rome, or ha.s lived on with unimpaired vitality through grea.t ehn.nges 
for a. longer time. .. Its ea.r1y legends dwelt upon the strn.nge and terrible 
sa.erifices which supreme loyalty to the commonwealth had ena.ct.ed anu 
obta.ined without a. murmur from her sons. They told of a. lounder of Homa.n 
freedom dooming his two young sons to the IUC for having tampered with a. con-
spira.ey agaiu':>t the statc. o[ grea~ men resigning office because they bore a. 
10 JId!tIIica; edited by Evelyn Abbott., :M A ,LL.D.-London, 1880. 
II Quoted by Pi:rc Hya.cinthe in the Ninetcenth Ctllillry, Februa.ry, 1880 . 
• 
100 Christianity, Islam and the Neg'Yo Race , 
da.ngerous name, or pulling down their own houses beca.use too grea.t for priva.te 
citizens; of soldiers, to whos:e deo..th fa.te bad bound victory, solemnly devoting 
themselves to die, or lea.ping into the gulf which would only close on a. living 
vict.im; of a. grea.t; family purchasing peace in civil troubles by lea.ving the city 
a.nd turning their energy into So foreIgn wa.r in wbich they perisbed; of the 
ca.pti\'e general who advised his countl1'men to send him ba.ck to certain torture 
a.nd dea.th, ra.ther tho.n gra.nt the terms he was commissioned to propose a.s the 
price of his relea.se. Whatever we may think of these stories, they show what 
was in the mind of those who told a.nd repea.ted them; a.nd they continued to 
be the accredited types and models of Roma.n conduct throughout Roman 
history.l~ 
It is our purpose ~o cultivate the study of the languages of the 
two great' peoples to whom I have referred as among the most 
effective instruments of intellectual discipline . 
A great deal of misapprehension prevails in the popular mind as 
to the utility, in a liberal education, of the so-called dead languages, 
and many fancy that the time devoted to their study is time lost; 
but let it be understood that their study is not pursued merely for 
the information they impart. If information were ail, it would be 
far more useful to learn the French and German, or any other of 
the modern languages, dUl'ing the time devoted to Greek and Latin; 
but what is gained by the study of the ancient languages is that 
strengthening and disciplining of the mind which enables the 
student in after lile to lay ho;d of, and, with comparatively little 
difficulty, to master, any business to which he may tUl'n his.attention. 
A recent scholarly and experienced writer says on tills subject :-
E,'eu if it were conceiva.ble tha.t a. youth should entirely forget all the facts, 
pictures, a.nd ideas he bad lea.rned from the Classics, together with all the rules 
of the Greek n.n.d Latin gra.mrnl1l', his mind would sWI, as an t.Ustruwent, be 
superior to that of every one who has not passed through the same tmining. 
Nay, even the youth who was always last in his class, aDd who dozed out his 
nine years on the benches of a classica.l school, only hn.lf a.ttentive to his 
teacher, and not doing ha.lf his tasks-even he will surpa.ss, in mental mobility, 
the most diligent scholar who has been taught only the modem languages and a. 
quantity of spechLI and disconnected h."1lowledge, One of tbe first ba.n.kers in a. 
foreign c&pital, lately told me that, in the course of a. yeM he had given some 
trurty clerks, who had been educated ex-pressly for commerce in commercis.i 
schools, a. trial in his offices, and was not able to make use of a. single one of 
them; while those who came from the German schools (and ha.d studied the 
19 Till' Gifts oj Civilisation; by DeM Church.-New edition. London, 1880. 
Liberal EdllcaticIL for fifrica1ls. 101 
Olassics). although they knew nothing whll.te'er of business matters to begin 
with, soon made themselve~ perfect masters of them,lS 
The study of the Classics also lays the foundation for the suc-
cessful pursuit of scientific knowledge. It so stimulates the mind 
that it arouses the student's interest in all problems of science. It 
is a matter of history that the scientific study of Nature followed 
jmmediately after the revival of classical learning. 
But we shall also study Mathematics. These, as instruments of 
culture, are everywhere applicable.. A course of A1gebra, Geometry. 
and Higher Mathematics must accompany, step by step, classical 
studies. Neither of these means of discipline can be omitted 
without loss. The qualities which make a man succeed in master· 
ing the Classics and Mathematics are also those which qualify him 
for the practical work of life. Care, industry, judgment, tact, are 
the elements of success anywhere a.nd everywhere. The training 
and discipline, the patience and endurance, to which each man 
must submit in order to success; the resolution which relaxes no 
effort, but fights the hardest wben difficulties are to be surmounted 
-these are qualities which boys go to school to cultivate, and these 
they acquire, in a greater or less degree, by a successful study of 
Classics and Mathematics. The boy who shirks these studies, Or 
retires from his class because be i unwilling to contend with tbe 
difficulti86 they involve, lacks those qualities which make a 
successful and influential character. 
It will be our aim to introduce into our curriculum also the 
Arabic, and some of the principal native languages-by means of 
'\-,"hicb we • may have intelligent intercourse with the millions 
accessible to us in tbe interior, a.nd learn more of our own country. 
We bave young men who are experts in the geography and customs 
of foreign countries; who can tell all about tbe proceedings of 
foreign statesmen in countries thousands of miles away; can talk 
glibly of London, Berlin, Paris, and \\'asbington; know all about 
Gladstone, Bismark, Gambetta, and Hayes ; but who knows any· 
thing about lfusabdu, Medina, Kallkan, or Sego-only a few bun· 
• 
13 Karl Hiltebrll.nd in Contemporary RcL'itlQ. August, 1880 . 
• 
I02 Christianity, Islam and tlte Negro Race. 
elred mile. from us ? Who can tell anything of the policy or doings 
of Fanfi-doreb. Ibl'abima Sissi, or Fahqueh-queh, or Simaro of 
Boporu-only a few steps from us? These are hardly known. Now 
as Negroes, allied in blood and race to these people, this is disgrace-
ful; and as a natioll, if we intend to grow and prosper in this 
country. it is impolitic. it is short-sighted, it is unpatriotic; but it 
bas required time for us to grow up to these ideas, to understand 
our position in this country. In order to accelerate our future 
progress, and to give to the advance we make the element of per-
manence, it will he our aim in the College to produce men of ability. 
Ability or capability is the power to t:.se with effect the instruments 
in our hands. The bad workman complains of his tools; but, even 
when he is satisfied with the excellence of his tools, he cannot pro-
duce the results which an able workman will produce, even with 
indifferent tools. 
If a man bas the learning of Solomon, but, for some reason, 
either in himself or his surroundings, cannot bring his learning 
into useful application, that man is lacking in ability. Now what 
we desire to do is to produce ability in our youth; and whenever 
we find a youth, however brilliant in his powers of acquisiUon, who 
lacks common sense, and who, in other respects, gives evidence of 
the absence of those qualities Vlhich enable a man to use his know-
ledge for the benefit of bis country and his fellow-manl' we shall 
advise him to give up books and betake himseU to other walks of 
life. A man without common sense, without tact, as a mechanic 
or agriculturist or trader, can do far less harm to the public than 
the man without common sense who bas had the opportunity of 
becoming, and has had the reputation of being, a scholar. 
I trust that arrangements will be made by which girls of 
our country may be admitted to share in the advantages of this 
College. I canuot see why our sisters should not receive exactly 
the same general culture as we do. I think that the progress of 
the country will be more rapid and permanent when the girls 
receive the same general training as the boys; and our women, 
besides being able to appreciate the intellectual labours of their 
husbands and brothers, will be able also to share in the pleasures 
Liberal Education for Africalls. !O3 
of intellect.ual pursuits. We need not fear that they will be less 
graceful, less natural, or less womanly; but we may be Sill"e that 
they will make wiser mothers, more appreciative wives, and more 
affectionate sisters. And here it affords me pleasure to extend, all 
behalf of the few educators in Liberia, and of the public generally, 
a hearty welcome to a. lady just come [rom America, the daughter of 
a distjnguished leader of the race, who has come to assist in the 
great work of female education, and who honours us with bel' 
presence on this occasionY 
In the religious work of the College, the Bible will be our text-
book, the Bible without note or comment-especially as we 
propose to study the originalla.llguage in which the New Testament 
was written; and we may find opportunity, in connection with the 
Arabic, to study the Old Testament. The teachings of Christianity 
are of nniversal appHcation. "Other foundation can no man lay 
than that which is laid." The great truths of the Sermon on the 
Mount are as universally accepted as Euclid's axioms. The mean· 
iog of the Good Samaritan is as certain as that of the forty-seventh 
proposition, and a great deal plainer. 
Christianity is not only not a local religion, but it has adapted 
itself to the people wherever it bas gone. No language or social 
existence has been any barriel' to it.1 and I have often thought that 
in this oouutry it will acquire wider power, deeper influence, and 
become instinct with a higher vitality than anywhere else. When 
we look at the treatment which our own race and other so-called 
inferior races have received from Christian nations, we cannot but 
be struck ~th the amazing dissimilitude and disproportion between 
the original idea of Christianity, as expressed by Christ, and the 
practice of it by his professed followers . 
The sword of the conqueror and the cries of the conquered have 
attended or preceded the introduction of this faith wherever carried 
by Europeans, and some of the most enlightened minds have 
sanctioned the subjugation of weaker races-the triumph of Might 
over Right-that the empire of civilisation might be extended; but 
• 
Mrs. Mary Garnet Barboza. . 
• 
104 Christianity, Islallt and tlie Negro Race. 
these facts do Dot affect tbe essential principles of the religion. 
We must gather its doctrines DOt from the examples of SOlDe of its 
adherents but from the sacred records. But even as exemplified in 
human action, notwithstanding the drawbacks to which I have 
referred-
It has so mani1ested its superiority, say!! Dr. Peabody, in beneficent 
a.ction, to aJl the ollier working forces of the world combined, tha.t the 
e:\.-perimentai evidence for it under this head is oppressive e.nd unmanage-
a.ble from its multiplicity and iulness. . , . It is in the exclusively 
Christian elements that the grea.t workers of the last eighteen centuries ha.ve 
beell of one minC\ and beart. No matter wha.t their sphere of Ia.hour, wherever 
we see pre-eminent e.bilit.y a.nd success in a. life-work worth performing. we find 
but the reproduction of the specifica.lly Christian elements of St. Paul's energy, 
a. spirit profoundly moved In gra.terul sympathy with a loving suffering Redeemer, 
a. strong emotional recognition of human brotherhood, and a. merging of self in 
the sense of a mission n.nd a charge from God ... . If you were to take away 
Christian work and workers from the world, and destroy hhe veshiges of whn.t has 
been wrought in Christ's name, I doubt whether those who now reject or uespise 
the Gospel would think the world any longer worth living in.1~ 
Now this is the influence which is to work that great reformation 
in our land for which we hope. This is the influence which is to 
leaven the whole country and to become the principle of the llew 
civilisation which we believe is to be developed all this continent. 
It has already produced impodant changes, notwithstanding its 
slow and irregular growth, llot,~thstanding the apparent scantiness 
and meagreness of its visible fruits; and it shall be the aiiu of this 
College to work in the spirit of the great Master who was manifested 
as an example of self-sacrifice to the higbest truth and the highest 
good-that spirit which excluded none from his conv€':rse, which 
kept company with publicans and sinners that he might benefit 
them, which went anywhere and everywhere to seek and to sale 
that which is lost. We will study to cultivate whatsoever tbings 
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are pure, wbatsoevel' things are lovely, what· 
soever things a.re of good report. If there be a.ny virtue, and if 
there be any praise, we will endeavour to think on these things_ 
16 Christianit!l and BeloW'!, by Andrew P. Pen.body, D.D., LL.D.-Ne\v 
York, 1875. 
Liberal Educatioll for Africalls. 105 
Om' fathers have borne testimony to the surrounding H ea.then of 
the va.lue and superiOlity of Cbris~ianity. They endeavoured to 
accomplish what they saw ought to be accomplished; a.nd, according 
to the light within them, fought against wrong and Mserterl. the 
right. Let us not dwell too mucb au the mistakes of the past. 
Let us be thankful for what of good bas been done, and let us do 
better if we can. ,Ye, like our predecessors, are only frail and im· 
perfect beings, feelers after truth. Otbers, let us hope, will come 
by-n.nd·bye and do better than we-efface our errors and correct our 
mistakes, see truths clearly 'which we now see but dimly, and truths 
dimly which we do not see at all. The true ideal, the proper work 
of the race, wiJI grow brighter and more distinct as we advance 
in culture. 
Nor can we be assisted in our work by looking back and 
denouncing the deeds of the oppressors of our fathers. by pcr-
petuating race antagonism. It is natural, perhaps, that we should 
at times feel indignation in view of past iujustice , but continually 
dwelling upon it will not help us. It is neither edifying nor 
dignified to be forever declaiming about the wrongs of the race. 
Lord Beaconsfield once said in the House of Commons that Irish 
members were too much in the habit of clanking their chains 
on rising to speak. Snch a. ha.bit?, when it ceases to excite pity, 
begets contempt and ridicule. "'bat we need is wider and deeper 
culture, more intimate intercourse with our inferior brethren, more 
energetic advance to the healthy regions. 
As thos.,e  who have suffered affliction in a foreign land, we bM'e 
no antecedents from whicL to gather inspiration . 
All our traditions and experiences are connected with a foreign 
race. We have no poetry or philosophy but that of ow' taskmasters. 
The songs that live in OUl' ears and are often on our lips are the 
songs which we heard suog by those who shouted while we groaned 
aod lamented. They sang of their history, which was the history 
of our degradation. They recited their triumphs, which contained 
the record of our humiliation. To our great misfortune, we learned 
their prejudices and their passions. and thought we had their 
aspirations and their power. Now. if we are to make an independent 
• 
106 Christiallily, Islam and lite Negro Race. 
nation-a. strong nation-we must listen to the songs of our 
unsophisticated brethren as they sing of their history. as they tell 
of their traditions, of the wonderful and mysterious events of their 
tribal or national life, of the achievements of what we call their 
superstitions; we must lend a ready ear to the ditties of the Kroomen 
who pull our boats, of the Pesseh and Golab men, who till our 
farms; we must read the compositions, rude as we may think them, 
of the Mandingoes and the Yeys. We shall in this way get back 
the strength of the race, like the gia.nt of the ancients, who always 
gained strength, fo~' his conflict with Hercules, whenever he touched 
his Mother Earth. 
And this is why we want the College away !rom the seaboard-
with its constan~ intercourse with foreign manners and low foreign 
ideas-that we ma.y ha\"e free and uninterrupted intercourse with 
the intelligent among the tribes of the interior. that the students, 
even from the books to which they will be allowed access. may 
conveniently flee to the forests and fields of Manding and the 
Niger, and mingle with our brethren and gather Cresh inspiration 
and Cresh and living ideas. 
It is the complaint of the intelligent Negro in A.merics. that the 
white people pay no attention to his suggestions or his writings; 
but this is only because be hast nothing new to say-nothing that 
they have not said before him, and tba~ they cannot SfJY better 
than he can. Let us depend upon it, that the eUlotions and thoughts 
which are natural to us command the curiosity and respect of otht:rs 
far more than the showy display of any mere acquisitions which we 
have derived [rom them, and which they know depend more upon 
our memory than upon any real capacity. "'''bat we must follow is 
all that concel'l1s om' individual growth. Let us do our own work 
and we shall be strong and worthy of respect; try to do the work of 
others, and we shall be weak and contemptible. There is mag-
netism in original action, in sell-trust, which others cannot resist. 
I think we mistake the meaning of the lines of the poet which are 
so often quoted-
Li\'es of great men all remind us 
"'e co.n mo.ke our"lives sublime. 
And, depa.rting, lea.ve behi.nd us 
Footprints on the undo of time. 
Liberal Education for Africans. 107 
How shall we ma.ke our" lives sublime '.? Not by imitating 
others, but by doing well OUf own pa.rt as they did theirs. We are 
to study the footprints" that when we are" forlorn," or have been 
II shipwrecked," we may" take heart again;" not to put our O'\\,O 
feet in the impressions previously made, for by so doing we should 
be compelled at times to lengthen, and a.t times to shorten our 
pace-sometimes to make the strides of Hiawatha, and sometimes 
to crawl-and thus not only cut a most ungainly figw'e, but 
a.ccomplish nothing. either for ourselves or the world. 
Whilst I rcad the poets, sa.rs Emerson, I tlunk that nothing new ca.n 
be said about. morning I\nd evening; but when 1 see the dR.y bree.k, I e.m not 
reminded of these Homeric or Sha.kespearian or Miltonic or Chauccdan pictures. 
No, but I am cheered by the moist., warm, glit.tering, budding, melodious hour, 
that takes down the narrow walls of my soul. and extends its life and pulsation 
to the very horizon. That is morning-to cease for a bright hour to be a prisoner 
of the sickly body, and to become as la.rge a.s N a.tnre, 
We have a great work before us, a work unique in the history 
of the world, which others who appreciate its vastness and import-
ance, envy us the privilege of doing. The world is looking at this 
Republic to see whether II order and law, religion and morality, 
the rights of conscience, the rights of persons and the rights of 
property," may all be secured and preserved by a government 
administered entirely by Negroes. ;, 
Let u~ show ourselves equal to the task. 
The time is past when we can be content with putting forth 
elaborate arguments to prove our equality with foreign races. 
Those who dO\lbt our capacity are more likely to be convinced of 
their error' by the exhibition, on our part, of those qua.lities of 
energy and enterprise which will ena.ble us to occupy the extensive 
field before us [or OUl' own advantage and the advantage of 
humanity-for the pW'poses of civilisation, of science, of good 
government, and of progress generally-than by any mere abstract 
argument about the equality of races. The suspicions disparaging 
to us will be dissipated only by the exhibition of the indisputable 
realities of a lofty manhood as they may be illustrated in successful 
efforts to build up a nation, to W3;est from Nature her secrets, to lead 
the van of progress in this country, and to regenerate a continent . 
• 
The Origin and Purpose of 
African Colonisation. ' 
• 
THERE is not a thinking being, whatever his religious belief, who does not recognise the fact that everytbing in the 
pbysical and moral world proceeds according to some plan or 
order; that some subtle law, call it by whatever name you please, 
underlies and regulates the movements of the stars in their courses 
and the sparrows in their fiight. It is also the belief of all healthy 
minds that that iaw or influence is always tending towards the 
higbest and best resuJts; that its prerogative and design are to 
make darkne~s light, crooked things straight, and rough places 
smooth; or, in the misty phra~~ology of modern criticism, it is the 
"Eternal, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness "-that its 
fiats are irrevocable and their outcome inevitable. With this under-
standing, men are now constructing the science of History, the 
science of Language, the science of Religion, the science of Society, 
• 
formulating dogmas to set aside dogma, and consoling' themselves 
that they are moving to a higher level and solving the problems of 
the Ages. 
Among the conclusions to which study and research are con-
ducting philosophers, none is clearer than this-that each of the 
races of mankind has a specific cha.racter and a specific work. The 
science of Sociology is the science of Race. 
In the midst of these discussions, Africa is forcing its claims for 
1 Discourse delivered o.t the Anni\'\:l'Sary of the American Colonisation 
Society, JRJlua.ry. 1883. 
Grigill and Purpose 0/ A/rican ColOllisatioll. 109 
considpration upon the attention of the world, and science and 
philanthropy are bringing aU their resources to bear upon its 
exploration and amelioration. There is hardly an important city in 
Europe where there is not an organisation formed (Ol' the purpose 
of dealing with some of the questions connected with this great 
continent. 
There is .. The International African Association," founded at 
Brussels in 1876, of which the King of the Belgians is the pa.tron; 
Ii The Italian National Associatiou for the Exploration and Civilisa· 
tiOD of Africa;" the" Association Espanola para 180 Esploracion del 
Africa" (the King of Spain has taken great practical interest ill 
this Society); "The German Society for the Exploration of Ah'ica," 
founded in 1872 by the German Geographical Associations-it 
receives assistance from the Government; the /I Afrikanische Gesell-
schart," in Vienna, founded in 1876, also under royal patronage; 
"The Hungarian African Association," founded in 1877; "The 
National Swiss Committee for the Exploration of Central Africa." 
The French Government and the French Chamber of Commerce 
have made large grants of mouey to aid in African exploration. 
Then, there is an Airican Association at Rotterdam, besides the 
great Royal Geographical Society of England, which has a special 
funo for .African researches, and 3bas recently sent Thomson to 
explore the snow-covered mountains of Eastern Africa. 
This anxiety to penetrate the mysteries of Africa, this l'eadiness 
to turn from the subtleties of philosophy and the fascinations of 
science, in .,o riler the better to deal with the great pbysical fact of an 
unexplored continent, is not a new experience in tbe world. It is 
to he found among the ancients also. With a zealous curiosity, 
overcoming the promptings of the finer sentiments and the desire for 
military glory, Cresar proposed to abandon his ambitious exploits 
for the privilege of gazing upon the source of the Nile. 
'l'1le modern desire for more accurate knowledge of Africa is 
not a mere sentiment j it is the philanthropic impulse to lift up the 
millions of tbat continent to tbeir proper position among the 
intellectual and moral forces o£:>the world; but it is also the COUl-
mercial desire to open tha.t vast country to the enterprises of trade. 
, 
lID Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
Europe is overflowing with the material productions of its own 
gellIUS. Important foreign markets, which formerly consumed 
these productions, are now closing against them. Africa seems 
to furnish the only large outlet, and the desire is to make 
the markets of Soudan easily accessible to London, Manchester 
and Liverpool. The depressed factories of Lancashire are waiting 
to be inspired with new life and energy by the development of a 
new and inexhaustible trade with the millions of Central Africa; 
so that Ab-ica, as frequently in the past, wili have again to come 
to tbe rescue and c(;mtribute to the needs of Europe. Emergencies 
drove homeless wanderers to the shores of Libya :-
Defessi lEneadae, quae proxima litera, cursu 
Contendunt petera, et Libyae ,'ertuntur ad cra.s. 
But the plans proposed by Europeans for opening up All·iea, as 
far as they can be carried out by themselves, are felt to be in-
adequate. Many feel that commerce, science and philanthropy 
may establish stations and trace out thoroughfares, but they also 
feel that these agencies are helpless to cope fully with the thousand 
questions which arise in dealing with the people. 
Among the agencies proposed for carrying on the work of 
civilisation in Africa, none has proved so effective as the American 
Colonisation entel·prise. Peop:e who talk of the civilising and 
elevating influence of mere trade on that continent, do so because 
they are unacquainted with the facts. Nor can missionaries alone 
do this work. We do not object to trade, and we would give every 
possible encouragement to the noble effOl·ts of missionaries. We 
would open the country everywhere to commercial in" tercourse. 
We would give everywhere hospitable access to traders. Place 
your trading factories at evel1' prominent point along the coast, 
and even let them be planted on the banks of the rivers. Let 
them draw the rich products from remote districts. vVe say, a lso, 
send the missionary to every tribe and every village. Multiply 
throughout the country the evangelising agencies. Line the banks 
of the rivers with the preachers of righteousness-penetrate the 
jungles with those holy pioneers---crown the mountain-tops with 
your churches, and fill the valleys with your schools. No single 
Origin a1ld Purpose of African Colollisatioll. I II 
a.gency is sufficient to cope with the multifarious needs of the 
mighty work. But the indispensable agency is the Colony. Groups 
of Christian and civilised settlers must, in every instance, bring 
up the rear, if the results of your work are to be widespread, 
beneficial and enduring. 
This was the lea.diug idea. that gave birth to the Society whose 
anniversary we have met to celebrate. To-day we ba\'e the Sixty-
sixth Anoual Report of the American Colonisation Society. This 
fact by itself would excite no feeling, and, perhaps, no remark; but 
when we consider that, although this is but the sixty-sixth year of 
its existence, it bas been successful in founding a colony which 
ha.s now been for thirty-five years an independent nation, acknow-
ledged by all the Powers of the earth, we cannot but congratulate 
the organisation upon an achievement which, considering the cir-
cumsta.nces, is unparaUeled in the history of civilisation, and which 
must be taken as one of the most beautiful illustrations of the 
spirit and tendency of Christianity. 
"'ben the Society began its work, its programme was modest, 
and, in the early declarations of its policy, it was found expedient to 
emphasise tbe simplicity of its pretensions and the singleness of 
its purpose. In describing its objects, one of the most eloquent of 
its early supporters, Dr. Leonard'Bacon, said: II The Colonisation 
Society>is not a missionary society, nOl" a. society for tbe suppres-
sion of the slave trade, nor a society for the improvement of tbe 
blacks, nor a society for tbe abolition of slavery: it is simply a 
society fo,r  the establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa." 
But, in pursuance of its legitimate object, its labours have been 
fruitful in all the wa.ys indicated in Dr. Bacon's statement. It has 
not only established a colony, but it has performed most effective 
missionary work; it has suppressed the slave trade along six 
hundred miles of coast; it has improved the condition of the blacks 
as no other means have; and it is abolishing c10mestic slayery 
among the aborigines of that continent. 
Like all great movements which are the outcome of human 
needs, and have in view the amelioration of the condition of large 
masses of people. it attracted to its support, at the opening of its 
, 
112 Chistiallily, Islall! and the Negro Race. 
career, men of conllicting views and influenced by divers motives. 
Some of its adherents gaye one reason for their allegiance, others 
gave another; and sometimes, to the superficial observer or to the 
captions opponent, these different reasons furnished grounds for 
animadversions against the Society. Though it owed its origin to 
the judicious heads and philanthropic hearts of some of the best 
men tha.t ever occupied positions of prominence and trust in this 
nation, yet there were those who ridiculed the scheme as wild and 
impracticable. Some opposed it because they loved the Negro; 
others discountenanced it because they bated the Negro. Some 
• 
considered that the Society-in wishing to give him au opportunity 
for self-goverumeut-placed too high an estimate upon his ability j 
others thought that the idea. of sending him away to a barbarous 
shore was 0. disparaging comment upon his capacity, and a robbing 
him of his right to remain and thrive in the land of bis birth_ To 
uot a few, \\'bo neither loved nor hated the Negro, but were simply 
indifferent to him, the iuea. of transporting a few emancipated 
sla.ves to Africa, with the hope of bringing about a general exodus 
of the millions in this country, or of builuing up a nation in that 
far-otT land of such materials, seemed absurd and ridiculous_ 
The Society bad hardly been fifteen years in operation when it 
1net with organised opposition in l1le American Anti-Slavery Society, 
the founuers of which looked upon the work of ColonisatiQP as an 
attempt to evade the duty and responsibility of emancipation. ~\.t 
this time, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, a leader of the Abolition 
movement, was the most eloquent and persistent of the assailants 
of the Society. He carried the war against it into England, and • 
pursued with unrelenting scorn and iO\Tective illr. Elliott Cresson, 
who was then representing the cause before the British public. In 
the interesting life of the great Hnti-slavery reformer, by Oliver 
Johnson, it is said that when Mr. Garrison l'etul'Ded to this country 
from England in 1833, he brought with him a. " Protest" aga.inst 
the Colonisation scheme, signed by \Yilberforce, Macaulay, Buxton, 
O'Connell and others of scarcely less weight.'1 
'1 Jriflia", Lloyd Gam,on and 'Ii, TlI/lt'I, by Oliver Johnson, p.l30. 
Origin and Purpose of African Colollisation. 113 
But Mr. Garrison ought to have known, and probably did know, 
that it was not the Colonisation ..,cheme as conceived by its 
founder!'; that these philanthropists oppoc;;ed, for they were men of a 
spirit kindred to that which animated Samuel J Mills, and the 
Finteys and Caldwells, whose labours brought the Society into 
being. \Vhat they did oppose was the scheme as they saw it under 
the representations of Mr. Garrjc;;oll, who, himself benevolent at 
beart, had heen influenced by per<;onal reasons and by the in-
judicious utterances of certain nclvocates of Colonisation. They 
opposed it a!'i they saw it through the glas~s of such good old 
Neb'Toes as Father Snowden, of Boston, who, in those days, offered 
a prayer for the Colonisation Society c;o c;triking in ite; eloquence as 
to bM'e de~rved a place, in the judgment of Mr. Oliver Johnson, 
in a serious narrative of the doings of the great anti-~la.very leader. 
II 0 God," <;aid the ~imple and earnest old man, .. we prfty that that 
seven-headed, ten-horned monster, the Colonisation Society, may 
be c;mitten through and through with the fiery dart.s of truth, and 
tormented as the whale between the swordfish and the thresher." D 
I say that the friends of Africa in England did not oppose 
African Colonisation in itself, for just about the tim.c of Mr. 
Garriron's vi~it to England, or very ~oon aiter, they aclopted, uncleI' 
the lea.d of Sir Thoma.s Fowell Bu!"'C:on, a. ')Cheme for the regenera-
tion of Africa by means of her civilised sons, gathered from the 
countries of their exile, and, a.t great expense, sent out an expedition 
to the Niger, for the purpose of securing on that river a hunched 
square miles of tenitory on which to settle the retUJ11ing exi les. 
Capt. Wili/a.m Allen, who commanded the first Niger expedition, 
on his retul'll in 1834, when describing the advantages of a. civilised 
colony, used these words:-
The very exi:;tence of such a. community, exo.lted o.s It ,,.ould be in its own 
cstimo.tion, a.nd in the enjoyment of the bo!nefit .. of civilia&tion, would eJ:cite 
o.mong its neighbours & desire to po.rticipo.te to those blessings, and would be o.t 
once & normo.i or model SOCiety. gro.duo.lly spreading to the most remote 
regions, a.nd, calling forth the resources of & country rich in &0 many things 
s GaTTi,ou and IIi., Ti~" p. 4. AIr. Oliver Johnson throughout his work, 
flhows his own conception of the str.tus and functions of the Negro by never 
UILDg & co.pi to.lletter in writing the word tb.t describes the race. 
I 
• 
II4 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
essentia.l to commerce, might cha.nge the destinies of the whole of Wcatern 
Centra.l Africa. .• 4 
In a letter addressed by Stephen Lushington and Thomas Fowell 
Buxton to Lord John Russell, August 7, 1840, a ll the arguments 
used by the American Colonisation Society for settling civilised 
bla.cks ill Africa, are reproduced. 
Thomas Clarksoll, writing to a friend, under date September 12, 
1842, says :-
I 80m glo.d to find tha.t, in the Fn"tnd of AfJ'ica I you 1110Y such stress upon 
na.tive agency, or the agency of the black people themselves to forward their 
own ca.use. Good sen&e would ba.ve dictated this ; but God seems to point it 
out as one of His plans. He ha.s ra.ised up a. people by the result of emBollcipa.-
tiOD, qualified, both in intellect o.nd ha.bituation to a hot clima.te, to do for us 
the grand work in Africa, You know well that we can find among the emanci-
pated slaves people with religious views nnd with intellectnaJ capacity equal 
to the whites, and lrom these, principally, Me we to pick ant Ia.bourers for the 
Africa.n vineyard . .. •. You cannot send two or three only to a. colony. In 
the smallest colony there must be more; there must be enough to form a. 
society. both for the a.ppearance of safety and for thf'.t con\'erse for which mo.n 
wa.s fitted by the organs of speech to pass the time usefully to himself and 
others.:; 
The experience of years and the progress o( Liberia have only 
served to illustrate the soundness of these views. European 
workers (or Africa feel more and more the importance of such 
agencies as the Colonisation fSociety has been instrmnental in 
establishing for civilising Africa. A writer in the London Thnes for 
May 31, 1882, says :-
As I have recently returned from Zanzibar, and can speak £rom some 
personal experience, mOoY 1 be allowed to dra.w the a.ttention of your readers to 
an a.ttempt to bring about these results (\1z. , the abolition of th") slaxe trude 
and civilisation of the people) with rema.rka.ble success? It is the formation of 
self-susta.ining communities of released slaves in the countries whence they 
were origtnally brought by the slave deo.lers, in order that, by their eXlI.ID.ple-
and influence, they ma.y teach to the liurrcunding people the adnl,ntages of 
civilisa.tion. The sight of a body of men of the same tace as themselves, livLOg 
thei r midst, but raised to a. higber level by the influence of Christianity and 
civilisat.ion, ho.~ na.turo.lly produced in them a. desire of rB.ising themselves nlso. 
In au a.rticle ou .1 The Eva.ngelisation of Africa," in the 
~ Narrative of the Expedition to the Niger; vol. ii, p. 434. 
~ Africall Repo,itory; vol. xvi, p. 397. 
Origin and Purpose 0/ A/rican Colonisation_ lIS 
Dublin Review, January, 1879, written by a Roman Catholic 
Prelate, the writer asks-" Why should not the example given by 
the American Colonisation Society, ill fouuding Liberia, be followed 
by us in other parts of Africa? It 
In a lectw'e delivered in 1872, in New York, by the same dis· 
tinguished autbOl', he says ;-
We ha.ve come to e'\"a.ngelise the coloured people in America.. But our 
mission does not termina.te with them. We are tra.ve11ing through America. to 
that great unexplored, unconverted continent of Africa. We ha.ve come to 
gather a.u army OD our way. to conquer Africa. for the CrosB. God has His 
designs upon that vast Ja.nd ..... The branch torn a.wa.y £rom the parent stem 
in Africa., by our ancestors, was brought to Americ8r--brought away by Divine 
permIssion, in order that it might be engrafted upon the tree of the Cros8. It 
will return in pm to its own soil, not by violence or deportat.ion, but willingly, 
and borne on t.he wings of fo.ith and charity. 
It is sometimes supposed and asserted that the efforts of the 
Colonisation Society stir up a feeling of unrest among the coloured 
popUlation, and make them dissatisfied with their condition in tws 
country. But tIlls charge is brought only by those who have no 
idea of the power of race instincts. The descendants of Africa in 
tws country have never needed the stimulus of any organisation of 
wbite men to direct their attention to the land of their fathers. 
Just as the idea of a departme It'om the" house of bondage" in 
Egypt was in the minds of the Hebrews long before Moses was 
born, ey•e D when Joseph gaye commandment concerning his bones; 
so, long before the fOl1nation of the Colonisation Society, there were 
aspirations in the breasts of thinking Negroes for a return to the 
land of th~ir fathers. The first practical Colonisationist was not a 
white man, but a Negro, Paul Cuffee. This man took thirty Negro 
emigrants from New Bedford, in his own vessel, to Africa in 1815. 
The la\" of God for each race is written on the tablets of their 
hearts, and no theories will ever obliterate the deep impression, or 
neutralise its influence upon theix action; and in the process of 
their growth they will find or force a way for themselves. Those 
who a.re working with or for the race, therefore, should seriously 
consider, in any great movem.eut in their behalf, the steps wwch 
the proper representatives deem it wise to take. .. March without 
-
116 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
the people," said a French deputy, 1/ and you walk into night; 
their instincts are a finger pointing of Providence, always turning 
toward real benefit." 
The Colonisation Society was only the instrument of opening a. 
field for the energies of those of the Ah'icans who desired to go 
and avail themselves of the opportunities there offered. Boswell, 
in his life of Samuel Johnson, tells us that when the sale of 
Thrale's Brewery was going forward, Johnson ..v as asked what he 
really considered to be the value of the property which was to be 
disposed of. He replied, II We are not bere to sell a parcel of 
• 
boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the 
dreams of avarice." So the founders of this Society looked to the 
If potentiality" of th.e few seeds they were planting on the coast of 
Ah·ica. In their reply to opponents they said :-" \Ve are not here 
simply to send a few Negroes to Africa, and to occupy with them a 
few swampy regions on the margin of a distant country, but we 
are endeavoUl'illg to stimulate for a race and a continent their 
potentiality of unlimited development." 
They assisted a few COUl"ageous men to go and plant a colony 
on those distant and barbarous shores, in days when nearly every 
body doubted the wisdom and expediency of such a step. Who, 
then, could have divined the .::-esults? Considering the circum-
stances of those pioneer settlers and the darkness of the, outlook 
when they started, no man could have believed, until he learned it 
as a l'l1atter of history, that those few men could have established 
an independent nation on that coast. The story of their trials and 
struggles and conquests would furnish the material for a.n exciting 
novel-many portions of it would resemble chapters, not from 
}"roude or Hallam, but from Thackeray or Scott. The string of 
episodes in the first thirty years of their history would form the 
basis of an interesting epic. 
Now what is the work thus far accomplished and being accom-
plisbed on that coast? If, when those colonists landed on those 
shores, inexperienced and uneducated ex-slaves as they were, they 
had had to contend with simple, barbarism or the aLsence of 
civilisation, their ta.sk would have been comparatively easy; but 
Origin alld P1t'jJose of A/?,ican Colonisation. II7 
they bad to deal with tribes demoralised by ages of intercow'se with 
the most abandoned of foreigners-slave-traders and pirates, who 
had taken up their abode at various points of the coast, and had 
carried on for generations, without interruption, their work of dis-
integration and destruction . '~hen. therefore, the colonists found 
themselves in possession of a few miles of territory, they very soon 
perceived that they had more to do tha.n simply to clear up the 
land, build and cultivate. They saw that they had to contend, not 
with the simple prejudices of the Aborigines, but with the results 
of the unhallowed intercow'se of EUl'opean advelltluers. But they 
were brave men. Their spirits, though chastened by the bW'den of 
slavery and the sorrows of oppression, were never clouded by any 
doubt in tbeir destiny. They felt themselves able to build up a 
State, and they set themselves cheerfully to deal with the new and 
difficult problems which confronted them. Fierce were the struggles 
in which they had to engage before they succeedl::d in expelting the 
pirates h'om the neighbOlu'hood of their settlements. And after 
they had dislodged these demons in human form, the mischievous 
consequences of their protracted residence in the land continued 
and still, to a great extent, continue. In his last Message to the 
Liberian Legislature, the President of the Republic, referring to the 
difficulties at Cape Mount, says :J,j The native wars which have 
been g0i11g all in the vicinity of Cape Mount have now nearly 
exhausted themselves. These periodical wars are, for the most 
part, the results of long-standing feuds arising from the horrible 
slave trade, that d.l'eadful scourge which distinguished the inter-
course of t•h e EW'opean world with Africa for more than ten 
generations ... 
Having secured an undisturbed footing in the land of their fathers, 
the next step on the part of the colonists was to conciliate the 
Aborigines and to enlarge the borders of the Colony by purchase 
from the native lords of the soil. In this way, the Colony increased 
in power and influence, ulltil1847, when it became a sovereign and 
independent State. As such it has been acknowledged by all the 
Powers of Europe and by the United States. 
The special work which, n.t this moment, cla.ims the a.ttentiou of 
, 
IIB Christianity, Islam alld tlte Negro Race. 
the Republic is to push tbe settlements beyond the sea·board to tbe 
elevated and salubrious regions of the interior, and to incorporate 
the Aborigines, as fast as practicable, into the Republic. Native 
chiefs are summoned to the Legisla.ture from the different counties, 
a.nd take part in the deliberations; but, as yet, only those Aborigines 
who conform to the laws of the Republic as to the tenure of land, 
are allowed to exercise the elective franchise. All the other questions 
which press upon independent nations, questions of education, of 
finance, of COmlflel'Ce, of agriculture. are receiving the careful 
attentiou of the pepple. Tbey feel the importance of making pro· 
visions by judicious laws and by proper executive, legislative and 
judicial management, for the preservation and growth of the State. 
In educational matters, there is daily noticeable improve-
ment. We are developing a system of common schools, with 
a College at the head as a guara.ntee for their efficiency. The 
educational work is felt to be of the greatest possible importance; 
education, not only in its literary and religious forms, but also in its 
jndustrial, mechanical, and commercial d.spects. 
The effort now is to enlarge the operations and increase the 
influence of tbe College. Tbe faculty has just beeu added to by tbe 
election of two new Professors in this country. young men of learning 
and culture, who will sail for thb~r field of labour in a few weeks. 
It will be gratifying to the people of Liberia, as well at to their 
friends on this side, to observe how heartily the Press of this country. 
both secular and religious, has endorsed and commended this new 
move for the advancement of education in that land. The College now 
contains fifty students in the two departments, and it is hoped that 
the number will soon increase to hundreds, if we can only get the 
needed lielp. 'Ve have application for admission to its advantages 
from numerous youths ill various institutions of learning in this 
country, who wish, on the complet.ion of their course, to labour in 
Africa. Influential cbiefs on tbe coast and in the interior are also 
anxious to send their sons; and we shall, before very long, have 
young men from the powerful tribes in our vicinity-hlanilingoes, 
Foula.bs, "eys, Bassas, Kroos, Grecoes. 
A felllale uepartmellt has also lately been established in con· 
Origin and Pllrpose of Africall C%llisalioll . 1 19 
nection with this Institution, and a Christian lady of education and 
culture, in this country. longing to labour in the land of her (a.tber~, 
has been appointed as fi rst P rincipal. She will s8.li in a few 
months. 
In financial matters the Republic is hopeful. The public debt is 
not so large that it cannot, by the reforms now contemplated, be 
t!asily managed and placed under such control as to brive no incon· 
venience to the State. There are evidences of an abundance of gold 
in the territory of the Republic. The preciou~ metal IS brought to 
the coast from yarions points in the interior. But the Government 
is not anxiom; to encoura~e the opening of gold mines. \Ve prefer 
the ~low but sure, though less dazzling process, of becoming a great 
nation by lapse of time, and by the steady growth of internal 
prospelity-by agriculture, by trade, by proper domestic economy. 
In commercial matters, there is also everything to encow·age. 
Three lines of steamers from Engla.nd and Gelman)" and sailing 
vessels Cram the United States, \i~it the Liberian ports regularly for 
trading pw·poses. And the natUl'al resources of the Rtlpubhc bave, 
in various portions of it, bardly yet been touched. Palm oil, cam-
wood, ivory, rubber, gold.dust, hidt:!s, beeswax, gum copal, may be 
produced in unlimited quantities. For the enterprising merchants 
of tbis country-coloured or white~there is no belter field for the 
investmept of pecuniary capital. 
The al:piculture of the country is rapidly on the increa"e. Liberia 
has been supplying the Coffee Planters of Ceylon and Brazil with a 
new and superior kind of coffee for their agricultural indu!Stry. The 
Liberian c&ffee is con"idered among the best in the world, and the 
people are now turning their attention largely to it!; cultivation. 
As immigrants arrive from this country, extensive farms under 
their persevering industry are taking the place of the dense fore~t!';. 
The new !;ettlement", puc;hing out to the rich valleys and fertile 
.. lopes of the interior, are a. marvel to tho!';e who, a few years ago, 
"aw the country in its primitive condition; and to the Negro new 
comer from this country in ~ea.rch of a field for his energy and 
enterprise, thE!l'e is no pictw'e \vhich, for inF>piration and grandew', 
can ever equal the !'ight of the ... e new proprietors of lanel and these 
• 
I20 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
new directors of labour engaged iu their absorbing and profitable 
pursuits. When he sees the thriving villages, the comfortable 
dwellings, the increasing agriculture, all supervised and controlled 
by men just like himself, wbo bad Duly been more fortunate in 
preceding him by a few years, a feeling of pride and gratification 
takes possession of him. Like lEneas, when he witnessed the 
enterprise of the Tyrian colonists in the building of Carthage, he 
exciaims,-
o forrunati, quorum jam moenia 5urgunt. 
But, unlIke the mythical author of that exclamatiou, he feels 
that he has a part in the rising fortunes of the settlements; that 
what he beholds is not only what he himself may accomplish, but 
is the promise and pledge of the future greatness of his adopted 
country. 
The nations of the earth are now looking to Liberia as one of 
the hopeful spots on the continent of A.b:ica. The President of the 
United States, in his last Messa.ge. referred to the interest which this 
Government feels in that youngest sister of the great international 
family. To a deputation from the Colonisation Society, which 
called upon him a year ago, President Arthur said that he If hact 
always taken great interest in the work of the Colonisation Society. 
which was, in his judgment, eu):inently practical." 
President Gardner, who has for the last five years presided over 
the little nation, expresses the views entertained by its most 
enlightened citizens as follows:-
The ship of State which. in 1847, we la.unched in fear o.nd trembling, is still 
afloat, with timbers sound and spa.rs unha.nned. The Lone St1.l' of Liberia, 
unta.rnished, is pushing its wa.y eastwa.rd, successfully achieving victories of 
pea.ce even to the slopes of the Niger, gathering willing thouso.nds under its 
elevating and hopeful folds. The America.n Colonisation Society must feel 
grea.tly strengthened in its work. It has achieved wha.t no other philanthropic 
a.gency in modern times has accomplished, and what, perhaps. no na.tion could 
h ave effected. viz., the giving to the Negro an independent home in the land of 
bis fathers, where he has unlimited scope for development and expansion. Had 
Lib(lria. been the colony of a. powerful government, political and commerciaJ 
jet1.lousies, and the purposes of pa.rty spirit, might ha.ve prevented the surrender 
of the colony to the absolute control of the colonists. Hayti had to tight for 
hel' independence, It is not practica.blc, for Gree.t Britain to give up Ja.ma.ica., 
or Ba.rba.does, or Sierra Leone, or Ln.gos But the Americs.n Colonisa.tion 
Origill alld P,,,,pose 0/ A/"ican Colonisation. I2I 
Society founded & nation, and continuel!! to strengthen it. So God takes the 
wen.k things of the eadh to confound the things tha.t are mighty. 
In a letter dated at the Palace of Madrid. February 11. 1882, 
King Alfonso XII, of Spain, writes to the President of Liberia as 
follows :-
GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND, 
Desiring to give to you 30 public testimony of my Roya.l appreciation 
and my particular esteem, I ha.ve ha.d special pleasure in nomina.ting you 
Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabel the Ca.tholic. I a.m 
pleased by this action &180 to furnish uew proof of the desire which a.nimates 
me to strengthen more and more the friendly relations which happily exiet 
between Spain and the RellUblic of Libel'ia ; and with this motive I repeat to 
you the e.ssurance of the affection which I enterta.in towc.rds you, a.nd with 
which I a.m, Great a.nd Good Friend. 
Your Grea.t a.nd Good Friend, 
Pala.ce at Ma.drid. February 11, 1882. ALFONSO . 
The Republic of Liberia now stands before the world-the 
realisation of the dreams of the founders of the American Colonisa-
tion Society, and, in many respects, more than the realisation. Its 
effect upon that great country is not to be estimated solely by the 
six hundred miles of coast which it has brought under civilised law. 
A sea of influence has been created, to which rivulets and large 
streams are attracted from the distant interior; and up those 
streams, for a considerable clistame, a tide of regeneration con-
tinually ~ows. Far beyond the range of the recognised limits of 
Liberia, huudreds of miles away from the coast, I have witnessed 
the effects of American civilisation; not only in the articles of 
American manufactures, which I have been surprised to see in those 
remote districts, but in the intelligible use of the English language, 
which I have encountered in the far inland regions, all going out 
from Liberia. None can calculate the wiele-spreading results of a 
single channel of wholesome influence. Travellers in Syria tell us 
that Damascus owes its fertility and beauty to one single stream 
-the river Abana. Without that little river, the charm and glory of 
Dama.scus would disappear. It would be a city in a desert. So the 
influence of Liberia, insignificant as it may seem) is the increasing 
source of beauty and fertility" of civilisation and progress, to 
West and Central Africa.. . 
• 
122 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
As time bas gone aD, and the fal'·l'eaching plans of the Society 
have been developed, its bitterest opponents among the whites 
have relaxed their opposition. They see more and more that the 
idea which gave rise to it had more than a temporary or provisional 
importance i that, as long as there are Christian Negroes in this 
land who may do a civilising work in Africa, and who desire to go 
thither, so long will tills colonisation enterprise be a necessary and 
beneficent agency. 
Coloured men of intelligence are a) so taking a more compre-
hensive view of the question. The coloured people in various parts 
of the country are not only asserting their independence of party 
trammels, but are taking higher ground with regard to their rela-
tions to Afl·ica. The Colonisation Society no longer stands between 
them and the land of their fathers as a dividing agency; no longer 
the gulf that separates, but, for many, the bridge that connects. 
Liberia is producing the elements which~if they do not, to the 
lllinds of the thinking coloured people, vindicate the methods of 
some colonisationists in days gone by~aIDply justify the policy of 
the Colonisation Society. The leading men of colour are recognising 
the distinction between Liberia as an independent nation, claiming 
their respect and support, and the Colonisation Society, which, 
from their standpoint, contempia.ted their expatriation. 
Your speaker has bad the honour of being listened to on the 
various occasions on which, recently, be has spoken in this city, by 
full houses composed of the most intelligent classes of the cololll'ed 
population, who, a few years ago, would not have thought of 
attending allY meeting which had the remotest connection with 
Liberia. He bas also had the privilege of being the guest, 
for several days, at Uniontown of the leading coloured man of 
the United States, better known than any other Negro in both 
hemispheres; and this address was written under his hospitable 
roof, and, perhaps, on the same table on which, in years gone by, 
had been forged those tlnmderbolts which he hm'led with so much 
power and effect against Colonisation; but, tempora lImtalltllr 1WS 
et '1nutamU?' in illis~the times 8.l:~ changed, and we are changed 
with them. 
Origin alld Purpose of African Colollisation. 123 
The dawn of a new day in the history of the coloured people is 
not only inspiring them with new views, but bringing forward new 
actors or leaders. It is not that those who are coming forward are 
superior to those who have passed away, or are passing away. No; 
the giants of former years-the Wards and Garnets and Douglasses 
-can never be surpassed, or even reproduced. They were tbe 
peculiar product of their times. But it is, that the present times 
require different instruments, and lea.ders are a.rising with different 
purposes and different aspirations. I saw, in large letters, in a 
prourineut part of Mr. Frederick Douglass's residence, the scriptural 
iujWlction, U Live peaceably with all men "-a fitting motto, I 
thought, for the soldier who, after the hard-fought ba.ttle and the 
achievement of the victory, has laid down his anns. The motto in 
the days of Douglass's greatest activity was, If Fight the good fight." 
Now the days o[ peace have come. The statesman's office comes 
after the soldier's. Cedant anna togae. The Negro youth-as a 
result of the training wbich he is :r!ow so generously receiving in 
the schools-will seek to construct Sta.tes. He will aspire after 
feats of statesmanship. and Africa will be the field to whicb he will 
look for the realisation of his desil:es. Bishop Turner, of the 
African Missionary Episcopal Chm·ch. who enjoys exceptional 
opportunities for knowing the feelill~s of the coloured people of this 
country, .. aid. in a newspaper article published a few da.ys ago:-
There never wo.s Bo time when the coloured people were more concerned 
a.bout A [r:ica., in e\'ery respect. tho.n a.t present. In aomo portions of the 
country it is the topic of conversation; nnd if & line of steamers were started 
from New O~eans. Mobile, Sa.vannah or Charleston, they would be crowded 
to density every trip they ma.de to Africa. There is a genern,1 unrest B.ud 8. 
wholesale dissatisfaction among our people in a. number o[ sections of the 
country, to my certain knowledge, and they sigh tOl' conveniences to ILnd from 
the continent of Africa.. Something has to be done; matters cannot go on as 
at present, a.nd the remedy is thought by teng of thousa.nds to be a NEGRO 
NATIONALITY. This much the history of the world establishes, that ra.ces either 
fossilised, oppressed, or degraded, must eLOigmte before any ma.terial cha.nge 
ta.kes place in their civil, intellectual, or moraJ status ; otrherwise extinct.lon 
is the consequence. i 
The genera..l practice among superficia..l politicians and Jrre~ 
• 
7 Chri.ti(lf! R~coTdeT; January 4,1883.  
• 
12+ Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Rau. 
sponsible coloured journalists iu this country, is to ignore a.nd 
deprecate the craving for the fatherland among the Negro popula-
tion. But nothing is clearer to those who know anything of race 
instincts and tendencies than that this craving is a. permanent and 
irrepressible impulse. For some reason the American Government 
has never seen its way clear to gh'e any practical recognition to 
these aspirations. In vain, apparently. does the A.m.erican Colo· 
!lisation Society, from year to year, present the cl;es and petitions 
of thousands and hundreds of thousands who yearn for a borne in 
the land of their fathers. Individual philanthropists ma.y admit 
that such cri•e s deserve respectful sympathy, but the Government 
takes no uote oC them. It must be stated, however, that the 
Goverlllnent is ever ready to extend assistance to Liberia, and on 
the ground, partly, as often urged in their diplomatic corres-
pondence, that Liberia is to be the future home of thousands of 
American citizens of Af.rican descent. 
Has not the time now come when an earnest and united effort 
should be made by all sections of tills great country to induce the 
Government to assist the thousands who are longing to betake 
themselves to those vast and fertile regiOns to which they are 
directed by the strongest impulses that have ever actuated the move-
ments of humanity? While i~ is true that there are causes of dis-
satisfaction with bis position in this country on the part oC ilie Negro, 
still he will be carried to Africa by a higher impulse than that which 
brings millions to tbis country from Europe. Mr. Bright has said: 
II There are streams of emigration flowing towards America, and 
• 
much of this arises from the foolishness of European peoples and 
Emopeau Governments," and he quotes from Mr. Bancroft the 
statement that II the history of the colonisation of America. is the 
bistory of the crimes of Europe." 
No natural impulses bring the EW'openn hither-artificial or 
economical causes move him to emigrate. The Negro is drawn to 
Af.rica by the necessities of his natw·e. 
We do not ask that all the coloured people should leave the United 
States and go to Africa. If such a,.. result were possible it is not, for 
the present, at least, desirable; certainly it is not indispensable. 
Origin and Purpose of African Coiollisatioll. 125 
For the work to be accomplished much less than one· tenth of the 
six millions will be necessary. If In a rettu"ll from exile, in the 
restoration of a people," says George Eliot, "the question is Dot 
whether certain rich men will choose to remain behind, but whether 
there will be found worthy men who will choose to lead the return. 
Plenty of prosperous Jews remained in Babylon wben Ezra 
marshalled his band of forty thousand, and began anew. glorious 
epoch in the history of his race, making the preparation f01' that 
epoch III the history of the world, which has been held glorious 
enough to be dated from forevermore." 
There are Negroes enough in tbiscountry to join in the return-
descendants of Africa enough, who 8J:e faithful to the instincts of the 
race, and who realise their duty to their fatherland. I rejoice to 
know that here, where the teachings of generations have been to 
disparage the race, there are many who are faithful, there are men 
and women who will go, who have a restless sense of homelessness 
which will never be appeased until they stand in the great land 
where their forefathers lived; until they catch glimpses of the old 
sun, and moon and stars, which still shine in their pristine brilliancy 
upon that vast domain; until, D.·om the deck of the ship which bears 
them back home, they see visions of the hills rising [rom the white 
margin of the continent, and listen.to the breaking music of the 
waves-the,  exhilarating laughter of the sea as it dashes against the 
beach. These are the elements of the great restoration. It may 
come in Oill' own life time . It may be Oill' happiness to see those 
rise up who will formulate progress for Africa-embody the ideas 
which will retluce our social and political life to order; and we may, 
before we die, thank God that we have seen His salvation; that the 
Negro has grasped with a clear knowledge his meaning in the world's 
vast life-in politics, in science, in religion. 
I say it is gratifying to know that there are Negroes of this 
country who will go to do this gt'eat work-cheerfully go and brave 
the ha.rc1ships and perils necessary to be endured in its accomplish-
ment, These will be among the redeelllers of Africa, If they suffer 
they will suffer devotedly, and if ,tbey die, tbey will die well. And 
what is death for the redemption of a people? History is ful l or 
, 
126 Christiallity, Islalll and the Negro Race. 
examples of mell who have sacrificed themselves for the advance· 
ment of a great cause-for the good of their country. Every man 
who elies for Africa-if it is necessary to die-adds to Africa a uew 
element of salvation, and hastens the day of her redemption. And 
when God lets men suffer and gives them to pain and death, it is 
not the abandoned, it is not the worst or the guiltiest, but the best 
and the purest, whom He often chooses for His work, for they will do 
it best. Spectators weep and wonder; but the sufferers themselV"es 
accept the pain in the joy of doing redemptive work, and rise out o( 
lower levels to the elevated regions of those nobler spirits-the 
glorious army of martyrs-who rejoice that they are counted worthy 
to die (or men. 
The nation now being reared in Africa. by the returu.ing exiles (rom 
this country will not be a reproduction o( the American. The re-
storation of the Negro to the land oC his Cathers will be the restora-
tion of a race to its original integrity, to itself; and working by 
itself, for itself and from itself, it will discover the methods of its own 
development, and they will not be the same a.s the Anglo-Saxon 
methods. 
In Africa. there are no physica.l problems to be confronted upon 
the solution of which huma.n comfort a.nd eveIl human existence 
depend. In the temperate regions of the earth there are e\~er­
recurring problems, first physical Or material, and then intellectual, 
• 
which press for solution and cauDot be deferred without peril. 
It is this constant pressure which has developed the scientific 
intellect and the thoughtfulness oC the European. Africa can afford 
to hand over the solution oC these problems to tbose who, driven 
by the exigencies of their circumstances, must solve them or perisb. 
And wben they are solved, we shall apply the results to our purposes, 
leaving us leisw'e and taste for the metaphysical and spiritual. 
Africa will be largely an agticultw'al country. The people, when 
assisted by proper impulse (rom without-and they need this help 
just as all other races have needed impulse from without-will live 
largely in contact with Nature. The Northern races will take the 
raw materials Crom Africa and b~·ing them back in such forms as 
shan contribute to the comCod and even elegance of life in that 
Origin alld PIt/'pose of African Colonisation, I27 
country; while the African, in the simplicity and pW'ity of rural 
enterprises, will be able to cultivate those spiritual elements in 
humanity which are suppressed, silent and inactive under the 
pressw'e and exigencies of material progress. He will find out, not 
under pressure, but in au euth'ely normal and natw"al way, what 
his work is to be. 
I do not anticipate for Africa any large and densely crowded 
cItIes. For my own taste, I cannot say that I admire these agglo~ 
merations of humanity. Fot' me, man bas marred the earth's surface 
by his cities. "God made the country and IDan the town." 
It is the cities which have furnished the deadliest antagonisms 
to prophets and reformers. The prophets and apostles are llurtw'ed 
in the Nazareths and Bethlehems of the world. I cherish the 
feeling that in Africa there will neverbeany Jerusalem, or Rome, or 
Atbens, or London; but I have a strong notion that the Bethlehems 
and Nazareths will spring up in various parts of the continent. In 
the solitudes of the African forests, where the din of \Vestern 
civilisation has never been heard, I have realised the saying of 
the poet that the It Groves were God's first temples." I have felt 
that I stood in the presence of the Almighty; and the trees and 
the birds and the sky and the air have whispered to me of the great 
work yet to be achieved on that con~nent. I trod lightly through 
those forests, for I felt there was" a spirit in the woods." And I 
• 
could understand how it came to pass that the prophets of a race-
the great reformers who have organised states and elevated peoples, 
received thei.r inspiration on mountains, in caves, in grottoes. I 
could unde:.stand something of the power which wrought upon 
Sakya Muni under the trees of India; upon Numn. Pompilius in 
the retreat of the Nymph Egerin.; upon Mohammed in the silent 
cave; upon Martin Luther, Xavier and Ignatius Loyola. in the 
cloisters. One the sweetest of American poets-Whittier-in his 
poem on the Quaker Meeting, pictm'es the beauty and instructive 
power of unbroken stillness-
And so I find it well to come 
For deeper rest, to this still room; 
For here the ha.bit of tbe soul 
Feels less the outer world's control. 
• 
128 Christianity, Islam and Ilze Negro Race. 
And froUl the silence multiplied 
By t.hese still forms on either side, 
The world that time o.nd sense have known 
Falls oil, o.nd lea.ves us God a lone. 
So to tho ca.lmly ga.thered thought 
The inneJ'Dlost of truth is taught, 
The mystery, dimly understood, 
Tba.t love of God is love of good. 
It is under such circumstances that the African will gather 
inspiration for his work. He will grow h'ee})', naturally unfolding 
his powers in a healthy progress. 
The world needs such a development of the Negro on African 
soil. He will bring as his contribution the softer aspects of human 
na.ture. The ha.rsh and stern fibre of the Caucasian races needs 
this milder element. The African is the feminine; and we must 
not suppose that this is of least importance in the ultimate develop· 
ment of humanity, jj We are apt," says Matthew Arnold, "to 
account amiability weak and hardness strong," but even if it were 
so, there are forces, as George Sands says, truly and beautifully, 
II there are forces of weakness, of docility, of attractiveness or of 
suavity, which are quite as real as the forces of vigow', of encroach· 
ment, of violence, of brutality, It" 
Soon after the close of the war it was the favourite cry of some 
tb~t the Colonisation Society"'bad done its work and should be 
dropped. But that cry has beeu effectually hushed by the increasing 
Ilght of experience, and under the louder cries of the thousands and 
tens of thousands, who in various parts of the country are asking 
for aid to reach the land of their fathers, Both white and colow'ed 
" 
are now recognising the fact that the Society with its abundant 
knowledge, with its orgauised plans, is an indispensable machinery 
for the diffusion of that special information about Afl'ica of which 
the American people are generally so destitute, and for the ina!· 
fensive creation among lhe Negro portion of the population of those 
enlightened opinions about the land of theu' fathers, and their duty 
to that land which will lead some at least of them to enter upon it 
with intelligence and efficiency. 
8 Sinttttrlth Ctnh4ry, June, 1881. 
Origin and Purpose of African Colonisation. 129 
There is evidently, at this moment, no philantbTopic institutiml 
before the American public that has more just and reasonable 
claims upon private and official benevolence than the American 
Colonisation Society. And the Christian sentiment of the country, 
as I gather it from the east and from the west, from the north and 
from the south, is largely in favour of giving substantial and generous 
aiel to that struggling Christian Republic in 'Vest Africa, the power 
of which, it is conceded, it should be the pride of this nation, as it 
is its commercial interest, to increase and perpetuate . 
• 
, 
• 
, 
K 
Ethiopia stretching out her 
hands unto God·, 
OR, 
Africa's Service to the World.' 
THERE was, for a long time, ill the Christian world considerable difference of opinion as to the portion of the earth, and the 
precise region to which the term Ethiopia must he understood as 
applying. It is pretty well established now, however, that by 
Ethiopia, is meant the continent of Africa, and by Ethiopians, the 
great race who inhabit that continent. The etymology of the word 
points to the most prominent physical characteristic of this people. 
To any oue who has travelled in Africa, especially in the portion 
north of the equator, extendillV from the West coast to Abyssinia, 
Nubia, and Egypt, and embracing what is known as the Nigritian 
and Soudanic countries, there cannot be the slightest doubt as to 
the country and people to whom the terms Ethiopia and Ethiopian, 
as nsed in the Bible and the classical writers, were applied . One of 
the latest and most accurate authorities says: II The cODltry which 
the Greeks and the Romans described as Ethiopia, and the Hebrews 
as Cush, Jay to the south of Egypt, and embraced, in its most 
extended sense, the modern Nubia, Senaar, Kordofan, &c., and in its 
more defiuite sense, the kingdom of hleroe, from the junction of the 
Blue and \Vhite branches of the Nile to the bOl"der of Egypt." l 
Herodotus, the rather of history, speaks of two divisions of 
Ethiopians, who did not differ at all from each other in appearance. 
1 Discourse delivered before the American Colonisa.tion Society, May, 1S80. 
~ Smith's Dictiollary of the Bible-(sltb t!oce) . • 
I 
Africa's Sel'vice 10 lite World. 13 I 
except in their language and bail'; "for the eastern Ethiopians," he 
says, "are straight haired, but those of Libya (or Africa), have hail' 
more eUl'Iy than that of any other people." a II As far as we know," 
says Mr. Gladstone, "Homer recognised the African coast by 
placing the Lotopbagi upon it, and the Ethiopians inland h'om the 
east, all the way to the extreme west." 4 
There has been an unbroken line of communication between the 
West Coast of Africa, through the Soudan, and through the so-called 
Great Desert and Asia, from the time when portions of the de-
scendants of Ham, ill remote ages, began their mjgratious westward, 
and first saw the Atlantic Ocean. 
Africa is no ,ast island, separated by an immense ocean from 
other portions of the globe, and cut off tln'ough the ages from the 
men who ha\re made and iufiuenced the destinies of mankind. She 
has been closely connected, both as source and 1l0urlsher, with some 
of the most potent influences which have affected for good the 
history of the world. The people of Asia, and the people of Africa 
have been in constant intercom·se. No violent social or political 
disruption has ever broken through tills communication. No chasm 
caused by war has suspended intercourse. Ou the contrary, the 
greatest religious reforms the world has ever seen-Jewish, Christian, 
Moha.mmedan-originating in Asia,· have obtained consolidation in 
Africa. l\.nd as in the days of Abraham and Moses, of Herodotus 
and Homer, so to-day, there is a constantly accessible highway from 
Asia to the heart of the Soudan. All'icans are continuaJly going to 
and fro betr;een the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. I have met 
in Liberia and along its eastern frontiers, Mohammedan Negroes, 
barD iu Mecca, the Holy City of Arabia, who thought they were 
telling of nothing extraordinary when they were detailing the inci-
dents of their journeyings and of those of their friends from the 
banks _o f the Niger-from the neighbow'hood or Sierra Leone and 
Liberia-across the continent to Egypt, Anl.bia and Jerusalem. I 
saw in Cairo and Jerusalem, sOlDe years ago, West Africans who 
II Herod, iii, 9-1; vii, 70. 
4 lfOlIUI' and lht Homel'ic Age; vol. iii, p. 305 . 
• 
132 Christiallily, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
had come on business, or on religious pilgrimage, from their distant 
homes in Senegambia. 
Africans were not unknowu, therefore, to the writers of the 
Bible. Their peculiarities of complexioUl and hai.r were as well 
known to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, as they are to the 
American people to-day. And when they spoke of the Ethiopians. 
they meant the ancestors of the black-skinned and ,,,colly-haired 
people who, for t~o hundred and fifty years, have been known as 
labourers all the plantations of the South. It is to the"e people, 
and to their country. that the Psa.lmist refers, when be !'ays, 
.. Ethiopia shall soon stretch Qut her bands unto God." The word 
ill the original, which has been translated <I soon," i!S now under-
stood to refer not so much to the time as to the manner of the 
action. Ethiopia shall sllddenly stretch out her hands unto God, is 
the most recent rendering. 
But, even if we take the phraseology as it has been generally 
understood, it will not by anyone acquainted with the facts, be 
held to have been altogether unfulfilIed. 'l'here is not a hibe on 
the continent of Africa, in spite of the almost universal opinion to 
the contrary, ill spite of the fetishes and greegrees which many of -
them are supposed to worshjp-there is not, I say, a single tribe 
which does not stretch out its hauds to the Great Creator. There 
is not oue who does not recognise the Supreme Bl;!ing, though 
imperfectly uuderstancling His character-and who does perfectly 
understand His character? They believe that the hea\"cn Rnd the 
carth, the SUll, moon, and stars, which they behold, were. created by 
an Almighty personal Agent, who is also their own Maker and 
Sovereign, and they render to Him such worship as their untutore 1 
inlellects can concei\"e. The work of the Christian missionary is to 
declare to them that Being whom they ignorantly worshjp. 'I'bere 
are no atheists or agnostics among them. They have not yet 
attained, and I am sure they never will attain, to that eminence of 
progress or that perfection of development; so that it is true, in a 
certain sense, that Ethjopia now stretches out her hands unto God. 
And if tbe belief in a Common t)reator and Father of mankind 
is illustrated ill the bearing we maintain townl'ds am IIp.ighbour, if 
A/rica's Service 10 lite World. 133 
our faith is seen in ow' works, if we prove that we love Goif, whom 
we have not seen, by loving our neighbour wbom we have seen, by 
respecting his rights, eyen though be ma.y not belong to our clan, 
tribe, or race, then I must say, and it will not be generally disputed, 
that more proofs are furnished among the na.th-es of interior Africa. 
of their belief in the common Fatherhood of a personal God by their 
hospitable and considerate treatment of foreigners and stran~ers 
than are to be ~een in many a civilised and Christian commullity. 
Mungo Park, n. hundred years ago, put on record in poetry and in 
prose-and be wished it never to be forgotten-that be was the 
object of most kindly and sympathetic treatment in the wilds of 
Alrica, among a people he bad never before seen, and whom be 
never could requite. The long sojourn of Livingstone in that Ia.nd 
in contentment and happiness, without money to pay his way, is 
a.nother proof of the ~xcellent qualities of the people, and of their 
practical belief in an universa.l Father. And, in a.ll history, where is 
there anything more touching than that ever memorable con· 
veyance, by If faithful hands," of the remains of the missionary 
traveller from the land of strangers over thousands of miles, to the 
country of the deceased, to be deposited with de~rved honour in 
the" Great T empJe of Silence"? 
And this peculiarity of Africans •i s not a. thing known only in 
modern tilnes. The ancients recognised these qualitie~, and loved 
to descant upon them. They seemed to regard the fear a.nd love of 
God as the peculiar gift of the darker races. In the version of the 
Chaldean G~nesis, as given by George Smilh, lhe following passage 
occurs: "The word of the Lord will neYer fail in the mouth of the 
dark races whom He has made." Homer and IIerodotus have 
written immortal eulogies of the race. Homer speaks of them as 
the II blameless Ethiopia.ns,", and tells us that it w.as the Ethiopians 
alone among mortals whom the gods selected as a people fit to 
be lifted to the social level of the Olympian divinities. Every year, 
the poet says, the whole celestial circle left the summits of Olympus 
and betook themselves, for their holidays, to Ethiopia., where, in 
the enjoyment of Ethiopian hospita.lity. they sojourned tweh'e 
days. 
• 
134 Christianity, I slam and the Negro Race. 
The Sire of gods and all the ethereal tra.in 
On the wa.rm limits of the fa.rtbest me.in 
Now mix with morta.is, nor disda.in to grace 
The fe£\.sts of Ethiopia's bla.meless race: 
Twelve days the Powers indulge the genial rite, 
Retru:ning wHh the tweUth revolving night. 
Lucian represents a sceptic, or freethinker, of his day, as saying, 
III his irreverence towards the gods, that on certain occasions they 
do Dot hear the prayers of mortals in Em'ope because they are 
away across the ocean, perhaps among the Ethiopians, with whom 
they cune h'equently on theil' own invitation. 
It shows the estimate in which the ancients held the Africans, 
that they selected them as the only fit associates for their gods. 
And, in modern times, in aU the countries of their exile, they have not 
ceased to commend themselves to those who have held rule over 
them. The testimonies are numerous and striking, in all the allllais 
of this country, to the fidelity of the African. The newspapers of 
the lo..Dd are constantly bearing testimony to his unswerving faith -
hll11ess at this moment, notwithstanding the indignities heaped 
upon him. 
But there is another quality in the Ethiopian or African, closely 
cOllllected with the preceding, ,w hich proves that he has stretched 
out his hands unto God. If service rendered to humanity is service 
rendered to God, then the Negro and his country have beeu, during 
the ~gest in spite of untowal'd iufluences, tending upward to the 
Divine. 
Take the country. It has been called the cradle otcivilisatioll, 
and so it is. The germs of all the sciences and of the two great 
religions now professed by the most enlightened races were fostered 
in Africa. Science, in its latest wonders, has nothing to show equal 
to some of the w<?nderful things even now to be seen in Africa. In 
Africa stands that marvellous architectural pile-the great Pyramid 
-which has been the admiration and despair of the world for a 
hundred generations. Scientific men of the present da.y, mathema-
li ;ians, astronomers and divines, regard it as a SOl·t of key to the 
universe-a symbol of the profoun'dest tl'uths of science, of religion, 
and of aU the past and futw'e history of man. Though apparently 
Africa's Service to the World. 135 
closely secluded (rom all the rest o( the world, Africa still lies at the 
gateway of all the loftiest and noblest traditions of the human ra.ce 
-of India., of Greece, of Rome. She intermingles with all the 
Divine administrations, and is connected, in one way or another, 
with some of the most famous names and events in the annals 
of time. 
The great progenitor of the Hebrew race and the founder of 
their religion sought refuge in Africa from the ravages of famine. 
We read in Gen. xii,lO, "And there was a famine in the land; and 
Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was 
grievous in the la.nd." Jacob and bis sons were subsequently sa.ved 
from extinction in the same way. In Africa., the Hebrew people 
from three score and ten souls multiplied into millions. In Africa, 
Moses, the greatest lawgiver the world has ever seen, was born and 
educated . To this land also resorted the ancient philosophers of 
Greece and Rome, to gaze upon its wonders and gather inspiration 
from its arts and sciences. Later on. a greater than Moses and 
than all the prophets and philosopbers, when in infancy, was pre· 
served from death in Africa. .. Arise," wa.s the message conveyed by 
the angel to Joseph, Ij Arise, and take the young child and his mother, 
and Bee into Egypt. and be thou there until I bring thee word: for 
Herod will seek the young child t1> destroy him." When, in his 
final hours, the Saviour of mankind struggled up the heights of 
Calvary, under the weight of the Cross, accused by Asia and 
condemned by Europe, Africa furnished the man to relieve him of 
his burden. "And as they led him away they laid hold upon one 
Simon, a Cy• renian, coming out of the country, and on bim they laid 
the Cross tha.t he might bear it after Jesus." 
And all through those times, and in times anterior to those, 
whether in sacred or profane matters. Africa is never out of view, as 
a helper. Egypt was the granary of Europe, often furnishing relief 
to sta.rving populations out of her inexhaustible abundance. Then, in 
modern times, when the enterprise and science of Europe had added 
a. fourth continent to the knowledge of mankind by the discovery of 
America. the discoverers found themselves helpless in their efforts 
to utilise the licher portions of the vast domain. The Aborigines, 
• 
136 Christianity, Islam and the Neg1'o Race, 
who welcomed them to the strange country, were not available for 
industrial purposes. The imagination of the new comers was 
dazzled with visions of untold wealth, but they were powerless to 
avail themselves of it. The feeble frame of the Mexican could not 
support the burdens of his Spanish taskmaster, and the whole race 
was passing away, with the throne of Montezuma, before the mailed 
warriors of Castile. The despairing cries of a moribund population 
reached the ears of the sympathetic in Europe, when the Negro with 
his patience, his stronger physical qualities, and his superior 
powers of endurance, was thought of, and Africa, the grey-haired 
mother of civilisation, had to be resorted to for the labourers who 
could work the newly·discovered country, and thus contribute 
towards the development of modern civilisation, and towards 
making this almost boundless territory what it now is. The dis· 
covery of America without Mrica, would have been comparatively 
useless, but with Africa, the brilliant eulogy recently pronounced 
upon this country by Mr. Bright, has become appropriate. 
II If we examine," says that distinguished orator and statesman, 
u all those old empires, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Parthian 
or the Roman; or if we go still further back in time and place, and 
examine what we know of the great empires of India or of China; 
or if we go to a more modern' time and regard the fall of ancient 
Rome; if we look, in our own time, at the growth of thle empire 
of Russia; if we look at the French Revolution, with all its vast 
results; if we look at the present power of Germany in Europe; if 
we look at the vast empire over all the world, of most of which we 
in tbis little island are, for a time, the centre, I think we shall 
admit, after all, tha.t there is nothing, in all these transactions of 
history, which for vastness and for permanence, can compare with 
the grandeur there is in the discovery of the American continent 
by Christopher Columbus," 
But in bringing about tbese great results, in belping to achieve 
this material and moral grandeur, Africa has borne an important 
part. He who writes the history of modern civilisation will be 
culpably negligent if he omit to observe and to describe the black 
stream of humanity, which bas poured into America from the heart 
Africa's Service to the World. 137 
of the Soudan. That stream has fertilised half the \Vestel'D can· 
tinent. It has created commerce and influenced its progress. It 
has affected culture and morality in the Eastern and 'Vestern 
hemispheres, and has been the m~ans of transforming European 
colonies into a great nationality. Nor can it be denied that the 
material development of England was aided greatly by means of 
this same dark stream. By means of Negro labour sugar and 
tobacco were produced; by means of sugar and tobacco British 
commerce was increased; by means of increased commerce the arts 
of culture and refinement were developed. The rapid growth and 
unparalleled prosperity of Lancashire are, in part, owing to the 
cotton supply of the Southern States, which c0uld not have risen to 
such importance without the labour of the African, 
The countless caravans and dhow-loads of Negroes who have 
been imported into Asia have not produced, so far as we know, any 
great historical results; but the slaves exported to America have 
profoundly influenced civilisation, The political history of the 
United States is the history of the Negro. The commercial and 
agricultural history of nearly the whole America is the history of 
the Negro. 
Africa, in recent times, also, bas been made, incidentally, to 
confer an important political beD~t upon Europe, and probably 
upon the- whole of the civilised world. When, two generations ago, 
Europe was disturbed and threatened by the restless and uu-
controllable energy of one of whom Victor Hugo has said that he 
put Proviqence to inconvenience (il genait Dieu,); and when the 
civilisation of the whole world was in danger of being arrested in its 
progress, if not put back indefinitely. by a proiilic and u.nscrupulous 
ambition, Africa furnished the isla.nd which gave asylum to this 
infatuated a.nd maddened potentate, and, by confining to that sea-
girt rock his formidable genius, gave peace to Europe, restored 
the political equilibrium, and llll fettered the march of civilisation, 
And now that Europe is exhausting itself by over-production, it is 
to Africa that men look to furnish new markets. India, China and 
Japan are beginning to consume' their l'aw materia.l at home, thus not 
only shutting Europe out from a market, but cutting off the supplies 
• 
138 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
of ra.w material. Expedition after expedition is now entering the 
country, intersecting it from east to west and from north to south, 
to find out more of the resources of a, land upon which la.rge portioos 
of the civilised world will, in no very remote future, be dependent. 
In the days of the slave-trade, when the man of the country was 
needed for animal purposes, no thought was given to the country. 
In those days Africa. was not inaptly compared to II An extensive 
deer forest, where the lordly proprietor betakes himself at times in 
quest or game and recreation. TIe has certa.in beats, which he 
frequents, where the deer have their tracks, and to which his beaters 
drive them. H ere he takes his sta.nd and watches for his prey, 
while the deep recesses of the forest remain to him a perfect terra 
incognita. In the same way the nations of Europe had pla.nted 
their establishments upon that coast, upou those lines which 
communicated Illost freely with the interior, and there awaited the 
approach of their prey, while little thought was given to the 
country beyond." 
But now things have changed. The country is studied with 
an almost martyt··like devotion, but with a ~omewhat contemptible 
indifference as to the inhabitants. In their eager search, the 
explorers have discovereu that Africa possesses the very highest 
capacity for the production, as raw material, of the various articles 
demanded by civilised countries. English, and Freflch, and 
Germans, are now in the struggles of an intense competition for 
the hidden treasures of that continent. Upon the opening of Africa. 
will depend the continuation of the prosperity of Europe. Thus 
Providence has interwoven the interests of Europe with those of 
Africa.. "That will bring light and improvement, peace and security, 
to thousands or women and children in Africa, will bring food and 
clothing to thousands of women and children in Europe. 
Thus, Ethiopia and Ethiopians, baving always served, will con· 
tinue to serve tbe world. The Negro is, at this moment, the 
opposite or the Anglo-Saxon . Those everywhere serve the world i 
these everywhere govern the world . The empire of the one is 
more wide-spread than that of any \lther na.tion; the semce of the 
other is more wide-spread than that or any other people. The 
A/rica's Service to the World. 139 
Negro is found in all parts of the world. He bas gone across 
Arabia, Persia, and India. to China, He bas crossed the Atlantic 
to tbe Western hemisphere, and here be bas laboured in tbe new 
and in the old settlements of America; in the Eastern, \Vestern, 
Northern and Southern States; in Mexico, Venezuela, the West 
Indies a.nd Brazil. He is everywhere a familiar object, and he is, 
everywhere out of Africa, the servant of otbers. And in the light 
of the ultimate good of the universe, I do Dot see why the calling 
of the ODe should be considered the result of a curse, and the 
calling of the other the result of special favour. The ODe fulfils 
its mission by domination, the other by submission. The ODe 
serves mankind by ruling; the other serves mankind by serving. 
The one wears the crOWD and wields the sceptre; the other bears 
the stripes and carries the cross. Africa is distinguished as having 
served and suffered. In this, her lot is not unlike that of God's 
ancient people, the Hebrews, who were known among the 
Egyptians as the servants of all; and among the Romans, in later 
times, they were numbered by Cicero with the" nations born to 
servitude," :; and were protected, in the midst of a haughty popula-
tion, only If by the contempt which they inspired." The lot of Africa 
resembles also His who made Himself of no reputation, but took 
upon Himself the form of a servan~ and, having been made perfect 
through ~suffering, became the" Captain of our salvation." And 
if the principle laid down by Ch,ist is th.t by which things are 
decided above, viz., that he who would be chief must become the 
servant ofl all, then we see the position which 1\1rica and the 
Africans must ultimately occupy. And we must admit that through 
serving man, Africa-Ethiopia-has been stretching out her hands 
unto God. 
But, if we understand the phrase to mean II suddenly," there is 
every indication that it will receive literal fulfilment. Men are 
now ruuuing to and fro, and knowledge of Africa is increasing. 
The downfall of Negro slavery in this country was sudden. The 
most sanguine philanthropists, thirty years ago, did not dream of 
• 
, Renan's Hibbert L~cturc., p. 47 . 
• 
I40 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
so sudden a. collapse of that hoary institution. And more has 
been learned of Africa in the seventeen years since slavery ha.s 
been abolished, than was ever known during all the previous period 
of modern civilisation, or, perhaps. of the world's history. And 
now, every possible interest that can gh"e impulse to human 
activity is aroused in connection with that land i and the current 
which is moving the civilised world thitherward, gains every day 
in force, in magnitude and in importance. The man of science is 
interested on account of the wonderful things that must be cou-
cealed in that vast continent. The statesman and politician is 
interested in the possibilities of new states yet to be founded in. 
the march of civilisation. The merchant is interested in the new 
and promising outlets for trade. The philanthropist is interested 
in the opening of a career of progress. of usefulness. and of happi. 
ness before the millions of that country. 
Another indication of the suddenness of Africa's regeneration is 
to be found iu the rest!essness of her descendants in this country. 
There are thousands of Negroes. in comfortable circumstances 
here. who are yet yearning after the land of their fatbers; who are 
anxious. not so much to be relieved from present pressure, as to 
obtain an expansive fieJd for their energies; who feel the need not 
only of horizontal openings-free movement on the plane which 
they occupy-but a. chance to rise above it-a vertical outlet. 
""ithin the last thirty years, the sentiment of race and of nation-
ality has attained wonderful development. Not only have tbe 
teachings of thinkers and philosophers set forth the importance of 
the theory. but the deeds of statesmen aud patriots have, more or 
less successfully, demonstrated the practicability of it. The efforts 
of men like Garibaldi and Cavour in Italy, of Kossuth in Hungary, 
of Bismarck in Germany, of the Ashantees and Zulus in Africa, 
have proved the indestructible vitality and tenacity of race. 
Notwithstanding the widespread progress of Mohammedanism 
in Africa., and though it has la.rgely influenced the organic life of 
numerous tribes in the vast regions of the Soudau. yet the Arabs, 
who first introduced the religion, ha've never been allowed to obta.in 
political ascendancy. Noue of the Nigritian tribes have ever abdi-
Africa's Service 10 the IVa rid. 
cated their race individuality or parted with their idiosyncracies in 
embracing the faith of Islam. But, whenever and wherever it bas 
been necessary, great Negro warriors ha,"e risen from the ranks of 
Islam, and, inspired by the teachings of the new faith, 'which 
merges all distinctions in ODe great brotherhood, have checked the 
arrogance of their foreign teachers, and have driven them, if at any 
time they affected superiority based upon race, from their artificial 
ascendancy. In the early days of Islam, when the Moors from 
the north attempted to establish political supremacy in the 
Nigritian countries, there rose up a Negro statesman and warrior, 
Soui Heli Ischia, and expelled the Moorish conquerors. He 
destroyed the ecc}G:siastical strongholds. which were fast growing 
into secular kingdoms. and erected upon their ruins one indigenous 
empire. having conquered all from Timbuctoo westward to the sea, 
and eastward to the frontier of Abyssinia, making about three 
thousand miles in length. Since then, Islam in Auics. has been 
very much modified in its practices by the social peculiarities of 
the people. And, withm the last twenty years, a distinguished native 
scbolar and '\Tarrior, Owaru Al·IIajj, suppressed the undue influence 
of the Arabs at Timbuctoo-attacked that city in l86,!, expelled 
the Arabs, and, with the same troops, confined the French to the 
western side of the Niger. His son ~hmadu now reigns at Sego, 
and, both by diplomacy ann force, is checking or controlling the 
renewed operations of the French in the vaney of the Niger. 
This seems to be the period of race organisation and race con· 
solidatioD. Tbe races in Europe are striving to group themselves 
together acco•r ding to their natural affinities. Tbe concentration 
and development of the Sclavonic power iu deference to this im· 
pulse is n menace to other portions of Europe. The Germn.ns are 
confederated. The Italians are united. Greece is being recon-
structed . And so this race impulse has seized the African bere. 
fIhe feeling is in the atmosphere-tLe plane in which races move. 
And there is no people in whom the desire for race integrity and 
race preservation is stronger than in the Negro. 
And I lDay be permitted to add bere, that on this question of 
race, no argument is necessary or effective. Argument may bc 
• 
142 Christiallity, Islam alld Ilze Negro Race. 
necessary in discussing the methods or course or procedw'e for the 
preserva.tion of race integrity, and for the development of race 
efficiency, but 110 argument is needed as to the necessity of such 
preservation and development. If a man does not feel it-if it does 
not rise up with spontaneous and inspiring power in his beart-
then he has neither part nor lot in it. The man who needs con-
viction on this subject, bad much better be left unconvinced. 
The Rev. Henry Venn, the late able Secretary of the Church 
Missionary Society, frequently dealt with this subject in the 
II Instructions given to Missionaries at their dismission" from 
Salisbury Square. In one of these inimitable addresses he says, 
with large practicality and clearness of judgment:-
'fhe importnnce of taking into account national distinctions is forced upon 
us by the enla.rgement of our missionary experience . . . . The com-
mittee warn you, that all'se race distinctiOIiS will probably ri.e in illtl'wity with 
the progress oj the millsioll. The distinctions ma.y be softened down by grace, 
they may be hid [rom ,·jew in a sea.son of the first lo\'e, Il.nd of the sense of unity 
in Ch rist Jesus; but they are part of our nature, a.nd, as the satirist sa.ys, .. You 
mn.y expel Nature for a. hme by force, but it; will surely return." So, distinctions 
of ro.ce are irrepressible. Thcy ILre compa.ratively weak in the early stage o[ a. 
mission, because all the superiority is on one side; but as the native race 
a.dvances in intelligence. as their power of arguing strengthens. as they excel in 
writing sensationa.l statements, as they become our rivo.l~ in the pulpit and on 
the platform, long cherished but d. -' rma..nt prejudices, and even passions, will 
occo.siono.lly burst forth. e 
But to return after this digression. It • IS no doubt ba•r d for you 
in this country to understand the strong race feeling in the Negro, 
or to appreciate the existence of such a feeling. As you glance over 
this land at the Negro population, their condition is" such as to 
inspire, if not always the contempt, the despair, of the superficial 
obsen'er, as to their future j and as you hear of their ancestral borne, 
of its burning climate and its fa.tal diseases, of its sandy deserts and 
its malarious swamps, of its superstitious inhabitants and degraded 
populations, you fancy that you see not one glimpse of hope in the 
dim hereafter of such a race. Dut let me ac;sure you tha.t, ignoble 
as this people may appear here, they have brought a blessing to 
e Instructions of the Committee, JUI1~ 30, 1868 See J!ellloir of lilt RtD. Il. 
rtml; by Ro" . Willio.m Knight, M.A.- Longman!!, Oreen and Co., London, E.C. 
Aj1'ica's Service to tile World. 143 
your shores; and you may rely upon it, that God has something in 
store for a people who have so served the world. H'3 has some· 
thing further to accomplish by means of a country of which He has 
so frequently availed himself in the past; and we may believe that 
out of it will yet come some of the greatest marvels which are to 
mark the closing periods of time. 
Africa may yet prove to be the spiritual conservatory of the 
world. Just as in past times. Egypt proved the stronghold of 
Christianity after Jerusalem fell, and just as the noblest and 
greatest of the Fathers of the Cbl'istian Church calle out of Egypt, 
so it may be, when the civilised nations, in consequence of their 
wonderful material development, shall have had theil' spiritual 
preceptions darkened and their spiritual susceptibilities blunted 
through the agency of a captivating and absorbing materialisDl, it 
ma.y be, that they may have to resort to Africa to recover some of 
the simple elements of faith; for the promise of that land is that 
she shall stretch forth her hands unto God. 
And see the wisdom and justice of God. While the Africans 
have been away rendering service their country has been kept for 
them. It is a very insignificant portion of that continent, after all, 
that foreigners have been permitted to occupy. Take any good 
map of Ahica, and you will see that"lit is blank everywhere almost 
down to tbe sea. Senegambia, that important country north of the 
equator, has been much tra.velled over, and yet it is only on the coast 
and in spots here and there that it is occupied by Europeans. Going 
down along the west coast, we find the French Colonies of Senegal 
a.nd Goree, the British settlements at the Gambia, Sierra. Leone, the 
Gold Coast and Lagos, the French colony of Gaboon, the Spanish 
island of Fernando Po, and the Portuguese colony of Loanda. The 
most important parts of the coast are still in the hands of the abo-
rigines; and civilised and Christian Negroes from the United States 
occupy six bundred l.1.l.iles of the choicest territory in Africa, called 
the Republic of Liberia. All travellers along the Coast pronounce 
the region of country included within the limits of Liberia, as the 
most fertile and wealthy along t}le entire coast, and commanding a 
ba.ck country of untold resources. Europeans tried for centuries to 
• 
144 Christianity, Islam alld the Negl'o Race. 
get a foothold iu that territory; but the natives would never consent 
to their settlement in it, while they gladly welcomed their brethren 
returning from exile in this country. 
The exiled Negro, then, bas a. home in Africa. Africa is his, i1 
he will. He may ignore it. He may consider that be is divested 
of any right lo it; but this will not alter his relations to tbat 
country, or impair the integrity of his title. He mu.y be content to 
fight against the fearful odds in this country; but he is the pro-
prietor of a vast domain. He is entitled to a whole continent by 
bis constitution and antecedents. Those who refuse. a.t the present 
moment, to avail themselves of their inheritance think they do so 
because they believe that they are progressing in this country. There 
bas, no doubt, been progress in ma.ny respects in their condition here. 
r would not, [or one moment, say anything that would cast a shadow 
upon their hopes, or blight, in the slightest degree, their anticipa.-
tions. I could wish tbat they might realise to tbe fullest exlent their 
loftiest aspirations. It is indeed impOSSIble not to sympathise with 
the intelligent Negl"O, whose imagination, kindled by the prospects 
and possibilities of this great country, the land of his birth, makes 
him desire to remain and share in its future struggles and future 
glories. But he still suffers from many drawbacks. The stranger 
visiting this land and going a.:nong its coloured inhabitants, and 
reading their newspapers, still hears the wail of slavery. The wail 
of physical suffering has been exchanged [or the groans of an 
:intellectual, social, a.nd ecclesiastical ostracism. Not IOllg since the 
touching appeal o[ a coloured man, almost in jorm,a pauperis, before 
a great ecclesiastical assembly [or equal rights in the C.Llurch,' was 
wafted over the country, and sent its thrilling tones into many a 
heart, but yet the only response has been the reverberation of the 
-echo. And who cannot understand the meaning of the hesitancy 
on the part of tbe powers that be to grant tbe appeal? "He who 
Iuns may read." 
As a result of their freedom and enlarged education, the de· 
7 Rev. Mr Ha.mmond before the General Conierence of the Methodist 
Episcopo.l Church, held at Cincinna.ti, i:u Ma.y, 1880, on the question of the 
-< lection of a. coloured bishop. 
Africa's Sel'vice to Ihe Wo1'id. 145 
scendants of Africa in this country are beginning to feel themselves 
straitened. They are beginning to feel that only in Africa will they 
find the sphere of their true activity. And it is a significant fact 
that this impulse is coming from the Southern States. There is the 
great mass of the race; and there their instincts are less im· 
paired by the ioiusion of alien blood and by hostile climatic in-
fiuences. There we find the Negro in the almost unimpaired 
integrity of his race susceptibility, and he is by au uncontrollable 
impulse feeling after a congenial atmosphere which his nature tells 
him be can find only ill Africa. Awl he is going to Africa. 
As long as be remq,ins in this country, he is hampered both in 
mind and body. He can cODcei\~e of no radiance, no beauty, no 
inspiration in what are ignorantly called <C the Wilds of Afdca." 
The society in which he lives in the lands of his exile he supposes, 
from knowing no other, to be the normal condition of man, and 
fancies that he will suffer if he lea\-es it. But when he gets borne 
he finds the atmosphere there a part of himself. He puts off the 
garment 'Which has hampered his growth here, and he finds that 
he not only does Dot take cold, but bas a chance for healthful 
development. 
There is Dot a single Negro in the United States on the road to 
practical truth, so far as his race is ~oDcerned_ He feels something 
in him, his instincts point to it, but he cannot- act out what he feels_ 
And when he has made up his mind to remain in America, he has 
also made up his Ulind to surrender Lis race integrity; for he sees 
no chance qf its preseryatioll. There is in him neither hope enough 
to excite the desire to preserve it, Dor dcsire enough to encourage 
the hope of its presen·ation. Bur, in Africa, he casts off his trammels. 
His wings develop, and he soars into an atmospherc of exhaustless 
truth for him. There he b!3{!omes a righteous man; he C;tsts off his 
fears and ills doubts. There for him is perpetual health; there he 
returns to reason and faith. There he feels that nothing can 
happen to the race. There he is surroundecl by millions of men, as 
far as he can see or hear, just like himself, and he is delivered from 
the constant dread \"vhich haras~es him in this country, as to what 
is to becorue of the Negro. There the solicitude is in the opposite 
L 
• 
146 Christiallily, Isla", and Ihe Negro Race. 
direction. There he fears for the white man, living in a. climate 
hostile, and often fatal to him. 
But there are two other facts, not, perhaps, generally known, to 
which I would like to call attention. The first is, that, notwith· 
f>tanding the thousands and millions who, by violence and plunder, 
have been laken from Africa, she is as populous to-day as she ever 
was; and the other is, that Africa has never lost the betler classes 
of her people. As a rule, those who were exported-nearly all the 
forty millions who have been brought away-belonged to the 
sCl'Yiie aud criminal classes. Only bere and there, by the accidents 
of war, or the misfortunes of poUtics, was a leading African 
brought away. Africa is often called the Niohe of the nations, in 
allusion to the fact that her children in such vast numbers have 
b~en torn from her bosom; but the analogy is not strictly accurate. 
The ancient fable tells tbat Niobe clung to her children with warding 
arms, wbile the envious deities shot child after child, daughters 
aud fair sons, till the wbole twelve were slain, and the mother, 
powerless to defend bel' offspring, bersell became a stone. Now 
this is not the fact with Africa.. The children who were tOl'll from 
her bosom she could well spare. She has not been petrified with 
grief; she has not become a. stone. She is as prolific to-day as in 
the days of yore. Her green'lless a.nd fertility are perennial. It 
was said of her in the past, and it may be said of her to-day, that 
she is ever bringing forth something new. 
And she has not been entirely bereaved even of those who have 
been torn from her bosom. In all the countries of their exile, 
severe as the ordeal has been, they have been preservea. It Dlight 
be said of them as of the Hebrews in Egypt, If the more they 
afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew," 
No; if we are to gather an analogy to Africa. from ancient 
fabl e. the Sphinx supplies us with a truer symbol. The Sphinx 
was said to sit in the road side, and put riddles to every passenger. 
If the man could not answer, she swallowed him alive. If he could 
solve the riddle, the Sphinx was slain. Has not Africa been, 
through the ages, sitting on the highway of the world? There 
she is, south of Europe, with hut a. lake between, joined on to 
A/rica's Service to the World. I47 
Asia, with the most frequented ocea.ns on the east and west of 
her-accessible to all the races, and yet her secret is unknown. 
She has swallowed up her thousands. The Sphinx must solve her 
own riddle at last. The opening up of Africa is to be the work 
of Africans. 
In the Providence of God, it seems that this great and glorious 
work is reserved for the Negro. Centuries of effort and centuries 
of failure demonstrate that white men cannot build up colonies 
there. If we look at the most recent maps of Africa, we see that 
large tracts have been explored: English, German, Belgian, French 
and American expeditions have lately described large portions of 
the continent; but everyone must be struck by the enormous • 
gaps that remain to be filled in-the vast portions which the foot 
of the white man has never trodden. With the exception of the 
countries south of Egypt, the great lake region, and the strip of 
count·ry from east to west, containing the routes of Cameron and 
Stanley, and if we leave out the podion of North Central Africa 
explored by Barth-the country is still as unknown to foreigners 
as it bas been throughout all history, from the days of Herodotus 
and Ptolemy to the present. Who knows anything of the moun-
tains of the moon? of all that vast region which lies directly east 
of Liberia, as far as the Indian OcJan? Wbat foreigner can tell 
anything {)f the interior of Bonny, or of Calabar? If we examine 
the Continent, from the extreme north to the extreme south, from 
Egypt to Kaffraria or the country of the Zulus, we see very little 
yet accompl,is hed. The most snccessful effort yet made in colon ising 
Africa is in Liberia. 11his will be permanent, because tbe colonists 
are of the indigenous stock. There are six hundred miles of coast, 
and two hundred miles of breadth, rescued for civilisation. I mean, 
in that extent of country, over a million of people are on the road 
to self*elevation. They come in contact with an atmosphere of 
growth. 
Now the people who are producing these changes have a peculiar 
claim upon this country-Cor they went out frolD this nation 
and are carrying American insti~utions into that Continent. And 
this great country has peculiar facilities for the work of African 
• 
• 
148 Christianity, Islalll and the Negro Race. 
civilisa.tion. The nations or Europe are looking with anxious 
eyes to the "Dark Continent;' as they love to call it, probably 
for the purpose of kindling theil' religious zeal, or stimulating their 
commercial instincts. But not one of them bas the opportunity of 
entering that Continent with the advantages DC the United States. 
They caunot send their citizens there from Europe to colonisc-
they die. France is now aiming at ta.king possession, by railroads, of 
the trade of the Soudan, from Algeria and Senegal. But the success 
of the scheme, through European agency, is extremely prable. 
rnatical. The question has been mooted of transferring their Negro 
citizens from the West Indies-from Martinique and Guadaloupe-
but they cannot spare them from those islands. England would 
like to transport to the countries of the Niger, and to the regions 
interior of Sierra Leone, civilised blacks from ber colonies in the 
Western hemisphere; but to encourage such a movement ,,"oulel be 
to elestroy Barbadoes, Jamaica and Antigua. The King oC the 
Belgians, in his philanthropic and commercial zeal (or the opening 
and colon ising of Africa, has no population available. The United 
States is the only country which, providentially, cau do the work 
wWeh the whole world now wants done. Entering on the ,,'est 
Coast, through Liberia, she may stretch a chain of coloDies of her 
own eiti7.ens through the whoM' length of the Souuan, Cram the Xiger 
to the Nile-from the Atlantic to the Iudian Ocean. 
This country, sa.iu Dr_ Storrs. hIlS thousands of liberated and Chri:;tia.ni:icd 
Africans in it. just at the moment when tha.t dark continent is suddenly opened 
to the access of the Go!>pcl. God has been building here a. power, for the glory 
of llis nrune, and for His service In the ea.rth. I see the f;ta.mp held in the 
hnnd. and the liquid wa.x lying before it; and I do not doubt thCLt the pW'pose 
is to Ii!: lhe iml'l't!ssion on that wax from the engrayed urass or ",t<)nc. I 6ee 
the men whom man hOos brought h(·re, and whom God h.w eonl'crted, a.nd before 
them those yast outstretching realms made ready for the trutb; and I cannot 
doubt that Hi~ purpo:le is to fil[ by these men, upon tho!e prepa.red lands, the 
inscription of the Gospel and the Cross I And it "eem:> to mc thnt in the end 
all men mu~t feel this" 
game hase already gone, the pioneers in this great work. 
Leaving the lanu oC their birth, where they }Hwe la.boured for 
-
• Di'lcourse before the American ::U1~sjona.ry A,socia,tion. October, 11379 . 
• 
Africa's Service to the World. L!9 
generations, they have gone to brave the perils of another wilder-
ness, to cut down forests, to clear away jungles. to make roads, to 
build towns, to cultiva.te farros, and to teach regular industry to 
their less favoured brethren; and they ask you to follow these Dew 
settlements, as they push into the heart of the continent, with all 
the aids and appliances of your advanced civilisation. 
In visions of the future, I behold those beautiful hills- the 
banks of those charming strea.ms, the verdant plains and flowery 
fields, the salubrious highlands in primreval innocence and glory, 
and those fertile districts watered everywhere as the garden of the 
Lord; I see them all taken possession of by the returning exiles 
from the West, trained for the work of re·building waste places 
under severe discipline and hard bondage. I see, too, their brethren 
hastening to welcome them from the slopes of the Niger, and from 
its lovely valleys-from many a sequestered nook, and from many 
a. palmy plain-Mohammedans and Pagu.ns, chiefs and people, all 
coming to catch something of the inspiration the exiles have 
brought-to share in the borrowed jewels they have imported, and 
to march back hand·iu·hand ""ith their returned brethreu towards 
the sunrise for the regeneration of a continent. And under their 
united labours, I see the land l'apidJy reclaimed-raised fl'om the 
slumber of ages, and rescued from a stagnant barbarism; and 
then, to tbe astonishment of the whole world, in a higber sense 
than has yet been witnessed, If Etbiopia. shall suddenly stretch out 
her hands unto God." 
• 
• 
• 
Echoes from Africa.' 
"THE fate of the Negro," it bas been said <I is the romance of our 
age." The events which have transpired in his history siDce 
the great emancipation in the United States, and which are now 
transpiring, are in the higbest degree romantic. There will always 
gather around the history of the race a pathetic interest, which 
must kindle the imagination, touch tbe heart, and awaken the 
sympathies of all in whom there is a spark of hUlllanity. 
The intelligence we have just received from America of large-
migrations of Negroes from the Southern to the Western States is 
full of melancholy and suggestive interest. To reflecting minds 
acquainted with the history of Southern society during the last fifty 
years these events are not surprising. Retributive justice may 
linger, but it is sure. A prosperity built up on the wrongs of a race 
by the uurequited labour of a wbole people, ought Dot to have beeu 
expected to be permanent. In iS58, the chivalry of Louisiana. passed 
a. law forbidding free blacks to come in; now they would pass a law 
forbidding tbem to go out. 
Many yen.rs ago, we are informed by a wTi~er of Southern birth, a.n artist of 
Philadelphio. was engaged by the S~ate of South Oarolina. to paint some national 
emblematic picture for her State Rouse. Jefferson Davis wa.s requested to act 
with the South Carolina Commi~tee at Washington in criticising the studies for 
this work. The most creditable sketch presented was 0. design representing the 
North by various mechanical implements; the West by a prairie und plough; 
while the South wns represented by "arious things, the centre-piece, however, 
being 0. cotton-bale with a. Negro upon it fast asleep. When Mr. Davis saw it, 
he said, "Gentlemen, this will neyer do; what will become of the South when 
the Negro wn.kes up?" 
1 'l'he American MissiQnary. December, 1878; January and February, 1879. 
-America.n Uissionary Associa.tion, New York. J'II/!. Th"ee Despised Race. in the 
United StaleS; an Address by Joseph Cook. American Missiona.ry Associa.tion. 
Now York, 1878. 
Echoes from A/ rica. 15 I 
The discussions which the reconstruction laws have mOode 
possible in the South, the circulation of newspapers, the education 
of Negro youth as preachers and teachers, have roused the Negro, 
and startled him to his feet. The thunders of the Civil ~~al' a"voke 
him from his profound slumber; but he lay on the cotton-bale with 
his eyes open, uncertain where he was. The man who has been sud-
denly roused from a long sleep takes some time to recover himself. 
The Negro is now up-stupid, perhaps, as yet, from a protracted and 
undisturbed slumber, but be is up, and wants to adjust his relations 
to the cotton-bale upon an equitable footing, or leave the bale and 
its owner to their fa+e. Hence the exodus and migration idea. 
which menaces the South in every department of its organic life. • 
And this is a specially inopportune moment for the carrying out of 
such an idea on anything like a large scale. The prosperity of the 
South bas been rapidly returning under free labour, and was being 
placed on a satisfactory and enduring basis. Mr. Jefferson Davis 
lately declared that the ex-slaveholders were so far satisfied with 
the change that they would not, if they could, revert to the former 
system. And yet the owners of these reviving estates have been 
so unwise and reckless as to adopt such a system of treatment as 
has spread dissatisfaction among their hands. And, from all we 
can gather, this harsh and oppressife treatment has not been of a 
hap-hazaJ.'d or isolated character, but the result of a deep-laid 
scheme. The plan seems to have been so to impoverish their 
labourers as to make them helplessly dependent, to check by a 
tyrannical Ijepression the normal impulse of advance, to arrest the 
people through their elementary needs at a capriciously-chosen 
point in their progress, and fix them in it, and thus bring about a 
species of serfdom very little better than the former bondage. 
The Rev. Joseph Cook, the celebrated Boston lecturer, in an 
address before the American Association, ftunishes the following 
information :-
Last summer, on Lake Cha.uta.uqua, while I bad a little leisure, I fell into 
con\-ersation with one of the acutest members of Washington society-I dare 
not describe him more definitely-a.nd he slloid to me: "Tbe Negro is getting in 
debt. He is a. peasant· he rents la.nd•;  he has only very small wages; he buys 
his groceries a.t n. store owned by his la.ndlord, and runs up a bill there; and 
• 
• 
152 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
the silent scheme of the South is to get the Negro into debt. Then he cn.nnot 
very well leave town until his debts a.re pa.id. He becomes So future , in ma.ny 
eases, beca.use of bis indebtedness; and, to ma.ke the story short, sir," sa.id my 
informant, "some of us fear that fifty yea.rs hence a. considera.ble portion of the 
freedmen will be in a sta.te of peonage. They will be b!l.llkrupt tena.nts under 
the power of la.ndlords. And it is often whispered in the South that this will 
be the next best thing to the rcstora.tion of slavery." 'l 
No people having their eyes open and standing on their feet 
would long submit to such a state of things. But the intelligent 
.among the Negro population do Dot seem to consider that any 
migration in the United States will materially affect for the better 
the social and political statns of the coloured people. 
The Peop/c's.Adt'ocatc (Feb. 1, 1879), a coloured paper published 
at Washington, in an able editorial on the subject, says :_ 
There has been e. very respecta.ble partio.! migro..tion, n.nd no perceptible 
change bas come o'l"cr the South in its ideas of Negro citizenship. In 1869-70, 
60,000 left Virginia and Nortb Om·oline. for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana., 
nnd Arkmlsas. They left Georgia. by the thousands for Arka.nsas, l'Ilississi})pi, 
nnd Louisia.na, a..nd have gone from Eastern Virginla to New York and New 
England; but the feeljng is nearly as bad to-day in Virginia and Georgie. as it 
wa.s years ago. 
And they are now fleeing from Alabama, Mississippi and 
Louisiana. 
'Tis but 0. poor relief they gain 
Who cha.nge th'e place but keep the pa.in. • 
And it strikes us, viewing matters from this distant standpoint, 
that the feeling toward the Negro will continue to be II bad" in the 
United States, if being" bad" means the non-recognition of his 
social and political equality with the white man. For the Negro, 
pure and simple, there is no country but Airica, and in America his 
deeper instinds tell him so. He will never be understood, nor will • 
ho ever uuderstand his Europeau guide and teacher, as long as he 
)'emains 1D the countries of his exite. He is often misled by the 
overflowing and ceaseless generosity of white men into a belief that 
his benefactors are getting nearer to the idea of practical oneness 
and brotherhood with him . But among the phenomena in the 
relations of the whit.e mall to the Negro in the house of bondage 
2 'The Three Despised Races.' &c • p. 25. 
Echoes frolll Africa. 153 
Done bas been more eW'iolls than this: that the white man, under 
a keen sense of the wrongs done to the Negro. will work for him, 
will suffer for him, will fight for him, will even die for him, but be 
cannot get rid of a secret contempt for him. 
Mr,-James Parton, in his article on' Antipathy to the Negro,' 
sa.ys :-
When Miss Kemble ca.me first to Boston, in 183:2, she sa.t next to the la.te 
John Quincy Ado.ms at dinner one da.y, a.nd tho conversa.tion tu[oed upon the 
tragedy of .. Othello." Miss Kemble has since reported ono or Mr. Ada.ms' 
remarks on this subject :-" Ta.l.kir..g to me :l.bout Desdemona.. bo assured me, 
with a. most serious expression of sincere disgust, tha.t he considered a.1I her 
misfortunes a.s a. .ery just judgment upon her lor ha.ving married a. lIj99~r." If 
this Bllecdote bad not come to us ou such respecta.ble a.uthority, we could 
ba.rdly believe it of 0. mo.n \~ho. during the last; and best ten yea.rs of his life , 
wa.s looked upon o.s the blll.ck mo.n's champion 
Theodore Parker, who, in pleading for the slave, could" stir his 
hearers to the bottom of their hearts and soften them to tears; It 
who, in his famous letter to Millard Fillmore (Nov. 21, 1850), 
could sa.y :-
I would rather lie all my lile in ja.il o.nd starve there , than refuse to protect 
one of these po.rishioners of mine. .. •• William Craft and Ellen weTe 
pari"hioners of mine. i 'hey ha.ve beeu at my house. I married them a. Cort-
night ago this da.y. After the ceremony J put a. Bible o.nd then a sword into 
William's hands, and told him the usc of each ... •• There hlLllg beside me in 
my libra.ry, 'll.s I write, the gun my grandfather fought with o.t the ba.ttle of 
Lexington-he was a. captain on that occasion-a.nd also the musket he ca.p-
tured from a British soldier on tbat da.y, the first taken in the war for inde-
pendence. If I would not peril my property, my liberty. my life. to keep my 
pa.rishioners o.ut of slavery. then I would thrO\V awa.y these trophies, a.nd should 
think J was the son of some coward, and not a ura.\'e man's child.' 
Theodore Parker, who could say, "I should like of all things to 
see an insurrection of sla.ves;" :; who could pronounce that pathetic 
and touching but terrible discourse over the great Webster; this 
same Theodore Parker djd not think it inconsistent with his high 
~ North Amtrican RevitllJ. Nov.-Dec., 1878 . 
• Biography 0/ Thtodort Par]ur; by Octavius Brooks Frothingbam.-Boston, 
Ja.mes R. Osgood & Co .. 1876 ; pp. 410: 411. 
6 Ibid ., p. 475. 
, 
154 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
ideal of human liber~y and equal rights to write in a private letter 
as follows :-
Last night I could not coa.x the thermometer down below 79 degrees any 
wa.y we could fix it. Now, a.t eight and a,·ba.1f a..m., I da.re not look a.t it, it is 
80 high. In the midst of the hea.l , there just ca.me a. monstrous AfriCMl black! 
o dear, how black he wa.s! Fa.t! bless me, he looked like a. ba.rrel (no, a. wgar 
hogsh~ad) of tar, so black, so fa.t! Wba.t an aggra.va.tion, with the thermometer 
a t 90 degrees in the shade I a 
We should have taken this for the irrepressible overflow of 
harmless witticism but for othel' disparaging references to the 
Negro. To Miss Hunt he writes, under date November 10, 1857;-
There are inferior races which ha.ve alwa.ys borne the same ignoble rela.tion 
to the rest of men, Ilond always will. For two generations what a chn.nge there 
will be in the condition o.nd cha.racter of the Irish in New EngJlUld! But, in 
twenty genera.tions, the Negroes will stand just where they a.re now; that is, if 
they ha.ve not disa.ppeared. In Uassachusetts there are no la.w8 now to keep 
the black man from lI.Ily pursuit, a.ny office, tho.t he will; but there hns never 
been a. rich Negro In New England; not 0. maD with ten thousa.nd dollars. 
perha.ps none wit.h five thouslI.Ild dollars; none eminent in anything except the 
ca.lling of a,10airer.7 
Again: If In respect to the pou'er oj civilisation, the African is. 
at the bottom, the American Indian next." 8 Again:" When. 
slavery is abolished, the African population will decline in the 
United States, and die out of'the South as out of Northampton 
and Lexington." 0 
1\11'. Parker, after all he said and did for freedom, seems to bave 
bad an invincible contempt for weak and oppressed races. He 
waged uncompromising warfare against the process by ,w.  hich such 
peoples are degraded, but bad no cbarity toward those suffering 
from the results of such process. He fought against the parent, 
and ridiculed the offspring. The abstl'act to hjm was hateful; the 
concrete examples contemptible or ludicrous. He scorned the 
Irish and laughed at the Negro. He speaks of the Irish as 
follows :-
I don't know but these Paddies Me worse than the Af.ricans to the country. 
We mnde a. grent mistake in attracting them here and allowing them to vote 
under less tba.n twenty·one years of quc rantinG, Certainly it would take a.ll 
I 
o Biography, p. 311. 1 Ibid. , p. 467. 8 Ibid ., p.327. ~ Ibid., p. 4'i3. 
\ 
I 
Echoes from Africa. ISS 
that time to clean e. Paddy-on the olJ.t'id~. I mea.n; to clean him inwardly 
would be like picking up a.ll the sands of the Sahara.. There would be nothing 
left when the se.nds were gone. IO 
It is a pity that in speaking of the II gintleman from Car-r-r-k," 
as in caricature he describes the Irishman, and of "the poor 
wretches from Africa," be did Dot conform to his own canon of 
criticism. Speaking of Pierpont, he says: c. Just DOW, considering 
all that he has dOlle and suffered, it would seem a Jittle ungenerous 
to be quite just. All pictures must be painted in reference to the 
light they are to hang in and be looked at." 1t 
hlr. Parker knew the "light" of prejudice and contempt in 
which his picture of the Negro was to II hang," and yet, making no 
allowance Cor circumstances, and uninfluenced by the laws of 
moderation, he holds the balance between light and shade with an 
indifferent hand, paints in the gloomiest possible colouTS, and thus 
encourages rather than disarms the falsifying faculty of the 
observer, predisposed to an unfavourable impression. 
Would Mr. Parker have joined Dennis Kearney, and raised a 
crusade in favour of the inhospitable legislation proposed by the 
opponents of Chinese immigration? In view of the splendid results 
in the United States, and in the world generally, or the manly 
struggle which Mr. Parker maintain~d for truth and freedom-in 
"iew of the large sacrifices which he unquestionably made in the 
cause of free humanity-many errOI"S of temper and judgment on 
his part lllay be forgotten; but the Negro can never forget the 
slurs upon his race, of which, however, no one, perhaps, more 
readily than•  Mr. Parker would now admit the ilDpolicy, if not the 
injustice. For how do such utterances differ in character and 
effects from those of the Notts and Gliddons, of the Calhonns 
and Jeff. Davises? And the fact-which should be suggestive to 
thinking Negroes in the United States-that they are reproduced 
in t?e Biography by Mr. F'J:othingham, shows that there is a 
feeling that. they are the proper thing to say, even now, about the 
Negro. Can Congressional legislation remedy the evils produced 
• 
to Ibid., p.473. 11 Biography, p. 320. 
, 
156 Christiallity, Islam nlld the Negro Race. 
by such caricatures and misrepresenta.tions? Congress may decree 
civil rights to the" despised" race in America, and the exigencies 
of party may occasionally bring the Negro to the frout; but what 
progress can he make when a public sentiment against him is 
fosLered in the writings and in the private intercourse of his 
fri ends? In the language of the Liberian Declaration of Rights, 
"Public sentiment, more powerful than law, will eler frown him 
down. " 
The Negro, pure and simple, may rely upon it that, for him, the 
most enthusiastic of his benefactors sees nothing but the lowest 
occupations. In the case of the most liberal of his advocates, he 
will have occasionally to exclaim, Et til, Brute / 
A writer in the Methodist Quarterl!J Rcviell' for Janua.ry, 1875, 
on' The Negro,' has the following among the closing senteuces of 
an able a.nd plansible defence of the race :-
Without the Negro, the top-stone of our nlltionlll grea.tness will not be lifted 
to its predestined lofty altitude (or centuries yet to come. Expatriate the 
Negro, and our eotton-fields whiten no more; our turpentine orcha.rds become 
silent a.s the grave; our rice-fields grow up into canebrakes, sheltering the 
o.lligator a.nd wild bonr, 
But does the American conscience ever look forward to the 
time when, in the United Stat~s, the Negro will haye any common 
interest in, or any-the slightest possible-control over, tl::e political 
and financial elements of the country-when he will be needed as 
a part of the directing agency in the halls of legislation, in counting. 
houses, and in banking establishments? 
Mr. Parton, in the N01'th American Review, says:-
The South is most bappy in possessing the Negro, for it is through his 
assista.nce that there will be the gra.nd agriculture in the Southern Stlltes, 
which cannot flourish unless there is 110 cla."s to la.bour and individuals to can· 
trive. The Southern fa. rmer, by the L1ack man's help, can he a." scholar and 
n. gentleman," a.nd at the same bme secure and elevate the black ma.n's life. 
Such utterances" give colour to the idea" that the Negro wa.s 
made to live and improve only in the service, a.nd under the 
guidance of, a superior. If this view is correct, then why does not 
the great Crea.tor allow the elect masters to have free access and-
safe incursion into the natural home of the created slaves, and 
Echoes from Af"ica. 157 
live in a land where they might hold their predestined p1'oteges in 
unlimited numbers, and ill comfortable service? Why did He 
make for the slaves so magnificent a country, and surround it with 
a wall of fire, so that if the master comes to the threshold, he 
either beats a hasty retreat, or perishes in the attempt to pene· 
trate? 
Ma.ssa run a.wo.y, 
Da.rkee stay, oh oh! 
No; the destiny of the Negro and his marvellous country is veiled 
from the view of the outside world according to the wise and 
beneficent purposes of Omniscience. 
God is His own interpreter. 
And He will make it pla.in. 
H e can wait, if the impatient Caucasian cannot. 
The American Missionary Association, whose publications we 
have prefixed to this paper, in tlIeir work of lofty and noble purpose 
throughout the South, are eudea>ouring to prepare the Negro for 
higher spheres of labour than" cotton-fields, turpentine orchards, 
and rice-fields." Eyery Negro "ho is at all acquainted with 
matters in the United States must have the highest admiration for 
that Association. Almost alone among the beneT"olent institutions 
of that land in the days of the great struggle, they never, for 
ODe mon:mnt, yielded to the imperious dictates of an oligarchical 
monopoly, but gaye expression to the idea 'Which they inscribed 
upon their banner, that one of the chief purposes of their organisa. 
tion was to,  resist the tyranny of the autocracy which doomed the 
Negro to perpetual servitude. No one could be enrolled among 
the members of their Society who was a "slave·holder." They 
have the gratitude of the Negro race. 
But history will have a brighter page than even that with which 
to adorn their annals, when she comes to recount the devotion and 
sacrifices of the bundreds who ha\"'8 been sent forth, under their 
auspices, as uplifters of the prostrate host in the South, to whom, 
left as they were, paralysed by slavery, free movement and real 
progress were intrinsically i.mpossible without the aid of such 
agenCIes as the ~\merican Missionary Association. As time rolls 
• 
• 
158 Christianity, Islall! and Ihe Negro Race. 
ou, the romance which cHugs to those heroes who fought to uu· 
feller Ihe body of Ihe slave will fade beside Ihe halo which will 
surround those who have laboured to liberate his mind. 
We have read, with the deepest interest, the Report and some 
of t he addresses made at the Thirty·second Anniversary of this 
Association, held in October, 1878, as well as letters from yarious 
portions of the field undcr its supervision . In reading the accounts 
of the struggles and sufferings of the missionaries, their sorrows 
and disappointments, their battles and their victories among tbe 
lowly in remote and sequestered districts, it is often impossible to 
repress tears-tears of sympatby, of gratitude, and of joy. 
At the Anuual Meeting, the Rev. C. hl. Southgate said:-
We heard words of hee.rty pre.ise this afternoon, telling of the success of the 
work. They tell hardly enough. But these efforts should be redoubled. We 
want more institutions like those a.t Atlanta, New Orlen.ns, Charleston. and the 
other large Southern cities where high culture a.nd intelligence rule. The 
schola.rship can be compared without fear with similar grades nt the North. ] 
never heard, in our boasted common schools, such recitations ns I have bea.rd 
from boys EIoS black as the blackest. I know what Yale and Harvard and 
Dartmouth can show; but, in Greek and Latin, those coloured students can 
rival their excellence. The culture in morals and manners is at least not 
inferior, nor the religlous instruction less fruitful. The report from the 
Churches shows as large Ilond as h-ealthy success as we can show here. The young UleD a.nd women in these institutions have an intense longing to be at 
work for the lIIaster. The desperate condition of their race restt upon them 
like a pall. God is making them His prol,hets, and speaking through them , 
and sending redemption. 
The Rev. Dr. Bascom, in a letter from Alabama, says:-
I see abundant proofs of the beneficent work of your Society here. Could 
its influence ha.ve been exerted in like mllonner among all our coloured people 
of the South, the problem so perplexing to politicians and philn.nthropists, as 
to the future of this class in our country, would have been already solved. 
The Committee on the" Normal Work of the Association" 
reporled Ihat-
The eagerness of the coloUl'ed people to obtain o.t least a. rudimentary 
education has ever been a most encouraging sign. The young man who, last 
year, walked fifty miles with bis trunk upon his back that he might enter 
school, recalls the zeal of the late Dr. Godell, of Constantinople, who, in his 
youth, also walked sixty miles with a trunk strapped upon his back, that he 
• 
Echoes fro III Africa. 159 
might enter Phillips Aca.demy, a.t Andover. The demand for teo.chers from the 
llorm8.1 schools-quite beyond the a.bility to supply them-is one of the surest 
indica.tions tha.t the schools are meeting a.n urgent nced. 
We regret that Professor Hartranft, in his able address on the 
"Five Tests of American Civilisation," should have spoken of the 
.. brutality of the Negro." In what portion of the United States 
has that" brutality" been shown? Such a charge is in flagrant 
contradiction to all the testimony borDe of the Negro by those who 
know him best. 
And bere we must venture to enter our earnest protest against 
the use of such phrases as .. The Despised Races," which we 
see frequently used of•  late in the publications of the American 
Missionary Association. The Rev. Joseph Cook addressed the 
Association on the "Three Despisen. Races," and he wa.s followed 
by the Rev. C. M. Southgate on .. Puritanism and the Despised 
Races." Such expressions as "The Despised Race" and "The 
Dark Continent," applied to the Negro and his ancestral borne, 
have Dot, we fancy, the most salutary effect either upon those 
who employ them or upon those to whom they refer; in the one 
they often beget arrogance i in the other, servility or resentment. 
They do more than serve the ad captandum, purposes for which 
they are probably intended . In usitlg "great plainness of sl)eech " 
the instrudors of humanity should be "wise as serpents and 
harmless as doves," which, according to a Negro interpreter, 
means" an ounce of serpent to a pound of dove." Moreover, 
the whole of the rest of mankind does not hold the European, 
in view of h~s past history. in such wlqualified admiration as to 
admit without serious question that he bas a rigbt to embody in 
terse pbrases, and to parade in the titles of books, pamphlets, 
and addresses his contempt for otber races. There are those 
of other races who also sneer and scorn and <t despise." Some 
of the proceedings of Baker and Stanley in Africa must frequently 
have impressed the natives with the feeling that those energetic 
travellers came from much ,. darker continents" tban any tbeir 
unsophisticated imaginations had ever before suggested to them . 
The African now coming forward through education and culture 
• 
r60 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
cannot have unlimited respect for a11 the qualities of the European 
races: II A people with a passion for taking away the countries 
of others and dignifying the robbery as conquests j and whose 
systematic cruelty has been shown for ages, in chaining, buying, 
and selling another race." The intelligent Negro feels that the 
par~ of the oppressor is uo~ less to be despised than the part 01 the 
oppressed-that the part of the man-stealer and man-seller is far 
more contemptible than the part of the man stolen and sold. And 
this be will feel more and more. The brilliancy of the universal 
and prolonged success which bas given the European the idea that 
he has a right to despise others, and to proclaim the fact-the 
glories which have followed in the wake of his progress and con-
quests-are getting sadly dimmed in the light of a fuller under-
standing of the Gospel of Christ. Under the searching criticisms 
of rising intellects imbued with the essence of a Christian philo-
sophy, and influenced by the spirit of a science properly so called, 
those brutal instincts which received the eulogiums of the past are 
finding their propel' recognition as elements of character to be 
reprobated and suppressed. The Bosworth Smiths of to-day are 
superseding the Carlyles of yesterday. Might no longer makes 
right. The motto on the British coat-oi-arms is being slightly 
altered-not ,j God and my' Right," but H God and the Right." 
Whatever fj smacks of saltpetre" I~ is being depl'ecateil and con~ 
de. mned. Says the eloquent author of Carthage and the Cartha-. 
(flllla1lS :-
It is equa.lly reprehenaible, whether it be the plunder of half of Europe by 
the representative of one of its most enlightened nations, the arch-robber of 
modern times, Napoleon; or the sack of a. Chinese palace by those whom the 
Chinese had a right, in this instance at least, to style Ba.rbarians. If good men 
and great nations ha.ve hHhel'to often followed the example of Cicero in 
c1ra'\".-ing a. brond contra.st between tho extortions of a Verres and the high-
bn..nded plunder of Ma.rcellus, Ilr Wa.rren Hastings, or a Na.poleon, it is beca.use 
they hn..ye not yet reached the moral standa.rd which condemns the public 
robber; they look askance only at a. thicc.u1 
l'! Lord Sa,lisuury's Speech in the House of Lords, 1879, 
13 Cal'thaoe alld the CarClUlgillia1lg;"by R. Bosworth Smjtb, M.A., Assisto.nh 
Master in Ha.rrow School, &c.-London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1878. When 
Echoes fl'01ll Africa. r6r 
History. then, as it is read by the thinking Negro, will not 
diminish the vehemence of his protest a.gainst the injustice of being 
regarded by the European as belonging to a t< despised race," nor 
lessen the grounds of his desire to reciprocate the disparagillg 
sentiment. His bauds are free from the blood of other men. He 
has not in any way oppressed other races. He bas suffered, a11d 
that is all. He has been scattered and peeled. despoiled and 
plundered, abused, persecuted, and dowu.trodden, and that is all. 
The late Professor Tayler Lewis, of Union College, when he was 
once asked the flippant question, I< 'Vbat shall we do with the 
Negro?" replied, "And pray, sir, what shall the Negro do with 
you? It is my logic, with no disrespect to anybody, that one 
question is as fair as the other." 14 
The Negroes on the African continent who have not read 
Enropean history a-1'e w\'ided into two classes, namely, those who 
ha.ve seen and bad intercourse with the Europeans, and those who 
bave neyer seen but only heard of them. The view taken by the 
former at this moment is exactly that described by Mungo Park a 
hundred years ago. A century has made no change. Of the 
impressions of the latter we have a fail' specimen in one of Stanley's 
a.musing anecdotes. Mungo Park says: 
Although Lhe Negroes in general ha\'e 1. very great ideo. of the wealth nnd 
power of the Europeans, I am afraid that tho Mohammedan conyerts among 
them think vcry lightly of our superior attainments in religious knowledg£-
The white traders in the maritime districts take no pains to counteract thi9 
unbap}')' prejudice. 'The poor Africans, whom we a.ffect to consider a.;, bar· 
ba.rie.ns, look upon us, I fear , as little better than a. race of formidable but 
19norant Hea£beo. I 
Mr. Stanley, describing the people on the south·western shores 
of Lake Tanganyika, says :-
The conduct of the first nati,·es to whom we were introduced pleased us all 
They sbowed themselves in a very amio.ble light, sold their corn cbeaply nn(l 
Dr. Johnson expressed 0. hope that he might never hear of the Punio \Va.r;,; 
a.ga.in. he never a.nticipo.ted a.nything like this brilliant and charming work-
this ,tartling investment in flebh a.nd blood of the dry bones of Cartho.giniBll 
history. , 
II Mtlltodill Qllarttrly Rtvitw, Oct., 1878, p. 617. 
U Park', Trat·tZ,. 
, 
162 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. • 
without fuss, behaved themselves decently and with propriety. though their 
principal men, entertaining l'ery stran,'ll! ideas oj white men, ca.refully concea.led 
themselves from view, and refused to be tempted to expose themselves \vithin 
view or bea.ring of us. 
Their doubts of our character were reported to us by a. friendly young Ara.b 
e.s follows: "Ka.sao.ngn., chief of Ruanda.. says, ' How ca.n the white men be good 
when they come for no trade, whose feet one never sees, who alwa.ys go covered 
!rom hea.d to foot with clothes? Do not tell me theya.re good a.nd friendly. 
There is something very mysterious about them; perhaps wicked Probably 
they a.re ma.glcians ; at e.ny rate, it is better to lea.ve them alone, and to keep 
close until they are gone. ' " 
And again: 
In these people we rust saw the mild, a.miable, uDsophistica.ted innocence of 
this part of Central Africa., a.nd their behaviour wo.", exactly the reverse of the 
wild , ferocious, ca.nnibo.listic races the Arabs have described to us. 10 
After the disparaging view of the Negro taken by Pl'ofessor 
HartranIt, it is not surprising that he should have exclaimed: 
As to the ALl'icII.D, there are not a few America.ns, even in this da.y, who 
think a righteous solution of the African question is to ship them a.1I off to the 
Dark Continent, So fnr as the American Colonisation Society keeps in view 
education and other Christia.n instrumentalities I Lid them God-~peed; but if 
tbey desire ~o send the Negro out of the country, I say, No !-a. thousa.nd times, 
No I Let us solve the problem right here where God hns placed them. 
" fe caunot help repeating the last words of the paragrapb-
<I right here where Goel has l~laced them, "-and we think of the 
sanguinary scenes attending the capture and deportation of their 
• 
rathers from the ancestral land; the devastation of flourishing 
districts; the desolation and ruin by fire and sword; the pillage, 
the plunder, the murders, and the horrors of the middle passage. 
~rhere was alllong philauthropists a difference of o,tlinion when 
these people, or their fathers, were being shipped to America; and 
Professor Hartranft is not alone in his benevolent scruples about 
!';hipping them back to the" Dark Continent." 
The Re\-. Sylvanus Heywood, who seelDS to have a higher 
appreciation of the race and of its work, speaks of the Negro as the 
" black diamond plucked out of Africa," and ad\·ocates for him an 
education the same ill character and completeness as that gi\·en to 
the white man. He says:- • 
10 Through the Dark Continmt i Y01. ii, pp. 68,69. 
-
Echoes froll! Africa. 
You ma.yen&ct laws and hedge them a.bout with pena.lties for securing the 
rights of the bla.cks, hut la.w alone will prove a. failure. But give to them the 
highest Chrlstia.n culture. n.nd they will not only dema.nd, but comma.nd, their 
rights. Give them a. common school education, a.nd it will be a. blessing to 
them; but with nothing more they will rema.in but hewers of wood a.nd drawers 
of wa.ter They will be in society, but not of it. But give them the highest 
cultuze a.mong cultured men, a.nd the ca.se will be fa.r different. It is too la.te in 
the da.y to mise the question whether they a.re ca.pa.ble of this. This Assodation 
ha.s demonstrated tha.t da.y by da.y. I be.ve spent ten yea.rs BoS a. tea.cher a.mong 
the whites, a.nd two a.mong the blacks, a.nd I must ~ay tha.t T a.ccomplished 
more in those two yea.rs than in ten-more in the way of giving Instruction. I 
say, it is too late to ra.ise tha.t question a.t a,11. It is a.lrea.dy deDlonstra.ted. 
Let them be educated with broad culture. Let them have the training that 
will put thew in posses~ion of practical skill, such as sha.lI win success. Let 
them have their own lawyers well trained in lega.l lore, so thnt they sha.ll be 
a.ble-in tha.t na,tura,1 eloquence in which they excel-to carry convictIOn to 
dignified courts. Let them have clergymen, not only ea.rnest s.lld sa.nctlfied, 
but o.ble to cope with the deep things of science and theology-men a.ble to 
stand before the most learned bodies. Let them have stateBroen , well grounded 
in philosophy. history, a.nd government, 110 that they will be able, not only to 
win victories upon the stump. but in the ha.lls of legislation. Let their homell 
become homes of Christian culture and socia.l refinement. Then, and not till 
then, wlll they cease to struggle for their rights, and luke them. 
But :1[1'. Heywood takes also a much broader view of the logical 
and necessary sequence of all this high culture-of all this effective 
trallllDg. He points to the fatherla, nd. His philosophy is correct. 
For the Negro, pure and simple. this is the only real solution of bis 
difficultie~. He says:-
The wa)·1i of God are ID.ysterious. We must walk by faith, and not hy sight. 
We hear His voice saying, "This is the way; wa.lk ye Ul it." In bhis darkness 
we see His hand. In the raising of this Society nod the doing away with 
slavery, we c).n Bee almost visibly the ha.nd of God displa.yed upon the midnight 
sky, pointing to that dark continent. !Oaying we should send these freemen 
forth as the apostles of light to purify a.nd ma.ke glo.d their ancestral homes. 
:No man who bas any proper conception of the capaci~ies and 
work of the Negro. and has caught anything like a glimpse of his 
ultimate destiny, can fail to arrive at Mr. Heywood's conclusion. 
To the intelligent and earnest Negro in America. there is, as he 
rises in culture, an ever.wideniog horizon or duty and of liberty-
Home, or ra.ther the place of his birth, gets too narrow for liberty. 
too circumscribed for work, and he looks to Africa as the field 
for both . 
• 
164 Cll1'istianity, Islam alld tlte Negro Race . 
In an able article in the London Times for May 19, on the 
Negro migration in the United States, the following words occur:-
The truth is, tba.t tbe Negro is not a. migratory being He did not come of 
bis own accord to "i.rginia., or n.ny other Southern State; nor will he willingly 
leave it a.gain now tba.t he is o.cclimatised there He has found an Ames. in 
the South which is quite as congenia.l to him as tha.t from which his fore· 
fathers were transported. 
On the subject of the Negro, The,Times and everybody else, not 
African, am utterly in the dark. An acknowledged mystery hangs 
about him and his destiny. Foreigners do Dot know the Negro. 
'rhey have neyel' had an opportunity of knowing him . Foreign 
slavery on the one hand, and aboriginal barbarism on the other, 
are the only circulDstances under which they have had an oppor~ 
tunityof contemplating him. It is true that the" Negro is not a 
migratory being." He would never have appeared on American 
soil, if he had uot been taken thither by violence. And the restless-
lless he now shows is among the strongest pi'oofs of his freedom. 
He is now free to think and act for himself, and the consciousness 
of being a stranger in a strange land is beginning to operate upon 
him. The Times admits that" this is not the first symptom of 
a desire (or change among the coloured citizens;" and yet it fancies 
that the Negro bas found" Bf'l Africa in the South which is quite 
as congenial to him as that from which his forefaLbers w.ere trans-
ported, " The f<.Lct is, that the Negro is getting, every day, more 
and more into a position to show himself no longer a dormant, but 
an active, factor among the forces of civilisation, and the European 
win witness, almost daily. new developments in his character-the 
exhibition of qualities never suspected. Next to ridicule, one of 
the roost repulsive things to a sensitive miud is sympathy unduly 
extended, especially when the sympathiser has no means of 
correctly estimating the situation which he imagines should call 
forth his sympathy. There are very few Europeans who are 
qualified elther to guide 01' to sympathise with the Negro in the 
countries of his exile; and gra.tuitous auvice, even from these, in 
vita.l quest.ions of his race, has no Rl'actical influence upon him. 
tI Tht:! enthusiasm for Liberia" has not died out, as The Times 
I 
Echoes from Africa. 
imagines. The American Colonisation Society has at this moment 
five hundred thousand applicants for passage to Liberia. Dr. A. L. 
Stanford, a Negro of culture, who was sent last year as Commis· 
sioner to Liberia from his people in Arkansas, returned with a 
favourable report, in whlch be says:-
Aiter tra.velling extensively in Liberia. a.nd observing the prosperous 
condition of the colony which the American Colonisa.tion Society has planted-
a.nd, I am convinced, firmly established-I am prepared to lend my a.id in 
disa.busing the public mind in rega.rd to the noble efforts Plit forth by that 
Society in elevating the dmvntrodden Negro rnce. I entertain very different 
views from wha.t I held before. I verily believe tha.t Africa. is the natura.l 
home of the Negro, a.rd tha.t ere long the remna.nt of hel' descendants, 
,vhere'-er dispersed, will return to tha.t la.nd . I favour 0. gradual emigration 
of the more enterprising, ha.rd-workinS, a.nd intelligent c1a.ss of AmericlLD 
Negroes. I believe such a. course would prove a blessing to Africa. and to 
the race .n 
It is admitted by all travellers to the coast that Liberia occupies 
five hundred miles of the finest and most picturesque portion of 
West Africa, with an interior extending two hundred miles or 
indefinitely back, abonnding in everything necessary for the 
growth and prosperity of a people. The whole valley of the Niger 
is accessible to this Republic, teeming with a population everywhere 
hospitable and friendly, ready ani anxious to welcome to their 
salubriou~, prolific, and picturesque home, their brethren returning 
from the ~ountries of their exile. 
In the trade and commerce of this country there seems to be 
a special interest, not only for the Negroes in the United States, 
but for thb wbole .:\merican people. There would be unlimited 
demand for American productions in that vast region now almost 
untouched. Gold, and bides. and beeswax, and rubber, as well as 
the finest coffee, might be had in unlimited quantities. Not far 
from Liberia are the unvisited but easily accessible and wealthy 
countries north and west of Asbantee and Dahomey, possessing 
the very highest capacity for the consumption of manufactured 
articles and for the production of raw material-froDl which a 
• 
17.4.fric4n Repository, April, 1879; pp. 40, 41 . 
• 
166 CII1'istiallily, Islam alld IIze Negro Race. 
prodigious trade, struggling for a.u outlet, filters through, in very 
small quanti tiel=>, to the Gulf of Benin. 
Yiewing the subject in this light, it becomes a practical business 
question whether there are no large capitalists in the Northern or 
Southern States willing to invest in an entirely virgin country, so 
much nearer to the United States than many of those countries 
from which at; great expense tropical productions are now obtained 
(or the American market-a field where agriculture may find 
unobstructed scope; where so many results, moral. political and 
pecuniary, may be at ouce achieved; and wbere a Christian nation, 
with its multifarious agencies for diffusing civilisation, may be 
built up. If American capitalists desired to enga.ge in a.griculture. 
and to produce the far-famed Liberia. coffee, or any other tropical 
product, they could themselves select and send out able hands 
from America for this work. who, while building up a congeuial 
home for themselves and their ch.ildren, and making" the wilder· 
ness and solitary place glad" for their presence, would be also 
enlarging the wealth of their patrons. 
At a banquet given in Paris on the 19th of May, 1879, in 
commemoration of the a.bolition of slavery, hl. Victor Hugo said: • 
If In the nineteenth century, the white man has made the Negro 
Po man, and, in the twentieth4ceutury, Europe will make Africa. 
a world." 
'Ve a.dmire the epigrammatic fonn of this sentence, but we 
venture to disagree with the sentiment it contains. As philo· 
sopher and prophet, the great poet is in this instance. . mistaken. 
Poetical inspirations do not always suggest sound political lessons. 
But what he said further on in his speech should be carefully 
pondered by all intelligent Negroes everywhere. TIe said:-
The da.y bad come for tbe \"0. .4  continent which a10ne t\Inong the five p&rts 
of the world bad no lustory, to be reformed bJ' Europeans The Mediterraneo.n 
wo.s a. lake of civilisation. and it \\&8 the duty of Greece nnd of Italy. of France 
and of Spain, the four countries that occupied Its northern shores. to recoiled 
that a. va...~t territory lay unredeemed on the opposite coast. Engla.nd was 
0.180 worthy to ta.ke part in the great work. She, hke France. wa... . one of the 
grea.t free nations o( the globe; a.nd. liko Fmnce. she had begun the coionisntion 
nnd civilisation of Africa.. The latter held the north and east, the former the 
EcI'c'es from Africa. 
south and the west. America. bad joined in the task, and ItaJy was ready to 
do so. This showed the unit), of spirit which pum.ded the peoples of the world. 
M Yictor Hugo then described the magnificent scenery. the ferhlity, o.nd the 
u(wigo.ble rivers of Central Africa. in eloquent language, and concluded by 
exhorting the Europee.n nations to occupy this land offered to them by God. 
to build towns, to make roads, to cultivate the earth, to introduce trade and 
commerce, to preach peace and concord: so that the new contiuent. should not 
be the Beene of strife, but. (rce (rom princes and priests, should enjoy the 
blcHSingS of fraternity. I, 
It is reaDy high time that a "unity of spirit should pervade the 
peoples of the world" for the regeneration of a continent so long 
del:ipoiled by the un.ity 01' con!;ent of these same people!';. Thinking 
Negroe~ should a ... k tht!m~eln~s whal part they will take in this 
magnificent work, the work of reclaiming a continent-their ulnl 
continellt. In what way will they illustrate their parti<:ipation in 
the" unity of spu:it" which perya.les the peoples for the redemption 
of their fatherland? Compal't!il to this, most of the question~ with 
which they are endeavouring to ~n\pple in the United State!;, !<oink 
into insib'1uficance. The local can bear no comparison to the 
• universal, nor the temporary to the eternal. 
\~ictor Hugo exhort~ the EUl"opean nations to" occupy thi.:; land 
offered to them by God." He has forgotten the prudent ach'ict' of 
C::esar to the aucestorl:i of those ,n ations against invading Africa. 
The Europeans cau holel the domain" offered to them" by only a 
precarious tenure. But it already belongs to the exiled Negro. It 
is his by creation and inheritance. Eyery man, woman, and child 
of the Negro race out of Africa ought to thank God for this glorious 
heritage. p,nd hasten to possess it-a field for the physical, moral, 
and spiritual development of the Negro, where he will li\'e uneler 
the intluence of his freshe!;t inspirations; where, with the !;illlple 
shield of faith in God and in his race, and with the !;word of the 
Rpirit of progress, he will tl'l'OW and tb ri\'e; where, with his sym-
pathetic heart, he will catcb stra.y, far -oft· tones, inaudible to the 
foreigner, which, penetrating through the local ail', will waken 
chords in his nature now unknown to the world, and unsuspected 
even by himself. H e 'Will come under the influence of powers 
, 
l~ Daily Ttlt9luph, May 20 . 
• 
168 Christianity, Islaln and the Negro Race. 
which will haunt him with strange visions, and indicate the way be 
should go. Emerson says:-
A ma.n's genius. the quality that differences him from every other, tho 
susceptibllity to one class of influences, the selection of wha.t is fit for him, 
tbe rejection of wha.t is unfit. determines for him the chB.racter of the universe. 
A man is a method, a progressive arra.ngement, a. selecting principle, gathE'ring 
his like to him wherever he goes. He takes only his own out of the multiplicity 
tha.t sweeps and circles round him. He is like one of those booms which a.re 
set out from the shore on rivers to catch drift· wood, or like the loadstone 
among splinters of steel. .... A few anecdotes, a few traits of che.racter, 
ma.nners, face, a. few incidents, ba.ve a.n empbasis in your memory out of aJl 
proportion to their apparent significance, if YOll mensure them by the ordina.ry 
standards. They rela.te to yom gift. Let them ha.ve their weight. a.nd do not 
reject them and ca.st a.bout for illustrations a.nd fach more useful to literature. 
Wha.t your heart thinks grea.t is grea.t. The soul's empha.sis is a.lwa.ys rigbt.lD 
When Professor Hartranft says. "Let us solve the Negro pro-
blem }'ight here," in America, to what" problem" does he refer? 
and bow does he propose to solve the great questions of the African 
race in the United States? There are cel'tain problems at times 
set before a people by accidental and temporary circumstances; 
these lllay admit of solution by extra.neous help. There are others 
which grow out of their natural, inherent, and unchangeable relation 
to the outside world. or the universe; these are to be solved by the 
people themselves under favom;lug circumstances; the trusts and 
responsibilities which these impose are special, incommunicable, 
and inalienable. But probably Professor Hartranft means the 
problem pressing upon the white man in his relations to the 
Negro i the problem of his duty toward the II despised" race-his 
power to arrive at a satisfactory solution being a "te. . t" of his 
civilisation. In regard to this, of course, we can suggest nothing. 
But, [rom aJl we can gather, it appeal's that the chief problem held 
up to the Negro for his solution by his friends in America is that 
of " conquering the caste prejudices of the whites" around him i oC 
becoming. as the usual phrase is, "a lllan among men" (white 
men); of 1/ wiping out the colour line," &c. Now, we beg most I 
respectfully, with all the earnestness and deference becoming the 
subject, and with the serious emphasis which we know the en· 
III The Prose Works of Ralph WaJdo Emerson; \'01. i, p. 292. 
1 
Echoes /l'om A/rica. 169 
lightened of the race would authorise us to employ, to assw'e onr 
white friends that these are matters for which the Negro, \vhen 
ctllti'Vated up to 1ur. Heywood's stal)dard, will care very little. He 
will then feel that, in his own race-groove and on his o","u COll-
tinent, he has a work to accomplish equal to that of the European, 
and that caste or race prejudices are as natural to him as to 
the white man. The passion for equality does not always exert an 
elevating influence on the character, but may be positively mis-
chievous where, to produce or sustain it, certain sentiments in the 
mind are flattered by holding the higher attributes in abeyance, or 
brought into prominence at the expense of judgment and love of 
truth. 
Ripe scholarship a.nd disciplined thought, even under the 
training he is receivillg in Amelica, will give to the Negro a fresh-
ness, a manliness, a hopefulness, and a faith which will deliyel' him 
from the tyranny of his surroundings, widen his view of his own 
capabilities, make him conscious of belonging to a race which has 
rich things in store for the world, and glorify his heart with fL 
thousand strange and fruitful sympathies, and with endless heroic 
aspirations. • 
The Negro who is really restless on the subject of caste in 
America is he ,tho, from defective 6ultul'e or lack of cuitu]'e, has 
not ball ;"bUlld out the calling of his race; who, consequently, 
unduly impressed by his surroundings, is eager for imme(uate 
Sllccess, and anxious to play his part well amid the circumstances 
in which he finds himself-aiming at technical skill, which is 
• 
popular or fashionable, rather than artistic life. whicb may be 
unique and unpopular . Fascinated by the present, he cannot can· 
-ceh'e anything else, and harasses himself with the ever-recurring 
and e'\""er-unsatisfying and un~atjsfactory task of imitating imitatol;s. 
The Negro. raised to Ml'. Heywood's standard, ,'\i11 feel the force of 
Emerson's words:~ 
\\'e like only such actiOIlS as ha.ve n.lready long bad the praise or men, nno 
do not. perceive tha.t anything man can «0 ma.y be dh-inely done_ We think 
greatness entailed or orgo.nised in some places, or duties 1D certa.in offices or 
.occasions, a.nd do not see that Paga.nin'i ca.n extract raptme hom a. catgut, 1U:ni 
Eulenstein [rom 0. jew's·harp. Ildld n.limber-fingered la.d out. or shreds of pa.per 
• 
I70 Christianity, Islam and the Neg1'o Race. 
with his scissors, a.nd Landseer out of swine, and the hero out of the pitiful 
habita,tion a.nd compa.ny in which he was hidden. Wha.t we ca.ll obscure 
condition or \'ulgn.r society is tha.t condition !Lud society wbose poetry is 
not yet written, but which you sha.lI presently ma.ke Q.!I envia.ble a.nd renowned' 
a.s a.ny. 20 
Recognising the force of these truths, the cultivated Negro will 
have insight enough to discover his exact relation to sWTounrullg 
superficial phenomena, and self-respect and independence enough 
to acknowledge the fact that his peculiar work cannot be done 
under the oyershadowing inBuence of a foreign race; that there he 
cannot II commuuicate himself to others in his full stature and 
propol'tion;" and, feeling this, he will turn to the fatherland, to 
"the one direction ill w bicb all space is open to him," and under 
the conviction that H he bas faculties illviting him thither to eucUess 
exertion. " 
The teachers of the Negro in America cannot have failed to 
observe that there seems always to be in the mind of their pupils 
some reserva,tioll which they cannot overcome-some besitancy 
which they cannot explain, but which they attribute to a sort of 
modesty growing out of a sense of inferiority in the pupil. But 
the fact is, that, uO(ler the influence of the meaus of culture to 
which be has access, his race,-. c onsciousness is kindled into active 
and sensitive life, and he l'ecei"es1 under mental protest, Dlany a 
dogma, which for European growth and development is orthodox. 
and inspiring. Not only the physical and metaphysical teachings 
often puzzle and contradict his deepest feelings, but even the 
Scriptures are, at times, a perplexity to him; and aS",he becomes· 
acquainted witb the original languages in which they were written,. 
he feels that there is in them a temporary and local element which 
must be separated from the permanent and uni\-ersal, before the 
sacred records can utter what, in the depths of his being, he wants· 
to say. But, jn America, he will never be able to make the dis· 
crimination that will be useful to him . He will never be able to 
translate the letter, which is often adapted to another age anc1 
race, into the spirit of his own times and race. He is, therefore,. 
:JO Prose Works, vol. ii, p. 291. 
Echoes from Africa. 
lonely with his secret, with which nothing around him seems to 
sympathise. De,elopment is denied him; he cannot expand. He 
fills his belly with theories and dogmas which to him are like the 
dry, hard husk. He cannot digest them, and they afford him no 
notU'ishment. Nearly e\'erything he produces comes from the 
memory; very Little flows fresh from the heart. The African 
Methoclist Episcopal Church in the United States is the result, in 
part, of just such experiences on the part of the Bisbop Aliens of a. 
former day. They found that the waters flowing from the fountain 
wl:uch God had opened in their soul were slackened 8.m1 hall-choked 
by being rarced th.rou~h the pent-up and al'tilicial channels pro-
,ided for them in the white Churches, and they established that 
noble organisation-the admi.ration of Negroes everywhere, which 
during the last fifty years has attained such wonderful growth-
that the Living streams of theu' unfettered ua.tUte might wind their 
ovo'll sweet way along the meadows of au ecclesiastical Liberia. If 
the fare ,,;th which they were fm'nished in the new religious 
Republic was ridiculed by their enemies as "ash cake," it was to 
them more than the wheat bread upon which they were starved 
in their previous connection. 11he food now dispensed to them 
was to their souls the very bread of Life. 
But there are many drawbacks to lthis imperium in, imperio. It 
grew out of a temporary and local necessity, and, like all such 
products, must be partial and limited in its influence. Does it uot 
become this most honourable ~nd useful body-this first· born of 
Alrican Churches-this pledge and proof of Alrica's future evangeli. 
> 
sation-to inquire whether they lllay not increase their efficiency 
and even develop their central strength by taking a wider, deeper,. 
and more practical interest in the land of their fathers, in their kith 
and kin in Africa? Their system is capable of indefinite develop· 
ment in the vast and unoccupied field which this continent presents. 
The message to thelll, as a Church of Christ, is, It Go ye into all the 
world "-not only over the United States, [rom California to New 
York a.nd from New England to Texas, but to " regions beyond," 
especially to the lost sheep of t!ieir own race. Their talents, it 
occurs to us, are not as useful and as profitable as they might be 
• 
172 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
made. This is a. (hawback and 8 mistake. If it be sinful to wrap 
our talent ill So napkin and hide it in the earth, it is only one degree 
less sinful so to handle it as to make it yield twofold only wbere it 
might yield ten. We are persua.ded, however, that it is not the 
courage they lack for the work, but cODviction. The same self-control 
and selI.reliance, the same energy and independence, which led 
to the founding of the African Churches in the United States would 
readily, if there were earnest conviction on the subject, sacrifice the 
charms of home, the cowarts of civilisation, the ::esthetic and sen· 
suous attractions of an enlightened country I for the labours a.nd toils 
and privations of the wilderness. They are quite equal to, l1.ud have 
shown themselves worthy of, the great achievement of taking pos-
session of the whole valley of the Niger for Christ. Let them arise 
and come, and they wi1l find in the home of their widowed parent 
that c< the barrel of meal will not waste, nor will the cruc;e of oil 
fail." Freedom from restraiut ought not to be our ultimate and final 
object, but FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD; and the desire for such 
freedom is, in certain aspects of the subject, among the happiest of • 
the popular instincts of the Negro race. 
It is remarkable that the message which Moses was commanded 
to bear to the tyrant Pharaoh was not "Let My people go tbat they 
may be free," but "Let my people go that they may sert'e ME." As 
loog as they remained in a strange country 'Goder a foreigo race they 
could Dot render that service for which they were fitted, and which 
God requires of every ma.n. They could not serve the Lord with 
their tJ whole heart, " the undiminished fulness of their na.ture, in 
carrying out the purposes of their being. H How could they sing the 
Lord's song in a strange laud?" Their race-impulses and instincts ! 
were hampered, confused and impaired. So with the Negro in 
America. Although their gatherings. of whatever nature, are usually 
marked and enlivened by a stream of religious feeling which I 
continually flows with a rapid, and sometimes bobterous, current, 
still they cannot fully know God in that land, for they see him 
through the medium of others. Here and there there ma.y be a 
" Caleb, who has another spirit within him, and follows the Lord 
fully;" but the masses a.re distracted by the disturbing media. The 
Echoes frol/l Africa. 173 
body, soul, and spirit do not work in harmony. 1.'l1e religious passions 
a.re predominant in their influence among them, and they show a. 
co-operative and successful energy in ecclesiastical organisations; 
but, in their political !)truggles, there is no attempt at t1.uy logical 
or reasoned solution of their difficulties. tI The Negro," says Rev. 
Joseph Cook, .. has gone to the wall in Mississippi, in spite of having a 
majority there and the suffrage. And he is likely to go to the wall in 
South Carolina. He is going to the wa.1l eyen where he has a 
majority; and his inferiority in politics results from his lack of 
education "-5uch au education as be can never receive ill America. 
But let him be deii,erec1 h'om the restraints of his exile; let him be 
set b'ee from the stocks that now confine him, a.nd he will not only 
arise and wa.lk, but he will point out the way to the eminent success, 
which, in his particular line, only he can find out, and which he mu.st 
find out fol' himself. He will discover the central point from which 
the lines may be easily aild infallibly drawn to all the points of the 
circle in which he is to Ulove effectively, in the true work of his race, 
for his own elevation and the advantage of the rest of mankind. H e 
will prove that '\That ill Ah·jcan history a.nd character seems 
nebulou'::i confusion is really a. firmament of slars. There are star s 
astronomer:" teU us, whose light has not yet reached the earth; so 
there are :.tars ill the moral universe yet to be disclosed by the 
unfettered '. . \flican. which be must discover before he will be a.ble to 
progreb'::i without wandering into perilous seas and suffering serious 
lll)U1'Y. Let him. then, return to the land of his fathers, and 
ACQU.lINT HDHiELF WITH GOD, AND BE .\T PEACL . 
• 
, 
• 
Philip and the Eunuch." 
THERE is no people, except the Hebrews and other ancient inhabitants of Pa.lestine, more frequently mentioned in the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments than the Ethiopians, 
and there is no country more frequently referred to than Ethiopia; 
and the record of no people, whether in sacred histOl'Y or in ancient 
secular history, has less of the discreditable than the 1'eco1'cl of the 
Ethiopians. 
Let us see what is said of them in sacred history. 
The first time that we meet with auy distillct mention of the 
Ethiopian is in the account given in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, 
of the disagreement between Moses and his brothel' and sister in 
the matter of his IDaJ:riage with au Ethiopian woman. The next 
mentiou of tbis people is in 2 nhron. xiv, where we read of Zerah, 
the Ethiopian general, who commanded an army of ~ thousand 
thousand men and three hundred chariots. The next mention is in 
Jeremiah xxxviii, where we learn of Ebedmelech, who, having 
deeper spiritual insight, and understanding more the ways of the 
Lord than the king and all the other Hebrew injabitauts of 
Jerusalem, believed the unpopular utterances of the prophet 
Jeremiah, and rescued him from his nnpleasant and perilous 
condition in the dungeon of Zedekiah. For his faith and spiritual 
perception he was rewarded, in the time of trouble. 
A singular passage in 1 Ohron. iv. 40, gives an important clue to 
the opinions entertained in those days. and by the sacred writers, 
of the character of the descendants of Ham. Describing a. certain 
district to which the chilcu·en of Sim, eon had migrated. the chronicler 
1 Discourse delivered in the United Sta.tes in 1882. 
Philip and the Eunllch, 175 
'Says: "They found fat pasture and good, and tlie land was wide 
and quiet and peaceable, for they of Ham had dwelt there of olu," 
The secular poets and historians of those times also bear witness 
to the excellence of the Ethiopian character. Homer, the prince of 
poets, and Herodotus, the father of history, both speak iI! praise of 
them, 
In the earliest traditions of nea.rly nil the more ch'ilised ns.tions of antiquity, 
the na.me of this dista.nt people is fouud. The a.nnals of the Egyptia.n priests 
were full of them; the na.tions of inner A"ia., on the Euphrates n.nd Tigris, have 
interwoven the fictions of the Etbiopie.ns with their own tra.ditions of the 
conquests a.nd wars of their heroes; n.nd, at a. period equa.lly remote, they 
glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scn.rcely knew Italy and Sicily 
by name, the Ethiopia.us were celebrated in the verses of lheir poets, thoy 
spoke of them as the "remotest na.tion," the "most just of men," the 
"fa.vourites of the gods." The lofty mhabitants of Olympus journey to them, 
e.nd take part in their feash; their sacrifices are the mObt agrce30ble of 0..11 tha.t 
mortals can offer them. And when the faint gleam of tra.dition a.nd fable gives 
way to the c1ea.r light of history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished. 
They still continue the object of curiosity and a.dmira.tion; and the pen of 
ca.utious, clea.r-sighted historians often places them in the highest rank of 
knowledge and chiliso.tion.2 
\Yhen Cambyses, the Persian monarch, had spread his conquests 
over Egypt, had gratified the impulses of national envy and jealousy 
in the destruction of the magnificent city of Memphis, had disfigured 
the Sphinx with his battering-ram-~ i and had failed, after two 
years' efiolt, to demolish the mysterious Pyramids, he turned his 
covetous eyes to Ethiopia, and was anxious to pluck and wear the 
inaccessible laurels, never before nor since bis day worn by Euro-
pean or Asia,t ic brow, as the conqueror of Ethiopia. Before entering 
upon this dazzling enterprise, be took the precaution of sending his 
spies to examine the country and report to him. The account 
which Herodotus gives, of the interview betweeu the spies and the 
Ethiopian monarch, bas forever embalmed Ethiopian character in 
history. The fragrance of the name, despite the distance of time 
and the counter-currents in the literary atmosphere, bas floated 
over the fields of history, triumphantly lingering in the hostile air, 
and has come down unimpaired to us. 
, 
'l HttJ'm', i-liItO)'ical Rt8tarc1lt8, .0J. i, pp. 293,204. 
, 
• 
176 Christrallity. Islam and the Negro Race. 
When the spies of Call1byses arrived beCorc the king of Ethiopia, 
tiler offered the treacherous guts from their master of which they 
were the bea.rers, and delivered the following address:-
Ca.mbyscs, kmg of the Persians, desirous of becoming your friend a.nd a.lly. 
has sent. us, biddmg us confer wit.h you: a.nd he pre"ent,s you wit.h these gifts, 
which a.re such o.s he himself most delights in. 
But the Ethiopian, knowing that they came as spies. "poke thus 
to them:-
Neither has the king of tho Persians sont you with presents to me because 
ba va.lued my allilLllce, nor do you spea.k the truth; for ya are come as spies of 
my kingdom. Nor is he a. just. man ; for if he were just. he would not desire 
any other tern tory than his own, nor would he reduce people into servitude "'hO' 
have done him no injury. However, give him this bow, a.nd say these words to 
him: "The king of the Ethiopio.ns a.dvises the king of tbe PeNillns. when the 
Peraia.ns can thus easily draw a bow of this size, then to make war on the 
Ma.crobian Ethiopia.Ds with more numerous forces: but, until t.ha.t. time 1 ~·t 
him thank the god", who have not inspired the sons of the Ethiopio.D'I with 0. 
desire of adding Illlotber land to their own " 
, Dr. George Ebers, the German no,'elist, has ,,"o\'en this incident into one 
of his popular romances, entit.led j II E.IlYPtiall PriliCtU A superficial criticism. 
guided by local nnd tempora.ry prejudices, has attempted to deny the intimnte 
rela.tions of the Negro with the grea.t historic re.ces of Egypt a.nd Ethiopia. But-
no one who has travelled in North·eastern Alricll, or among the ruins on the 
b~nks of the Nile, will for a momort doubt that there "&s the connect.ion, nt't 
of accident or of adventitious circumst.o.nces, but of conso.nguinity between the 
r:'..ces of inner Africa. of the present da.y. and the a.ncient E!,yptians aml 
Fthiopians To get rid of the responsibility of brotherhood to the Negro, an 
American profe6~or. m an elaborate work, claims for the tropical African a. 
rre.Adamite origin, and ignores his rela.tion with Ham His arguments, bow. 
O"or, lue, o.s yot. beneo.th the level of scientific criticism. S,t at pre r.a t.i (l/I~ . 
volunflu. The impressions of Volney. the great French traveller. after VIsiting 
tbe magnificent ruins of Egypt, are expressed Q.S follows: "When I risit.ed the 
Sphinx, I could not help thinking the figure of tha.t monster furnisbed the true 
solution of the enigma; when I 8a.W its features precisely those of 0. Negro. I 
recollected the remn.rkable ptl.8sage of Herodotus. in which be says: 'For Ul}" 
part, I believe the Colchi to be a. colony of Egypt.i&IlS, because, like them, they 
ha.ve bla.ck skins and frizzled hair' {lib. ii}; that is, that the ~cient Egyptian$ 
were rcal Negroes. of the same speciel with all the nati\""es of Africa ..•. 
TLlis historica.l fact affords to pbilosophy an interesting subject of reflection. 
How are we tl.stoni,;hed when we reflect that to the rn.ce of Negroes. at pre5<'nt 
our slo,vcs, a.nd the objects of our e:dreme contempt, we owe our arts, sciences, 
lJ,ud eVlln t.ho vcry use of speech!" (I"o1"ty', Traub, vol. i, ch. iii) Cata.rago, 
in his A.ra.bic o.nd English Dictionary, under the word AlUur (po.lo.ces), says. 
Philip alld lite Eunuch. 177 
"The ruins of Thebes, tha.t a.ncient and celebrated town, deserve to be visited, 
tl.S just these bea.ps of ruins, la.ved by the Nile. a.re a.ll tha.t rema.in of the 
opulent cities tha.t go.ve lustre to Ethiopia.. It was there tha.t a. people, since 
forgotten, discoyered the elements of Science a.nd Art at a. time wben all other 
men were barbarolls, a.nd when a. race, now rega.rded as ilia refuse of society, 
explored a.meng the phenomena. of Nature those civil a.nd religious systems 
which ha..e since held mankind in awe." A more recent investiga.tor, Dr. 
Rartma.nn, in an' Encyclopmdic Work on Nigritia.' (Saturday Review, June 17, 
1876), contends for the strictly ALrico.n extraction of the Egyptians, who, he 
seems to consider, ma.y have dwelt upon the shores of the inner Africo.n sea., 
whose desicca.tion ha.s formed the e3:isting Saha.rs. 
This reply of the Ethiopian monarch expresses the characteristic 
of the African as seen even to this day. In a recent account, given 
of some European n:lssionaries in East Africa, it is said: .. They 
are much respected by the people, wLo say of them, • These are 
men who do not covet other people's goods;' the highest praise in 
their eyes, as the other white men they had seen came among them 
only to enrich themselves at their expense."· 
If we come clown to New Testament times, we find, again, 
Africans and their country appearing in honourable connections . 
• \Vhen the Savionr of mankind, born in lowly circumstances, was 
Lhe persecuted babe of Bethlehem, Ah"ica furnished the refuge for 
his threatened and helpless infancy. African hands ministered to 
Lhe comfort of Mary and Joseph \')1.1ile they soioUl'ned as homeless 
and hunted strangers in that land. In the final hours of the Man 
• 
of Sorrows, when His disciples had forsaken Him and fled, and 
only the tears of !;ympathising ,,'omen, following in the (listance, 
showed that His ~onows touched any human heart; when Asia, in 
the persolll()f the Jew, clamoured fOl' His blood, and Em'ope, in the 
Roman soldier, was dragging Him to execution, and afterwal'ds 
nailed those sinless bands to the cross, and pierced that sacred 
side-what was the part that Africa took then? She fmnlshed the 
man to share the btu"oen of the cross with the suffering Redeemer. 
Simon, the Cyrenian, bore the cross after Jesus. "Fleecy locks 
and dark complexion" thus enjoyed a privilege and an honour, and 
was invested with a glory in which kings and potentates, martyrs 
~ Dublill RtlJitw, april, 1881. 
N 
• 
178 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
and conlessors in the long roll of ages, would have been proud to 
participate. 
But what of tbe country of the Africans? Wbat of Ethiopia 
itself? It has always worn a forbidding aspect to foreigners. 
Although the ancients, on account of the amiable qualities of the 
inhabitants, made the country frequently the scene of Olympic 
festivities, with Jupiter as the presiding genius. yet they had the 
most curious notions of the country. Aud it may be that, in 
keeping with a well-known instinct of human hature, to sillTouml 
sacred things with mystery, the la.nd was invested with repelJent 
charactel;stics because it was the occasional abode of the gods. 
Herodotus (iv, 91), in describing the interior of Africa. says: 
This is the region in which the huge serpents are onnd, and the lions, the 
elephants. the bears. the aspicks, and the homed a.sses. Here, too, are the dog-
faced creatures, and the crea.tures without heads, whom the Lybia.ns declare to 
have their eyes in their breasts; and also the wild men, n.nd the wild women, 
and many other far less fabulous beasts_ 
And from that clay onwards, ~he ideas of Africa, entertained 
by the outside world, were calculated to produce only {ear and 
abhorrence. Dante, the classic poet of Italy, bas preserved the 
opinions of his day in one of the cantos of the Inferno, in the 
comparison be makes of au indescriba.ble regiou, which he saw in 
1\lalebolge, with Airica. After ("pictm·ing the horrors of the place, 
that master of ItaUau song says:- ~ 
I Eo,W within a fearful throng of serpents, aud of so stra.nge a look that eveu 
now Lhe recollection scares my blood Let Libya bOMe no longer with its 
sand; for thougb it engenders cheIydri, jacllli and pru:cre, and cenchres with 
a.mpbi3brena, plaguell so numerous or so dire it never showed, with' all Ethiopia 
nor with tbe land thn.t lies by the Red Sea..~ 
.', E vidi"i entro terri bile stipa 
Di serpenti, e di si clivers!1 mena, 
ehe In. memoria. il sangue a.ncar m.i scip{l.. 
Pil\ non si ,"anti Libia COli sua rena.: 
Che, se chclidri, ja.culi, e farce 
Produce, e cencri con n.nfe6ibena.; 
Ne tllnte pestilenzie, ne ~i rea 
l\[ostr6gillmmai con ~utt(l, l' Etiopia., 
Nt! con cio, cbe eli soprB. '1 mllr Rosso ee. 
(1IlJtrno, canto x..'tiv, lines 85-00.) 
Philip al1a tlte ElIl1l1ch . 179 
Shakespeare makes Othello win Desdemona by the horrible tales 
be tells of interior Ab'ica: -
Of n.ntres vast n.nd deserts idle, 
• • • • • 
ADd of the canniba.ls that each other ea.t, 
The Anthropophn.gi, a.nd men whose hea.ds 
Do grow benen.th their shoulders. 
And these notions cannot be said to have been entirely dispelled 
until within our own day - within the last five-and-twenty years. 
Those who dealt, even forty years ago, with African geography, 
are now proved to have been wrong in every detail. They denied 
the existence of great Jakes and broa.d rivers flowing from the centre 
to the coast. They spoke of the great mass of Central Africa as 
consisting of vast deserts, bare of vegetation, bare of animal life 
and, above all, bare of men. There was so much of uncertainty 
and indefiniteness in the maps constructed by those writers on 
Africa as to justify the witty lines of Swift :-
Geographers in Arrie's ma.ps 
With sa.vage pictures fill their ga.ps j 
.. \nd o'er IlIIhabit&.ble downs 
Pla.ce elepha.nts. for want of towns. 
But wha.t physical glories, what lAountains and lakes, and rivers, 
and what sa. wealth of population have been unfolded to the aston· 
ished gaze of the present generation! In the former years all was 
gloomy and mysterious and forbidding. The country seemed to 
the ancients to have been created only as the scene of the happy 
residence of the gods and of the native races. And it is a noticeable 
fact that no other race than the Ethiopian, in its different varieties, 
has eve!: had permanent or extensive foothold in that land. To·day, 
whether in its northern or southern extremities, the tenure of 
foreigners might be described simply as an .. armed occupation." 
Let us, for a moment, gla,nce at the history of foreign efforts in 
Africa. Of the secular agencies which have operated from abroad, 
the Egyptian power-if we take for granted the modern notion that 
the Egyptians were an alien l''lce-has been, perhaps, the most 
important. But even this has been subject to such vicissitudes 
• 
180 Christianity. I siam and the Negro Race. 
and changes as to have left no distinct or wide.spread impression 
upon the country. Dynasty after dynasty has arisen and dis· 
appeared; and these, while they lasted, have prospered only when 
in alliance with the undoubtedly indigenous and interior races. 
And even with these alliances, they have Dot been able to push 
their power beyond the alluvial regions-the country called, from 
its geological origin, II 'fhe gift of the Nile," The natives beyond 
have always held their own; and, even to this day, the indigenous 
power neighbouring to Egypt is a source of constant anxiety and 
concern to the Albanian rulers of that II house of bondage." Recent 
intelligence informs us that King J obn of Abyssinia. is using the 
present crisis in Egypt to take possession again of those provinces 
which Egyph bad haken away from Abyssinia, i.e., Mensa and Bagos. 
The so-called False Prophet of the Souda.n, emerging wihh un-
counhed warriors from the regions of the Sahara, has been lately 
spreading alarm among the adherents of the Khedive. 
The next important secular influence, planted by foreigners in 
Africa, was the Carthaginian Empire. That empire flourished for , 
seven hundred years, and its people were the most enterprising of 
the nations of their day. They sent out exploring expeditions by 
sea and by land. They circumnavigated the continent and pene-
trated its interior. Their S\\,.(;lty extended from the coast of the 
Mediterranean down towards the Nigel'. They collected by traffic 
the valuable products of the Soudan; the elephants and their ivory 
answered their purposes for war and for commel'ce; but with all 
these advantages, they disappeared without having produced any 
impression upon the inner portions of the continent. It is certain 
that when their cities fell before the military energy of the Romans, 
many of them fled to the regions south of their country, but they 
were soon lost in the boundless forests of the Soudan and in the 
oblivion of the Desert. 
The Romans next essayed to colonise and conquer AIrica. They 
could overpower Carthage, after years and even generations of 
persistent warfare; they could destroy her cities, overthrow her 
monuments, and, with the wanton indifference of a cruel jealousy, 
scatter bel' literary treasures; but they could construct no lasting 
Pltilip alld the E ttl/lleh. 
power in that land. They could noL even rival the Airico.n glories 
of Carthage. Their boasted power, and tbe weigbt of tbeir 
crushing influence, ava.iled them little here. They disappeared 
from the continent like a. shadow and a dream; and one of their 
rulers, in the last moments of his lile, solemnly deprecated the 
invasion of Africa by the Romans.ll 
A modem European power, of great military reputation, has 
been recently, a.nd is DOW, endeavouring to force its way inward by 
arms, by railways, by commercial expeditions, by diplomatic 
finesse; but its successes so far warn us that what the conquerors 
of ancient Gaul could Dot accomplish, there is no evidence that the 
descendants of the conquered will ever achieve. In spite of all the 
efforts made in that quarter, the state of things at the bead·wa.ters or 
the Niger, around Lake Cha.d, a.nd throughout the \Vestern Soudan, 
is not very different from wha.t it was when Hannibal marshalled 
his legions against Rome, a.nd drew many of his wa.rriors, with their 
trained elephants, from the regions south of the Great Desert. 
Many have been the plans adopted, both in ancient and modern 
times, for taking possession of tbat continent; and all, wbether 
milita.ry, commercial, or phila.nthropic, a.s conducted by Europea.ns 
or Asiatics, bave had but temporary success. With regard to a.1I. 
history bas been obliged to write, ~ooner or later, the words with 
which He.rodotus closes his account of the disastrous expedition of 
Cambyses into Ethiopia.: .. Thus ended the expedition." 
Among the foreign Christian agencies which have operated in 
Africa, may be noticed: first, the Church in Egypt, with its ten 
thousand anchorites; the Church of North Africa, with its three 
• The Romans appea.r t<l hAve penetrated to the Niger; for Pliny mentions 
that, like the Nile, it sweUed periodically, &Cd At the &lLDle eeason, and tbat Its 
productions were al!lo tbe same, He likewise rela.tcs tha.t Suctonius Po.ulinus, 
the fin,t of the Romans who crossed Mount AUa!;, ma.de an experution dunng 
winter into the intenor parts of Africa, n.nd matched tbrough deserts of bla.ck 
dust and ple.ces uninhabitable from excelsi,'e beat, wbere the ,"ery rocks seemed 
to be scorched. (1 S8,W sucb rocks In the neigbbourbood of Timbo o.nd Fa.la.ba. 
about. three bundred miles nortb·east. of Sierra. Leone; but theil' appearo.nce bas 
not been ca.used by beat.) It does no~ o.ppear, however, tbo.t the RomlWs formed 
&Ily scttlemen's lLDlong tbe aborigina.l tribe~ 
• 
182 Cil1'istiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
thousand towns and villages, and its live hundred and sixty 
episcopal sees-the Church that produced Tertullian, Cyprian, and 
Augustine. These, after flourishing for a time, fell away without 
affecting the continent-like the morrung cloud and the early 
dew. 
Later on in history came the extensive missionary efforts of the 
Roman Catholic Church. The great missionary movement set in 
with the Portuguese conquests in the fiUeenth century, a.nd it 
continued during the sixteenth and into the seventeenth, with great 
success. In the Portuguese possessions in Africa, and their neigh-
bourhood, such were the zeal and energy of the Roma.n Catholic 
missionaries, that the conversion of all Africa seemed at one time 
to be at hand. The Rev. H. Rowley, of the Society lor the 
Propagation of the Gospel, pays the following tribute to the zeal 
and earnestness of the first Catholic missionaries to Africa ;-
As the Portuguese were, at first, a.s zea.lous for the extension of God's 
kingdom as for their own aggr(l.ndisement, it Beemed as though they would be 
equal to their opportunity, o.nd build up grea.t Christian empires on either side 
of the continent. The missionary zea.l of the Portuguese at this, the best 
period of their history, was great. No ship was permitted to leo.ve their coa.sts 
without being a.ccompa.nied by one or more priests, a.nd no na.tion ever ba.d more 
devoted missionaries_ They made the kingdom of Congo the field of their 
principal efforts, but they also lab(,urcd zea.1ously to convert the natives of 
Loa.ngo a.nd Angola.. For a time it appeared a.s though nothing could withsto.nd 
the religious energy of the good men who strove for the conversion of Congo 
The King was among the first of their conveds. No do.nger appalled them: 
they sh.rank from no suffering; a.nd they died willingly in the performo.nce of 
their duty. This, indeed, may be said of almost all the mjssionaries who, for 
nea.rly one hundred yea.rs, laboured a.mongst the Heathen in those Qarts of A1tica. 
which were brought under the power and influence of Portuga.1. Though mo.ny 
of them quickly succumbed to fatigue, priva.tion. and disee.se-otbers, nothing 
da.unted, filled their places. Within fifty yea.rs of its discovery, the popula.tion 
of Congo ha.d become nominally Christio.n. The success obta.ined in Loango and 
Angola ,vas a.lmost a.s great. 
But there is very little trace now of the results of the grea.t 
missionary work done by those zealous and self~denying men. We 
have it, on the testimony of Roman Catholic writers, tha.t "At 
present, not only are the Portugllese settlements in the lowest 
state of degradation, but that they are positively hostile to the 
Philip and the E n"nch. 
missionary operations of the Church, whose presence they will not 
tolera.te within their frontiers." 7 
It is Dot yet ODe hundred and fifty years since the first 
Protestant missionary efforts commenced in Africa, and while a. 
great deal bas been accomplished within European colonies, and 
in their neighbourhood on the coast, very little indeed has been 
effected among the aborigines of the country away from the 
settlements. Protestant missionary efforts, in pW'ely native regions. 
have been undertaken, on anything like a large scale, only within 
the last twenty years. They are the Universities' Mission, 
established between Lake N yassa and the East Coast; the Mission 
of the London Missionary Society, near Lake Tanganyika; the 
Church Missionary Society's Mission, near the Victoria N yanza; 
and the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, recently opened in West Central Africa, These 
missions, excepting that of the American Board, are all manned 
by white men, and the llsua.l mortality has prevailed. The nine-
teenth death among the missionaries of the Universities' Mission at 
Lake Nyassa was, a few t:1onths ago, reported, a.nd, very recently, 
the death of Bishop Steere has been announced, 
In view of the seriolls obstacles which have so far confronted 
the work of African evangelisa~ion and civilisation through 
European~agency, it is a matter of serious concern among Christian 
workers as to how the work should be done. There is, perhaps, 
not ODe of the members of missionary boards or committees, whose 
experience in the African work extends ovel' ten years, who does 
Dot feel a ~easure of discouragement. 
Now, in view of these melancholy experiences, what is to be 
inferred as to the will of Providence? It is evident that the Gospel 
of J eeus Christ is designed for al1 countries and climes-for all 
races and nations; but it is also evident that we have this 
.. treasure in earthern vessels," which subjects it to human 
conditions and limitations, The constitutions of mortal men, who 
are to be instruments of proclaiming the glad tidings, are not 
- • 
7 Dublin Review, J8Jlu&rY, 187n . 
• 
I 
Christianity, Islam and tire Neg"o Race. 
• 
adapted to all countries and cljmates; yet the command is, " Go yt! 
into all the 'lcorld and preach the gospel to CVC1'y creature." This 
was the parting injunction of the Saviour to His disciples. But He 
had told them before, that the Spirit of Truth, whom He would 
send to them after His departure. would explain what He bad said 
unto them, and guide them into all truth. Now, after the Spu'it 
had come, and bad filled the clisciples with power for their mission, r 
and they began to organise for aggressive work, it was found 
necessary to add to the number of evangelistic agents. Accordingly. I 
under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seven men were 
chosen as evangelists. among whom was Philip. This mao, after 
the murder of Stephen, went awa,y [rom Jerusalem, and preached 
with great success in the city of Samaria. The injunction not to 
enter into any city of the Samaritans had been withdrawn, and the 
whole world was now opened to the preachers of the gospel. They 
went over into Europe, penetrated farther eastward into Asia, went 
south to Arabia. But there lay Ethiopia, with its inhospitable 
climate and difficulty of access. What was to be dODe? The 
Spirit which was to guide them into all truth met the emergency. 
An African had come up in search of truth to Jerusalem, and, 
baying completed bis mission, ''illS returning to his home, and was 
so Car on bis journey as to ba\'e reached the southern confines of I 
the Holy Land, when Philip the Evangelist received E. message 
from Heaven concerning him: "The angel of the Lord spake unto 
Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that 
goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he 
arose and went, and behold a man oC Ethiopia, an eunu"c h of great 
authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who ha.d the 
charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to 
worship, was returning; and, sitting in his chariot, read Esaia.s the 
propbet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and joiu 
thysel! to this chariot." 
Now, this incident I take to be a. symbolic one, indicating the 
instruments and the methods of All'ica's evangelisation. The 
method, the simple holding up of J ('sus Christ; the instrument, tb& 
African himself. This was the Spirit's applica.tion and expHca.tion 
• 
Philip and the Eltilitch. 185 
-of the command Of Go ye into all the world," &c.-giving the 
gospel to a. man of Ethiopia to ta.ke back to the people of 
Etillopia. 
We are told that after the singular and interesting ceremony. 
II the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. that the eunuch saw 
him no more; and he went ou his way rejoicing." Philip was not 
to accompany the eunuch, to water the seed be had planted, to 
-cherish and supervise the incipient work. If he desired to do so-
and perhaps he did-the Spirit suffered him not, for he "caught 
him away." 
The eunuch <I went on his way rejoicing." Strange must have 
been bis delight as be listened to the wonderful words which fell 
from the lips of Philip. Strange must have been his joy-strange 
the exulting rush of his heart, in this, his first communion witb 
-God through Jesus Christ OUt' Lord, A member of a race separated 
by indelible pbysical characteristics from the people among whom 
he had been to worship, and thi.:nking of the millions, like himself, 
who would be blest by the new revelatioll, who can tiell the dreams 
of the future which he cherished in his soul, kindling the hope of a 
total revolution in his country through the words he had heard? 
The vision of communities regenerated and saved, through the 
-sufferings and death of Him whoib the prophet had described, 
loomed Up' before Illm and filled Ills soul with joy. 
And there was something symbolic, also, of the future sad 
experience of his race-and at the same time full of COil solation-
in the passage which be read. It was balding up Christ as the 
J 
$' man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," as if in anticipation 
of the great and unsurpassed trials of the African. These were to 
be the words of comfort and uplifting to these people in their exile 
and captivity. They were to remember that if they were despised 
and scorned, a far greater than themselves bad had a similar 
experience. Christ was to be held up to the suffering Africa.n not only 
as a propitiation for sin, and as a Mediator between God and man, 
but as a blessed illustration of the glorious {act that persecution 
.and suffering and contemp~ are .0 proof that God is not the loving 
Father of a people-but may be rather au evidence of nearness to 
• 
r86 Christianity, Islam and tlze Neg1'O Race. 
God, seeing that they have been chosen to tread in the footsteps of 
the first·born of the creation, suffering for the welfare of others. 8 
Tell me, now, ye descendants of Africa, tell me whether there is 
anything in the ancient histOl'Y of your African ancestors, in theIr 
relation to other races, of which you need to be ashamed. Tell me, I 
if there is anything in the modern history of your people, in their 
dealings with foreign races, whether at hOIDe 01' in exile, of which 
you need be ashamed? I s there anything, when you compa.re 
yow'selves with others, to disturb your equanimity. except the 
universal oppression of which you have been the victims? And 
wbat al'e suffering and SOl'l'OW but necessary elements in the progress 
of humanity? Your suffering bas contributed to the welfa.re of 
others. It is a. part of the constitution of the universe, that out or 
dealh should come liIe. All Ihe advancement made 10 a beller 
futtU'e. by individuals or races, has been made through paths 
marked by suffering. This great la~ is written not only in the Bible, 
but upon all history. "\Vithollt the shedding blood there is no 
I'emission." We may say, then, in the language of the poet-
In aU the ills we boro, 
We grieved, we sighed , we wept-
We never blushed. 
We could not blush pbysica\Jy, and we bad no need to blush 
mentally or morally. 
Among the beautiful legends 'which ilore scattered thl'oughout 
ancient Jewish literatul'e is the following, which is not less applicable 
to us than to the Hebrew rflce. 
When the Decalogue ,,-as given, the Israelites said to the Lord: 
.. Thou forbiddest us to attempt the life, the honolli', or the interests 
8 In Mm. Stowe's inimita.ble novel ..... e read the following. It wa.s altar her 
principa.l character had suffered most unjust and bruta.l treatment : .. I saw 
'em, ,. sa.id Uncle Tom, ,. throw my coa.t in tha.t ar comer, and in my coatpocket I 
is my Bible; if Missis would lliease got it for me. " 
Ca.say went and got it. Tom opened it a~ once, to a. hea.vily-mMked 
passage, much worn, of ~be last scenes in the life of Him by whose stripes we 
are hea.led . 
.. If Misais would only be so good as to read that ar'-it's better than 
wo.ter."-Ullcle :l'Oln's Cabw, cb. xxxiv. 
, 
• 
\ 
Philip and the EUllucil. 
of ow' fellow-man. Thou forbiddest us to lie, to covet, to return 
evil for evil, blow for blow. But if this prohibition is not addressed 
also to the other nations of the earth, we shall become, alas! their 
victim." The Lorcl answered: "My children, when I created the 
lamb it came to me and said, '0, Lord! Thou hast given me 
neither claws to teal' with, nor teeth to bite with, nor horns to 
strike with, nor even swift feet with which to flee away. '"'''bat 
will become of me :in the midst of other animals if I am thus weak 
and defenceless? I And I answered the lamb, ' Would'st thou, then. 
prefer to thy feebleness the cruelty of the tiger or the venom of the 
serpent? • 'No, Lord,' answered Me the Jamb; 'I prefer my 
feebleness and my~inllocence, and I thank: Thee that Thou hast made 
me rather the persecuted than the persecutor.' So thou, 0 my 
people Israel. Thou shalt be a lamb in the midst of the nations .. 
Let them teal' thee; let thelli sacrifice thee; thy triumph shall be 
in thy calmness, in thy resignation, in thine innocence." 
Two characteristics of the African are brought out in the 
I narrative before us. Firstly, his teachableness. The eunuch was 
reading with an earnest desire to understand-to arrive at the 
knowledge of the truth-but, at the same time, with a dim con· 
sciousness that he was only imperfectly apprebending it. "How 
can I, except some one should guide' me? Secondly, his cow·tesy 
and hospitality. "He desired Philip that he would come and sit 
with him." Though a man of grea.t power and influence, he did 
not disdain to invite the wandering pedestrian to a seat in his 
chariot j giving him a real and unaffected welcome, and placing 
himself at hls feet; becoming the guest and pupil, and giving the 
stranger the place of host and instructor. All truthful travellers in 
Afdcs. testify to the courteous disposition of the interior natives-
those who ha.ve never been tampered with by either Arabs or 
Europea.ns. They are confiding. unsuspicious. childlike, hospita.ble, 
honest, peaceable, and anxious to learn. Thomson, the youthful 
explorer, who has written one of tbe best of the recent books on 
Africa, says: II Of the natives, I have fol' tbe most part nothing 
but good to say. In the majority of places I found them peaceable. 
Rarely did they attempt to throw any obstacles in my way • 
• 
188 Chrislia1lity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
Almost everywhere. I was }'eceived with genuine hospitality and 
Iriendshi p'" • 
The eunuch returned to hi. country with his heart fuJI of joy 
..and pea.ce and love-with a new-born and unquenchable en· 
thusiasm, and became the foundel'J it is believed, of the Abyssinian 
Church, which, througb various trying vicissitudes, continues to 
this da.y. It has resisted all attacks from Paganism on the ODe 
ha.nel, a.nd Mohammedanism on the other. In oue hundred and 
fifty years after the death of Mohammed, the victorious banners of 
I s)am had been carried from Ara.bia into Judea. and Palestine; bad 
wrested Egypt and North·weslern Africa out of Ihe hands of 
ChrIstians; had pushed its conquering way to Constantinople, and 
had taken possession of Spain; but it was unable to transcend the 
lunits of Abyssinia. The Abyssinian Church is the only real Africa.n 
Chw'ch yet founded who,e priests and people are all of the Aflicall 
race. 10 
It is a curious fact that histol;ans, in speaking of the Af.rican 
Church, seldom mean by that phrase the Abyssinian Church, which 
is far more entitled to that description than any otber. SOIDe 
mean the Church of North-eastern Africa-the Church of Clement 
of Alexandria., and Origen. others mean the Church of North· 
western Africa-the Church 6i Tertullian and CYl)rian. 
t In the' AnneJs of the Propag8.tion of the Faith, ' a. Roman Catholic mis-
sionary dcscnbes his reception by the lla.tives of Southern Kordofl\n as follows; 
"On the evening of the 21st September, 1875, I was extremely surpriied to 
find, a.t half 8. day 's journey from the sta.tion of Delen. the grea.t chief of t.he 
Noubas comlUS to meet me, followed by fifty Noubas o.nned wi~h tirea.rms I\nd 
lances. He had sCIlIcely seen me, whcn he dismounted. a.pproaebed my ca.mel. 
kissed my ha.nd, seJuted me profoundly sO\'eral times. and sAid to me in good 
Ara.~ic. in the dialect of Kordolo.n, • God bas sent you amongst u~; a.nd bebold-
we. OUI little children. our wives, our young daughters, our oxen, cows, sheep 
a.nd goats, ow houscs o.nd lo.nds. all o.re now placed a.t yow disposal You are 
our fa.ther. and we are your chIldren; we will do all you command us, and "0 
6ha.1l be happy. "-Dublm R~vjtlt: . April, 1881, p. 413. 
10 The growing system of iniligenous missIonary work under Bishop Crowther 
-the nascent Church of the Niger-if left to struggle through the difficulties l 
lDcldcnt to youthful hfe. without the bampering influence of unsympa.tbetlc 
a,)jen oversight, and the injury of misplaced praise or censure. will, in tbe nen 
generation, be a second Abyasinil\l1 Cburcb in aboriginaJ vigour and pemlanence. 
Philip and the Eunuch. 189' 
And here I cannot avoid pointing out the fact that the continent 
of Airica comes iuto view a.gain. in the case of these two Churches, 
as contributing to the enlightenment and wel£a.l'e of humanity. 
The two most wonderful and productive of all the primitive Chris-
tian Churches were both located in Africa, namely, the Greek-
speaking Church in North-eastern Africa, and the Latin-speaking 
Church in North-western Africa. The L atin-speaking Church 
produced those three great Latin-Africans-Tertullian, Cypriau r 
and Augustine. Through them the North-western African Church 
has permanently affected all Western Christendom-Protestant as 
well as Roman Catholic, the New World as well as the Old World. 
The African Tertulliau Latinised the theological a.nd ecclesiastical 
language of the West; and in all controversies ou the constitution 
of the Church, the appeal has been by Western Christians to the 
African Cyprian; while no one has contributed so much to Western 
theology as the African Augustine. "Africa, not Rome," Dean 
Milman has said, fI gave birth to Latin Christianity." 
Yet tws Church was extinguished before the energy of the 
Saracens. Why? It is sometimes said that these Greek a.nd Latin 
Churches fell away because they were not missionary churches-
because they were not aggressive. But the reason lies more ou the 
sudace than that. They withered ''*away because they bad not 
much dept1) of earth. They had not taken root among the people 
of the country. Neither the Western Church of Carthage, nor 
the Eastern Church of Alexanw'ia, was ever a national Church-
had ever become indigenous. The Church of Tertullian and 
St. Augustin~ was Latin, not Punic; the Church of Ol'igell and 
St. Athallasius was Greek, and not Egyptian. 
'rile case has been fal' different with the third African Churcb-
the Abyssinian or Ethiopian. Founded by a native, it took hold of 
the inhabitants of the country, and struck its roots deep into the 
soil. And we have had very recent illustrations of the vigow' and 
activity of tbat Church. Only last year tbe Abyssilliall mOllarch 
told certain Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who sought to 
establish themselves in his territqry, that he did not want either of 
them, because the Ethiopians were already Christians, and had 
• 
190 Christiallily, Islam Gild Ilze Negro Race . 
held fast their faith under a strain which ha.d destroyecl that of 
more prosperous and civilised peoples. He boasted that his own 
community was the only African Chtuch which had helc1 fast its 
Christian faith, century after century, against the successive 
onslaughts of H eathenism and Mohammedanism. Even the 
Mohammedans believe in the irrepressible and aggressive vigom' of 
the Abyssinian Church. There is an old precliction among them 
that from Abyssinia-not from Russia, or any part of Em'ope-will 
come the conquerors of Arabia and the destroyers of the Holy City 
of Mecca. This may be taken as representing the idea that the 
power of Islam will disappear in Africa, under the influence of 
African Christians led by African teachers. 
The l05th chapter of the Koran is devoted to celebrating .the 
deliverance of Mecca hom the Christian king of Abyssinia, who, in 
the year that Mohammed was born, with a large ann)' and some 
elephants, marched upon Mecca for the pill'pose of destroying the 
Kaaba. And yet it was Abyssinia that afforded shelter to tbe 
persecuted Muslims, who, in the early days of I slam, had to fly !rOUl 
Arabia for their lives. When Mohammed found that his few 
followers were likely to be crushed by the opposition at Mecca, he 
ach·if:ied their flight into Abyssinia; and there, when the refugees 
proved to the king, from the :rora.n, that they were worshippers of 
the true God and believed in Jesus, they were protectpd from the 
destruction which would have extinguished I slamY If then, the two 
11 This was the first Hijro.. or Flight, Abu'l Feda., the Moho.mmedau 
hietoriEm, gi\'es the1ollowing o.ccountof it "In the year 626, when hloha.mmed 
was forty-five years old, the Koreisb became more severe in thei\: pel'secutions, 
Mohammed therefore gM'e permission to those who had no family, to betake 
themselves to the land 01 the Ethiopians. The first who went forth were twehe 
men e.nd four women, Among thesc, Othman, the son of Aflan, and his wife 
Ro.kia, the daughter of the Apostle of God; and Zobeir, the son of Awami ; antI 
Othman, the son of Uata.ni; and Abdullahi, the son of Ma.sadi; and Abdul 
Rahman, the son of Awsi. All these betook themselves to the Naga.shi, sa.iling 
across tho sea, and dwelt with him. 'fhen la-fa.r, the son of Abu Tillib, went 
forth an exile, whom other Muslims followed, one after another, AU who took 
flight into the country of the Ethiopia.11S were eighty-three men and eighteen 
women, besideschildreno.nd those who were born there. '1'he Koreishsent two men I 
to demand them-Abdu l\le.hun, son of Abu Rabia., Amru, son of At-..\si. They 
both camo, thereforc, to AI-No.gashi, a.nd demanded of him the fugitives But 
Philip alld the Eunuch. I9 I 
principal religions bad Dot their origin in Africa, yet Africa was 
the cradle which cherished their helpless infancy. 
Now, what are the lessons to be gathered [rom the preceding 
discussion? I conceive that they are: First, That Ethiopia and 
E thiopians have ever been connected with the Divine administra-
tion and manifestations, and tba.t that great country and its 
people are not left out of the beneficent pnrposes of the Almighty. 
Second, Tha.t the Gospel, to he successfully carried into Africa, 
must be carried by Africans. To II a man of Ethiopia" must be 
entrusted the message to Ethiopians. This truth, I believe , is 
being recognised DOW by all foreign workers in Mrica. The 
Mohammedans have aded upon it from the beginning, and this is 
the chief secret of their widesprea.d and increasing influence on 
that continent. The finest University for training the propagators 
of their faith is in Africa. This is established at Cairo, in Egypt. 
Ten thousand students are to·day gathered under its roof, pre· 
paring to go out as missionaries of the Muslim faith. A celebrated 
traveller has given the following description of this great institu-
tion, the educational pride and glory of Islam :-
This University is nine hundred years old (older tha.n Oxford), and still 
flourishes with as much vigour as in the palmy da.ys of the ArabillJ) conquest. 
There I saw collected ten thousand students. As one expressed it, " There were 
two acres of turbans" assembled in a vas? enclosure, with no floor but n. 
pa.vement, an4 with a roof over it supported by [our hundred columns, and at 
the foot of every column a teacher surrounded by his pupils. As we entered, 
there rose a hum of thousands of voices reciting the Koran _ These students 
e.re not only from Egypt, but from all parts of Alrica-from Morocco to 
Zanzibar. They come from far up the Nile, from Nubia and the Soudan, and 
from Darfour, b.lyond the Great Desert, and from the Western Coast of AIl'ica 
. .. . They live on the cha.rities of the faithful; a.nd when their s tudies are 
ended, those who are to be missionaries mount their camels and, joining a 
carava.n, cross the desert and are lost in the far interior of Africa., 
yvhere they become the efi'ectiYe propagators of Islam.It 
he did not yield them. Then Amnt, son of Al-Asi, said, • Ask them what lhey 
ha.ve to Bay a.bout Jesus.' And Nagashi asked them. And they replied with 
the words which God the Exa.lted told them. n.mong which is the address which 
God, through Gabriel, addressed to the Virgin ?I1o.ry."- J(oran, iii, 40·45. 
12 It is II. mistake to suppose tuat Mohammedanism is conquering Africa. 
J]lcrely or mainly by arms. The school aud the mosque at'e the most com mall 
• 
192 Christianity, Islam and tile Negro Race. 
And this plan of propagating religion in Africa, througb 
indigenous agency, is followed by no Christian Church with greater 
zeal and determination tban tbe Cburcb of Rome. Tbat Church, 
ever ready to recognise and utilise those elements in human nature 
which can be made subservient to her interests, is now everywhere 
educa.ting Africans for the African work. The Dnblin Review, an 
able exponent of Roman Catholic thought. said not long since:-
We are convinced tha.t the only hopeful, promising, o.nd effective wa.y of 
procedure in respect to Africa. is tha.t which ma.y be summed up in the words. 
tile conversion oj jfrica In) tilt Africans. Christian black settlements ought to 
be n.ttemptecl-all over Africa, e"6n, if need be, 0.8 a.mong the Moha.mmeda.ns-
after the difficult and costly manner followed by Monsignore Comboni. The 
tn.sk is full of hardship, but 110 OthC1' I!lstem will avail. • . • Whether it will 
be practica.lly possible to orga.nise bands of the Ca.tholic Africa.no-Americans for 
the settlement and conversion of Africa.-a.s their Protestant brethren, who sail 
to Liberia. in numbers varying annua.lly from two hundred to five bundred, are 
ol'ganised for that very PUll,ose-remains to be proved. Ln.rge funds are 
required-hard hea.ds and generous heo.rts to direct and ca.rry out such a.n 
enterprise; but genuine Faith, H ope a.nd Cha.rity are Divine and creatil"e 
forces, a.nd we must look for grea.t results where they exist and are brought into 
energetic nction, IS 
The Roman Catholic Church now possesses a number of native 
black priests; other nllotives are pursuing their theological studies 
under the auspices of that C}{lUrch, in Afl'ica; and a. community of 
over thirty Sisters is rendering immense service to the cause of 
religion on the West Coast. 
A thil'd lesson which we gather h'om the na.rrative of the text 
is that, in carrying the Gospel into Africa, the favour of men of 
iufluence is not to be despised, While it is true thf\.t It not many 
noble are called/' it is also true that, in all ages, the nobles of the 
earth have been pillars of the Cburcb. Tbe" man of Ethiopia" 
was II an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the 
agencies. Richardson, the African traveller, sa.ys: "I was genera.lly colled a. 
7Jwrabollt (i.t., a. religious tea.oher) in the Desert. This arose £rom the people 
s~eing we without arms, ancl occupied in reading a.nd writing," 
13 The reglOns in the vicinity of the Congo River, now s.bout to be occupied 
by De Brazza., under the a.uspices of the French government, would be a. capito.l 
.field for the settlement a.n<1 energies of I, Catholio Africano-Americo.ns." 
Philip alld the EUlluch. I93 
Ethiopians, who had the cbarge of all her treasure. " Christia.nity in 
Africa: so far as brought by Europeans, has only to a very limited 
extent affected the higher classes; and this is why, wherever it 
seems to have been established, its hold has been so precarious. 
It is true that Jesus Chri st humbled himself, and took upon himself 
the form of a servant, but be did Dot spring froIn the servile classes. 
He carne of the ruling tribe of Judah, and of David's royalliue. 
No great reforms can be effected without enlisting members of 
"the household of Cresar." Reforms, after all, come from above . 
.. The conversion of the Russia.n nation," says Dean Stanley, If was 
efi"ected, DOt by the preaching of the Byzantine clergy, but by 
the ma.rriage of a. By'zantine princess." 14 Notwithstanding the 
violent persecutions suffered by the Church in her earlier history, 
it still l·emains true that u kings have been her nursing fathers and 
queens her nm·sing mothers," sitting at her cradle and fostering 
her helpless infancy. 
A fourth point to be noticed in the narrative is the fact that the 
• teacher received patronage from tbe taught. The evangelist was I offered, and accepted, the hospitality of the eunuch. The first 
prea.chers of the gospel were received as guests, and were taken 
care of by those to whom they ministered. They were the labourers 
worthy of their hire. They were .1ot the dispensers of worldly 
pa.tronage. They imparted of thei!· spiritual things, while they 
received o[ the temporal things of those among whom they laboured· 
\Vhen Stanley wwte his famous letter from Uganda, which 
appeared in the London Daily Telegmph for November, 1875, 
inking for Ldissionaries to be sent to Mtesa, he suggested such an 
outfit for the missiona.ry as would suit a trading expedition. It 
may be that everything he recommended was necessary for 
Europeans going to a new, difficult, and unhealthy country; but 
ma.ny of the articles hardly seemed in keeping with that spirit 
whicb enjoined it upon the first missionaries to take" neither purse 
nor scri. p. " 
It is possible that where the gospel has taken root, and the 
ChUl'ch bas been established, it ts not incompatible with its spirit, 
11 Easit'riI Church, p, 3t. 
o 
• 
I94 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
or with the service of God, that outward magnificence should be an 
accompaniment of worship. It may be, at times, a duty to bring of 
our best, and lay it in that form at the feet of our Maker. David 
would not offer unto tbe Lord of that wbich cost him nothing. It 
was among the excellent qualities of the early Romans, as noted 
by one of their historians, that they were magnificent in the 
worship of their gods (ntagnifici suppliciis deoTU1n). And when the 
stranger from distant and primitive countries visits this land, be 
cannot help admiring the wonderful triumphs of architecture as • 
displayed in the splendid ana costly structures you have erected for 
tbe worship of God. 
But these are not the conditions of tbe spread of etetnal truth 
among a primitive people. We must go practically without purse 
or scrip i and, after the truth pure and simple has made its way, 
then, in the process of its growth, and in the course of its develop-
menl, it may take to itself resthetic forms accorcling to the genius 
of its recipients. 
The ~rue principle is simplicity in those who bring the glad 
tidings. Herein lies another secret of the success of the Moham-
medan missionaries in Africa.. In going from town to town and 
village to village, they go simply as the bearers of God's truth. 
They take their mats or their skins, and their manuscripts, and are 
followed by their pupils, who, in every new Pagan to~n, form the 
nucleus of a school and congregation. These preachers are the 
receivers, not the dispensers, of charity. I have met, in my travels 
in the interior of Liberia and Sierra Leone, missionaries from 
Kail'wan, Cairo, Morocco, ,,,ith nothing-dependent ~or their daily 
food upon those whom they instructed; and I have had the 
humiliating privilege of being benefactor to some of these self-
denying men, as missionary to missionary. 
The other system-that now pW'sued by foreign Christian 
missionaries, and which is perhaps unavoidable-of being the 
patrons of their disciples, is beset with dangers and temptations. 
There is the dangel', on the ODe hand, of injudiciously pa.tronising 
-not in the sense of assisting. simply, but in:the sense of pauperis-
ing-the native converts, and begetting in them a spirit of depen-
• 
Philip and the E ttll1lch. 195 
dence and servility; and there is, on the other ha.nd, the tempta.. 
tion to the missionary to become proud, supercilious a.nd dictatoria.l. 
There was sound philosophy, founded upon an absolute knowledge 
of human nature, in the direction given by Christ to the fin;t 
missionaries, when he commanded them to take" neither purse nor 
scrip." But how is it possible (or the Europea.n missionary to 
practise this sort of self-denial, when, to keep his health, energy 
and life on that continent, he must not be too fn.r from his base 
of supplies? This, ag&in, shows the necessity of .. the man of 
Ethiopia" for the working the country of the Ethiopians. The 
Negro missionary. born and brought up in foreign countries, is, 
to a la.rge extent, in the position of tb~ foreigner; but he has the 
advantage of physical adaptation, which gives the opportunity 
for protracted labour j and, from the unfa.iling and indelible in· 
6tincts of race, he can more fully enler into sympa.thy with the 
people; and, meeting with a.n unsuppressed and ulltrammelled 
response, can arri\"e at effective methods of dealing with novel 
questions, as, £rom time to time, they arise. Thus he is enabled 
to train the thoroughly indigenous elements which will rise 
up, and lay deeper foundations, and give more continuous 
impulse to the truth which he has introduced. It is in this 
way that American Negroes, who bo!ve gone to Africa from this 
country, have been able to do a great and permanent work 
there; and it is in this way, and even more effectively, that the 
thousands now being trained in this country-at Lincoln, Fisk, 
Hampton, Atlanta, Biddle, and other institutions-will accomplish 
wonders (or ~'be evangelisation and civilisation of the land of their 
lathers. 
A fifth point, to be observed in the narrative, is the absence of 
R.ll forUls, the freedom from pomp and circulDstance, which 
attended the conversion of the eunuch. lIe had been up to 
Jerusalem, the city of sacred associations, and was probably there 
during the exciting times of the crucifixion, of the Pentecostal 
manifestation, and of the accusation and murder of Stephen; but 
his attention was not urawn to the new revelation. He was, 
perhaps, too much engrossed by the novel sights he was daily 
• 
196 Christiall;ty, Islam and lite Negro Race. 
witnessing in the metropolis of Judea, to pay any attention to the 
execution of felons, the demonstrations of fanatics, 01' the stoning 
of a blasphemer. Or, perhaps, his earnest and inquiring mind had 
been perplexeu by the endless discussions of tbe Sadducees and 
Scribes: the oue denying the existence of everything spiritual, of 
everything which could not be demonstrated by the senses-the 
agnostics of their day ; the other spending their time in iu'Vesti-
gating tbe letter of the Scripture, and fa.iling to catch its spirit; 
while another party made broad their phylacteries, lengthened 
their prayers, and multiplied their fasts, insisting that that was the 
true religion. And, DO doubt, bearing in mind the disputations he 
had heard concerning the Law and the Prophets, he availed 
himself of those hours of silence, while passing through the desert, 
to read for himself the sacred pages, and "he read the prophet 
Esaias." Here was a mind anxiously seeking the truth, and hi~ 
effort was not to be in vain. If 'Wherever a great problem of the 
human spirit is growing towards its solution, and the soil of 
humanity is prepared for new seed from heo.,-en, God sends his 
chosen creature to proclaim the truth which brings the light." 
Philip was directed to I< arise and go toward the south, unto the 
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza. Ii"Melt is desert." 
And there, in that solitude, t•h e truth was revealed to the inquiring 
eunuch. There was nothing to distract the miuu of distort the 
impression received. When he reached his home there would 
be ouly the three things to remember-the n·ord, the Evangelist, 
the Desert. \Vith nothing but the air around them, ~be f.reedoUl of 
whose Ulotion represented the Spirit's influence, blowing where it 
listeth-aud the sunlight, emblem of the Sun of Righteousness, 
which was rising to illumine tbe new way on which the euunch 
was entering-Philip" preached unto him Jesus," There was no 
forUl, no ritual, no liturgy, no action, no rites. A new spirit was 
coming upon Ethiopia, and it would create new forms for itself. 
This I take to be the significance of the peculiar circumstances of 
the eunuch's admission into the Christian Church; and the incident 
furni shes a most instructive cowmentary Oll the words of Christ, 
tha.t the Kingdom of God II cometh no~ with observation" or 
Philip alld Ihe Eunllch. 197 
outward show. The hour bad come when the worship of the 
Father was to be confined neither to holy mountain uor holy city; 
therefore the new religion was imparted to him, who was to 
represent it in a new country, divested of forms and elaborate 
ceremony, in the freedom and silence of the desert. 
The next lesson we gather from this interesting lla,rrative is 
that the preaching of Christ, and Him crucified, is the regenerating 
power by which Africa is to be reclaimed-the simple story of 
the Cross. 
Observe now, in conclusioD, the simplicity of the confession 
required of the eunuch. If What doth hinder me to be baptized?" 
he asked. in his anxiety to take upon himself the obligation of 
membership in the new Church. The reply of the evangelist was, 
I< If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." We have 
no hard condition there, no insisting upon difficult dogmas. Well, 
what was he to believe? We have it in the prompt answer of the 
eunuch: n I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." This is 
the sum and substance of the requirements of the Gospel. This is 
the faith which, Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood do not reveal, 
and upon which the Ohurch is founded . This was the one essential 
article of faith in the Apostolic Church. It is the radical idea, the 
central truth, of the Christian systemli and it is the only influence 
that has pow, er to reform the world. 
I need not pause here to remark that one of the chief hindrances 
to the progress of the truth in Africa has been the constant desire to 
give prominence to deductions made by men from the great facts 
of revelation,. instean. of lifting up CIn-ist, and believing the words 
that He spake unto His disciples: If I, if I be lifted up, will draw 
all men unto Me;" If Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls;" "Come unto Me, all ye 
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." These 
are the words that bring light and beauty and encouragement and 
strength to the benighted . Instruct them by the simple teachings 
of Christ--the Sermon on the Mount, and the Lord's Prayer. 
Instruct them by the simple meth,o d of Christ. He moved through 
the ordinary life of meo. and drew His teachings from everything 
, 
l 
19B Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 1•  
He saw- the so",er and the seed, the field, the fisherman, the 
boat, the rain that fell, the ways of the sheep, the vine and the 
branches. Through all these He taught His disciples, aod brought 
instruction and refreshment to their souls, illustrating by His sur· 
rouodiogs-by the birds of .he air aod .he lilies of the field-the 
tender ca.re of God the Father over all His children. This is the 
teaching that will save men of all races and climes-adapted to 
men in the lowest stages of society I and adapted to men in the 
highest walks of life. .. For God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life." 
( 
I 
• 
, r,  
I 
, 
I 
.. 
• 
Mohammedanism in Western 
Africa.' 
GEORGE SALE has prefixed to the title·page of his able tra"s' la.tion of the Koran the following motto from St. Augustin: 
"Nnllafalsa doctrina est, qua non aliquidveri permisceat." Recent 
discussions and investigations have brought tbe subject of Moham· 
medanism prominently before the reading public, and the writings 
of Weil, and Noldeke, and Muir, and Sprenger, and Emanuel 
Deutsch have taught the world that" Mohammedanism is a thing of 
vitality. fraught with a thousand fruitful germs;'" and have amply 
illustrated the principle enunciated by St. Augustin. showing that 
there are elements both of truth and goodness in a system which 
has had so widespread an influen~e upon mankind, embracing 
within theoscope of its operations more than one hundred millions 
of the human race; that the exhibition of gems of truth, even 
though If suspended in a gallery of counterfeits," bas vast power 
over the human heart • 
The obje•c t of the present paper is to inquire briefly into the 
condition a.nd influence of Mohammedanism among the tribes of 
Western Africa. Whatever may be the intellectual inferiority of 
the Negro tribes (if. indeed. such inferiority exists), it is certain 
tha.t many of these tribes have received the reJigion of Islam 
without its being forced upon them by the overpowering a.rms of 
victorious invaders. The quiet development and organisation of 
So religious community in the heart of Africa has shown that 
.' 
1 Mttllodid Quarterly RwitUJ, January, 1871. 
• 
200 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
Negroes, equally with other races, are susceptible of moral and 
spiritual impressions, and of a.1l the sublime possibilities of religion. 
The history of the progress of Islam in this country would present 
the same instances of real and eager mental conflict, of minds in 
honest tra.nsition, of careful comparison and reflection, tha.t have 
been found in other communities where new aspects of truth and 
fresh considerations have been brought before them. And we hold 
that it shows a stronger and more healthy intellectual tendency, to 
be induced by the persuasion and reason of a man of moral noble· 
ness and deep personal convictions to join with him in the intro· 
duction of beneficial changes, than to be compelled to follow the 
lead of an irresponsible character, who forces us into measures by 
his supel'ior physical might. 
Different estimates are made of the beneficial effects wrought 
by Islam upon the moral and industrial condition of ·Western 
Africa. Some a.re disposed to ignore altogether any wholesome 
result, and regard the Negro Moslems as possessing. as a general 
thing, only the external appendages of a system which they do not 
understand. But such a conclusion implies a very superficial 
acquaintance with the state of things among the people. Of course 
cases are found of individuals here and there, of blustering zeal 
and lofty pretensions-qualit.-:es which usually exist in inverse 
proportion to the amount of sound knowledge posses~ed-whose 
views, so far as they can be gathered, are no more than a mixture 
of imperfectly understood Mohammedanism aud Fetichism; but a.ll 
careful and candid observers agree that the influence of Islam in 
Central and 'Vest Africa has been, upon the whoM, of a most 
salutary character. As an elimina.tory and subversive agency, it 
has displaced or uusettled nothing as good as itself. If it has 
introduced superstitions, it has expelled superstitions far more mis· 
chievous a.nd degrading. And it is not wonderful if, in succeeding 
to a debasing Heathenism, it bas, in many respects, made compro· 
mises, so as occa.sionally to present a barren, hybrid character; but 
what jl) surprising, is that a. religion quietly introduced from a 
foreign country, with so few of the, outward agencies of civilisation, 
should not, in process of time, ha.ve been altogether absorbed by 
Mohammedanism in Westem Ii/rica. 201 
the superstitions and manners of barbarous Pagans. But not only 
has it not been absorbed- it bas introduced large modifications in 
the views and practices even of those who have but a vague COll-
.ception of its teachings. 
Mungo Park, in bis travels seventy years ago, everywhere 
l'emarked the contrast behveen the Pagan and Mohammedan tribes 
.of interior Africa. One very important improvement noticed by 
bim was abstinellce fronj, into.ricating drinks. "The beverage of the 
Pagan Negroes," he says, <C is beer and mead, of which they often 
drink to excess; the Mohammedan converts drink nothing bu,t 
wo 1/11'." ~ Thus, throughout Central A£rica there has been established 
a vast Total Abstinence Society; and such is the influence of this 
society that where there are Moslem inhabitants, even in Pagan • • 
tOWDS, it is a very rare thing to see a person intoxicated. They 
thus present an almost impenetrable barrier to the desolating flood 
of ardent spirits with wwch traders from Europe and America 
inundate the coast, and of which we have recently had so truthful 
and sadly suggestive an account from a missionary at Gaboon.s 
Wherever the Moslem is fonnd on this coast, whether Jalof, 
Foulah. or Mandingo. he looks upon himself as a separate and 
.distinct being from his Pagan neighbour, and immeasurably his 
'Superior in intellectual and moral r,jspects. He regards himself as 
oue to whpm a revelation bas been" sent down It from heaven. He 
holds constant intercourse with the "Lord of worlds," wbose 
servant he is. In his behalf, Omnipotence will ever interpose in 
times of danger. Hence he feels that be cannot indulge in the 
frivolities alld vices which he considers as by no means incompatible 
with the character and professions of the l{a£ir or unbeliever. 
Nearly every day bis Koran reminds him of bis high privileges, as 
compared with others, in the following terms :-
Verily those who believe not, among those who have received the Scriptures, 
a.nc1 among the Idola.tors, shall be cast into the fire of hell, to remain therein for 
ever. These o.re the worst of creatures. Hut they who believe and do good 
works, these a.re the best of crea.tures; their reward with t.heir Lord sha.ll be 
gardens of perpetuoJ. abode.~ 
, Park's Travel •• cba.p. ii. 8 Mr. Walker, in Missionory lltmld, Feb., 1870. 
j Sura, xcviii . 
• 
202 Chris/iallity, Islam and the Negro Race . 
Whoso to.keth God and His apost.le and the believers for friends, they are 
the pn.rt.y of God, and t.hey shall be ,ictorious.s 
But there are no caste distinctions among them. They do not 
look upon the privileges of Islam as confined by tribal barriers or 
limita.tions. On the contrary, the lile of their religion is aggressive· 
ness. They are constantly making proselytes. As early as the 
commencement of the present century, the elastic and expansive 
character of their system was sufficiently marked to attract the 
notice of Mr. Park. II III the Negro country," observes that cele-
brated traveller, "the Mohammedan religion has made, and con-
tinues to make, considerable p~ogress." •• The yearning of the 
native Alrican," says Professor CrummelJ, II for a higher religion, is 
illustrated by the singular fact that Mohammedanism is rapidly 
and peaceably spreading all through the tribes of Western Africa, 
even to the Christian settlements of Liberia.. " II From Senegal to 
Lagos, over two thousand miles, there is scarcely a.n important 
town on the seaboard where there are not &t least one mosque, and 
active representative of Islam, often side by side with the Christian 
teachers. And as soon as a Pagan, however obscure or degraded, 
embraces the Moslem faith, he is at once admitted as an equal to 
their society. Slavery and the slave-trade ara laudable institutions, 
provided the slaves are Kafirs)' The slave who embraces Islam is 
free, and no office is closed against him on accounl of seryite blood. 
The Pagan village possessing a. Mussulman teacher is alwllys 
found to be in advance of its neighbours in all the elements of 
civilisation. The people pay great deference to him. He instructs 
their children, and professes to be the medium betweeu them and 
Heaven, either for securing a supply of their necessities, or for 
warding off or removing calamities. It must be borne in mind 
that people in the state of barbarism, in which the Pagan tribes 
are usually found, have no proper conceptions of huma.nity and its 
capacities. The man, therefore. who by unusual strength or cunning 
achieves something which no one had achieved before him, or 
of which they do not understand the process, is exalted into an 
• 
to Sura, v. • Futurl of A/n'ca, p. 305. 
• 
M olta1l!1IledallisIII in WesleYlI Africa. 203 
extraordina.ry being. in close intimacy with the mysterious powers 
of Nature. The Mohammedan, then, who enters a. Pagan village 
with his books, and papers. and rosaries, his frequent ablutions 
and regularly.recurriug timea of prayers and prostrations, in which 
he appears to be conversing with some invisible being. soon 
a.cquires a controlling influence over the people. He secures their 
moral confidence and respect, and they bring to him all their 
difficulties for solution, and all their grievances for redress. 
To the .dJrican Mussultnan. innocent of the intellectual and 
scientific progress of other portions of the world, the Koran is 
a,ll·sufficient for his moral, intellectual, social and political needs. 
It contains his whol~ religion, and a great deal besides. It is to 
him far more than it is to the Turk or Egyptian, upon whom the 
light of European civilisation has fallen. It is his code of laws, 
and his creed, his homily, and his liturgy. He consults it for 
direction on every possible subject; and his Pagan neighbour, seeing 
such veneration paid to the book, conceives even more exaggerated 
notions of its character. The latter looks upon it as a great 
medical repository. teaching the art of healing disea.ses, and as a 
wonderful storehouse of charms and divining power, protecting 
from dangers and foretelling future events. And though the prog-
nostications of his Moslem prop:1et are often of the nature of 
vaticinia .post eventum, yet his faith remains unsha.ken in the 
infa.llibility oi "Alkorona." He therefore never fails to resort, in 
times of extremity, to the Mohammedan for direction, and pays 
him (or charms aga.inst evil. These charms are nothing more than 
passages ffom the Koran, written on slips of paper, and inclosed 
in leather cases about two or three inches square-after the manner 
of the Jewish phylactery-and worD about the neck or wrist. The 
passages usually written are the last two chapters of the Koran, 
known as the" Chapters of Refuge," because they begin, "Say, I 
take refuge," &c. In cases of internal complaint, one or both of 
these cha.pters are written on certain leaves, of which a strong 
decoction is made, and the water a.dministered to the patient. We 
have seen these two chapters ~ritten inside a bowl at Alexandria 
for medicinal purposes . 
• 
204 Christianity, I slam and the Negro Race. 
The Moslems themselves wear constantly about their persons 
certain texts from the Koran, called Ayat-el-hijz. verses of protec-
tion or preservation, which are supposed to keep away every 
species of misfortune. 1'be following are in most common use~ 
" God is the best protector, and He is the most merciful of those 
who sbow mercy." 7 II And God compasseth them behind. Verily 
it is a glorious Koran, written on a preserved tablet," ~ Sometimes 
they have the following rhymed couplet :-
Auzu billa.bi min es-Sbayta.n arrajim, 
Bismi illahi 9.rrahmo.o, a.rra.him,o 
This couplet is also employed whenever they are about to read 
the Koran, as a protection against the suggestions of Satan, who 
is supposed to be ever on the alert to whisper erroneous and 
hurtful constructions to the devout reader. 
The Koran is almost always in their hand. It seems to be their 
labour and their relaxation to pore over its pages. They love to 
read and recite it aloud fOl' hours together. They seem to possess 
an enthusiastic appreciation of the rhythmical harmony in which 
it is written. But we cannot a.ttribute its power over them 
altogether to the jingling sounds, word-plays, and refrains in which 
it abounds. These, it is true, please the ear and amuse the fancy, 
• 
especially of the uncultivated. But there is something higher, of 
which these rhyming lines are the vehicle; something po,->sessing So 
deeper power to rouse the imagination, mould the feelings, and 
generate action. Gibbon has characterised the Koran as a 
.. tissue of incoherent rhapsodies." Ie But the author of the Decline 
and Fall was, as he himself acknowledges, ignorant of the Arabic 
language, and therefore incompetent to pronounce an authoritative 
judgment. Mr. Hallam, in a more appreciative vein, speaks of it 
as" a book confessedly written with much elegance and purity," 
containing "just and elevated notions of the Divine nature and 
1 Sura. xii, 6:1. tI Sura. i.n.xv, 20. 
!I I ta.ke refuge in God from Satan, whom we ha.te, 
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compo.ssiona.te . 
10 Chap. i. 
Mohammedanism in Westem A/rica. 205 
lDoral duties, the. gold ore that pervades the dross." II The historian 
of the Middle Ages, a most conscientious investigator, had probably 
read the book in the original- had been charmed with its sense as 
well as its sound. Only they who read it in the language of the 
Arabian author can form anything like an accurate idea of its 
unapproacbable place as a power among unevangelised communi-
ties for moulding into the most exciting and the most expressive 
harmonies the feelings and imaginations. A recent able and 
learned critic says:-
The Kora.n suffers more tha.n a.ny other book we think of by a tra.nsla.tion, 
however masterly. The grandeur of ilie KarBon COnsists, its contents a.part. in 
its diction. We ca.nnot expltl.in the peculiarly dignified, impressive, sonorous 
mixture of Semitic sound a.nd pn.dance; its st:'sqllipedalia t'c,.ba, with their 
crowd of prefixes nnd affixes, each of them affirming its own position, while 
consciously bea.ri.ng upon and influencing the centra.l root, which they envelop 
like a. garment of ma.ny folds, or as chosen court.iers move round the anointed 
person of the king.12 
'1'he African Moslem forms no exception among the adherents of 
Islam in his appreciation of the sacred book. It is studied with as 
much enthusiasm at Boporo, Misadu, Medina and Kankan,ls as at 
Ca.iro, Alexandria, or Bagdad. In travelling in the exterior of 
Liberia, we have met ulemas, or learned men, who could reproduce 
from memory any chapter of the Xoran, with its vowels and dots, 
and otheJ; grammn.tical marks. The boys under their instruction 
are kept at the study of the books for years. First, they are taught 
the letters and vowel marks, then they are taught to read the text, 
without receiving any insight into its meaning. When they can 
read fluent~y, they are taught the meaning of the words, which they 
commit carefully to memory; after which they are instructed in 
wha.t they call the" Jalaleyn," a rUDning commentary on the 
Kora.n. While learning the Jalaleyn, they have side studies 
a.ssigned them in Arabic manuscripts, containing the mystical 
traditions, the acts of Mohammed, tbe duties of fasting, prayer, 
U Jiidtlilo Ages, chap. vi. 
I~ Ema.nuel Deutsch. in the Quarterly Bet"iew (London) for October, 1869. 
I~ Mobn.mmedan towns, from se,~ty-five to three hundred miles east and 
north-east. of Monrovia. . 
• 
206 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
alms, corporal purification,U &c. Young men who intend to be 
enrolled among the ulemas take up history and chronology, on 
which they have some fragmentary manuscripts. Before a student 
is admitted to the ranks of the learned, he must pass an examina-
tion, usually lasting seven days, conducted by a Board consisting 
of imams and ulemas. If he is successful, he is led around the 
town on horseback, with instrumental music and singing. The 
following ditty is usually sung:-
Alin.humma., ya. Rabbee 
Sallo. ala. M.ohammade, 
Salla Allahu alayhe wa. Sallama.15 
After this, the candidate is presented with a. sash or scarf, usually 
of fine white cloth, of native manuiacture, which be is thenceforth 
permitted to wind round his cap, with one end hanging down the 
back, forming the Oriental turban. This is a sort of Bachelor of 
Arts diploma. The men who wear turbans have read through and 
recited the Koran many hundred times; and you can refer to no 
passage which they cannot readily find in their apparently con-
fused manuscripts of loose leaves and pages, distinguished not by 
numbers, but by catchwords at the bottom. Carlyle tells us that 
he has heard of Mohammedan doctors who had read the Koran 
seventy thousand times. 16 Mal y such animated and moving can· 
cOl'dances to the Koran may doubtless be found in Ce,n tral and 
West Africa. 
But the Koran is not the only book they read . "Ve have seen, 
in some of their libraries, extensive manuscripts in poetry and 
prose. One showed us at Boporo, the Makci.mat of H""riri, which 
he read and expounded with great readiness, and seemed surpriseu 
that we had heard of it. And it is not to be doubted that some 
valuable Arabic manuscripts may yet be found in the heart of 
Africa. Dr. Barth tells us that he saw, in Central Africa, a manu-
script of those portions of Al'istotle and Plato which had been 
U The student a.t this sta.ge is ca.lled "Ta.lib," tha.t is, one who seeks 
knowledge. 
I~ 0 God, my Lord, bless Mohammed! I'}od bless hi.m, and grlW.t him peace t 
16 Heroes and Hero Worship, p. SO. 
Mohammedanism", Western Africa. 207 
translated into Arabic, and that an Arabic version of Hippocrates 
was extremely valued. The splendid voweled edition of the New 
Testament and P salms recently issued by the American Bible 
Society. and of which, through the kindness of friends in New 
York, we have been enabled to distribute a few copies among them, 
is highly prized. 
We have collected, in Our visits to Mohammedan towus, a 
number of interesting manuscripts, original and extracted. We 
will here give two or three specimens as translated by us. We 
should be glad if we could transfer to these pages the eJegaut and 
ornamental chirography of the original. 
The first is from a, talismanic paper written at Futa J allan, 
copies of which are sold to the credulous as mea.ns of warding off 
evil from individua.ls and. communities, to be employed especially 
during seasons of epidemics. It is as follows :-
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Comp:l.ssiona.te. 0 God, bless 
Mohammed 3.lld so..ve him, the 6ea.l of the prophets and the imu.m of the 
• a.post.les. beloved of the Lord of wodds ! 
After the above is the conveying of health, and the completing 
of salutation and honour: 
Verily, the pestilence is coming upon Y1u, beginning With your wealth, such 
as your cows, and a.fter tha.t with yourselves; and verily if all of you provide 
\vater and bYead, namely, of your men and your women, nnd your ma.n·serva.nts 
and your ma.id-servants. and all your youths, they shall not endure it. And 
a.fter tbat write out the Chapter, 'Opener of the Book' \i and the' Verse of the 
Throne,' Itl and from" God is light" to " Omniscient," 19 and from" God created 
11 'Fatihat el.K.itab,' the first cbapter of ~he Koran. 
16 'Ayet el-Kursee,' Sura. ii, iv, 256. This verse is repeated by the pious 
Moslem nea.rly every time he prays. It is a.s follows: "God! there is no God 
but He; the Living, the EternaL Nor slumber seizoth Him, nor sleep; His, 
whatsoever is in the hea.vens a.nd whatsoever is in the earth! Who is he that 
ca.n intercede with Him but by His own permission? He knoweth what hath 
been before them, a,nd what shall be after them; yet nought of His knowledge 
ehall they gra.sp, save wba~ He willeth. His throne reacbeth over the heavens 
a.nd the ea.rth, and the upholding of bot.h burdenet.h Him no~; and He is the 
Hiob, the Great.-Rodwell's Tran~latiOIl. 
o • 
111 Sura. xxiv, 35 . 
• 
208 Chl'istianity, Islam and the Negl'o Race. 
every, " the whole verse, to ,. Omnipotent," 20 and the' Two Cha.pters of Refuge '; 
and write, " They who, when they have done foully and dea.lt unjus~ly by their 
own souls, sha.ll remember God, a.nd seek forgiveness for their sins, (a.nd who 
forgives sins but God ?) and sha.ll not persevere in whn.t they ha.ve done while 
they Imow it." 21 And if you do this, Goel sha.ll certa.inly turn ba.ck the punish. 
lUGnt from you, if God will, by this supplication ..... Because thn.t is the 
way of esca.pe obliga.tory on every Moslem ma.n a.nd woman. This document is 
by a. man of wea.lth, who tra.velled, tra.velling [rom Futn. to Mecca. on pllgrimage, 
and sta.yed three mouths, a.nd departed t-o EI-i1Iedina., a.nd settled there three 
yea.rs, a.nd returned to Fute., Written by me, Ahmo.d of Futa, to-day. 0 God, 
bless Moha.mmed and sa.ve him I The end. 
The llext paper professes to be a history of the world. Beginning 
thousands of years before Adam, it gives account of the successive 
epochs through which the earth passed before man was created. 
But we omit all those periods, which might, perhaps, be of interest 
to the enthusiastic geologist, and come down to the account given of 
the first meeting of Adam and Eve. Says au!' author: 
When Adam first met Eve he was walking upon the sell.. a.nd be so.id to ber, 
0' Wbo a.rt thou?" And she sa.id, "I am the destroyer of mercies. ,. And 
Ada.m sa.id, " Who a.rt thou?" And she said, " I am tbe destroyer of wealth; 
he who finds wealth finds me, and he who does not find weaHb does Dot find 
me." And Adam said, " Who a.rt thou?" And sbe sald, " I am one in whom 
no faith is to he reposed-I am Eve." And Adam said , "I believe thee, 0 Eve." 
And Adam took her, a.nd she conceived, a.nd brought forth forty twins, a ma.le 
o.nd 0. fema.le a.t each birth, and ni,l  died except Seth, who was the fatber of 
Noah, ,. &c. 
The author then proceeds to trace the descendants of Noah, 
assigning to Shem, Ham and J apheth the countries in which lt is 
commonly understood that they respectively settled. 
The next paper is a very elaborate and accur!;ltely written 
manuscript, styled" The Book of Psalms which God sent down to 
David." We have been puzzled to accouut for the origin and 
purpose of this paper. Wheresoever it comes, it is certain it 
does not come out of the Psalms of David. It contains, however, 
some excellent moral teachings, written not in Koranic language, 
but, on the whole, in very good Arabic, singularly free h'om those 
10 Sura. xxiv. 4.4. 
!ll Sura. iii, 129, An item in n. list of :>:jasses of persons who shall be blessed 
in this world o.ncl go to Heaven when they die. 
JlIJohammeddnism ill Weslem A/rica. 209 
omissions and misplacements of diacritical points which are so 
troublesome in some Arabic writings. The anangement of the 
vowels reveals a thorough acquaintance with the niceties of 
classical AI'abie. It was copied for us from an old manuscript 
brought by a scribe from liankan, but be could give no information 
as to its original source. The statement that it is the Psalms is 
probably a illere freak of the compiler or copyist, unless we suppose 
the existence of some Mohammedan pseudo-psalmist in tIle interior. 
Moreover, the word anzala, used in the manuscript, wbicb we bavfl 
translated "sent dowll," is not the word applied in the Koran to 
David's re'relations. The word there used is uta, signifying to 
tI commit," to .. give," etc. The paper is divided into six chapters ot' 
parts. ,Ve will give, with the introductory formula and blessing. 
the first, fourth, and fifth parts: 
In the llame of God, &c. God bless our lord Moha.mmed, His prophet, and 
his family, and his wives, and his descendn.nts, and his friends, and keep them 
safe. 
This is the Book of Psalms, which God sent down to David. Peace upon him! 
• 
r wonder at him who has heard of Death, how he can rejoice. 
r wonder a.t him who has heard of the Rjckoning, how he can ga.thE:r riches. 
I wonder a.t him who he.s hea.rd of the Gra.ve, how he ca.n laugh. 
I wonder o..t him who gneves o,-er the waste of his riches and does not grieve 
over the waste of his We. 
I ,vander at him who ho.s heard of the future world and its bliss and its 
enduringness, how be ca.n rest when he has never sought it_ 
I wonder at him who has heard of the present wodd and its transitoriness, 
how he ca.n be s\!cure about it when he ba.s never fled from it. 
r wonder at him who is knowing in the tongue, n.nd ignora.nt in the hea.rt 
I ,vander at him who is busy with people's faults, and forgets his own faults. 
I wonder at him who knows that God considers him in all places, bow he can 
rebel against Hjm. 
I wonder at him who has purified himself with water, and is Dot pure in hiS 
heart. 
I wonder a.t him who knows that he shall die alone, and enter the gra\'c 
alone, a.nd render account o.lone, how he can seek reconcilia.tion with men, 
when he has not sought reconcilia.tion with his Lord. 
There is no God but God, in ~ruth Mohammed is tho Envoy of God God. 
bless him anu Sll.ve him 1 
p 
• 
210 Christianity, Islam alld tlze Negro Race. 
PART THE FOURTH, 
Son of Man! Be not of them who 8.re long of repentance and long of hope,~ 
and look for the last da.y without work, and say the say of the sen'ants, and 
work the wQrk of the hypocrite, and are not satisfied if I give to you, Iilld endure 
not if I keep from you; who prescribe tha.t which is approved and good, and do 
it not, and forbid tha.t which is disapproved and eril, and forego it not, and love 
the faithful and are not of them, a.nd hate the hypocrites and are of them-
exacting and not exa.ct 
Son of Man! There is not a. new day but the ea.rth addresses thee, (lnd thus 
eays she 11cr say unto thee: 
Son of 1.Ian ! 
Thou wa.l.kest on my ba.ck, but thy return is to my belly; 
Thou la.ughest on my back, and then thou weepest in my belly; 
Thou art joyful on my back. and then thou art s~rrowfut in my bellr; 
Thou sinnest on my back, and then thou sufferest in my belly; 
Thou eatest thy desire on my back, and then the worm'J ca.t thee in my belly; 
Son of Man! 
I am the house of desolation, I am the house of isola.tion ; 
I am the house of darkness, I am the house of straitness; 
I am the house of question, I am the house of terrors; 
I a.m the house of serpents, I 80m the house of scorpions; 
) am the house of thirst, I a.m the house of hWlger; 
T n.m the hOllse of disgrace, I am the house of fires; 
Then cultivate me, o.nd burn 2:l me not. 
PART THE FlFTH. 
Son of )lan! I did not create YLU to get grea.tness by you instead of bitter· 
ness, nor to get compn.n.ionsh.ip by you instead of desola.tion, nor to borrow by 
you n.nything I wanted; nor did I create you to dmw to me any profit, or to 
thrust from me any loss (f'a.r be it from Rim the Exalted !). But I ha.ve created 
you to serYe me perpetunlly, a.nd thank me greatly, nnd pra.ise me morning and 
evening.il And if the first of you nnd the last of you, and the living of }'OU a.nd 
the dead of you, n.nd the sme.ll of you and the grea.t of you, £i.l'ld the ma.le of 
you and the female of you, n.nd the lords of you a..nd the serva.nts of you, n.nd 
the men of you and the beasts of you, if they combine to obey me, this will not 
add to my dominion the weight of lit grs.ill of dust. .. Whoe\'er does good service , 
does good sen'ice onJy for himseU; and whoever is unthnnkful-why, God is 
independent of the three worlds." 2-' 
2"1 That is, waiting on Providence, without attempting to "work out one's 
own salvation." 
2S Tlus is probably 0. warning s.gninst the prac tice among the natives of 
denuding the earth by b\LrD.ing the wood wben prepa.ring to plo.nt. 
21 Compare Psalm i, 7-14. 
'l:i .LI~-orall, :CH- X, 5 • 
Nloha11tllledall;sm ill Weslem Africa. 2II 
Son of Man I 
As thou lendest. sha.lt thou borrow; 
As thou workest, she.J.t thou be recompensed; 
As thou sowest, shal t thou reap. 
We have been surprised to notice that the manuscripts which 
""We receive generally from Boporo, hlisadu, and Kankan are much 
better written, and of a much more edifying character, than those 
we have seen from the Gambia. and that region of country. Some 
of the latter, consisting of childish legends and superstitious details, 
are onen curious philologically, being mixtures of Arabic and the 
vernacular dialect. It is said also by those who have seen 
lllohammedan worship conducted by the Jalofs and Foulahs about 
the Gambia and Senegal, and have witnessed similar exercises 
among the Mandingoes in the region of country east of Liberia, 
that the latter exhibit in their bearing and proceedings during their 
l'eligious services greater intelligence, order, and regularity than 
the former. 
• During a visit of three weeks made to Bopol'o in the Moham-
.. medan month of Ramadhan (December and January, 1868·69), we 
ha.d an opportunity of seeing the Mandingo Moslem at home. It 
.being the sacred month of fasting and religious devotedness, we 
witnessed several religious ceremon::es and performances. 
As in a, ll Moslem communities, prayer is held five times a.day. 
When the hour for prayer approaches, a man appointed for the 
purpose, with a very strong and clear voice, goes to the door of the 
mosque and chants the a!lhan, or call to prayer. This mau is 
called the llueddin.'l3 His call is especially solemn and interesting 
in the early hours of the morning. We oHen lay in bed between 
four and five o'clock listening for the cry of the hlueddin . There 
was a simple and solemn melody in the chant at that still 
hour, which, after it had ceased, still lingered pleasantly on the 
~; The first Moslem crier was !lin Ethiopian negro, Bilal by na.me, " e. ma.n of 
powcrful fr!lome and sonorous voice." He was the favoul'ite attenda.nt of 
)Ioha.mmed. Mr. Irving informs us that on the capture of Jerusalem he made 
the first adltan, "a.t the Caliph Qmy's comma.nd, a.nd summoned the true 
believers to prayers wi~h a. force - of lungs that e.stonished the Jewish 
inbabitILnts. "-Irving's Successor. of ilIahomet, p_ 100. 
• 
• 
2 I 2 C/11-istianity, I slaw and tile N eg"o Race. 
ear, and often, despite ourselves, drew us out to the mosque. The 
morning adhan, as we heard it at Bopol'o, is as follows; Allcihu 
Akbar (this is said four times). Ashhacl" an la ilciha ill' Allah 
(twice). Ashhadu, anna ]JohammaduJ rasoolll, 'llah (twice). Heiya 
ala, SaMh (twice). Heiya alal-feliih (twice). Salat/l, khei1'1(' min. 
<I-uallm; (twice). Allah" Akba>' (twice). La ildha ill' Allah (once)." 
Says Mr. Deutsch: 
Mny-be some stray reader remembers 0. cer~n.in thrill on wa.k.ing suddenly 
in the middle of his first night on Eastern Soil-wBking, as it were, f.r;om dream 
into dream. For there came 0. voice, solitary. Bweet, sonorous, floa.ting from on 
high, through !,;he moonlight B~illness-the voice of the blind Mucddin, singing 
the" Ualb," or tint call to pra.yer .... . The sounds went and ca.me_ fI .:lllahu. 
Akbar, .:lllahu Akbar "-and thlS reader m().y have 0. vague llotion of Arabic and 
Koranic sound, one he will never forget. 2lI 
At Boporo and other African towns we hM'e visited, this call 
is made three times within the half-hour immediately preceding 
worship. Before tbe third call is concluded the people have 
generally assembled in the mosque, Then the Imam proceeds with 
the exercises, consisting usually of certain short chapters from the 
Koran and a few prayers, interspersed with beautiful chanting of 
the Moslem watch-word, "La ilah't ill' Allah, Mohammad!I; rasoolu 
'Uahi "-" There is no God," etc. We may remark, by the way, that 
their tunes are not set in thel minor key, as is almost always the 
case among the Arabs. Their n!l.tures are more joyful. They 
exult in the diatonic scale of life, and leave their Oriental co-
raligionists to wail in the sad and mournful chromatics of the 
desert. 
The hlandingoes are an exceedingly polite and hospibble people. 
true restraints of their religion regulate their manners and control 
t~leir behaviour. Both in speech and demeanour, they appear 
always solicitous to be en regie-anxious to maintain the strictest 
propriety; and they succeed in conforming to the natural laws of 
27 The English is, " God is more great" (fout times). "I testify that there is 
no dei~y bnt God" (twice). "I testify t.hat )[ohammed is the a.postle of God" 
(twice) "Come to prayer ,. (twice). "Come to security" (twice). ., Prayer is 
beUer than sleep" (twice). "God is most grea.t " (twice). "There is DO deity but 
God" (ouce). 
:!>I Quarterly Review, October. 1809 . 
• 
M OhaJIIllledallislII ill Westem A/rica. 2 I 3 
etiquette, of which they seem to have an instinctive a.nd agreeable 
a.ppreciation. In their sa.lutations they always strive to exceed each 
other in good wishes. 'l'be saluta.tion II Salaam aleikum "-" Pea.ce 
be with you "-common in Oriental Moha.mmedan countries, is used 
by them very sparingly, a.nd, a.s a general thing, only on leaving the 
mosque after early morning worship. The reply is, II Aleiklll1l-e~ 
Salaam, tt'a rahmatu 'llahi wa barakatuhll, "-"With you be peace, 
and the mercy of God and His blessing." If" Salaam Aleikunt." is 
addressed to them by a Kafir or Pagan they seWom reply; if by a 
Christian, the reply is, II Salaam ala man taba el·lmda"-" Peace to 
him who follows the right way." 
Those who speak Arabic speak the Koranic or book Arabic, 
preserving the final vowels of the classical language-a practice 
which, in the hurry and exigencies of business life, has been long 
discontinued in countries where the lauguage is , ·ernacular; so that 
in Egypt and Syria the current speech is very defective, and clipped 
and corrupted. 1[r. Palgrave informs us, however, that in North· 
east Arabia. the .. grammatical dialect" is used in ordinary con· 
ven,ation. .. The smallest and raggedest child that toddles about 
the street lisps in the correctest book Arabic that e,er De Sa.cy 
studied or Sibaweeyah professed." 19 So among the Arabic scholars 
whom one meets in the interior of hiberia. In proper names we 
hear Ibral}eema, Aleeu, Suleimana, Abdulla.hi, Dauda, etc.; in 
worship Allahu, Akbaru. Lailaha, ill' Allahu, etc.; a.nd it is difficult 
for the mere tyro in Arabic pronuncia.tion either to understand or 
make himself understood unless he constantly bear in mind the 
final vowels' in nouns, verbs, and adjectives. A recent number of 
the Saturday Review,r/J in a notice of General Daumas's new work ou 
Arabic Life and Mussulman Society. remarks, "One comlort for the 
learner will be, that the oit.pressed distinction between what is 
termed the learned and the vulgar (Arabic) tongue is a mere fiction 
of European growth. It has no foundation in native usa.ge." We 
fear that the theoretical comfort which the soothing reVlewer 
110 Palgra.ve'a A fabia, \'01. i, p. S11. 
110 Ma.rch 26, 1870 . 
• 
2 q Chrislia1lily, [slam and lite Negro Race. 
attempts to administer to the learner of Arabic will be found of no 
practical avail when applied to the intercourse of daily life in Syria. 
and Egypt. Only such learned natives as Mr. Bistany. of Beyroot, 
and Dr. Mesbakah, of Damascus, speak the language so as to be 
understood by one versed only in Koranic inflections. And even 
they generally avoid that style as stilted, pedantic. and absurd. 
Says a high authority :_"1 
Les popula.tions Arl\bes, en general, ete.ut fort ignora.ntes, pa.r leur misere 
d'a.bord, at ensuite pa.r I'extreme difficult~ de l'etude at de l'a.pplication de leur 
idiome, 10 \o.ngo.ge usuel des diverses regions cst soumis u bien des va.rietes, 
SOlt de prononciation, soit de d~nomillation des idees et des choses. 
Among the Moslems of West Africa there are some peculiarities 
in the sounds of the letters. The fourth letter of the alphabet is 
generally pronounced like s; the se,-entb like the simple k; the 
ninth like j in jug; secn and ShCC1~ have both the sound of s. The 
fifteenth letter is sounded like 1; the nineteenth, whose guttural 
sound is so difficult to Western organs, is sounded like k; the 
twenty·first like g hard. 
The introduction of Islam into Centra.l and West Africa. has 
beeu the most important, if not the sole, preservative against the 
desolations of the slave· trade. Mohammedanism furnished a. 
protection to the tribes who .... mbraced it by effectually binding 
them together in one strong religious fraternity, and enabling them 
by their united effort to baffle the attempts of powerful Pagan 
slave-hunters. Enjoying this comparative immunity from sudden 
hostile incw'sions, industry was stimulated among them, industry 
diminished their poverty i and, as they incl'eac;ed in worldly substance, 
they also increased in desire for knowledge. Gross superstition 
gradually disappeared from among them. Receiving a degree or 
culture from the study of the Arabic language, they acquired loftier 
views, wider tastes, and those energetic habits which so pleasingly 
distinguished them from their Paga.n neighbours. 
Large towns and cities have grown up under Mohammedan 
energy and industry. Dr. Barth was surpl'ised to find such towns 
,'11 1\1. Brcsnier, professor of Ara.bic in the Nonna.l College of Algiers, in hi.! 
Cour. Pratique et Theorique de Langue Araw. 
AIo halllllledallislII in Western A/rica. 2 I 5 
or cities as Rano and Sakata in the centre of Africa-to discover 
the focus of a complex and widely-ramified commerce, and a busS 
hive of manufactw'iug industry I in a region which most people had 
believed to be a desert. And there are towns and cities nearly a5 
important farther west. to which Barth did not penetrate, still 
affording scope to extend the horizon of EW'opeau knowledge and the 
limits of commercial enterprise. Mr. Benjamin Anderson, the 
enterprising Liberian traveller, who bas recently visited Misadu, 
the capital of the Western Mandingoes, about two hundred miles 
cast of MOI1I"O\;o.., describes that city as the centre of a considerable 
commerce, reaching as fa.r north as Senegal and east as far as 
Sokoto. 
The Africa.n Moslems are also great travellers. They seem to 
travel through the country with greater hoeedom and safety than 
any other people, on account, probably, of their superior intelligence 
and greater usefulness. They are continually cro!:;sing the continent 
to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. We met a few weeks ago at Toto· 
Coreb, a town about ten miles east of Boporo, a lad who inIonned 
us that he was born at Mecca while his parents 'were in that city 
on a pilgrimage. \\Te gave him. a copy of the New Testament in 
A..rabic, which he read with unimpeded fluency, and with the 
Oriental accent and pronunciation . .) 
The ~eDeral diffusion of the Ambic language a~ in this country, 
throngh :llohalllUledan influence, must be regarded as a preparatory 
circumstance of vast importance for the introduction of the Gospel. 
It may be-
The pla.n of Providence that these ma.ny barbarous nations of Africa are to be 
consolidated under one nggressive ewpire of idea.s a.nd fa.ith. to prepa.re the way 
for eva.ngelisation through the medium of one copious, cuHivated, expressive 
tongue, in the place of leaving to the Church the difficult task of translating 
~J The natives 10\"e a.nd revere the langua.ge. All document!! of !l. serious 
chara.cter must be written in tha.t la.nguage. Bishop Crowther, of the Niger. in 
a. letter da.ted October 3D, 1869, teUs us of his visit to King Masa.ba., a. distin· 
guished Moha.mmedan sovereign, with whom be entered into a. written a.gree· 
ment with reference to the establishment of 0. Cluistian mission in his capital. 
"I drew up his promise," says the :eishop," in English, which he handed over 
to his Maalims to be trallslaled into .o!lrabic."-ChriltianOburver, Janua.ry, 18700 
, 
216 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
o.nd preaching in mlUlY bllorba.rous Ia.ngu&gcs. incapable of expre"",ing the finer 
forms of thought." 
Already some of the vernaculars have been ent·jched byexpres-
sions from the Arabic for the embodiment of the higher processes 
of thought. They ha.ve received terms regarding the religion of 
one God, anel respecting a certain state of civilisation, such as 
marrying, reading, writing, and the objects having relation thereto, 
sections of time, and phrases of salutation and of good breeding; 
then the terms relating to dress, instruments, and the art of 
warfare, as well as architecture, commerce, &C,M 
Mohammedanism, in this part of the world, could easily be dis-
placed by Christian influence, if Christian orga.nisations would 
enter with vigour into this field. The Rev. G. W. Gibson, Rector of 
Trinity Church, Monrovia, in n. letter published in the Spirit of 
.JIissi01lS for April, 1869, says;-
Wh&tever may h&\'c been the influence of Mohammed&nism on ra.ces in 
other parts of the world. I think here, upon the African, re8ults will pro\'e it to 
Lc merely prepara.tory to a. Christian chilisation. In this country, and almost 
immediately in our vicinity, it has recovered millions {rom Paganism, without, 
I think, having such a grasp upon the minds of the m&sses a~ to leo.d them 
ob&tinately to cling to it in preference to Christianity, with ib superior 
advantages. The sa.me feelings which led them to abandon their former religion 
for the :\Ioslem will, no doubt, lead them still further, and iUlluce them to 
embrace ours \vhcn properly presentccJ, I expre~s this opinion the more readily 
from se\'eral inter\'iews I ha.ve had lately with prominent parties connected 
with some of these tribes. 
We arc persuaded that, with the book knowledge tbey already 
possess, and their love of letters, ma.ny of them would become 
ready converts of a religion which brings with it the ~commen­
dation of a higher culture and 0. nobler civilisation. .And, once 
brought withjn the pale of Christianity. these Moha.mmedans would 
be a. most effective agency for the propagation of the Gospel in 
remote regions, hitherto impervious to European zeal and enter-
prise, and the work of African regeneration would proceed with 
uninterrupted course and unexampled ra.pidity . 
• Prof. Postostant, of Syrian Protestant College, Beyroot. 
a.t See Barth's Collt.clio,. 0/ Central A/rican J'O(abularit.., part. i. P 29. 
Sierra Leone and Li be ria: 
Their Origin, Work, and Destiny.1 
THERE is historical evidence tha.t the portion of Africa where are situated the Colony of Sierra Leone and the Republic 
of Liberia was known to the ancients. The earliest authentic 
account we have, however, of any visit to this coast by foreigners 
is contained in a fragment of Carthaginian literature, called the 
Periplus of lianDo, which shows that five hundl'ed years before 
Christ, or wore than two thousand years ago, Sierra Leone was 
visited. This document is said to be "the ODe relic of Cartba· 
ginia.n literature wbich has come down to us entire." It bas been 
preserved, however, not in the Carthaginian original, but in a 
Greek translation.' 
In modern history, the Portugu~se claim to have c.liscovered 
Sierra Leo)\e about 1415, and they are said to have planted a 
settlement here in 1463, twenty-nine years before the discovery 
of America by Columbus. The priority of discovery is, however, 
disputed by the French, who pretend that the merchants of Dieppe 
visited these 'coasts in 134.6, seventy years earlier. Two of their 
authors, Yillault and Robbe, detail at some length the origin and 
progress of the French settlements at Sierra Leone, Cape Mount, 
River Sestos, and Elmina. 
The object of these early establishments was legitimate com-
merce-no thought of co.rrying the people away into slavery had 
.at that time occurred. The discovery of America in 1492 was the 
I LeC'ture at Sierra Leone, April, 1884. 
~BOIIworth Smith's CartM f}t and the Ca rthaginianl. P 48 . 
• 
218 CIII'istianity, Islalll alld the Ne{;ro Race. 
fountain and source of that tra.nsa.tlantic traffic in men which, for-
more than three hundred years, entailed woes innumerable upon 
the people of this country. The slave-trade was regularly estab-
lished by Spain twenty·five years arter -the great exploit by 
Columbus. 
The first Englishman who engaged in the odious traffic was 
Sir John Ha.wkins, and the first scene of his disastrous labours 
was Sierra Leone. He saiJed (rom England for this port in Octoher. 
1562. Here be found the aborigines li,jug in peace and quiet-
ness, producing by agriculture and trade all that their necessities 
required. By the sword and other means, he obtained possession 
of three hundred persons, sailed with them to St. Domingo. where 
he exchangeu them for hides, ginger, sugar, and a good quantity 
of pearls, returning to England in Septembt::r, 156:J, Be sub-
sequently obtained the sanction of Queen Elizabeth, and a grant 
of two of Her :Majesty's ships for his nefarious expeditious. It 
must be staLed in justice to the Queeu, howe\'er, that she strongly 
objected to the traffic, and remoilstrated against it; but she was 
assured that none were transported from Africa but those who 
voluntarily offered themselves as labourers; that their religious 
condition was improved by being taken away from their nath-e 
superstitions. Tha Queen sa..ms to have contented herself with 
issuing some stringent injunctions against the employment of force, 
with which those interested in the trade promised to comply.s 
The principle of African colonisation in modern times, with 
a view to the improvement o( the country and the people, must 
be attributed to the Swedes. To them belongs the gJdry o( (orming 
the first specific plan for alleviating the evils which the inhuman 
traffic had caused and was causing to this country; and to the 
Danes must be assigned the credit of first carrying into execution 
the idea of an agricultural establishment (or instructing the natives 
in the cultivation of their fertile soil. 
A society formed in Sweden, in 1779, obtained a charter from 
His Swedish Majesty, Gustavus ill, empowering forty fa.milies 
to settle on this coast under the I?rotection or Sweden, to organise 
, Walker's Hi'tory of Iht Sl"rt Trade, p. 37. 
SieY1'a Leolle and Liberia. 2I9 
their own government, to enact their own laws, and to establish 
a community entirely independent of Europe. In the report of 
those who were seut out to examine the coast, Cape Verde 
appeared the most eligible situation; but it was claimed by the 
French, who had twice purchased the whole peninsula. After 
Cape Verde they fixed upon Oape Mount and Cape Mesurado, 
where now stands the capital of the Republic of Liberia. Cape 
Mount was represented as the Paradise of Guinea.' 
The idea of restoring free blacks as colonists, Crom the countries 
of their exile in the West to the land of their fatbers, originated 
in England with Granville Sharp and a few others of like philan-
thropic spirit. Through the efforts of Sharp. a decision was 
obtained from Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772, laying down the 
principle that" as soon as any slave sets foot on English ground 
he becomes free." At that time, there were in England numerous 
sla,es who had been earned from the West Indies and America 
by their masters. When this decision was published, they were 
J either driven {rom the houses of their masters or they left of 
their own accord. Several huum·eds of this class of persons were, 
therefore, found wandering about London homeless and starving, 
and Sharp and his friends made themselves responsible for their 
uuprotected and suffering condition. ~ 
To pronde means for their relief a society was organised. In 
the meanwhile, Granville Sharp conceived the idea of sending 
them back to Ah·ica, and sketched the outline of a plan for a 
settlement of,  all such persons. In July. 1783, while this plan was 
under serious consideration, Dr. Srneatham, who had spent several 
years on the coast o( Africa, wrote an interesting letter to Dr. 
Knowles, which came to the notice of Sharp, suggesting the idea 
of a free Negro settlement a.t Sierra Leone, II (or the plll'pose of 
checking and putting down the slave·trade, and of diffusing the 
principles of the Christia.n religion among the natives." 
, VillauU, who sn.w Cape Mount in 1667, sa.id: "L'Afrique sera.i.t preferable 
a l'Europe, si routes les pn.rties de cett. vaste region resemblait a.u.x environs du 
COop Monte ." 
• 
220 Clzristianity, Islam and tlze Negro Race. 
A commercial company. ca.lled St. George's Bay Company, 
organised about 1756, had established its operations at Sierra 
Leone." Through this company Gramille Sharp and his associates 
secured a considerable district of land for the purpose of settling 
the emancipated slaves. In the year 1787, a subscription of a 
few thousand pounds having been raised for assisting the destitute 
blacks to reach Africa, the Government very liberally seconded 
these views by taking upon itself the expense of transporting them 
to their destination, and of supplying them with necessaries 
during the first six or eight montlls of their residence in _-\.friea. 
The number that left England was four hnndred and sixty, of 
whom eighty-foul' died during their detention in the Channel or on 
the passage; and near a hundred more fell victims to the hardships 
to which they were exposed during the fu'st rainy season . They 
landed here in May, 1787. In l[ay, 1887, three years hence, 
we shall have reached the centennial anniversary of the settle-
ment. It is to be hoped that it will be duly celebrated by all the' 
inhabitants, and that tbe occasion will be marked by some suitable 
memorial. 
In the year 1791, the St. George's Bay Compauy was incor-
porated by Act of Parliament under the name of the Sierra Leone 
Company. In consequence of'this recognition by the Government, 
the capital of the company rapidly increased, and th~ Directors 
bad the opportunity of sending to the colony an additional nnmber 
of bla.ck colonists acquainted with the English language and 
accustomed to labour in hot climates. In relation to this matter 
I lake the following from the first Official Report of tlie Directors 
of the Sierra Leone Company, made in 1793;-
1 
When the Act of Parliament had pa.ssed for incorporating the Sierra. Leone , 
Oompo..ny, a. delego..te from a body of blacks in Nove. Scotie., supposed to amount 
to a few hundred, who was then in Engla.nd, repre!!lented the.t the persons who 
sent him hither had migre.ted to Nova. Scotia at the end of the America.n war, I 
having received from Government certa.in promises of lots of ItLnd which had 
never been strictly fulfilled; that both the soil and the clima.te of Nova. Scotia, 
~ This wa.s not the earliest Englisl. esta.blishment. ViUault found a.n 
English factory on Bunce Island in 1666. 
Sierra Leone a11d Libel'ia. 22£ 
as well as many other circumstallces in their situatioD, were complained of by 
them, and that many of them were desirous of becoming colonists at th~ 
settlement which they understood \vas likely to be made at Sierra. Leone. 
The Directors concurred with the delegate in applying to His Majesty's. 
Ministers for a passage for them at the expense of Government, and Imvil1g 
obtained So favoura.ble reply, they immediately availed themselves of the 
sen-1ces of Lieutenn.nt Cla.rkson, who ,ery handsomely offered to go to Nova 
Scotia in ordcr to make the necessary proposa.ls, and to superintend the 
collecting a.nd bringing Ol'er of such free blacks to Sierra. Leone as might be 
willing to migra.te. II 
The Nova Scotians were a portion of those slayes. who, during 
the American 'War of Independence, ran away from their masters 
and took refuge in the King's army. They were bOl'n in Nortn 
America of Airican progenitors. 
The number of Nova Scotians, the Report continues, who were \villing to 
embark for Sierra Leone proved, to the gren.t surprise of the Directors, to be no 
less than 1,190. In the month of February, 1792, the Company sent out the 
Nova Scotians in a fleet of sixteen .essels, from which there were landed III 
Sierra. Leone, on tbe28th of March. 1,131 blacks, man) of them la.bouring under 
the effects of a. fever first contracted in Ha.lifax, of which 65 had died dunng 
the passage. 
About this same time, a few gentlemen in the United States~ 
headed by the Revs. Drs. Hopkins and Stiles, of Rhode Island, 
having several years previously conceived the idea of a missionary 
settlement in Africa of Christian b'acks, were endeavouring to 
induce merl!hants to send out a yessel with a few emigl·ants, and 
with goods, the profits on which would diminish the expense of 
the enteqn·ise, aud enable them to procure lands on which to make 
a begiuuing. But this plan did not succeed from want of funds. 
On the 15th of January, 17SD, two yearB alter Granville Sbarp's 
first emigrants hall been sent out, Dr. Hopkins wrote to him 
enquiring whether, and on what terms, and with what prospects, 
blacks from America could join his colony. But it appears that no 
satisfactory answel' was received. 
In 1800 and 1801 the colony received another accession of 
G An fl.ccount of the colony of Sierm Leone, from Hs first establishment in 
1793, being the substance c£ a. Rel,ort. doo\'ered to the Proprietors, Published by 
order of the Directors, London, 1795 . 
• 
222 Christianity, I slam aJ/d the Negro Race . 
.emigrants from Jamaica, called Maroons, 550 in Dumber. On their 
arrival they found the Nova Scotians in rebellion against the 
Company, on account of a ground-rent or quit-tax which had been 
imposed upon their farms . They contended that the lands had 
been granted to them by the CrOWD. The Maroons joined the 
Company in the effort to restore order, and the rebellion was put 
I 
down. This was the cause of bitter alienation of feeling between 
the settlers and the Maroons. But hostile and powerful attacks I 
made U pOD the colony by the natives forced the two parties 
together, and made them feel that their cause was one, and that 
their only safety was in union and co-operation. 
About this time, a charter of justice was obtained from the 
Crown, authorising the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company to 
make laws, not repugnant to those of England, and to appolnt. a. I 
Governor and a Council with a similar power of making laws 
subject to the revision of the Court of Directors. It placed the 
criminal jurisdidion in the hands of the Governor and Council, the 
determination of civil suits in a Mayor's court, and the recovery of 
small debts in a court of requests, and, in civil and criminal cases, 
the right of a trial by jUl'y.7 
Though Dr. Hopkins died (December 20, 1803) before bis 
philanthropic plan could be~ carried out, yet bis ideas had been 
gradnally spreading in the United States. In 1800, James Mamoe, 
then Governor of the State of Virginia, was authorised by the 
Legislature of his State to correspond with the President of the 
United States, on the subject of tbe removal of free blacks from 
the limits of the United States. President Jefterson, whose 
sagacious and humane mind had led him to say, ill view of the 
sufferings of the Negro ill America, II I tremble for my country 
whell I consider that God is just," seized at once upon the idea, 
and recommended Af.rica as the country to which the Iree blacks 
should be removed. Having heard of the colony of Sierra L~one, 
he corresponded with the British Government concerning the 
transfer of blacks to the Dew settlement, but without success, 
7 Report of Dr. Madden, Her Mnjesty's Commissioner to Western Africa., 1840. 
Sierra Leolle alld Liberia. 223 
the British Government baving at that time no control o\'er the 
.colony. 
The spirit which had been evoked in Engla.nd in favour of 
iI'eedom by the legal question raised by Granville Sharp. and 
decided by Lord Mansfield, led, after twenty years of struggle and 
conflict, to the abolition of the sla.ve·trade. British vessels, taken 
in the horrible traffic; were to be seized and thell' captives released. 
This Act passed the English Parliament in 1807. As a com'enient 
'place for lauding and sheltering re-captives, Sierra Leone was n.'Ced 
upon, and it was transferred by the Company to the Government 
in 1808. Henceforward the resources of a. great nation were to be 
devoted to making the tolony what it was designed to be-namely, 
an establishment for the suppression of the sla.,,~e·trade, and the 
religious and moral improvement of the natives. 
It is a yery interesting fact that on the spot where Englishmen 
first began the work of African demoralisation, Englishmen should 
begin the work of _-\frican amelioration and restoration. England 
• produced Sir John Hawkins, known to Sierra LeOfle by bis fire and sword policy. Two hnndred years later, England produced 
Gram;lle Sharp, known by his policy of peace, of freedom, and of 
religion. The land of Pharaoh was also the land of Moses. Alone, 
amid the darkness of those days, ! tood Sierra Leone-the only 
point at wqich the slave-trade could not be openly prosecuted-tbe 
solitary refuge of the hunted slave. The geographical position of 
the peninsula might be taken as aD emblem of its moral status. 
For hundreds of miles ou either side of the colony the coast is low 
and swamp)A; but here the land rises into mountains of consid~rable 
height, and a bold promontory stretches out into the sea, forming 
an excellent natural harbour for ships pelted by the stOl'LU-
beautiful emblem of the sublime moral attitt<.de of the principles 
upon which the colony was founded, and of the rest and protection 
which the persecuted slave might find bere. 
Quorum Bub vert ice laU Aequorn. tuta. silent. /I 
Sierra Leone-" mountain of the lion "-was a prophetic appel-
lation, for it is tile mouut of moral elevation from whicb the roaring 
8 Yirgil's .E1Uid, i, 163, 16J 
• 
224 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
of the lion of the nations has saved hundreds of thousands from an 
untimely death, or a protracted and cruel bondage worse than deatb. 
The slave-trade 'Was a serious interference with African lif€'o 
Early travellers to this coast describe the pacific character of the 
people, and theil' quiet and successful industry. Had the traffic 
between the nath-es and Europeans continued regular and normal 
-sucb a trade, for instance, as there has been between China 
01' Japan and Europe, a trade in which men did not form a com-
modity-this country would not now be behind any other tropical 
country in productive capacity. Before the demand for Negro 
labour in the 'Vestel'll hemisphere taught the people of the coast. 
districts to make war upon each other, there was continuous 
intercourse between Sierra Leone and the interior. Au extensi,-e 
agriculture beautified the landsca.pe on every hand. There was 
gradual, regular growth in the elements of civilisation. But when 
the necessities of the slave-trade spl'ead confusion and disordf'l' 
through all the maritime regions, legitimate trade retired from 
this part of Africa, and found its way a.cross the desert to the • 
Mediterranean. 
In the sixteenth century, about the same time that Jobn 
Hawkins was conducting his unhallowed operations, John Leo, or 
Leo Africauus, was travelling ~a the interior, about the bead waters 
of the Niger, where he witnessed a degree of civilisation which 
could not have failed to develop, by this time, into considerable 
importance. He thus describes the Kingdom of Melli, which is 
probably the modern hlasina or Bambal'ra :-
In this ltingdom there is a. Io.rge and ample viUage, containing to the 
number of six thousand or more fa.milies, and ca.lled Melli, whereof the whole 
kingdom is so named. And here the king hath his place of residence. The 
region itself yielc1eth great abundance of corn. flesh and cotton. Here Dore 
mo.ny artificers and mercha.  uts in a.Il places; and yet the king honourably 
entertnineth a.ll strangers. The inha.bitants a.re rich, a.nd haNe plenty of wares. 
Hore are grea.t store of temples, priests and professors, which professors read 
their lectures ill the temples. Tbe people of tbis region excel all other Negroes 
in wit, civility, a.nd industry.1I 
II .d GCQgl"{f.phical Ilistodc of A/rica, teI'Wen in dl'abicke and Iwlian. By 
John Leo, a. r.loor, born in Gro.nada a.nd brought up in Ba.rbtl.ry. Translated by 
John Pory, of Gonville n.nd Caius College, Cambridge.-London, 1600. 
, 
Sierra Leone alld Liberia. 225 
This was three hundred years a.go. But one hundred years ago 
Bornall was described as follows ;-
Bomou is n. very extensive and powerful monarchy. The capitu.l thereof is 
so huge that travellers. in describing its magnitude, state tha.t Ca.iro. which 
contains half-a..willion of people, " is a trifle to it." Kash.n&.. which is subject 
to Bomou, is sa.id to conta.in onc thousand towns and villages. The country is 
represented as being \""8ry pleasa.nt, beautifully diversified with hill and dnlta 
very fertile, well cultiva.ted, abounding in flocks and herds, nnd very POPUIOU S,11) 
Residents of Sierra Leone, who know, by experience, something 
of the activity and value of the trade from the interior, e\'en now, 
after all the waste of the slave-trade, can find no difficulty in 
crediting the accuracy of these descriptions. 
l[ungo Park teUs us that the Mandingo manufacturers furnished 
the Moors with clotbing. Perhaps some present will be surprised 
to learn that large quantities of ready-made clothing are imported 
into the settlement from Sego and other places Oll the Niger. These 
articles are made by native tailors, of stuff manufactured in the 
interior The material is sold at three and four times the price 
• charged for the blue baft h'om England, which is an inferior imita-
tion of the hlanllingo article. 
The ancestors of these people understood the use of the cotton-
plant, and the manufacture of cotton, when Julius Cresar found the 
Britons clothing themselves in the !kins of wild beasts. Yisitors 
to the British Museum may see, in the Egyptian department, 
cloth of the very same material and texture wrapped around the 
mummies. This cloth was made by those who understood the 
lost art of embalming, but who, when they retired by successive 
revolutions, luto the interior-the heart of the Soudan, where the 
conditions of climate forbade the practice of embalming-lost that 
valuable art, but never forgot the mannIa.cture of the cloth used in 
the process. Another proof, this, of the connection of the Nigritian 
trihes with the ancient Eg)lJtians. 
Between sixty and seventy years !logo Sir Charle$!. McCarthy, 
thcn Go\-ernor A Sierra Ll!one, set his heart upon aeyeloping the 
jnlenol' traffic of which he had heard so much, and agaIn attra.cting 
-
K )IcQul!en's C~lItro.l Africa, p_ 219. 
Q 
• 
226 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
it to the coast. His able and zealous efforts met with no little 
measure of success. In a. letter to the Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, under elate May 17, 1814, he depicts the state of things 
before he began his labours, as follows :-
ThIee-fourths of the produce of the "cry rich mines of Bambouk was allowed 
to find its way to the Barbary Sta.tes, from whence the Bl\Dlba.rra Kingdoms 
derived all their articles of commerce, a.nd even for severa.l yel\rs ba.ck these 
mines ha.ve been a.lmost tota.lly neglected. 
On the eve of his departure from Senegal, where he had been 
admiuistering the Government (Senegal being then a British colony). 
he wrote to tbe Secretary of State, under date May 6, 1814 : 
I hlwe grea.t plea.sure in reporting to your Lordship tha.t I leave this colony 
in n. perfect sta.te of tro.nquillity. I ha.ve received from the Moors IloIld Negro 
P rinces every possible a.ssurance of 110 wish on their part to cul tivo.te a good 
understanding with the British Government a.nd encourage tra.de. The imports 
into the colony bave exceeded double the amount of last yea.~, and the exports 
of gum and gold will be in the same proportions. 
Here I must crave your indulgence while I digress (or a moment, 
to sa.y a few words on the injurious notiou which largely prevails 
among civilised Negroes, chiefly in (oreign lands, gathered from the 
books they read, that the N egJ:O bas had no past, and that all his 
ideas of civilisation aud all his tendencies to growth have been 
obtained (rom European instru.. . tion and example. 
Now it is not sW'prising that this impression should prevail 
among white people, who see the Negro only in exile or along this 
coast, which still suffers from the demoralisation of centuries. But 
it is not (or intelligent Negroes to allow themselves to imbibe this 
poisonous misrepresentation, especially those in tm; portion o( 
Africa, who bave the opportunity, by only a few days' journey from 
the coast, to learn the truth about their people. It is this false 
conception o( what Africa bas been, and o( its actual and possible 
condition away from the coast, which misleads so many who come 
for philanthropic and other work from Europe nnd America. 
There is such a thing as the poetry of politics, what is some· 
times called sentiment. It is the feeling of race- the aspiration 
after the development on its own line o( the type oC humanity to 
which we belong. Italians and Germans long yearned after such 
Sierra Leolle alld Liberia. 227 
development. The Slavonic tribes are feeling after it. Now, 
nothing tends more to discourage these feelings, and check these 
aspirations, than the idea that the people witb whom we are con-
nected, and after whose improvement we sigh, have Dever bad a. 
past, or only an ignoble past-antecedents which were H blank and 
hopeless," to he ignored and forgotten. 
We have then nothing upon which to base any hopes for the 
future, or from which to derive a seuse of obligation to posterity. 
We have a Ceeling that those who have gone before us have done 
nothing for us, and why should we do anything for posterity? 
U uder such circumstances, there can be no such thing a.s a real 
national history-no continuity or transmission of organic feeling; 
but without such a feeling there can be no progress. A true respect 
for the past-a consciousness of a real national history-has not 
only a binding force but a stimulating efftct, and furnishes a. 
h'Uarantee of future endurance ancl growth. That which has been 
achievecl in the past is a prophecy of what may be done in the 
future. You may caU this poetry if you like, but it is the kind of 
thing au which nations thrive. Mr. Matthew Arnold has recently 
told us that" more and more mankind will discover that we have 
to turn to poetry to interpret lile for us, to console and sustain us." 
When Napoleon on the burning phl.ins of Egypt called out to his 
soldiers, ':Forty centw'ies look down upon you from the summit of 
those Pyramids," it was not only the military but the poetic instinct 
that suggested the words. He borrowed from the past achieve-
ments of an alien race inspiration for his exhausted troops. They 
connected ~hemselves with humanity and took courage from tbe 
past deeus even of the despised African. 
"'hile Sir Charles McCarthy was earnestly labouring in every 
-way to bring the colony up to the performance of the work it was 
intended to achieve, the idea of transferring free blacks from the 
United Sta.tes to Africa was assuming definite and practical shape. 
In the year 1815, Captain Paul Cuffee, a Negro of some means, 
brought out to Sierra Leone, in his own vessel, thirty emigrants. (I 
have been able to find no mentipn in the records of the colony of 
this arrival.) This philanthropic a.nd patriotic deed was suggestive 
• 
228 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
and instructive. What the white people had beeu thinking and 
talking about for thirty years was thus carried into effect by one of 
the oppressed class whose condition they were considering-thus 
showing that the project in contemplation was in harmony with the 
instincts and desires of the Ah'icans in America. 
Two years after Paul Cuffee's enterprise. the American Colonisa-
tion Society was organised (January 1, 1817). In November of 
that year Samuel 1. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess were Rent to this. 
country as commissioners of the Society to select a site for a colony. 
Arriving in England in December, ou their way out, they were 
courteously received by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, 
patron and president, and by the other officers of the African 
Institution. Mr. Wilberforce introduced them to Earl Bathurst, 
then Secretary of State for the Colonies, who gave them letters to 
Sir Charles McCarthy, the Governor of Sierra Leone and other 
officers of the colony, directiug them to aid the explorers in theiI'" 
explorations. But before they could reach the colony, Sir Charles 
McCarthy, having already heard of the enterprise, addressed the. 
following despatch to the Secretary of State :-
Government House, 
Sierro. Leone, Ja.nuo.ry 2, 1818. 
1\ly Lord,-Understo.nding tha.t it ~s in the contempla.tion of the Government> 
of the United States of America. to form an establishment of their people of 
colour in some part of Africa. near this place, and being thoroughly convinced 
that such a measure would not only prove highly prejudicial to the interest of 
this Colony, but ultimately prevent all commel'cio.1 intercourse with Grent 
Britain, I beg leave to solicit your Lordship to adopt such measures o,s you 
may deem most advisable to prevent au establishment of tha.t nature being 
formed either to the north of Sierra. Leone, or nea.rer to the south than Ca.pe. 
Po.lmas .... 
I ha.ve the honour, &c., 
The Right Honouro.ble (Signed) O. MCCARTHY. 
Earl Bathurst, X.G., &c., &c., &c. 
Messrs. Mills and Burgess arrived at Sierra Leone March 22nd..-
1818. a little less thau three months after the letter was written, 
and were received by the Governor with great personal kindness. 
He gave them every facility for prosecuting their enquiries, though 
he did not conceal his unwillingness that an American Negro-
Sierra Leo1le and L iberia. 229 
colony should be established in the vicinity of Sierra. Leone. They 
examined the coast as far as Sherbro, and obtained promises that 
on the arrival of colonists suitable land should be fill'nished for 
their settlement. They then returned to Sierra Leone, and on 
May 22nd, embarked for England on their homeward voyage. 
It appears that nothing more was heard at Sierra Leone of the 
projected colony uutil March 9th, 1820, two years after the 
departure of the explorers, when the ship Elizabeth, having sailed 
from New York, February 6th, arrived in the harbour of Freetown 
with the fhst settlers for the new colony-eighty·eight in uumber-
from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. 
Sir Charles McCarthy. three days after their arrival, wrote to 
Earl Bathurst as follows:-
Government House, 
Sierra. Leone, March 12, 1820. 
~ly Lord,-I have the honow: to infonn your Lordship that the mercha.nt 
ship ElizalJctk, having left New York on the 6th Februnry, arrived in this 
ho.rbow: on the 9th inst., having on board as pa.ssengers, fow: Agents from the 
United States of America, with Government stores, tools, provisions. o.nd eighty. 
eight people of colour-men, women o.nd childl'en, labow:era and mechanics-fo' 
the purpose (as their senior Agent, the Rev. Samuel Bacon, states to me) of com-
mencing s.n asylum for liberated Negroes;.n the River Sherbro, or in such other 
place to the leeward of this as they may find most convenient. I understand 
that the El~abeth was to have sailed under the convoy of the Americe.n sloop-
of-war Cya",e, but lost sight of hee in getting out of the harbour. She (the 
Cyane) is intended to afiord the settlement or settlements protection, e.nd at 
the sO.me time to cruise on this coast. I bear also the Oyane is authorised to 
detain all American slave-vessels, to la.nd the slaves o.t tbe new establishment, 
and send the ~essels, for disposal, to America.. 
AJtbougb I am willing to give due credit to the humane and benevolent 
intentions which have led to the present measure, and that the Buperintendents 
e.re strongly recommended to me by the Honourable Bushrod Washington, and 
I may add that I trust I sha.11 ever be found a.nxiOUB to give my weak support 
o.od good ,vishea to any establishment of tha.t description, yet I conceive it my 
duty, a.s Governor of this colony, to state tba.t I feo.r o.oy colonisation of 1\ 
foreign power so immediately in ow: neighbourhood ma.y be productive of 
conaidemble inconvenience, and even losses, in the trn.c1e of the colony. I ha.d 
the honour of addressing your Lordship to the 580me purport on the 9th of Ma.y, 
1818 (No. 144) and 20t.h same month (No. 150); and as your Lordship had been 
pleased to state in yow: answer dated 30th September, same year, that you 
concurred in my opinion, I had been led to hope that the Government of the 
• 
230 Christianity, Islalll alld the Negro Race. 
United Sta.tes would hAve paid some deference to your .avice. I hAve not yet 
secn sufficiently of the gentlemen entrusted with the commission of tbe United 
!:ito.tcs to be a.ble to sta.te positively tba.t tbey will not a.ttend to my own 
snggestions of forming tbeir establisbments [a.rther to leewArd. I sha.ll transmit 
to your Lordship a. copy of the documents they ha.ve communiCAted to me_ Tbe 
Cyulle is not yet a.rrived. I 8clucely nced to obsen'e tbat I sha.ll show to 
t!Jo superintendents those marka of attention and civility to wbicb they are 
cntitled. 
I ha."e the honour, &c., 
Right Honourable Eo.d Ba.thurst, K G. (Signed) C. MCC.lRTHY 
For the opportunity of perusing and copying these letters, I am 
indebted to the courtesy of His Excellency Governor Havelock, 
who kindly allowed me access to the archives at Government 
IIouse for the purposes of this lecture. These despa.tches not only 
illustrate the very inadequate conception of that day as to the laws 
of trade, but also furnish one of the proofs, which are everywhere 
found in the records of that period, of the zeal and solicitude of Sir 
Charles McCarthy for tbe future welfare of the colony. It appea.rs 
that four years after the American set Hers bad occupied Cape 
Mesurado, in 1825, opinion had so far advanced that General Turner 
attempted, by treatias with the native chiefs, to extend the colony 
of Sierrl\ Leone to the Gallinas River iu the direction of Liberia. 
fI.!r John Jeremie subsequently a.ttempted the same thing, with a. 
vi~w chiefly to the suppression of the slave-tra.de, but thJ untimely 
rleath of these energetic Governors caused the project to fail. 
The progress of events-the growth of the two countries-ha.s 
shown that not only has Liberia. not interfered prejud,ic ially with 
Sierra Leone, but it has presented a field for the energies, indus-
trial and commercial, of many a. native of the settlement. An 
interesting fa.ct in the present history of Liberia, which Sir Charles 
McCarthy could hardly have foreseen, is this, that a na.tive of 
Sierra Leone, brought up amid the institutions of the colony, is a. 
successor of Messrs. Mills a.nd Burgess, as agent of the American 
Colonisation Society, ha.ving charge of the location and rationing 
of all emigrants a.rriving in Liberia from America. This native of 
Sierra Leone is a.lso the Mayor of t3e city of Monrovia. the capita.l 
of the Republic. On the other hand, a. citizen of Liberia was, noto 
Sierra Leo1te a11d Liberia. 
very long ago, entrusted with the interior matters of this settle-
ment, and executed-by appointment from the Governor-in-Chief-
important diplomatic missions to powerful chiefs, for which he 
received the commendation and thanks of the Secretary of State 
for the Colonies. These things, I take it, are only indications of 
the future relations of the two countries. The two peoples are one 
in origin and one ill destiny; and, in spite of themselves, in spite 
of local prejudices, they must co-operate. 
For some years past, a. strong desire, just the reverse of that 
entertained by Six Charles McCarthy, has prevailed among the 
Governors of this colony-a desire to carry out the policy of General 
Turner and Sir John Jeremie. It has been felt that the cause of 
civilisation and commerce would be subserved not by widening the 
gulf between the two countries, but by bringing them more closely 
together. And this desire has been recently realised by making 
the boundaries of the two countries conterminous. The Liberians. 
however, have protested aga.inst the manner of this junction. 
II Mohammed has gone to the mountain," but the mountain has 
shrunk at bis approach. The lion has lain down with the lamb 
but a part of the lamb has been absorbed. 
The present feeling at Government House here on the subject 
of Sierra Leone and Liberia is eipressed in a recent unofficial 
communioo..tion from the Governor-in-Chief as follows: <I It is 
perfectly obvious that cordial a.nd close relations between Liberia 
and the British Colonies adjoining her would be beneficial to both 
parties:· 
Governo•r  Havelock in 1884, and Sir Charles McCarthy in 181 ~ 
are two generations apart. The spirit of both is the sarne-intent. 
upon the welfare of the colony under their rule; but the one utters 
vaticinia l]Ost e'Ventum, while the other, through the difficult mists: 
of probabilities, puts forth. his prophecies a.t a venture. After what 
has already happened in the history of the two couutries, who will 
undertake to say that they will not be brought into even closer 
connection than the mere physical ODe? Lord Derby, Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, said., in a. speech a few weeks ago, that 
d Experience of public life had taught him that the words I Never 
• 
232 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
and I Forever' ought to have no place in a statesman's vocabu-
lary." 11 
A few days after the arrival of the Elizabeth at Sierra Leone, 
the emigrants were taken to Sherbro Island, at the mouth of the 
Sherbro River. Here the agents were discouraged in their attempts 
to purchase land for a permanent settlement. The hardships, 
sickness, and deaths which the colonists had to undergo, compelled 
their return to Sierra Leone, and they found temporary residence 
aL Fourah Bay, where some now lie buried. The remnant sub-
sequently removed to Cape Mesurado, 260 miles to the south-east, 
where, after they had occupied for three months a small island 
at the mouth of the Mesurado River, they were permitted to 
obtain a permanent foothold . 
Thus it will be seen that the British Colony of Sierra Leone 
and the American Colony of Liberia are one in origiI1, not only as 
respects the philanthropic purpose that gave them birth, but as to 
the materials of the first settlement. Both were planted by 
Negroes who, having passed thl'ough the baptism of slavery on 
American soil, brought with them as spoils from the 1and of their 
captivity the elements of Anglo-American civilisation, finding their 
first shelter in the land of their fathers, under the shadow of the 
, 
<I lion mountain," and getting refreshed during their first fevers 
frOID the brooks of King Jimmy and King Tom. Bona colonies 
were founded by private enterprise and for philanthropic purposes. 
Both received the same name. Freetown is the Saxon for the idea 
of which Liberia is the Latin. Both were given up by their original 
founders, one after twenty-five years of supervision, and the other 
after twenty-seven years. 
Sierra Leone entered upon effective colonia1 existence, having 
the care, attention and guidance of the mother country, drawing 
within the circle of its influence representatives of the different 
tribes, and giving the Negro the opportunity for rest (rom the per-
secutions of slave-traders. Benign agencies from Europe over-
shadowed the settlement to protect it h'om malignant agencies from 
II Time" Ma.rch 4th, 1884, . 
SieY1'a Leolte and L iberia, 233 
the same quarter. A succession of able philanthropic representatives 
of the Queen has furnished continuous impulse to civilisation. 
Liberia continued a colony of the American Colonisation Society 
until, as it began to grow and extend along the coast, questions of 
trade and territorial rights arose which could be adjusted ouly 
between sovereign powers. The United States GoYernment, owing 
to its peculiar institutions, and, perhaps, to the ,·jew then taken of 
the Mom'oe doctrine, could not assume the direction of the colony. 
The Liberians founel that if they were to retain theil' existence 
at all they must become an independent community, with the right 
of final legislation for themselYes, the power to euter iuto treaty 
relations with foreign powers, to regulate and restrict trade, &c. 
Therelore tbe people ,oted-October 27, 1846-in lavoW" 01 
assuming the entire responsibility of their government. The 
Legislature, at its next session, ordered a Convention of Delegates 
to form a new Constitution. The Convention assembled, and after 
twenty-one days of deliberation, adopted-on the 26th day of July, 
1847-thei..r new Constitution and Declaration of Independence. In 
September, the Constitution was ratified by the almost unanimous 
vote of the people in their primary assemblies. 
The Governor, J ose1)h J eDkins Roberts, was elected the fint 
President. On the 3rd day of JaJ'uaryl 1848, he delivered his 
inaugural address, and the new Government went into operation. 
In the course of that year, the independence of the Republic was 
formally acknowledged by the Governments of Great Britain and 
France. It bas since been acknowledged uy all the leading States 
of Em'ope an•d  America. III 1850, when the Republic was two years 
old, Her Britannic Majesty's Government presented the youtWul 
nation with a gunboat, to act as a revenue cutter aud gua'l'da costa, 
with a view to assist the infant state in her efforts to suppress the 
slave-trade. When that vessel, named the Lark, became unsea-
worthy, the British Government gave to Liberia another war 
schooner called the Quail. 
Sierra Leone, in the meanwhile, and for fifty years after it 
was taken over by the Home Government, grew rapidly in 
'population by accessions of l'ecaptives from various parts of the 
, 
, 
-- '-
234 Chl'islialllly, I slam alld the Negro Race . 
coast. On their arrival these strangers received instruction 1ll the 
ways of civilisation from the American and ,Vest I ndian settlers 
whom they (ound here. The new comers at 6.rst tW'ned to the soil 
for support, hu t found, with their limited means and want of skill in 
systematic agriculture, that it was impossible to do anything in 
that line with the barren, rocky and mountainous country with 
whicb they had to contend. The fact of the inferior quality of the soil 
bad been noticed wh"en the Sierra Leone Company firijt attempted 
to settle their emigrants on it. After several unsuccessful experi-
ments at farming on this side, the Governor and Council towards 
the end of 1 i92 pW'chased a small tract of land on Ibe Bullom 
shore for enlarged agricultw"e, but they met with no better success 
there. Very recently a native member of the Legislative Council 
has made expensive outlay~ in the same region with a view to 
extensive agricultural operations, but his prospects of success, he 
informs me, are not very cheering. With a soil so unfavourable, 
the people turned natw'ally to trade, for which the situa.tion of 
Sierra Leone furnished splendid opportunities. By strict attention 
to business, by persevering diligence and economy, many very 
soon rose to respectabi lity and influence. 
The settlers gradually died out, and there being no fwther 
accession from America, th•e  recapti"esLi and their descendants 
naturally and properly came to the front, until they uo~' own most 
of the valuable property in the colony; and by their enterprise, 
intelligence, and energy, are successfully competing with European 
commercial houses ou the coast. But this element, which has 
• 
U The word TtCaptiVt, which I have just employed, like the word Negro, seems 
to some to convey the idea. of contempt and degra.dation; but both are good words, 
and express important facts; one 0. fact of nature, the other a fact of history. 
"Negro" mea.ns a maD of certa.in physica.l charo.cteristics, whose colour and 
ha.ir differentiate him from other races of men. In America it is applied india-
crimina.tely to all persons of whate\'er colour who bave Negro blood in their 
veins. "Recapth-e " means one captured again. In the ca.se before us it was 
the stronger saving the wea.ker from unscrupulous oppression. It was an inter· 
vention to suppress inten ·cntion. The word embodies the history not only 
of the SM dealings of Europen.ns with our people on this cout. but of the 
" fruits meet for repentance" which they brought forth when the iniquity of 
tI_e nefllIious traffic da.wned upon them. 
SiC1'ra Leolle and L iberia. 235 
superseded the Nova Scotians and Maroons, is not exactly iu· 
digenous. As the Negroes h'om across the sea gave place to them, 
so they, receiving 110 accessions, will give place to the indigenous 
tribes. But tills fading away will be less marked if, by judicious 
intermarriages, the Creoles blend with the surrounding tribes. And 
I am glad to learn that this process is gradually going on, especially 
in the villages. Timnehs, Sus us, and Mendis are now uniting in 
man;age with Eboes, Akus, and Congoes, so that in the course of 
time the tribal peculiarities. which have often been a source of 
misunderstanding and disunion, will be bappily effaced. 
Notwithstanding the reports sometimes put forward of the 
iudisposition of the natives to work, they have won, even from the 
I;oil of this barren, rocky, and mountainous country, astounding 
victories. There are very few places in the world where the 
,egetable market is better stocked than in Sierra Leone. When 
one looks at the arid and parcbed character of the soil, and sees 
tbe attractive variety of fruit, greens, and vegetables which appears 
• every morning, oue wonders by what magic po\\'e1' such pleasing 
results are produced. It is almost like the miracle of bringing 
honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock. But not only 
mere garden products, but the heavi,e r articles of agricultw"e are 
exported from the colony. The hl.l·ge quantity of giuger brought 
to market tRis season has been something marvellous-marvellous 
in 'view of the possibilities, or rather impossibilities or the soil. 
Soilie of the leading natives are expending of .thei.r means 
accumulated in other business for the purposes of agricultural 
industry, not•  merely for the pecuniary results in the future, but 
for the sake of the example, and to prove that by cliligeuce. 
enterprise, and industry, agriculture, which is the only reliable 
basis of na..tional prosperity. can be successfully pmsued in Sierra. 
Leone. Your leading barrister has been, for the last three years, 
giving his spare time to an enterprise on Bunce Creek, about 17 
miles from Freetown, which promises well for the futUl'e, but bas 
not yet risen above the character of a. most costly experiment. 
Tllis pa.triotic and self-denying effort must be remunerative in its 
moral anc1 industrial result~. And here I must beg your indulgence, 
--"---
236 Christia1lity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
and I am Sill'e you will all sympathise with me while I pause and 
drop a tear over the memory of our dear friend, William Grant, 
whose foresight and anxiety for the welfare of his COWl try led him 
to forsake another walk of Iile, in which he had been eminently 
successful in a pecuniai"y sense, to take the lead in this most im· 
portant and difficult work, and to suffer the fate of all pioneers in 
every noble cause-to die that others might live. The remembrance 
of my personal loss in the death of that African patriot is oue of 
the shadows in my existence that will depart only when its earthly 
career ceases. 
The trade of the colony has seldom, within recent years, 
presented so eDcoUl'aging au aspect as during the CUlTent seasell. 
The influx of "gold and hide strangers" has been almost unpre-
cedented, In the months of Ja.nuary, February, and March, there 
arrived 3,726 persons with products seeking a market-Manclingoes 
Foulabs, Seracoulies, Bnudukahs, and Soosoos. From the 1st to 
the 15th of April, 738 arrived. This number is exclusive of traders 
from the Limba, Loko, Timneb, and other countries within two 
hundred miles of the coast. It was, indeed, an inspiring sight a 
few weeks ago, while walking the streets, to meet those stalwart 
men, with flowing robes and majestic tread, from every important 
city in Nigritia for a thousand miles from the sea. The streams 
poured into the settlement, sometimes hundreds a dr,y, from the 
golden hills of Boure, the shining plains of ,Vasulu, the pastUl'e 
grounds of ;Futah, and the populous districts of Bambarra, from 
Timbuctoo, from Jenne, from Sego, from Kankan. And we beard, 
on every band, the same vocal sounds which may be heard in 
the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, of Morocco and of Tunis. 
'This was a proof that the obstructions to trade are being rapidly 
removed. The Rooboos, those renegade Foulahs, who for thirty 
years have been a terror to caravans passing till'ough the districts 
which they infested, have been scattered by the military energy of 
Samudu, a Mandingo chieftain from the Konia country, due uast of 
Liberia. Abal, the chief of the Rooboos, has been captured and 
banished to a distant region, 
An important event, fraught with significance to this colony and 
Sierra Leone and L iberia. 237 
to Liberia, took place ill the early part of last mouth. I refer to 
the arri\'aJ of the special embassy to the Governor-in-Chief from the 
King of Sego. I do not know that any such delegation bas ever 
visited a British Governor on the coast since the days of Sir 
CharieR McCarthy. And it is gratifying to know that prompt 
measW'('~ were taken by the authorities to encourage and develop 
the relations which their visits ought to establish. 
An incident in connection with Sego, published by the great 
tra,eller, Mungo Park, ought to make that city an object of special 
interest to all intelligent .Alricalls. The incident bas beeu repeated 
for nearly a hundred years, in all parts of the civilised world, as an 
evidence of the thoughtful hospitality of the African. 
It appears tha~ when Mr. Park arrived in the vicinity of Sego, 
a white man not having been seen there before, he was regarded 
by the people with fear and astonishment. He had to cross a river 
before he could get to the king, but no one would cross him; and, 
Uloreover, the king ha.d sent word that he could not possibly see 
the strange traveller until he had learned bis object in visiting the 
country. But let the author recount the story in his own words. 
He sa.ys:-
I was obliged to sit nil day Without vic~ua19, in ~he shade of a. tree, a.nd the 
night threatened to be very uncomfortable, 'for the wind rose, a.ud bhere was 
great Ilppearo..nce of rain: a.nd the wild beasts are so very numerous in the 
ncigbbourhoocf tba.t I should ha.ve been under the necessity or climbing up the 
tree and resting among t.he branches. About sunset, however, a8 I was preparing 
to pass KIa night in this mnnner, and ba.d turned my horse loose that he might 
graze a.t liberty, Ilo woma.n, returning from the labours of the field, stopped to 
obsen's me, an i perceivlDg that I was weary sod dejected inquired into my 
6itua.tion, which I briefly expla.ined to her. HaVing conducted me into her hut, 
sbe lighted up a. lamp, spread a. mat on the fioor, nnd told me I might remain 
there for the night. Finding that I was very hungry, she said she would 
procllre me something to eat. She accordingly went out, and returned in n. 
short time with a. very fine fish which, having caused to be helf-broiled upon 
SODle embers, she gn.\'e me for supper. The rites of hospita.lity being thus 
perfonncd towards n Btranger in distress, my worthy benefactress (pointing to 
the ma.t, and telling me I might sleep there without a.pprehension) ca.lled to the 
female part of her fo.lllily, who ha.d stood gazing on me all the while in tL'Cec 
~tonishment. to resume their task of spilming co~too, in wbicb they continued 
tll empluy themselves a great part of tb~ night. They lightened their labour by 
60ngs, (Inc of which was compo!!ed extempore, for I was myself the subject of 
• 
--' 
238 Christiallity, Islalll alld tlte Negro Race . 
.It. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a. 80rt of 
chorus. The a.ir wa.s sweet a,nd pla.intive, and the words, litera.lly tra.nsle.ted, 
were these :-
The winds roared. o.nd the ra.in fell. 
The poor white man, fa.int a.nd wea.ry, ca.me o.ncl sa.t under our tree. 
Re has no motbe:r; to bring him milk; no wife to grind his corn. 
CUOROS. 
Let us pity the white ma.n ; 
No mother ha.s he to bring bim milk; 
No wife to grind his COrD . 
Trifling as this recita.l ma.y a.ppen.r to the rea.der, adds the author, to a. person in 
my situation the circumstance was a.ffecting in the highest degree. I was 
.oppressed by suoh unexpected kindness, a.nd sleep fled from my eyes. In the 
morning I presented my compa.ssiona.te la.ndla.dy with two of the four brass 
buttons which remained on my wa.istcoa.t, the only recompense I could ma.ke 
ber.t8 
The name of the woman, and the alabaster box of precious 
-o intment ; the nameless widow, who, giving only two mites, had 
given more than all the rich j and this nameless woman of Sego, 
-form a trio of feminine beauty and grandeur of which the sex in all 
ages may be proud. 
An English lady, who was not more distinguished lor her rank 
than for her beauty and accomplishments, Ii to whom this incident 
was communicated, was so gratified and thought so highly of the 
improvised song that she made a version of it with her own pen, 
and caused it to be set to music by an eminent compo~er. 
Her version is as follows :-
The loud wind roar'a, the rain fell fast; 
The white ma.n yielded to the bIBst ; 
He SILt him down benelLtb our tree, 
For weary, sad, e.nd faint wa.s he ; 
And oh, no wife or mother's ClLre 
For him the milk or com prepare. 
OHOBUS. 
The white mo.n sha.ll our pity sha.re ; 
Ala.s, no wife or mother's care, 
For him the milk or com preplLre. 
18 Travtl.s in tht Inttrior Dutricls of Africa, performed il~ the. ytars 1795,1796 
.and 1797; by Mungo Pa.rk, Surgeon (cbapter xv) . 
H The Duchess of Devonshire. 
Sierra Leolle a/ld Liberia. 239 
The storm is o'er, the tempest paat, 
And mercy's voice has husb'd the blast ; 
The wind is heard in whispers low, 
The white ma.n fa.r e.way must go-
But ever in his heart will bea.r 
Remembra.nce of the Negro's care. 
CaORtls. 
Go, white man, go-but with thee bear 
Tbe Negro's wish, the Negro's pra.yer ; 
Remembrance of the Negro's caro. 
The following is the description which Mr. Park gives of Sego 
'8.9 it was ODe hundred years ago ;-
Sege, the ca.pital of Ba.mba.rra., e.t which I ho.d now a.rrived, consists, properly 
t;peaking, of four distinct towns j two on the northern bank of the Niger, called 
S~go Korre, and Sego Boo : and two on the southerD bank, called Sego Soo 
Korte, n..nd Sego See Korro.u From the best enquiries I could ma.ke , I 
b6.ve rea..'1on to believe tha.t Sego contains a.ltogether a.oout tltirty thousa.nd 
inhll.1Jitant~ The view of this extensive city, the numerous canoes upon the 
river, the ~rowded population, a.nd the cultiva.ted state of the surrounding 
country. formed a.ltogether e. prospect of civiliso.tion a.nd magnificence which I 
little expected to find in the bosom of Africa.. 
It is to be hoped that we shall soon witness regular and un-
interrupted intercourse between Sego and this settlement. The 
recent difficulties with the French ll.ave closed up Senegal and 
Dakar as outlets for the trade of that region of the country, and 
tlJe king is •a nxious that it should take tbis direction. But the 
dlectl:i.of the disorders introduced by the slave-trade are still felt in 
the maritime districts. TLe feuds created through generations of 
intertribal w,us, the ha.bits engendered, and the tendencies im-
pressed upon the people, still show themselves in the periodical 
mterruptions to trade which so perplex civilised governments on 
the coast, anxious for the progress of civilisation and the develop-
ment of commerce. These troubles do not extend further than 
two hundred miles from the coast. Beyond that, the powerful 
tribes have the habits of order and of work; they possess valuable 
pro})erty and other interests which cannot be enda.ngered by petty 
• 
l~ These na.mes a.re still reta.iued . 
• 
• 
240 Christianity, Islam «lid the Negro Race. 
jealousies and rivalries. The a.mbassadors from Sego. the otber 
day, gave assurance that the only difficulty in tlle way of an 
abundant and uointerrupted trade between their country and this 
part of the coast is that which arises (rom the wars on this side of 
tb. hills. They said if the Government could keep the roads on 
this side safe, they could manage the difficulties, such as they are, 
all the other side. 
Liberia. will also take a. part in this work, and share in the 
results of this new direction of the interior trade. There is Dot, 
however. the amount of capital in that little republic which this 
settlement enjoys, and which is necessary for the attraction and 
de,-eiopment of the interior trade. 
There have been, ever since the arrival of the first settlers, at 
least two immigrations a-year from the United States, averaging 
250 a-year; but the people are chiefly mechanics and farmers. 
Besilles being thrown upon their own resources, they suffer the 
inconvenience of a. national policy which restricts the intercourse of 
foreigners with the country. This has kept away foreign capital 
and foreign enterprise. The restrictive law was to allow the colony 
to grow up in keeping with the original idea. of its foundation. To 
prevent the fatal interference with this idea, which must ho.\"e 
occurred, had Europeans heen allowed to take part in the political 
arrangements of the country, a similar policy was adopted by the 
Sierra Leone Company in the early history of the colony, .. for they 
had conceived," so the Directors say, in their report publi~hed in 
1795, "the first success of their colony essentially to depend on 
the exclusion of all Europeans, those alone exct!pted who, being in 
the regular pay of the Company, were entirely subject to them.'" 
They were afraid that even a few men from hence (England) of 
an improper cast, in the situation of independent settlers, might 
ma.terially prejudice or endanger the undertaking; that they might 
corrupt the morals of the colony, refuse due obedience to the 
Government, as well as ex.cite a spirit of general discontent; and 
if, for any of these causes, they should be excluded from the settle· 
ment, that they might then be qri\'en-especially if they ha.d left 
debts in England-to seek a. precarious livelihood, by various 
Sierra Leone and Liberia. 
unproper means, among the neighbouring natives, and perhaps 
even to turn slave-traders.16 
The reasons that led to the restrictive laws of Liberia. could Dot 
be better stated. The ideal Liberia has, of course, Dot yet heen 
realised. The Liberia of the seU-denying and courageous pioneers. 
of the impassioned Lot Cary, and the statesman-like Elijah 
Johnson, has not yet been quite organised; but the restrictive clause 
in the constitution has Dot suffered the raison d't1lre of the Republic 
to be lost sight of or obscured. At first, the Liberia.ns, driven by 
their Decessitie~, generally engaged in trade as yielding quicker 
results; but, fortuna.tely for them, the soil was fertile, and the 
country well watered everywhere. They were thus allured to 
a.griculture, and they have, with commendable diligence, improved 
their advantages. Within the last few years, the production of 
coffee, sugar, and cocoa is bringing the Republic into American and 
European markets. Besides these a.rticles, Liberia exports largely 
pa.lm oil, cam wood, ivory, rubber, ana palm kernels. Every week 
the steamers of each of the three English companies touch at the 
ports of entry of the Republic, of which there are now ten. German 
steamers call twice a·month, going and returning; and there are 
American and Dutch sailing vessels engaged in t.he trade. 
In Sierra Leone there are nO,t now any legal enactments 
restricting the intercourse of foreigners. The law of Natw'e has 
put barriets in the way of their multiplication here. The mountains 
are lofty, the air on their summits salubrious, but the soil is 
forbwding, in many places as arid as the nether millstone, so 
that those .. breezy heights have not, like the mountain slopes of 
Madeira, im·;ted the establishment of European quintas, and the 
skilful cultivation of European fanners. The settlement has, 
therefore, continued to grow as a distinctly Negro colony. Accord-
ing to Koelle, the German lJlissionary, 100 different African tribes 
were, in 18:19, represented here. 'Mr. Griffith, the Colonial Secretary 
of the colony, stateu in his excellent paper, read before the R-oyal 
Colonial In~titutc. in 1881, tha.t no less than 60 languages were 
1· Report of Directors of the ~ierro. Leone Compo.ny; read :Uay, 1793, 
pp. 14, 15. 
R 
• 
• 
242 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
spoken in Freetown. Sierra Leone possesses, in fact, what Liberia 
possesses in tbeory and possibility-a Negro nationality. This 
colouy is on a small scale what India is on a large scale-an 
indigenous nation under a foreign protectorate. As soon as a man, 
alien to the African, lands bere, he finds himseU at once a stranger. 
H e looks around, and everywhere he sees men unlike himself :-
Negroes on the right of him; 
Negroes on the left of him ; 
Negroes in front of him; 
Negroes in the rear of him ; 
until the whole land seems to him the very blackness of darkness, 
and be himself, and a ll he represents, appear to dwindle into 
comparative insignificance. No wonder that ju some there is a 
revulsion of feeling which makes them retaliate by contemptuous 
utterances about the place and people. This is the l'evenge which 
brooding and irregular minds take when suddenly confrouted with 
the inevitable. "I soon discovered," says ,Viuwood Reade, If that 
Sierra Leone is a true paradise of blacks." Captain ElJis begins 
Olle of his glowing pa.ragraphs with the remark, H Sierra Leone is a 
very nice place- for Negroes." Not knowing what to say, they 
swear. "Come, curse me this people," said Balak to Balaam, 
when he saw the surging multitudes of Hebrews filling the plains 
of Moab. Sierra Le2Pe has been over and over again cursed, and 
the prejudice still continues, owing, mostly, to repr..;sentations 
which proceed from persons oppressed by the presence of a strange 
race and unusual customs. .. 
But this vituperation of the colony must come _t o an end, 
because the English language is limited in its vocabulary. The 
stock of adjectives in the Queen's English, though extensive, has 
yet a limit ; and as only a certain percenta.ge of them are uncompli-
mentary, an end must come to this sort of thing at last. After 
denouncing a man as an idiot, and a. liar, a.nd a villain to begin with, 
you cannot very well , at a later stage, produce an effect by saying 
that his conduct is not thoroughly sagacious and moral. You 
have to keep on calling him a fool, a liar, and a rogue, until you 
become a bore. And this is wLat we see in the disparaging 
• 
Sierra Leoue and Liberia. 243 
writings of those who find amusement in abusing the settlement. 
Reade follows Burton, and Ellis follows Reade, and smaller men 
follow these. Like a. Bock of sheep, all tread in the path of their 
leader. Notwithstanding the love of originality which men possess, 
yet it would seem that the passion for ridiculing and abusing others 
is stronger in a certain class of minds than the desire to be original; 
so that rather than strike out a Dew liDe in describing Sierra. Leone, 
wmch must, of course, be complimentary and respectful, they pref~l' 
to ring the changes with dull and tiresome monotony upon those 
words of contempt and vituperation, of which only a limited number 
can be found in the English dictiona.ry. If I were to collect 
instances I could fill this page with adjecti.es, and e\~en substan-
tives, in the use of which these writers seem to revel, bringing 
to mind the reputation (I believe the ancient reputation) of Shore-
ditch and Billingsgate. It is of course an economy of argument to 
prove by misrepresentation that the objects of our hatred or con-
tempt are odious or ridiculous. Happily for the race, those who 
are fond of employing those contemptuous epithets are generally 
men who from excessively defective training have not a full 
acquaintance with even the limited vocabulary of vituperative terms. 
And tbis we have noticed also, that the men who take pleasure in 
dilating upon their race superiority, •a nd in emphasising their con-
nection wit.h the ruling race, are not the men who rise into power, 
or ever have the opportunity of ruling. 
D~stiny seems to have forbidden the extension of Sierra Leone 
to the northw, ard, and to have favoured her growth to the south· 
cast, so that now that her territory adjoins that of Liberia, we have 
a continuous English-speaking Negro State from the Sierra Leone 
Ri\'er to the San Pew'o River-a distance of over 800 miles. For 
200 years, the Portuguese language was spoken along this coast. 
Villault says when he landed here, at Cape 'Mount and at Cape 
Mesurado in 1666, II all the Negroes who came to trade spoke the 
Portuguese language," But the English language has everywhere 
driven it out. The English language and English laws assist and 
regulate the intercourse of the .tribes of this whole region and for 
hundreds of miles inland. French is confined to the countries 
• 
244 Christianity, Islaw atld the Negro Race. 
north oC the Gambia; Portuguese to the region of the Congo. 
English is, undoubtedly, the most suitable of the European languages 
for bridging over the numel'OUS gulfs between the tribes caused by 
the great diversity of languages or dialects among them. It is a com-
posite language, not the product of any oue people. It is made up 
of contributions by Celts, Danes, Normans, Saxons, Greeks and 
Romans. gathering to itself elements from all peoples, from the 
Ganges to the Atlantic. In this respect, the Sierra Leoue vernacular 
resembles it. The speech of the Sierra Leone streets cannot be 
called a lJatois of English. It is not the pigeon English of China nor 
the unintelligible lingo of the V\.7 est Indies. It is not the dialect of 
Quashee nor the humourous slang of Uncle Remus, It is a trans· 
fusion, so to say, of numerous African idioms and plll'ases, Words 
from the Timneh, Eboe, Aku, :llandingo, Foulah, Soosoo, and 
Arabic, are blended with words from the English language, which 
is itself a mixtw'e-so that the proper designation of the Sierra 
Leone vernacular would be-1ni.xtl~1'e of mixtU1'es, all is 11l,ixture. It 
has become something more than the onlyruediwn of communication 
known to the masses. It has acquired a sacredness of its own. 
There are certain ideas which have been expressed in it--eertain 
images created-which lose their full flavour if rendered into other 
words, 
Mr, Lewis assures me that it has an unwritten but. recognised 
syntax, and he gave me an amusing specimen of verbal inflection 
by going over the verb f< to go " in its various moods and Lellses, 
according to the Ullwritten grammar of the vernacular. 
Its idioms are Oriental. It has grown up of itself. It bas had 
110 grammarian to formulate its rules, nor can it be known how the 
common agreement among the people was attained. But the fact 
remains that it exists, and it will linger long among them. It is 
t.he language of the domestic We, of courtship. of marriage, of death, 
of intensest joy and deepest grief. The people will not consent to 
speak of the private matters of the hea.rt-to discuss matters 
affecting their domestic well-being in any other tongue, any more 
than they would El iscuss such things in company with stra.ngers, 
To those acquainted with it, it has a convenient flexibility and 
Sierra Leone and Lib.,'ia, 245 
certain picturesque aspects. It is easily acquired by natives from 
the interior, and forms a convenient bridge frOID their dialects 
to the English language. It cannot be used for descriptions of 
occult causes; but it is by no means unadapted for comparison 
of physical things, for descriptions of sensations, for parables 
and proverbs drawn h'om visible objects. It bas no capacity for 
fine subtleties; but it has sometimes a terse expressiveness, which, 
in one single sentence, will convey an a.mount of satll'e or irony 
",Illch would require a whole paragraph of English. What cau 
surpass the concentrated contempt of such a question as the follow· 
ing? Referring to the abuse beaped upon Sierra Leone in a recent 
publication, I asked aJ acquaintance why there had been no formn.1 
reply. He answered, in one of the pictw'esque metaphors of the 
vernacular, U \Vho dat go wase powder pan condo?" 17 
In the political features of their We, Sierra Leone and Liberia 
seem to have diverged; but the main purpose of that life has not 
been defeated. Although Sierra Leone contiuues a colony under a 
powerful Imperial Government, and Liberia is u. nation still 
struggling with the problems of independent nationality, yet our 
political institutions have the same origin. The same jurisprudence 
which contributes to the prosperity and elevation of Sierra Leone, 
which protects property, maintaius older, and punishes crime here, 
has been adopted by Liberia, upholds the majesty of the law there, 
and guards•  us in the exercise and enjoyment of the rights of free-
meu .• The form of government is a mere incident, and does not 
interfere with the original idea and special work of the colony. 
Like the gre&t streams of this part of Africa, taking their rise in the 
same watershed, some flow eastward and some westward, but all 
contribute to the fertility and wealth of the same vast region. So, 
if the paths of the two countries seem to be divergent, they diverge 
only that they may the more effectually perform their work, by 
taking within the circle of their influence wider interests, and 
bringing together larger contributions for the upbuildiug and hOllOW' 
of the race. • 
• 
17 "Condo" is the local name lor the red-hea.ded lizard. 
, 
246 Clzristiallity, Islam alld tlze Negro Race. 
Before the America.n Civil War, which ga.ve the coup de gTflce to 
the transatlantic slave·trade, Sierra. Leone was kept in a constantly 
unsettled state, owing to the frequent accessions of individuals of 
different tribes and languages, who, soon after their arrival, found 
out the persons belonging. to their particular tribe, and, fro!D the 
coo '\"eoience which a. common language and the same tribal 
instincts and prejudices afforded. ea.sily formed themselves into 
separate clans, and gathered around leaders whom they felt to be 
their natural organs. The chief work of the Gm-ernment and of 
mis~ionary societies for years >ras to infuse into these inco-
herent masses the uDilyiog ideas of British law and of the Christian 
r(~ligion-to effect the fu sion of many disconnected atoms into 
one organic whole. But the clannish tendencies of the people 
furnished to adventurers from abroad, who were for the most part 
only partially allied to the Negro race, but whose superior educa-
tional advantages gave them influence over the minds of the 
uDinformed and unsuspectiug men, the opportunity to stimulate, 
whenever their own euds could be subseryed thereby, the tribal 
prejudices and antipathies of the people. 
Passing travellers of superficial mental habitudes, looking at 
this state of things, which, under the circumstances, would haye 
been considered natural in bony other country and among any 
other race, attributed it to the ignorance and dishonesty of tbe 
• 
Negro, and fastened upon the jury system as one of the instruments 
in the political arrangements of the colony which fostereti and 
encouraged the clannishness of the people, in consequence of 
which, it was alleged, some sections of the community could never 
obtain justice. Trial by jury in civil cases was-through repeated 
attacks upon it in newspapers, pamphlets, and books of tra,el-
lost to the settlement. It could hardly have been otherwise. The 
people at that time had to rely for representation in judicial 
matters, in cases of public 01' private grievances, upon aliens or 
half-aliens, who did not and could not express the will and feellngs 
of the people, and were, in mnny important respects, misrepre-
sentalives. It was evident thqt the whole arrangement was 
artificia.l, unstable and unreliable. Trial by jury in civil ca.ses was 
Sierra Leone and Liberia. 247 
abolished; but, in the natural COW'S6 of events, it is becoming 
clearer and clearer that the aUeged abuses were only temporary, 
due to the peculiar circumstances oC those times. 
For more than twenty years. now, there ba.s been no accession 
of new comers of conflicting tribal characteristics. A new gene· 
ra.tion is appearing au the stage; and the pecuniary advancement 
of the people bas enabled them to give their children an education 
suitable to the requirements of an enUghtened government. The 
result is, that the population beoomillg more and more homo-
g!ueous, with QDe language as the medium of communication, and 
represented at the bill' and in the Legislative Council. in the schools 
and in the church, by their natural organs, two conditions of social 
and political confidence have been reached which must obliterate 
all tribal distinctions and organisations. if aoy such still exist. An 
indication of this wholesome tendency in the public feeling is the 
desire on the part of some of the members of the N a.tive Associa· 
tion to change the descriptive part of their title to ooe less local 
and restrictive. 
The communication made by Lord Derby a few months ago to 
the people of Jamaica should be suggestive and instructive to the 
inhabitants of this colony. His lordship did not give an absolute 
refusal to the request of the people of that colony for popular · 
suffrage an. increased representation, but said tha.t, in the judgment 
of the Go\'ernment, the time for these things had not yet a.rrived, 
intim!tting that when the time arrived the Government would not 
withhold the pri,;leges they craved It is not the business of a 
Crown Gove•r nment to develop the liberties of the people - it is 
their business to recognise and protect what is established. It is 
their part to ·give sa.fety. and quietness, and repose; to inspire 
confidence in the people, and thus give them time for growth. 
The original idea of the colony has been gradually realised undel~ 
the influence of British law. Notwithstanding the frequent changes 
in the colonial administratioD, the tendency of the procedure of 
the Imperial Government bas been in keeping with the original 
idea--in a.ccorda.nce with a d~ire to promote the educational, 
social, moral, and political. improvement of the natives. And 
• 
248 Christiallity, Islam and tlte Negro Race. 
under that enlightened system of government which protects !.be 
rights, the liberty. the life, and the property of every individual, of 
whatever race or religion, the people have been advanced in civilisa· 
tion and well-being. They ha.ve been educated up to the position, 
the duties, and the privileges of British citizens; and they have 
not, as we have seen, been slow to avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity for material growth, and for educational advancement. 
The bulwarks of political strength have thus been provided before 
their political self-consciousness has been stimulated. 
The strong objection to direct taxation did not arise simply 
from the fact that there was sometimes oppressive, not to say 
cruel, enforcement of the law-the cause of the opposition lay 
deeper than that. It was because the people who paid the taxes 
felt DO identification of interests between those who imposed the 
taxes and themselves. They did not attribute any representative 
character to those who controlled the proceeds of these ta.xes. 
Now, everywhere, taxa.tion without representation is considered 
tyranny. But even where there is representa.tion, people do Dot 
enthusiastically. or even cheerfuJly, welcome impositions laid upon 
them by government, though they know that the people must bear 
the burdens of government. A strong feeling of inborn loyalty 
is necessary to reconcile men everywhere to the inevitable frictions 
and burdens of government. 
Now, this feeling of inborn loyalty will be seemed when & city 
corporation shall be organised, composed chiefly of nativeJ, and 
whatever honour or fame they may achieve will carry a. thrill of 
exultation to the hea!"ts of the people. The Government will be 
their own. They will sbare in its beneficial results as well as 
bear the odium of mal-administration. The feeling responsibility 
will produce internal and domestic improvements never yet wit-
'nessed in the colony. ,,"'>hen we look back upon wha.t has been 
achieved in the colony, we cannot allow ourselves to find any fault, 
so far, with the action of the Government in details of administra· 
tion, or even upon what a.re called constitutional questions. 
The question of municipal government now before the people is 
<lne of great importance to the stability and prosperity of the inati· 
Sierra LeOlle and Liberia. 249 
tutions of the country; and while great care should be ta.ken a.t 
every step of the movement, yet it is evident that a city cor· 
potation, with its burdens and responsibilities, its duties and its 
privileges. is necessary to tbe proper growth and full development 
of the people. It is essential to their training in selI-reliance and 
self-respect. In the days of Sir Charles McCarthy, as I gather 
from the books at Government House, a Municipal Council existed 
in the colony, with its Mayor, and Aldermen, and Magistrates. It 
may interest you to hear the following:-
When the Prince Regent lost his only daughter (Princess 
Charlotte, I think), Sir C. McCarthy forwarded an address of cou-
dolence froIll the people of the colony to His Royal Highness, 
accompanied by the following Dote to Earl Bathurst:-
Government House, Sierra Leone, March 4th, 1818. 
)Iy Lord,-At the request of the Members of His M.ljesty's Council. Ma.yor 
a.nd Aldermen, Magistrates, Clergy, Freeholders, a.nd principa.l inha.bita.nts of 
ule Colony of Sierra. Leone, I ba.ve the honour to forwa.rd herewith enclosed the 
humble and dutiful Address of Condolence to His Roya.l Highness the Prince 
Regent. n.nd I beg lea.ve to solicit your Lordship's laNour to la.y the same at the 
foot of the Throne. 
I ba.ve, &c., 
To the Right Honoura.ble Ea.rl Ba.thurst, K.G. (Sig/led) C. )IcCARTHY. 
But this was before the influx of the heterogeneous tide of un-
iustructed'people which made it the prime function of the Govern-
Ulent to deal with the very elements of civilisation and with the 
rudiments of government, to instruct the consciences of the people, 
and to superintend the elevation of the whole moral and intel-
lectual starfdard; and a great deal has been effected when tribal 
antipathies, narrowness and exclusiveness, which prevented growth, 
h80'Ve been broken up. The people are now in a condition to move 
for themselves as a working social organisation. Theil' political 
future is greatly in their own hands; and it is an encouraging sign 
that young Dlen are rising up who grasp the situation, and are 
making themselves equal to the necessities of the country. Activity, 
change, development, aspiration-these are the end of man's being 
on earth. Apart from them his destiny is frustrated . Such is 
• 
the 1aw of progress. Whatever others may do for us, there are 
• 
"-J'0  Christiallity, Islalll alld 'he Negro Race. 
some things we must do (or ourselves. No outward protection. 
DO friendly intervention, DO deed of gift clln give those personal 
virtues-those attributes of manhood-sell-relia.nce and indepen-
dence, without which all past efforts in behalf of the colony will be 
in vain; and the Negro's part in the political future of Sierra 
Leone will be extremely doubtful. It has been obsel'"d with 
gratification by friendly foreigners that many of the natives show 
it power and a breadth of capacity in managing their business-a 
shrewdness and fo.r-sightedness in dealing with the difficulties of 
trade which prove that they are fitted for the conduct of some of 
the details of their political lile. 
At present their whole activity. pbysical and mental, is ab'iorbed 
in the business of the shop; and some who have no inconsiderable 
accumulations, sit down and simply feel the gl'atification of looking 
at a golden heap, not e,en thinking of the methods by which that 
heap, so industriously and carefully piled up, shall be preserved. 
It is said that when tlle boa·constrictor has over·gorged itself, it 
lies in a. state of torpidity or stupefaction; but man's life on earth 
was not made to be like that of the boa·constrictor. 
It is clear that if in some respects the natives of this colony 
continue in a position of social or political disa.d,antagc, it is 
because they choose tbemseh-es to acquiesce in it, and to foster 
those conventional opinions 'which suspect every a.ttempt to push 
them a step forward in self·government, and to place upon them 
the responsibilities which that government involves. 'J 
But God bas bestowed certain gifts upon the nati,es of this 
• 
community, as upon otbers, and He will not allow those gifts to 
remain unused, If the talent is laid up in a napkin or buried in 
the earth, He will resume that talent or give it to those who have 
power and disposition to use it . The gifts of God are not ours to 
do as we please witb. If we prevent their application or diffusion 
for the good of others, or for the benefit of our country, He will 
remove us from them or them from us. We ma.y have our plans 
for ourselves-for our individual gratification, but God has His 
plans, which are for the country, br the race, for humanity; and 
His plans will be carried out. The agents for ca.rrying them out 
Sierra Leone and Liberia. 
are OD every ba.nd, in the a.ir, in the water, in the fire. In the 
operation of the laws of P rovidence, "The individual dwindles, 
while the race is more and more." And when we ha.ve reached a. 
certain sta.ge of progress, and the next step whicb that degree of 
progress necessitates is pointed out to us, it is not ours to say, 
"Let things rema.in as they are." There is no sucb thing as 
sta.nding still in this life. The law is either fOl'ward or backwa.rd; 
if there is no conscious movement forward, there is no unconscious 
movement backward. 
There is no bitterer satire passed upon us, no gra.ver injustice 
done to the race than by those of its members who assume that 
they are unfit for higher duties than that which consists in the 
comparatively unintellectual work of barter. And it is but a 
refined remnant of the institution of slavery, which we profess so 
much to dread and abhor, when we attempt to cramp the staturE' 
of OUi.' people, and to forbid by persecution their advance beyond 
the narrow limits which we have prescribed for ourselves. 
All communities of thinking men naturally divide themseh'es 
iuto two parties-conservative and liberal-the party of stability 
and the party of movement, as they have been called. ,Ve find 
two such parties in Sierra Leone. We see men who are not !;ure 
that what is really e.xlsts; who are e\'"er trying to secure the past, 
to clench tqe nail that has been driven, rather than attempting to 
open the future. But there are others who feel a deep. an 
insatiable thirst ror something beyond; who are anxious to open 
roadways for the people and lor themselves where before only 
unbroken anA undisturbed forest existed, 
These men are often discouraged by the difficulties in the way 
raised by a conscientious and dogged conservatism. They some-
times fall into despair, and declare that the problems which they 
set before themselves cannot be worked, much less solved, under 
the actual conditions and by the available agencies. 
But every now and then some sudden emergency arises and 
becomes what may be called a. dynamic element independent of 
huma.n control or manageme\Jt, which introduces unexpected 
movement. Some sudden disaster comes upon the communitr-
• 
252 Christiallity, Islam alld tlte Negro Race: 
an epidemic, a storm, a. Bood, a. fire-which a.rouses into activity 
the energies of the most donnant. The liberal influence receives 
an accession of strength-a. momentum-that forces the whole 
community into new and original directions, and the road is made 
through the forest, or the causeway thl'O\YD up across the swamp. 
There is some show of reason on the side of the conservatives. 
They are apprebensive that any apparent progress will be only 
apparent, and may lead to a reaction that will be worse than the 
present state. They fear to act the part of the dog in the fable, 
who threw away the substance to grasp at the shadow. But these 
nervous individuals should he reminded that revolutions never go 
backward. The course of things will rather resemble what one 
sees when one goes from the alluvial a.nd swampy lands of tbis 
coast to the beautiful countries of the interior. On the eastern or 
north-eastern frontier of the Loko country, the traveller is suddenly 
conlronted with lolty hills, which, if he could, he would avoid by 
some circuitous route; but there is no other way. the road lies over 
those rugged mountains. He is, therefore, obliged to nerve himself 
for the task of ascending; but after toiling up those weary heights, 
he finds to bis surprise that instead of a corresponding declivity 
on the eastern side. he has reached the level of a. grand plateau, 
wbere the ail' is purer and cooler, He has re&Ched an elevated 
region, which slopes gradually to the rich valley of the. Nigel', So 
will it be after the people have climbed the heights of political 
progress, which look so precipitous and threatening. Th~y will 
bave a wider view and a healthier atmosphere. and the advance 
will be by easier stages to a. weLl-walered a.nd fedJe region of 
political freedom and self-reliance. But at first the progress must 
be slow and gradual. .. Chi va piano va sano, chi t'u sano l.'a 
lontano. o, 
We b8.\'e not wings, we cannot soa.r; 
But wo haye feet to scale and climb 
By slow degrees, by more t.nd more, 
The cloudy summits of our time, 
But the question of all others ,u pon the solution of which wiu 
depend the character of the political future of the colony, is the 
Sierra Leolle and Liberia . 253 
educa.tional oue. We sometimes wonder why the efforts for the 
higher education of our people on this coast seem to meet with so 
Illany drawbacks. But the reasons, if we look below the surface of 
things, will be clear and satisfactory. Happily, the educational 
work, both here and in Liberia. has hardly got beyond its initial 
stage. The people are getting educated first to the life of the 
country before the education of books comes. It is not without its 
providential purposes that hindrances have so frequently arisen in 
the way of the only two colleges on the coast-Fourah Bay College 
and Liberia College. Had these institutions gone on and succeeded 
on the line which their founders had marked out for them, numbers 
of our people would ha"e passed through a course of discipline 
which would probably bave impaired their natural powers, and 
aroused on the part of foreign observers hopes, or awakened 
antagonisms, which would have been based upon artificial and 
unstable phenomena. The drawbacks and interruptions are giving 
us time to find out the system of regulation and instruction which 
will best fit us for the work we have to do. 
What is needed in the education of the Negro on tbis continent 
is not so much a change in the subjects, for everywhere the 
instruments of culture, in their better forms at least, must be the 
same, but a change in the whole method is required. In our 
contact witL the Christian world, our teachers have of necessity 
been Europeans, and they haye taught us books too much, and 
things - too little-forms of expression, and very little the impor-
tance of thought. The notion, still common among Negroes-
educated Neg•r oes I mean-is, that the most important part of 
knowledge cOllsists in knowing what other men-foreigners-have 
said about things, a.nd even about Africa and about themselves. 
They aspire to be familiar, not with what really is, but with what 
is printed. Yery few among us have got past this step. Hence7 
SOUle of us are found repeating things against ourselves, which are 
thoroughly false and iujurious to us, a.nd only because we read 
them in books. or have heard them from foreign teachers. The 
idea never seems to occur to suca persons that there are subjects 
of enquiry, especially in this lal'ge a.nd interestiug country of theirs, 
• 
254 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
about which the truth is yet to be found out-people and customs 
and systems about which correct ideas are to be formed. We have 
neglected to study matters at home because we were trained in 
books written by foreigners. and JOT a foreign 'race , not Jar U8---01' 
for us ani y so far as in the general characteristics of humanity we 
resemble that race; and from some of these books we learned that 
the Negro at borne was a degraded being-a Heathen, and worse 
than a Heathen-a fool ; and we were taught everything excellent 
and praiseworthy about foreigners. Therefore, we turned our backs 
upon our brethren of the interior as those from whom we could 
learn nothing to elevate, to enlighten, or to refine. A result of 
this is that we have not yet acted for ourselves. We have had 
history written for us, and we have endeavoured to act up to it; 
whereas, the true order is, that history should be first acted, then 
written. It is easy to account, then, for the waut of genuine life 
aud spontaneous activity in· the people. 
It would be a melancholy outlook lor Africa, with its vast 
territories and countless tribes, if its development and prosperity 
were altogether contingent upon the labour of foreigners, or even 
upon the genius and life of a few natives, educa.ted on foreign 
models and in foreign ways of thinking, to be produced a.nd brought 
upon the stage of action by the machinery oi an alien people. I 
say the prospect would indeed be dark if we had no r.ecurity from 
the law, by which nations and races are controlled, that the men 
to lead and guide in the affairs of this race shall appear among 
the people at the right time and place, and with ap.titudes for the 
.needful work. . 
It is a very interesting fact that the main body of the settlers 
who planted civilisation on these sbores in both colonies were men 
deeply imbued with the religious spirit. Like the Puritans of 
.America, the Bible was their code of laws, for civil and religious 
life. The following graphic and suggestive description is given by 
Mr. J . B. Eliott of tbe circumsta.nces attending the first arrival of 
the Nova Scotians, on the 28th of March, 1792 ; 
The colony wa.s then quite a. forest, t~.iek1y populated with wild and ferocious 
.Anima,ls, withQut any pe.sso.ge of o.pproo.eh to the new, beautiful, and principaJ 
• 
Sierra Leolle a/ld Liberia. 
town, Freetown. Pioneers. from the number of the!Oc NOVEL Scotians, were 
despatcbed on shore to clear or ma..ke IL roadwa.y for their la.nding , which being 
done. they aU disembarked and mo.rcbed towards the thick forest, with the 
Holy Bible a.nd their pTcachers (a.ll coloured men) before them, singing the 
hymn ta.ken from the late Countess's Hymn Book, commencing-
Awake a.nd sing the song 
Of Moses and the La.mb ; 
Wa.ke! every bea.rt. and every tongue 
To praise the Sa.viour's na.me. 
They proceeded immediately to worship God, thanking Him for His goodness 
and mercy in bringing them in sa.fety to the la.nd of their forefa.thers .... . 
They were a.nxious to procure an a.ltar. or place of worship, for the God o{ 
Ja.cob. This they did. The place fued upon was under the shade of So Ia.rge 
gree-gree tree, then stlLllding in George Street, now one of the most populous 
in Freetown, containing tile Church of England, the ColomBoI Office, &c. 
There they continued in social worship of Almighty God, with their brethren o[ 
-the Methodist and Baptist Societies-who all arrived together £rom Nova 
Scotia-until they were able to pro,;de better D.Ccommod!l.tion. This they lost 
no time in doing, for each Society was a.ble, after a shorl time, to build a hut 
.as a cha.pel for itself. 
The Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, in their report for 
1794, bear the following testimony to the character of the 
settlers :-
From that class of vices wh.ich comes less under the cognisance of a public 
court, the Nova SCOtilLllS are in some respects remarkably £ree ; marriage is 
extremely genera.l among them, and a.ll those evils which more pareicularly 
result from its being in disuse, are therefore in a great measure avoided. 
Drunkenness i-, by no means common, swearing is hardly ever heard; their 
-attention to the Sabbath is also great; they, on that day, abstain entirely from 
work. dress themselves in "ery good (and some of them even in very gay) attire, 
and repm, together with their ch.ildren, to church, where their deportment 
during the service, and theix whole appea.ro.nce, are represented to be such a!!' 
lorm a very sri.klng spectacle. There are five or six black preachers among 
them, raised up from theix own body, who are not without a considerable 
influence; and it is supposed that the discipline which they preserve in their 
little congregations, has contributed materially to the maintenance of the 
general morals which have been spoken 01.18 
Thirty years after, Mr. Aslunun, one of the earliest Governors 
.of Liberia, writes of the colonists as follows :-
It deserves record that religion has been the principal agent employed in 
laring and confirming the foundation of the settlement. To this sentiment--
• 
IS Report, pp. 76-80 . 
• 
256 Christianity, Islalll al/d the Negro Race. 
ruling. restraming, a.nd o.ctuo.ting the minds of the colonists-must be referred 
the whole strength of the civil government. 
In Sierra. Leone, excepting, perhaps, Lady Huntingdon's 
Conuexion, there was no regular orga.nisation for religious worship 
until the plans set on (oot by the Church Missionary Society, with 
the aid of the Government, were carried out in 1817. 
The English Baptist Missionary Society sent out two mission-
aries in 1795 ; but owing to indiscretion on the part of oue, and the 
failure of health on the part of the other, the mission was speedily 
abandoned. In the following yea.r, an united a.ttempt was made by 
the Scottish, the Glasgow. and the London Missionary Societies to 
form a sta.tion, but owing to sickness a.nd dissension among the 
agents, this effort was attended with no better success. I~ 
The opening of the present century witnessed the organisation 
o( the Church Missionary Society for A(rica aud the E.st. No 
Englishman being found to underta.ke missionary work on this 
unhealthy coa.st, the Society sent ont in 1804., as their first mission-
aries, two Germans, Rev. Messrs. Renner and Hartwig. They 
were, however, appointed not to labour in the colony, but among 
the Soosoos to the north. It was evident from the beginning tha.t. 
in view of the state of the country and the character of their 
machinery, they could not accomplish very much in tha.t directiou. 
In 1816, the Society sent out Rev. Edward Bickcrsteth to look iuto 
their work. IIis report influenced the committee' to turn ih 
attention to Sierra. Leone, although Sir Cha.rles McCarthy, two 
yea.rs before, had, without apparent success, suggested to the 
Society to employ their missionaries in labours ~.mong the reo 
captives. In the Seventeenth Annual Report of the ChW"ch 
Missionary Society they say;-
After bIr. Bickarsteth's return, the committee lost no time in laying the 
subBtn.nce of bis commumc&tion before Hia 1\I&je~ty's minister... A deputation 
accompanied his lordship tho President in pre'lenting tl memorial to Earl 
Bathurst, in which a plan formed by His Excellency, Govcrnor :\[cCarthy. for 
dividing tbo colony of Siam\. Leone into parishes, was recogniRed; a.nd ollau 
were made, on the part of the Societ.y, to a<;!Ual in bringing that plan into full 
execution. His lordship received the deputll.tion with his o.ccustomed courtesy 
I~ Moi~ter'8 Africa and tht Wtst lndits, p. 93 
Sierra Leone 111/d Liberia. 257 
and e~ressed his cordial wish to support the designs of tbe Society for the 
beneiH of the colony By 0. subsequent communica.tion from his lordship, yom 
committee learnt with pleasure that measures would be immediately ta.ken for 
the erection of two churches in Freetown, and afterwards churches in the 
seyernl country pa.rishes of Sierra. Leone. 
Thus began that series of operations in this colony, conducted 
by the Church Missionary Society, at first with Government aid, 
wh.ich has given to Africa and the Negro race the Siena Leone 
Na.tive Church, with its magnificent institutions of the Native 
Pastorate and Grammar Schools, whose influence is felt all along 
the coast and far up the Niger. 
Dr. Coke, wbo has been called the fathel' of the Wesleyan 
Missions, bad devised a scheme in 1769, eighteen years before the • 
arrival of the first settlers sent by Granville Sharp, for missionary 
work among the Foulahs interior of Sierra Leone j but the under· 
taking proved an entire failure, chiefly for want of adaptation in 
the agents employed. 
The beginning of Wesleyan work in the settlement dates from 
1811, ~hen the Rev. G. Warren and three school teachers were sent 
out. The results of the self-denying labours of these men are seen 
ou every hand througbout the settlement. Its Training Institution, 
under a native principal, is giving satisfaction, and furnishing 
interesting proof of the reality of the work which has beeu 
accomplisbe~. 
The educational and religious training of the people of Sierra 
Leone,.for fifty years, devolved almost wholly upon the Church 
llissionary Society and the Wesleyans. The effects of their seU-
denying labou1-s are visible in the in~ellectual, moral, and religious 
pTogress of the people. Whatever Sierra Leone is, she owes 
mainly to the fostering care of those two great bodies of Christians. 
In 1864: came the Roman Catholic Church, and met with no 
little difficulty in establishing itself in a town where two strong 
Protestant bodies and other sma.ller ones ha.d apparently occupied 
the whole ground. The Catholic priest, with his medireval dress, 
supposed alien sympathies, and celibate life, was an object of 
a.nta.gonism; but by patience amI perseverance they have so far 
overcome the opposition as to have now in process of erection, to 
5 
• 
• 
258 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
answer their actna.l demands, a. magnificent cathedral, with the 
prospect of a. resident bishop in Freetown. Negroes will prove 
that among them, as among other races, there are sympathies 
broad as the variety of the human mind and comprehellsh~e as the 
diversity of human temperament; that the ecclesiastical landscape 
among them will be as diversified in appearance as elsewbere. 
Whatever may be thought by some o! the Roman Catholic 
Church, there are four things which can be said in its favour, and 
which it behoves us carefully to consider;-
1. The Hamish Church presents an uncompromising [ront in 
the warfare against infidelity in all its forms. Evolution, Agnos· 
ticism and Positivism find no place within its fold. 
2. The Church of Rome has always been and is now a pro-
testing power-a conservative force-aga.inst the onslaughts of 
Socialism-against those attacks upon constituted authority which 
are now perplexing true pa.triots and statesmen in Europe and 
America. 
3. Catholicism sets its face, especially in America, against the 
freeness and facility of divorce. It respects the integrity of the 
family, and, through the much-abused confessional, it exercises a 
watchful care over childhood. Catholics are wiser than Protestants 
as to the children o! the Church. 
4. Tbe Roman Catholic Church respects races. It,  holds to the 
belie! that tLose words of St. Paul, which declare that .. God hath 
made of one all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth/' 
are words of inspiration. 
They recognise in their calendar Negro saints, anti have in their 
cathedrals the statues aml representations of holy men of the 
African race. In Roman Catholic countries Negroes have always 
bad a fair chance. I have read of Negroes in Brazil, in Peru, and 
even in Cuba, and I have seen them in Venezuela, occupying civil, 
military, and social positions to which they aspire in vain in 
Protestant countries. This, however, it is sometimes said, is owing 
not so much to the teachings of the religion as to the peculiar 
disposition of the Celtic races, who a.re largely Roman Catholics. 
The caste feeling, it is a.lleged, is not so strong in Celt as in Anglo-
Sierra Leolle alld Liberia 0 259 
Saxon. I do not know whether that distinguished nobleman, the 
Marquis of Bute, has Celtic blood in his veins, but he has recently 
selecteu a Negro sculptress to execute (or him an important piece 
of artistic work. 
These are facts in lhe history of Roman Catholics- not eulogies 
of the Church of Romeo Th,y aLoe great truths to be recognised in 
all the estimates we may form of the rela.tions of that Church to 
the work to be done on tbis great continent, and to the race to 
which we belong. "'e may say that Romanism has Its faults; but 
Protestantism also bas its faults. We may sa.y that the Romish 
Church has its irregularities; but so has the Protestant Church. 
We have, in this country, nothing to lose by welcoming all the 
agencies which have contributed to the civilisation and upbuilding 
of Europe, Asia, and America. 
Now, these two great systems of Christia.nity-Protesta.nt and 
Roman Ca.tholic-are endeavouring to extenu their operations 
a.mong the interior tribes, to subvert and sup~rsede Paganism and 
'Mohammedanism. Let us take a brief view of the Paganism 
a.nd Mohammedanism which have to be confronted and overcome. 
We are sometimes discouraged by what appears to us the 
obstinacy of Paganism-the stubbornness of a hoary superstition; 
but when we consider how large tribes, both here and in other parts 
of Africa,Jaloonkas, KOl'ankos, Limbas, Asha.ntees, Zulus-are 
kept in subordina.tion, and fulfil many a national fUDction without 
anyoknowledge of letters or written revelation, it must appear that 
there is something in the Paganism of Africa as in the l)aganism of 
other lands'-some subtle, indefinable, inappreciable infiuence which 
operates upon the people and regula.tes their life. And this religion 
of the imagination, or of the fancy, if you like, has had its influence 
upon some of the greatest minds, whose words or deeds have 
graced the annals of history. Socra.tes, 'with his measured, settled, 
and logical intellect, in bis last mOUlents ordered a cock to be 
sacrificed to JEsculapiu5. The a.ncient Greeks and Romans had 
their sacred groves and "wysteries "-their Porroh and Bundo 
rites. There exists a. very tQuching letter b'om Pluta.rch to his 
wife, written at the time be lost his only daughter, and when they 
• 
• 
260 Chl-is/intlity. Islam aud Ilze Negro Race. 
were In the deepest affliction and desolation. He writes to his 
wife, who was away from him at the time, a very kind and loving 
letter. trying to give her comlort and hope. He says to bel'. 
"Remember the beautiful things we have seen together in the 
Mysteries of Bacchus." Some people believe that the Mysteries of 
Bacchus were nothing but drunkenness and disorder; they were 
something else. They were like the Mysteries of Ceres-the 
Goddess of Corn-and like the representations, in other cases, of 
the immortality of the soul. And owing to the hold which these 
things have upon the minds of those brought up to believe in them, 
and who get comfort from them, it is impossible suddenJy to uproot 
them. In fact, superstitions are never thoroughly eradicated from 
any country. In many pads of Europe the rural superstitions of 
the old mythology are alive to-day. The peasant holds to rites 
and ideas that his ancestors practised while they were still savages. 
We must believe that time, and contact with others who have 
enjoyed superior advantages for information, will remove h·om the 
minds of our Pagan brethern many of the objectionable things in 
their belief. 
But in the evangelistic efforts of Christians. as they push to 
the interior, they will have to meet also the great Mohammedan 
religion, which has come across the continent from the deserts of 
Arabia. Between Sierra Leone and Egypt the Mohammedans are 
the only great intellectual, moral. and commercial power. The 
tribes intervening have for more than three hundred years been 
under the influence of Islam. It has taken possession of, and has-
shaped the social. political, and religious life of the mosb intelligent 
tribes. Its adherents control the politics and commerce of nearly 
all Africa north of the Equator. From their great cities on the 
Niger and the Volta they send caravans to every point of the 
compass-to Abyssinia and Egypt, Algiers and Morocco: Sierra. 
Leone and the Gambia, Liberia and Cape Coast. No one can 
travel any distance in the interior from this settlement without. 
finding that Islam is the ruling influence. In my journeys a Cew 
years ago to Falaba, the capital of the great Pagan kingdom of 
Soolimia, I pa.ssed tlu·ough the Timneb, Loko, Limba, and Korank() 
Sierra Leolle al1d Liberia. 26r 
conn tries, which are also Pagan states; and when, subsequently, I 
went to Timbo, the capital of Putah Jallo, a. Mohammedan power, 
I passed again througb se\Oeral Paga.n districts; hut I did not pass 
through a. single town on the two routes-going and returnillg-
where I did not find Mohammedans taking a. leading part, and 
where I did Dot bear the name of Mohammed and his mission 
publicly proclaimed at least once a.-day. I observed that no public 
speech was delivered without being preceded and followed by the 
words-" AlIa humma, Sail a ala Mohanulladi, wa ala ali Moham-
maw;" and the audience l'esponded-" Salla AUabu aJayhi wa 
sallam." The meaning is-" Oh God, bless Mohammed, and the 
people of Mohammed." Answer-" God bless him and grant him 
peace." This ha.s become, 0.11 through the country. not only a 
religious, but a political formula, like /I God Save the Queen." Thus 
the distinguishing dogma of Islam, that Mohammed is the Apostle 
of God, is held up and proclaimed every time an assembly meets, 
It b sometimes sa.id by some who, anxious not merely to dis-
parage the intellectual influence of Islam upon the mind of the 
African, but the intellectual capacity of the Negro, that there is no 
conect knowledge of Arabic possessed by these people, But this 
is never sa.id by anyone having the slightest knowledge of the 
langua.ge. A hundred years ago, Mungo Park found considerable 
knowledge_ of Arabic among the natives in whose country he 
travelled. He was &o;torushed on perceiving the encouragement 
whiclf wa.s given to learning. He says tha.t the vessel in which Lc 
returned from•  Africa contained 127 slaves, most of them from tLe 
neighbourhood of the coast, but some from the in terior of the 
country, and that out of this number there were seventeen or 
eighteen who could I'ead and write Arabic fluently; but the master 
of the ship, be adds, threw the books belonging to the slaves into 
the sea, for fear a perusal of them fI would make them sick at 
heart." He calculates that one·seveDLb part of the slaves in the 
\-Vest Indies were, in his day, able to read the Arabic Bible, were 
it put into their hands. In another place he says;-
The poor Africans, whom we .£feet-to consider as Ba.rba.ria.ns, look upon us, 
I fear, as little better thnn a. ra.ce of formida.ble but ignora.nt Hea.thens. When 
262 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
[produced Richa.rdson's Arabic Grammar to some Slo.tees (na.tive mercha.nh). 
on the Ga.mbia., they were astonished to think that a.ny Europea.n should 
understo.nd a.nd write the so.ored la.nguage of their religion. One of thom 
offered to give me a.n a.ss a.nd sutean ba.rs of goods if I would part with the 
book. 
When on the expedition to Timbo, I spent a day and a·balf at 
the town of Telico, two days' journey on this side of the Foulah 
capital. As I sat writing my diary on the evening after my arrival~ 
just after the SUD set prayer, having at my side Momodo Wa.ka., 
who is DOW the Assistant Government Arabic Interpreter, I 
heard a melodious voice at the door reciting, in chant· like style, 
some Arabic verses. I recognised some of the words as from the 
Makamat of Hariri. I said to Momodo, "Open the door and see 
who that is, and ask him in." It was one of the wandering min· 
strels, or itinerant teachers, who live Oll the alms of the faithful. 
These minstrels travel from town to town, aud village to village. 
Crowds gather around and hang on their lips while they recite in 
glowing terms some episode in the Prophet's life, or some exploit of 
ODe of their own warriors or poets. These men go from Africa. 
a.nd travel throngh Arabia. and Syria, drawing crowds just as eager 
to listen to them. When I was at Beirut, in 1866, there was a. 
celebrated" rawi," or minstrel, from the Soudan, of jet black com-
pLexion, drawing crowds every evening by the eloquence of his 
recitals. The object of my visitor on this occasion wa~ to solicit 
n. gift from the stranger. The words he recited were from the 
Fifth Assembly of Hari1'i, called j Koufll,' and were the follo~iug, 
according to~ the late Professor Prestou's translation;-
Inmates of trus abode, aU ha.il! all ha.il ! 
Long ma.y you live in plenty's verds.nt va.le ! 
o grant your aid to one by toil opprest, 
Wa.y-wom, benighted, destitute, distrest; 
Whose tortured entra.ile only hunger hold 
(For since he tasted rood ~wo da.ys o.re told) ; 
A wretch who finds not where to lay his hea.d, 
Though brooding night her drea.ry wing ha.th spreo.d, 
But roa.ms in o.n:tious hope a friend to meet, 
Whose bounty, like a spring of water sweet. 
l\Io.y heal his woes, a. friend who straight will say, 
" Come in! 'Tis t.ime t.hy stall a.side to 18.)' ; 
A welcome and a. meal are thine to·day! " 
Sierra Leone and Liberia. 
I should like you to hear the words in the original Arabic by a. 
hlandingo native, who is only one of thousands acquainted with 
the JjJaka11lat of Ha1"iri, oue of the most difficult of the poems of 
Arabia.. It consists of fifty books, and there are many who have 
cOlllmitted to memory the wbole. The Arabs have a harsher, or 
more strongly guttural accent. In general, the Soudan.ic languages 
-excepting, perhaps, the dialects of Timhuctoo and Bambarra-
are c1eyoid of strong gutttuais. The hlandingoes, Foulahs, and the 
Nigritiau tribes generally, who lise Arabic, soften the sound of tho 
harsher letters-shin, kha I hila, yhain, ain. gal; the reason being 
that they have a softer and more effeminate intonation in their 
speech, suited to their genius and pbysical constitution.to 
There are young men born in Freetown, children of recn.ptives, 
who can not only read and write, and with ease and propriety 
converse, in the language o( A.rabia, but can translate readily (rom 
A.rabic into Aku and English, and from English into Arabic anc1 
Aku. When I passed here in June last, tbere was a brilliant Arab 
• youth, from the schools of Bagdad, on a missionary visit to the 
Mohammedans of the settlement. He ca.lIed upon me with one of 
the Sierra. Leone creoles, who a.stonished me by the fluency with 
which he could converse with the stranger from the East in the 
tongue of the Prophet. The other day, when the ambassadors 
(rom Sego -were leaving, and the Administrator wrote tl.n important 
letter to the king, it was a creole youth who put it into the Arabic. 
I b(loV~ been surprised that while Mohammedan youth are practi-
cally a.cquaj~ted with three languages, wbicb would make them at 
home in any part of the Soudan, Christian young men content 
themselves with only one. I am astonished that they have not 
long since realised the ad"antages of their contact with this great 
Olientallanguage. and with the treasures of its literature, in which 
the Negro so largely shares. 
It is Dot the part of 'wisdom to ignore a fact-not only an irre-
pressible, but an aggressive fa.ct. The 'Mohammedans must always 
ha.ve a powerful influence in Africa. They ha.ve given the initiative 
• 
:Il See OlJ,ervation, on the Touurick Alphabet, by Je.mes Richo.rlsou.-London. 
1817. 
• 
264 Christiallity, Islam alld tire Negro Race. 
of intellectua.l progress to the tribes of the interior. It is through 
them that the natives have acquired all they have of knowledge of 
the outside world, or of past history, sacred or profane. They 
have given unity to the great tribes of the continent, and have 
placed millions of AfrIca.ns-by means of their language, letters, 
and books-under the same inspiration. Suppose AirieR bad been 
obliged to wait till now for knowledge of letters and books from 
Europeans, whal woulil have been the condition of things. at this 
moment, in the interior? 
But it is Dot simply the religion of the Arabs, but the race of 
the Arabs which has given them such influence over the tendencies 
of the great tribes. They belong to a cognate race. Before the 
da.ys of Mohammed, Negroes shared in the learning and poJitics of 
J.l'abia. IIerodotuB, in those early days. discovered the relation· 
ship of the two peoples. He represents them as belonging to the 
same great race. His description of the country of the Eastern 
Ethiopians corresponds to Southern Arabia i while his description 
of the region inhabited by the Western Ethiopians takes in Nigritia. 
as fa.r as Sierra Leone and Liberia. 
Before the rise of Islam, it was customary to hold in Arabia, 
once a-year, a national gathering, at which tribes ma.de up their 
dissensions, exchanged prisoners of war, and competed with one 
a.nother in extempore poetic contests. The poems w1llch were 
successful were transcribed in leUers of gold and suspended Q}l the 
wall of the Raaba, where they would be seen by every pilgrim 
who might visit the most sacred place in the coun.ry. These 
poems were honoured with the title oC Moallacat, or" suspended." 
Seven of them have been deemed worthy of preservation, and are 
much admired by European students of Arabic for the beauty of 
the language and wild richness of the imagery. One of the prize 
poems was composed by the warrior and poet Antarrah, the son 
of a negres5 slave. He was so black that he was nicknamed 
" Gharab," crow. 'Yhen some of the members of his clan, who early 
embraced Islam, went as deputies to Medina to visit Mohammed, 
and make profession of faitll on the part of their brethren, the 
Sierra Leone and Liberia. 265 
prophet told them that the warrior whom be most desired to have 
seen '·. .. as the Negro Antarrah,n 
For twelve centuries the Adzan. or call to prayer, bas been 
soundetl five times a-day from every mosque in the Moha.mmeda.n 
world. The traveller from Fourah Bay to North-western China is 
startled in his sleep at early dawn by Muezzin c; crying aloud from 
their various minarets, the words If _-\.llabu Akbar/' &c. (God is 
great, &c.). 
These self-same words are used by Muslims of every nation-
ality. Turks, Persians, Hindoos, Chinese, Foulahs, hlandingoes, 
Alms, &c., all use the same .\rabic words. Now, it ought to be 
interesting to us to know that these words were first uttered and 
composed, in part, by a Negro, named Bilal.'l'l Sir William Muir 
says, "He was tall, dark, and gaunt, with Negro features and 
busby hair." He was amoug the earliest couverts to Islam. 
Mohammed distinguished him as II the first·£ruits of Africa "; and on 
account of his physical and moral qualities, appointed him the first 
Muezzin, or crier to prayer. After crying the Adzau, Bilal would 
come to the door of lIohammed and rouse him thus: "To prayer, 
ah, Apostle of God! to salvation." Then Bilal would take his stand 
in the first row of worshippers. who used strictly to follow his 
example in the pra.yers and genuflexions. tIl 
So that -.the {arms of daily worship now used throughout the 
Mohammedan world were fixed by a Negro. 
Thit distinguished mau, like many other Moslem warriors, was 
granted landed property at Damascus, where he died. A.H. 20, aged 
60 years; an• d where his tomb is still shown. There is not a 
Christian country governed by Europeans where the tomb of auy 
Negro, whatever his merit, has been preserved for even a hundred 
years. The Negro came into contact with Cillistianity as a slave 
and a follower at a distance. He came into contact with Moham· 
medanism as a. man, and often as a leader. 'Whatever men of 
other races may do, cau the Negro turn contemptuously upon a 
11 The words, "PrB-yer is better t.han sleep," were introduced by Bilal. 
12 Chencry'li ,A"tmlJlitl of Hariri: ,·ol. i. p _3 18 . 
• )[uir'. Lift of lJaholFUt • 
• 
266 Christiallity, Islalll alld Ihe Negro Race. 
religion in which he has bad a. patt, and listen without protest to 
the statement of those who, while bringing him Christianity. tell 
him that bis past bas been" blank and hopeless? " 
Mohammed not only 100'eel the Negro, but regarded Africa with 
peculiar interest and affection. lIe never spoke of any curse ha.ng-
ing over the country or people. Wben in the early years of bis 
reform, his followers were persecuted and could get no protection 
in Arabia., be advised them to seek att asylum in Africa. ..1 1 Yonder/' 
he said, pointing towards this country, H yonder lieth a country 
wherein no ma.n is wronged-a. land of righteousness. Depart 
thither; and remain until it pieaseth the Lord to open yow' way 
before you." 2.1 This recalls to us Homer's I. blameless Ethiopians," 
and the words of the Angel to Joseph: II Arise and flee into Egypt, 
and be thou there until I bring thee word again." 
You can understand why it is then that Islam has sucb a. hold 
upon the African tribes who have embraced it, They gather under 
the beams of the Crescent not ouly for religions, but for patriotic 
reasons; till they are not only swayed with one idea, but act as 
one individual. The faith becomes a part of their nationality, and 
is entwined with their affections. Arguments from outsiders ha.ve 
no weight with them. There are names and phrases which have 
such effect upon their minds, and so thrill them as to supersede 
and transcend all argument: and many of these names.a.nd phrases 
are names and phrases held in reverence by Christians. All the 
great tribes are held under the same inspira.tion. Europeans wbo 
speak to them speak as outsiders. They listen with tpe conscious-
ness that they know things altogether hidden from the European 
propagandist of the Christian religion. It is impossible to ignore, 
even in religious matters, the fundamental distinctions of race. 
That theory which ath'ibutes the success of Islam in Africa. to what 
are frequently denounced as the sensual aspects of the religion is 
based upon ignorance, not only of the system, but of the elementa.ry 
facts of human nature. No religion could exert so powerful a 
sway O\Ter two hundred millions of people-of all raceS and climes 
3~ :\Iuifa Ljf~ of Ma/w",d, p. 74. 
Sierra Lcone alld Liberia. 
-for more tha.n a. thousand years, which appealed chiefly to the 
lower passions. But in our discussion of the Mohammedan 
question we do not consider the theology of the system, but its 
anthropology: those practical fea.tures of it which affect man-the 
natura.l man, and especially the African man. And in viewing it in 
this manner, as we become acquainted with its history and litera-
ture, we cannot but feel a deep personal interest in the system. 
Notwithstanding the copiousness of the Arabic language and its 
exhaustless fertility, it has no forms- of expression to describe any 
race, which are contemptuous or insulting. 
The late Professor Palmer, Arabic Professor a.t Cambridge. 
made a translation of the beautiful poems of Beha-ed·din into 
English, in which he ventured to degrade the language and idea of 
the original Arabic by using the word" Nigger" to represent the 
respectable and harmless word II aswad "used by the poet, wbich 
simply means" black," These are the things in English literature 
which repel the Negro student. If, in modern English poetry, the 
word .. ~igger" is the most suitable phrase by which to describe 
the Negro, I for one must eliminate modern English poetry from the 
subjects taught to Negro youth. 
There i~ now in one of t.he adjoining Mohammedan villages a 
work in mannscript, composed in Egypt or Nubia, describing lbe 
'~xploits of c4'5tiuguished Negroes in the early history of Mobamme· 
danism ; so that the Mohammedan youth, from the books they read, 
have a ~r better opportunity of becoming acquainted with the great 
men of their race than the Christian youth, and therefore of acquiring 
deeper sell· re•sp ect, and an earnest attachment to a religion in 
which their own people have peformed such achievements, 
It is interesting to feel that the reHgion of Isaac and the 
religion of Ishmael, both having their root in Abraham, confront 
each other on tills continent. Japheth introducing Isaac. and 
Shem bringing Ishma.el, Ham will receive both, The moonlight o[ 
the Crescent, and the sunlight of the Cross. will dispel the darkness 
which has so long covered the land. The If Dark Continent" will 
no longer be a na1l1e of reproacb. for tills vast peninsula, for there 
shall be no darkness here. Where the light from the Cross ceases 
• 
268 Christianity, Islall! alld the Negro Race. 
to stream upon the gloom, there the beams of the Crescent will give 
illumination; and as the glorious orb of Christianity l;se5, the 
twilight of lblarn will be lost in the greater }j~bt of the SUD of 
Righteousness. Thus I saac and Ishmael will be united, and rejoice 
together in the faith of their common progenitor-Ibrahim Khalil 
A llal>-Abraham, the Friend of God. 
Let us now enquire wha.t are the advantages of the Colony and 
the Republic over each other? Perhaps it may be well to review 
briefly here their financial status. I regret that I have not at 
present accessible the financial statistics of Liberia j but, through 
the kindness of the Governor.in-Chief, I am able to furnish a. few 
facts with regard to Sierra. Leone. 
n is interesting and instructive to contrast the present position 
of Sierra. Leone, as a. contributor to the world\; wel1·being, with its 
position a. hundred yea.rs ago, when the chief articles of export were 
human beings. 
The total va.lue of a.rticles export.ed from Sieua. Leone during 
the yen.r 1882 was ...... . ..................... .. .......... £420,015 2 8 
'1'otal va.lue of articles imported... . . . . ... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 398.BU 19 !) 
Excess 01 exports ........ ....... .... . ............ . .£21,200 2 11 
These exports and imports were distributed chiefly as follows:-
The exports to Great Britain amounted in va.lue to.. . .. . . . .. . £189,120 11 (j 
The imports from Grea.t Britain amounted in mille to .......... ,272,195 (j :2 
Excess of imports from Great Britain ........••... , . .•.. 183,074 14 8 
Ezports to Amencn. a.mounted in va.lue to ........•..•....•.... .£23,S5i 8 G 
Import. from America. amounted in va.lue to .......•........... 34,436 16 8 
Excess of imports £rom America .. .. .. ... .• . ....• ....... £11,082 8 ~ 
Exports to France.. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . ......................... . £77,Ml 2 11 
Imports from Fro.nce .................... . ....• .. .....••..... 15.'i90 3 1 
Ezces& of ezports to France ........ .... ....... , ........ ,{;li2,OiO 19 10 
Exports to Germany ",mounted in value to ..................... £23,152 17 0 
Imports from Germany.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .• •• .. .. . . . . . . .. .• . . . . . . - 20,639 19 G 
E,  IcelS 0 f ezpor t s t a Ge rmany .............. . ..•........ £ '_'.512 17 6 
Exports to Belgium.......................................... £217 4 0 
Imports from Belgium .•............•. _. .. . . . . •. . . . . . . .. . . . . . ..... 
Excess of exports..................................... .£217 4 0 
, 
Sierra Leolle alld L iberia. 
I ha\"e meutioned the chief places out of ACrica which carry 
on trade with Sierra. Leoue, and you will notice that Anglo-Saxon 
influence largely predominates. England and the United States 
together send articles to the value of £223,556 17s. 2d., while 
France and Germany together seud only £36,430 25. 7d., just a 
little over what America. alone sends. Sierra Leone supplies 
France with produce to the value of £77,861 25. lld., and receives 
in retUrD £15,790 3s. 1d. 
It may be. ho,,"e\'e1', that a large portion of the articles going 
to and coming from France and Germany are shipped tia Liverpool 
and London; and yet there are steallltirs going direct from here to 
H amburg and :\[ar..;,eilles. 
• 
Let us look now at the traffic between Sierra Leone and places 
00 the coast. 
The total vnlue of th e articles exported £rom Sierra. Leone to 
Gs.mbia, in 1882. wa.~ "', ............... ,",. , .. ,"' ... .. £26,900 10 11 
Ya.lue of al'ti cl08 imported ,." .......... ".................. 5,892 14 7 
Excess of export" •......................... £20,016 1G 4 
\·aluc of articles exporteu to Windwll.l'U Coast . .. ............. . £63,451 7 3 
Va.1ue of artl(: le~ imported ...............• , ..... , . ... ,',.,., 11,135 13 8 
Exce .. s ............ , ' , . , . ' ...... , . , . , ... , £52,315 13 7 
Exports to Leeward Coast ...... ,., .. ," ....•....•..•....... £4,743 11 • 
Imports from Leeward Coa. .. t ... . .•............... . .... .. .... 1,568 7 3 
[ '.' co "·s  ......... " ........................ . 3.175 4 1 
Exports to LiLe!io. ...•.•............. . '. ' . , ..•........... , , • £1,220 10 7 
Import, from Liheria , ...•....................•..•......... 203 12 5 
• EJ:ce .. ~, .•..................•............ ' . U,Ol6 IS 2 
The total rev(;nue of tht' C010D" for 1882, was . ........... , .. . £65,537 8 8 
The total cxpelLditure of the colony. for 1882. was .... ... . . .. . 62,91~ 19 5 
Exee ... !! of revenue ... , .... , ... ...•..•....... £2,624 9 3 
The revenue from i.mports wa!! .... ' , .. ... . .. , .•.......... . .... £36,251 18 7 
exports was ......... ' . , .. .....• ... •........ 7,788 15 0 
" .",  wharfn~e was ... . .•.......• . ...... ', ..... ' 4,380 5 1 
" tonnage dues WILl; ••• • ••• ' • •• •••••• • •••••••• 2.814 5 G 
" " light was ....•......••..... ' ...........•... 1,246 16 9 
.",  " hn.rbollr w8.. ......... . ............ · · · . ,·····,· 547 16 9 " 
, . \\3.I'ebouse rent W8.'J ,., • • •.•••• • •• • ••••••••• 800 19 2 
.,  .",  a.ucti(lll dues WIlS ..•....•............• ... .. --;;:::co2: :-:2:: --2:- 
£53,841 19 5 
• 
The balance was mad" up from licences and other local impositions. 
, 
270 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
The revenue for 1883 was £62,282 8s. lld., less than the 
revenue of the preceding year by about £3,000. The average 
monthly incolDe of the colony is about £5,000. I was surprised 
to find that, wbile the reveuue for January and February, 1883, 
was .£5,658 145. lld. and £6,359 45. 3d. respectively, the revenue 
for the mouth of August, which is considered one of the dullest 
months of the year, was £7,948 3s. 7d . Ouly one month last 
year yielded less than £4,000, and that was the month of March, 
when the revenue was £3,969 Is. The months of January, 
February, May, August and December, yielded each over £5,000. 
The impression to be gathered from this statement I take to be 
that there is a regular and steady improvement in the trade of the 
colony; and now, with the prospect of open roads and enlarged 
intercourse with the distant interior, we may safely predict that, 
within a comparatively brief period, the colony ''fm be able not 
only to payoff its debts, but to carryon with ease many much· 
lleeded internal improvements. 
The average annual expenditure for the Civil Service may be set 
down at about £60,000. A similar amount may be laid down as 
the expenditure for the Military Service. I find from the Blue 
Book for 1882 that the expenditw·. for the military was £33,829 
25. 9d. But this amount did not include-
1. The va.lue of provisions. clothing. accoutrements, arms, fo-mmunitioo Ilnd 
stores sent out hom Engla.nd. 
2. The pa.y of regimenta.l officers, which is paid in England. 
3. The pa.y of depa.rtmental officers on 1eo.\'e. 
4. The cost of passages of officers to nnd from Engl&nd. 
5. Tra.nsport of troops to IIoDd from the West Indies. 
6 The whole proportiona.te expense of the ne.ve.l squadron. 
7 Tho lJDperiaJ grant in aid of the Colonial stea.mer, Pl"illCC of Walel. 
The colony contributes nothing on account of its military 
defence. 
The idea of Do local force for the defence of the colony is not 
altogether lost sight of by the Government. Colonel Ord, the 
Commissioner of Inquiry on the West Coast of Africa, sent out 
in 1865, in his recommendations- ou this subject, made ~be following 
l'emark :-
• 
Sierra Leolle alld Liberia. 
Protected a.s the West Coa.st Settlements ha.ve been hi~herto by a. body of 
regular troops. it would not be expedient to ma.ke suddenly t.he experiment 
of confiding their securIt.y entirely to n. loeeJ force. but· as 0. sufficient number 
of HaussQ.S can be orgawsed, a reduction may be effected in the strength of the 
ga.rrisons, especia.lly of the minor settlements. 
In the trade of the colony of Sierra LeoDe there is a large 
consumption of European manufactures. The most sanguine 
anticipations of Clarkson and "'ilberforce as to the beneficial 
results of abolishing the slave.Jtrade have been more than realised. 
In tbe days of the slave-trade England exported £1,000,000 to the 
whole of Africa. Now she exports one-fifth of that amouut to 
Sierra Leone alone. For the first three years after she had 
abolished the slave·trade, British exports for lawful trade to Africa, 
the Cape of Good Hope included, averaged £88,000 aunually,~ less 
than one·half the value of her present exports to Sierra. Leone. 
And, even as late as 1840, the total value of British and Irish 
produce and manufactures exported from the United Kingdom to 
Sierra Leone and the coast, from the River Gambia inclusive to 
the River Mesurado, was only £93,640.~ 
The annual revenue of Liberia may be stated at £25,000. The 
sources of this revenue are-customs, import and export duties; 
tax on real estate one·haU pel' cent. on the assessed value; poll-
tax on all the inhabitants of one dollar per head; military tines. 
Liberia, ,o f course, makes no pretensions to defend herself against 
any foreign power; but she has been able, by her simple military 
arrangement, which is only a militia system, not only to hold her 
own against aboriginal aggression, but to exercise, from half·a·dozen 
effective settl~meDts. along five hundred miles of coast and a COD-
sidera.blc distance inland, a very wholesome influence. In the 
days of the slave-trade, that little Republic succeeded in completely 
suppressing the external opera.tions of that nefarious traffic. 
Sbe exercises a useful jw·isdiction among the neighb;:mring 
tribes, and affords faciljties for safe and peaceful traffic between 
the interior and the coast. 
:/.; McQueen'l> Commercial VielD oj .djrica. 
U Report !.rom ~be Select Par1io.~nta.ry Committee on the West Coa.st or 
Africa, 18:1.2, part iI, p. 500. 
, 
272 CI",is/iani!)" Islalll and the Negro Race . 
Only a few weeks ago hordes of predatory Rassobs were 
expelled (rom the region of Little Cape Mount, and their chief 
captured by the Liberian forces. This great warrior is now in 
confinement at Monrovia, awaiting trial. The actual material 
a.dvantages of Sierra Leone over Liberia are that it possesses 
the finest harbour au the coast; that by means of the large 
rivers in its neighbourhood it has great facilities of intercourse 
with the interior; that it is protected and upheld by a strong 
government; that its extensive trade gives it a large revenue, 
and puts mOlley in circulation. On the other hand, the advan-
tages of Liberia are So larger area of ten-itory; a soil of far 
greater fertility, and adapted to the production of every tropical 
article demanded by commerce; a population thrown, in the earlier 
stages of their growth, upon their own resources, and therefore 
possessed of greater self·reliance and individual independence. If 
Sierra Leone can count more English sovereigns, Liberia cau count 
broader acres. If Sierra Leone cau boast of a more extensive 
commerce, Liberia may be proud of its larger agticulture. It is, 
perhaps, natural that those who are able to entertain such angels 
as are stamped at the Royal Mint should bave a good opinion of 
themselves; but they must not be surprised if those who are able 
to sit nuder the vine and fig· tree of their own planting are disposed 
to think rather highly of their own advantages. 
In the moral, and even political. possibilities of the t~o countries, 
I do not see that one bas any advantage over tbe otber. Tbe 
possibilities of Sierra Leone, in one directiou, may be limited and 
defined by the regulations for Crowl?- Colonies; in aLlother, those 
possibilities are boundless. The limitations imposed in one direc· 
tion need not be dwelt upon, when we consider that the possible 
achievements in the other case are, as I have pointed out, real 
ethnic or race independence and commercial ascendency in this 
part of the continent. There Deed not be, between the Sierra 
Leoneans and Liberians, any present or prospective jealousy. Tha.t 
community of the two, will, in the long run, rule more widely 
which rules more wisely; and superior energy, enterprise and skill 
• • 
will ca.rry off the advantages of trade, and draw the pnzes from 
the interior. 
Sierra Leolle and Liberia. 273 
The true policy of Liberia is to direct its energies to the im-
provement of internal administration, both of the country and 
general governments, to the extension of educatioD, and to the 
development of the vast natural resources. The same, mutatis 
mutandis, seems to be the proper policy of Sierra Leone. The slow 
growth of capital is the great drawback of Liberia; the drawback 
of Sierra Leone is the frequent changing of rulers, which it seems 
the necessities of the colonial .service, not to say the perils of this 
clima.te, require. 
Now, wbat guarantee have we that these two countries will be 
allowed to grow and develop on their own line? 
It has been predict~d that the Negro race will die out of Africa. 
Within three hundred years, we have been told, there will not be a • 
Negro left. The suggestion has been made to supersede them by 
Chinese. Win wood Reade, in closing his book on Savage Africa, 
draws a brilliant picture of the future of this country when 
Europeans, or their descendants, shall occupy the great centres of 
the Niger. In the amiable task of spreading cirilisation over 
Africa, the natives may be exterminated. 
But (says Mr. Reade) a. grateful posterity will cherish their memories. 
When the cockneys of Timbuctoo have their tea-gardens in the oases of the 
Sa.ha.:ra.; when hotels a.nd guide~books a.ta esta.blished at the sources of the 
Nile; when it becomes fashionable to go yachting on the lakes of the Grea.t 
Pla.tea.u; wben noblemen, building sea.ts in Central Af.tica, will ha.ve their 
elephant pa.rk•s  and their hippopota.mi wa.ters; young ladies on co.mp·stools, 
under pa.lm.troes, will read with tears-Tilt Last of tht NegrOt8; and the Niger 
will bec'ome as (ome.ntic a. river as the Rhine,21 
It is a m11'ious thing that, notwithstanding the experience of 
thousands of years, men seem so slow to learn that in forming 
plans for carrying out their theories as regards countries and races 
-especially as regards this country and this race--there are 
certain iuvisible barriers that coniront them like the angel iu the 
path of Ba.laam, which cannot be descried by the most piercing 
sagacity, and which thereiore cannot be taken into their most 
cnre!ul calculations. It wa.s a solemn and suggestive piece of 
'7 Reade's Sava•!J t AI,·ica. p. 587. 
T 
• 
274 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Racc. 
advice that one of the Roman rulers, in his last momenls, gave, 
when he warned his people against attempting the invasion of 
Africa.. 
No earnest effort yet made by foreigners to lakE." possession of 
this continent has ever met with permanent success. Something 
has always happened to divert them [rom their purpose. Persians, 
Cartbaginians, Greeks and Romans, have all tried, and failed. 
Alexander the Great, conqueror of Europe and a great part of Asia, 
sat dowD, in a fit of despondency, and wept for worlds to conquer. 
But here was Arric~. with bel' vast territory and teeming popu-
lation. He tried his energy and skill in a small section of the 
country. But after his famous journey to the oracle of Jupiter 
Ammon, he looked only a.skance at this magnificent field for 
military exploits-
Nor felt the joy that warriors feel 
In ll.;cmen worthy of thcir steel. 
When, in modern times, Portugal had magnificent schemes for 
the colonisation and occupation of Africa, and bad built up 
extensive establishments, her attention was called away by the 
discovery of America and the demand for labour in that new 
conntry. The spirit, strength, and influence of her African 
enterprises received a cbeck from which she bas never since 
recovered. Her extensive colonies were lost, and dwindled into 
marts (or carrying on the slave·trade. 
The desire o( the French to own large possessions in Africa, 
is no new idea born o( the teachillgs or inspired by the discoveries 
of Livillgstone and Stanley. No; near the c1oseo( theJast century. 
or in the beginning of this, France bad large plans (or possessing 
Africa.. The plan of Talleyrand and of the first Napoleon was to 
make Africa the great field for cultivating tropical produce. and 
this cultivation was to be carried on by mean!\ of the natiye 
population. But tbe ambition o( Napoleon diverted bis energies to 
European wars, and finally he was confined a. prisoner to an 
African island-sorry ending this of his magnificent schemes of 
occupation. Instead of holding Africa, a small sea-girt rock near 
Africa beld bim till his deatb. But his plans are not yet lost sight 
Sierra Lcoue alld Liberia. 275 
of by the French. They have vast schemes for taking charge of 
Senegarnbia, a.nd controlling the trade of the Upper Niger, and 
have made large expendi~ure in that direction; but, after years of 
preparation and effort, their energies are at this moment diverted 
to other regions. Ana I have not the slightest doubt, judging from 
the past, that when the efforts now ma.king on the Congo become 
serious a.nd really threatening to the true interests of the people, 
some unseen emergency-some distant or neighbouring compli~ 
cations-will draw them off, and another generation will have to 
wrestle anew with the Afl'ican problem. It may be said that the 
Iacts I have referred to are mere accident, and that it is super-
stitions to base conclusions upon fortuitous circumstances. \\ ell, 
African students of history must be excused- in view of the hard 
lot of the race-if they are disposed to attach significance to any 
event, or concourse of events, which indicates the future preser-
vation of their people. 
But besides the invisible agencies, there is another guarantee 
against future oppression of the tribes of this country by foreiguers, 
a.nd that lies in the progress of liberal sentiments ill Europe. 
England, which, in the extent and power of her sway. resembles 
the Roman empire, is careful of her proceedings in dealing with 
Africa. The rising elements of power in that great country are 
transferring their political homage from tradition to principles, 
from men o•r  families to rights and duties, h'om the privileges of the 
lew tp uniyersal justice and right. "Rescue and retire" is the 
modern principle of intervention. And this will be the motto in 
luture of aU ~ngland's operations in Africa. It should be, and no 
doubt ere long will he, inscribed upon the banners of all organi-
sations, whether political or philanthropic, at work in Africa. 
In conclusion, I may remark that these two countries Illay be 
13aid to represent the t.rue principle or method by which civilisation 
is to be iutroduced into Africa. There is no part of " ,'est Africa 
·where the openings and opportunities for introducing civilisation and 
Christia.nity into this continent are greater than these contiguous 
states present. The attractions which they offer to the efforts 
• 
of the philanthropist and All-ican Colonisatiouist (in the American 
• 
• 
276 Christiallity, Islam al/d tile Negro Race. 
sense of that phrase) are not without just grounds. For whether 
we look to tile origin a.nd purpose of these settlements, or to their 
bea.ring upon the future civil and religious condition of these tribes, 
or to the influence they ha.ve already exerted upon thousands, it is 
ticarcely possible to estimate too highly their importa.nce to the 
continent as inlets of wholesome impressions from 'without, or to 
Europe and America. as outlets of a. va.luable commerce. "'hile 
they will gather-when the proper policy is pursued by the 
respective governments-into their bosom, as into a capa.cious gull, 
the main streams, and even the lesser tributaries, of a. commerce 
wruch only for want of proper facilities has pow·cd its trea.sures 
into other regions, they will send up those strea.ms by the retw'uing 
tide the lessons aud principles or order and law, of religion and 
liberty, of science, litemture, and art. And it is not difficult to 
predict the effect of all this upon the general interests of civilisation, 
upon the weHare of the Negro face, aud upon the great cause of 
humanity. 
• 
• 
• 
I slam and Race Distinctions.1 
I F the divinity of a. religion may be inferred from the variety of races among whom it bas been diffused, and the strength of 
its bold Gpon them, then there is DO religion that can prefer greater 
chums than Islam. Of the three missionary religions-we adopt 
the classification of Max hliHlel' 2-00U6 has in so marked a degree 
overstepped the limit~ of race as the religion of :Uobammed. 
Christianity is more widespread than eitber Buddhism or 
Mohammedanism, baving made its way across oceans and over 
continents to distant islands of the sea; but it bas followed chiefly 
the migrations ano. settlements of members of the Aryan race. In 
no case has it taken possession of whole races or communities 
belonging to non-Aryan races, if we except the Sandwich Isla.nds, 
the inha.bitants or which, we now learn, are fa.st passing away 
under the influeuce of the new civilisation they hM~e received, 
It is l'ep.1arka.ble that the eight distinct religions of ·which history 
gives account all had their Oligin in Asia, and the three highest 
religiems-the Jewish , the Christian, the Mohammedan- took theil' 
rise among Semitic peoples, And it is equally remarkable that 
since Chrisdanity lert the place of its birt.h it bas seemed to be the 
property exclusively oC the Europea.n bmnch oC the human fami ly. 
And, so Car as it ha.s become the possession of the ~Yestern Arya.ns, 
1 Fra.~r·. J[ugatin~. November, 1876. I1lam uride,. tile .drabs; by Rohct·t 
Dnrie O:obotn. )Ja.jO[ in the Benga.l St&ff Corps.-Lonc1on, 187G; LongnHw ... , 
Green &; Co. J/ohamtMd and Jlohamrnctlanilll'; Lectures delivered a.t the Royal 
In.~titution of Grea.t Brita.in, in Februa.ry and MB.rch, 1874; by R Bosworth 
Smith. hI A" Assi!'jtant.)Ia.ster in Harrow School, Into Fellow of Trinity College. 
O.s1ord, Second Edition, revised and clua.rgcd.-London, 1876 ; Smith, Elder 
and Co. • 
~ L~clure 011 JIis$;oRl, delivered in Westminster Abbey on December 3, 1873 . 
• 
C1I1'istia1lity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
it bas shared the fate of tha.t other great religion which arose 
among the Eastern branch of the Indo-European family, viz., 
Buddhism, as being for the most part confined to one or two races~ 
It would be interesting to inquire why the religions of the Illdo-
Etu'opeans- wbetber we take those which al'ose among themselves, 
Brahminism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism; or the ODe, incom-
parable and Divine, which they derived from the Sbemites-seem, 
under their administration, to transcend with difficulty the limits of 
race; why the grand Semitic idea of the conversion to Di,;ne 
truth of all the races of mankind, and their incorporation into one 
spiritual family. seems, under European propagandislD, to make 
such slow progress. If Judaism, as Professor Max Muller holds, 
was, in its practice, non· missionary, yet it contained the germs of 
which Christianity is an outgrowth and development, and the 
missionary idea must be regarded as, after all, a Semitic conception~ 
Can we refer the want of Aryan success among foreign races to 
the original idiosyncracy impressed upon the races in their cradles, 
and fitting each for a specific work? It would seem that the 
tendency of West Aryan genius is ever to divorce God from His 
works, and to lay great stress upon human capability and achieve· 
rne11t. Man is an end, Dot a means. The highest man is the 
highest end to which all things else must bow. The aggregate 
must bend to the individual if he is superior to other individuals in 
intellectual or pecuniary might. The more favoured race must 
dominate and control the less favoured race. Religion is to be 
cherished as a means of subserving temporal and material purposes. 
Those of the Aryans, therefore, who ha\'e received the Semitic 
religion look upon it as complete, perfect and final, given to man· 
kind, ages ago, througb chosen and exceptional instrumentalities, 
and once for all. There is now no more direct communion with or 
inspiration from God necessary or possible. Everything now 
depends upon man. Everything else is within his grasp. He may 
even by searching find out God. Material progress is the end of 
the human race. The speculation of those inteIlects who are in one I 
direction pre-eminent in their genr-ration-tbe Darwins, Tyndalls 
and H uxleys-are typical of the spirit and tendencies of the Indo· 
, 
I sfa IlL a lid Race Distillctiolls. 279 
European mind. What their ancient relatives. the Greeks, strove 
to express in material forms, they strive now to iudicate by sci(>ll- • 
tific theories; we have .< atoms" and II protoplasms," "evolution" 
and H natural selection," insteaJ of exquisite statues and paintings. 
And as far back as we know anything of the great Indo-
European race we find the same underlying principles. unlike as 
the surfa.ce may be. The HindoD sees God in all material things, 
and is content with a dreamy Pantheism which centres in no clear 
conceptions of Right and Truth, and prompts to DO effort to realise 
them objectiYely, while the growth of society is arrested by the 
blighting spirit of caste-and what the Brahmins are to the other 
tribes of India that the Anglo Saxons hold themselves with respect 
to other nations and races. The Greeks materialised theil' gods, 
clothing them in human bodies, and with human feelings and 
attributes. With them the divine and <esthetic were identical: Kalos 
might be taken to meaD the physically beautiful or the morally 
good. The Romans, who, in certain respects, might be regarded as 
• the ancient representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race, directed their 
attention to government and law, poLitics and jurisprudence. Their 
constant effort was to secure power and supremacy. And the deities 
, whom they in.ented were striking exemplificatious of their material 
aims and tendencies. Their highest achievements, therefore, were 
individual and Roman . 
• 
Tu regere imperio populos, Roma.ne, memento: 
Rre tibl erunt lutes; pacisqlle imponere motem, 
• Pa.rcete sllbjectis, et debeUare superbos.fI 
'When a. people possessing the peculiarities described above 
received the Semitic religion they gave it, in a great degree, the 
colouring of their own minds. The first and most striking de-
parture from the original simplicity of Christianity in deference to 
national or race instincts may be seen in the llledireval Church, 
which bore a striking resemblance, in its worship and organisation, 
to Buddhism. The religion became a great objective mass of rites 
and dogmas, more stress being laid upon the material and visible 
than upon the unseen and spiritual. But even after the Reforma-
• 
S '·irgil's .--E/ltid, vi, 851-53 . 
• 
-- '---
280 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
tieD, brought about by men of cold Northern temperaments, who 
protested against the peculiarities which Greeks and Italians 
bad imported iuto the ChID"cb, Aryan genius still asserted itself. 
Wherever these Protestants went, their aim was to realise a king-
dom of God in the civil constitutions of men, and to confine it by a. 
system of caste almost Brabmiuical to their own people. Presby-
terians from Scotland, Episcopalians from England~ Puritans who 
supported Cromwell, all went to foreign shores with high and 
earnest purpose, but they were hampered in the attainment; of any 
philanthropic result by their race-intolerance and impracticable 
na.rrowness. Irhey aimed at securing material aggl'andisement at 
any cost. Indian and Negro must be made willing or unwilling 
tools in the prosecution of their design. The human soul- -the im-
material-was of secondary and subordinate importance. 
The Semitic mind, au the o~her hand, destitute, it has been 
alleged, of the scientific instinct,4 looks upon man- every man-as 
standing in direct relation to God, who bas not ceased His com· 
munications with His cre~tures, still speaking to them at times in 
dreams and visions. and at other times by tbe ordinary events of 
life. Nature is regarded as inanimate j her powers proceed from 
and are moved by the will of God. "Pantheism, in the Greek 
sense, is utterly unknown to the Shemites. ";' By its very natw'e, 
the Semitic mind will ever throw itself confidently upon those 
primal intuitions which, if they do not admit of scientific or logical 
proof, are yet superior to scien~ific or logical displ·oof. Its inquiries, 
in spi~e of Tyndallism or Darwinism, will never go beyond the 
simple truth, that H In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth." The government of the world offers to the Sbell1ite an 
infinite problem which man can never solve; and bence the greatest 
ailll of man should be the cultivation of those qualities in which he 
may most resemble God. The Shemite lays most stress, in religioo, 
~ A part 180 superioriU de son culte, Ie peuple juif n'en a. a.ucune autre ; c'est 
un des peuples les moins doues pOUI 10. science et la. philosoprue pa.rmi les peuples 
de l"a.ntjquite.-M. Renan, quoted by Max MUller in Clops from a G~T1Ilan 
JVol"l(8hop; \"01. i , p. 350. 
r. Deutsch, LIterary Remaill". 
Islalll alld Race Distil/cliol/s. 
upon prayer; the Aryan upon preaching. Among the Hebrews there 
were no adepts in science or art; no architects; no city builders; 
DO sculptors; DO painters. Development among them wa.s not 
in material, but in moral and intellectual, forms. Hence, while the 
GTeek or Indo-European paid more attention to physical than to 
moral excellence, to the Shemite, the spirit, the mind of man, was 
the great object of development and culture-the inward character 
rather tha.n the outward form. And this devotion to external 
forms-this respect for appearanceR-is the great elraw back to the 
Aryan in disseminating a religion which was meant for, and is 
adapted to, all mankind. 
The Mohammedan religion, on the other hand, an offshoot irom 
the Semitic mind, disregarding all adventitious circulDstances, seeks 
for the real man, neglects the accidental fot, the essential, the 
adventitious for the integral. Hence it extinguishes all dietinctions 
founded upon race, colour, or nationality, It I admonish you to 
fear God," said Mohammed to his followers, •• and yield obedience to 
my successor, although he may he a black slave,"o And, therefore, 
throughout the history of Islam, ill all countries, race or "previous 
condition" bas been no barrier to elevation, Frequent are the 
instances in which proud Arabs have submitted to the rule of 
aliens, even if those aliens were Negro slaves. Mr. Ta.lboys 
Wheeler, in his History oj India, speaks in the highest terms of 
• 
Kutb·ud-din, the first of the" Slave Kings" in the Mohammedan 
-dyna~y in that country, and classes him among the four Sultans 
whom he thinks the only ones deserving of remembrance in the 
course of th'ee centuries. One of the illost distinguished of the 
Mohammedan rulers of Egypt "'as Kafnr, .. a Negro of deep black 
.colour, with a smooth, shining skin," who rose to be Governor of 
Egypt, from the position of a slave. He bad shown himself equally 
great as a soldier and a statesman. His dominion extended not 
only over Egypt, but Syria also j and public pra.yers were offered up 
for him, as soYereign, from the pulpits of Mekka. Hijaz, Egypt and 
the cities of Syria, Damascus, Aleppo, Antioch, Tarsus, &c.' 
6 Misclwf,..aklliuabih. • 
, BiQ!}raplluIJ oj Ibn K/.allikan; translated by BtUon de SIa.ne, vol. ii, p. 524 . 
• 
- '---
282 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
An American missionary. resident in Egypt, calls attention to 
the entire absence of all colour or race-prejudice in that country, 
which seems to have struck him the more from his experience of 
the unreasonable and superstitious caste-prejudices in the la.ud of 
his birtb.~ This liberality, so far as the Negro is concerned, lllay 
be chiefly the result of Muslim rule, but it is partly also the result 
of the traditional respect for the race which bas never disappeared 
from that country since the days of its ancient glory, in which it is 
now certain that the Negro took a leading pad.9 
In noticing the absorbing influence which, in consequence of 
its democratic spirit, Islam bas exercised over foreign races, Ibn 
Khaldun, a celebrated Mohammedan author, makes the following 
ohsel'vations :-
It is a curious circUlllstn.nce that the majority of the lea.rned amongst the 
lIIuslims belongecl ho a. foreign race; very few persons of Arabian descent 
having obtained distinction in the sciences connected with the law, or in those 
based upon human reason; and yet the promulgator of the law was an Arn.b, 
and the Kora.n-that source of so many sciences-a.n Ara.bic book. 
The above remarks bn.ve been suggested by the title and scope 
of Major Osbol'll's Islam, under the Arabs. This book is, as the 
author informs us, to be followed by two other volumes which will 
deal with Islam under the Persian and Indian I'aces, 'Yorks 
might be written also on Islam under the Mongolians, and Islam 
under the Negroes; for the religion, originating at Mekka, has 
e Lansing's Egypt's Princes. •• 
!l Catafago, in his Arabic and Eng/illt Dictiol1ary, under the word ., Kusur" 
(palaces), says; "The ruins of Thebes, that ancient and o.Jiebrated town, 
deserve to be visited, as just these heaps of ruins, la,ed by the Nile, are aU that-
remains of the opulent cities that ga.ve lustre to Ethiopia. It wa.s there that 
a. people, since forgotten, discovered the elements of science and art, a.t a. timEt 
when all other men were barbarous, a.nd when n. race, now regarded e.g the 
refuse of society, explored among the phenomena of Nature those civil a.nc1 
religious systems which have since held mankind in a.we." A more reoent-
investigllotor, Dr Ha.rtmann, in an 'Encycloptedic work on Nigritia.' (Saturday 
Revitll.J, June 17, 1876), contends fOl' the strictly African extraction of the 
Egyptia.ns, who he seems to consider, mo.y ba.ve dwelt upon the shores of the 
inner Africa.n sea, whose desiccation has formed the existing Sahara. See 
0. remarkable passa.ge bearing upon this subject in Volney's Trm'e!s, '-ot. i~ 
cha.p. iii. 
Islam altd Race Distiltctiolts. 283 
ex.tended west, across Africa., to the Atlant.ic, and east to North-
Western China, north to Constantinople, and south to Mozam-
bique. embracing men of aU the known races; and embracing them 
not as occasional and individual converts, but as entire com-
munities-whole natiolls and tribes-weaving itself into the national 
life, and giving colour to their political and social, as well as eccle-
siastical existence. 
The religion of Jesus, after eighteen hundred years, nowhere 
furnishes such practical e,idence of cosmopolitan adaptation and 
power. "Christianity is uot. to blame for this," to use the 
suggestive words of ~rr. Bosworth Smith, "but Christian nations 
are." 10 
One of the most signal and melancholy instances of the failure 
of Aryans, in possession of the highest religion, to convert or saye 
a foreign race, is that presented by the history of the Europeans 
in America, who, for 100t'e than three hundred years, haye been in 
contact with large portions of the Mongolian race with very meagre 
beneficial result. 'Within the last few months, the military 
disaster suffered in an attack upon the Indians bas sent a thrill 
of horror through the United States. Theodore Parker, in his 
Thoughts on Amei'ic{/ , unveils the reasons of the difficulty in his 
characteristic and illCisiYe style. He says:-
The A. nglo.5a.xon disdains to mingle his proud blood in wedlock with the 
II inferior ra.ces of men.' He puts away the savage-black, yellow, red. In 
New Eq,gland, the Puritan converted the India.ns to Christianity, as flu as they 
could a.ccept the theology of John Calvin; but made So careful !;epara.tion 
between white ,and red, "my people and thy people." They must dwell in 
separate yillages, worship in separate houses' they must not intermarry. The 
General Court of !l!Iassachusetts once forbade a.ll extrEl.·ma.trimonial connection 
of white and red, on pain of dea.th! The A.nglo.Sa.xon bas cEl.tefully sought to 
exterminate the sayages from his territory. The Briton does so in AfncEl., in 
Yan Diemen's La.nd, in New Z;::&lan<1, in New Holla.nd-wherever he meets 
them The AmericEl.n does the same in the Western world. In New England 
the Puritan found the wild woods, the Wild beasts, and the wild mell ; he under-
took to eradica.te them all, and be has succeeded best with the wild men-t.here 
10 It will be undert:tood. of course, thEl.t we are not here institlltinl? a com· 
pnrison between the two systems of religion, but only between the methods and 
proceedings of eheir respecth'e profe~sors and propagators . 
• 
-_.-
I 
Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
a.re more bea.rs tha.n India.ns in New England. Tbe United Sta.tes pursues the 
same destructive policy. In two hundred yea.re more there will be few Indians 
left between the La.ke of the Woods a.nd the Gulf of )fexico, between the 
Atlantic and Pa.cific Oceans, II 
Whatevel' may be the exaggerations in the above paragraph, DO 
one can deny that, ('Ill the whole, there is too much truth in it; 
yet, in the face of this heartrending truth, some American writers 
on the Indian question talk flippantly and unfeelingly of a "la.w of 
decay," and console themselves with the superticial theory of the 
"inferior race vanishing before the superior." But a. thoughtful 
writer in a recent number of ODe of the leading American quarterlies 
takes a. far more serious view of the subject :-
Those who give but little attention (be says) to mdiM affa.irs, take it for 
granted that the race is doomed to utter extermina.tion, without thinking of the 
fact that until they came in contact with white civilisation, they were rapidly 
increasing in numbers. ... The story of the Creek", Cherokees. Choctaws, 
and Chickasa.ws has been often told, and only one conclusion has ever been 
reached by any Christian giving it serious attention, nnd that is, th80t the United 
States Gm'ernment committed a grie\'olls wrong and crime in removing these 
tribes from their old home" by force," a.nd placing them on a" resen-ation" in 
the f80r south-west. .. The grea.t error we commit. towartl the Indian is 
failing to recognise in him that common humanity which should lead us to call 
all men brothers and Citizen'. They are Ulen and women like ourselves. they 
ha\'e the same bearts to touch by kindness and warm by friendbhip, o.nd the 
sa-me 10\"0 for home that is common to all mankind, in a greater or less 
degree.u 
We venture to express the belief that no :;ucb appeal would 
have been necessary had that interesting mce of men Leen in 
contact with thirty millions of Mohammedans, ins.,t ead of thirty 
m.illions of Christians. The wars fought against tb",m would have 
been wars not of extermination but of proselytising. They would 
have bel"n repetitions, probably in their manner, but certainly in 
their results, of the Syrian wars of Oruar and .\li, tbe African wars 
of Amru and Akbab, and the Spanish wars of Musa and Tarik. 
The millions who were found on the continent wouIIl now be alive 
in their descendants, and absorbed in the nationa.l life. The 
II ~ddltionul SpuchtS, vol. ii~ 
l~ Pu.bytCl"iun Quart~rly lIlid Prillceton Rf 'if/c, Janu!\ry.1S76. 
Islam alld Race Disti1lctiolls. 
II bears in New- England" would have been extirpated, and the 
Indians would haye been sa\'ed.l~ 
But let us t1.U'U more particularly to the works before us. 
Mr. Grant-Duff' enumerates ten ways in which British influence 
is leavening India. Major Osborn proposes an eleventh way, 
namely. that th~ dominant race should familiarise themselves wi.th 
the history 0.1141 traditions of the nl.rious peoples wbom they govern . 
And the object which he set before hims•e lf in the important work 
he has underta.kell is to put within the reach of his countrymen. 
and especially of his fellow-officers, fI historical sketches of the 
l"aCeS hom which the nati\"e army in India is chiefly recruited." 
Islam mulCT the .drt,bs, the tint instalment of :Major Osborn's 
work, is written in a rema.rkably clear and lively style. There is 
very little danger of misunderstanding the author's meaning. He 
has brought together in a small compass some of the most 
important fads in the early history of Islam, not a few of which 
will, no doubt, be entirely new to a large majority of readers. It is 
evident that he has given considerable attention to the external 
history of Islam; and bad he con.fined himself to a narrative of 
events, for which his qualifications seem eminently adapted, his 
book would ha\"e taken its place among those valuable works on 
Oriental subjects for which the world is largely indebted to the 
literary tastes and industry of British soldiers, and, as a repertory 
of facts, would have always been referred to with confidence; but 
his ref\.ections and comments on the theological aspects of the 
subject are so fal' behind the enlightened and tolerant spirit of the 
age, and, in aJany instances, so contrary to the view taken by 
Christian writers acquainted with Mohammedan history and 
literature, and of course by enlightened Mohammedans, that his 
hook will not only be read, even in its most accurate parts, with a 
constantly hesitating, if not dissenting spirit, by those who are 
even partially acquainted with the facts, but will mislead those 
wholly ignorant of the subject, for whose benefit it is professedly 
lJ A por~ion of another race-the Negf'<\"-carried to that le.ncl by force, has grown 
and multiplied in spite of repressive la.ws a.ndregula.tions in Church a..nd State . 
• 
• 
286 Christianity, Islam alld the .Vegro Race. 
written, by inciting them to a contemptuous intoleraDce; and thus 
the lofty and praiseworthy object of the wl'itel' will fail to be 
secured. 
As the contribution, however, of an industrious and skiUul 
delineator of the course of Mohammec.1au bhtory in its earlier 
periods. the work will repay careful perusal; and, in spite of its 
laboured effort to place the theology of hlam in an uufa~ourable, 
and often ri(liculou'S light, it will add its quota to the general 
enlightenment on that irrepressible faith which, after all that may 
be said, has attained a maje::;tic stability and permanence in tho 
history of India. When the series is finished, the general reader. 
anxious to get a clear a.nd connected account of the leading facts of 
early ~roha.mmedall history, without referring to original and not 
always accessible sources, will have at his disposal a convenient 
little library of the annals or hlam. But unless the two yolmnes 
to follow are ,,,,ritten with a clearer insight into the system of 
which the author treats, unless, by further research, he becomes 
imbued with a more thorough appreciation of the facts wwch he 
collects, and a more liberal spirit in dealing with them, we need 
expect no fresh views respecting the secret of the power of I~Ia.m, 
and no livelier prospect as to the conciliatory and harmonising 
influence of the work. 
Dr. Badger, in the Contemporary Review for June, 1875, gives 
• 
us the following information :-
The first English tra.nsla.tion of the Kud.n was made from the French ol.\ndrc 
du Ryer, by one Alexa.nder Hoss, a.nd published in London in 1649. It is 
a.ccompa.nied by an introduction styled' A needful Casca.t or Aeroonition,' wbich 
runs thus: "Good reader. the great Arabio.n impostor, now at last, a.fter a 
thou~a.nd yea.rs, is, by the way of Fra.nce. a.rrh·cd in Engla.nd, tuld his Alcor8Jl. 
or Ga.Uimaufry of Errors (a. Brat as deformed as the Parent, and as full of 
heresies a.s his sca.ld head was of scurf), hath lelLl"Ded t.o speak Eoglish. " 
The education of two centuries (adds Dr. Badger) ha.s chastened the style of 
our na.tional literature, and addcd much to our knowledge of Ea.stern subjects 
geneta.lIy ; nevertheless, there is good ground for presuming that the foregoing 
description of the KurJln a.nd of it:; reputed a.uthor is in .ccordance sub-
stantially with the views still held by the grea.twajority of Englishmen. 
Aye, and oC Engli~hlllen wpo have lived in Mohammeda.n 
countries, and who profess to have an acquainta.nce with the 
• 
Is/alll alld Race Distillctiolls. 
literature of Islam. Major Osborn does not seem to have come 
within tbe influence of "the education of two centuries." He 
repeats, with the credulity and confidence of those who have 
gathered their information mainly from Gibbon and Prideaux, the 
opinions entertained of Islam in the Middle Ages. So far as be is 
concerned, the labours of Sprenger, Muir. Deutsch, and the host 
of recent investigators. seem to have been in vain. This, however, 
he warns us in his preface, is no fault of "his, but a " misfortune 
inseparable from writing hjstory in a remote country like India." 
The following summary Ulay be given of the system of Islam as it 
is described in Major Osborn's pages: Its creed is a bald mono-
theism, absolute and u.lchanging decrees, introduced by a propbet 
wbo felt it to be his Divine mission to exterminate all professors 
of a religion different from his; a Hell of material fire depicted 
with Dantesque realism; a Heaven of sensual indulgences and 
delights. The ideal man of Islam-the saint of the religion-is 
he wbo can say, "There is no Gael but God, and Mohammed is 
his Propbet," and who for this creed is ready to sa.crifice relatives, 
friends, country-even ljfe itself. He may be ignorant, treacherous, 
cruel, sensual, anytbing, so far as character is concerned, and yet 
look forward to the highest reward of the faithful. Any and 
every true and noble element of manbood may be left out, and yet, 
i1 faithful to his creed and system, the beautiful houris await 
him in bis proradise above. 
Such will be the impressions of the system of Islam which will 
be gatbcred from :Ma.jor Osborn's pages by the majority of unin-
formed readel'l\; and this is, no doubt, the view entertained of that 
religion by the generality of Christians. We cannot refrain from 
pronouncing I~lam under the Arabs, so far as its theological aspects 
are concerned, a retrogression in Oriental literature. It does not 
come up to the standard which the critica.l and historical power 
of the age-the extension of thought and information on Oriental 
subjects-now require. Major Osborn surely cannot believe that 
the representations which he makes of Islam will further the 
objects he has in view. The natives of India are, no doubt, gratified 
by seeing foreigners-especially tIte foreigners who rule over them 
• 
• 
288 Christiallity, Islallt and the Negro Race. 
-take a lively interest in their religion, literature, a.nd antiquities. 
in H t.he memories which still thrill them with pleasure or pride,'" 
But to treat these subjects profitably, to make the knowledge of 
them II a potent ma.gnet for winning the bearts of the na.tive 
soldiers," a little more is needed than lllere reading a.nd superficial 
observation; the writer must possess, in no small degree, that 
quality which Mr. Gifford Palgrave, in the dedication of his Essays 
on Eastern Questiolls to the Earl of Derby, recognised as marking 
the foreign policy of that distinguished statesman, namely, U a. 
statesma.nlike i~sight ioto character and race." a quality which, 
both by experience and observa.tion, Mr. Palgrave must have found 
to be very rare among his countrymen. 
'Ve will now give a few specimens of the results of Major 
Osborn's reading and observation. He tells us on pp. 26 and 301: 
Fa.tn.lism is the centra.l tcnet of Isla.m. In the Koran, the root conceptil.lD 
IS the idee.of God as an immova.ble fatality. This is the tc.nct that has been burned 
indelibly into the heart e.nd bre.in of the Mohammedan world. And, under its 
withering shadow, the idea. of" order" has been une.ble to strike root downwards 
or beSor fruit upward!!. 
And yet Major Osborn, on p. 70. mentions prayer as one of the 
"five pillars" on which the religion of Islam is sustained. What 
were the utility of prayer in a. system which regarded the object of 
it as inflexible and inexorable-" an immovable fatality"? But 
how do the following passages from the Koran agree with 
Major Oshorn's idea. of the Mohammedan's God? 
Whoever sho.11 turn him to God after his wickedness, I\nd nmend, Qod truly 
will be turned to him; for God is "forgiving and merciful"-{Sura. v, v 43) 
Rodu'ell's TrlHlslation. p 68B. '1 
Your Lord hath laid down for Himself 80 law of mercy: so tha.t if t.lly one of 
you commit 0. fault through ignomnce, and afterwards turn e.nd a.mend. He will 
surely be gracious. merciful-(Sura vi, v, 54) Rodwell, p. 406. 
Then wa.s He turned to them, tbe.t they might be turned to Him, for God is He 
that turneth, the Merciful.-Rodwfll, p. 629. 
Know they not that when His ser"e.nts turn to Him with repentance, God 
I\ccepleth it, and tbnt He o.ccept.eth eJms, and that God is He who turneth, the 
Me:ciful ?-RodlDdl, p. 626, 
God turned to him, for He lo"eth to turn, the Merciful.-Rodl&tll, p. 433, 
But as for those who turn to Me, a.nd &mend o.nd make known the truth, evtl.D, 
unto them will I turn Me, for I am Ife who turneth, the Merciful -Rodwdl, 
p. 451. 
Islam and Race Distinctions. 289 
We might adduce numerous other passages which prove the 
a.bsolute fallacy of the notion tba.t Fatalism is a doctrine of the 
Koran; it teaches the very contra.ry doctrine. "Mohammed's 
whole system/' says Mr. Deutsch, "is one of faith built on hope 
.and fear," 
The following is the estimate wbich Major Osborn bas formed 
of the founder of Islam (p. 91) :- -
AI; Medina, t.he religious teacher is superseded by the ambitious politiclIl.Il, 
&ond the idols of the Ka.a.ba. fa.ll before I;be mo.ndo.te of the successful chieftain, 
not under the trn.nsfonning influences of 0. spiritun.l regenera.tor. To achieve 
worldly dominion, he has recourse to assassina.tion ; he perpetrates mn"~8n.cre ; be 
mo.kes a. Hea.then snperstition the keystone of his faith; a.nd delivers to his 
followers, a.s So revela.tion from God, a. mandate of universa.I Wa.r. With e\'ery 
a.dva.nce in worldly power he disencumbers himself of that spiritual humilit.y 
which was n. pa.rt of his ea.rlier faith. H~ (Usociaull himJdj with God on a 
footillg approaching to equality. 
The italics are ours, We have emphasised. the passage because 
of the shocking impiety which such a notion would convey to the 
most undevout Muslim; and we cannot cOI?-ceive it possible that 
Major Osborn could be ignorant of this . We would commend to 
him the following philosophical and accurate view of M. Barthelemy 
St. Hilaire:-
On n's, point. rema.rque suffisa.mment cette circonstance da.ns In carrit.re de 
Ma.homet. Cui, personnellement it s'est cro prophete ; il a eru de toute I'im.-
petuosite de son ame n sa mission, et il 0. eu raison de se prendre pa.rmi ces 
peuple!Jo ba.rbares pour un instrument de Dieu, lIIa.is ce n'est pag sa. volonte 
propre, cs n'est pas ta. convoitise de son ambition qui en a. fa.it un genera.l et un 
eonquera.nt, D,s t!vlmements exterieur'S plos forts que lui, et qu'il ne pouva.it 
prevoir, l'ont prccipite. Il s 'est trouve sa.ns Ie savoir, SB.D.S Ie vouloir, Ie plus 
grand homme de guerre de son pa.ys, Ie politique Ie plus ha.bi1e, et il a. fonde un 
empire presque malgre lui. , .. Le Corllon, qui revele ~oute Ia pensee morale de 
M!l.homet, ne porte pas tre.ce, pOUT a.iDsi dire. d'une pensee politique . . .. Et il 
(aut I'irnagination d'un poete tel que Volta.ire pourjlui preter, h mille ans de 
di&ta.nce, des desseins qu'jJ n'a. jamais eon~us.u 
But we can refer to Mohammed's own utterances, as recorded 
in the authorised t raditions. The Prophet said: 
I 80m no more than a mlUl ; when I order you anything respecting religion 
• 
14 JIahomd et ie Coran; prefa.ce. 
u 
• 
• 
290 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
l'eceive it: and when I order you Bobout the affairs of this world, then I &m 
nothing mote tha.n a man .l~ 
Again, Major Osborn gives us the following dissertation on the 
JiM.d :-
The one common duty la.id upon the f&ithfui is to be the a.gents of God's. 
vengea.nce on those who believe not. These a.re to be sJe.ugbterd till they pa.y 
tribute, when theya.re to be allowed to go to hell in their own wa.y without. 
further molestation .... When Moha.mmed interdicted the fa.ithful to prey 
upon each olher, he was compelled to find occupa,tion for their swords elsewhere. 
Out of this necessity spra.ng the comma.nd to inherit bptwen by fightwg on the. 
pa.th of God. This is t.he doctrine which ha.s rendered Isla.m so fascina.ting 
a fa.ith to sa.va.ge a.nd ba.rbarous ra.ces. It exa.cts £.rom them no endeavoul"S 
after a higher life. It teUs them tha.t they can win an immortality of scnsua.l 
bliss by merely giving free scope to their most imperious pa.ssions .... Th& 
Mohammedn.n still conceives himself to be the elect of God. He regards not. 
\\;th compassion-that word is too humane-but with contempt uDspeaka.ble, 
a8 "logs" rese rved for" hell fire," the votaries of a.1l other creeds. Wherever 
he has the power, ho holds it to be his m.ission to tro.mple upon !mel persecute 
• 
them. 
The ninth sura is that which conta.ins the Prophet's proclamatioc of war 
against the votaries of 0.11 creeds other than that of Isla.m.-Pp. 27, 52, 290, 380. 
The ninth SUTa. oC the Koran contains no such proclamation. 
Even Mr. Rodwell's translation, upon which Major Osborn relies, 
does not justify such inference. Those against whom war is 
declared in that chapter are described in the original as M'ushriku,n 
-a term in which the radical idea is that of association-the asso-
ciating one thing with another-and it cannot in Etrictness be. 
rendered by the comprehensive phrase of "Polytheists," employed 
by Rodwell, or of "Idolaters," as used by Sale. The sura is 
addressed to Arabs who believed in and worshipped only the true 
God, and refers to the treatment to be accorded by them to those 
Arabs who joined the worship of idols with that of the true God, as-
Mr. Rodwell explains in a parenthesis in the first verse. In the 
opening sentences of his book Major Osborn truly says; 
There is one remarkable assumption that runs through all the warnings. de-
nunciations a.nd a.ppeals of the Koran. The God of whom the Prophet speaks. 
is not a.n unknown God. The guilt of his fellow-tribesmen, the justification of 
their impending doom, a.re deduced [rom the fact that they did know this. 
God, while they honoured dumb idols. 
Ui JIishkat-al.Ma,abil" vol. 1, p. 46. 
• 
Is/all! alld Race Distil/ctions. 29 1 
It is strange tha.t, with knowledge so clear and accurate, Major 
Osborn should have failed to catch the real drift of the ninth SUfn, 
of the Koran. Nowhere in the Koran are Muslims enjoined to 
make indiscriminate war upon Christians or Jews. On the 
contrary. there are numerous passages that inculcate an enlightened 
tolerance, which writers of the temper of Majo,r  Osborn would do 
weH to emul<1. . te. The following are among the Koranic utterances 
on this important subject :-
Dispute not, unless in kindly sort, with the people of the Book; save with 
such of them as ha.ve dea.lt wrongfuUy with you: And sa.y ye, II We believe in 
what. ha.th been sent down to us, and hll.th been sent down to you. Our God and 
your God is one. "-Rodu;cl' p. 328. 
God is your Lord and our Lord; we have our works and you have your works; • 
between us and you let there be no strife; God will make us 0.11 one; and to 
Him sha.lI we return.-Rodwell. p. 337 
Among the people of the Book are those who believe in God. and in wha.t. He 
hELth sent dO'i\ll to you, a.nd in wha.t He bath sent down to them, humLling 
tbemseh'es before God.-RodlClll, p. 521. 
Verily Muslims a.nd they who follow the Jewish religion, and tbe Christians, 
, and So.beites1tL.-whoever of these believeth in God, a.nd the La.s~ Da.y, and doeth tha.t which is right, shall ho.ve their reward with their Lord; fellor shall not come 
upon them, neit.her sha.ll they be grieved.-Ib., p. 437. 
There is nothing in the original teachings of the Moha.mmeda.n 
religion that requires hostility to Christians. There are, no doubt, 
bigots and fanatics among Muslims, as there have been and are 
now I bigots and fanatics among Christians; but the spirit of the 
• 
religion, as taught in its original records, is tolerant. And here we 
ca.nno; but protest against the unwarrantable emphasis with which 
Chl'istill. . OS generally persist in calling themselves ff Infidels" when 
professing to ~epresent the light in which they are held by Muslims. 
No such term is ever applied to Christians either in tlJe Koran 01' 
by intelligent Mohammedans. And ior Christian controversialists 
to insist upon such a use of it is only to foster prejudices which, in 
this enlightened age, ought to be entirely eliminated from the 
popular instincts of Christian countries. 
lG The Sabeites are identica.l with the :Mendaites, OI so-called Christians of 
St. John, residing in the mo.rshy di~trict a.t the mouth of the Euphrates, but 
IIore not the slIome with star-worshipPin& So.bians of Ha.rra.n, in Mesopote.mia..-
RodlDdl (Nott). 
, 
• 
292 Chl-istialZity, Islam alld tlte Negro Race. 
Under the Moorish Governments of Spain, when Islam enjoyed 
political ascendency, the large masses of native Christians were 
protected by a wide toleration, not as a political expedient, but 
according to the laws of Islam. The Christians were permitted to 
ha.ve their bishops, churches and monasteries, and to be judged by 
their own laws and tribunals, whenever the question at issue was 
one that rela.ted only to themselvesY 
But we can refer to modern instances of more immediate 
interest to the British public, and bearing directly upon the objects 
which Major Osborn has in view. During the starUing crisis 
through which the British Indian Empire passed about twenty 
yea,rs ago, many and touching were the illustrations of Mobam-
medan toleration and friendship towards Christians, wbich it is 
singular that a man of Major Osboru's profession should so soon 
have forgotten. 
From the outbrea.k to the suppression of the Mutiny, and from one end of 
India. to the other, thousa.nds upon thousa.nds of Mohammeda.Ds, high o.nd low, 
rich and poor, princes and servants, soldiers and civilia.ns, not only T("fra.inecl 
from lifting 0. finger against the British Goyernment or any Christian individual, 
but rendered a.ctive a.nd most useful scnice-at the ha.za.rd often of their hves 
and fortunes-to both it a.nd them. Of nath·e princes, the Nawab of Rampore-. 
Mohammedan of the Mohammedans-Bnd the Begum of Bhopa.l, were not merely 
faithful but hignally helpful. The Nawo.b of Tonk, son of the celehrated Ameer 
Khan, a fonnidable leader in the Pindaree war, who proba.bl~ ruled over more 
Moha.mmedan fanatjcs tha.n a.ny prince in India, atood by the British Govern-
ment with exemplary firmness. tll 
.. In a word," says the Saturday Review, at the close of an 
interesting article on Sir Salar Jung (May 27, 1876), .. our new 
guest is the man who, when Delhi had fallen and our power was 
for the moment tottering in the balance, saved Southern India for 
England, Sir Salar Jung spared us the expenditure 01 countless 
lives and countless millions;" and furnishes in himself, the reviewer 
might have added, the practica.l evidence that a Mohammeda.n may 
become an effective reformer without abdicating bis faith. 
In the face of these facts, a.nd with his knowledge of the 
11 Ticknor's lIistory 0/ Spallish Lir~ralUr~, vol. iii, p. 460. 
18 Edinburgh RttJictc, October 1866, p 306. 
Islam and Race Distillctions. 293 
teachings and spirit of his religion, what must be the feelings of 
Sir Salar JllUg when be reads a work of the temper of Islam under 
the A rabs, in which the author, a British officer of some experience 
in Mohammedan countries, shows that he not only shares, but is 
willing to reproduce in elaborate pages, the vulgar estimate beld in 
Christian lands of the Mohammedan religion. 
We bad marked several other passages in Major Osborn's book 
for remark, but the want of space compels us to turn to the deeply-
interesting and valuable work wbich we have placed second at the 
head of this paper, aud whicb, we are bappy to say, furnishes a 
full and complete reply to the principal charges, and gives ample 
correction to all the envoeous statements a.nd inferences of Islam, 
under the Arabs. 
Mohammed and Mohammedanism is the second enlarged aud 
revised edition of a course of lectures delivered at the Royal 
Institution in 1874. The following remarks iu the preface to the 
second edition reveal the lofty aim and eminently catholic spirit of 
the writer, but can give no adequate clue to the charming style of 
I the composition-the transparent clearness, tbe vigour, the glowing enthusiasm, with which the subject is handled :-
To denounce funda.mental conditions of Oriental society; to ignore tbe law of 
I dissolution, to whicb Eastern no less than Western dynasties are subject; to 
I confuse the decadence of n. race with that of a. creed; to be blind to the distinc-tion between progressive a.nd unprogrcssiva, between civilised and uncivilised 
peoples; to judge of a. religion ma.inly or e:lclusively by the lives of its professors, 
often of its most unworthy professors; to Corget what of good there has been in 
> 
the pa.st, and to refuse to hope for something better in the future, in despair or 
indigna.tion for what is-nil this may occa.siona.lIy be e:tcusable, or possibly e"en 
necessa.ry; but it cannot be done by me so long a.s I think it neither excusablE" 
nor necessa.ry. 
• It is a ~ery easy task, and, no doubt, in entire keeping with the 
feelings of the dominant race, to show the faults committed at 
different times and in different countries by Mohammedau rulers, 
iu entire obliviousness of the pa.rallel which might, in almost every 
instance, be adduced from Cbristian history. But the careful and 
philosophica.l historian performs a far more agreeable task to 
himself, and possibly more profitable to his reade1'5, when he dwells 
on the acts of pbda.nthropy an•d  heroism, the achievements in 
• 
• 
294 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
literature and science, which, for five hundred yeats, attended the 
progress of Islam; and this pleasant task Mr. Bosworth Smith has 
DOt only taken upon himself, but has executed in the most 
admirable manner. If we bad any control in the matter we should 
arrange that an earnest inquirer into the history and principles 
of Islam should first give to Ma.jol' Osboro's work, when the series 
is completed, a careful perusal, and then take up Mr. Smith's book. 
both as the complement and expounder of the facts collected by 
Major Osborn. 
The influence of race in the matter of religion does not seem to 
be taken into consideration by the generality of writers on such 
subjects. To this important element in the development of religious 
systems Mr. Bosworth Smith frequently calls aUention. While it 
is known that the Christian system has received large modifications 
as to outward form and expression, and even as to some of its 
dogmas, [rom the influence of country and race, it is too generally 
taken for granted that Islam is a rigidly unifOl'm system; that 
Mohammedans are all alike, and that the Turk is the type and 
representative of the whole Muslim world. But nothing could be 
l110re erroneous. Says Mr. Smith:-
The Persie.ns a.re of a. mce Rnd genius widely different from the Aro.bs; but 
the surroundings and general mode of life are the same in each, and tbe 
exception-so far a.s it is an exception-to the rule I bo.\'e laid down, tends 
rOother, in its results, to prove its general truth, for the hold of hloh, o.mmedo.nism 
on them has been much modified by the difference of race. . .. It cannot be 
said that the religion proved itself altogether suited to the people. In,  other 
countries the scymitar ho.<1 no sooner been drawn from its sca.bbard tha.n it was 
sheathed aga.in. But in Persia. the scymitar he.d not only to clear the wo.y, but, 
for some time (l,ftcrwards, to me.iota.in the new religion. Tbe Pe~sia.ns corrupted 
its ... implicity with fables and mira.cles; they n.ctua.lly imported into it some-
thing of sa.int-worship, a.nd sometbing of sa.cerdoto.lism; and, consequently, in 
no nation in the Moha.mmeda.n world has the religion less hold on the people 
as a. restraining power. The most stl'ingent principles of the Koran lU'e set at 
nought. 
Mr. Matthew Arnold, following Gobineau, has suggested that 
the division of the Muslim world iuto the two great sects of Sbiahs 
and Sunis bas its true cause in a division of races rather tha.n in a. 
difference of religious belieLIll Islam, among the Indo-European 
l~ ElI8ays on Cl'iticum, p. 298. 
Isla1ll and Race Distinctions. 295 
races, as in Turkey, Persia anJ India, is quite different from what 
it is a.mong the Semitic and semi-Semitic races in Arabia and 
Africa. 
Mr. Gladstone, in his recent pamphlet on the Turkish Question, 
puts forward the following thoughtful and suggestive paragraph :-
It is not So question of Uobn.mmedo.nism simply, but of 1Uoha.mmedanism 
• 
compounded with the peculio.r cbaro.cter of a. ra.ce. They' a.re not the mild 
Mohammeda.ns of India., nor the cml7a.lrous Saladms of Syria., nor the cultured 
Moers of Spain. They were, upon the whole, from the bla.ck da.y when they first 
entered Europe, the one grea.t o.nti·humlLIl specimen of huma.nity. Wherever 
tbey went, a. broll.d line of blood marked the tract behind them; Bond, 80S far as 
their dominion reached, civilisa.tion disa.ppeal'ed from view. They represented 
everywhere government by force, as 'opposed to government by la.w. 
So {ar as India is concerned-the country which Major Osborn 
hopes will be favourably affected by the work be has written-
there seems to be very little probability that Christianity, as 
<lisseminated by Europeans, will ever secure the ascendency over 
tribal or national life which either Buddhism or Mohammedanism 
has attained. The achievements of the Christian religion thus far 
ha.ve beeu chiefly among the lower classes, who, as in all other 
countries, having nothing to lose, readily accept revolutionary 
changes in their politics or religion. 
One of the most thoughtful and appreciative observers of the 
results of Christian Missions in India, in a most elaborate article, 
which bas) attracted considerable attention on both sides of the 
Atlantic, refers to the present status of Christian converts in the 
following te11l1S ;-
We regard with specia.l interest. but oJ!'lO with special anxiety, the progress 
which the na.ti~e Church that has been pla.ntecl in some districts in India. is 
making towards maturity. It il'; a.iready distinguished for docility and libera.lity 
but we should wish to see it, on the one hand. £reel' from inherited fa.uits and 
failings. and, on the other, more self-relia.nt, more progressive. more comprehen-
sive, extending with equa.l zeal and rapitlit.y amongst the higher and the lower 
c!Mses. At present. too large a proportion of t.he na.tive converts belong to the lower 
classes o.nr] the a.boriginal tri bes. . . . When Hindus bave become Chris~ians, they 
have not at the 88.D1e time become English people, s.nd t.hat mea.ns a. great deal. 
It means they ha.ve not ceased to be timid, and they have not become self-
reliant, highspirHed. and manly." 
20 Quarterly tlct'iell;:, april, 1875 . 
• 
• 
296 Chislianily, Islam and Ihe Negro Race. 
The 'rationale of this state of things is gi'\en by Mr. Bosworth 
Smith as follows:-
In India Moha.mmedans muc converts by hundreds from among the Hindus~ 
while Christ.ians with difficulty ma.ke ten. and this, partly a.t least, because they 
receive their converts on terms of entire social equality, wbile Europeans, in 
spite of all the efforts of missionaries to the contrary, seem eit.ber unwilling or 
uDll.ble to trea.t their converts as other than inferiors. The Hindu wbo becomes 
a CbristiMlloses, therefore, his own cherished caste with"out being admitted into 
that of his rulol1l The Hindu who tUrns Moba.mmedan loses his narrow caste, 
but he becomes a member of the brotherhood of Islam. 
If a pariah becomes a Muslim he ma.y rise to the throne. The 
pariah who turns Christian is a pariah still. 
An able and liberal writer in the Quarterly endorses this sa.d 
view of things. He sa.ys:-
A considerable portion of the prejudice with which no.tive Christians &1"0 often 
regarded is owing, we believe, to pride of race. II caste pride pre"ails Ia.rgely 
amongst na.tives, pride of race preva.ils quite as largely amongst Europee.ns. 
Ma.ny of the English in India reglLrd all lllLth'es with indiscrimina.te lL\"ersion. 
The only Christian effort or quasi·Christian effort which seems 
to ma.ke any wa.y among the higher classes is that inaugurated by 
Kesbub Cbunder Sen, but it would seem that bis efforts do not find 
much favour in the eyes of the miosionaries, who H feel towards 
him as Atba.nasius might have felt towards Ulfilas, the Arian 
Bishop of the Goths." " 
Major Osborn DO doubt giles a correct account of the results 
thus far achieved by British rule in India in the following vigorous 
passage :-
Wha.t we ha.vo done for India is to convert it into a. gigantic model lrison. 
The discipline we have established is admirable, but the people know they Ilte 
prisoners, and they hate us their jaile1'9. And until a. priM.Ill i~ C.)Wld to be an 
effecti'i"e school for the inculca.tion of virtue, and a jailer a. !>uccessful ova.ngclist, 
it is folly to Ol:pcct Lhe regenera.tion of India. Reports on her material a.nd. 
mora.l progress will, of course, continue to be ''nilten, but if we Ollimate the 
effects of British rule, not by trnde statistics. but by its resuit4 on the 'pir!" of 
711('11. we shall find tha.t the races of India bil"e declined in coumge and manliness, 
a.nd all those qualities whieh produce a vigorous DlLtlOD, In proportion to the 
period they ha"e been subjected to the hlighting influence of o.n alien despotism, 
There is no human po,ver which can ava.il to arrest the progress of decay in a. 
people bereft of political freedom, except the restitution of that freedom_ This 
21 Muller's CIIlP', "01. h', p. 274. 
Islam al/d Race Distil/ctiol/s. 297 
~enteDce of doom gla.res forth from the records of a.1l past history, like the 
,,-riting of fire on the wa.ll of Belsha.zzar's pa.lace. It is a.n ha.llucina.tioll to 
suppose tbe.t British rule in India is a. reversa.l of the mexomble decree. 
Btl'Ruge that oue thus capable of appreciating the situation did 
Dot strive, by making 1I10re adequate preparation for the work he 
undertook, to do justice to the creed of so large a portion of his 
fellow-subjects, and thus, as far as in him lay, to,  diminish by 
literary tact and fairness the bitterness of grievances. which he 
admits to be real. hut which be alleges can never he removed by 
the present social and political agel1~ies! 
\Ve think we can understand, however, how difficult it must he 
for a member of tile conquering race, especiaUy oue of MajOl' 
Osboru's calling, to entertain any pra.ctical sympathy with the 
feelings and aspirations of the subject race. It would seem that 
the very quali~ie:" which render Anglo-Saxons irresistible as con-
querors-that unrelenting sternness and uncompromising hardness 
-disqualify them for the subtle and delicate task of assimilating 
subject races and winning their coufidence u.nd atlection, 
Such a work as Major Osborn has proposed to write is no doubt 
greatly needed; but, until either be himself, or someone else of 
similar literary aspirations, and at bis point of influence, conceives 
the proper spirit and method which should be bl'ought to the 
execution of so important a task, we must recommend British 
officers and , intelligent Mohammedans in India to study the 
valuable work of Mr, Bosworth Smith as a natural and genuine 
pl'oducl; of the auvancing civilisation of the age, supplying at once 
an interesting illustrat-jon of the liberal and tolerant spirit of 
Christianity, ~nd a most etl'ective agency in the noble work of 
bringing about that lllutual understanding and goodwill, which it 
would appear i~ more needed in India than in any other country in 
the world, between the comparatively smail numbers who govern 
alld the milliolls o,er whom it is tbeir lot to bear rule . 
• 
, 
, . 
Africa and the Africans.' 
THE abolition of slavery in the United SLa.tes was not an isolated phenomenon. It was an important link in the great 
chain of events which are leading up to the regeneration of AJrica. 
A Negro writer of the present day on Africa and .-\frican questions, 
therefore, can neither forget American ... lavtc'ry nor the great 
American Emancipation. He must, ever tl.ml anOll, Eke the manu-
mitted Hebrews of old, recall the" house of bondage," not only as 
the fans et origo -malOTllm to a large portion of his race, but as the 
type and representative of all the oppression wblcb has everywhere 
afflicted the Negro in the countries of his exile. He must also 
remember the great deliverance, when the door of his prison-house 
was forcibly opened, and five millions of hi,,; race marched out into 
the open air of personal freedom, not ouly as th~ ..;tarting point for 
a large s~ction of his people on a loftier and nobler career, but as 
an important step towards the amelioration anLl reconstruction of 
his fatherland-as Heaven's intervention in the solution of a great 
and intricate problem as the pledge and proof of God's proviaentinJ 
care and beneficent purposes for Africa and the Africl!;n. 
Before the abolition of slavery in the United States, it was 
generally taken for granted that, as thiugs had. been, so far as the 
Negro was concerned, so they would continue to be; that there 
was no other destiny for Africa than to be the hunting-ground for 
• 
unprincipled men of all other countries, and no olher destiny for 
the Negro than to continue in servitude to the mall-huutel's and their 
abettors, And many an intelligent Christian thought he saw in 
the Bible a clea.r warrant for this view, 
1 1"ra.scl"s illagQzilu', Augu-;t, lS7S . 
• 
• 
Africa alld the Africans. 299 
But hardly ha.d the Negro come out of the house of bondage in 
America., when traditional views on the subject of his destiny 
began to fade away among the unwholesome superstitions of the 
past. Events began to clirect attention to his ancestral home. 
The emancipation of millions of people of a foreign and uncongenial 
race, in a country governed by republican institutions, could not 
• 
but awaken serious reflections in the minds of the thoughtful. 
Here was a new problem for solution, and one which, to the minds 
of many, presented terrible contingencies. They could not conceive 
of five millions of blacks living among thirty millious of whites in 
any other relation than that of servitude, especially when servitude 
had been the uniform antecedent relation. But that relation had 
been abruptly severed. The five millions of slaves were now 
iree men. 
There were several proposals made for the disposition of this UD' 
welcome and inconvenient element. Many thought that they should 
be sent to the Great ~~est, and be formed into a .. territory" of the 
United States. Others beld that they should be absorbed into the 
body politic under reconstruction laws. Ot.hers proposed their 
concentration as free wen and independent in t.he , Gulf States. 
Not a few advocated their deportation to the \\'est Indies, or 
Central America. A small lllUllbel' contended that an endeavour 
should be made to return them to the land of their fathers. For 
several year•s , this last proposition was licliculed and contemned, 
but it~ could not long be suppressed. It was founded upon a 
principle inherent in humanity. It appealed to the irresistible 
instincts aull syropa,thy of race, and it has recently gained an 
immense popularity among the blacks. Organisations for emigra· 
tion to Africa, cll.Ued "Exodus Associations," are being form ed 
among them. While we write this, we learn that near two 
bunared thousand a.re ready to leave for Africa. Those of the ' 
Negroes in tbe United States who comprehend this movement and 
aid it, a.nd avail themselves of it, will be elevated, and wiJl save 
their posterity from perpetual degradation, 01', possibly, extinction. 
Those \\ ho ignore it, a.nd figh.,t against it, will be baffled and 
thwarted in a.ll their attempts at elevation in the land of their 
• 
-_ ._-----
300 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
former oppressors, if they are not altogether crushed by the odus 
against them. This is the teaching of aU history. 
In the meanwhile, events have been co·operating for the opening 
of Africa. Scarcely had the emancipation proclamation been pro-
mulgated, when Livingstone disappeared from the civilised world, 
and lost himself in the wilds of Africa, just as the in tensest interest 
had been excited in the work of exploration which, as an bumble 
missionary, he had begun. In a.ttempts to ascertain the wbere-
n.bouts of the lost traveller, more and more of the country was 
revealed to the outside world; and in the fifteen years which 
have elapsed since the abolition of slavery in America, more 
has been learned of Africa by the civilised world than "as ever 
previously known. Explorers from all the leading nations are 
entering the country from every quarter. One of the Sovereigns 
of Europe turns aside from the cares of State, and from the 
great questions now interesting Europe, to give his personal 
influence to stimulate the "'ork of African exploration and 
civilisation. The Royal Geographical Society has shown its in~ 
creased interest and determination in the matter, by instituting 
an "African Exploration Fund," to be appropriated "to the 
scientinc examination of Africa (especially the central part of the 
continent), in a systematic and organised manner."~ A proposition 
has been laid before the American Congress for a ,p reliminary 
survey of the countries east of Liberia, with a view to the can· 
struction or a railroad from Monrovia to Central Africa. In "\.fxica 
itself, magnificence and beauty are being disclosed where the most 
forbidding natural features were expected. More toan a dozen 
lakes have been discovered in regions formerly supposed to contain 
only" trackless deserts of shifting sand." The continent has been 
crossed from east to west by youthful and enthusiastic explorers. 
• So that the exiled African, returning to the land of his ancestors, 
will not be journeying to a country of which he has no knowledge. 
The general ignorance of this continent, which only a few years 
ago prevailed, when it used to be said that" our maps of the moon 
~ Circula.r issued by the Roya.l Geographica.l Society, 1877. 
• 
• 
• 
Africa alld 'h. AfricallS. 301 
• 
were more correct and complete than those of interior Africa," can 
never again exist. 
But, while every effort is made to explore and describe the 
country, very little attempt is made to study the Man of Africa. 
It is very natural that adventurous travellers should deem it the 
most importa.nt part of their mission to describe the CJ)untry. to 
spend their time in telUng of what the outside world is consciously 
and confessedly ignora.nt, and of which. therefore, there is the 
grea.test anxiety to gather information. The geographical problem 
presses for solution. As to the Ma.n, there is not this anxiety. 
The outside world thinks it knows the :Ma.n of Africa. Has not the 
Negro been seen as a labourer in every part of the world? Has he 
• 
not for centuries been on the planta.tions in a.ll the 'Vestern hemis-
phere? Have not numerous travellers written about him, and has 
be not been minutely described by scientific melJ, from his skull to 
his heels? But it is beginning to be apprehended now by the 
Illore thoughtful, that, after all, the Man of Africa is not under-
stood. There is now more thinking, writing, learning, and talking 
a.bout Africa than ever before. Still the notions of Europeans are 
extremely vague about the Man. On two points only they seem to 
be clear, viz., first, as to the irrepressible or inextinguishable 
character of the Man-tha.t he will not fade away or become 
extinct before Europeans, as the American and Australia.n a.bori-
gines have done i and, secondly, that in any calculatious looking to 
the m~teria.l improvement or aggrandisement of his native home, 
he cannot be wisely ignored. Further than this, all is dark to the 
European mint]. Only the Negro will be it ble to explain the Negro 
to the rest of mankind. 
"'e have travellers in Africa. belonging to all the principal 
nations of the world, and all. in a greater or less degree, indulge in 
strains of dispa.ragemeut of tbe Man. And this not as a rulp, and . 
Dot even generally. from a. desire to be unfair, but partly from 
preconceived notions of the Negro, imbibed from reading or hear-
say in the cour:;e of their preparation (or their journey; partly 
from the influence of their atmospheric surroundings in the field 
• 
o( their iO\~estigatioos; a.nd partly, also, on the principle that it is 
• • 
• 
302 Clwislianily, Islam and Ihe Negro Race . 
. • • 
easier to pull down than to build up; and that there is a sort of 
fame attached to the great destroyer. The names of the builders of 
mighty pyramids may be forgotten with the ages, while the name 
of the destroyer of a magnificent temple has lingered in tlle 
memory of generations. 
There is DO possibility of entering Africa, either from the east 
or west, without passing through a. belt of malarious country by 
which the strongest constitutions are affected. A pernicious 
miasma receives strangers at the threshold of the continent. Their 
whole nervous system becomes disordered-the action of the liver 
is deranged. They become the prey of melancholy in its literal, 
etymological seuse, and in this a.bnorma.l state of mental impressi. 
bility they take the most gloomy views of the people, and repro. 
duce their own preconceived or fa.vourite types of the African. In 
a letter to the New York Herald, Dr. Livingstone sa.ys :-
The irritability produced by disea.se ma.de me pighea.ded. The sa.me cau!le 
opern.tes with modern 'tro.vellers, so that they are unable to sa.y a. civil word 
a.bout the natives, Sa.vages seldom deceive you, if put upon their honour; yet 
men turn up the whites of their eyes, a.s if deception showed an anomo..lous 
cha.racter in the A[rican. Modern tra.vellers affect a. tone of moral superiority 
that is nauseous. 
And in his works he frequently warns the reader against 
accepting, without qualification, the statements of some African 
travellers about the na.tives. Dr. Johnson says, If Every man is 
a rascal as soon as he is sick." 
While, therefore, we duly appreciate the geographical or mate· 
rial results of the labours of modern explorers of Africa; willie we 
cannot but admire their gigantic physical and mOl'a:~ courage. tbe 
inextinguishable faith in themselves and their destiny which sus· 
tained them in their perilous labours, we cannot admit that the 
philosophical results of their efforts have been satisfactory. When 
they attempt to transcend the physical or material, there is con· 
tradiction and confusion. There is want of clearness in the pictures 
they c1.raw; and the most skilful and accurate delineator has suc-
ceeded in producing but clumsy daguerreotypes or distorted photo· 
graphs of the superficial life of the people. The European world 
is, as yet, only in the infancy of its studies in African psychology. 
• 
.!frica alld the Africans. 30 3 
No European statesman or philanthropist has, as yet, even at -
tempted to grH.pple with it . Far more difficult of settlement than the 
sources of the Nile. the intellectual character and susceptibility 
of the Negro will probably, for ages yet, elude the grasp and com-
prehension of the most sagacious European. Livingstone was 
the first of model11 Europeans to approach the source of the Nile 
and indicate it~ locality: ~O. likewise, be has come nearer than any 
other European to understanding the Man of Africa. And. like all 
tme philosopber~, he neYer dogmatises as to the results of his 
investigation,; in that direction . He of all traveUet's made the 
Man an object of his study. and the benefit of the Man the ultimate 
aim of his labom·s. .. \Vhen oue travels," he said. "with the 
specific object in \ie'w of ameliorating the condition of the natives, 
every act become::. eunobled." 
In his letter to James Gordon :Bennett, under date November. 
1871, he says: "If my disclosures regardiug _the terrible Ujijian 
slavery should lead LO the suppression of the Ea.st Coast slave-
trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the 
discovery of all the Nile sources together." 
The African is DOW judged by the specimens in exile and alcl1g 
<to coa,<;t-more spoilt and deba.uched than benefited by foreign 
intercourse-just ~s the physical character of the interior was 
inferred, in fOl'lner times, from the lowlands and s\yamps seen along 
tbe margin M the continent. No Roderick Murchison has arisen 
yet in tJJe intellectual world to lay do\\'n with an)' definiteness the 
character of the mental landscape of the Negro. No Professor 
Ha.ll ha.s yet descried the remote sa.tellite of bis genius. Living. 
stone has come the nearest to fulfilling the office of such a 
philosopher. He had the first and most important pre-requisite 
to proficiency in that class of study, yiz., sympathy with his subject. 
lIe not only loved Airica, but the African . He bad an instinctive 
appreciation of the l)eculia.rities and varieties of Africau character, 
and so remarkable a. power of blending his observations into a 
harmonious whole. that he was able, in no little degree, to 
• 
L/ld Journal., \'oL i, p. 13 . 
• 
• 
• 
30+ Christiallity. Islam alld Ihe Negro Race. 
emallcipate himself, notwithstanding his pbysical sufferings, from 
the trammels of his race· prejudices, and with that insight and 
discrimination which a correct sympa.thy gives, to select the 
materials for his delinea.tion of African chal'acter-dealing with 
Africans not only in their abnormal and degraded forms. upon 
which mo!)t travellers love to dwell, but studying tbe deeper aspects 
and finer capacities of the people. He has tbu,; become the 
popular and most trustwort.hy teacher of the best portioLl of the 
Christian world with regard to the AIl"jean. 
Nearly all other modern traveller., have regarded the Man of 
Africa with contempt, in comparison with the natm'al features-the 
1)h),5ioo.l grandeur and matelial re::;ources-of the country. SoluUL 
'melius populo. Mr. Herbert Spencer, with the aid of hi~ friendl:i, 
has prepared a basb for a work on African Sociology, in the shnpc 
of a classified compilation of materials taken from the work::; of 
writers on Africa. But as his facts ha\'e beeu drawn so largely 
from second·halld sources, and [rom the writings of travellers 
whose observations were confined to ,'ery small localities, and 
made under the disturbing influence of disease, we cannot expect 
that the work, "ben completed, though it will be one of con-
sidemble merit and a 1ll0lltUnent of induf.;tl'Y, will be a trustworthy 
b>1.lide. The author will bM'e relied, to a ,-ery- large extent, upon 
isolated cases and ex parte statements. 
It has been to us a source of sW'prbe and I'egret to notice that 
the Westminster Bedew, usually so fail' and candid in dealiug with 
the Negro, should lliwe allowed itself-chiefly under the guidance 
of Sir Samuel Baker-to carryon a di')cussion on Africa and tile 
African in the spirit and temper manifested in its article on (Slavery 
in Africa' (April, 1877), The Re\'iewer endorses as correct the 
superficial and contemptuous e!itimate of Negro character as given 
by Sir Samuel Baker. With the writings of Livingstone before 
him, and with numerous admission::; in favour of the African from 
Sir Samuel Baker himself, the Reviewer yet makes m'ery a\'ailable 
use of Baker's works, not to accept his liberality, but to emphasise 
the suggestions of what we C8.'l11ot but characterise as his in-
veterate prejudices. 
A/rica alld tlte A/rica liS. 
J..'he intelligent Negro traveller in foreign lands comes acro!:'s 
four classes of Europeans. First, the class who are professionally 
philanthropic. These, at the sight of the Negro, go into ecstasie~ 
o\"e1' this II man and brother," and put themsel"es to all sorts of 
inconvenience to prove to tllis unfortunate member of the human 
race that they believe God hath made of ODe blood all nations of 
men, &c. The second class is composed of those who, at the 
sight of the Negro, ha\'e all their feelings of malic ~. hatred, and 
all uDcharitableness excited, and wbo adopt every expedient 
and avail themselves of every occasion to give exhibitions of theil' 
vehemeut antagonism. 'rbe third class regard him with can· 
temptuous indifference, and care to exhibit neither fuyoUl' nor 
dislike, whatever hi::> merit or demerit, The fourth class consists 
of those who treat him a<; they would a white JUun of the same 
degree of culture and behaviour, basing theil' demea.nour altogether 
upon the intellectual 01' moral qualities of the man, To the 
cultivated N egl'o, of course, the last class is the most interesting 
• to meet, and if he bad his choice between ciasset) first an-1 second, he would choose the second, 'Writers ou Ail'ica and 
the African race may be divided into very IUuch the same classes; 
and the race has scarcely suffered more from the yiotent antagonism 
I of its foes than from the false and undue admi.ration of its friends. 
I Before pointing out some of the errOrS of the Westminster 
Reviewer, <Ve will take a brief survey of the past and present 
history of the African slave· trade, and see how far it has introduced 
waste and disorder into Africa, and prevented the progress of the 
people. Of c."bUl'se we have no detailed a."count of the proceedings 
of the shye-buuters who captw'ed the unfortunate creatures 
represented ou Egyptian mouuments; but we haye pretty full 
accountti of the origin and character of the modern slave-trade, and 
we give here a summary from an able and well-informed source :-
Within two centuries a.fter the suppression of sla.very in Europe, the PortuguesE', 
in imitation of tho!;e pirll.cies which existed in the uncivilillCd ages of the world, 
made their descents on Africa, a.nd committing depreda.tions on the coast, first 
ca-[[Itld the wretched inha.hito.nts into sla.very, This pmctice, thus incon-
siderable a.t its commencement, becl\IDe genera-I, and our a,Bcestors, to.;eth.J[ 
With Spo.nilUds, French, a.nd most of the maritime powers of Europe, soon 
X 
• 
• 
306 Christia1lity, Islalll and the Negro Race. 
followed the pira.tica.l example; a.nd thus did the Europea.ns revive a. custom 
which their own a.ncestors had so lately exploded from n. consciousness of its 
impiety. The unfortuna.te Africa.ns fled from the coast, nnd sought, in the 
interior pn.rts of the country, a. retrea.t from the persecution of their inva.ders; 
but the Europeans still pursued them, entered their rivers, sa.iled up into the 
heart of the country, surprised the Africa.ns in their recesses, a.nd ca.rried them 
inl;o sla.very. The next step which the Europea.ns found it. necessa.ry to take 
wa.s tha.t of settling in the country, of securing themselves by fortified posts, 
of cha.nging their system of force into tha.t of pretended liberil.1ity; a.nd of 
opening by every species of bribery and corruption a. communication wit.h the 
natives. Accordingly they erected their forts and factories, landed their 
merchandise, and endeavoured by a. peaceful deportment, by presents, Ilnd by 
every appeara.nce of munificence, to aUure the attachment and confidence 
of the Africans. Trea.ties of peace and commerce were concluded with the 
chiefs of the country, in which it. was agreed that the kings on their part 
should from this period sentence pn-soncrs of war and convicts to Europea.n 
servitude; a.nd tba.t the Europea.ns should supply them in retuta with the 
luxuries of Europe,l 
'l'hus bega.n that horrible traffic which for generations bas 
distracted the African continent. The discovery of America stimu-
1ated the traffic and intensified its horrors. 
Africa.ns were deported to sla.ughter vil'gin forests, to test the capa.bility of f 
virgin soils, and to enrich both hemispheres with 8ugM, tobacco. cotton a.nd 
wines. And it is due to the terrors of its harbourlcss coast, the malaria of its 
mangrove swamps, its burning deserts, its dangerous beasts and reptiles, its 
impenetra.ble jungles, its wa.ry tribes prepared either for fight or flight, that 
Arrico. was not entirely depopulated to satisfy the greod of Christian nntions for 
slaves, during the last fOUI centuries. 
Though, under the pressure of enlightened Christian sentiment, 
the traffic has been abandoned by Christian nations, still the 
continent is made to bleed at almost every pore. Notwithstanding 
aU that has been written and said on this subject, tht,se who have 
seen anything of the horrors of the traffic-which no pen cau ad-
equately describe-are solemnly impressed with the necessity of 
urging continually upon the public mind, with every possible 
emphasis and reiteratiou) the importance of its suppression. 
Livingstone says :-
When endeavouring to give some a.ccount of t.he sla.ve-trade of East A.frica it 
was necessa.ry to keep fa.r within the truth, in order not to be thought guilty of 
e:l8.ggero.tion; but in sober seriousness the subject does not a.dmit of exaggera.-
4 Ru.'. New Cyclopa:(lw,- a.rt.' Slavery.' 
fi/rica and the A/ricans. 30 7 
tion. To o,"cnua.w its evils is n. simple impossibility. The sights I ha.vc seen, 
though common incidents of the traffic, are so nauseous, tha.t I alwo.ys strive 
to dth'e them from my memory. In the case of most disagreeable recollecT 
tions I ca.n succeed, in time. in con<;igning them to oblivion; but the slaving 
scenes come back unbidden, 8.l1d ma.ke me slart up at dead of Dlght, horrified 
by their vi vidness. 
Sir Samuel Ba.ker, in his Albat Nyanza, describes an a.,uack 
made upon a village for slaves, as follows :-
Ma.rching through the night, guided by their Negro ho~ts. they bivouQ.c within 
an hour'B march of the unsuspecting village, doomed to an a.t.tack about half 
an hour before the break of day. Quietly surrounding tbe sleeping ,·illages. they 
fire the gross huts in all directions, and pour volleys of musketry through the 
.fi&ming thatch. Pa.nic-s\ricken, the unfortunate victims rush from the burning -
dwellings, the men a.re shut down like pbea.sa.nts in a. batlut., while the women 
a.nd children a.re kidna.pped and secured, the herds of cattle are dri"en Soway, 
a.nd the huma.n victims lashed together, forming a. Ih'ing chain, while So general 
plunder of the premises ensues. 
III !lis [smailia he sa.ys:-
It is impossible to know the actual number of slaves t·akeo from Central 
Africa. aonua.lly. . . . . The loss of lile a.ttenda.nt upon the capture and 
subsequent treatment of the sla.ves is frightful. The result of this forced 
emigration, combined with the insecurity of life and property, is the withdra.wal 
of the population from the Wested districts. The natives ho.\'e the option of 
submission to e,'ery insult, to the violation of their women and the pillage of 
their crops, or they must either desert then homes or seek independence in 
MtMt di.stricts, or they must ally themselves with their oppressors to 8.ssist in 
the oppression of other tribes. Thus the seeds of anarchy are sown throughout 
Africa.. The result is horrible confusion, distrust on all sides, trea.chery, 
devastation a.nfl ruin.' 
Gra.ves and numerous skeletons (sa.ys Cameron) testified to the numbers 
whose li'\tes had been sacrificed on this trying march, whilst slave-clogs a.nd forks 
still nttached to some blea.cbed bones, or lying by thetr side, g(l.ve only too 
COD\'incing a. pr~f that the demon of the slave·tAde still nerted his influence 
in this pa.rt of A£rica.8 
Schweinfurth, the German traveller. who travelled for some 
time ill charge of the Nile s}&\·ers, and witnessed their diabolical 
proceedings, says that the" traders of Darfoor and Kordofau are as 
coar~e. u..n principled, and villainous a set as illlagination ca:l . 
conceive. 
An a.venging Nemesis must sW'ely follow in the footsteps of such 
unparalleled a.trocity and wickecrness . 
• 
, I~/tI.IJjlid, vol. i. pp. 4, 5, 6 .Aero., Africa, vol. ii, p. 256. 
• 
-
308 Christianity, I slam alld lite Negro Race. 
The Westminster Reviewer, with all the~e facts before him, and 
ufter quoting from Livingstone a statement which justly attributes 
the backward condition of Africans to tbe disturbing influence of 
the ~Ja\'e-trac1e, chooses to select the very lowest tribes upon wbich 
to make iJis unfa.vourable comments. and from which to infer the 
character of the whole race, and seems to suppose that he has 
clenched and riveted his disparaging work by introducing the 
following sketch of the Negro as furnished to hi" hand by Sir 
Sa.muel Baker :-
Negroes !'.chlom think of the future, they culti ... o.te the ground o.t va.riou .. 
"ctLsons, but they Lmit their crops to their na.l;urn.l wa.nts; therefore aD une~pected 
bad ~eason reduces them to fa.m.ine. Thoy grow &. variety of cereals, \\bich, with 
a. minimum of labour, yield upon their fertile soil a large return. Nothing 
would be en.sier tha.n to double the production, but this would entail tho. 
nece<.;sit), of extra store· room, which means utrs. labour, Thus, with ha.ppy 
indifference, the native thinks lightly of to-morrow. fie eats n..nd (lrinks while 
his fOOil last!', anrl when famine arrives he endeavours to steal foom his 
neighbours. . nothing is so distasteful to the Negro as regular daily la.bour, 
thus nothing that he possesses is durable. His dwelling is of stmw or wa.tt.les. 
his crops suffice for support from ha.nd to mouth; a.nd as his forefa.thers worked 
only for themselves Rnd not for posterity, ~o also does the Negro of to-day. 
Thus, without foreign a.:;sistance, the Nesro & thousa.nd years hence will be no 
bet.ter than the Negro of t.o-day, a.~ the Negro of to-dny is in no f;uperior position 
to that of his ancestors some thousa.nd years ago. 
Such is the indictment against n. whole race drawn by an 
amateur philanth.ropist, who only saw portions of the people in one 
corner of the contincnt, wbere, by hi!') own account, (.hey are so 
harassed and persecuted by the slave· traders that progress is 
, 
impossible. None more cloquently 01' truthfully tha.n Sir Samuel 
Baker has described the horrors of the slave-trade 1).1l(~ its blighting 
cffects upon the country and people. H ' Vhat curse," he a.SkR, II lies 
so heavily upon Africa? II He aoswers:-
It. is the internal t ro.ffic in 9lo.ves. All ideo. or commerce, improvement, IUld 
the advancement of the Africa.n mce must be disc&rded until the traffic in 
slaves shall have ceased to elist. 
In a curiom; paragraph the Reviewer apparently apologises for 
the sla.vcrs by involving the native chiefs who sell slav-es in eqna.l, if 
not greater, guilt; but in the very next sentence be rccovers hi~ 
mental equilibrium and sense of justice, and tells us of-
Cro..(ty slave.dealers, who, under various pretexts, set chief r.ga.iost chief. 
A/rica and the A/ricans. 
knowing that whichever wins they will be the ga.iners, ohta.in.ing thereby the 
numerous sla.ves they covet. 
There is nothing sllrprising in the fact that. under such ell'cuUl-
tances, Africans sell each other. Who was it that sold those 
Angles whom Gregory saw in the slave-market at Rome? Is it not 
well known that Saxon husbands an(1 parents sold their wiv~s and 
daughters? Did not slavery prevail in every country in Europe? 
No~. suppose that during the days of European ignorance and 
darkness, when the people sold their own children, the large alien 
populations of Asia had agreed to make constant incursions into 
Europe and stimulate the traffic in slaves. Suppose the result of 
the battle of Marathon had been different and Europe had become 
the vassal of Asia, and Asiatic hordes had entered its territory for 
the pm'poses for which both Europeans and Asiatics have enteled 
Africa, and had continued their depredations to this period, what 
would Le the condition of Europe to-day? 
It cannot have escaped the most superficial reader of African 
history that the rayages introduced by the sla.ve-trade have had a 
distinctly marked effect not only on the persoual or tribal character 
of the inhabitants, but on their social organisation-oD the whole 
industrial and ecoDolDic life of the country. Their condition for 
centuries has been one of restless anarchy and insecurity. 
Both Liviugstone and Baker describe regions free from the 
slave-trad~J where the people were superior and had many of the 
ele])1ents of progress; but they enjoy only a sort of insular 
immunjty with all the disadvantages of such a position. Their 
dwelling-phf:ces are like islands ill piratical seas, kept, as it were, 
constantly uncleI' martial law, with the means of defence always 
carried about or accessible at a moment's notice-forever on the 
alert to bold their own against the traders wbo menace tbem from 
every quarter. These regions the cowardly marauders avoid. 
Speaking of the warlike Baris, Sir Samuel Baker says :-
I disco\'ered tba.t tbese people ha.d never had any communication with the 
ela.ve-tmders, who were a.fra.id to moleBt so powerful a. tribe. 
Mr. Stanley, in bis addre!\:') at Cape Town in November la~t, 
wbel1 fresh from his great achievement of the discovery of the 
• 
- '--
310 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
course of the Lualaba-Congo River, described certain inaccessible 
localities as follows :-
I can assure you tha.t on this map-a.nd it will probably be the lll.st part of 
Africa. to be explored-there is a. pad close to Zanzibar which every expedition 
h,kes good ca.re to a.void. It lies between lUombe.sse. and La.ke Victoria, e.nd 
there lives there the ferocious tribe of the Wn.homba. An expedition of a. 
thousand Ulen could go there o.nd penetrate the country, but with a.n ordina.ry 
tra.velling expedition it would be impossible. Then there is the Soma.b country; 
I should hke to see wha.t travellers would make of tha.t. And there is another 
district which would ta.x the skill of the best explorer. From the north end of 
Le.ke Tanganyika. to the south end of La.ke Albert NyanzfI. there is a. pret;ty a.nd 
very interest.ing district, but it is a. country where you will ha.ve to fight if you 
wa.nt to explore it. Here is another lit.tle district close to the West Coast, and 
yet in two hundred yea.rs the PorLuguese hM'e been unable to explore it. 
Bet.ween St. Paul and a part ca.lled Ambriz, a distance of only sixty miles, there 
is no communication by land, and yet it is Portuguese territory_ There are 
ma.rtial as well as pacific trihes.1 
Still, formidable as are the II martial" tribes, the exigencies of 
their condition are a perpetual bar to progress. 
We can scarcely enter into the feelings (sa.ys Livingstone) of those who 8re 
harried by marauders. Like Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
harassed by Highland Celts on one side and English March men on the other, 
and thus kept in the rea.rward of oivilisation, these people have rest neither for 
many days nor for few.1I 
The Reviewer, after pulling the Negro down to the lowest 
possible point ill the scale of being, to which Sir Samuel Baker in 
his aggressive dogmatism and satirical humour has reduced him, 
.j 
suggests the uselessness of endea.vouring to educate him, in the 
ordinary sense and by the ordinary methods, we presurr.a, of 
European education. He says :- . 
That the Negro is not incapable of civilisation, has indeed been proved, yet 
the testimony of Dr. Livingstone would tend to show that educa.tion with the 
Negro does Dot necessa.rily fit him for helping to elevfLte his race. "Educated 
bla.cks from a. distance" (sa.ys Livingstone) "are to be avoided; they are ex-
pensive, Gnd a.re too much of gentlemen for your work." 
With regard to the character of the" education" which the 
Negro bas received, and is now, as a general thing, receiving from 
his European teacher, and to the estimate which the Negro, as be 
nses In civilisation, intelligence, and culture, will put upon that 
------------------~,------------------
1 TillltlJ, November 30,1877. II Lad JournaLs, vol. ll, p. 143. 
Africa and lite Africans. 3II 
1/ education," Wp, venture to refer the Reviewer to articles dealing 
with this snbjsct in Fraser's llIagazine for November, 1875, anel 
May and October, 1876. 
Then, asif struck by the injustice of his general line of argument, 
the Reviewer believes himself to have fallen upon instances which 
must beyond all cavil substantiate his conclusions. He proceedS":-
If it should be considered unfair to judge of the Negro in bis present con· 
dition in his n&tive la.nd, ruined a.nd demoralised as it undoubtedly is by the 
sla.ve-trade, no objection ca.n be ra.ised to an inference dra.wn from his condition 
as a. free ma.n in our colonies, or in those na.tive free sta.tes to which he ha.s 
been consigned by a. freedom-loving people. If we look a.t the present sta~e of 
Ha.yti, Sierra. Leone, a.nd I-iberia, the attempts of the Negro at self-government 
are not encouraging ; these attempts seem generally to end in a.narchy. in a. 
burlesque of eyerytb..ing ciyilised. and constant revolutions. 
Then. as if still conscious of the unfairness of his position, the 
Reviewer adds :-
It could, perhaps, hardly be otherwise; we can scarcely expect people down-
trodden for ages to develop at once , on recovering their freedom , (l, love of order 
&nd a.n aptit.ude for ch.uisat.(on, which have been with us t.he slow growth of 
I many centuries. All impartial writers are agreed in considering the sudden 
emancipa.tion of the Negro as a great political blunder. 
But the evil in so~called Negro civilised communities lies deeper 
than anything suggested by the Reviewer-deeper than the down-
trodden conclition for centuries of the people-deeper, far deeper, 
than their ')' sudden ema.ncipation." 
Among the evils wrought by the slave-trade, none has been 
more -damaging to Africa and the Negro race than the promiscuous 
manner in 'l'hich the tribes have been thrown together and COll-
founded in the lands of their exile. And in dealing with the Negro 
question European writers overlook this fact altogether. There are 
Negroes and Negroes. The numerous tribes inhabiting the vast 
continent of Africa can no more be regarded as in every respect 
equal than the numerous peoples of Asia or Europe can be so 
rega.rded. There are the same tribal or family varieties among 
Africans as among Europeans. And the Reviewer does not seem to 
be ignol'ant of this . He says :-
We must not lose sight of the la.ct<that there are many races. in Africn.--tha.t 
the typical Negro with progna.thous ja.w and woolly hair, who has been so 
, 
• 
.112 Christianity, Islalll and the Negro Race . 
ea.gerly sought 0.8 n. sla.ve in all a.ges, is quite as distinct from the Kn.ffir, a.nd 
from many of the ra.ces described by travellers in the interior, as from the 
diminutive BUl;hm9.D, the feeble remna.nt of an older race now extinct. 
This is true: there are the Foulahs inhabiting the region of the 
Upper Niger, the Mandingoes, the Housas, the Bornaus of Sene-
gambia, the Nubas of the Nile region, of Darfoor and Kordofau, the 
Ashantees, Fantees, Dahomialls, Yorubas. and that whole class of 
tribes occupying the eastern and middle and western portions of the 
continent north of the equator. Then there are the tribes of Lower 
Guinea and Angola, so much ridiculed by \Viuwood Reade and 
Monteiro; all these, differing in original bent and traditional 
instincts, have been carried as slaves to foreign lands and classed 
as one. And in speaking of them they are frequently characterised 
in one or two sentences. Now it should be evident that no short 
description can include all these people; no single definition, how-
ever comprehensive, can embrace them all. Yet -writers are fond 
of selecting the prominent traits of single tribes with which they 
flre best acquainted, and applying them to the whole race. So 
the Reviewer makes a disparaging inference as to the character 
and capaciLy of all Africans from the want of success which has 
attended the efforts of so-called Negro communities in Christian 
lands, who, under the government of Europeans, show DO marked 
ability; or wbo, as in the case of Hayti and Liberia, have set up 
for themselves, as alleged, ill-contrived, unsuitable,' or unstable 
governments. 
In the first place, these Negroes, as far as they are purely 
African, do not represent even the average intellec'(.ual or moral 
qualities of the A[rican at home. The Africans who were carried 
into slavery were mostly of the lowest orders-of the criminal and 
servile classes-the latter of whom bad lived for generations at 
home with II balf their worth conveyed away," and who, it was not 
to be supposed, 'would improve in manly qualities uncler the circum-
stances to which they were introduced in foreign lands. Only here 
and there a leading milld-a real Man-was carried into captivity. 
And where these did not succumb under the new conditions, and 
• 
become" the foul hyena's prey," they invariably took prominent 
• 
A/rica alld Ihe A/ricans. 313 
positions among their own people. In the United States and the 
"·est Indies there were numbers, whose descenda.nts ma.y be seen 
to this day wearing the mark of superiority, who were neither 
criminal nor senile in their antecedents. These inspired the 
rt!spect, confidence, and even admiration of the oppressors of their 
race; and, for their sakes, the dominant class would have mAde 
large concessions to the African; but as no rule could beestablisbed 
to meet exceptional cases, they were obliged to deal with all a.ccord· 
iug to the reguhttions established for the majority. 
And where under the lead of the superior few of the race, as in 
Hayti, or, under the philanthropic suggestion\; of the benevolent 
among their oppressors, they are assisleu in the establishment of a. 
• 
separate nationality, as in Liberia, still the specific gra\'ityof the 
majority has a continual tendency to ha.mper and thwart the efforts 
of the minority. 
There is a perpetual struggle between the very few who are 
aiming to forwa.rd the interests of the many, and the jJrojtt/tum 
vulgus, lar~ely in the ma.jority. 
I£ any cannot imagine such differences between Negroes and 
Xegroes, perhaps their imagination lllay be stimulateu if we call 
their attention to differences equally marked which grew up 
between white Ulen and white men in a. highly civilised country. 
Travellers in the Southern Statt:s of AlD(:rica, before the abolition 
of sla,\"ery, tdescribed two classes of wbites-the rich, aristocratic 
plantet·s, and the poor, mea.n whites-" white trash" as they were 
sometimes calle41. They were described by all writers, espec.:ially 
Mr. l'rederil-~ Law Olmstead, as 
Loa.fers, "clua.tter~. dweller!! in the woods. ba.ngers-on amoog the cities. amount-
ing to 5CH.:ral millioo,;, aDd forming. in fact. aoumerical majority, and about as 
ignorant. squalid and bruto.l a, could well he imagined. The dislike which 
the planten; felt to the oeighbo1llhood of the poor white,; on account of their 
tbie\"i~h habits and cootagious idleness induced them to buyout the poor 
whites as fa-;t almol't a!l they setli<:d 1l(:1U' them. 
Yet these people ~Djoyed equal social and political rights with 
the w('altbiest 01" best educa.led whites. Now, suppose, by some 
means, the cOUlparatively wenLlby few bad been reduced to au 
equal pecuuiary condition with the" white trash," the latter retain· 
• 
• 
314 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
ing the numerical superiol'ity. and they bad heen required or had 
undertaken to form an independent state on democratic principles, 
without extraneous stimulus or repression, what should we 
naturally expect to be the result? 
The cruel accidents of s]Mrery and the slave-tl'ade drove aU 
Africans together, and no discrimination was made in the shambles 
between the Foulah and the Timneh, the Mandingo and the Mendi, 
the AsLalltee and the Fantee, the Eboe and the Congo-between 
the descendants of nobles and the offspring of ShW6S, between 
kings and their subjects-all werB placed on the same level, all of 
black skin and woolly hair were /I Diggers," chattels, baving uq 
rights that their oppressors were bound to respect. And when, by 
any course of events, these people attempt to exercise independent 
government, they start in the eyes of the world as Africans, with-
out the fact being taken into consideration that they belong to 
tribes and families differing widely in degrees of intelligence and 
capacity, in original bent and susceptibility. 
But the laws affecting other portions of humanity are Dot 
supposed by certain writers to affect the Negro. He is an excep-
tional being, made, if not now by the consent of enlightened men 
for perpetual servitude, at least for the finger of scorn to point at. 
Learned reviewers, masters of style, and apparently the ablest 
minds, do not think it an unworthy aDlusement to rail ,a t the Negro 
-to make him the object, if not always of energetic vituperation 
and invective, of satirical humour and practical jokes. In leading 
through tbe African experiences of Sir Samuel Baker. as fmuished 
by himself, especially in his Ismail·ia. one cannot help noticing that 
however panegyrical the terms in which a benefactor may be intro-
duced on the stage. he is never dismissed without wbatevel' short-
comings be may have had being brought into prominence. He is 
sW'e not to be let go without a pa.rting touch of satirical disparage-
ment. In describing the departure from Khartoum (February 8, 
1870). be says with a. sneer, "I bad had to embrace the governor. 
then a black pacba, a rara avis in terris." This habit of indulging 
in caricature fat" the sake of am1.l.<;ement easily leads to a spirit of 
misrepresentation and calwnny. 
• 
• 
A/rica alld Ihe A/ricans. 
In speaking of the )OY8 or music for which Africans are every· 
where noted. Sir Sa.muel Ba.ker sa.ys, with a touch of exaggera.-
tiou:-
The natives are passionately fond of music. I believe tbe sa.fest wa.y to 
trav-cl in thl!se wild countries would be to play the cornet. Without ceaeing. 
which could insure a. safe p:usB.ge A London organ-grinder would ma.J;ch 
through Centra.l Africa followed by an admiring and enthusiastic crowd, 
who. if his tunes were lively. would form a da.ncing escort of most untiring 
mo.tcrial!l. . . . A mnn who. in full Highlo.nd dress, could at any time 
collect an audience by pl&ymg a. li\'ely air with the bagpipe, would be rcgo.rdoo 
With gn'a.t veneration by the natives, a.nd .... ould be listened to when an a.rch-
bishop by his side would be tataH)' disregarded. 
After quoting this pa.ssage, a grave American divine, ill an 
tlaborate article on Africa in an American Re"iew. could see 
nothing froln which to infer any noble qualities in the Negro, a.nd 
could not let the opportunity pass without indulging in the 
conventional giggle. Contiuuing Baker's joke. he still further 
degrades the impression, in order, apparently. to develop the smile 
into a. If broad grin." He sa.ys:-
An African's reli~i"n finds vent at his beds. Songs and dances forro no 
inconsiderable part of the w?f8hip a.t n. Houtbern coloured co.mp-meetLDg. If 
wo were con~tructing a. ritual for tbe rACe we should certo.inly include this 
Shaker element. 9 
" An African '5 religion" is inferred from what takes place at 
.. a Southern coloured caulp-meeting." H A ritual for the whole 
race" must 'I' inclulle the Shaker element." \Ve would assure the 
re,-erend doctor that such a .. ritual" would be a.n egregious fa.ilure. 
The If ~haker element" prevails chiefly, if not entirely. among 
Negroes or .. QPloured 0 1 people, who have been trained under the 
influence of the denomination of which Dr. \Vtmtworth himself is a. 
distinguished ornament. But only a. comparatively small number 
of Africans are shoutin~ )[etbotlists. The grea.ter portion of the 
race who are not Pagans aTC either Mohammedans or Roman 
Cathohc's, and tlt~ir" religion" does not If find vent a.t their heels." 
The traveller in Africa will find himself in need of fa.r more solid 
acquirements when passing through Mohammedan districts, than 
the a.bility to pLly the cornet, organ, or bagpipe. It is due, 
• 
11 J/,"lwd,jt QU(llttriy R.'I itw (New York); Janua.ry. 1876 
• 
• 
316 Christianity, Islalll alld tlte Negro Race. 
however, to the qualities whose presence is implied by the .'\"lricao's 
love of music that bilious and irritable travellers pass through 
their country Dot only with impunity, but recei, iog the kindest 
treatment. 
Wo man sing~, do. la.ss <lich rubig nieder, 
Bose Menschcn baben kcine Lieder. 
And here we cannot but ca.ll attention to a fact which, in the 
intelligent Negro, undermines his admiration of foreign races, viz., 
that bis race, numerically the weakest, has been through the ages 
selected for oppression and ridicule by the other branches of the 
human family . If there are, according to the present estimate, 
twelve hundred millions of human beiDg~ upon the earth, two 
hundred millions of whom are African~, we have ill the treatment 
which Africal13 have received from the re3t of mankind one of the 
remarkable illustrations of the advantage the strong are prone to 
take of the weak. Ten hundred millions against two hundred 
millions. Ten persecuting, abusing, ridiculing two. And this has 
been the case in all the ages, ten against two. And yet, men, 
apparently thoughtful, affect to wouder that Negroes have appeared 
in all the historic periods as slaves-have been represented on all 
Lhe monuments of Egypt as carried in chain!; in triumphal pro· 
cessIOns. 
But in spite of all, the Negro race has yet it$ part to play-a. 
distinct part-Ill the history of humanity, and th(' continent of 
Afl'ica will be the principal scene of its acti,ity. The mistake which 
Europeans often make in considering questions of :\egro 'improve-
ment and the future of ,Africa, is in supposing tl.m.t ,! he Negro is tht! 
European in embryo-in the undeveloped stage-and that when, 
bye·and·by, he shall enjoy the advantages of civilisation and culture, 
he will become like t.he European; in other word-;, that the Neglo 
is on the sa.me line of progre .. s, in the ~all1e groove, with tht: 
European, but infinitely in the rear. The Saturday Review, not 
long since, in a remarkable leading article on American politics, in 
which some curious inaccuracies occurred, nUl.de the following: 
statement :-
On t.heir own continent, Alcica.n9 ~cem to be irreclaima.ble, but a.fter two 0 
three genera.tious of servitude they begin to resemble inferior Europeans. The 
• 
Africa alld tlte Africalls . 3[7 
sla.ve·trnde ma.y perha.ps eventun.\Iy proye to have been the first ca.use of Negro 
ch'iliso.tioD. The mimetic in~tinct of the Negro race tends, like the similar 
faculty ill childreu, to accelerate the process of unconscious ec1uca.~ion.!O 
This view proceedc; upon the assumption that the two races a.re 
called to the same trork and are alike in potentiality and ultimate 
development, the Negro only needing the element of time, undeJ; 
celtain circumstanc.es. to become European. But to our mind it is 
not a question between the two races of inferiority or superiority. 
There is 110 abf>olute or essential superiority on the one side. 
nor absolute 01' essential inferiority on the other side. It is 
a question of difference of endowment and difference of destiny. 
No amount of training ('t.. culture will make the Negro a European; 
on the other band, no lack of training or deficiency of culture will 
make the European a Xeg-ro. The two races are not mo\·ing in the 
snme groove, witb an iunoeasw'able distance between them, but on 
parallel lines. They will never meet in the plane of their activities 
so as to coincide in ca.pa.cit~· or performance. They are not identical, 
as some think, but unequal; they a.re distinct but equal; an idea 
that is in no way incOinpatible with the Scriptural truth that God 
hath made of one blood all nations of men. 
AU are arcllit{'cts o( Fa.te, 
Working in these wi1.lIs of time; 
Some with massiyc deeds a.nd grea.t, 
, Some with oroa.'.nents of rhyme. 
Nothing llsele!'s is, or low, 
• Each thing ill itll lJifrce is best; , 
And whA.t seems bot idle show 
• S&rel1gthens a.nd sl1pports the rest.
I1 
The African at home needs to be surrounded by influences from 
abroad, not that be may change his nature, but that he may im-
prove his capacit). Hereditary qualities are fundamental. not to 
be created or replaced by human agencies, but to be assisted and 
improved. Nature determines the kind of tree, environments 
determine the quality and quantity of the fruit. \Ve want the 
eye and ear of the Negro to be trained by culture that he may see 
• 
10 Saturd"y Ret'ieu', )larch 24, 1877 . 11 Longfellow. 
• 
318 Chrislia1lity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
more clearly what he does see, and hear more distinctly what he does 
hear. We want him to be stllTounded by influences from abroad to 
promote the development of his latent powers, and bring the poten-
tiality of his being into practical or actual operation. He has 
capacities and aptitudes which the world needs, but which it will 
never enjoy until he is fairly and normally trained. Each race is 
endowed with peculiar talents, and watcWul to the last degree is 
the great Creator over the individuality, the freedom and indepen-
dence of each. In the music of the universe each shall give a 
different sound. but necessary to the grand sympbony. There are 
several sounds not yet brought out, and the feeblest of all is that 
hitherto produced by the Negro; but only he can furnish it. And 
when he does fm'nish it in its fulness and perfection, it will be 
welcomed with del;ght by the world. 
When the African shall come forward with his peculiar gifts, 
he will fill a place never before occupied. But he must have 
a fail' opportunity for bis development. Misunderstood and 
often misrepresented even by his beht friends, and persecuted and 
maligned by his enemies, he is, nevertheless, coming forward, 
gradually rising under the influences of agencies seen and unseen. 
It is the fashion of SOille friends of tbe African to deplore his 
past, or lack of a past, and to infer from this fact an It infel;or 
faculty of sell-development to in the race. 
But, with the facts before us, we cannot admit thre fairness of 
such an inference as these sympath.ising critics of the l'4lce are 
disposed to draw. No one who has paid allY attention to the 
subject at all will aver that there is any possibility &f development 
without the interference of a higher type of intelligence or energy, 
which must either come from without or must be assisted by 
favourable conditions within, in order to become continuous or 
general. Mr. Stanley, baving become, on a second joumey through 
Africa, better acquainted with the people, takes a far more accurate 
view of them than he was disposed to do when he passed through 
the country in his hasty anel impatient search {or Livingstone. 
In his address at Cape Town, a,b ove referred to, he endeavoured 
to show the kinship in habits, propensity and feeling between the 
..J/rica alld the A/ricalls. 
black man and the white man, illustrating this by f.everal com-
parisons between Central Africa at present and the Homeric age,li 
And in his ad(hess in Londoll, before the Royal (jeographical 
Society. in February last, he remarked: If It has been said that the 
African is uwmprovable and irredeemable; but that I wbolly and 
utterly deny," 
It is a. fact that a. description of the condition of thlllgs in portions 
of Central Africa truthfully gi\~en would read like an account of the 
earlier ages of Greece and Rome. We have ourselves ,~islted remote 
and scque!;tered dish;cts about the head-waters of the i'\iger, ·where 
we have found Negro Mobanunedan students devoting themselves 
to Literature with an indifference to the outside world which 
reminded us of the habits of tbe monks in the middle ages, who, 
ju retirement and seclusion, pur:;ued literature for its own sake; II 
and if the proceeding:; of chiefs in council which we brLYe witnessed 
were written down in plain, uuadorned style, the account would 
read like descriptions in Cresar's Commentaries of the (loings of the 
, Celts in the da.ys of their unsophisticated habitudes. Now, if 
Greeks, Romans, or Celts had been smothered in the cradle of their 
civilisation by extraneous violence perpetuated to this time, is it 
unreasonable to suppose that they would be found at tbis day in 
much the same condition tbat Stanley found sOl1le of the Afric&n 
tribes? That these tribes have ever advanced so far ie; astounding, 
considering wAat they have ba.d to contend against. 
Throu•C Tc h the labours of }oIl'. Herbert Spencer and other thinkers 
in that line, it bas DOW come to be regared as an elementary fact 
among scientitie men that societies are determined in their growth 
by their end.. ronUlent, wbether physical or human. .. The seU-
development of a. society is limited by its environment." In 
primitive and rudimentary societies there may occur exceptional 
cases of individual power, where mental energy Illay introduce 
cba.nges and bt'~n improvements; but if surrounding circumsta.nces 
are hostile, the infiuencc will die with the introducer, a.nd the 
-
Il Torus, !-lov. 30, 1877. 
11 See ra.rth·s Trarth in Ct"fral Africa; vol. iii, p. 373 . 
• 
. _-----
320 Ch1'isliallily, Islmll and Ihe Negro Race. 
improvement.s will not be perpetuated. We are told by Mr. Spencer 
that among the Karens "now and then a little Napoleon arises, 
who subdues a kingdom to himself and builds up an empire. The 
dynasties, however, last only ~vith the controlling mind." 11 There 
have been sirnilarexperieuces in Africa. Changes of vast importance 
have taken place in the interior as a result of internal activity-of 
individua1 intelligence and energy i but instead of being perpetuated, 
they have been destroyed by the hostile influences from without. 
Dr. Barth tells of the ruins of the ancient capital of Bornoll, 
Gbasreggorno, about 130 N. lat., 12° E. long., situated in the finest 
country in Bornoll, with a rich alluvial soil; a country which 
fonnerly teemed with hundreds of villages and was laid out in 
cornfields, but which is now (or was when he saw it) almost 
desel·ted, and covered with dense forests and impenetrable jungle, 
and has become the haunt of the monkey and the hog, the elephant 
and the lion. Barth noticed also the admirable brick structures of 
the ruins of former towns in this neigbbow'bood, so much more 
durable than the frail buildings of the present day. All this is 
proof that there was a begiuning of social advancement and well-
beiug in the days of security; but Negro slaves were wanted for 
the Caucasians in North Africa. and South-eastern Europe; razzias 
were encouraged, the slave-hunting Tawareks invaded the country, 
and all progress was checked. And this is only ODe insta.nce out of 
thousands which might be recited. Thus the African has gone on 
from generation to generation furnishing, in remote ages, I\1aterials 
to swell the triumpha.l processio!ls of Egyptian kings, and, in modern 
times. strong arms for the plantations of the Western hemisphere, 
and is taunted by his persecutors (and his friends) with his inability 
to rise against this pressure. 
In no part of Central Africa have any human agencies from 
without exerted any uplifting power; no planetary influences, 
according to mediroval theory. have operated to produce auy va.ri-
ation from ~he regular type; and, as we have just seen, there is no 
internal tendency III any individual or race, as a rule. to vary 
U Principles Of Sociology; p. 485. 
• 
rlfrica and the Africans, 321 
from the ancestral organism. Airica. needs wholesome interference 
from without. There has been interference, but it has been for the 
most part an interference of violence which. through the centuries, 
ba.s prevented the survivl.l of any variation fl:om the original type, 
which would have pushed forward improvements in the country . 
• 
.- \nd now that the effort of the enlightened portion of humanity is 
to suppress the violent interference and introduce agencies for the 
improvement of the people, it is of the greatest possible importance 
that the people be understood. Pmtn the wa.UL of apprecia.tion of 
then' ca.pacities and susceptibilities, innumerable are the theories 
proposed for the amelioration of their condition. Sir Samuel Baker 
advocates military discipline. He says:-
I believe tha.t if it were possible to convert the grea.ter portion of African 
sava.ges into disciplined soldiers. it would be a. most rapid stride toward their 
future civilisa.tion. A sa.vo.ge who has led a. wild a.nd uncontrolled life must 
first learn to obeya.uthority before any grea.t improvemeut can be eHeded.''; 
He would apply force evetywhere. Civilise Africa by force. 
They must be .. regimented" under ca.ptains of industry who will 
compel them to their task. 'l'be scourge and the sword must carry 
out the views which Sir Samuel thinks good. He concludes a. 
glowing account of one of his military expeditions with the following 
flourish :-
The Ba.ri war was now over: on every side the na.tives ha.d been thoroughly 
subdued. ln • 
Subdued! yes, possibly. but not brought o"\er to respect and 
affectio•n . It is surprising that Sir Samuel Baker should not have 
been a.ble to soo that his proceedings among the Baris. judging from 
his own Of unvarnished tale," were nothing of which to boast ... It 
is probable." Livingstone generously says, " that actual experienc'.) 
will correct the fancies which he (Sir Samuel) now puts forth as to 
the proper mode of dealing with Africans," 11 We cannot help 
feeling tha.t the erroneous theories held by travellers as to the 
African seduce them often into serious blunders and grievous wrongs, 
ma.king the nationality and religion they represent Btn opprobrium, 
Bond exposing themselves or their successors to needless peril. 
• 
oW- r1 1M!' /I' Ai VO l• '1,  p. 300_.  '"Ib'Id  "vo1, "u,  p 'o_S,  11 Ltut Journals, ~ot. ii, p, 155. 
Y 
• 
• 
322 Cilristia1lity, Islam atld tile Negro Race. 
It is owing, in a. grea.t measw'e, to the inadequate theories held 
by those who undertake to deal with the African, whether as frienel 
or foe, that while in the colonies along the coast EW'opean influence 
and teaching furnish new elements of commercial and religious 
life, they are helpless to raise the people above the "mimetic" 
stage, and endow them with creative or reproductive power. Wha.t 
we want is, that the foreign information introduced should properly 
edll.(;ate the people-that is, should be so assimilated as to develop, 
and be fertilised by, native energy. We want to see the foreign 
leaven so introduced as to spread beyond the coast, transcend the 
malarious regions of the continent, and, taking possession of the 
healthier and nobler tribes of the interior, leaven the whole lump. 
In order to bring about these results, those who from abroad 
assume to be teachers and gu.ides should study the people so as to 
be able to deal scientifically anel not empirically with them. By 
this we mean that they should study the laws of growth as they 
affect or pertain to the Negro race. The present practice of the 
friends of Africa is to frame laws according to their own notions for 
the government and improvement of this people, whereas God bas 
already enacted the laws governing in these affairs, , ... hich laws 
should be carefully ascertained, interpreted, and applied; for until 
they are found out and conformed to, all labour will be ineffective 
and resultless. We may be told that this is a very difficult, if not 
impossible task, for the European to perform, and that it is very far 
to look a.head to the time when the Negro shall be able to 1.10 this 
work for himseU. This may be so; but what we are aiming to 
show, is, tha.t in this direction, and tbis direction ouly, lies the hope 
of Africa's future. Her ultimate usefulness and happiness will b~ 
secured, so far as human instrumentality can bring them about, 
on tbis line; and tbis is a subject to he carefully studied, especially 
by the missionary. if Chrbtianity is to take root at all in Africa, 
or to be to the native anything more than a form of words. A 
little common sense will do more for this country than a great 
cleal of moral preaching and the loftiest philanthropic purpose 
without that elementary hut rare quality. 
We do not eXl)cct to bee this continent, or any la.rge portions of 
Africa alld the Africans. 32 3 
it, under one government, either f?reign or indigenous. But we do 
expect t.o see, following the extinction of the sla.ve-tl'ade, and the 
introduction from abroad of facilities for interna.l communication, 
the increa.se of intelligence, the development of wealth, and the 
growth of free prineiples. We expect to see the nati"e tribes or~ 
communities so evenly balanced among themselves as to bury for 
ever in obliviOJJ even the kadition of tribal or individual aggression, 
with a public sentiment 'So elevated and purified that the general 
sense against wrong or injustiee of any kind will preponderate and 
render impossible the existence of single ma.lefactors who DOW have 
it in their powecr to distra.ct extensive regions and check the 
operations of hU9bandry. And we should expect to see in Africa 
all the progress we he.ve indicated a.bove as the result of a few 
years of internal tranquility and order, which the continent has 
1leVer within the memory of man enjoyed. There will be an 
exhibition of virtues nelt dreamt of in the Caucasian world, a. 
sudden development of energies la.tent for ages. .. Ethiopia shall 
.suddenly stretch forth her hands unto God." 
Next, then, to the exploration of the country, the most im-
IPOrtant preliminary to the general civilisation of the African tribes 
as the suppression of the sla.ve-trade. And it is fit that the nations 
·of Europe should unite lor the extinction of the horrible traffic. 
Sbem and J,a pbeth have l&rgely participaterl in the guilt of tbe 
.enslavement of Ham. Shem., baving' lagged behind J aphetb in 
the m'A.rch of enlightenment, persists in the perpetration of the 
hideous wron~ But, under pressure, the dilatory brother is being 
urged on to his duty. 
Africa bas been spoiled by all the races alien to her, a.nd, under 
-their stimulating example, by her own sons. Other races have 
passed through the baptisl.l.l of sla.very, as a stepping-stone to 
ci\."ilisa.lion and independence, but none has toiled under the 
crubhing weight of a. servitude so protracted a.nd inflicted from so 
ma.ny sources. Millenniums mark the period of the bondage and 
humiliation of Africa's children. The four qua.rters of the globe 
have heard their groans and been sprinkled and stained with their 
hlood. All tha.t passed by ha.ve lelt at liberty to contemn and 
• 
• 
324 Christianity, I slam and the Negro Race. 
plunder. The oppressors of this race have been men with religion,. 
and men without religion-Christians. Mohammedans, and Paga.ns. 
Nations with the Bible, a.nd nations with the Koran, and nations 
without Bible or Koran-aU have joined in afflicting this continent. 
And DOW the last of her oppressors, tearing from her bosom 
annually bali a million of her children, are nations with the Koran. 
All travellers tell us that when the Arab traders in East Africa are 
suppressed the work will be done. This will, no doubt, be accom-
plished before very long. The Viceroy of Egypt is pledged to 
England to suppress the traffic, and in a given time to abolish 
slavery altogether. 
It was a long time before the Christian world discovered, or 
rather admitted, the wrong in the slave-tra.de ; a.nd we are persuaded. 
that just as the truth in Christianity produced, though ta.rdily, a. 
Wilberforce and a Clarkson, so the truth in Isla.m will raise up-
is now raising up-Muslim philanthropists and reformers who will 
give to the Negro the hand of a brother, and perhaps, outstripping. 
their Christian brethren in liberality. accord him an equal sha.re 
in political and social privileges-a liberality in dealing with weaker 
races which some Europeans confess themselves unable to exercise._ 
Dr. Livingstone seems to have thought that there might be 
some possibility of a Muslim vVilberforce, if we may judge from 
his immortal pra.yer, written, according to Mr. Waller, just one-
year befo.re his death, and recorded on the tablet Dear bis grave in 
Westminster Abbey, and which, in conclusion, is here. most 
fervently reiterated :-
All I cn.n add in my loneliness is, may Heaven·s rich blessing come down 
on everyone-American, English, or TORK, who will belp to heal the open 
sore of the world .1lO-AYEN. 
III Last JOUTlIa(,s, voL ii, p. 182. 
, 
• 
• 
The Life of Lord L awrence 
• 
and 1t s Lessons.' 
THIS model biography, published in 1883, has already passed through six editions. It bas produced remarka.ble results in 
the mean time. In tl:le United States it has been received with 
far more honour than is usually accorded to biographies of 
illustrious Englishmen. We learn tha.t the United States Govern· 
ment has pa.id it the unique compliment of ordering a copy to be 
placed on board every smp in the na.vy and in every public library 
in the United States. Such a. compliment is by no means UD-
deserved. Mr. Bosworth Smith has performed a. patriotic and 
philanthropic work. He has done a service to England and a. 
kindness to humanity by writing the life of Lord Lawrence as he 
has written it. That sucb a. work has been so generally and 
enthusiastically welcomed is a significa.nt and interesting com-
mentary on the intellectua.l a.nd mora.l progress of the present 
genera.tion of Englishmen a.nd Americans, and reassw'ing as to 
their future Jpolicy in dealing with those whom they still haughtily 
designAte II inferior races," 
We purpose in the following pages to gather from this rema.rkable 
book some or-the practical lessons which we believe it was the aim 
of the author to inculca.te by mea.ns of the character and deeds of 
one of the most interesting a.nd suggestive na.tures which it has 
ever been our good Cortune tl contempla.te. There are few books, 
it seems to us. which could be put. with as much advanta.ge into 
the bands of young men who, entering the civil, milita.ry. or na.val 
services of Engla.nd or the United Sta.tes, aspire to positions of 
honour, of re!;ponsibility and of trust. 
ltTJ1ft of Lord Lav:ro&Ct; b:r R. BoII"-'Orth Smith, M ..\ . (late Fellow of Trinity 
College, OxJord); 2 Vols.-LoodoD, 1883 Smith, Elder & Co . 
• 
• 
326 Christiallity, Islam a1ld the Negro Race. 
A writer iu the Quarterly Review (April. 1883). himself. we-
believe, an old Indian official, teUs us that U some months after-
the funeral at Westminster, when it became known that the widow 
of Lord Lawrence bad committed the task of writing her husband's 
history to a Harrow Master-to ODe who bad never seen India.-
there were gri~vous misgivings and great searchings of heart among 
the Anglo-Indian legions." It was feared that 8i civilian who had 
never visited either India or the Colonies would Dot have sufficient 
grasp of the subJect-that his ignorance of details and lack of local 
experience would lead him into serious mistakes. 
It was, indeed, a bold undertaking for a compara.tively young 
IDe.ll with the antecedents of the author, practically a. stranger to 
India and Indian affairs. to come forward as a historian and critic 
of matters apparently so entirely out of his line; to treat of a. 
period which has not yet passed into the domain of history, seeing 
that so many who acted amid the scenes described are still 
living; to deal with facts and principles, with the merits and 
demerits of various actors, in which not a. few sw-vivors still feel a.. 
keen interest, and with regard to which they entertain views more' 
or less decided. 
It required no little courage to write fully and freely on 80 
important a subject-rather on so many important subjects-with 
the consciousness that such bigh authorities as Lord Napier of 
Magdala, Captain Eastwick, Sir Richard Temple, Sir ljartle Frere,-
Sir Charles Raikes, Sir Henry Norman, Sir Ashley Edrn, Sir 
Frederic Goldsmid, &c., were waiting to read the record, and to 
bring to its perusa.l not only a. deep personal iLl.terest, but a. 
thorough knowledge of the subject of the biography and of the 
times and scenes of his activity. 
But, after all, considering the large uumbel' of works which 
have beeu written on India., by men of eminent a.bility and vast 
loca.! knowledge, what seemed to be now needed was Dot so much 
narrative and description, as critical appreciation of events and 
personal character; and it is really l'eueshing to sit down to the 
perusal of a work not only undefB.<?ed by technicalities unintelligible 
to the ordinary I'eader, but displayiug a practical sagacity ca.pa.ble-
• 
• 
The Life of Lord Lawrmce. 
of forming a distinct view of all the mingled obiects with which it 
has to dea.l, while it conveys lessons of the highest importa.nce at 
this particular time, when India.n affa.irs are becoming more and 
more a. topic of general interest in Engla.nd. 
111-. Bosworth Smith has not dealt with what may be called the 
subterraoeons elements of the Indian question, which only a. few ca.n 
a.ppreciate or understand. but with what is above ground, aml clear 
to the a.pprehension of all classes a.nd colours, of a.ll creeds and 
ra.ces. That which gives its rea.l '\ud enduring value to the book is 
not only tha.t it is eloquent, but that its eloquence is instinct with 
faith and love; not only that its para.grapbs are glowing, but that 
they glow with passion (01' goodness, for truth, a.nd for liberty. 
Whatever else the book lacks, these elements will cause it to live. 
Two of the Anglo.Indians, ,. ..· hose criticisms we have read, have 
ha.d an opportunity of correcting 'shat, frow their standpoints, 
seem to be mistakes or omissions in the author. But, upon the 
whole, they give the work their indorsement. Very few are the 
real blemishes which their vast experience of the circumstances 
and details of Lord Lawrence's ca.reer could detect or point out. 
lt is acknowledged on all hands, that, in spite of the enormous 
difficulties in the way, Mr. Bosworth Smith has been able to give a 
true picture of a hero and of a stormy period, which even the severest 
criticism cannot seriously impair-a. picture which will, we may 
believe, iniluence for good every successive generation of English· 
men .• The blows he has dealt, heavy at times, at the cause o[ war, 
aggression, cruelty and the pride o[ race, ma.y be resented in certain 
quarters no(\-, but they point to a glorious future for England, and 
for weaker ane! so·called inferior races over whom she now 
bears, or may hereafter be called to bear rule. They tend to 
strengthen, to perpetuate Rna to diffuse the traditional instincts 
of his country for the useful and the just. Wherever the book is 
read in the British colonies, especially among races alien to the 
Anglo·Sa.xon, it will inspire confidence and give assW'ance as to the 
real aims and motives of the .British GOyernlnent in its colonia.l 
administration. 
• 
No amount of residence and Government service in I ndio. would 
• 
• 
328 Chl'istia1tity, Islam and Ihe Negro Race. 
have given the quali£cations for 'the production of such a work; nor 
would any amount of mere scholarship have made a biographer of 
Lord Lawrence such as Mr. Bosworth Smith has proved himself 
to be. The book might have been written with greater local 
knowledge; it might have been more at home in technical deta.ils ; 
it might even have given a fuller picture of the outward form-Ibe 
flesh anel blood and bones-of Lord Lawrence; but we know of no 
other living writer who, after having drawn the sketch, prepared the 
skeleton, constructed the. body. could have informed it with the life, 
the SOlll, the spirit of the hero. Mere scholarship, or mere geo-
graphical 01' political knowledge of India, would have been helpless 
. to make Lord Lawrence move among us, as he now moves, 
living, breathing, teaching, inspiring. 
Sudet multum frustrn.que la.boret 
Ausus idem. 
Something else was needed, and that Mr. Smith possesses, namely, 
that thorough sympathy with his subject which arises from simili· 
tude of character. 
The task was not only within the compass of his mental 
powers, but entirely congenial to his intellectual and moral tastes. 
We did not need the aSSUTR.nCe of the author that he entered upon 
his work with a "keen sense of responsibility and with a genuine 
enthusiasm." This is apparent on every page. Judging from the 
tone and tendency of the previous works by which Mr. Bosvmrth 
Smith became known to the literary world, we cannot imagine 
that he would have undertaken this, if he ha.d not satisfied hjmself 
beforehand that the life and labours of the subject w~re such as 
to fW'nish an opportunity for eJlforcing those lessons of justice a.nd 
truth, of tolerance and freedom, which it has been his aim to in· 
culcate. .JlIohamrnell and Mohammedanism, and Carthage and the 
Carthaginians were composed not for the purpose merely of filling a. 
blank in religious and historical litel'Mul'e, but for high moral ends. 
No statesman can read his work on Carthage, and no theologian or 
Christian missionary can read hift work on Moha.mmedanism 
without getting clearer views as to the highest and most effective 
• 
The Life of Lord L awrence. 
methods of dea-ling with questions which frequently confront them 
in their respective callings. 
There is, as we have said, a certain resemblance of mind and 
'Spirit between the biographer and his subject. In his delineations, 
we may readily believe that Mr. Smith is not unlrequently reveal· 
ing his own life and personal experiences. His vivid descriptions 
.of Lord Lawrence's cbaracter give a clue to his own. His repre· 
sentations of that remarkable man are not always pure, dramatic 
.expressions, but they are also seU·revelations, He himself has lived 
inwardly the life be so successfully portrays. He has enjoyed the 
felicitous domestic sW'roundings to whicb, in the experiences of 
Lord Lawrence, be is so fond of recurring, and with ever-lresh 
.delight. 
It cannot be doubted that the wife of John Lawrence 
.exerted a most beneficial influence upon him in softewng the 
hard outline which, in consequence of hi!; peculiar calling, his 
.character was apt to assume. And in this the biographer resembles 
his subject. It is sa.id that in all his literary labours-a fact which 
is more tha.n hinted at in his graceful dedication of Mohammed and 
Mohammedanism-Mrs. Bosworth Smith has taken an important 
part, a.nd, in the work before us-if we mistake not.-traces of hel' 
influence are everywhere to be seen. It is not our wish to intrude 
upon the sacredness of domestic privacy, but we are gratified to be 
able to pay this tribute to one to whose devoted and self-sacrificing 
iabours.-tbe world is more largely indebted than it knows, for a 
great deal that Mr. Bosworth Smith has been enabled to teach it. 
o 
In a country like India, the help of such a woman to an English 
official, who holds a responsible position, or to any thoughtful 
European, is simply incalculable. Even the letters written from 
borne by sucb women to their relatives or friends in that distant 
land have an inspiring effect. Colonel Sleeman, in his Rambles 
,f)f an Indian OJficial, touchingly refers to this in a.ddressing his 
sister :- • 
Were anyone to &sk your countrymen in India. (he sa.ys to her) wha.t he.d 
.been theiJ: grea.t.est source of pleasure ,..hile there, perha.pll nine in ten would 
.say, ilie letters which they recelve from tbeiJ: sisters at home. ... And while • 
• 
• 
330 Christiallity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
thus contributing so much to our happiness, they, DO doubt, tend to mue us 
better citizens of the world and sen'ants or Government Ulan we should other-
wise be. for, in our" struggles through life " in India., we ha.ve aU, more or leas, 
a.n eye to the approbation of those circles wb.ich our kind sisters represent-who-
may therefore be considered in tho enlted light of a. valuable species of unpaicl 
m.a!Jistracy to the Government of India.. 
John Lawrence, throughout the greater part of his career ill 
India, lived under the sweet but effective influence of such a. 
.. ma.gistracy," unpaid, indeed, by Government recognition or 
pecuniary stipend, but reaping a. coustant rewa.rd from the con-
sciousness of duty dODe or help given to a. loved oue to rise, in 
his great work, to higher levels-a reward to her" more precious 
than gems or stores of gold." 
Only a. writer of spirit kindred to that of Lord Lawrence, II in 
reading over thousa.nds of letters" written by his subject lor the 
purpose of preparing a readable biography, would have so borne in. 
mind the cause of the wea.k 8:ud oppressed, as to have noticed that 
" uot a single expression occurred which would wound the pride of 
the most sensitive of natives," a.nd that II not iu oue single insta.nce-
does he use the oppl'Obl'ions term which is the very first to come to-
the mouth of too many young officers or ca.sual visitors to India ... 
The following will be read with admiration and gratitude by 
thousands in India, in Africa, in America, who are" guilty of So 
skin not coloured," like the white ma.u's:-
Englishmen there ha.ye been, and still are in India., who, pri "J.ng t.hemselves 
00 t.heir race or t.heir colour, their superior strength of body a.od st.rength of will, 
despise t.he na.t.ives, keep nloof from them, ca.ll t.hem by t.he opprobriG\ls na.m& 
of "niggers," and stl'ike a.nd maltreBot them in a way in which they would not 
"enture to treat a European. But such Englishmen have happily a.1wa.ys beeD 
in a smaU minont)', Ther may be found sometimes a.mong the youngest ILD.d 
most empty.beadcu officers of the army, or a.mong t.he fri\'olous Q.lld fashiona.ble 
and sca.nda.l·lovwg society of the great towns. But tbey are not to be found in. 
the ranks of the ci\'il sen-lCC, or among those soldier-statesmen who have built· 
up and have presel'\'ed OUl' India.n Empire. It is not. in the writings, tohe 
conversation, or the acts of men like Sir Thomas Munro, or Lord Metcalfe, like 
Ouuam or Ha\-elock, like Henry or John La.wrence, and of the hundreds of good 
men a.nd t.rue, of whom these a.rc, after a.il, but the most brilliant representatl.es, 
tha.t we can find a. word or deed indica.ti\'e of other than the deepest and moa~ 
affectionate interest. in the helpless and voiceless millions over whom they 
rule, ... These are the men who knov the natives, who sympathise with them 
and have learned to lo\'e them; who, in the spirit of a truly imperial race, look 
The Life of Lord Lawrmce. 33 I 
upon t.hemselves as the servllnts of those whom they rule, t'Lnd rule by serving 
them ; who do everything that in them lies to bridge over the ya.wning gulf, 
which, by our fa.te or by our fa.ult. still sepa.rates colour from colour. race £rom 
mee and creed from creed.:l 
Througbout his We, even in the early Delhi ILnd Punjab da.ys, John Lawrence 
bo.d set his fa. ce strongly aga.inst pro.ctices which it is easier to understa.nd tha.n 
to describe, and wb..ich were then a.ll too common among our countrymen in 
India. No one whose chara.cter wa.s not a.bove suspicion in those respects. 
could hope to stMd welt with him, 8\'Cn m the ea.rly times. ... No onc 8\'Or . 
droppeJ. a.n impure word or made an impure allusion in his presence. N o onc 
ever scoffed at religion, whether his own or that of the natIves. No ODe ever spoke 
contemptuously or ha.rshly of the na.tives themselves without receiving from 
bim &. stern and sometimes a. aledge.hammer rebuke. On one occasion, a lady 
who was slttmg at the Vice·regal ta.ble a.llowed herself to eneer at the Bible. 
Sir John La.wrence looked sternly on her o.lld said, with all his dignity, but Wlth 
more of sorrow tha.n of o.nger in his words, " How can you speak like that of 
God o.nd of God's book, in the presence of these young men?" The next minute 
be was talking with ber of other subjects &S if nothlng had happened. But the 
rebuke had done its work on her and on the assembled compo.ny. On &nother 
occ&sion, 0. young officer in the army, wbo ",as talking, a.fter the mn.nner of his 
kind , contemptuously of the natives, bappened, in Sir John's hearing, to speak 
of them o.s " those Diggers." "I beg your pardon," sa.id Sir John, "of wha.t 
people were you speaking?" And here agam the rebuke did its work right \volL 
Thus the Vice.rega.l Court was in his time wbat, happily, it has been in the co.se 
of most of our Vicerol's, and wha.t the English Court ho.s been throughout the 
reign of Queen Victoria..-the centre, as flU' as its chief occupant could make it 
so, of everything that was pure, everything that was lovely, everything that was 
of good report and from it, as from a. {resh fountain , flowed forth lessons of 
purity, of si mplicity, of reverence, of manliness, of hard work,o! all tho domestic 
cha.rities whic)•l  woro felt more or less through a.ll ranks of English society in India, Would that it h&d always been 90 in Indio. before a.nd since! Would 
'that it .ma.y alwa.ys be bO hereafter! Would that intelligent IWd inquiring 
nati\"ea mo.y ne,-er find one of their most forcible a.rguments a.gainst Cbristie.nity 
in the langue.ge,.in tbe actions, 10 the policy, in the surroundings of its so·called 
Chriitia.n ruler9! J 
This i3 the first time, so far as we know, that this subject-one 
of great importance to the coloured races of the globe. and which 
is generally considered too delicate to be bandIed or too insignifi-
cant to deserve attention-has been treated with such dignity 
and seriousness and in So wor•k  destined to wield so wide an 
influence. The intelligent English-speaking African, even more 
J Life of Lord LalCTeltCe; by R. BOlworth Smith, M.A. (vol i, pp 157, 158) . 
• Ihid; voL ii, pp. 511, 512 . 
• 
332 Christim,ity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
tha.n the Indian, bas frequently, in his reading a.nd in his tra.vels, 
.to encounter gra.tuitous insults, and from qua.rters where he would 
naturally not look for them. A few months ago, a.n English Dis-
'Seoting clergyman, whom we will call Mr. A., was a passenger 
from New York to Liverpool on one of the White Star stea.mers. 
He had lived in the Southern States of America. anu though now 
living in London and in charge of a. respectable congregation there 
he could not concea.l the prejudices which had grown upon him in 
America. There sat opposite to him at the Captain's table-
.assigned seats there by the consideration and courtesy of the Captain 
himself-two passengers of African descent-one, a. lady of edu-
cation and culture, wde of a diplomatic officer of the United States, 
.oD the way to Join ber husband; the other, the presiding officer 
of a litera.ry institution in Africa.. Mr. A. did not feel at home 
in the company of his coloured £ellow·passengers, and not 
unIrequently went out of his way, in speech and manner, to 
exhibit and emphasise his uncomfortable state. There sat on his 
right hand another English Dissenting clergyman who ha? heen 
spending a few weeks in America, but who possessed all the 
qualities of a. Christian gentleman and scholar. This gentleman 
was often shocked by the utterances of his brother minister in 
defence of Negro slavery, and always rebuked hjm for them. On 
one occasion, at the dinner·table, while the passengers,  sitting near 
them were proposing and answering conundrums, in which the 
African passengers participated, he suddenly said: .. Now, tell me, 
where is the Negro mentioned in the Bible? Several answers 
" 
were given, which he would not accept as correct. At last, when it 
was H given up," he blurted out, with rude and vulgar empbasis, 
the wretched pun, " Nigger demus," to the general disgust of the 
company. 
Mr. James Parton, in a remarkable article, published, Dot very 
long ago, in the North Amencan Revitw, on . Antipathy to the 
Negro; says:-
This colour repugnance IS usu8.l1, observed to be strongest in t.he meanest._ 
Among tbe educated people of t.be Sout'tem StateB it wa.s never ha.lf 80 .troDg 
as in tbe .. white trash .. and in tbe adventurers (rom other regIons who had Ul 
• 
The Life 0/ Lord Lawrellce. 333· 
interest in Battering the poor" white trash." The ma.n who made the dis~ 
turba.nce about the coloured person in the omnibus W&S generoJly 0. snob more 
or les8 di~guised. He might be a. gorgeous ga.mbler. a. sha.m D.D ., a. pushing 
800re keeper, a. sma.ll politician: but, commonly, the soul of a. sca.mp was in 
him. In the North it was never the rea.lly educa.ted man or woma.n who felt 
o.ggrieved a.t the presence of a. decent coloured man. 
Would tha.t these sentences conveyed H the truth, the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth." But, if we are to judge from 
outwa.rd appeara.nces, they do not do so. We ca.nnot see the soul. 
But there are, we regret to say, some outwardly respectable persoDsiu 
England, as well as in America.. who speak and write in a. manner 
which indicates the kind of soul referred to by Mr. Parton. One 
of the most flagrant eases is that of Dr. Edward A. Freeman in. 
• 
his last work on America. During a visit which we paid, in 1882,. 
to the United States, we found a. feeling of wide-spread indigna.tion 
a.mong the intelligent coloured classes in view of the insult offered 
them by Dr. Freeman, in his articles on the United States. 
These articles appeared in the Fortnightly Reriew and Longman's 
lJagazine. They are DOW republished in a volume} 
The- following are some of his more offensive utterances :-
The bestowal of citizenship on the Negro 5 is one of those cases which show 
wha.t la.w ca.n do, a.nd what it C8.nnot. The law may declare the Negro to be the 
equaJ of the white man; it cannot me.ke him his equal. To the old question, 
"Am. I not a. man IlDd a brother?" I venture to answer: No. The Negro ma.y 
be a. man IlDd a brother in some seconda.ry sense; be is not a. mIlD and 8. brother 
in the srune fuJI sense in which every Jl'tstern 4T?/a n is a. man and a. brother. 
The eternal laws of Nature, the etema.l distinction of colour, forbid the 
e.seimila.aion of the Negro. 
We are told that education has done, a.nd is doing, much for the younger 
memben of the ";lIlce-ensla\'ed ra.ce. But educa.tion cannot wipe out the eterna.l 
diatinction that has been drawn by the hand of Nature. 
I cannot help thinkjng that those in either hemisphere who were most 
zerJous for the ema.nclpation of the Negro must, Ln their hea.rt or hearts, feel 0. 
secret shudder at the thought that, though mora.Uy impossible, it is constitu-
tiODa.l1y possible that, two years hence, a. blo.ck man may be chosen to sit in 
the aea.t of Washi.ngton and Ga.r6eld.' 
, 80tM ImpTts&ions of tile United Slate3; by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L., 
LL.D.-London, 1883. 
5 Dr. Freem&n writes the word with 0. sma.ll .. D." 
G Dr. Freema.n i9 IlD a.rdent and untiring opponent of the Moha.mmedllD 
religion, which tea.cbes tha.t it is mora.l•l y possible and religiously right that, if 
• 
334 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
To me at lea.st the Negro is repulsive. Of the two, one is more inclined to 
hail a. man and a. brother in the India.n tha.n in the Negro. Such India.ns 8.8 
I sa.w were c6rta.inly less ugly tha.n the Negroes, But then they lacked the 
grotesque a.ir wbich often ma.kes the Negro's ugliness less repulsive. Not 
repulsive, like the Negro, from the mere lines of the fa.ce, they were repulsive 
from the utter la.ck of intellectua.l expression. 
Very many a.pproved when I suggested tha.t the best remedy for wha.tever 
was a.miss would be if every lrisilln£Ul should kill a. Negro and be he.nged for it. 
'Those who dissented, dissented most commonly on the ground tha.t, if there were 
no Irish and DO Negroes, !;hey would not be Soble to get a.ny domestic serva.nts.' 
Dr. Freeman knows that there are many Negroes, men and 
women, in America, who can read, and willl'ead, his book, and he 
thoughtlessly flings these insults inte;> their faces. He knows, also, 
that these people are manfully struggling to rise against a. heavy 
burden of prejudice ·and contempt, and he wantonly piles up 
arguments against them for the use of their oppressors. Is Dr. 
Freeman a Christian, or has he, for the nonce, thrown off his in· 
crustation of modern culture to give full play to the pure latent 
Briton? Or is it the old Norman pride? 
The jargon of describing the Negro as If unfit for freedom" being 
DOW, to a great extent, obsolete, his personal peculiarities, as he is 
seen chiefly in the countries of his exile, must be brought forward 
for ridicule, in order to intensify the prejudice against him and per· 
petuate the social hostility by which he is oppressed. Prejudice is, 
partly, an instinct, and, partly, a result oC surrounding circumstances. 
'Sometimes it bas a mercenary quality, or, rather, Oliginates in 
mercenary motives. The prejudice against the Negro, in Ailierica, 
-is both instinctive and circumstantial; in Englishmen, it may be 
only instinctive, the result oC race-pride or exclusiveness; but it 
bas, at times, in Englishmen in America, partaken of a mercenary 
nature. It used to be said, in the days oC slavery, that Englishmen 
who had accepted Southern hospitality always had Southern sym· 
_pathies. Possibly the inability of the historian of the Norman 
a bla.ck man has tho necessary qualificat·oDs, he should rise to the hea.d of the 
Government, and sit in the sea.t of the Snlta.n-a. doctrine which, lJl the history 
·of hlo.m, has alten been practically ca.rried out. Ought the Negro to follow 
Dr. Freeman's teaching on. this subject. er Uoha.mmed's? 
1 Some Imprcs.ioll8 of tll~ Uttifcd Slates .. chnp. x 
The Life of Lord Law/'wce. 335 
Conquest on this subject may be accounted for by the fact that 
he has a. son who has become a Virginia. planter. Shortly after 
the civil war, it was, and it probably still is, the fasbion, with some 
leading spirits of Virginia., to denounce Negro education and en-
franchisement as necessarily hostile to the industrial interests of 
the country; and Dr. Freeman could not escape the contagion, 
while on a visit to his SOD, in 1881-82. Indeed, he says himself, 
referring to this very subject, II What I venture to sa.y on the 
housetops has been whispered in l:ly eM' in closets OJ' not a few 
in America, who fully understand the state and needs of their 
.country. II 
Dr. Freeman is, probably, not aware that the" whispel'el's" 
in .. closets" are numbered by loyal Americans among the If unre· 
-constructed." who feel regret for the absence of those laws and 
-regula.tions by which the Negro was doomed to be a. perpetual 
chattel, and which fostered that race hostility, which, by the excess 
.of its violence, served Dot indeed to prevent the amalgamation of 
the races-for that was going on continually-but as the pillar and 
buttress of slavery. The agitation aga.inst the Negro by Americans 
in some parts of America is intelligible and, perhaps, natural, 
though it is, in- a great measure, unjust and unreasonable. But 
it is strange indeed that an Englishman should go out of his wa.y 
to add fuel to the fire, and, it can only be accounted for, by 
the fact, that, in the Southern States, foreigners have thought it 
pruden), at times, not only to profess to share, but even to excite. 
the popular antipathy against the Negro, that they might utilise it 
for their own ~nds. Dr. Freeman, indeed, warns the reader in his 
preface that .. the impressions are those of one who looks at things 
for hi:; Ott:1L purposes, and from his own point of view." )II'. Herbert 
Spencer, who visited the United Sta.tes not long after Dr. Freeman, 
did not, in recording his impre~sions of the country, say a single wO~'d 
which might increase the load of odiulll under which the Negro 
labours, and he was probably a\ keen in his appreciation of the 
If state and needs of America" as his distinguished countryman. 
But, true to his English instincts, that eminent philosopher did not 
think it creditable to "bit a man when he is down." The a.bsence 
• 
336 CI!1'istianity, Islam and the Ner,ro Race. 
of any" axe to grind," and freedom from obliga.tions incurred im 
any particular section of the country, left his Dobler nature its full 
play. 
But Dr. Freeman parades his antipathy not only to the Negro r 
but to the Irish, the Indian, the Chinese. He selects for his persecu-
tion the weaker races. There a.re blows tQ give, he thinks, but none 
to take. Wedo not object torus criticisms, coarse as we deem them,. 
of . the looks of the different races j for good looks or bad looks in 
individuals ~r classes depend upon the standpoint from which the 
objects are viewed. Stanley tells us that when he came out of the· 
interior of Africa, where, for two years, he had been accustomed to 
the black or bronze colour of the natives, the white complexion of 
the foreigners he met on the coast at first repelled him. He says:-
The sight of the pa.le faces of the Embomma. merchants gave me the slightest. 
suspicion of e. shiver. The pale colour, after so long gazing on rich black a.nd 
richer bronze, ha.d something of (Ion unaccounta.ble ghs.stliness . 
I could not divest myself of the feeling that they must be sick; yet. as r 
compare their complexions with what I now view, I should say they were oliver 
sunburnt, da.rk. 8 
Win wood Reade, in his African Sketch-Book, gIves all' 
amusing and suggesti\'e account of the impressions of an intelligent: 
African youth in the interior of Africa, on his first seeing a white 
man. We would commend to Dr. Fl'eeman a perusal of that 
account, if, with all his research, he has not yet learned that what 
may be If ugly" in Europe is not necessarily" ugly" in China r 
India, or Africa. If Dr. Freeman were bound to travel in.,A(rica r 
we venture to predict that the natives would never make any dis-
paraging comments-wha.tever their opinions-upon his personaL 
appearance, where he would be likely to hear them; and tills, from 
an innate good breeding. which, though they 114ck mental culture,. 
is ever visible, in spite of what may be called their unpolished 
exterior. 
But does it not occur to such writers as Dr. Freema.u that the-
world is tired of hearing stereotyped pill'ases of contempt for the 
African? For three hundred years this has been going on. The 
8 Through th~ Dark Contill~lIt, vol. ii, p. 462. 
• 
• 
The Life of Lord Lawrellce. 337 
world is tired, and is now changing its tone. The enquiry among 
the most earnest men is, What can be done to lift up this race? 
How shall that vast continent, from which millions have been torn 
to engage in unrequited toil for strangers, be delivered from the 
disadvanta.ges of ages? These arB the problems to which some of the 
best a.nd most vigorous minds of the age are directing their atten-
tion. The Rip Van Winkles have lost their influence. The rising 
generation of English scholars have very UtUe sympathy with the 
narrow, racial prejudices of their fatpers. And, with such teachers 
to guide them as Mr. Bosworth Smlth, the youth now in the schools 
of England, when they come upon the sta.ge of action, will eliminate 
from their literary :-.nd scientific discussions those relics of 
barbarism-the opprobrious ' terms DOW applied to foreign a.nd 
weaker races-and they will wonder how, with all the refinement 
a.nd culture of their predecessors, there coult1 r.o..ve been exhibited 
that odious selfishness, that want of magnanimity and consideration 
for others, which often disfigure their literary productions. 
It is a. significant sign of the times and of the progress of liberal 
I sentiments in England that the great reputation of Mr. Carlyle. 
who believed that II God had put a whip in the hand of every white 
man to Bog the Negro," is undergoing the shock and revision 
which were sure to come when that large population, which he. 
characterised as .. mostly fools," recovered from the fascination of 
one who, as time goes on, will seem to them, more and more, a. 
• 
stupendous charla.tan. We were a.mused, not long since, at the 
excitement and bitterness created in certain quarters by Mr. 
l;Youde's strailjhtforward honesty in publish ing the picture which, 
with severe but repulsive truthfulness, Mr. Carlyle had drawn of 
bimseU. The worshippers of a generation bave revolted at the 
hideousness of their fetish; and the enlightened Negro feels a sense 
of relief that the rea.l character of one who sneered at the philan. 
thropies of Cbristia.nity and the humanities of the age, and ridiculed 
what he called" Nigger emanc!pation," has been disclosed, and 
by hi! own hands. The agencies for good are mightier than the 
agencies for evil. A righteous Nemesis may be slow, but it is sure. 
The ploughma.n of Ayrshire has'proved a. deeper thinker and truer 
z 
• 
• 
338 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
prophet than" the philosopher of Chelsea." The song of the rustic 
poet will ring down the ages when the sensationa.lisms and 
a.ffecta.tions of his cynical countryma.n are a.ll buried in their 
merited oblivion.' 
F or eo' tha.t a.nd 80' that, 
It's coming yet for a,' tha.t, 
Tha.t ma.n to ma.n the world o'er 
Sha,u brother8 be fo r fit' tha.t. 
As it has happened to Mr.  .carlyle. so will it happen to all who 
uae the gifts bestowed upon them by the common Father of all to 
ridicule or oppress any portion of His creatures. They will be 
classed, in the ultima.te judgment, even of meo, with poltroons and 
cowards, who think: it necessa.ry to p'ull down others in order to 
assure a. sta.nding a.nd opportunity for themselves; a.nd in the grea.t 
herea.fter they will rank with Dante's contemptible herd-
• 
Ie genti dolorose, 
C'be.n.no perduto il ben dell' intelletto, 
• • • • • • • • 
Fama. di loro it mondo csser non lo.ssa.; 
Misericordia. e Giustezia. gli sdegna..10 
We are glad to notice that, in the midst of an interesting and 
absorbing narrative of the siege and capture of Delhi. Mr. Bosworth 
Smith pauses to record his indignation at baseness a.nd brutality, 
and to brand \vith just condemnation the deeds of Captain Hodson. 
We do not care to reproduc.e here the horrible charg~s which, on 
substantial evidence, direct a.nd collateral, are preferred against the 
mao; but this we may say, that in our opinion Hodson was, 
morally speaking, one of the worst specimens of all of whom we 
have ever heard or read as claiming relationship with Englishmen 
A~ !:'~ ,. '" "I \ ,,, \ II U UTXUTTOS o( aV1)p vr,u AtOV '1'/AI7(II. 
It is consolatory to believe that there were only two other 
Englishmen like Hodson in India, and we are gla.d that their na.mes 
• 
II How much t.here is (says Pro[essol 1\18.][ ilIUller) in Ca.rlyle's wOOdu 
tha.t might sa.fely be conlligned to oblivion.-Ituiia, p. 16. 
10 InJer1w, iii. 
11 Iliad. ii . 
The Life of Lord Lawrmce. 339 
are not given by the biographer. Mr. Bosworth Smith's reference 
to a. life of this man by his brother, "extolling him as a model 
of Christian chivalry and honour," reminds us of a passage in 
Macaulay's terrible indictment of Earere. And, as it fell to the lot 
of Barere, under the caustic pen of that brilliant essayist, so has it 
fallen to the lot of Hodson, under the indignant and incisive pen of 
Mr. Bosworth Smith. We imagine that ITom the eminence of 
infamy on which Mr. Smith has placed his character, no attempt 
to prove him a "model Christian" will ever take it down. 
The animadversions on the proceedings of Frederick Cooper 
seem to us even more necessary than the impaling of Hodson. 
Hodson was an exceptional character, rough-hewn and of a base • 
nature. Cooper represented the ordinary English official of whom 
hundreds go to India and the colonies. He was of finer nature 
and higher culture than Hodson, and his example, if not reprobated 
and condemned, as it has been in this book, might be followed by 
the large number who, in the English service, are likely to secure 
positions similar to that which he held. 
We do not see, however, that full justice has been meted out to 
John Nicholson. There is about this ma.n, we must admit, a great 
deal that is attractive; and, perhaps, in the fearful crisis through 
which British India was then passing, such a character-" turbulent 
and imperious "-was necessary. He was evidently courageous; 
deserving to the full, no doubt, the encomiums bestowed upon him 
by·LorQ. Lawrence in an after·dinner speech at the" Great Durbar 
of Lahore;" but we confess that our admiration is marred when we 
read the curt dnd apparently unfeeling note in which he announced 
to the Chief Commissioner the death of a man who bad fallen by 
his nervous and fa.tal shot--
Sil.-I have the honour to report that a man came mto my compound to.day 
intending to kill me, and tha.t I shot him dea.d. 
Your obedient serva.nt, 
• JOHN NIOHOLSON . 
His cool and apparently indifferent remark after hacking to 
death a. bra.ve enemy who had stood ma.nfully prepared to die at his 
• 
post, has a. touch of the unmanly in it. The Reviewer in the 
• 
• 
340 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
Quarterly, thinks that Nicholson is aptly described by the line. 
which Horace applies to Achilles- • 
Impiger, ira.cunduB. inexoro.biW. l\.cer, 
Jure. sibi nege.t. nibjl nOD a.rroga.t armis. 
Whatever else he possessed, he Se6IDS to us to ha.ve been devoid 
of many of the elements of the real hero. Whether we contemplate • 
him from a. military or ethical point of view, we ca.nnot but regaru 
his character as seriously incomplete and defective. II In the 
English," says Mr. Bosworth Smith, If as in all imperia.l raceR, 
there is an element of the wild beast." Nicholson exemplifies 
this remark. Perha.ps in all conquering races this indomita.ble 
element is a. necessity-this overbearing and insolent spirit, which 
alone knows how to conquer. But u:c shudder in the presence of 0. 
nature so relentless and implaca.ble. 
No one can fail to r~ad with interest and admiration the follow-
ing passing tribute paid to the weak-the natives who bore their 
part in the capture of Delhi :-
The coolness (Lnd the courage of the old Sikh Artillerymen, who had been 
picked out by Sir John Lawrence in person, and of the despised Muzbi Sikhs, 
whom he had also sent down to Delhi, were u conspicuous as that of the 
Europeo.ns themselves. And the passive endurance of the w(\,ter·ca.rrien a.nd 
native servants, who, amidst the hatreds of colour and race whieh the fiercc 
conflict had engendered, bad not .Iw.ys reeeived the bbt of treatment at their 
ma.sters' hands, and were now expected to wait on tbol!c .1\me masten amids~ 
storms of sbot 1\Dd shell, was, perb1\ps, more wonderful thtUl eithcr.12 
Mr. Bosworth Smith is not a philanthropic agita.tor, but he id 
intensely patriotic. ITe is intensely English, swayed uy the 
noblest feelings of his people. He is anxious for the honour of 
England. He wishes that England should be everywhere feared 
and loved. especia.lly iu her colonies. He believes that 
England, upon the whole, possesses more of the elements and 
possibilities of beneficent and conservative rule than any other 
European nation; and he nev~r loses an opportunity to point out 
that it is the aim of the Imperia.l Government that righteousness 
should at all times enter a.s a. dominant, predominant factor in 
English policy toward wea.ker races. But he is also, at the same 
12 Life of Lord LalCrtnce; vol. ii, p. 1St . 
• 
• 
• 
The Life of Lord L awrellce. 34 1 
• 
time, 8.wa.re tha.t, under colonia.l rule, such a. policy is not alwa.ys 
carried out. He is anxious tha.t it should be. He is a.nxious that 
full scope should be given for the just ambition of na.tive races, 
and that their abilities should be utilised in every wa.y compatible 
with the rights and welfare of all; and he believes that such So 
course comes" within the range of practical politics." He looks 
upon the possibilities of the British Empire precisely as Dean 
Stanley looked upon the possibilities of the Church of England. 
as able to make room, not for ODe ra.ce only. Dor for ODe element 
of human nature only, but (or all the races and a.ll the various 
elements of the whol~ world. Not that he would bring them all to 
a dead uniformity. He would respect the religious and social 
institutions of alien and non-Christian races, and he would not 
interfere with their harmless customs. 
Those acquainted with the character and temper of the men 
who, happily for humanity, come to the head of the Government at 
home from both the great parties, know that Mr. Bosworth Smith 
,•  by DO means exaggerates when be represents Henry and John 
Lawrence as the embodiment of the spirit and intention of the 
Imperia.l Government. ".Taking them both together," he says, .. the 
chivalry, tbe generosity, the sympathy of the one; the strength, the 
judgment, the magnanimity of the otber; the name of Lawrence 
may, now and forever, prEsent to the people of India the noblest 
impersonation of English rule-a rule unsel£sh and unaggressive, 
beneVlllent and energetic, wise and just." 18 
Considering the peculiarities of human nature, the excellencies 
an.d defects·w hich are almost always found in some of the 
ablest rulers, it is not to be wondered at that the beneficent con-
ceptions of the Imperial Government should find realisation in the 
a.dministrative acts of but compara.tively few of its representatives 
abroa.d; and this, because the majority of men lack that imaginative 
symI'...A.tby which enables us to put ourselves in the pla.ce of 
others. • 
Of one of the most distinguished of the British rulers of I ndia 
Mr. Bosworth Smith says:- • 
" Ibid., vol. ii, p. 160•  
• 
• 
342 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
Lord Da.lhousie seems, {rom his letters, hundreds of which lie before me, to 
ha.ve been una.ble to clothe himself sufficiently with the feelings, the prejudices, 
the aspiro.tio118. the idea.s of those over whom be ruled; nod he was una.ble, 
therefore, to understand how the na.tives of India., recognising. as ma.nr of them 
did the general benevolence of our intentions and the undoubted beneficence of 
our rule, were yet disposed to look back with yearning and regret on the dlloys 
when, if they were oppressed, plundered, murdoTed, they wele so by men of 
their own [a.ce, their 0"-"'11 iangua.go, or their own creed .. . .. Nor is there in 
the whole of his letters, brilliant a.nd incisive a.nd mey, as they &.11 &ore, a single 
sentence which inclines the reooer to pause and say. as he does aga.i.n and again 
when he is reading the much less brilliant and incish'e letters of Metcalf, or 
Outram, of Henry or John Lawrence," Here is a man whose chief claim to rule 
India. W&S tha.t he so thoroughly understood her people," If, therefore, there 
ha.s been no abler, or more commanding, or more conscientious, or more successful 
Governor-General of India tha.D Lord Dalhou9ie, there ha.ve been, in my opinion, 
Governors-Genera.l who were more sympa.thetic with the natives and more 
beloved.1I 
The West African settlements, the only ooes of the British 
colonies with which we are acquainted, notwithstanding all the 
drawbacks of climate, have numbered among their rulers, especially 
within the last twenty years, some of the best representatives of the 
English spirit. The names of Si.r Arthur E. Kennedy. Sir John 
Pope Hennessy, Sir Samuel Rowe, Governor A. E. Havelock, will 
long be remembered on these shores as reflecting one of the best 
traditions of Downing Street. 
One of the chief faults of the Indian administration, to which 
Mr. Bosworth Smith often incidentally alludes, is that it leaves so 
few outlets for native talent, has so little real insight into the 
native character, and is too anxious to engraft ~estern progress 
wholesale on Eastern conservatism and stagnation - It is grati-
fying to know that in the colonies in West Africa-thanks. to 
the enlightened efforts of some of the rulers to whom we have 
referred-ma.tters, in these respects, are improving. The fa.ult 
which administrators find with the natives is a. want of regular 
and continuous development. Their later career does Dot seem 
to fulfil the promise of their earlier years. But this h ....I 15'O.M, 
more or less, in a.ll countries and among all races. Everywhere 
the talents a.nd conduct of boys or young men develop them-
It Ibid., vol. i, pp. 43-1, 435 _ 
• 
• 
The Life of Lord Lawrmce. 343 
• 
selves very differently. Some are precocious. expa.nd with a show 
of rapidity. and then, a.ll at once. sta.nd still or deteriorate. But, in 
the West African settlements, this is perhaps more noticeable, and 
so it will be in all colonies where Englishmen rule over an alien 
and weaker race. The remedy is, <I more outlets for na.tive talent," 
greater" insight into native character," and less anxiety to engraft 
European progress wholesale on African conservatism and stag-
nation. A more comprehensive system of education and better 
teachers would. in a short time, give the natives all the accomplish-
ments in which they are now so deficient; and they would soon 
prove that Nature b'\s not denied them the talents and the per-
severance necessary to adopt the manners and the habits suited 
to positions of responsibility and trust under an enlightened 
government. 
The following is worthy of reproduction, perservation and wide 
circulation: After the fall of Delhi, some of John La.wrence's 
friends wrote to him expressing their earnest hope that he would 
.. plough up Dehli ;" others, that he would at least destroy the Great 
Mosque. In reply to the latter proposal, he writes to Pelha.m Burn, 
who had consulted him in the ma.tter, "I will on no account consent 
to it. We should ca.refu11y absta.in from the destruction of religious 
edifices, either to favour friends or to annoy foes." And, when some 
of the chief authorities in his province-a.nd many of them his 
intimate friends-came in solemn deputation to him to urge the sa.me 
step, ..m d pointed out, as a convincing argument, that to destroy 
the finest place of Muslim worship in the world would be felt as a 
> 
blow to their religion by Muslims everywhere, he first reasoned 
out tbe matter calmly witb tbem, but finding tbat be could produce 
no effect, he jumped up from his seat, and, slapping the foremost of 
them on his back, said ... I'll tell you what it is: there are many 
things you could persuade me to do, but you shall never persuade 
me to do this; so you ma.y a.s well spa.re your pains."u 
That the mosques of Delhi were n•o t desecrated; tba.t tbe inhabita.nts were 
not left to abift for them.sel~e8 as bomeless outca.sts; tba.t t.be wbole city, witb 
its giorioul buildings and its historic memories, was not levelled with ilia 
• 
U Ibid, vol ii. p. 222 . 
• 
• 
344 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
ground and the plough driven over its site; in ODe word, tha.t the lasting ebe.me 
emblazoned in letters of blood a.nd fire in the &nDa.ls of Imperi.l Rome, by her 
ruthless destruction of Ca.rthBge e.nd Corinth, is not written in equa.lly indelible 
cha.racters in the annals of English rule in IndiRo, wa.s due, in gres.t pa.rt at least, 
to the justice and the hume.nity, the sta.tesma.nship a.nd the Christia.n spirit of 
J ohn La.wrence.1o 
Lord Lawrence did not para.de his religion, says his hiogra.pher: 
No more sincere Christia.n ever lived. He wa.lked 8.8 in the sight of God. 
He read the Bible every morning of his life with pr8.yer, a.nd rega.rded it a,a the 
only, o.nd 0.8 the sufficient, guide to heaven. But he rarely ta.Lked on religiou8 
questions, a.nd still more ra.rely did be mllke use of the phra.seology which W&S 
current in religious circles of the shictly Eva.ngelica\ type. The religious 
expressions mooe uso of in his letters are of the simplest and most childlike 
kind.17 
The followin g testimony is borne by Captain Eastwick, an 
intimate friend , who himseU partakes largely of the Lawrence spirit. 
The hospitalities of his pleasant home in London are always acces-
sible to the deserving stranger of whatever race or colour. He says: 
No man understood better than Lord Le.wrence the.t living for others is the 
first step towards living for God. The extent to wbich he la.boured in this 
sphere of Christinn charity is known only to the cherished partner of his ee.rtbly 
pilgrimage, the pa.rta.ker of his joys ILnd sorrows, a.nd the solo sharer of every 
secret of his inner life. . . . From the ea.rliest period of my acquaintance 
with him he was a decided Christi&n; a simple, God.fea.ring man, who, to the 
best of his a.bility, tra.nsla.ted into de.ily pr8.ctice the precepts of the Bible.1' 
• 
The celebrated letter of Lord Lawrence, in reply to Colonel 
Herbert Edwards, wherein he lays down the course which a 
Christian Government should pursue in dealing with non·Christian 
subjects, has beeu generally studied in Asia., Europp , Africa and 
America, and furnishes very important hints to Christian missioD-
aries and missionary committees. It shows the If insight, gra.sp, 
calmness and toleration of a. Christia.n statesman." The letter was 
written, under his instructions, by his Secretary, now Sir Richa.rd 
Temple, who has borne, since that time, a part in the government 
of nearly every province in India, and is distinguished a.s an en-
lightened friend of Christian missions. We qqote one or two striking 
passages ;-
18 Ibid., p. 226 . 17 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 270. 11 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 325. 
• • 
• The Life of Lord Lawrmce. 345 
Sir John Lawrence, I 80m pleased to sto.te, S&y8 the Secreta.ry, entcrta.ins the 
earnest belief that a.U those measures which Me rea.lIy e.nd truly Christin.n can 
be ca.rried out in India., not only without danger to British rule, but, on the 
conbrary, with every adva.ntage to its ste.bility. Christian tllill!}' dam in a 
Christian way wilL never, tM Gllitf Commiuionu is co,wi/lced, alienau the 
Heathen. About such thiny, tlitre are qUh.litie8 which do not prolJoke or t:rcitt 
distrust, nor harden to u,istance . It is when unchristian thing. aTe do~ in the 
nan~ of Chri~tianity, or wilen Christian tlli1/!}' are done ill an ullcllri.tian way, 
toot muehie! and dangtr are aCClUromd. 
The greatness DC Lord Lawerence was ~nglish greatness. He 
cannot be regarded as an isolated phenomenon in the modern 
history of England. He embodied in himself the characteristics of 
the English people. He was the result of the soundness of the 
central character of England. The beginning of his career in India • 
witnessed the beginning, in England, of that series of reforms which, 
in the last fifty years, have changed the whole of the economic and 
political character of Great Britain. No other period in the modern 
parliamentary history of tbat great country has been so fruitful 
, of beneficent measures; in none bas there been sucb a variety 
of philanthropic legislation. During the fiTst decade of John 
Lawrence's residence in India, the Reform Bill, the Bin for the 
Abolition of Slavery, the Bill for the Removal of the Disabilities of 
I the Jews, the Poor Law Amendment, the Tithe Commutation Acts, 
I were fully discussed and passed by Parliament. 
In the spbsequent decade, under the guidance of Sir Robert 
Peel, the same spirit of improvement was displayed in financial and 
commercial changes, ending with the abolition of the Corn Laws 
and of the NfI§igation Laws. The speeches delivered in Parliament 
and elsewhere in England during the discussion of these measures, 
were all, no doubt, eagerly read and studied hy John Lawrence in 
his remote sphere of labour, and they were in themselves a liberal 
education. Living in a stra.nge country, among a strange people 
and unfamiliar surroundings, and anxious to keep abreast of events 
a.s they happened at home, it i~ probable that he enjoyed greater 
opportunity and had greater inducements for studying a.nd mastering 
the questions which came before him iu letters a.nd newspa.pers, than 
he would have had in EnglaDd~ While in the districts of Delhi 
and Paniput, he was accumulating those treasures of experience, 
• 
• 
Christianity, Islaut and the Negro Race. 
• 
he was. at the same time, getting instruction from the noble 
utterances of such able teachers as Brougham, Maca.ulay, Thomas 
Fowell Buxton, and acquiring those habits of which the results are 
seen all through his subsequent la.bours, whether in the India.n 
Council, the Palace at Calcutta, or the House of Lords. His mind was 
gettIng direction from the grea.t orations of Bright, Cobden, Peel, 
Gla.dstone, Disraeli. He grew up and his first official deeds were 
performed during the time that the greatest orators of the present 
century were swaying the minds of the English people. creating an 
enthusiasm for the masses, and finding co-operation in the Muse of 
the greatest contemporary poet, who taught in stirring song tha.t 
Kind hearts a.re more than coronets, 
And simple fa.ith tha.n Norman blood. 
TInder such influences was the character of John Lawrence formed 
-a character which, it cannot be doubted. was the result of the 
constitutional history and national chara.cter of England. It was 
au evolution-a blossom which took shape from the rising sap. and 
was tinted by tbe ligbt of English history. 
It is matter for gmtulation tbat tbe Life of Lord Lawrence bas 
been added to the literature of Great Brita.in-a literature upon 
which the suu never sets, and which may be compared to a beautiful 
and variegated landscape. The traveller over it is surprised and 
delighted at each turn of the road. There are stretches which, 
beautified with fragrant Bowers, minister to the resthetic intui~ion9 
and necessities of his nature; along these he loves to linger; but 
the only feeling that remains, after he has pa.ssed th,e m. is one of 
exhilaration. There are others where luscious fruits abound, 
which. besides delighting the eye, regale the appetite and satisfy a. 
craving deeper than mere artificial taste. Here he finds not only 
delight, but profit. There are beautiful and charming work. in 
English literature which a.re oilly beautiful; they do not nourish. 
There are others which feed tbe hungry, while they send the rich 
empty away; others, s~iIl, minister to the taste of the rich, while 
they lea.ve the poor to starve; while others once more afford SllS-
tenance to tbe needy and guidance "ud help to the rich. The Life of 
Lord Lawl'e1lce belongs to the la.st cla.ss. Mr. Bosworth Smith has 
• 
The Life of Lord Lawrence. 347 
• 
fulfilled the conditions laid down by the poet for complete success 
in literary art :-
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulce 
Lectorem delecta.ndo pariterque monendo.19 
The atmosphere of the book is refreshing and uplifting. It will 
bear protra.cted reading aloud in any thoughtful circle. Its moral 
a.nd intellectual tone throws a. brightness over virtue and benevo-
lence, and makes vice and brutality seem darker. It brings to 
mind the experience one has in a tropical tornado when it is just 
approaching. The quarter of the heavens whence it proceeds looks 
blacker from the clearness of the sky in the opposite direction. 
The storm clouds deepen in their density and gloom, while the sun 
appears to shine with increased intensity in the opposite quarter. 
So the unsparing vindictiveness, savage brutality and insatiable 
a.varice of Hodson, the stern and calculating cruelty of Cooper, 
the fierce and distorted temperament of Nicholson. seem more 
repulsive in the light of the exalted heroism, the generosity and 
love of the Lawrences, and other noble characters, who have been 
made to pass before us. The light gives a greater depth to the 
shadow. 
Taking into consideration the moral influence of this work, it 
is, we venture to think. far more important to humanity than any 
of the productions .of the fine arts-of sculpture, painting. or music. 
So fa.r as thlir effect upon human progress is concerned, what are 
theJre'jcoes of the Vatican, the exquisite grace of Raphael, or the 
sublimity and energy of Michael Angelo, compared to the practical 
and phila.nthrbpic inftuence of such a book? Viewing its effect 
upon the welfare of humanity, we would not exchange it for a.ll the 
awful a.nd beautiful things in the Sistine Cbapel. Its triumphs are 
not resthetic, but humanitarian. The high problems of political 
and social economy and ethics, of race, education, religion and 
diplomacy, are all dealt with in a truly Christian spirit. Not taste 
but righteousness is consulted, 8.nd the great law is enforced, by 
precept and living examples, of doing unto others as we would that 
they should do unto us. 
• 
19 Horace, ' Epiato\a. ad Pisones.' 
• 
• 
348 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
• We sincerely hope that this work ma.y not remain an isola.ted 
phenomenon in the biographical literature of England. W. trust 
that the successors of Lord Lawrence ma.y find biographers who 
may be Dot only disciples but successors in spirit, of Mr. Bosworth 
• 
Smith. In one sense, Lord Lawrence will have no successor. 
There are some qualities which are individual a.nd belong to a. par-
ticular time-and only to tha.t time-neither communicable nor 
transmissible. Lord Lawrence could not form a Lawrence school 
any more than Shakespeare could train a. Shakespeare. A doctrine, 
a. principle, a. method, a. discovery, may be communicated or tra.ns-
mitted. But how shall a spirit b. embodied? Who shall give to 
others tha.t .. heroic simplicity/' that rapid penetration into the 
obscurities of a question, that prompt intuition into peculiar cases, 
which cannot be judged by general rules, a.nd wbich distinguished 
Lord Lawrence? These gifts are personal and peculiar. 
But non om,l1is moriar. 
The essentia.l principles underlying a.ll tho.t Lord Lawrence wrolie and 
thought and did will be as true 0. hundred years hence as they are to.day; and 
from these principles, as from a. mme of wealth, many generations of Indian 
statesmen may gather treasures new a.nd old, bearing alike wha.t is the practical 
ideal at which Indian rulers ought to a.im, and what Are the d&ngers which it 
most behoves them to avoid.2I 
It has been a joy and a profit to us to study these volwnes, and 
we lay them down now with regret that we could not deal with 
more of the important questions they suggest. V.te should be 
puzzled to say which has given us the greater pleasure, the. beauty 
and the skill with which the story ha.s been told, or the sentiments 
of justice and love which permeate the record. The two chapters 
on • John Lawrence a.s Conqueror' and 'John Lawrence as 
Pacificator' ought to be published separately in tract form, and 
scattered over not only the British Empire, but the world. We 
ha.ve been a.ble to deal with but one side of the work-tha.t side 
which makes it so encouraging to non·European races, and 80 
instructive to Englishmen who Lave to dea.l with them, either as 
rulers, missiona.ries or traders, and that side, probably, which will 
give to the work its most perma.nent influence and va.lue . 
• 
tel Life of Lora Lawrcnu; vol i, p 509. 
The Life of Lord LawYe1Ice. 3+9 
• • 
We congra.tulate Mr. Bosworth Smith on his great achievement. 
He has erected a. 11Wnumentum are perennius, which will ever be 
an honour to his country. 
It will be a delight to remember both the hero and his:bio-
grapber. The country which is proud to have produced John 
Lawrence must be proud to have produced Bosworth Smith . The 
land of Achilles is also the land o! Homer. We look for immediate 
and direct results from the influence of this book; and we look for 
remote and far·reaching resul,ts. It will make itself felt in existing 
society. and in the thinking and actions of generations yet unborD . 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
The Mohammedans' of 
N igritia, 
• 
• 
I N the present discussion, by Nigri~ia must be understood all the. region of West Central Africa embraced between Lak~ Tchad 
on the east, and Sierra Leone and Liberia on the west, and between 
Timbuktu on the north, and the Bight of Benin on the south, in· 
eluding the Niger from its source to its moutb. 'J;he European 
travellers who have described various portions of this country a.re 
Mungo Park, Denham and Clappertoll, the Landers, Laing. Caillie, 
and more recently, Richardson, Barth, Overweg, Vogel, and 
Winwood Reade; the ·Liberian travellers are Benjamin Anderson. 
James L. Sims. and George L. Seymour. 
The country east of Lake Tchad to the Red Sea is occupied 
largely by Mohammedans; but we will now deal only with the 
countries west of Lake Tchad, in which are situated the well known 
cities of Kano, Sokoto, IUorin, Timbuktu, Sego, Kankan, Timbo, 
Musardu. 
This part of Africa, although so near to Europe, seems to have 
been shut out from the knowledge of Europeans. until the publica-
tion of the travels of Mungo Park, about one bundred years ago. 
His descriptions are characterised by a marvellous fidelity and 
accuracy. It is a remarkable fa.ct that the accounts of the ea.rlier 
African travellers are, as a rule, ro.pre trustworthy than the state-
ments of more recent adventurers. In all delineations which de-
pend for their intelligibility upon the reflective power, a.nd not 
merely upon the perceptive organs, the older travellers a.re far 
• 
The Mohammedans of Nigritia. 35 1 
superIOr to their successors. There are some transactions-
or, ra.ther, there is a condition of things-which can be made 
intelligible only by an imaginative delineation of their accompani. 
meets. Alike in the statement of fa.cts which need only to be 
narrated, in order to be understood, and in the delineation of 
conditions, which Deed the help of the imagination in order to their 
thorough appreciation, the older African travellers are far safer 
guides than those who, ip. countless numbers, are following them. 
The earlier travellers came out unfurnished with any previous ideas 
of the objects they were to -explore. Their minds seem to have been 
a complete tabula rasa in relation to the country and people. Th. 
result was t~at the facts were given as they appeared to them, 
• 
not coloured or modified with a view to support or disprove auy 
theory. The greatest masters in any art are those who have first 
trodden the way. Others must necessarily be im.itators. It ha.s 
been so with sculpture, painting and music; and it is so with travels 
in Airica. In an old Atlas, published at Amsterdam, in 1665, the 
position of the Victoria N yanza, there called II Zafian lacus," is laid 
down with wonderful accuracy, whereas Central Africa appears 
almost as a pure blank in the maps of forty years ago. For the 
Nigritian country, therefore, we would recommend Mungo Park's 
Travels; and, after his, those of Denham aud Clapperton, Caillie 
and the Landers, The modern traveller is hampered by a commercial 
exigency, H,; is under the necessity of making a book that will sell ; 
and he,  is more anxious to conform to, and perpetuate popular 
notions, tha.u to give a faithful portra.iture of what he sees, for he 
would then b::.ve to walk in the old groove. He must bring forth 
something new. something original, something sensational. Sir 
Richal'd F. Burton. an experiencen African traveller, ba.s recently 
made the following just observa.tion ;-
In Africa., strn.ngers be.d two things to learn ; in the first place, what there 
Wf\.S, and in tbe second pla.ce wba.t there was not; and generally, wbat there W8.S 
not wa.s more circumstantia,lly reported• t ba.n wha.t there wa.s,] • 
In the days of Park, Denham and Clapperton, the countries 
which they visited were chiefly Pagan. They are now, through 
J Remarks a.t Meeting of RoyeJ Geog•ra .phica.l Society, June 29tb, 1885 • 
• 
• 
352 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
the energy and zeal of Negro converhs to Mohammedanism, all 
under the rule of Isla.m . . They enjoy a. settled constitution, a written 
code of laws, and a regular government. 
Mohammedanism was not quite half a century old when it was 
introduced into North·western Africa.. Its conquests swept like a. 
whirlwind over the northern portion of the continent, from Egypt 
to the Atlantic. An incident illustrative of the passionate faith, 
the vigour and fervoUl' of its first propagators, is given by Gibbon :-
The title of " Conqueror of Africa." is justly due 1;0 Akba.h. He marched from 
D&IIlQSCUS at the head of ten thousand of the bravest Ara.bs .... It would be 
difficult, nor is it necessa.ry, to trace the a.ccurate line of progress of Akbab .... 
H• e plunged into the hea.rt of the country, tra.versed the wilderness in which his 
successors erected the splendid capitals of Fez and Moroceq. and at length 
panetrated to the verge of the Atla.ntic a.nd the Grea.t Desert .... The career, 
though not the zeal, of Akba.r, we.s checked by the prospect of a. boundless ocean. 
He spurred his horse into tbe waves, and raising his eyes to Heaven, exclaimed, 
with the tone 1)£ a. fanatic, "Great God! if my course were not stopped by 
this sea., I would still go on to the nnknown kingdoms of the West, preaching 
the unity of Thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious na.tionlJ 
who worship o.ny other gods than Thee." 
Through the irrepressible energy of these indomitable Arabs, 
the Mohammedan religion superseded a. higher creed. which seemed 
powerless to penetrate the continent. Various reasons have been 
assigned for the failure of the North Africa.n Church to maintain 
its position, and extend its influence. These reasons refer mainly 
to defects in the Church itself, to its internal differences and dis-
sensions; S but it did not yield to the attacks of'the Eastern 
propagandism without determined and protracted resistance. 
II; must not be believed (S&ys Ca.rdinal Lavigerie) that thA Africa.n church 
disappeared at a single thrust from the Arab's sword. This is a. misto.ke too 
widely spread, o.nd against which our filial piety feels bound to protest. 
Leo XIII has just proclaimed it loudly, with an authority that 
dispenses with the necessity of any further proof. In the Bull 
I Materna Ecclesiae caritas,' be says :-
Even as the Church of A£.rica. had grown and increased with honours. even 80 
it &ccepted its destruction with dignity: The Faith of these unhappy popula-
2 D~cline and Fall of Ih~ Roma" Empir~, chap. li. 
8 Lloyd's North Africa" :JhUTCh, p. 18. 
-
The Mohammedans of Nigritia. 353 
tions did then struggle long and desperately with its persecutors. Fourle~n 
times, according to the account of Ebn-Khaldowl, it wa.s driven ba.ck b:r the 
sword into apostacy, and, fourteen times, it returned to its o.ncient Fa.ith. In spite 
of the ba.ni~bment to the deserts of Arabia. of muUitudes of men of all ro,nks-
senll.tors, wealthy lords, women, children, simple plebeia.ns; in spite of solicits.-
tions, seductions. caresses, the Catholic Church reroa.ined stea.d fast at its post at 
Oa.rthage and in Turus proper, for more tha.n six centuries after the Mussulmans' 
conquest. \\"e ha.ve proof of this in the letters of Popes Sa.int Leo IX and 
Sa.int Gregory the Grea.t, duxing the 11th centurya.nd during the 13th, io the 
testimony of the hlstorio.n of the Crusades, who menuon in the time of St. Louis, 
regiments belonging to the Sultan of Tunis composed of Christian natives.~ 
But, notwithstanding so much faith, so many catastrophes, and 
such heroism, .the Crescent superseded the Cross. We are dis-
posed to regard it as a question at least open to entertainment, 
whether, upon the whole, the continuance and growth of the Chris-
tians in the north of the continent would have promoted the 
welfare or contributed as much to the futoo'e civilisation of the 
people, as the triumph of the Saracens. When we consider what 
has bappened to the native races of other continents where Chris-
tianity is said to have established itself, we are inclined to the 
conclusion that the North African Church failed because it was not 
competent to deal mth the indigenous races of the country. The 
Gospel, pure and simple, would have been an unspeakable blessing. 
But it would not have come pure and simple. A writer in the 
Church Missionary Review Intelligencer (July, 1885) candidly 
says:-
• 
It is cheering to obse[\"e tha.t a.s the veil is gra.dually being withdrawn from 
UllknowA Africa., some attempt, howC"er incommensurate with the resources of 
a. Christian na.tion, is being made to send to the popula.tion the only blessing 
which can P(HSIL)y compe,uate th~lII for the prit'ileg~ of bd"9 made knowll, namely, 
the gloriou!! Gospcl of Christ. 
There is no evidence that Christitmity, or, rathel', professing 
Christians (in all we say we refer to the professoTs, not the system) 
would have been less uuscrupulous ill their dealings with natives 
of Africa, than they have been with the natives of America, of 
Australia, of New Zealand. We can hardly doubt that, ill the 
wake of Christianity, would ha•v e followed such transactions as 
would have inspired the eloquent and indignant pen of some 
'.:I.,,,,«ll of tilt Propaga.tion•  of tht Faith; Ma.rch,1885. 
2 A 
• 
• 
-
354 Christianity, Islilln and the Negro Race. 
Prescott or Robertson. There would have been the counterparts 
of Cortez and Pizarro, and probably no Las Casas to check, if he 
could not altogether prevent, the extermination of the aborigines. 
The greater divergence of race would have intensified the antaga-
Ulsm. The sU!Jcessful invaders would bave assumed a. right to 
the persons and labour of the natives, slavery would have beeh 
the normal condition of the aborigines. and the cruelty and 
rapacity of their European masters would have exceeded any. 
thing witnessed in the New 'World-a whole continent would have 
lain prostrate at the feet of unprincipled greed and irresponsible 
tyranny. 
Mohammedanism, in Africa, has left the native master of himself 
and of his borne; but wherever Christianity has been able to establish 
itself, with the exception of Liberia, foreigners have taken possession 
of the country. and, in some places, rule the na.tives with oppressive 
rigour.6 
Mr. Anthony Trollope, in his work on South Africa, sa.ys the 
white people of Natal told him there were no workmen to be found, 
6 In a pa.mphlet iSl>ued in 1884, by the Committee of the Wesleyan Foreign 
Missiona.ry Society. they make pathetic and forcible appea.l, in beha.lf of the 
.. Natives in Bechuanala.nd. and the Tro.nsvo.eJ, ago.inst European oppression." 
The Committee says-
Ist. It i8 a fundamclltal law of th~ COllstitution of Boer GOl'ernf7W!nt that no 
Natice eall purc"as~ or hold kind in his own na~. The natives, therefore, simply 
occupy Ia.nd under the Boer, its owner, No o.mount of genIus or skill, no 
measure of lDdustry or enterprise on the pm of the native, can ever r.use him 
to the position of a joint-ownership. 
2nd. Tbey are further oppressed by "The Loca.tion Systew " which ma.y be 
thus described, A Municipa.lity. however large or small, formed by the Boers of 
any town, enacts tha.t the natives shall not be allowed to reside within the aren. 
of so.id town, hut shaU have a portion of land assigned to them somewhere in 
the neighbourbood, on which they must loca.te, A tu is exaded from the 
occupant of every sha.nty in the" location." 
Srd. The" Curfew Bell," with iu mOlt invidious al$ociatunu • • micts them. 
4th. There is the absence of aJl marital Io.ws and rights of the na.tive people 
within the area of the Tro..ns\'aa.l. They h.ve no standing within the" funda.-
• 
mento.l lo.w ,. of the Bocr as to marria.ge. 
5th. The no.tives lue plundered with impunity by the Boen under the btis 
of ,. Commands.J'-Tht E"glish GOt'tnlJllCnt and the NatiL't.I ill BuhlUmaland aM 
TralUlvaal. Published o.t the Wealeyo.n ~jssion House, London, 1884. 
• 
• 
The Jlohammedans of Nigritia. 355 
thougb the streets were full of Zulus, who wiJI do anything for a 
-shilling, and half anything for a sixpence. In Bloemfontein, no 
<coloured person is allowed to walk about after eight o'clock in the 
€verung. And, with the unfeeling hardness of the cold Northern 
intellect. the eminent novelist makes the following comment:-
There are cases in which justice-abstra.ct just.ice-cannot be executed. 
Ha.d justice only been done, there would hase been no United States, no British 
India., no Australia., no New Zea.1o.nd, no South Africa.. Humanity, forbearance 
and ChrisLianity must put themselves as closely as possible into alliance with 
physical supremacy, a.nd, together, make tbe best they ca.n of the barga.in,a 
This is not .the way the Founder of Christianity taught it to 
the world. He said, 'All things whatsoever ye would that men 
'Should do unto you, do ye even so to them." 
Christianity. then, failed in North Africa, and a people was 
brought from a distance, of a race cognate with the African, whose 
'Social sympathies, and foreseeing, and discriminating laws as to 
food and drink, and other matters-supported, as they believed, 
by Divine sanction-supplied elements for the preservation of the 
natives. The Atlantic interposed its threatening billows to the 
• 
progress of Islam ; the Sahara interposed its perilous sands to the 
progress of Christianity. The propagators of Christianity con-
structed fOl' themselves the conveyances in which they crossed the 
Atlantic, The bearers of Islam had the" ships of the desert" created 
lor them. The ocean was a highway for Christianity; the desert a 
• 
highway for I slam, Europe could not penetrate Afdca; Arabia 
eould. ~ A slave and an African was the mother of Ishmael, the 
progenitor af tJ1e founder and first followers of Islam. Shem and 
Ham uuite in Mohammed. Instances of the union of Shem and 
.Ham are frequent in Holy writ. We have Joseph and the Priestess 
.of On; Moses and the Ethiopian woman; Solomon and Pharaoh's 
daughter. They had been together in ruling and in serving, on the 
throne and in the dungeon. So, when the descendants of the 
union of these two great. families appeared in the north and 
north-east of Africa with their•  religion, Central Africa readily 
opened to them. The desert gave forth water, and the fever 
• 
• 
G Trollopc'& South J.jrica, p. lOS . 
• 
• 
• 
356 Christianity, Islallt alld Ilze Negro Race. 
tempered its intensity. J apheth and Ham have never yet 
come together in large uumbers, except in the capacity of 
master and slave. And, if the present attempt of Europeans to 
take possession of the vast regions of the Oongo cO'.lld succeed-
but happily it cannot-they could not make theil- acquisition 
of any value without introducing a system of enforced la.boul',. 
which is slavery. 
After the first conquests of tlie Muslims in North Africa, their 
religion advanced southward into the continent, not by arms, but 
by schools, and books, and mosques, by trade and intel"marriage. 
They could not have brought a force sufficient to subjugate tbe 
people, for tbey had to deal with large, powerful and energetic 
tribes. The Nigritian and Soudanic tribes have never been subdued 
by a foreign foe, but tbey have, over and over again. driven back· 
both Arabs and Europeans. We learn from a distinguished African 
geograpber. tha.t when the Podnguese discovered and took pos-
session of tbe western coast, they found a Negro king who had not 
only extended his conquests from the centre of Housa to the 
border of the .Ulantic, and from the Pagan' countries of Mose, in 
12::> north latitude, as far as Morocco, but governed his subjects 
with justice, and adopted such of the customs of Mohammedanism 
as he thought conducive to civilisation.; 
Major Denham gives a graphic account of the disastrous issue 
of two expeditions made by Arabs against natives, al'lLed only 'with 
spears and arrows, in one of which he himself nearly lost his IiIe. 
In both cases the rout was complete-the Arabs fled in dismay. 
\Vhen Major Denham was fiying, in a. naked and mise'rable state. 
from the victorious enemy, he experienced something of the hospi-
ta.lity of the African, of which Mungo Pa.rk gives so many interesting 
instances. A young African prince pulled off his own trousers and 
gave them to him.~ 
7 See Cooley's Ncgrolalld of tlt~ .drabs . • 
" SaTratilJ~ of 'l.'ravds alld Di.'covcriel in Northern and Central Africa, ill tlit 
l"ear8 1822, 1823 alld 1824; by Mo.jor Dixon Denham, of His 1\Ia.jesty's 17th 
negimen~ of Foo~; a.nd Captain Hugh C~n.pperton, of ~he Royal No.vy.-London. 
182G. 
-
• 
The Mohammedans of Nigritia. 357 
• 
Neither by the wars of the ancients, nor by the iml)l'oved 
methods of moderu warfare-neither for poli'ticalllOl' religious ends 
-have foreigners been able to penetrate a.nd occupy the Souda.n. 
It waS after the great tribes bad been peaceably cOllverted to Islam 
that we bear of Jebads-military expeditions to reduce Pagans to 
the faith. This .... eligious propagandism, conducted by native 
warriors, has been carried On with wonderft!l activity and success 
during the last fifty years. Thirty years ago, a religious devotee 
and military genius-a native of Futah Toro, AI-Hajj OlDaru~ 
reduced large districts on the Uppel' Nigel' to the faith of Islam . 
• 
He received the title, "AI-Hajj," "The Pilgrim/' after he bad per~ 
formed the pilgrimage to Mecca. He wa.s well versed in the 
Arabic language and literature, and wrote a numbel' of books on 
his travels, and on religious subjects, which are in circulation 
tbJ:oughout Nigritia.9 
He has had several successors in the work of aisseminating the 
1Uohammedan creed; and they are rapidly bringing the whole of 
Africa north of the equator under the influence of the Ore.scent. The 
most important kingdoms in this portion of the continent which are 
stiH subject to Paganism are, Dahomey and Ashantee, and their 
-conversion is a question of a short time only. There is, at this 
moment, an energetic promoter of the Jihad, having under his com-
mand scores of thousands of zealous Mohammedans anxious for the 
spoils of timt. and the rewn.rds of eternity. By means of these, he 
is redl:.Cing to the faith the most warlike and powerful tribes. His 
name is Samudu, born about forty years ago, in the hlandingo 
country, east of Liberia. His f{LIne has gone far beyond Nigritia, all 
through the Soudan. It has crossed the Mediterranean to Europe, 
and the Atlantic to America. A narrative of his proceedings now 
lying before us, written in Arabic, by a nati,'e cm:onicler, contains 
an interesting account of his method and achievements. The in-
troductory paragraph we translate as follows :-
This is an a.ccount of the Jihad of tfte Imam Abmadu S80mudu, a. Mandingo, 
.an inha.bitant of the town of Sn.nankoclu, in the extreme pa.rt of the Koniah 
9 A sketch of AI-Ha.jj Omaru's life is given by Lieutenant 1I1a.ye, in his 
rayoge d'Explorati()1I daM lc Soudull Occidentals . 
• 
• 
358 Christianity, I slam al1d the Negl'o Race. 
country. God conlerred upon him His help continua.lly after he bega.n the-
work of "isiting the idola.trous Paga.ns, who dwell between the seo. nDd the 
country of Wa.sulu, with a. view of inviting them to follow the religion of God, 
which is Isla.m, 
Know all ye who rea.d this-that the first effort of the Ima.m Sa.mudu was a.t. 
a. town na.med Fulindiya.h. Following the Book a.nd the ;La.w, and the 
Tro.ditions, he sent messengers to the King e.t ths.t town, Sindidu by name, 
inviting him to submit to his government, a.hn.ndon the worship of idols, and 
worship one God, the Exa,l!ed, the True, whose service is profita.ble to His people-
in this world a.nd in tho next; but tbey refused to submit. Then he imposed a 
tribute upon them, a.s the Koran commands on this subject; but they persisted 
in their blindness a.nd dearness. The Imam then collected a sma.1l force of 
a.bout five hundred men, bra.ve and va.liant, for the Jihad, and he fought ago.inst 
the town, and the Lord helped him a.ga.inst them, a.nd gnv'3 him the victory over 
them, and he pursued them with his horses until they submitted. Nor will 
they return to their idoJa.try, for now a.ll their children a.re in schools, being 
taught the Koran, and a. knowledge of religion and civilisation. Pra.ise be to 
God for this. 
Alima.mi Samudu then went to another idola.trous town ca.lled Wurukud, 
surrounded cy a. strong wa.ll, and skilfully defended, &c. 
The same course was adopted as with the former town, and this. 
is the method pursued in all his operations. Large and powerful 
states which, two years ago, were practising all the irrationa.l and' 
debasing superstitions of a hoary Paganism, are now under the-
influence of schools and teachers, and the regulal' administration of 
law. In 1872, the present writer visited Falaba, the capital of the 
Sooliooa country, two hundred and fifty miles east of Sierra Leone,. 
as Special Commissioner to the King from the British Government . 
He found the King and his people intelligent, warlike•,  brave, and 
energetic, but determined Pagans. For fifty years, the li'oulah 
Mohammedans, by annual military expeditions, had s~l--:iven to bring 
them over to the faith of Islam, but they had always successfully 
resisted every attack. To-day, however, Falaba is Mohammedan, 
having fallen two years ago, before the troops of Sarnlldll, under 
the melancholy circumstances detaiJed in the following letter~ 
addressed to us by the Government Interpreter of SielTa Leone ;-
Freetown, Sierra Leone, 
October 30, 1884. 
Dear Sir,-I a.m sw's you will be sorry to hear tha.t Falaba is taken. As you 
have visited tha.t region of country on two occasions, I know that you must take 
a. deep interest in it. The King, Roya.l Fa.miIy, a.nd principa.l men, were killed;. 
The Mohammedans of Nigrilia. 359 
and the rest of the inha.bita.nts hurried into slavery, in countries above and 
below Fo.laba., by theca.ptors, under the command of AHa. Samudu and Mahmudi. 
Da.ranii. The latter is reported to ba.ve since died. n is reported tbah when 
Sewa.h, King of Fa.lR.ba. (well known to YOu), found tha.t he could do no more to 
save his ca.pital , together with its inha.bita.nts, and numerous villa.ges. from being 
ta.ken by the a.rmed Moha.mmedo.ns, he invited the whole Roya.! Fa.mily, a.nd 
ma.ny of the principal persons, into a. la.rge bouse, where he had a. la.rge quantity 
of gunpowder, and addressed them in the following words:-
"Fa.la.ba. is a.n a.ncient country, a.nd never has been conquered by o.n7 tribe; 
it ha.s a.lwa.ys been ruling, and never ne.s been ruled. I will never submit to 
Mohammedanism. If any of you choose to become Mohammeda.ns, you are at 
liberty to do so." Allllnanimously replied" They would rather die than become 
Mohammedans" 
• 
The King then threw a. lighted torch into the powder, which immecliately 
caught fire, a.nd the whole- place and people were burnt to death. Thus Wag 
Falabo. taken by the great Mohammedan war, now coming to the coast. It is 
reported that Suluku, the chief of Big Boumba, in the Limbe. country, has 
surrendered and taken a. new name, Ahmadu Sofala. Should I learn a.nything 
further, I will inform you. With kind regards, 
1 remain, dear Sir, 
Your oLedient; Servll.nt, 
THOMAS G. LAWSON. 
Dr E. W. Blyden. Gout. Inte1pretcr. 
This letter was published in the West African Reportc1' (Nov. 22, 
1884). upon which the Editor remarked as follows:-
The capture of Fala.ba, the capital of the Soolima. country, by the troops of 
AHa. Snmudu, will form an importn.nt epoch in the history of the Western Soudu.n. 
The brief but gra.phic description of the circumstances of the capture-of this 
important City, as gh'en by Mr. Lll.wson in this issue, will be read with painful 
interest. . ' . For more tha.n three months, Falaba successflllly resis ted the 
forces "f Sn.mudu, commanded by three dis~inguished genero.1s-Fode DaranU, 
Wa.Ui u.nd Bilal. These men believed themselves to be fighting for the 
establishment (.1 the tme religion, and for the freedom and security of trade. 
Falll.ba felt itself fighting for no.tiona.l life. The strife was exacerbated by 
fllJIaticisOl on the one hand, and the phrensy of personal peril Il.nd menll.ced 
independence on the other. At length, Se.mudu ga.ve orders to cease ac~ive 
operations, and ha.viDg 0. la.rgenumber of men and ve.st resources at his comma.nd, 
established 0. siege, which be mo.inta.ined with relentless vigour, for several 
months, until the fo.tal smrender. Sto..rvo.tion did what his troops could not do, 
The troops of this energeti't commander are now moving west~ 
ward toward the Atlantic. He has no quarrel with Christians, 
whom he treats with consideration and respect, and he would be an 
importa.nt auxiliary in the interior operations of Christian Govern· 
• 
• 
• 
360 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
meuts on the coast, if only they knew bow to utilise him. He displays 
iIi all his dealings a soldierly, as well as fatherly, bel"oism; so that 
he has the art, as a rttle, without carnage, of making his iconoclastic 
message acceptable to the sympathies of the Pagans whom he 
summons to the faith. In every town taken, ei~ber by force of 
arms or by its own voluntary submission, be plants 'a, mosque and 
schools, and stations a teacher and preacher. He lays great stress 
upon education. He trusts to tlie Koran and to the schools far 
more than to the sword, as instruments for the determination of the 
great moral and political controversy between him and the Pagans, 
and for the general amelioration. Indeed, throughout :Mohammedan 
Airica, education is compulsory. A man might now travel across 
the continent, from Sierra Leone to Cairo, or in another direction, 
from Lagos to Tripoli, sleeping in a village every night, except in 
.the Sahara, and in every village he would find a school. There is 
regular epistolary communication throughout this region in the 
Arabic language-soJ]~etjmes in the vernacular, written in Arabic 
cba.racters. Bishop Crowther informed us that he received a letter 
at Lagos, which had corne across the continent from Tripoli. 
The book chiefly taught in the schools, and with a view to the 
ec1ucidation of which all other books are studied, is the Koran. It 
is called .d.lkitab, <I The Book," par excel/cHcc, just as the Biule is 
by us, It is composed in the purest Arabic, and offers many diffi-
culties to those not acquainted with the idiom of the D1sert Arabs, 
who alone speak the language in its perfection. The books !Vhich, 
beside the Koran, are taught in all the schools, are various theo-
logical treatises and the Moallakat-the six poems;- which, in a 
literary contest of all Arabia, before the days of Islam, carried off 
the prize for grammatical excellence, purity and style. Due of 
these poems was written by a Negro, and won the special admira-
tion of Mohammed, Another work which is much studied is the 
Makamat, 01' Assemblies of Ha1'iri, which are said, in £fty books or 
pads, to contain the whole Arabh language. This work ic; the 
result of the literary system of a period in which not only thc 
sciences, but the useful a.rts of life, were sacri£ced by the ingenious 
and studious of a great nation to a profound grammatical 
The JIohalllllledalls of l\'igl'ilia. 36r 
• 
research into the structure and resources of their OWD most copious 
language. The theological student, a.nxious to mn.ster Hebrew, and 
the Hebrew Scriptures, should know enough Arabic to read the 
Makam.at. Gesenius, in his lexicon, frequently explains a Hebrew 
root by reference to this treasury of Semitic philology. 
The African }1ohammedans are still in that period in which 
devotion to the one di\"ine book, and to wlialever serves to illustrate 
it, supersedes every other feeling. Great attention is paid to gram-
matical analysis; indeed, the langua.ge is said to have been first 
xeduced to system by Abu'} Aswad, Father of the Black of African 
• 
extraction. tO Nearly every hlandingo, or FouJah trader, or itinerant 
teacner, carries among his manuscripts the Alfrueh of Ibn Malik, 
the most complete and celebrated of the i\_rabic grammatical poems. 
The regular subjects of study are grammatical inflexion and syntax, 
rhetoric, versification, theology, the exposition of the Koran, the 
tratlitions of the Prophet, and arithmetic. But, be<;ides treatises ou 
serious subjects, they have an abundance of light reading, story 
books, &c_ Richardson says :-
Yusw has been reading an Arabic book, which I a.t first thought was some 
commentary on the Koran; but. to-day I was undeceh-ed. He related what he 
read. It reminded me of GullilJ~r's Tra1:els. A tallman walks through the sea, 
cooks fish in the sun, and destroys a. whole town, whose inhabitants had insulted 
him, by the same means tba.t our comparllotive giant s&.\'ed the palace of 
Liliput from confiagration. ll 
There ate numerous native authors who have written in the 
Arabic~ Foulah, lIandingo, and J alor languages; but great reverence 
is paid to Ara~ic; it is the language of devotion, of civil and eccle-
siastical law, of inspiration. It is the opinion of the Nigritiau 
Mohammedans that Abraham spoke Arabic. They say it was 
carried-by the Father of tbe FaitWul. the Friend of God, and IDS 
son Ishmael-into Arabia, ". here it was kept, and was not allowed 
to be diffused until it was enshrined by the message of the Prophet. 
Alter it was embodied in the Koran, where it would be certain of 
preservation, it was allowed to go forth and to come into contact 
10 Biographil' oj Ibn K/lallikall,- vol. i, p 662 . 
• 
U Xarratit'"t Of a MiniQn to Central Africa; vol. i, p 57 . 
• 
• 
362 C!tl'istianity, I slam and the Negro Race. 
with other rites and customs; and they affirm that the Africans 
were the first people to whom it was sent. 
There is, no doubt, some ground for the opinion of the Africall 
Mohammedans as to the antiquity of the Arabic Ia.nguage. Hebrew 
is regarded by Semitic schola.rs as really a dialect. Arabic com-
prises many peculiar and original formations, pointing to a remoter 
time and much earlier stage. And it is remarkable that a language 
confined to the Arabian peninsula until the seventh century after 
Christ should have attained such copiousness. And when it came 
into contact with new conditions, and strange races and customs t 
such is its w(;mderful elasticity that it adapted itseif, not only by 
adaptations of existing roots, but by words already formed and in 
use, to the intelligible expression of the innumerable new notions, 
and even to the llew ideas of modern thought and life. It is adapted 
to the solitudes of the desert, and to the multifarious and complex 
activities of the city; to the simple nomadic life of the Bedouin, 
and to the artificial c\,vilisatioll of Alexandria, Beyrut and Bagdad. 
II In Arabia, as in Greece," says Gibbon, "tbe perfection of 
language outstripped the refinement of manners, and her speech 
could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of 
a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the thousa..nd of a sword, at a 
time when this copious dictionary was entrusted to the memory of 
an illiterate people." 
But it is interesting to meet, and to be able to CC:':lverse with, 
on6 of the learned men from the heart o[ Nigritia, who .'knows 
nothing of the scientific discussions and discoveries of the day. 
It is our privilege, as we write this-one we rarely 611jOy-to have 
the company, almost daily, of such.a. character. He is a roan, not 
much over thirty, of the Mandingo tribe, now visiting the coast {Ot· 
the first time. He is learned in all the theological, controvel"SiaL 
ann political literature 'of Ara.bia and of his native country; is 
himself the author of several small treatises, speaks Arabic fluently 
and several native languages, an~ is now taking English lessons. 
He has in his possession two copies of the Arabic Bible (Beirut 
translation), and is familiar with its contents. We asked him to 
give, in writing, his opinion on several points on which we had 
The AI oha1llmedalls of Nigl'itia. 
conversed. ""e send you his views in his own handwriting (Arabic) 
on the Bible, on Slayery, on Pictorial and Plastic Representations, 
marked respectively No.1, No. 2, No.3. It might, perhaps, 
interest your readers it you could give a jac-simile of each, or a 
portion of each. in the pages of the Ret;ielU. We give below trans·· 
lations :-
THE BIBLE AND THE KORAN. 
Manifest differences between the Holy Bible and the illustrious Koran a.re 
presented to the careful obsen"et. We m~ntion five. 
In the book of Genesis (cha.p. i Sond v. 27) it is 8£Lid, "God created mELn in 
His own image, ui. the imagu of God crea.ted He him." This is contrary to His. 
ward,--the Exa.lted, in thl cha.pter on 'Counsel' ([(oran, xlii, 9). ,. Crea.tor of 
the heavens and the earth! He hath ma.de for you pain from among your own 
selves, and pllm from cattle-by this means He multiplies you. There is llalf9ht 
like Him." 
Aga.in: in Genesis, cho.p ii, yer. 2,3, it is said: "He rested on the seventh 
day." Tws is also contrary to the word of the Exalted, in the chapter on' Tbo 
Cow' eKorall, \i, 111). "Maker of the Heavens and the Earth! and when He 
decreetb a. thing, He only saith to it, 'Be,' o.nd it is." This is the truth a.ccepted 
by us, tbat God (may He be exalted) does not work by means of tools-only by 
Ris word. .. Be," and it is. Tws is truth without contra.diction. Glory be ta-
Rim. Wea.riness be far from Rim. Rest is sought only after weariness or 
fatigue, and fatigue comes from effort through labouring with the band or with 
implements, and this is not o.pplicable to the metbod of OUl'Lord. (May be be 
honoured o.nd glorified!) 
Again: in the book of Exodus, xxxii. v. 2-4, it is said, "And Aaron sa.id unto 
them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your 
sons and you~daughters, and he received them ElJld fn.shioned it with a. graven 
tool aHgr he ho,d w ade it a golden calL" This is contra.ry to the words of the 
Exalted in the chapter.' Ta. Ha.' (Koran, xx, 90--92), .. And so did Sa.miri cast, and 
he brought fortl~to them in bodily shape a lowing ca.l£. &c., &c. And Aaron ha.d 
before said to theDl-O my people! by this calf are ye only proved, a.nd verily 
your Lord is the 1I1erciful: follow me. therefore, and obey my bidding.a 
Again: in the Gospel of John (chap. xix, 16-18), it is sa.id, "And they took 
Jesus, and led Him awo.y; and He, ben.ring His cross, went forth into 0. place-
ca.lled • The Pln.ce of e. SkuU,' which is called in the,Hebrew, • Golgotha,' where • 
they crucified Him nnd two others with Him, on either side one and Jesus in the 
midst." This is contrary to the words of the Eza.lted in the cho.pter on 
. Women' (KomI! iy, p. 150). Their sa.}..ng," Verily, wo ha.ve sla.in tho l\Iessia.b, 
Jesus the son of bIary, the Apostle of Gorl. 
1-1 See note all this pasgn..ge in Rodwell's translation of the Koran. Mohe.m-
~eda.ns affinn that A(\[on was opposec( to the making of tho calf. 
• 
, • 
• 
36-+ CI!?'istianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
Yet they slew Him not, but they had only His likcness,13 and verily, they who 
differed about Him were in doubt concerning Him. No sure knowledge bad 
they about liim, but followed only an opinion; and they did not reolly 510.y Him, 
but God took Him up to Himself. 
Again: In the prayer, "Our Father, wbo art in hea.yen" This is contrary to 
His word (May He be exa.lted). "Praise be to God, the Lord of all creaturts." 
The import of the words, " Our Father" is a.n a.ffirma.tion of Fatherhood on the 
part of God, the Truth, a.nd disowns his Lordship (Ma.y He be glorified), and 
rejects tb(' Een-1tude (servallll!oo(l cxprcsst!8 the ideo,. of the original letter) of the 
creature affirming Bonship on their part. 
This is not a. doctrine accepta.ble to the people who hold to the unityll of God. 
The words, I, Lord of a.U crea.tures,·' affirm dominion, sovereignty, on the part of 
God, the Truth, for this is His prerogative, and submission II.DO obedience on the 
part of the creature, which is their proper position .. It is finished. 
No.2,-SLAVERY. 
Saith God, the Exalted (and He is the most righteous of speakers): Verily, 
the most honout!\,ble of you in the sight of God is the most piou~ of you 
(h.-OTan, xlix, 13). 
From this the intelligent may understand that no creature cn.n be e. sta.\'e 
to a cree.ture, God su1Iereth one to COlTIe into the possession of another as a. test 
of the compassionate or merciful disposition of the possessor, a.nd the nature of his 
gratitudeto Him,theExaltec1; and fortbepossessed (thesle.ve), a. tesbof the measure 
. of his submission to the decree and power of God. And the.t it may be made 
ma.nifest to thee that God is the controller of His crea.tures, verily the Exalted 
ma.y make His enemy ruler over His friend, as He tried His servant Joseph-the 
righteous, the honoure.ble, son of the honourable, 10110 wa.s son of tha honourable, 
who was son of the Frienel of God. He mlLde him the slave of Potiphar, ri. ruler 
in Egypt, and he submitted to the decree of his Lord and to HLs power; and God 
changed his serdtude to the most excellent rank, II.Dd roa.cle him ('}lief and King 
over the people of his time. Yery often a ma.n purchases a slave with his 
money, and he serves him tilt he dies; and notwithstancling this, he is ni:arer to 
God than his ma.ster, as wa.s the case with the Children of Israel who, in their 
time, on account of tLe revelaticn granted to them, were supe.-'ior to all other 
people; yet God gM'e them in servitude to Pharaoh, \",ith all his arrogance and 
Hea.thenism, until the period of tlle departure of Israel by the hand of his 
palient Md prudent serva.llt Moses, the son of Amram (Peace be upon them 
both). This was 0. trial to them, a.nd a. humiliation f6r their sins. Therefore, 0 
• ma.n of understanding, be not arrogant o't'er your sla\'e or ma.ke yourself superior 
to him. Seek hom him with kincmess what God has decreed to you of profit 
IS Literally, "Oll~ Icas made to appCQ) to Hum like Jf!,u$."-Rodwell The 
:Mohammedans belie,'e it was an eidolon, and not Jesus Himself, who was 
crucified.-Pa.lmer's I;ra.nsiation of the Koran, in loco. 
11 Not only the oneness, but the una.r,?foncha.ble singula.rity of the Divine 
Being.  
• 
The Mohamllledalls 0/ Nigrilia. 
{rom him, Rod lmow that God, who maJe you ruler over him. is ablo to make 
him ruler over :you. Tba.n1.: God for Hi'j gift, a.nd be not un~rateful. Gratitude 
secure. fayoll)", ingra.titude di"miises it. S!dh God play He be honoured and 
glorified~ in hi" Book-cho.pter on the' Prophets' (/{omn xxi, 36)-" For trial, we 
will proye you With evil and with good, and unto us shall ye return." Oh God, . 
I entrent Thee gmnt me hrmnes'l in the faith and prc!len'ation in this world, "'nd 
in the next. Oh God I bless our I..orJ, Moha.mmed, nnd keep him safe, and 0.\1' 
the Propbets and the Apostle:;, brethren of )Ioho.mmed. Uay tbe blessing of 
God be upon them all. Praise be to GoJ, Lord of all creatures. 
No.3.-PICTt:RES. 
Mos('s and Jesus (Blessing anu peace upon them), were prophets in,lt· 'cl, !tod 
in truth Theil" ~xcellence a.nd superiority are not. bidden, hut they have no 
followen. I h8.'"o not cen theU' followers, nor ha\'"~ I heard of them from 
the mouth of men I have not seen amOllg them, i,t., those to whom ha.s 
been gi,·en the Bible, ally oppoi>ition to tho making of images (Lnd figures • 
in their Louses and churches. alld on waIls_ I ha.vc e\'ell seeD in the markets 
loa\'es of bread made into figllre!J-some to re;;emble men. and lOme other 
things. No,~. a.mong things well understood by thoso to whom there is the 
slightest roo>rception In this; tha.t in the Holy Bible, God. through the prophets 
and their fo1l9\\er!l, forba-de the making of images and the worship of them. 
He has explained tbM He is a jea.lous God. and said, "Thou "halt IlOt make 
unto thyself any gnwen 'imago, &c." h this abrogated'! Why, theil, is not 
the "erse shown by which It i~ abroga.ted? And if you ask them concerning 
this. what i,; thei. ans"er) Do they not iay that this is an old prohibition? 
Or they Bay. "When we make images and pictures It ;;hows our intelligence" 
or, .. God has forbidden the lCol",hip of images, not the makill(J of them Yerily 
this is the delusion of Satan to them. The house h&s neither foundatiou nor 
support. Know. that tbe fII<lkill9 of image", as well as the u:orlhlPpin9 of them, 
after recei,illg the Dn·ine revelntion against it, is a. work of the devil; who, 
through his tnvy of the believing followers of the prophets, wbispers thiS 
wicked1lJc!IB into the bearts of the servants of God ~ from among those who ha.'·e 
tbe boola. of )lotJes and Jesus and our Prophet~, and deceivcs many, except 
tho!.''' "9I"ho belie ~ and do the tllIn&~ that ILrc right of the people of Mohammed 
Some of tho-e of whom we have heard, of the followers of ),10'1('9 and Jesu:;, who 
• bow llown \'efol"c imo.gcs, say raheJ)" that; they arc the image8 of those whoro. 
tbey love aud honout, of the rrophct1l. and great men who followed them 
-tbat the)' worship God pra.y He be glorified) by mea.ns of th(>;;e image~_ But:. 
tbey do not l)erceive tha.t :iuch "ork i,. cOlltra.ry to the command of God, Rnd 
cannot Le pJeal.tDg to Him. Th .... y f\Te carried £Lway by this mockery of Satan, 
who rejoicetb in their degradation through tbc$e del'd! of thair"i. )I£LY the CUNe 
of God ra!>t upon the d~\·il nnd hi'S a~'j'ciate!l; and ma.y God sep1rate between 
tbe people of )loItammeJ and tb~ accurscd, as He ficparates uetween them and 
Hi'S Forgi\·encl$ an..! H:.3 Par;l<1iQe. He is over a.ll things mighty! 
• 
It must be mterestiug to eveC), intelligent and earnest Christian, 
• 
• 
366 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
to get the glimpse which these papers which we have laid before 
them, give of the views and feelings of the Negro Mohammedans of 
Africa, on the questions discussed. It will be seen in No. I, that 
. 'ODe of the most precious doctrines of Clll:istianity bas no place in the 
,Koran-the doctrine of the atonement of the vicarious sufferings 
and death of Christ. 
It will, no doubt, strike the reader with astonishment, also, to 
learn from the same paper, that the Fatherhood of God, as under· 
stood by Christians, is not accepted by Mohammedans. With them 
the Lord is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the 50vel'eign of the 
universe, Lord of all creatures, The description of Goel, in the Koran, 
is as follows :-
G1:ld! there is no god but He; the living, the subsisting; neither slumber 
seizeth Him, nor sleep; His, wha~soever is in the Heavens, a.nd whatsoever is 
in the Earth I Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own per-
mission? He knoweth what is present with his creatures, and wha.t is yet 
to befall them; yet naught of His knowledge do they comprehend, save what 
He willeth. His throne rellcheth over the Heavens and the "ha.rth, and the 
upholding of both burdeneth Him not, a.nd He is the High, the Great! " lS 
The Muslim's idea of God is that of a Beillg too exalted to have 
any relations with his creatures, even remotely resembling earthly 
relationship. Their system admits neither authropomorphism nor 
circumlocutions of any kind. They would accept the unrh"alled 
• 
definition of God as given by the Westminster Assembly's Shorter 
Catechism. But, notwit.hstanding this distance to .which the God 
of the Mohammedan is removed, yet they act far more fuil..v than 
some who would condemn them upon the other idea, which is a. 
result of the belief in the F&therhood of God, viz., the Brotherhood 
of men. "Write me down," said Abou ben Adhem, H as one who • 
loves his feilow .. men." Mauy Christians who say" OUf Father," 
reject the truth in practice. Recent American papers are full of 
illustrations of the extreme difficulty experienced ill that eminently 
Christian country on tpe question of dea.ling with the Negro on the 
broad platform of Christian brothfi>thood. The Annual Council of 
the Diocese of Virgini& has just adopted & Canon (May, 1886) 
which provides a separate organisation for the coloured Episco+ 
, 
l~ Sura. ii, p. 25G. 
The Mohammedalls oj Nigritia. 
pa.lians, to be known as the 4< Coloured Missionary J urisdictiou " of 
the Diocese of Virginia. There were cast for the measure 114 
votes out of 164. No doubt, these 114 voters said" Our Father" 
every morning and evening. The Blshops of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, in their quadrennial address (May, 1886), 
held the following language :- • 
The a.ttitude of the Negro towa.rd a.ll the institutions of the country is e. 
:problem, civil and spirituo.l, which becomes hourly more difficult of solution. 
Nor must 'We, on the other hand, be hurried forward by senti· 
mental extravagance in the direction of the discoloured current of 
social equality, through tbe agency of the schoolroom, the congre· 
,gation, or the conference; for there is no conceivable ,'esult that 
would compensate for the crime against Nature which this theory 
deliberately contemplates.1o But this is a Hproductioll of the 
<loctrine of tbe late Bishop Pierce, formally announced on the 
occasion of his golden wedding, Februa,ry 3, Ui84. He said ;-
The Negroes a.rc entitled to elemento..ry educa.tion, the !lame as the whites, 
from the hands of t.he State. It is the duty of the Church to improve the 
coloured ministry, but rather by theologicp,j training than by litera.ry education, 
In my judgment, higher education, so called, would be a posittue calamity to the 
• 
NegroC8. It would increase the fridian between the ra.ces, produce endless 
strifes, eleva.te Negro aspirations far above the station be was created to fill, 
and resolve the whole race into a politica.l faction, full of strife, mischief, and 
turbulence. Negroes ought to be taught that the respect of the white race co.n 
only be attainli ed by good charo.cter n.nd conduct. Their well· doing ~nd well. 
being, ail right-minded citizens desire, a.nd would rejoice in. Agriculture a.nd 
a.ll the mechanical pursuits arc open to them, a.nd in them they might find 
loucra.tive emplo;ment. In these directioDs they may support their families, 
• get property, and become valua.ble citizens. If Negroes were educa.ted, inter-
ma.rriages in time would breed trouble; bu~ of this I see no tendency now. My 
conviction is, that Negroes haue no right on juril!l, in legislature" or in public 
(Jfu;e, • , • The whites can never tamely, and without protest, submit to the 
intrusion of coloured men into piaces of trust and profit, and responsibility.17 
IG We copy these pa.ragra.phs from the correspondence of the New York 
I lIlkpt/l.d4:nt (Ma.y 13, 1896). The cow!spondence describes the address a.s "an 
able a.nd comprehensive document, in plain and vigorous English." The Editor 
makes no remark. 
11 Mctlwdi.t Review; May, 1886, p!339, 
• 
• 
• 
368 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
The news which Southern bishops are enforcing by elaborate 
argument, Southern professors are putting in telling epigrams. 
II Poor Samba!" exclaims Prof. Noah K. Davis, Ij he asks for bread, 
and you build him a college; he asks for a fish, and you send him 
a professor," Dr. Curry calls this epigrammatic wit.l~ 
But, with aM tbis, the Negro is hopeful for the future. "'e 
wish we could share this hope; but we do Dot believe that what 
ra.ce-prejudice begrudges to the fathers will be conceded to the 
children. In spite of the barriers which argument and ridicule and 
outrage strive to put into the way of the education of the pro-
scribed class, many will, no doubt, rise to heights of scholarship, 
and become adepts in science, while the oppressors may grow in 
liberality; but the involuntary limits of their mental and social 
sympathies will always prevent them from according to their former 
chattels, of a distinct race, equal, or rather identical, pri.ileges, with 
themseh·es. John F. Morgan, in the North America" Review, July, 
1884, says, in view of the future, II The same party which cla.ims to 
have emancipated the Negro, will become the most active in his 
disfranchisement." 
In the same Reviell' (November, 1884), Pro!' E. W. Gillian, 
speaking of the efforts to ele\·a.te the freeamen, says:- • 
The finnl result must be rnce.3.ntll.gonism, growing in intensity, and meno.cing 
malignant evils. One race must be above, ,be other below, with a. struggle for 
position. Equa.lity is impossible. Tile .Africa" flnut rl'lurn or be retunled to 
Africa. 
The Christian Recorder (June 21, 1886) says tbat, '. A few 
weeks ago, a distinguished man in the Methol;list Episcopal 
Church, deferred the consideration o[ the question of socia.l equality • 
to the year 1986." Let us bope that, iu 1986, hundreds of tbou-
sands of Christian Negroes from the United States will be, in this 
hemisphere, successfully vying with their Mohammedan brethren 
in reclaiming the continent from Paganism, and int1'Oducing the 
reign of the Prince of Peace. Long before tha.t time the 41 colour 
line" will have been washed out by the broad Atlantic, and the 
white man, rejoicing in the homogeneousness of his great country. 
I~ Ibid.; JulJ' 1886, p. 626. 
• 
• • 
The A/ohammedalls of Nigl'itia. 
""viII wa.ve in triumph across the briny deep, to the .. brother in 
black," the handkerchief or social recognition, and wonder at the 
former a.berration of opinion on this subject. In t.he meanwhile, it 
seems to be expected that the Negro in America will" order himself 
lowly and reverently to all his betters. " 
But the Christian Negro meets with trouble [rom his brethren 
-of a different race in other quarters than the United States. The 
British Wesleyans of the West Indies, on a.ccount of the pre-
ponderance of the coloured population, find it impossible. ,after one 
hundred years of labour in those islands, to organise a West Indian 
Confel'ence. The leading official organ of English Wesleyans, in an 
-elaborate article on . \\?esleyan Foreign Missions,' which caused 
-some stir at the time of its publication, thus describes the situa-
tion :-
Taking the Islands as a whole , the Colonial element is not strong, The 
-<:oloured popula.tion grea.tly predominates, This is true of the West India.n 
Churcbes genf}ra.lly. It is barely fifty yea.rs ago since sln.very was abolished in 
the West Indies. As a rule. every me.n who is over fif~y years of a.ge was once a 
slave, redeemed by British justice, with British gold, With rare exceptions, 
every man who is over thirty yea.rs of age is the child of pa.rents who were born 
in sla.very-a. slavery which was the tra.dition of generations. The evils which 
that slavery ha.d so cruelly in ..... rought into the enslaved race cannot a.ll be 
remedied in the course of the first generation, Where freedom does not flourish, 
-<:onscience must need!! be exotic, Duplicity breeos distrust, The knowledge 
that notions of truth a.nd honesty a.re commonly lax, will necessarily hinder 
«jne {rom confiding in another. That the coloured men of the islands n.re, in 
mo.ny cases, a~le to a.ssert their rights, and to hold themselves equal, in con-
scious i~tegrity a..nd business power, to the best among their whiter comrades, 
ner.d not be denied. The truth remains tha.t, in more islands than one. it is 
-difficult to pel'su,.a.e one darkskinned man to trust another. Lo"y officers a.re few 
a.nd ha.rd tro find. These things have been too otten affirmed to be regarded as 
• 'Strange. They were known to the Missiona.ry Committee three 'years ago as 
fully a.s they lUe known to-day; a.nd it is a.n open secret tha.t, beca.use they were 
known, the Committee was in no ha.ste for the constitution of the Conference.19 
No wonder, after such a statement, we should find that at the 
Wesleyan May Meeting, ill July, 1886, there was not a little dis-
-couragement. The English ccrrespondent of the Sierra Leone 
Methodist Herald says, under date June 15, 1886:-
10 Londoll QllartcrlfllRcl:itlC; July, 1885. 
2 B 
• 
• 
• 
370 CI!1'istianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
Sincere hea.rli-searchings a.nd close self-exB.minaliion, ha.ve been occasioned 
in many quarters by the fa.lling-off in missiona.ry contributions, as reported at. 
the present Anniversary of the Wesleya.n Missiona.ry Society, as waU as by the 
diminished a.ttendance at the Exeter Ha.ll Il.lld some other meetings, and the 
decrease of membership. Hence we ha.ve ho.d much correspondence in our 
religiou!! pa.pers, especially in the Christian World, on the question, 'Is.-
Methodism declining? • 
By an intel-esting coincidence the writer of the letter from 
which we take this extract is no other than the veteran Wesleyan 
missionary-now retired-the Rev. William Moister, who has been in 
labours so abundant, both in Airica and in the West Indies. When 
he read the startling sentences in the London Qua1'terly, he must 
have recalled his own statements, made twenty years ago, as to 
missionary success in the West Indies. In his History of 
Wesleyan Missions (p. 92.), he says;-
In the West Indies, we c(t.n point to Christian Ministers. physicia.ns,iawyers. 
magistrn.tes, legisla.tors, philosophers, of African descent, who perform their 
duties with as much efficiency and dignity as persons of any other country, 
a.lthough some of them ha.ve ha.d but slender means of ra.ising themselves to 
their present honoura.ble position. 
If the statement of the London Quarterly is not the invention of 
prejudice, what a falling-off there must have been in the last two-
decades. 
In the United States there Me the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch 
and the .\irican "Methodist Episcopal Church, having the same· 
creed, polity and language. The separation is caused by the elementat 
differences of race and colour: evidently no fault of the , Negro-
Church; for it displays on its banner, with almost pa.thetic distinct-
ness and reiteration, the sentiment of which Moba.mr::J.edans do not 
admit the .first part, but practise the second, "God our Father; • 
Man our brother." The formal and continuous holding forth of 
this truth would be superfluous, if it were universally l'ecognised~ 
But its presentation by the weaker-by the so-called inferior and 
despised party-wears to us the aspect of a humiliating appeal for 
recognition and sympathy-the ('.l1ugument'lwl. ad m'isericOTdia1n~ 
It is the" Am I not a Man and a Brother?" i,)f the days of Slavery. 
The excellent device of the Christian Recorder would have weight .. 
it seems to us-we mean, not inherent, but relative weight-if it. 
• 
The Mohammedans of Nigrilia. 37 1 
were displayed by the stronger and superior, with a view of a.ttract-
ing the weaker. But coming from the wea.ker. it appears to us that 
tbe desiretl effect is destroyed. All force is withdrawn from tIlt 
strongest phrases in the language when employed by thoso whc 
cannot command, but only beg. The offer of liberality is effective 
only when made by those who have the means to be libera.l. The 
offer of beneficence on the part of those who have DO benefits to 
coufer, is meaningless. We do Dot say that those who have adopted 
the motto have no justification for it . They have not only strong 
foot-hold in rea.soo and common sense, but they have good ground 
in the Gospel o•f  Christ. ,Ye do not believe that such a. brotherhood 
is ~eyond the possibilities of Christianity. We believe tha.t the pur· • 
pose and tendency of the system is to make hearts divided by the 
distinctions of race, or ra.nk, or intellect, clasp one another in the 
close embra.ce of a common faith. Was not this its effect in the 
primitive Church? Our Mohammedan friends are charmed by that 
beautiful pic'ture drawn by Luke of the simple and loving life of the 
Apostolic Cburch-" And .11 tb.t helieved were togetber, and bad 
all things common; and sold their possessions and goods; and 
parted thelli to all men, as every man had need . . .. And the 
multitude of them that believed were of ODe heart and of one soul; 
neither said any of them that ought of the things which he pos· 
sessed was his own; but they had all thiDgs common." The theory 
of the Chur(;h of Christ, as taught by the Divine Founder and his 
immedJate successors , is a spiritual Kingdom whose citizens are all 
sons of God, anti therefore brothers and sisters one of another. "For 
this cause" ~ays St. Paul, HIbowmykn~es unto the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ of 'whom the whole family in earth and heaven is 
named." But, alas, in a materialistic age, the noble device held 
forth by the Christian Recorder is simply" the voice of one crying 
in the wilderness." Vox clamantis in deserto. 
The views of our author on • Slavery' (No.2) are very different 
from those attributed to }[usliml by the popular opinion of Christian 
countries. But they are the views heJd throughout the :llohammedau 
,vorld. .. Sla\'el'Y, from the first to the last," says !\Ir. Palgrave, 
H a.fter the manner in which it is 1?ractised here (in Arabia.) from time 
• 
• 
372 Cllristianity, Islam alld tile Negro Race. 
immemoria.l, has little but the name in common with the system, 
hell-branded by those atrocities of the \\Testern hemisphere."'" 
Mohammed, at the beginning of his mission, caused such excite-
ment a.mong the sla.ves by the liberality of his teachillg. that some 
of the large slaveholders found it necessary to remove their slaves 
from the vicinity of his labours, lest they should all turn converts. 
His system was a social, as well as a. religious and political, 
revolution. Says an able revie\'\"er:-
Under Moha.mmed there spro.ng up. e~ lltCtuitate Tei, a. fonn of democra.tlc 
equa.lity, more o.bsolute tha.n the world hll.9 elsewhere seen. Cla.ims of birth 
a.nd wealth could be of no value. or the presence of &. mas\"[ whose fa.vour 
impUed the fa,\'our of the Deity. The proudest Arab could not murmur if God 
chose a, sla.\"e like Zeid to be the leader of armies, a.:nd visibly confirmed his 
choice with the sea.l of victory. It is a principle, alao, of the new sect. tha.t I~lam 
extingu.ished all rcla.tions. The slave, once a )[uslim, was free. the foe. once 8. 
Muslim, WItoS dea.rer thlton a.ny kinsman; the Paga.n, once 0. l\Iu!ilim, might 
preru:h, if the Prophet bade, to o.ttentive listeners. Moha.mmod. was enltobled, 
therefore, n.t all times to comma.nd the absolute n.id of every ma.n of ca.pa.city 
within his ra.nks. No officers of "is threw up their commissions because they 
were supcMeded 1£ he selected a child, what. then? Could not God give 
victory to a child? Moreo\'er, a.ll t.he latent forces which socia.l order restrains 
were instantly a.t his disposal. Every strong ma.n, kept down by circumst:.a.nces, 
bM an instwcti\'e desire to believe in the fait.h which removed at a stroke every 
obsta.cle to his career. To this hour. tbis principle is still of vital importlmce in 
all,l\Iobammedo.n countries. A dozen times bas a. ::;ultan. utterly ruined. !:itooped 
a.mong his people, found-in a. water-carrier, 0. tobacconist, a. slave, or a rene-
ga.d&-tbe required ma.n. raised him in a day to power, and supported him to 
save the empire. If the snuff-dea.ler C&ll rule Egypt, why should be not rule 
Egypt? He is a.s neo.r to God n.s a.ny otber Mussulma.n, sa.ve only tbe heir of 
the Ka.lifate; and o.ccordingly, ?l.Ioba.mmed Ali linds birth, trade and rra.nt of 
educa.tion, no obst.a.cles in bis pa.th. The pa.riah who, in Madra.s, turns Christian, 
is a, P&ria.b st.ill j but iI he t.urns Moha.mmed&n, the prouder Muslim noble 
will, if he rises, gi\'e him his daughter, or serve him as a sO\'ercign, o;o,"ithout. 
thought of bis descent '!l 
Mohammed appointed a Negro slave, Bilal, to call the faithful 
to prayer at the stated times. _-\nd from those Negro lips the 
beautiful sentiment first found utterance-'I Prayer is better than 
sleep: Prayer is better than sleep." It is repeated every da.y 
througbout the Mohammedan worid; and tha most distinguisbed 
'XI Eaderfl alld Ctntral4rabia; vol. ii. p. 271. 
l~ National Rtvitw, Octcber, 1861. 
• 
The Mohammedans of Nigritia. 373 
European of which history can boast is, in Asia and Africa, an 
unknown personage by the side of the slave, Bila!. Mohammed 
gave this man precedence to himself in Paradise. On one occasion 
the Prophet said to Bilal, at the time of the morning prayer, 
.. 0 Eilal, tell me an act of yours from which you bad the greatest 
hopes; because, I beard the noise of your shoes in front of me in 
Paradise, in the night of my ascension ."G 
It is said that the intellectual part of Christendom is ill revolt 
against the renewed forms of Christianity; that there is a growing 
alienation froQl the recognised sta.ndard of belief; but, among 
African Mohammedalls. the Church of the people is jdentical with 
tbe.intellect of the people. The possibilities of every individua.l in . 
the nation, whatever his race or previous condition, give social 
stability and spiritual power to the system. Frederick Douglass, 
as a Mohammedan, would have been a 'lvalcess-a. saint of the 
religion, an , athlete of the faith; as a. Chri3tian, bis orthodoxy is 
suspected, and his very presence is deprecated in a church in the 
capital of the nation; and further south, his domestic relations 
would probably earn him a borne in the penitentiary. 
In No.3, on • Pictures,' &c., Oill' author says." Jesus and Moses 
have no followers." The intelligent Mohammedan frOID the interior 
who visits the Christian settlements on the sea-board, is struck 
with the discrepancy between what he has read in the Bible and 
what he sees in the customs of the people. He knows nothing of 
the ar~ument. from necessity or expediency, by which. in Christian 
countries, much of the letter and spirit of the -Word is set aside 
and neutr:lJjs~d."" In a conversation with our learned friend. he 
expressed bis surprise at what he regarded as the sinful taste for 
pictures displa.yed in the houses of Christians whom he had visited, 
and quoted the Second CO'llmandment to support his view. He 
said, If They have them simply a.s a part of bouse furniture, as 
ornaments, anel not as objects of worship." He replied, .. "Thy 
• 
:.1:.1 Mi6cllat-ul-J/fUabih; voL i. p. 285. 
U Some things there mBy be in the structure of society to-do.y. as in the dn.ys 
of Moses-as in all the day • ."ince MOf1!S-wbicb must be tolerBted temporarily. 
because of tbe bBrdness of men'S benrts.-Mtthodist ReL'ielo; July. 188G, p. 598. 
, 
, 
374 Christianity, Islalll alld the Negro Race. 
~ arB they not satisfied with the ornaments which Nature has 
furnished in such lavish profusion around them-the blue ~ky, the 
white clouds, the beautiful flowers, the living birds, the real horses, 
sheep, and goats, the prolific cow?" &c. We then asked him to put 
his opinion on the subject in writing, when be wrote at once No.3. 
Besides the passage in the· Koran which forbids the making of 
images. Mohammed, in private instructions, constantly iOlpre'Ssed 
upon bis followers the evil of such practices. The Prophet said. 
H Those will he punished the most severely, at the day of resur-
rection, who draw likenesses of God's creation." U If you must 
• 
make pictures. make them of trees, and things without life." :u 
This prohibition has not been without its advanta.ges to the 
Negro convert to Islam. His Arab teacher baving no pictures by 
which to a.id his instruction, was obliged to confine him to the 
book. In this wa.y, his thinking and reasoning powers were 
developed ratber by wbat be read and beard tban by what he saw. 
He saw neither busts nor pictures, but men. He did not study 
books, but character. And among the first lessons he learned was, 
that a. man of his own race, 8 Negro, assisted at the birth of the 
religion he was invited to accept; and, in his subsequent training. 
his ima.gination never for one moment endowed the grent men of 
whom be heard or read with physical attributes essentially different 
from his own. When-in 1873, at the court of the Mohammedan 
KiDg or Putah Jalio, three hundred miles north· east of Sierra. 
Leone, we saw him, surroundecl by his venerable chiefs and sh.eikhs, 
all men of fine forms, who looked to us more like the old prophets 
and kings than any other group we ever saw-we ascKed him what 
was his conception of the personal appeara.nce of Mohammed and 
tbe first Railifs, he replied: .. They looked just like the men you 
see here." This man had never seen a. picture, and his imaginution 
reproduced the great men of Islam in the forms with wbich be was 
familiar. So, the boys who nre being educated in the Nigritian 
schools are not subject, like their l\-egro brethren in Christian land~, 
to those intermittent exertions of the faculty of insight which 
:.;4 JIi,chat.ul.Ma,ab•i h; vol. ii, p. 369. 
• 
• 
The Jloizamlllednlls 0/ Nigrilia. 375 
;.;ometimcs ma.ke them look upon themselves as full men, with 
all the possibilities of men; but at other times, forced by the only 
pictorial examples they see of 6'Teatness, to doubt their capacity 
to attain to the excellence they admire. The white boy who 
looks at the glories of the canvas, or the exquisite forms brought 
out in the marble, feels an elevation of sentiment, a r1,;.sb of in-
spiration and aspiration. He grasps some fragment of the beauty 
of the marble, or gathers some flying whisper frOlD the magnifi-
cence of the canvas, and echoes it back in the language of his own 
consciousness, and feels, "I, too, am a. white man!" The Negro 
youth sees only the surface-it is all obscure allegory to him, and 
hi~ feeling is frozen mto language subtler than the marble he looks 
upon, as he asks himself, H What part or lot have I in this?" While, 
therefore, he stands in art galJeries amid admil'ing crowds, there 
never was a man to whom a yellow primrose is, in so true a. sense, 
nothing more than a yellow primrose. 
Bishop~ Turner complains that, in the United States, even in 
the estimate of the generality of Negroes, If White is God, and black 
is the Devil." What wonder that it is so? The Negro imbibes 
this lesson through every avenue of his soul. For him, then, 
there would have been no loss if the Second Commandment bad 
been rigidly enforced: I< Thou shall not make unto thyself any 
graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven 
above, or tpat is in the earth benea.th, or that is in the water under 
the e,a rth.""l" This verse is omitted in the shorter catechism, both of 
the Lutherans and of the Roman Catholics. One can hardly see 
why, since I;' is given. in full, in Luther's Bible and in the Vulgate. 
Dogmatic motives, probably, caused the omission by the Roman 
Catholics, as one of the chief methods of instructing the masses in 
tbe Middle Ages was supplied by arl. "Tbe only teacbing of tbe 
people," says Dean Milman, "was the ritual." Artists were em-
ployed to execute on the walls of churches. picture histories. 
Church, cbapel, corridor, weJfl completely transformed into one 
.great a.nd harmoniotJ.s picture. Sucb paintings were the books of 
.. EWdoD8 n, 4 . 
• 
• 
376 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
• the unlettered people. <I Illiterati, quod plT ScripiltTam non l'ossunt 
intuer;, hoc per quaeda11l, lJictuTM lineamenia cO'ltemplantllr "-was 
the Declaration of tbe Synod of Arras, in 1205. One of the popular 
artists of that da.y is made to say, "We painters give attention to 
naught, but to make male Ol' female sa.ints on the walls and on our 
panels, thereby, to the great despite of the demons, to render men 
morc devout and Letter," 
Happily for the development of the Negro in Africa., a. different 
method has been adopted in his training. No art call repre~ent 
him. The II rich black and richer bronze" of his complexion has 
never yet been reproduced in marble or on cam-as '; and neither 
brush nor chisel can give his peculiar expl'es ... ion. Any representa-
tion made of him must be untrue to Nature. He can. therefore. 
dispense with plastic or pictorial art as a means of perpetuating his 
memory. and we see that, as a means of his education, it is worse 
than useless.~; 
Let Negl'o readers of this paper ponder the views of une of their 
learned brethren frolll the heart of Nigritia, innocent of race-
oppression and race-prejudices, and know that there are millions 
like him, on tbis continent, who hold these views.r. In their eyes. 
Afichael Angelo, Rapbael, Leonardo, Georgione, Titian, were all 
sinners of the deepest dye, working, in their sublimest perform-
ances, under an afflatus, not £rom above, but from below. The 
Moses of Micbael Angelo. rising before us in all its cqmmaniling 
sternness, as tbe figure before which Pha.raoh trembled, w0l!.ld be 
;It; We bave discussed tbis subject more fully elsewhere.-See Prusa'$ 
JIu!Ja':lIIt, No",. 1875; and Fdillburgh Rt-delc, January. 1878 • 
:IT Co.rdino.l Lo.vigerie, of Algiers. who is said to be t.he bOllt living ",utbority in 
regard te tbe extent a.nd influence of Mobammedanism in Africa, saY' tha.t, 
"Thore are a.t. present. from the Souda.n to the Niger a.nd Senegal, more thAn 81%t.y 
millions of }luS5ulmaru;," We a.re gl .. d to see it a.nnounced (C/lrisiian Rtt;f)rda~ 
June 17. 1886) tha.t 1\ Negro-Rev J. C. Hyler,-wbo had ju~t graduB.tod in a full 
course of Theology at the Reformed Theological Seminary, Now Brunnrick. 
N. J., has fini!>hed a special t.wo-yea.rs coul;Ie in Arabic. This is the first case, 
as fl\r as we know, of a.ny Negro in the United States de\'oting himself to the 
st.udy of this ll\ngua.ge; a.nd yet. for effective missionary work, in the mOll!;. 
important. part. of Africa., 0. knowledge of Arabic, is indispensable. More. 
Negroes read a.nd write this langua.ge than' any other. 
• 
I 
The AI ohal/l/lled,ms of 11' igl'itia. 377 
pronounced a falsehood, as the artist never saw Moses-amol 
Sltaitall-the work of Satan. 
The question of the future of Islam in Africa is one which is 
claiming the attention of the thinkers in Europe. The opinion 
seems to prevail that it has lost its power to influence the nations 
of Europe and Asia, and this is owing to decadence of the race 
among which it had its rise. A vigorous German writer in Die 
NatioH (May 29, 1886). in a review of a recent work on Z8.nzibar. 
thus speaks of the Arab :-
The Arab of to-day, gifted as he is, if he learns. it is Iit.tle more than to 
read. to wTite, an•d  the Koran; all other knowledge is gone to sleep. Even its 
medica.l science, which gale to Europe it3 first physicians. has dwindled into 
dome!Otic medicines a.nd magical a.rt; a.nd industry, in the general a.bsence of 
needs, has declilletl !com the construction of the Alhambra. to the mn.nufactura 
of the most primltive implements. The spirit hali lo~t its impulse to an (l.ll~ 
embra.~il1g activity; the body does not need it. Tbe nobles buy Europea.n 
products Our OW]1 science sbows itself incapable of ma.king a.ny impression on 
their peculiar rpemaJ. organisatLon. 
But, whate,-er may be the case iu Arabia, there is au irre-
pres~ible activity-intellectual, commercial, political and religious 
-among the adherents of the creed iu Nigritia. They pursue an 
extensive agriculture; they spin, weave, sew, work in the metals, 
• engage in the craft of the potter and of the tanner, Dr. Barth 
(1849-1855) travelled througb a large portion of this country. He 
describes cet:}ain districts as abounding in rich pastures, in valleys 
of very fertile land, and in mountains clothed to their summits 
• 
with noble trees, The towns and cities were wal1ed, and respect-
ably built; t~e markets were numerously attended, and a COD-
siderable trade carried ou. He found commerce radiating iu every 
direction from liano, the great emporium of Central Africa, and 
spreading the manufactures and the productions of an industrious 
region over the whole of \Ve:;tern Africa. The fixed population of 
this city be estimated at 30,000; but, on the occa.sion of the grea.t 
fairs, at 60,000. • 
The principal con'lmerce of Kano consists in native produce; 
namely, the cotton cloth woven and dyed here, or in neigbboUl'ing 
tOWll!;, in the form of tobes; Jturkedi, or the oblong piece of 
, 
, 
378 Christiallity, I slam alld the Negro Race. 
dress of dark-blue colour worn by the women; the zenne, or plaid 
• of various colours. There is also a large trade in sandals ana tannefl 
hides, and in the cloth fabrics manufactured at Nupe. Throughout 
these districts a large variety of European goods may be seen. 
Arabic books, printed at Morocco and Fez, in red morocco binding, 
form an important article of traffic. The Koran, the Traditi{)7ls oj 
Bachari, the Oommentaries, &c., are exchanged by Moorish traders 
for the fine cloth manufactured by the Nigtitians, and for gold dust 
and gold trinkets. 
There is in this country an activity not suspected by the outside 
,"Voriel Boys, who go from I'emote districts to the ol'eat centres of 
trade, wonder at the crowds and the different wares, as country 
youth in England and America. wonder when they visit such centres 
as London Or Liverpool, Boston or New York. And they haye not 
the remotest idea. that in any other portion of the globe-if, indeed, 
the knowledge of the existence of any other portion of the globe 
has dawned upon them-there exists so populous, su industrious, 
so wealthy a community. 
And all this industry and activity is controlled by the )loham-
medan tribes, In Central Africa, Islam is an aggressive, conquer-
ing force; and it is, of course, infinitely superior to the Pi.\ganism 
which it bas abolished. It has established in the minds of its 
• 
adherents the sense of responsibility beyond this liCe, and the fear 
()f God; and this sentimen~which is the condition of all other 
• 
progl'ess-it is not only diffusing, but h'ansroitting to posterity, 
This is the element wbich has given stability and upwal'd impulse 
to the social and political forces of advanced countr;es, and it will 
have the same effect in the dark corners of this continent. And 
what is an interesting fact is, that in this vast region-as large as 
the whole of Em'ope-no such question can arise as Bishop Foster 
solemnly put the other day: " What shall be done with Rum?" 
This problem has never yet arisen, and will never arise. There is 
no necessity for Dr, Talmage's prpclamation of no " universal strike 
a.gainst strong drink." We can count upoo''a.t least sixty millions 
of water drinkers. 
It is said that General Gorc!oo had an idea oC utilising the 
• 
The YJohammedans of Nigl'itia. 379 
Muslim power, with Khartoum as a centre, for carrying on the work 
()f civilising the 'millions of equatorial Africa. He believed that 
Mohammedanism possessed enough truth for this regenerating 
work. In his Journal, under date September 12, 1884, be says;-
I a.m sure it is unknown to the generality of our missionaries in Muslim 
c6untries, that, in the Koran, no imputation of sin is made to our Lord; neither 
is it hinted that He ha.d need of pardon: a.nd further, DO Muslim ca.n deny that 
the Father of our Lord was God (vide Chap. iii of Koran), and tba.t He wa.s 
incarnated by a miracle. Our bishops content themselves with its being So 
la.1se religion; but it is 80 f80lse religion possessed by millions on millions of our 
fellow creatures. The Mushms do not say Mohammed was without sin; the 
Koran often aclmowledges that he erred; but; no Muslim will say .• Jeslts sill1lcd." 
.As far as self-sa.crifice of the body, they are fnr above the Roman Ca.tholics, and 
consequently a.bove Protestants. .... The God of the Muslims is our God.18 
We do not envy the man who deems himself sufficientlyen-
lightened to be able to smile at the beliefs and proceedings of this 
people; and dissenting, as we very decidedly do, from many of their 
.doctrines, we dissent still more emphatically from the bigotry 
which refus•e s to recognise in their teachings and methods, many 
-of the elements of goodness, of truth and righteousness. Now, 
what prosped is there of the spread of the Gospel among these 
people? We have purposely reserved for the close of our discussion 
the question which must chiefly excite the interest of the Christian 
. world, viz.: What is the disposition of the African Mohammedan 
in relation to the religion of Jesus, and how far are they accessible 
to its infiue1lce? Let the following fact answer. 
Sometime ago, tru:ough the benevolence of an English lady, 
we were able to send a large number of Arabic Bibl~s and Testa-
ments to difr'erent countries which lie behind Liberia and Sierra 
Leone. Among acknowledgments which have come to us of their 
receipt and circulation from parties to whom we sent them, is the 
-enclosed Arabic letter, marked No.4, of which the following is a 
translation :-
Pra.ise a.nd glory t-o the Crea.tor of the ea.rth o.nr} the hea.ven. This letter 
comes from the youth, native of the puta.h country. to the possessor of honour 
.and kno\vledge, nllJIlely,.Jthe learned Abd-ul-Karim, called a.mong the Christia.ns 
Mr. Blyden. Peace to you, and to your [amily. How are you? I a.m in good 
~ The Journal of Majo1!·Genual Gordon at Khartoum . 
• 
• 
• 
380 Christianity, Islam alld the N.egro Race. 
, health. I have received the books which you sent me. I distributed them 
among ~he people. and I distributed them as you directed 'DJe-I sent one copy 
to Moha.mmed Akibu, in the town of Dinkcra.wi. I ga.ve two copies to Almanie 
Sanus!; one to Murri Ishmael; one to ALmanie Ama.ro, Silla.; one to Be.ra.kn., 
a. stranger from Sego. I Bent six copies to OUI country. Futo.b Ja.l1o. I gtwe 
several to the little boys a.t Fulo.h town. When the news sprea.d, the people 
asked me, ,I Where ha.ve you procured books like these?" I told them tha.t 0. 
Christian rnB.ll, who loves the Muslims, ga.ve them to me, that I migM give them 
to you to read, tha.t we might all be one. They wondered . I then took a. 
pa.ssa.ge from the Koran (sruB. ii, verses 2nd and 3rd), which is a.s follows;-
" The God-Iearing are those who believe in the unseen, and observe pre.yer, 
a.nd out of wha.t we have bestowed upon them. expend for God j and w1w bclie.vc 
in [Lhe Koran] what hath been sen' down to thee; a.nd wha.t h&th bun liellt down 
befoTe Hue [the Bible]." It was their opinion that the Koran superseded the 
'row'at (Old Testament) and lnjil (New Testament): that God revoked the 
Tourat and Injil when he revealed the Koran. I told them, "No! this book is 
the Tourat a.nd Injil." They then rejoiced very much a.nd SElid, " A deed like 
this is better than sending liquor." Ma.ny belie\'e that there is no other book, 
and no other religion leading to Heaven, except tha.t of Mohe.mmed. He is their 
intercessor and guide to Hea.ven. When I first saw the Holy Bible in the Ambie 
tongue, a lea.rned man informed me tbe.t the originaJ tongues' were Hebrew 
and Greek. I wondered, and I entered upon the reading of it, and I sa.w things-
different to what I ha.d seen in the Kore.n, the great (John xiv, 6, and x-), 
"Jesus said unto him, I am the way. the truth, o.nd the life: no man cometh 
unto the Father but by me." "I am the door; by me, if a.ny man enter in, he 
shall be saved, and sha.ll go in e.nd out and find pasture." I took these tW() 
verses and wrote them on the back of each one of the books and g&\'e it to 
them, and they promised me to read it. And after some da.ys there came 
to me a man named AHa, and sojourned with me fifteen de.ys. that I might. 
explain to him some of the verses in the Gospel. The words werf3 Matt. xx, BO. 
He said, .• How does the Koran promise us houri. in Heaven?" I said to him.  
.. Be patient; only rea.d on and yoU.1 burden will be lightened." He wbndered. 
The seeding o~ religious books to the people is a beautiful work. Therefore. I 
Elelld this leUst to you to inform you of wbe.t bas ta.ken place '. . mong us. One 
of them to whom I g9.\'e the books, sa.id. '. The words which I rea.d in this book. 
do the ChristiBons ha.ve words like these?" I said, 'f Yes," and he contradicted 
me twice. He said, "Those who ha.ve books like this, never get drunk," 
There are left with me now ten copies of the Psa.lms, and three of the whole 
Bible. I never glye a. copy to DoIly except to those who know the Arabie 
langull.ge. When the time for the OIUIl.VIlJlS comes, I will send the remainder 
as you ha.ve directed me. MIl.Y the Lord your God blelis you a.nd keep you. 
Peace hom your friend ~ '" MOMOOO WAKA. , 
Written on the si.."\:th day of the month of Ra.madhs.n. in the year of the 
Hijra., 1201 (June 18. 1885). 
It will appear that the Moham1nedans do not object to reading 
, 
The Mohammedans of Nig"ilia. 
the Christian Scriptures, and that they pay close attention to their 
contents. Many of those who visit Sierra Leone for trade, purchase 
Arabic BibJes at the bookstore there. It is a great thing to know 
that they read the Bible. Now, where is the living evangelical 
teacher to propound to them, and follow up with Gospel teaching, 
the question of Philip to the Eunuch, If U oderstandest thou what 
thou readest?" 
The Christian world seems slow to understand who the instru-
ments in this work must be. Just as Africa has been, and is 
being, conquered for Islam, not by Arabs, but by Negro converts 
to the system~ so will she be conquered for Christianity by the 
Negro CODv~rts to the '·eligion. No others can do it. The American 
wal' furnished the symbol of the method of Africa's regeneration. 
The war, in the Divine purpose (whatever man's plans and intentions 
may have been), was evidently for the freedom of the Negro;29 and 
DO success could crown its arms until the Negro himself was called 
to the front. II We thought. first." says Frederick Douglass, .. we 
could carry on the war politely. It was to be done by gentlemen-
by white men. We fought with our soft, white hands, while we 
kept our hard, black hand chained behind us. But, after a while, 
we learned wisdom; and we put an eagle on the Negro's button, 
a musket on his shoulder, and a knapsack on his back, and told 
him to help, and he did help. He responded full two hundred 
thousand strong.1IO 
So, for Me spiritual war which is being carried into Africa, the 
Church must utilise the African . No cheering news will come 
from the front ,u ntil some of those millions who assisted in procuring 
the temporal emancipation of the race are allowed and assisted 
to take part in the great work of the spiritual redemption of their 
Fa.therland. Providence has already prepared the political and 
ecclesiastical organisations. LIberia. is the pioneer in the political 
movement, founded by far.seeing Christians, philanthropists and 
statesmen, in America. Let he.,r  be generously assisted and sup· 
!ill Colonel McClure, oethe PhilMelphia Til7U!s, in his great lecture on 'Tho 
Lessons of the War,' delivered at Leringoon, Va. .. June 16, ignores this issue. 
110 Lcct/lrCl Oil John Brown. , 
• • 
382 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
, ported in her advance into the continent. The African Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the United States (soon to be joined by the 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and similal' organisa-
tions), in machinery and appliances, and in physical adaptation, 
leads the way. The Negro Baptists of the South are already in the 
field. There are Negro Presbyterians and Negro Episcopalians. 
These will all be utilised when a few more years, and a little more 
experience, have satisfactorily demonstrated to the American Church 
the utter impracticability of the present methods. "Arm the 
Negroes! Arm the Negroes! " will again ring through the American 
nation . Arm the Negroes, in the name of Christ, ii'Africa is to be 
conquered for Christ. I< The solutiou of Africa in America," said the 
hte Bishop Haven, with true Ohristian insight, after visiting this vast 
couutry, .. Is America in Africa?" and there can be no other 
solution. Bishop Taylor is calling for Negro recruits from America, 
for his great iuward march from Liberia. May the response be 
large, generous, multitudinous! 
• 
.,  
•• 
• 
•• • 
• 
, 
• 
African Colonisation. 
THE series of brilliant explorations of Africa witnessed by the present generation has filled u,p  the larger part of the blank 
spaces on ma.pS of the" Dark Coutllleut," and a country has been 
revealed such as the oLltside world, fifty years ag6. never suspected . 
Previous to that time, the little that, from the coast settlements,. 
could be discerned of the interior, encouraged the belief that not 
only was it inaccessible, but unworthy of the pains and sacrifices 
required to attempt access. But, within the last five-and.twenty 
years a wbo;'e librar)' has been written, giving minute particulars 
of the country a.nd people in the heart of the continent; unfold-
ing regions that seem freih from the bands of God, only waiting 
the energies of man to bring to perfection the numerous products 
of the soil-great rivers, extensive pasturage and tillage, cities of 
respectable size, a large inland commerce, countless millions of 
people; in some parts with the rudiments, at least, of history, and 
wit,h a capa?ity for receiving and contributing to au advanced 
civilisation. 
These discoveries have turned the attention of Europe to 
Africa with rellewed curiosity and interest. Aud, very recently, this 
interest has so much increased that the competition among the 
leading European Powers for the possession of territory on the 
coast has been described uy the London Times, with no touch of 
exaggeration, as" The Scramble for Africa." 
An Em'opean writer, delighting in epigrammatic rhetoric, has 
recently said, lj The e~ghteenth_pentury stole-the black ma.n from 
his country; the nitkteenth century steals his country from the 
black man." And, just as the stealing of the man in the eighteenth 
century originated in philanthro}ic ideas, so the motive for stealing 
, 
• 
384 Christianity, Islam alld the Negro Race. 
, his country in the nineteenth century is put into philanthropic 
language. The nations engaged in the H scramble" are all models 
of the highest civilisation, and their aims and purposes are all in 
the interest of enlightenment and progress. The Cougo Conference 
laid down admirable rules for occupation and protectora.tes, what. 
ever the natives may have to say against them. But they will 
not couutenance any acts against right and justice. They are 
at once the invaders of his country and the protectors of his 
rights. The spirit of the joterna.tional alliance is the spirit of 
liberty and equity for Africa. 
But it does not seem prob8:ble to us that what f.)reigners have 
failed to accompJ.i.sb in all the past ages wj]] be achieved by their 
descendants of tIllS generation . Modern Europe, with all its vast 
machinery of intellectual and material progress, and with all its 
humanitarian intentions-with all its appliances for civilising, in-
structing anrl elevating-stands paralysed before difficulties not a 
whit less appalling than those which, for centuries, have confronted 
European efforts in this country. To any thinking man, of what-
ever race, who, living in 'Vest Africa, snrveys ~he current of events, 
the reflection must bring a feeling of discouragement that the very 
extension and multiplication of means of foreign communication 
with the country, which give material fa.cilities for the ta.sk of her 
regeneration, throw moral obstacles in the way of its accomplish. 
ment, by a.llowing at' encouraging counteracting socia.l forces to 
have equal access to the field . 
It is in view of the physical obstacles which beset the eftorts of 
foreigners, and of the moral difficulties ra.ised by t~~ introduction 
of European civilisation that we purpose, in the following pages, 
to attempt to show how closely all prospect of regenerating the 
Africa.n continent is connected with human elements in the United 
States, which seem to be superfluous there, and with the principle 
represented by the American Colonisation Society. 
The Negro, in exile, is the onl,y  man, born out of Africa, who 
can live and work and reproduce himself k this country. His 
residence in America has conferred upon him Dumerous a.dvantages. 
It has quickened him in tbe diref"tion of progress. It ba.s pre-
A fricall Colonisation. 
disposed him in favour of ci\;iisation, and given him a knowledge 
of revealed truth in its highest and pW'est form. We believe that 
the deportation of the Negro to the New World was as much 
decreed by an all-'wise Providence, as the expatriation of the 
Pilgdms from EW'ope to America. Wben we say that Providence 
decreed the means of Africa's enlightenment, we do not say that 
He decreed the wickedness of the instruments. When the depor-
tation first began, it was looked upon as simply tbe transportation' 
of Africans to America for purposes of .labonr; but with a view, 
also, as Bir John 'Hawkins made Queen Elizabeth believe,l to 
their spidturol improvement. Btft, in course of time, human 
passions became mi. ... ed up with, and wicked bands prosecuted, 
what it had been before determined sbould be carried out; and 
the enterprise, having, at first, a bene~cent aim and a humane 
form, became the slave-trade, with 0..11 its unspeakable enormities. 
It was not the first time that wicked hands were suffered to 
execute a Divine purpose. No special guilt on the part of the 
African, no special merit on the part of the European, made one 
the slave and the .other the master. Many a wicked man became 
master, and flourished the rod of the oppressor over the head 
of his moral and intellectual superior. The good are often 1U 
distress; the wicked in prosperity. "They are not in trouble as 
other men; neither are they plagued like other men." 
Says Cotta, in Cicero's treatise on the Nature of the Gods, 
arguing aga'iust a moral government of the world-
\\,11y did tho;! Cn.rthaginia.n o\"erbear. in Spain, the two Scipios, the bravest 
and the best of men? Why did Maximus bury his 80n, who had already been 
consul? Why d"id  Hannibal slay Un.rcellus? Why did the field of Cannre snll.tch 
a.way Paulus? Wby was tohe body of Regulus given up to the cruelty of the Poem? 
Why did not his own roof cover our Africn.nus? ... The day would fail me, 
wel'e I to tell of the evils that have befn.lIen tho righteous; no less 60, were I to 
recount. the successes of the wi..:ked. For why did l\Iarius die so ha.ppily in bis 
home in a. ripe old age. and cOIUlul for a. seventh time? Or, why dld Cinna., the 
cruellest of all men. rule so long?" 
But the Christia,n  has been taught, that whatever is done, 
I Walker's H istory Of the Slave-Trade, p. 37. 
~ Di! Satllra Dearu,,) .. lib. iii, c. 32. 
2 c 
• 
386 Christianity. Islam and the Negro Race. 
is done, not from the caprice of the gods, hut beca.use it seems 
• 
good in the sight of a. merciful Father, infinite in wisdom, power, 
justice, holiness, goodness and truth . No grief, therefore, at the 
reconection of ~be ra.vages in Africa.; no memory of the evils of the 
.. middle passage"; no abhorrence of successful and damnable 
crime j no indignation at the iniquities of unparalleled oppression in 
the house of bondage, ca.n prevent us from recognising the ha.nd of 
an over-ruling Providence in the deportation of Africans to the 
Western world, or interfere with our sense of the incalculable profit 
-the measureless ga.ins-which, in spite of man's perversity. 
cruelty and greed, must accrue -to Africa. and the Negro race [rom 
the long and weary exile. 
Africans were carried aws.y by millions. There is DO means 
of estima.ting the Dumber. Had they been taken to the foreign 
school 'as individuals, aDd been brought ba.ck after t.heir tra.ining, 
the desirable results would not have been attained. Individuals 
might have lost their knowledge of their own peoplE, and theu' 
interest in them i or, receiving foreign training, under circumsta.nces 
of personal isolation, might have received it un4er a sort of mental 
protest as having no relation to the interest or happiness of their 
people at home i or, returning to their country as the prophets of a. 
new era, they would have shared the proverbial fa.te of the solitary 
reformer among his own people. They were, therefore, carried 
away in such numbers, that, while under the control of a civilised 
people of a different race, a.nd undergoing the process of enforced 
improvement, they might be sufficiently numerous to find a.mong 
themselves encouragement, sympathy and suppo. . t, amid the 
rigours of their schooling; and, on returning, might exert the 
influence of orga.nised communities, able to introduce and establish 
wholesome reforms. . 
Careful observers have noticed that the Negroes have reta.ined 
their manliness, self·reliance and self-respect, to a. far greater 
degree in those sections of the United States, and in the West 
Indies, where they could exist in la.rg~ numvers, and where the 
climate more nea.rly resembled their own, tha.n in countries where 
the pa.ucity of their numbers and a.n uncongenial climate made 
I 
Africa" Co lonisatioll . 
them always feel like strangers. And in tropical, or semi· tropical 
'£ouutries, they were, though slaves in some respects. masters of 
the situation; for they had often to instruct their European over-
seers in the art of tropical agriculture, and in the value and use of 
tropical productions. They bad the advantage, at times, of being 
.able to dictate, and to see their suggestions adopted. But, in 
-temperate- climes, where, for six months of the year, they had to 
-deal with frost, ice and snow-with a flora and fauna entirely 
unknown to them-they were obliged to ignore all their past 
experience. Their knowledge previously gained amounted to 
nothing. 'l'~ey had to be told ev:rything, and to render, even in 
the merest trifle, mechanical obedience; hence, they hung in 
hetpless dependence upon their masters. For them the m,odus 
v-ive1uli was absolute submission. Whenever they moved they 
must move in the track of their guides. Reason and judgment 
'-were abdicated, and the mimetic faculty took theil' place. No such 
combinatidn against their oppressors as occurred in Hayti or 
.Jamaica, was possib1e to them. Nature, instea.d of affording them 
the sympathy and shelter of her recesses, repelled them. The 
wintry stars, in theil' courses, fought against them; and trusting to 
the white man became as complete an instinct as keeping their 
balance. Though the condition of the Negroes of the Northern 
-States was theoretically better than that of their brethren in the 
South, th'1Y have not held their own either in numerical aI' 
intell~ctllal importance. They have steadily decreased in nwnerical 
.and social status. 
In the aeanwhiie, the Fatherland has been left a prey to 
European greed, and to its own untutored devices, enjoying, only 
here R.nd there, isolated efforts of a. timid antl cautious philanthropy, 
The chief obstacle to the wholesome influence of Europeans in 
Africa is the climate. Tram the earliest antiquity this has been 
the insuperable barrier. Barth says that the relics of Roman 
dominion in North·central Ajrica are chiefly sepulchral monu· 
ments,-' Such mondments, alas, are still the melancholy reminders, 
I Tl'avtu, r/;c., in North and CcntralllJrica, ill tht Years 1849·1855; vol. i. p.156. 
, 
• 
I 
388 Cll1'istianity. Islau! and tile Negro Race. 
all along the West coast, of European efforts. And notwithstand-
ing the increase of forejgn conveniences, and the vast progress 
accomplished in climatology, the climate of Ah'ica produces au 
European constitutions the same fatal effects. Recent advices 
state that the mission of the London Missionary Society. on Lake 
Tanganyika, is nearly abandoned, on accouut of the repeated 
deaths of the missionaries. The Rev. Bowen Rees, pue of the 
missionaries, in tendering his resignation to the Committee, patheti-
cally says:-
Ha.ving been u.nwell since I ha.ve settled in this country, a.nd there being a.t. 
present DO signs of my getting well, also, tha.t I see my felt!)w missionaries 
falling one a.fter the other. I a.m convinced that Europeans are not qUll.lified. 
physically, for the climate of this part of A£ricti. Consequently, I feel thll.t I am 
compelled to return home as soon as possible. 
Given a healthy climate, or even a less pernicious climate, for 
Europeans, and all other difficulties would be overcome. But it is 
a melancholy fact, that wherever, and as far as they can penetrate-
and live, the cOllC'Omitallts of their sllccessful resiience have 
largely hindel'ed the improvement which their presence is supposed 
to stilllulate. 
Bishop Foster, of tbe Methodist Episcopal Chmch, by his. 
address before the General Missionary Committee of his Church, in 
November last, has furnished serious matter for thought and re-
flection. The Bishop has trav.elled, and knows whereof he affirms. 
We do not know whether he has visited West Africa. but this we 
know, that, whatever may be the fact in other parts at the world~ 
every word of his address, so far as it applies to this cduntry~ 
should be emphasised by capitals. We will give the"testimony on 
this subject of the earliest of modern explorers of tws pOl-tioll of 
Africa, and the result of the observations of the very latest. 
Mungo Park recorded his impressions as follows:-
Although the Negroes, in gener8.l, ha.ve a. great idea of the wealth and power 
of Europeans. I am afraid tha.t the Mohammedan converts among them think 
but very little of our superior attainments in religious knowledge. The whit& 
traders in the mo..ritime districts. take ro pains to counteract this unhappy 
prejudice. .... The poor Africans, whom we a.ffect be. consider s.s ba.xba.ria.n~~ 
look upon us, I fear, as little better than 0. race of formidable but ignorant. 
Heathen,! 
~ 'l'ravclll jlj 1795, 1796, 1797. 
( 
rlfyicml Colonisation . 
• 
The Landers observed, that the natives, in proportion as their 
a~pect and attire showed symptoms of intercourse with Europeans, 
became always more barbarous and lawless.s 
A century has made no change for the better. Mr. Joseph 
Thompson, the well-known traveller, visited the Nigritian countries 
~ast year, and III a repent article detailing his experiences, he 
says:- • 
)Iy voya.ge a.long the coast of Africa, n.nd visits to all the principa.l pla.ces, 
:ha.ve astonished me profoundly. I looked forward with plea.sure to 0. study of 
the influence which a. century of conta.ct with ci'9ilisa.tion has effected in the 
Qaroa.rolls tribeJof the,seaboard. The result bas been unspce.kably disn.ppoint_ 
ing. Lea.ving out of couidere.tion the towns of Sierra. Leone and La.gos. where 
the c•o nditions hs,ve been abnormal, the tendency has been everywhere in the 
line of deterioration. There is absolutely not a single pla.ce where the na.tives 
a.re left to their own free will, in which there is the sligMest evidence of a. 
desire for better things. The worst vicos and diseases of Europe have fonnel a 
.congenia.l soil, and the ta.ste for spiJ:its has risen out of all proportion to their 
·desire for clothes. . . . . In these villages, men, women, o.nd children, ,vit;h 
-scarcely a rag upon their perRons, follow you a.bout beseeching you for a little 
gin or tobacco. Eternally gin, tobacco, or gwlpowder. These are the !lole 
wants aroused by a. century of tra.de and contact with Europeans.1> 
When Mr, Thompson speaks of places "where the natives 
.are left to their own fl'ee will," he means, places:; where the un-
bridled propensities of godless Europeans are unchecked by law or 
puh1ic sentiment. In these places the mora.lity with which the 
natives come into contact is of the lowest character, The ge-
neral'i. ty o( the tl'ading agents act upon the theory that European trade with Africa is a species of oue-sided contract, in which all the 
benefit must,. be on the side of the European, and a.ll the dis-
advantages on the side of the African. They are men, as one of 
thell' owu countrymen has recently described them, .. who left 
their country for their country's good," They bring with them the 
arts and the strength of civilisation, but, personally, they are at 
Jarge from the influence of its hlgher principles. They resemble 
the men who resorted to Dard ill the cave of Adullam: "Every 
• 
~ Journal oj an Expedition to E.rpl()r~ th~ Course allrl1'ermillation of t"~ Nig~r i 
.by Richard and John La.nder, 1832. , 
(I Good Word,; In.nua.ry, 1886 . 
• 
• 
I 
390 CII1'isliallily, Islam alld Ilze Negro Race. 
• one that was in distress. and everyone tha.t was in debt, a.nd every 
one that was discontented," Such reckless spirits are utterly in-
different to the character of the method, or to the moral results of 
their intercourse with the natives. 
But these sad results occur, not ouly "where the natives are 
left to their own free will," but even whel:e civilised governments 
are supposed to control, and where the" conditions are described 
by Ml'. Thomsoil as If atbnormal. to The strict application of Free-
trade principles to the sale of spirits, within, and in localities adjoin-
ing, British colonies, is attended with deplorable consesuences ; a.nd 
often, by the disturbances created, ~be phila.nthropic objects o( Free-
trade are largely defeated. Sir Arthur Conynghame, in bis work. 
My Command in South Africa, gives the (ollowing melancholy 
account ;-
The facility with which these unta.med sa.vages (Kams) C8J\ obtain any 
n.mount of villa.nous drink, is one of the most fruitful sources of danger. Some 
of the chiefs. being awa.re of the evil, fOl'bid canteens in their localit"ies, and ho.ve 
repeatedly requested that the se.me prohibition should be extended a.mong the 
a.djoining (British) districts. The answer of e.uthority ha.s a.lwe.ya been, "that;. 
the natives should place a morn.l restrn.in on themselves. a.nd not imbibe more 
tha.n is beneficial; and t.hat trade cannot be impeded. simply because it may 
engender e\;1 CODgequences a.mong the nati\'es. 
Wha.t a .. simply." During the visit o( Cetewayo, King of the 
Zulus, to England, a few years ago, a deputation (rom the British 
National Temperance League ca.lled upon him, to urge their views 
as to the evils produced in native races by the use of spi1:i~uous 
Uquors. After they had spokeD) the King repUed as follows:-
I can only gn.y that, a.s e. nation, my people o.re, so to speak, al::l. . ta.iners. or, at 
all events, they o.re not accustomed, nor do they, as a people, partake of spiri.' 
tuous liquors, The beer which they use, which is actually a food, is like gruel-
our beer is rea.lly a. food ; but the others-your spirits and your mtoxicELllts-o.re 
dea.th, It may be intercsting to the gentlemen of the deputa.tion, to know that 
there wa.s all order issued, or a proclamation by me, tbat Rpirits wero not to be 
introduced. or allowed to enter my country. But I think tbat the right place to 
sbut the door is the side £rom which the spirits comc. It is no good my sbutting. 
the door on my side, for I bave no distillLies. But I think the proper way 
would be for the Na.tal Government to a..ssist, by pla.cing restrictions upon thl" 
introduction of spirituous liquors into my country. 
'The Zulus are, celebrated as logici ..... ns. The above is 0. specimen 
A jl'ican Colonisation . 391 
• 
of the unanswerable answers which, in verbal fence, they are 
I 
accustomed to give to Europeans. 
Rev. R. H. Nassau, M.D., of the Presbyterian Mission on the 
Ogo",e. writes (Dec. 31. 188.) :-
The inroa.d of intoI.ica.ting liquor into the mISSIon premises, a.nd used by 
Church members and inquirers, distressed us exceedingly. fLnd burdened our 
hea.rts as the ca.rking care of station work a.lone would not have done. 
Rev. David A. Day, of the Lutheran Mission in West Africa, 
with pathetic indignatioD, says:-
The vilest l:i(Iuors imaginable are being poured into At:rica in shiploa.ds from 
aJmost eYery quarter of the civilised world. On one smnll vessel. in which 
my'ielf Ilond wife were the only p&~sengers, there were, in the hold, over 100,000 
gaI10ns of Sew E11g1alld rum, which sold on the coast for one dolle.r a. gallon in 
exchange for Africn.n produce. 
The religious press in 'Vest Africa IS loud in its denunciations 
.of the infamous traffic. The Methodist Herald (December 9. 1885). 
published at Sierra Leone by natives, making grateful record of 
the proceedings of the Missionary Conference held at Bremen. 
I 
October 27, to protest against the trade in spirits, says;-
In considering the adva.nce of Europea.n civilisation into AU·ica., one of the 
chief sources of anxiety for the future in the minds of intelligent Africans is 
the introduction of ardent spirits, which seem to be, a.long the coast, the chief 
B.rticle of European tra1fic \vith the natives. It is gratifying, therefore, to see 
that t.he attention of one of the most powerful of the Europea.n Governments 
whose citizens !\.Ie enln.rging their tude with the country. is being ea.rnestly 
and "Serious~ directed to this eviL We do not believe tha.t the article is indis-
pensa1;lle to the Africnn trade. The spLrits introduced are confined to the coast. 
the interiorna.tives knowing little or nothing of them. If Europea.n traders would 
agree to elin;ipate the articles from their Africa.n trade, they could do a fa.r 
more flourishing bu:.iness without them. Money the natives now spend for the 
poison would be devoted to far more useful things. The revenue of civIlised 
Governments would not be diminished. We have hope that, owing to the 
energetic protests being made in va.rious Christian countnes against the manu-
facture and sale of the poison, Alrico.ns will he sa.veU t.~e melancholy fate 
which has befnllen some other races, through their contact with foreigners who 
nre indiscriminate in their trade. 
Mr. Stanley, who has bee:J, for wany .y ears, a close and sympa-~ 
thetic observer of missionaries and their work in this country, 
says:-
• 
Pious missionaries have set forth devotedly to instil into the dull, mindless 
, 
• 
I 
:'\92 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
, tribes the sacred germs o( religion; but their material difficulties &re so groat, 
that the progre8s they ha.ve made bears no proportion to the courage and zeal 
they ha.ve exhibited,1 
The indefatigable traveller turns, with more hopeful prospects 
and for wider beneficial results, to 41 the missionaries of commerce." • 
But we have seen how, as a rule, their \Tork has affected the 
African. 
The next agency proposed for Africa's regeneration is COLONISA-
TION. From the preceding discussion it may be inferred that no 
great hopes can be placed on the achievements of European 
colonists. 'rhere is, first, the pbysical difficulty which t"unfavourably 
affects the colonists; anc111ext, the moral difficulties which injuri-
ously affect the natives, European colonists have been able to 
settle in no large numbers in equatorial Africa, 
The equatorial regions of Africa (sa.ys 'Mr, Stanley) ha.\'e for ages defied 
Isla.mism, Christia.nity, science and tra.de, Like the waves beating on a. rocky' 
shore, so Islam..ism has dashed itself repea.tedly from the North in its fre.ntic 
effort to rea.ch the line of the equator. Christianity has al:;o ma.de ineffectual 
attempts, for the last three centuries. to obta.in a footing in the sa.me region, 
but ignora.nce of the c1iroa.te caused its retirement. Science bas directed 
strategic assaults upon the closely-besieged Mea, a..nel has succeeded in retiring 
with brilliant results; its success, howe\'er, bas been only temporary, as Tra.de, 
which ought to have followed, stood dazed with the difficulties which the 
pioneers encountered. .... Civilisation, so often baffled, stands ra.iling at the 
harba.rism and savagery that presents such aD impenetrable front to its efforts . 
. . , . Had a few of those waves of races, flowing /lIld eddying over Korthern 
A£rica, succeeded in lea.ping the harrier of the equator, we shoull ha\'e found 
the black aboriginal [MeS of Southem Africa 'very different ftom the savaces we 
meet to-day.S 
The fact is, we should not have found them at all f and this is 
the reason why the races who drink the waters of the Nrger and 
the Congo, and dwell on the borders of the great lakes, have been 
severed from the interests of Europe by insurmountable barriers of 
sand, and by inhospitable shores, 
In South Africa, where EW'opean settlemeuts ha.ve been possible, 
the results for the aborigines ha.vE1;beeu far from encouraging, 
During the three-quarters of a century Lhat Engla.nd bas held that 
1 TIll! Congo, and the Foundino oj it.s.  Free Slate; vol. ii, p. 377 . 
t COllgO Frte Slate; vol. ii, pp. 372,373. 
, 
African Coio1l;sntioll. 393 
portion of the continent, her administration bas been attended by 
-ceaseless troubles, and the clash of Oirms bas rarely been silent, 
• .-for many years a.t a time. Nothing but the extraordinary vitality 
of the Kafirs has kept them from extermination. An able writer 
in the Edinbnrgh Rct'icw,O said sometime ago :-
There is one most. striking Il.J1d all.importa.nt peculiarity, in which the Ka.firs 
.differ from a.lmost all aboriginal tribes with whicb our colonists have come in 
.conta.ct. To the Red Indians, and New Zea.ln.nders, the 'Austra.lians, and even 
theit own Hottentot neighbours, Christian (EutopefL.n) ciyilisation has been 8.8 
an Upas tree, destroying them by its diseases, or at-ill more fata.lly poisoning 
them by the infa:tious conta.mination of its drunkards and debauchees; but the 
Rafirs have shown that they can live on the borders of a civilised community, 
and unless killed off by war, or by famine ca.used by war, they keep up their 
numbers. • 
The history of European civilisation has indeed but too plainly proved 
how hard it is for fl.. strong race to do more for a. weak race the.n to bestow 
upon it its vices; n·nd too quickly deducing from the snd facts of this history 
title conclusion that that which i!> hard must be impossible; there are many 
persons who r..d \'ocate severe measures aga.inst the Knfirs, -as ngo.inst all SEIoVll.ges, 
.on the principle tha,t it is more humane to kill them quickly with powder and 
shot than slowly by drink or disease. The Boers, we are told, are great readers 
of the Old Testament; a.nd comparing themseh'es to the Isra.elites, a.s did the 
PuritaD.9 of New England. they shoot a native on the strength of a text out 
.of Joshua., • 
But events, every day occuning, are forcing the world to accept 
the truth, that European's cannot occupy equatorial Africa, either 
for their own advantage, or that of the natives. 
They ca:lllot occupy it by Jorce. One of the officers of Samudu, 
the celebrated hloh~\.mmedan military chieftain of Nigritia, sa.id 
to the preseijt writer a few weeks ago: >I As long as it is not 
possible for the white man to send armies composed or iron men, 
'Who need no food or drink, who are impenetrable by sun or rain, 
so long will it be impossible for them to take our country by war, 
or to achie\'e and maintain a.scendency away from the coast," In 
the interior, European artillery and ironclads, nitro·glycerine and 
panclastile are of no avail. \Vith all the appliances of modern 
I 
warfare, the troops CJl the most wealthy of European nations found 
the N ol'th·eastern Soudan inaccessible. The Marquess of Salisbury, 
, 
u July, 1B54. 
, 
• 
I 
394 CMistiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race . 
• 
in announcing the policy of the new Conservative Government-, 111,1 
• 
the House of Lords, (July 6, 1885), referred to the British invasion 
of the Soudan as follows :-
One of the meet complica.ted nnd enta.ngled problems ever submitted b0-
a. Government to solve, is the problem of the present position of Egypt. ... 
Now, the first of a.ll the difficulties with which we ba.ve to contend, is, tha.t we 
ha.ve a. triumpho.nt enemy on the uontier. On the frontier a.t Kha.rtoum, and 
on the uontier a.t Suakim. we have an enemy who, a.t aU events, according to-
his own ideas, ha.s been triumpha.nt in the recent struggle. He has prevented 
us from a.ttaining the objects we had in view, and he has seen us retire from 
the ground which we occupied. 
In the entry made in bis Journal under date ~eptember 17,. 
1884, General Gordon said :-
From 0. projcssiolwl mi.litary point of view, o.nd speakinG materially, I wisb I 
was the Ma.hdi, and I would laugh a~ all Europe. 
Under date September 12th, he wrote:- , 
The people e.re all e.gainst us, a.nd what a power they b[we; they need not 
fight, but ha.ve merely .t o refuse to sell us their grain. The stomac"b  governs tbe 
world, and it was th13 stomo.cb (a. despised organ) which co.used our misery from 
the beginning. 10 
It is impracticable to occupy the interior of Africa by European 
colo1ties. It is being found out that, even if the insuperable climatic 
difficulty could be overcome, the resources of Africa are not so con-
veniently accessible as the imagination oC enthusiasts had pictured. 
On the 15th of November, 1884, the Plenipotentiarie, s of all tbe 
Powers of Europe, and of the United States, met in confere,-nce at. 
Berlin. One of the objects of this illustrious gathering was to 
decide the formalities to be observed Cor the valid rnnexation of 
territory in future on the African Continent. No assembly oC such 
importance in connection with Africa had ever met in Europe 
before, if we except the Congress of 1815, at Yienna, whicb made 
the celebrated declaration against the Slave-trade. In keeping with 
the understanding arrived at in Berlin, Germany, France, England, 
Italy and Portugal, have been a(opropriating African territory. 
But the most elaborate bit of receut machit'tery for the occupa-
tion and civilisation of Africa is that at the bead of which stands. 
, 
10 Tilt Journals of Major-Gelltral Gordon, at Khartoum. 
, 
A jl'ican C olollisatioll. 395 
, 
that Royal philanthropist, Leopold II, King of the Belgians. He 
has already, with more than regal munificence, lavished a vast, 
fortune in the Congo country with a view to the extinction of 
Slavery and the introduction of a select civilisation among the. 
aborigines. It is a noble purpose, a magnificent aim, to build up 
a ciyilisatiol! in Africa by free labour. But Europeans have never 
achie,ed such a result in the tropics. No Europeans will ever go 
to the Congo and work as fanners 01' labourers. Serious draw-
backs are presenting themselves. Dr. Fischer, the recent German 
traveller, in hi,s  work entitled MOTe Light on the Da''rk Continent, 
scouts the idea that Europeans will ever be able to colonise 
Africa. The natives, he says, will not work without being COUl-
pelled; and therefore, slavery, or life service, as be puts it, is. 
inevitable. 
Ml". William P. Tisdel, United States Agent to the Congo Free 
S"?ate, in his Report to the Department of State, dated June 29th, 
1885. gives a startling account of the condition of things in the 
I Congo Free State. ll According to his statement it was an exception 
to find a white man anywhere in good health. Out of six hund.red 
whites who had contracted with the Association to serve for thr,e e 
years, only five have been able to remaiu the full time. Ouly two 
Americans ha.,"e ever been employeu by the Association, and of 
these, one returned to the United States, ill with African fever, and 
committed sl}-icide while under its effects; and the other was left 
by Mr. Tisdel, dangerously sick, in the Congo country. It is said 
that the Belgian Government have appointed au independent 
Commission f01 the investigation of the circulDstances of the new 
State. 
It appears that the Germans did not hit Up011 an El Dorado 
when they annexed Angra Pequena. Several Saxon miners who 
went out when. the acquisition was fit-st made, and hopes were 
brilliant, have returned home. They l'eport unfavoUl'ably on the 
scarcity of water. ) 
Another recent o~server, Mr. W. Montague Kerr, in a papel:"" 
read before the Royal Geographical Society (November 30. 1885), 
, 
U Ullited Stole,,' COMuiar Rt!ports; No. 55 (August, 1885), pp. 551, 552 . 
• 
, 
, 
396 Christianity, Islam alld tlte Negro Race. 
• describing j A Journey Ovetland from Ca.pe Towu, across tbe 
Zambesi, to Lake Nyassa,' said-
It had not. been his good fortune to fa.1l upon any extraordinarily fertile spots 
which would offer inducements to the inhabitllonts of overcrowded Europe. In 
every instance, the discouragements ha.d been grea.ter tha.n the inducements, to 
foster the colonisation of Airica. by Europea.n subjects.1i 
MI'. Kerr took the opportunity to bear the fol1owin'g testimony 
to the character of the natives-
From the time he left the Ca.pe of Good Hope till he a.uwed a.t the shores of 
Lake N ya.ssa., he was never robbM of a. single bea.d or a ya.rd of cloth, thougb, 
for months , the goods were completely a.t the mercy of the no..-'-C5. 
From what we have seen, it will appear that Europe must give 
up the idea of regenerating Africa thl'Ough colonies of her own 
subjects. Hearty, thrifty, energetic colonisation for whites, must 
be in climates where the winter or cold weather brings its healthy 
and recuperative influences to body and mind. Nature will DS"t 
allow herself to be tied clown to the theories of even th~ wisest and 
most benevolen~ of men, however high their aims or exalted their 
motives. Those who, instead of humbly searching for a knowledge 
of Nature's laws, Arrogate to themselves the right of making laws 
lor Nature, must always fail. Expelled with a pitchfork, she will 
ever return. 
After this survey of the nature of the difficulties which confront 
and attend European effort in Africa, we are forced to the conclusion-
which any careful reader will have seen was with Ins, from our 
protracted experience and observation on the spot, a. foregone 
conclusion-that the instruments for the regeneratipn of this con-
tinent are the millions of Africans in the "reslero hemisphere, 
wbere, after nigh thl·ee hundred years of residence, they are still 
considered as strangers. It seems to us that European and 
American workers for Africa should recognise this fact; and those 
nations who actively co-operated in the work of their deportation 
should as earnestly co·operate in the work of their restoration . 
.' This is the redress which N ature i~ waiting fu befol'e she will lend 
a finger to European effort. Justice must precede mercy. Be 
12 London TimtS, December I, 18S5. 
r 
A j1'icall Colonisatioll . 397 
just before you are generous. Under some Assiento Contract I, 
the work of restoration should begin. ,Ve are sometimes told tha.t 
the descendants of Africa are in America to stay there. A similar 
view was taken of slavery, by the generality of masters, in the days 
when it was surrounded by all the safeguards that intelligence and 
wealth, and even piety, could contrive. It was thought that by 
Divine arrangement, the institution was to be perpetual, and not 
simply disciplinary and preparatory. Different views on that 
subject DOW pre\'a.il. The Negro never accepted the abnormal 
relation as pennanent, and was ceaseless in ruB prayers for 
deliverance, aU'd looked for deliverance. So, now, Dot a few seem to 
think that all the prbpara.tion of the days of bondage, and all the 
instruction now imparted, are simply to produce a population of 
domestic servants, to be kept in a subordinate place by the 
dominant race. 'l'hb Samson for African achievements is to grind 
C"3 the mill of the Philistines. The great Artist and Architect is 
to fail of tl1.! ideal foreshadowed: 
Amphora. cc:epit 
Institui; cwrente rota. ew urocus exit? U 
But, as in the days of slavery, so now, the Freedman feels some· 
thing in his soul-" God put it there," he says-which tells him 
r.hat. il not for himself, at least for his children, there are scenes 
of wider h'eedom, higher duties and larger proprietorships, in 
the land w,h ence his ancestors were toru. 
And,  in Africa there is sympathetic response. The elder 
natives tell of the bitterly-tragic scenes which took place on the 
coast, as chili\ren iu the grasp of the murderous trader were being 
wrenched from the embrace of their parents-the wail of sorrow 
a.nd unutterable grief which went up to heaven, and the prayers-
prophetic prayers-the passionate and fervent appeals to the Judge 
of all the earth, not for vengeance on the robbers, but (or the return 
• 
• 
, 
398 Christianity, Islam alld Ilze Negro Race . 
• 
of the stolen ones. Those sublime and awe·striking prayers are 
• still before the throne of Supreme J ustiee, waiting to be answered; 
and they will not cease to be heard until, by the return of the 
exiles, they are merged in such music of exultation and triutnph, 
as has never been beard since the morning stars sang together, and 
all the sons 01 God shouted lor joy. 
To the present generation of whites and blacks in America, it 
may seem that the Negro U is there to stay," but the next genera· 
ation will take a different view. Descendants of Africa. have never 
been permitted to feel at home in those countries, even where they 
are most numerous, and wbere the geographical altd climatic con· 
ditions are congenial. Freedmen from Brazil and other parts of 
South America., are continually making their way back to tbf' Father-
land, anxious to breathe again the ancestral air. and to lie down 
at last, and be buried with their fathers. I~ 
In the United States, notwithstanding the great progress mar':e 
in the direction of liberal ideas, the Negro is still a sttanger. The 
rights and privileges accorded by constitutional law, offer him no 
security against the decrees of private or social intolerance. He is 
surrounded by a. prosperity-industrial, commercial and political-
in which he is not permitted to sha.re, and is tantalised by social 
respectabilities from which be is debarred. The future offers no 
encouragement to him. In the career of courage a.nd ""irtue, of 
honour, emolument and fame, which lies open to his white neigh-
bours, and to their children, neither he himseU, Dar his sons or 
• 
daughters, can have any part. From that high and improving 
fellowship, which binds together the elements frail) Europe, how-
ever incongruous, the Negro child is excommunicated before he is 
born. 
One fatal drawback to the Negro in America is the incubus of 
imitation. He must be an imitator; and imitators see only results 
-they neyer learn processes. They come in contact with accorn-
]r. It is stated t.hat t.be new Govern&L" of Lagos, Jln.pta.in Alfred Moloney, 
C.M.G., looks with favour upon tbe return, to the pa.rt of the coast under hie 
jurisdiction, of tho exiles £rom Soutb America; a.nd with .. sa.ga.cious and 
judicious stntcsma.nship, is disposed to dro a.ll in hje power to facilitate it. 
, 
• 
• 
• 
African Colollisation. 399 
})Iished facts, without knowing how they were accom plished. They • 
never get within, so as to see bow a thing originates or develops. 
Therefore, when they attempt a.nything, they are apt to begin at the 
end , without the insight, patience or experience which teaches that 
they begin at the beginmug. They are impatient theorists-in the 
literal sense-who can neither understand. nor wait for the slow 
results and precarious combinations of arduous and prolonged 
effort. Hence they are ready to criticise processes, to find fauJt 
with details. The destructive faculty is lal"gely developed; but to 
originate, and point out methods of effective action, is impossible to 
them. John ['asper is a respectable Negro preacher of Virginia, 
who has constructed bis own theory of the solar-system j and the 
fact that he has constructed something, and has the temerity to • 
explain and defend. his theory against the theories of the learned, 
causes a large following, and he has lately been invited to lectw'e 
jl:,_.Europe as a. curiosit~ . His earnestness and acuteness, in spite 
of his defia.ure of gramma.r, and his ignorance of scholastic methods, 
cmmnand the respect of the intelligen~ listener. It is easier to 
smile at his scientific perversity, than to give the reasoning by 
-which the mighty results of astronomy have been obtained. 
Wh!l.tever may be said of the advantages of education and 
eivilisation, and a great deal is being said just now, and, perhaps, 
so far as the Negro is concerned, a great deal ought to be said-it 
seems certain that such advantages are not without serious dangers. 
It is our ea.rnest belief that a real independent moral growth, 
productIve of strength of character and self· reliance, is impossible 
to natures in 90ntact with beings greatly superior to themselves. 
This is one reason, we suppose, why our spiritual training was 
not entrusted to angelic beings, why I< we have this treasure in 
earthen vessels," Everybody knows that a powerful, massive 
character-though it be nearly perfect----may positively injure those 
within the circle of its influence by giving them a bent in a 
direction opposite to their own na.tural tendencies, so as to make 
it extremely difficult~if not impossible, for them to shake them-
selves free. 
This is one of the great dyawbacks to the introduction of 
• 
• 
• 
400 Cll1'istianit)', I slam and the Negro Race. 
civilisation by foreigners into Africa.. I n the European setUements 
• on the coast there are visible the melancholy effects of the fatal • 
contagion of Do mimic or spurious Ew·opeanism. Some who have 
been to Europe, bring back and diffuse among their people 8. 
reverence for some of the customs of that country, of which the 
more cultivated are trying to get rid. But, happily, the inhospita.ble 
and inexorable climate prevents this pseudo.civilisatioD, called 
"progress," from spreading to the interior. The tribes still retain 
their simplicity and remain unaffected. And may they remain so 
unti l they pass by normal a.nd regular progress and natural steps 
to a higher plane on the line of their own race·devdopmen~, when 
European habits and customs will be aimed at as accessories, 
rather than a principle of life. 
Butt besides the drawbacks in the learning of the scbools, the 
educated Negro, in the United S~ates, in the enjoyment of the 
advantages of culture, has come in contact, throughout the per~qd 
of his training, with influences which wal'p him in ~he direction 
of self-depreciation, even more powerfully than the books which 
• 
he reads, or the teachers to 'whom he listens. The instruction 
of the schools does, to a certain extent-perhaps to a great exteut-
improve, but it can neither reverse or super~ede the far more 
efficient education which comes from the experiences of daiJy Jifl;!, 
which-
Week in. week out, from mom till night. 
control and give direction to the mind. 
Living as the wards of a people, whot out of their own habitat, 
instinctively dread deterioration-the loss of vitality and vigour-
• 
and who believe that their existence and growth depend upon 
constant self-assertion, as against all alien comers; anu who, 
therefore, can neither give place nor opportunity to their former 
slaves, the Africans must be subjected to experiences which, in 
spite of the training received iu the schools, must warp them out 
of the moral and intellectua.l perpendicular, and incline them to 
the attitude and practices of tue creatu~ who either climbs 
or crawls. Bishop H . .M . Turner, of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, is constantly c~lling attention, in his outspoken 
, 
African Colonisation . 40I 
and energetic style. to the disadvantages of the Negro in America.; 
7 
but Do~vhere has be given a more vivid presentation of the dreary 
and discouraging subject, than in a recent short article in the 
Quarterly Ben'ew, of his Cburcb.l~ To some, his picture will, 
perhaps, appear as a repulsive pbotograph. Still, he writes with a. 
kindly indignation-with a deep and fervid earnestness, and a 
surprising humour and fun, that compel attention. He Bays ;-
I need not repeat my well-known convictions a.s to the future of the mee. 
I think our sta.y in this country is but temporary, at most. Nothing will 
remedy the evils of the Negro, but a great Christian nation upon the continent 
of Africa. 'Yhi'e is God in this country, aDd blnck is the Devil. White is 
perfection. ~rea.tness. wi~dom, industry, and all that is high and holy. Black 
15 ignora.nce, degrade.tion. indolence, and all that is low and vile ; e.nd three-
• 
fourths of the coloured people of the land do nothing day and night but cry: 
.. Glory, honour, dominion and gres.tness tc White." l\In.ny of OUI so·ca.lled leading 
men a.re contaminated with the accuIsed dises.se or folly. 80S well as the thought. 
less masses ; e.nd, as long as such a. sentiment pervades the coloured race, 
t ...a.  powers of Hen..-en cannot elevate bim. No race of people ca.n rise and 
manufacture ')etter conditions while they hate s.nd condemD tbemseh'es. A 
man mu!>t believe he is somebody, before he is e.cknowledged to be somebody. 
Hundreds of oUI most educa.ted young men will put on as mnuy airs over n. 
position that requires them to dust the clothes of white men, as flo snperior man 
would over an a.ppointment to the President's Cabmet. I deny that God 
himself could make a. great man out of such a. cila.racter, without a mira.cle-
" :Mit dummheit Kampfen Gutter sebst vergebens." 17 
The imagination of the Negro bas been taken captive by his 
surroundings. His consciousness is not sufficiently disengaged to 
enable him to respect his owo peculiarities. He cao conceive of 
nothing different from his surroundings; and he does not wish to 
conceive of Il.u"thing d.ifferent, believing as he does that the Ultima 
Thule of progress has been reached by the Anglo-Saxon. The 
Negro of the most powerful intellect must work by the pattern 
before him, and reproduce only whElot he has seen with his bodily 
eyes. The iaeal facuay ha.s not fail' play, or any play at alL 
He is bound to endless imitation. If any original image is formed 
in his mind, it must be banish,e d, 01' it is crowded out by the 
pressure of the IlCturll. There is neither time nor opportuuity to 
1<; The jmf;'ficalt .lldhvdist Episcopal Church ileriew, January, 1885. 
17" With atupidity the gods t.hemselves struggle)o va.in." 
2n 
• 
402 CI11'islianity, Islam and the Neg"o Race. 
• work it out. He must spend bis days longing for the crumbs of 
social and political existence which fall from the white man's 
table ;-
Simile ad nom cbe va. di porta. in porte. • 
l\IGDdice.udo 1& vita.. 
There must be Africans in America who feel all this, who feel 
that they have a life of their OWll-a life destined to last; who 
protest against many things they see around them, even while they 
are bound to respect them. We are told that 'when Michael Angelo 
looked at the lofty dome of the cathedral at Florence, he exclaimed, 
.. I will not make one like you; I can Dot make one better than 
you." There must be, among the seven millions, some, if not 
many. who share the proud humility of the great artist. To such, 
at times, there must come the tears of another artist: not, however, 
because they have exhausted their ideals, but from the conviction 
that there is no opportunity to work them out; and that, evenrif 
there were such opportunity, the result would mean n'otmng amid 
incompatible and unsympathetic surroundings; that, like the 
monolith in Central Park, though fitted to beautify and adorn other 
scenes for thousands of years, the result of their conceptions, if not 
still*boru, would rapidly crumble to decay u'nder the action of au 
inhospitable and uncongenial climate. To such, there must be a 
longing for other scenes, where, forgetting the things that are 
behind, they may reach forward to things which promise vitality, 
usefulness and prosperity to their race. But there are many, alas, 
"-
wbo may never gain the fructifying atmospbere-who must always 
resemble those figures ODe sees in museums in "'B}urope, which 
would be magnificent if they were complete; as they now stand, 
they are only splendid torsos-melancholy suggestions of unattain~ 
able possibilities. 
It is a curious and suggestive fact, however, that the Negroes 
of country dish-ids in the Southern States, who h8\'e had the 
slenderest educational opportulli~es, enjoy a comparative freedom 
from the deleterious effects of the general Gppression. They are 
largely unsophisticated. They have neither been ele,Tated nor 
vitiatec1 by the conventionalities o! society. Their condition is not 
African Colollisation. 
the deplorable one of their educated brother, who feels, with greater • 
keenness, the disabilities to which he is subject; and whose case, in 
many instances, is that of a despised ma.n-as Bishop Turner points 
-out---who despises himself and his race. The SoutherD Negro 
denizens of rill"a} districts make, therefore, as a rule, bettel' colo· 
nists in the Fatherland than those who are able to declaim, in the 
language of the schools, about the wrongs and rights of the race, 
but ,vbose sympa.thies and admiration go to the dominant class-
who step out of the ranks of their own people, without elevating 
themselves ab,o ve them-continually wandering away from the 
crowd in sullen and contemptuous isolation, but compelled always 
to keep the same social and politica.l plane. These make uDsatisfied • 
and unsatisfactory colonists. The pioneer and Self-fHlcrificing 
spirit is altogether absent from their mental, moral and pbysical 
-constitution. 
-) It should not be surprising, that &. people, living under such con-
, 
ditions, should find it difficult to recogpise any leader among them-
selves; or that those, whom circumstances have thrust to the front, 
I 
should suffer from the jealous and irrita.ble susceptibilities of those 
forced to follow. Everything tends to clisintegratiqn and dissolution 
-to the separation of chief h-iends and the making a man's foes those 
of his own household, or race. A man like Frederick Douglass, who 
is, by common consent, acknowledged to be primus-hardly primus 
inler pares,standing among his people, like the Bartholdi statue 
among •. the steeples of New York-is often selected for ill-mannered 
.criticisms, by some to whom his labow's assisted in bringing, not 
-only freedom, 'and ability to write and speak, b\lt the freedom to 
walk and move without feeling the friction and hearing the clank-
ing of the ancestral chains. But, as he nobly said of his friend and 
second-second, Longo intc1"t'a1lo-ex-Senator Bruce, when he was 
assailed by malevolence, we say of him, " Douglass can stand it." 
But these things tend to increase n.nd perpetuate the difficulties of 
the colow'ed man's position. Xhe prejudices against him, now 
'Slowly dying out-al~s, too slowly!-are thus unfortunately per-
petually confil'med and fanned . 
But the Negro's residence itt America, in spite of all drawbacks, 
• 
• 
404 Christiallity, Is/alii alld the NqJl'o Race . 
• 
has been of incalcula.ble advantage to him; nor has it been without 
• peculiar benefits to the dominant race. The discussions which 
bl.\ve arisen in consequence of his presence there have taught 
Ilumerous wholesome lessons to the ruling class. Due book on the 
subject of the Negro's wrongs unsealed the fountain of tears in all 
countries and among all races. ilnman fIghts have been better 
understood, and have been placed upon a firmer footing than ever 
before. The assumption of the right to bold !;;}Q\'es was deeply 
rooted in the minds of men, derived (rom antiquity. transmitted in 
the writings of philosophers, and accepted by all legislators~ 
Asiatic, European, Africa.n and American. This ·i.·i~ht wa.s un-
que~tione(l until Negro emancipation first established the principle 
that no circumstances justify tbe making or boicling of slaves. 
And it may be. as Dr. Reeve contends,H that the presence of the 
Negro in the ,Vestern world is still necessary to teach other les::ioll'i. 
equally important in the direction of Christ-1ikenes!,;, to the h d 
and conquering Anglo-Saxon; to impress upon him thE'll truth of the 
essential sociability and solidarity of humanity. 'Ye can quite 
believe that if the clay should ever come when tlus man of love, and 
suffering, and song, shall leave the U uited States, after his 260 
yea.rs of resiuence, there will be left a.n insatiable ,·oid. Ta.kjllg: 
this view of the work of the Negro in America, we can earnestly 
say of those who choose to lemain, .. Peace be within their walls. 
and plent'~oUslless within their palaces;·t for our brethren and com-
pa.nions' s<lke, We! wi~h them prosperity. ' 
But still we believe that there 1:; a. wieleI' c;pbere, and there are 
loftier Q.cluc,·cments, for thosc who come to take part, ou tbe ..,pot. 
in the work of the regeneration of Africa.. 
An Englh.hlll!l.n who yi!::iitecl the United State::; in the Autumn of 
18f:H, has made the following remarks on the condition of the 
Negro ill the country :_19 
The Negro i!! eager to learD, !lnd is sten.dily improyins hi!! position. But the 
old !loto.golli!'m of the races is as strong M e\·er; if, indeed, not Itronger thlUl 
ever ..... 'rho black mo.n is de:.pi!'!ed(.,!'! of old, and DO one bails him u & 
<-
III Dr. J. B. Reeve. n. Negro clerg)"Dlan. of Philadelphia. in the .lmt'rIt'un 
iJIrtluxiiat I.pilC"JI<li Clturcllllt'1:it'Ir, July, Ib~5. 
I~ Macmillan'l> J[o!Ju;:im', No\cmber, bSJ. 
< 
• 
rlJrican Colonisation. 
brother. His children must go to sepa.ra.te schools-he must tr8Nt~ 1 by sepn.ra.te 
cars on the ra.uwa.y .~ Will it be 80 n.lwa.ys with these six millions of free 
citizens of the American Republic. It is e. gra.ve a.nd difficult question ... 
In &n a.lien la.nd, a.t least, he has not the independent vita.lity which gruna 
rcspect for its originn.lity (lDcl strength ; a.t best, he is but a. weak imita.tor of 
his old enslavers. Wha.t mn.y be the futul'e o[ the dark continent and its 
inha.bita.nts, is one of the grea.t problems of the world. But it is my own 000-
...' iction, tha.t the tribes and peoples which ha.ve been sold from it into sla.very, 
will nel"er rench the height of perIeet manhood in the countries of their exile, 
until the ra.ce £rom which they spring develops 0. new endemic civilisa.tion in 
Africa. .... The new experiment with the Africa.n mus~ be roo-de in his own 
magnificent home. 
After this Jurvey of the European in Africa, and the African in 
America, it is difficuJt to escape the conclusion forced upon Bishop 
Haven, after visiting Liberia, that the solution of Africa in 
America, is America in Africa; and, further, that the solution of 
Africa in Africa, is Africa in America. This brings us to a cou-
'Si~eration of the work and its results, of the only agency which is 
labouring to, bring about the solution by the means just suggested, 
namely, the American Colonisation Society. 
This Society had its origin in a sympathy with the noblest 
aspirations of the bondman in exile. Its object was to secure for 
him not only personal liberty, but effective political organisation, in 
the land of his fatbers . It is tbe only agency capable of effectively 
obliterating painful recollections, by providing, for him, in the 
.ancestral home, a future worthy of his ambition. But the objects of 
the SocietY'A;vere not simply to affect the political status of the COJD-
parati,,~ly few descendants of Africa in America. The most eminent 
.among its (ounders looked to the higher results to be prodnced upon 
Africa, recogn~sing, as they did, even at that time, the impossibilitJ 
()f effective white agency in this land. Just as they believed that 
the black man could not be prosperous and comfortable ill America, 
:so they read in the dispensations of Providence, that Africa had 
been absolutely interdicted to the white man . Daniel Webster: in 
almost the la..st public address he made, said solemnly, as from 
the verge of the eterljal world :.iL 
20 The Jubilee Singers, a.t one time the guests of the Plime Minister o[ 
England, a.re refused o.ccornmodationin the hotels of their native country . 
• 
• 
• 
, 
406 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
• Gentlemen,-There is Do Power above U8 which sees the end of all things [rom 
the beginning, I;hough we see it not. Almighty God is His oym interpreter 
• of the ways of His own Providence; and I sometimes contemplate with 
amo.zcment.--and, I mn.y so.y, with n.doration--ev6uts which have ta.ken place 
through the instrumentality of the cupidity a.nd criminality of men, designed 
nevertheless to work out grea.t ends of beneficence a.nd goodness, by our 
Cr~a.tor ..... A£ricQ.ll slaves were brought hither, to the shores of this 
conHnent, almost simultaneously with the first trea.d of 0. white ma.n's foot 
upon this, our North America.. We see in tha.t-our shortsightedness only 
sees-the effect of a. desire of the white man to appropria.te to himself the 
results of the labour of the black mnn, as an inferior and a. sla.ve. Now let us 
look at it. 
These Negroes, and all who have succeeded them, brought hi~her a.s 
ca.ptives, taken in ~he wa.rs of their own petty provinces, igJ.lora.nt and bar-
barous, without the knowledge of God, and with no reasonable knowledge of 
their own cnaracter and condition, have come here; a.nd here, ruthough in 
II. subordinate-in an inferior, in an enslaved-condition, ha.ve lea.med more, 
a.nd come to know more, of themselves and of their Crea.tor, tha.n all whom 
they ha.ve len behind them in their own barbarous kingdoms. It would seem 
tha.t this is the mode-as fa.r as we «;:an judge-this is the destiny, the rule 
of tl~ings, established by Providence; by which knowledge, letters, and Cbt~­
tianity sha.ll be returned by the descendants of those poor ignorut ba.rba.rians~ 
who were brought h ere /l.S slaves to the country from which they ca.me.~1 
The HOll . Edward Everett, in Olle of his inimita.ble orations,. 
said :-
Mark the providence of God. educing out of these natural disadva.ntages 
(disad\·a.ntages to man's apprehension), and this colossa.l mora.l wrong-the 
African slave-trade; out of these seemingly hopeless elements of physical and 
moral evil-out of long cycles of suffering and crime. of violence a.nd retributil)n, 
such as history can nowbere parallel-educing, I sa.y, from thes~ elements, by 
the blessed alcbemy of Christin..n benevolence, the mea.ns of the ultimate 
regeneration of Africa. ..... All other men.ns have been tried in va.in, (Private 
a.dventul'e has miscarried; strengbh, and courage, and endurance, a.lmost super-
huma.n, have languished n.nd broken down; well-appointed e1peditions, fitted 
out under the auspices of powerful associa.tions and powerful Governments, ha.ve 
ended in cala.mitous failure; and it is proved, o.t lo.st, that the Caucasia.n race 
ca.nnot achie,e this long.defeued work. 
When tha.t last noble expedition, which was sent oyt £.rom Eng!a.nd-I think. 
in the yea.r 1841-under the highest auspices, to found a.n agricultural settlement 
in the interior of AI.cica., ascended the Niger, every white man out of one 
hundred and fifty sickened; aU but two or three-if my mcmC!ry serves me--
died; while. of their dark-skinned n.ssoct. .. tes-o.lso one hundred and filty in 
number-with oJ! the a.dded la.bour and anxiety thntt. devoh"ed upon them, a 
21 Address before the America.n Colonisation Society, Ja.nuary, 1852. 
< 
• 
I 
J 
A jl'icall Colonisation. 
• 
few only were sick; ar.d the.\'. individuals who ha.d pa.ssed years in s. tempera.te 
climate, and not ODe died. I say. aga.in, Sir. you Caucasian. you proud Anglo- • 
Sa.xeD; you solf-su.ffi.cient, aU-attempting wbjte ma.n, then, you ca.nnot ciyilise 
Africa.. You bave subdued and appropriated Europe; the native races n.re 
molting before you in America., as the untimely snows of April before a. verno..} 
sun: you have possessed yourself of India.: you menace Chinn. and Japan; the 
remotest isles of tho Pa.cinc are not dist.a.nt enough to escape your grasp, nor 
insignificant enough to elude your notice-but Central AJri.ca confrontl you, and 
Lids yolt dcfianc~. Your squadrons ma.y ra.nge or blockade her coast; but 
neither on the erra.nds of pea.ce, nor on the erra.nds of war, can you penetrn.te 
the interior. Tbe God of nature, no doubt for wise purposes, however inscrut-
o..ble, has drawn across the chief inlets a, cordon you caDllot brea.k through. You 
ma.y bover on t,b e coa.st, but you dare not set foot on the shore. Death sits 
portress at the undefended gatewR.Ys of ber mud-built villages. Yellow fevers. 
and blue plagues, and iLtermittent poisons, thR.t you can see as well as feel, await 
your approa.ch as you ascend the rivers. Pestilence shoots !rom the mangroves 
that fringe their noble'banks; a.nd the glorious sun, which kindles a.ll inferior 
nature into teeming, bursting life, da.rh disease into your languid system. No, 
yOll are not elected for this momentous work. The Grea.t Disposer, in another 
Qranch of his fa.mily, has chosen out a. race. descendR.nts of this torrid region. 
children of this vertics.l sun, n.nd litted them by ages of stom discipline. for the 
• 
gracious a.chievement. 
From foreign reo..lms and le.nds remote, 
Supported by His care, 
They pass unJla.rmed through burning climes, 
And breathe the tainted a.ir. 
Sir, I belie'('e the a.uspicious work is begun; that Africa. will be civilised-
civilised by her offspring and descendn.nts. I belie"e it, becn.use I will not think 
tha,t this mighty o.nd fertile region is to rema.in for ever in its present sta.te; 
because, I cn.n see no othel' agency adeqUl..te to the accomplishment of the work, 
a.nd I do bcl)old in this agency a. most; mystedous fitness.'2:l 
The objects and aims of the Colonisation Society, at the time 
of its organisation, se,~enty years ago, met the sympathy of leading 
statesmen a~d divines in all parts of the United States, as offering 
a solution of the difficulties at once legitimate ana eminently 
humanita.rian. But there were two classes who could not tolerate 
its pretensions, namely, tbotie \\'ho looked upon the institution or 
shwery as having Divine sanction, and, therefore, permanent, and 
those 'who thought it the "sum or all villanies," and insisted upon 
its immediate abo~tion. It 'nas a significant fact, often remarked 
III the days of the struggle, that the Colonisa.tion Society was 
~ Delivered before the Americtll Colonisation Society, January, 1853 . 
• • 
, 
408 Christianity, Isla", and the Negro Race . 
• 
charged by the one with having II abolition affinities and ten-
• dencies," and by the other with being" the twin sister of slayery," 
The most elaborate and ingenious argument against Colonisation 
we have ever seen was from the pen of a Southerner, Professor 
Thomas R. Dew I of William and Mary College. Virginia. In au 
exhaustive article, written in 1832, in defence of Slavery, the Pro-
fessor uttered the following pTediction of the result of colonisa-
tion :-
We look confidently to the da.y, if this wild scheme should be persevered in 
for a. few years, when the poor African sla.ve, aD bended knee, might implore a. 
[emission of tha.t fa.to.l sentence which would send him to Ute In.nd of his 
forefathers ..... \VA do not see how t.he whole scheme ce.n be pronounced 
anyt.hing less t.ha.n a.ltup~lIdow; pitce of folly.'l8 
H ':rhis wild scheme" has been persevered'in for more than 
:fifty years since the prophet spoke, and thousands of African ex~ 
slaves (a class not contemplated in his prophecy) are to-day 
imploring aid to reach the land of their" forefathers,;"  and th:" 
promoters of the I< wild scheme," not yet defunct, are unable to 
supply facilities for the transportation of earnest a..pplicant~ for 
passage. Fifty years hence (we now prophecy), the CWTent of 
Ali·ican hwnauity setting eastward will be absolutely irresistible. 
From the Northern, or Abolition stiandpoint, the reasoning which 
has most forcibly impressed us is sUlnmed-up in an eloquent para~ 
graph in a letter denouncing Slavery. addressed. in 1839, to 
Jonathan Phillips, Esq., by Dr. \V. E . Channing. I 
No man can say, positively, what ought to be done in a Ui:atter 
.of such serious importance as the destiny of a race. But men are 
prone to dogmatise on questions eutil·ely beyond them.!. They often 
prefer to be guided by what, from the circumstances of their 
training, they think God ought to do, rather than to study. with un-
biased temper, His providence, and find Qut what He has done and 
is doing. The fact, however, is, that the Anti-Slavery and the 
Colonisatioll Society were both born of the liberal and emancipative 
tendencies of the age. In the earl),: days of t,h e abolition move-
'23 1'he Pro-Slavery .dTgument, p. 309-Cha.rleston: Wa.lker, Richa.rds &: Co., 
1852. , 
, 
, 
, 
African Colollisatioll . 
, 
Jneut, some of its promoters favoured a scheme of colonisation of , 
the blacks. Benjamin Lundy, editor of The Genius oj Uniuer.,sal 
EmancilJatio7l, obtained, about the year 1835, a grant of laud from 
the Mexican Government OD which to settle coloured people.21 
Mr. Garrison was a Colouisationist before he became an Abolitionist. 
It was the misapprehension of the policy of tlle Colonisation 
Society, in its full scope and meaning, that furnished the theme 
and motive of the satire of Garrison, the invective of Douglass, 
and the rhetorical pyrotechnics of Phillips. 
Nearly a,ll  the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society 
have passed away. Of the founders of the American Colonisation 
Society and tbe pioneers of Liberia, among the few living are Han. 
John H. B. Latrobe, President of tbe Society; Dr. James Hall, 
-the founder of the County of Maryland, in Liberia; the venerable 
Dr. Maclean, Ex·President of Princeton College; and H. M. 
Jcrueffelin, Esq., New York, the founder of a promising settlement 
in Liberi~all full of years and bonour. The active life of 
Mr. Latrobe has been coeval with the life of Liberia. It was be 
who suggested, or rather formed, the name of LIBERIA, from the 
Latin word liber; and the name of its capital, Monrovia, from that 
of President Monroe. He has had only foul' predecessors in the 
office of President of the Society: Justice Bushrod Washington, 
elected in 1817; Charles Can'oll, of Carrollton, elected in 1830; 
EX·Pl'eside, nt James Madison, elected in 1833; Han. Henry Clay, 
electe,)d in 1836. Mr. Latrobe was elected in 1853. The records of 
the Society for the sixty years of its existence are full of the 
most remarl.-e.ble specimens of eloquence, delivel'ed from time to 
time with inexhaustible fervour and fresbn~ss by this veteran 
colonisationlst. We have read them nearly all, and all are so 
impressive that we finel a difficulty in selecting a.ny for especial 
tribute or recognition. Even the platitudes of the African 
.cause are made luminous and instructive by the ardour of his zeal 
.and the glow of his intelligen)e. These early friends of colonisa-
tion have seen Libetna in her darkest hours; they have all exceeded 
2,\ LiJt. oj Samud J ..Y ay ; Boston, 1876: p. 140. 
, 
, 
• 
4IO Christianity, Islam and tlze Negro Race . 
• 
the allotted years of man I but they are still strong in the hopes for 
• 
the Negro nationality, which inspired their early efforts; and they 
are realising that they did not exaggerate their prognostications of 
the future of the colony. 
Those only (excla.imed Mr. Latrobe, with thoughtful enthusia.sm) accom-
plish grea.t e•n ds among men, who are prophets wir;h a. conviction of the • 
truthfulness of their visions, a.nd who ha.ve the patience to wait without 
despondency. No doubter ever won a. ba.ttle or realised Do fortune. Our success, 
up to this time, in the prosperity o.nd order of our colonies; in the contentment, 
hell.lthfulness a.nd nwnbers of their people; in the commerce tha.t ha.s sprung 
up a.round and with Liberia.; fa.r surpa.sses the like experience of a.ll preceding 
colonise.tions. We have had, in truth , nothing to discourage us.~ 
But, in view of the great work to be done, the nanowness of its 
resources, and the vast ignorance prevailing among multitudes of 
Negroes on the subject of thei.r Fatherland, the Society is still the 
"voi.ce of one crying in the wilderness." They persist, however, 
with the same intense and profound belief in the rightness an!!'" 
righteousness of their cause; and stand, with regard, both to the 
past and the future, like the Chevalier Bayard, sans l)eu'T et sans· 
1·eproche. 
Noone can read the accounts-their own reminiscences-put 
before the woda from time to time, by these ,-eteran friends of 
Liberia, of the early days of the colony, without (eeling that it was. 
a daring enterprise on the palt of the Colonisationists to plant 
peaceful settlements on the coast of Africa, which, at thE; time they 
began opeJ:ations, was the scene of war, plunder and pirac)~ In 
1822, the year art,er the settlement was fouuded, the British 
Minister at Paris wrote ;- r 
There seems to be scarcely a. spot on that coast (from Sierra Leone to Cape 
Mount) which does not. show the traces of the sle.ve-trade, with aU its 
a.ttenda.nt horrors; for, the arrival of a. ship in any of the ri~ers on the 
windwa.rd coast, being the signal for war bel;ween the natives, the hamlets of 
the weaker pa.rty are burnt, a.nd the misera.ble survivors carried off and sold to 
the BllLve-tro.ders.~fI 
l 
'l.) Address delh'ered at the Annivcrsa.ry of the Americo.'n Colonisa.tion Society. 
January 17, 1854. 
:lIl Sir T. Rowell Buxton on the' Slll.ve-tnde, and its Remedy: 
< 
, 
African Colonisation. 
, 
In 1825, 1\11'. Asbrneen, the first Governor of the Colouy, wrote 
to the Society :-
From eight to ten, a.nd evell fifteen, vessels were engaged a.t the same time 
in this odious tra.ffic, a.lmost under the guns of the settlement. In the month 
of July coutra.cts were existing for eight hundred slaves to be furnished in the 
short space of four months, within eight miles of the Ca.pe (illonrovia). Four 
hundred of these were to be pW'chased for t wo American traders.3'I 
Several times, through the diabolical intrigues of the miscreant 
t raders, the settlements ~ere on the verge of extinction. But the 
courage and energy of the resolute colonists thwarted the plots. 
of the demons. 
With all ~heir alleged contempt of the Negro, colouiMtionists 
had faith enough in -him to believe that he could hold his owu away 
fl.'Om the leadiug·strings of his master. Mr. Ashmeeu, the white 
Goverllor, and the only white man in the colony, at the t ime when 
the slave· traders were concentrating their forces in the neighbour. 
l lood of NOUl'ovia fOl' its destruction, expressed entire confidellce in 
the ability of the colonists to maintain their positioo. "The. 
colony only wants the right," he writes to the Society; " it has the 
power to expel this traffic to a distance, and force it, at least, to· 
conceal some of its worst enormities." 
In the United States, many influential slaveholders supported 
the Society, gave liberty to their slaves, and sent them to Liberia, 
because they believed in their manhood, or rather, in their 
possibilities of manhoo(l. Ex·P resident Monroe assUl'ed Elliott. 
Cresson, that eminent philanthropist and colonisationist, II that if 
adeqoote funds were possessed by the Colonisation Society, he 
could procUl:,r ten tbousand slaves, by voluntary emancipation, in 
b is native state alone." 2~ 
The struggles of tbe early Liberian colonists against the 
ignorant opposition of their own untutored people, stimulated by 
slave-traders, have", species of pathos and romance to which the 
struggles of the first colonists in America offer nothing similar. 
The battles of the African pi lgrims were not for empire over an 
alien race; not ion) power or -aazziing wealth; but for room ill the 
n Gurley's Life of Ashm~ell. p. 20l. 
"lI:I A/rican Repository; 1839, p_ 29B . 
• 
• 
412 Christianity, Islam alld the Negl'o Race. 
land to which they ba.d a hereditary right, De rita et sC1llgnine 
• cerlant ,'!J} The pathetic aspect of their position was, that they had 
to confront a ferocity, not natural, but generated under the dark 
influence of incarnate fiends-to fight against a people allied to them 
by blood, and probably, identical, in their antecedents, who would 
gladly have welcomed them but for the malevolent interference 
of those supreme criminals of humanity-'h ostes genais hll1nani-
who had ruthlessly robbed their Cathers of their homes. 
We could here recite-if this were the place for it-the thrilling 
experiences of these cOUl'ageous pioneers. We could(.tell of their 
hardships and heroism, of thei.r hunger and thirst and nakedness, 
of their chills and fever; of their confronting, with axe in oue haud 
and gUll in the other, the illimitable forests and the malarious 
swamps; of the devotion and bravery of their women, by 'whose 
unswerving fidelity and magical inspiration one was made to chase 
a thousand, and two were able to put ten thousand to flight. Bur 
• 
it is enough to say that they were triumphant over all obstacles, and 
succeeded in laying in suffering and sorrow, and in indomitable 
faith, the foundation of a State. The colony, in the twenty.se\'enth 
year of its existence, became an independent Republic, and as such 
now enjoys the confidence and respect of all foreign nations. 
The late Bishop Haven, after seeing Liberia, in 1877. "Tote:-
The St. Pa.ul's River is the heart of Liberia., the key to its future. the hope 
of the Africa.n in Alricn.. In no other colony is there such de"eloped country 
life. Sierra. Leone is city; South Africa. is white; the rest is sa.vage. This is 
country, and country a.lways; and country only makes country. Let Voberia. 
fill up her land with fa.rms, and she will conquer Africa ..... 
It only rema.ins to be seen whether America. will help her f5.rstborn-b" 
representative, her child still, in every pulse-to win this honour for her5elf and 
for us. Such a.n enterprise will give our trade and ma.nufa.ctures So new 
impulse. Let the North Polo remain in its icy isolation; while thi5 vaster, 
nobler, a.nd more useful undettaking is furthered by our Government. 
The heroic William Taylor, "Bishop of Africa," after holding 
his first Conference at Monrovia, in January, 1855,:10 wrote of 
Liberia as follows :- , 
( 
~ f£lIdd; xii, 736. 
so Bishop Taylor is now (January 30, 1886) holding his second Conference at 
Grand Ba.ssa.. Liberia.. (" 
( 
, 
- African Colonisation_ 
Liberi& is the gnrden spot of West AfriclL; splendid soil, well wa.tered, goed • 
spring water for use, sa.lubrious climate. and more exempt from flies and • 
mosquitoes than any tropical country in which I ha.e laboured. I BdIl very 
sorry that the Liberian Government has. by bad IDlI.nagement, got into debt. I 
hope our Goycmnlent will feel maternal interest in it, and help it out of ita 
embarrnssment. .. .. If our Government won't help the Liberians, OUI 
coloured people should give them one dollar eacb-a.bout 110 million of thern-
for the sake of theiI" race. There is a. grand future yet for Liberia, if they will 
learn by wha.t they b::a.ve seen and suffel'ed, in the past fHty years. 
We might cite here the concurrent favourable testimony of 
several Da,al officers, American and English, who have, from time 
to time, vis~tec1 Liberia; but space allows us to give only one. It 
is the testimony of that most distinguished and useful officer, 
Commodore Perry. After spending some time ou the Liberia.n 
coast, he wrote:-
In truth, I cannot but. beliel'e that the colony of Liberia is firmly and per-
manently este.blished , and tha.e it possesses, a.t. this early period of its existence, 
the germ of a powerful empire, to be popula.ted by a. class of people hitherho 
unknown, t.t lenst to modem times-a community of bloch, destint:d to t:lIjoy an 
the Ildrlllltagt:s of civililutiun, and to uerciu its fltll ,hare of political influence in 
thtfami1'l of IIO.(i01l.6. 
Liberia is a Republican State, modelled after the United Sta.tes. 
Sbe is superior in sell-reliance and self-control to Sierra Leone, 
now ou the eve of her centellnia.l anniversary. In thM British 
colony, the foreign soldier-and, until very recently, the Bishop of 
the Church of England-took part with the civil officer in the work 
of goverrLinent. And. to this day, when the Governor is absent, 
his place is supplied by the "Officer commanding the Troops." 
In Liberia, there is no standing a,rmy; and if any difference is 
• 
observable in the public security of the two places. tbe difference 
is not to the disadvantage of the Republic. 
"With astonishing success has Liberia been able to impress 
the abOligina.1 tribes in hyoUl' of ber Government and Jaw3. \Vhile 
the neighbouring colony of Sierra Leone is, not un frequently, 
troubled by raids of marauders into British ten-itory, the aborigines, 
throughout Liberh., are gettt~g to understand the political creed of 
the Republic, and to sympa.tbisc with the national aims. They 
are begiuoing to look upon L,ibel'ia as their own-a social, political 
• 
• 
Christianity, Is/all! alld tlie Negro Race . 
• 
and industria.l commonwealth, which includes them, and contem-
• plates their highest interest; so that, with no large material 
resources for offensive or defensive purposes, the Republic is able to 
keep in check the predatory tendencies of the wayward elements. 
Celsa. sedet .iEolu9 a.tce, 
Sceptra. ~enens; moUitqu.e animas, et tempera.t iras.R1 
.lEoius. throned on high, the sc~ptre swa.ys, 
Controls their mood. their wra.th alla.ys. 
Coni'lfl1on's Transltltio/l. 
The theory of the American Colonisation Society is verified, as 
their lJTOte(fes take their place in Liberia , and conl~ under the 
influences of the Fatherland. As they advance to maturity in the 
ancestral home, the propensity to imitation gro'ws weaker and 
weaker, and their improving faculties gradually divert them from 
the models they left in the house of bondage, to ideal standards, 
more in accordance with their tastes and instincts. TT7tite is 
dethroned, and black takes its proper position. Th~ habit o•f  
thinking, of observation, of reflection-without the disturbing action 
of any alien influence-adds, as it were, a new eye to the mind i 
slumbering faculties are aroused i and they learn many things, 
which, with less freedom to be themselves, less responsibility, and 
less necessity for intellectual concentration, it would ha,e been 
impossible for them to acquire. 
The meD, who, as a rule, succeed in Liberia, are of two classes: 
Firstly, those who were born, or have grown up, ,.a.nd were 
educated in the country; and, secondly, adult emigrants of htunble 
educational attainments, who have been taught to use thei.r muscles, 
and to rely upon themselves; and who, on their arriva.l, feel that 
they have entered a new school, where they have much to learn. 
Excellent fruits of their former schooling are not lacking. They 
make good farmers, good carpenters, good brickmakers, good shoe· 
makers, good blacksmiths-in short, they prove to be capable 
in most of the ordinary branches of useful industry. Large 
numbers of them are members of tlD various Qhristian Churcnes, 
and are, as a rule, orderly in their wa.lk, and firm in their 
81 ..B lleid I, 5C, 57. 
, 
• 
African Colollisation. 
belief. Their views of mora.ls are often cri~icised as defective, yet, 
they display in their new homes, stErling moral qualities; not 
only habits of industry, but of obedient subordina.tion; of reverence 
for authority, human and Divine. They come from that set of 
men who won the a.dmiration of the world, for their fidelity and 
self-control, during the crisis which came upon their masters five-
and-twenty years ago, and, of whom, the following testimony is 
borne by an ex-slaveholder of learning and culture ;-
\Vben the South was la.rgely overrun by a. hostile soldiery ; when every a.ble-
bodied white ma.n of that section ha.d been hurried to the front, when none 
were left for l.he protection of our women a.nd children but mere boys a.nd 
infirm old men, our e'~ves cultivated our fields, protected our property, a.nd 
stood by our families ill their helpless condition, thus becoming &n clement of 
strength instead of weakness, of security rather than danger. ~~ 
History shows no parallel to this. Europe, from all precedent, 
looked on a.t the comm6ncement of the Civil Wa.r with nn in-
describable intensity of interest and anxiety. The Times despatched 
its a.ble aud graphic correspondent, Mr. W. H. Russell. to the 
scene. Writing from the spot, he said, reflecting the feeling of 
the Old World:-
If the Negroes occa.sioo aoy trouble, there is no saying how far the difficulties 
of the Sla.ve Sta.tes may not go; but, at present, they a.re possessed with a. con-
fidence, which may In blind or farseeing, ~ha.t their sla.ves will remain quiet, if 
not fa.ithful: a.nd the a.bsence of any white element from the popula.tion of 
whole districts is very remarkable. The spectacle of a.n uprising of 4.000,000 
of Negroe!l 'n the piantB.tions, burning, plundering, B.od destroying the whites, 
is oof', which, I conies8, I am oot huma.nitaria.n or Abolitionist enough to be 
prepared to de!lire or to enjoy. 
The sla/eholden; trusted to the loyalty of their slaves-to 
those WhOUl the worlel believed to be iu the utmost degradation, 
and in the deptb~ of savagery-a.nd were not disappointed. It 
might have been otherwise if they had beeu alone, or altogether, 
responsible, for slavery; but it was an inheritance, which they could 
not ha.ve got ria of by any safe or uormal means. They were, as 
we believe, providentially, fthe gua.rdians of Africa's futw·e re-
~ TIlL EducatiOIl of tll~ Ntgro; n.n Address by Gustavus J Orr. LL.D .• State 
Scbool Commiss.ioner of Georgia..-1•8 90 . 
• 
• • 
• 
416 CIII'istia11ity, [slam mzd the Negro Race . 
• generators; and while,. a.s individuals, they may have been at times 
, punished for abuse of their trust, yet, when it was possible, and 
probable, in the view o[ strangers-when the instinctive reasoning 
of the human conscience concluded that the time bad come 
for retaliation and retribution by human bands - this awful 
calamity was not permitted. They were not allowed to suffer, 
as a class, through the unbricUed passions or their sla'ves, for a 
relationship and its concomitants which they did Dot originate, and 
could Dot abruptly terminate. They suffered only so far as they 
fo..iled to re~ognise the handwriting 011 the wall, stating that the 
time had come, and pointing ont the methods for sa.fe E::fuancipation. 
Pharaoh was punished, not fol' having held the Hebrews in bondage, 
but for refusing to let them go when cOlllmanded to do so. 
Yet, \yhen everything else connected with the Negro's residence 
in America is forgotten, this wonderful story of his loyalty and self· 
control, will be recited to generations yet unborn. as a brilliatw 
page-perhaps the only brilliant page-in the record cf. Africa in 
America. Surely, if all the years of toil and suffering are not 
sufficient to strengthen the appeal for help now made by thousands 
of these people, who are anxious to return to the land of their 
fathers; surely, this last act of theirs, this incomparable, tltis 
more than loyal devotion, ought to bring abundant assistance and 
relief to the" cry of the exile towards the graves of the beloved 
over the sea, that weeps and is not weary." 
The refusal to listen to these pathetic appeals, bonstautly 
made through the Colonisation Society-this melancholy CflO1'US 
that comes from the south and south· west, on e\~el'r 'wind that 
blows-may bring the punishment, at least, of remorse. "~e are 
II verily guilty, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he 
besought us, ana we .." ould not hear." Yes; when he besought us. 
We look in vain in the wills of dying millionaires for one. cent 
given to aid the return of these faithful servants. But we are Stu'e, 
if these wealtby ste\\,{wc1s of God's gifts cOlllc1 have heard the bitter 
cries on board those" Hoating tombJ" of gaspil1!, humanity, on the 
mighty deep," as they bore away thelr suffering freights to the 
\Vesterll \\"orld, they would be auxiolis to make 50me compensation, 
• 
• 
• 
A/rican Colonisation. 
if only in sending back ODe who may be anxious to return. Let the • 
facilities to return to their ancestral land be given to this people; 
let a generous God·speed be extended to them; let them be urged 
to take possession of the hills and plains awaiting their advent: 
Ply a.ll the sinews of industrious toil, 
Glean up the refuse of a. generous soil ; 
Rebuild the towns that smoked upon the pla.in, 
And hope the sun will gild their roofs a.ga.in. 
• This merciful dealing with the needy will be twice blessed 
-blessing him tha.t gives, and him that takes. 
Next to ~pe Christian religion, the most important elelDent of 
strength and pro~perity in Liberia, is her possession of the English 
language. This gives bel' an adyautage with the outside world, 
for it connects her with the life of the most vigorous and pro-
gressive of modern nations. It The English Language," says 
President Eliot, "is the native tongue of nations which are pre-
~lllinent in,  the world by force of character, enterprise and wealth; 
and wbose political and social institutions have a higher moral 
interest, ana greatei· promise, than any which mankind has hltherto 
invented." It is the language in which knowledge, secular and 
religious, is most abundantly diffused; t,vo great nations being 
engaged in printing and circulating in it, in the cheapest possible 
form, the best thoughts of past and contemporary humanity. It 
partakes of the character of the people who speak it, and is, there. 
fore a wov,derful stimulus. The native Airican, like all Oriental or 
tropiaal people, can see no reason or pi'opriety in extra work, as 
long as he has enough to supply his wants. But be is imitative. 
And as the English language is diffused in his country, vi"ified by 
its domicilii.l.tion on the American continent, with its constantly. 
increasing voeabula.ry, its numerous words and phrases-some of 
which, produced by a. rc:;tless and invincible activity, suggest and 
inspire activity-the native will be raised unconsciously; and, in 
spite of hereditll.ry tendencies and sw'rouudings, ",ill work, not, 
then, in order to enjoy repose;--tbe dolce far niente~but to be able 
,1 • The AmcriCM "L angua.ge,· is t.be subject of an interesting cbapter by 
Mo..rk Twa.in. The language spoken by the Liberians, is known througbout 
the adja.cent interior countries as <jfl1\Ierica.n:' 
2E 
• 
• • 
• 
• 
418 Christiallity, Islam alld the Negro Race . 
• 
to do more work, and to carry out higher objects. Clima.te, aCter 
• all, is not an insuperable barrier to progress. Every variety of 
climate has produced an indigenous civilisation, by outward 
• 
stimulus. 
One of the most important counteracting influences to Moham-
medanism in Africa, will be the pressure of the English language. 
Dr. Nassau Lees, says, that the Koran wa.s. written for conquerors; 
so the English language, with its multitudinous books and news-
papers, is the language of conquest-not of pbysical, but of moral 
and intellectual~ conquest."· The schoolmaster against the soldier; 
the primer against ihe sword. It has everywhere. o• n the coast, 
driven out other European languages. The French are stmggling 
against its irrepressible aggressiveness in their own colony at 
Gaboon. Dr. Lenz found the language at Cameroons, the new 
German acquisition, to be universally English. Official notices 
are drawn up in Engli:::ih and German. Dr. Fischer, says, thar 
in Zanzibar the natives say, HAll good things come from 'England." 
Mr. Joseph Thomson, has been recently making treaties on behalf 
of the English African Trading Company, with the most powerful 
tribes on the Niger. They refused to entertain the proposals for 
similar arrangements of a German trading agent. '" And where the 
English language once takes root, it is a permanent occupant. In 
the West Indies, wc find the Danish, Dutch and Swedish flags 
floating over au English-speakiug population. The onlx rival in 
Africa that will offer anytliing like stubborn resistance to the pre-
tensions of English, is Arabic. But the increasing desire of the 
interior tribes for material advancement, and the ef'ort to hold 
communication with the outside world, which, for them, as Liberia 
and Sierra Leone extend eastward, will be more and more the 
English-speaking world. will diminlsh the practical importance of 
Arabic, and be a powerful stimulus to their civilisation and 
Christianisation .. The force of material interests will divert the 
Pagan element from Mohammedan iQtluence. 
M In the stea.mship, in the ro.ilway, in the thoughts tha.t shn.ke Iluw kjnd. 
~ London Times, Oct. 27. 1885. , 
, 
• 
.) 
• 
• 
African Coionisalioll. 
A writer in Macmillan's Magazine (April. 1885) says: II It is our • 
bad luck at presfmt that there are only two independent English n 
nations." The ',Titer has probably not beard of Liberia. By recent 
negotiations, the territory of Liberia has become conterminous with 
that of the British Colony of Sierra Leone. On the occasion of the 
settlement of this long-pending question, the British Commissioner, 
Sir Samuel Rowe, remarked:-
• The hn.ppy duty, now devoh"ed upon me, of signing. on behalf of Her )!3jcs~y. 
the Queen o[ Great Britain and Ireland. that Convention, which, ho.ving Lean 
signed also by the accredited Commissioners of tbe Government of Liberia.. will, 
I trust, Bet tit rest those differences, which, from time to time, have impeded 
the progress of civL1isn.tion, a.nd lessened, perhaps, the ha.rmony which it a.lways 
is desira.ble should exist between States whose territorial limits are con· 
terminou·s ... , ' . Sister Sta.tes, side by side on this Ea.stern shore of the broa.d 
Atla.ntic, peopled by members of the Africe.u ra.ce, who have adopted the habits 
of Western ci"ilisa.tion, cannot be othe.r tha.n united by the ties of one common 
duty; and tha.t duty is, the furtherance of chilisa.tion in this African la.ud, 
'amongst those native tribes. their immedin.te neighbours, who ha.ve not enjoyed 
the opport'nnities afforded to the inhabitants of Siena. Leone, a.nd to the 
emigrants from the tlnited States to Liberia, of becoming acquainted with that 
higher life and purer thought, which we of the Northern clime maintn.in 
pervades the people of Europe and America.. 
It is now expected that the relations of Liberia and Sierra 
Leone will become more intimate, and that there will be, in 
course of time, uniform tariff regulations, by wbich the trade of 
the two countries lDay be carried on under the same rules. And 
this wot\ld ~eern Dot unreasonable, when it is considered that 
the· Mannah Riyer, fixed by England as the south-east boundary 
of Sierra Leoue, and the north-west bOllnclary o[ Liberia, is DoL 
an ethnolo•g ical frontier, but cuts off and takes into Sierra Leoue, 
a portion of the Vey tribe, the majority of whom are in the recog· 
nised limits of Liberia; so that British subjects and Liberian 
citizens speak across the boundary to each other in the same 
a.boriginal tongue, and obey foreign laws couched in the same 
European language, and based on the same system of juris-
prudence. Gal~nas and ~ulYlllah belong, geographically and 
ethnographically, to Liberia; they belong, politically and teni-
torially, to Sierra Leone, through the accidents of diplomatic 
• 
• 
• • 
• 
.p o Cilristimlity, Islam alld tile Negro Race . 
• management. The idea of joint· legislation, then, it may bo 
• seen, is by no means alien to the purposes and aims of the 
two communities, nor is it repugnant to the spirit of the age. • 
The impres~ion has been produced in West Africa, by articles in 
America.n newspapers, and priva.te letters from the United States, 
that the American Government is likely. in future, to take greater 
practical interest in Liberia than has been hitherto customary. 
,Vhether this notion is well founded or not, it is evident tha&-, in 
view of the vast energies, pecuniary, intellectual and moral, being 
expended by Europe upon the solution of the African problem. the 
United States cannot sit much longer as an indifferent spectator, 
possessing, as she does, to a far greater extent than any other 
nation. the facilities for effective work on this continent. 
It is not for nothing, tbat to the United States has been 
committed the trust of millions of Africa's descendants, the natural 
and appointed agents in the regeneration of the continent; and _ 
it is not without meaning. that they should bave been ~et at 
liberty at the precise period when the vast field of their futw·e 
energies was being opened to the ga.ze of an astoni!->hed world . 
It cannot be unwise for the United States Government to employ 
some of its surplus capital-not too much-in opening the wa.y to 
0. career for millions of people. who can have DOlle in a. country to 
whose material progress they have so largely contributec.l. 'Ye 
looked in vain in the last Messa.ge of President Cle\'eiand. for a 
single reference to the continent of Africa. the original 'home of 
• 
millions of his bapless fellow-citizens, who are anxious to return. 
But we do not imagine that this was the silence of iptlifference. 
It was raLher, we su!->pect, the reticence which orten comes frolD 
earnm;t prac:tic~\l interest-the ~ilencc which !:;cau:, the c.listancc 
before taking lbe leap. • 
It seelDs to us. that Lbo United States GO\"l;lrmDcnt is now 
standing, so far as ~\..fri('a. is conccrned. at the partin~ of til{' ways. 
Ana if the Iingning at tbe bifurcation be Hal too long, or long 
enough to eau!)c insupera.ble doubts arid fcars, tkc hesitation will 
do good, and Africa ma.y hope for great things from the new ri:.Jime. 
But some of tbe best lriends of cplomsation ha.ve entertained 
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doubts as to whether such an enterprise ought to be, or can be, • 
legl:tUy assisted by the United States Government. Daniel 'Webster, 
the great expoundel' and defender of the Constitution, bad no 
doubt on this score. He said, shortly before his death ;-
It a.ppears to me tha.t this emigration is not impra.cticable. What is it to 
the greB-t resources of this country to send out a. bwuked thousa.nd persons a-year 
to Africa.? III my opinion, without any \iolation of the anaJogies which we 
ha.ve followed in other ca.ses, in pursua.nce of our commercial regula.tions, it 
is. within our Constitution-it is within the powers and provisions of that 
Constitution, e.s a. pa.rt of our commercin.1 armngements-just a.s we enter into 
troa.ties, &od pass In.ws for the suppression of the sla.ve-tr&de. If we look, now, 
to other insta.n~s, we sha.ll see how grea.t ma.y be the emigration of individuals, 
with slight mea.ns frOIT' Government. BII 
Mr. Webster then referred to the vast emigration from Ireland 
to the United States, under the stimulus of It very slight Govern-
mental support:' 
• On the several grounds of justice, humanity and expediency, it 
seems to u~ that the Government should give its aid. In contem-
plating the possibil}ty of such assista.nce, the only drawback that 
occurs to us is that the immigration might be so excessive as to 
imperil the "ital interests of the colony. But this would depend, 
greatly, npon the class of people sent. A few ambitious and turbulent 
spirits, who, in America, supposed themselves to be ascending in the 
scale of political life, and determined, on their arrival in Africa, to 
make way (or themselves by the methods of American demagogisrn, 
would 500]\ upset the nascent institutions of the young Republic. 
But thousands o( industrious, hard-working (armers and mechanics, 
would be no source of danger or anxiety. They would go to work, 
and the a~origines would gladly welcome them as returning 
brethren, similar to themselves in aspect, in origin, and in destiny. 
'v'ith such immigrants, however numerous, we can imagine no serious 
difficulty. As long a'S Liberia includes vast tracts of fertile land 
unoccupied and uncultivated, Lhere will be space and opportunities 
Lo a.ITon} si.lfc ouLlcts for a.ny inconvcnient a.ccutllulations of working 
energy \\There abjjmla.llcl! of'la.nd is so c~~ily accessible, there is 
no danger o( local congestiolls of popUlation. They will be allured 
Address before the America.p Colonisation Socie~y, J8.lluary, 1852 . 
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422 Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. 
to the rich forests and the fruitful plains, and will very soon find 
• out that Africa is the best country in the world fOl' an absolutely 
poorman. Meat, fire, and clothing, lliay almost be regarded as 
luxuries in a climate so geuial, and to them, so congenial. 
There are in the various counties of Liberia.-Montserrado, 
Bassa, Sinoll, Maryland-in the rich countries drained by the 
St. Paul's, the St. John's, the Sinoll, the Cavalla and the San 
Pedro Rivers-eligible sites for profitable farms, for villages and 
tOWllS: commanding a lucrative trade in the valuable products of the 
wealthy interior. And there is an active, intelligent native population 
ready for co.operation, for an interchange of ideas, of produce, of 
transactions, and of capital, which must unite their country with 
Liberia by the closest civil and social, as well as political, ties. 
Their Government, as a rule, has very few of the features of what 
is understood by royalty, or monarchy. The people govern, 
and they furnish everywhere most interesting specimens of R. 
publicanism. .. 
11he Christian Church in the United States chould recognise the 
instruments at their door for the African work. 
It would seem to have been designed that Christianity should 
not come into Africa from Em'ope, where it had been taken from 
its Semitic mould, and either Latinised or Teutonised; but that it 
should cross the ocean, and acquire larger freedom and greater 
elasticity, uneler new conditions, and be imparted to millions of 
Africans, who should be the bearers of it to their 1atherland . 
American Christianity, though having its roots in Europe, •d iffers 
from European Christianity in many important respects-in the 
wide tolerance which pervades it, in the form which it has assumed, 
and the impression which it leaves on the mind. It is the religion 
of a democratic people. 
Liberia is blamed because she has made no greater progress. 
But where, in WesterD Africa, has there been greater progress 
in proportion to the means used 01' effort put forth? At Senegal. 
the authorities are perplexed by the obstru&~ive operations of 
hostile Mohammedans. At the Gambia, the adjacent tribes, when 
they please, disorganise the trade ~y wars. Sierra. Leone is one 
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hundred yea..rs old, and the aborigines arouud it are ready, at any 
time, to defy its authority, and menace its existence. At tbe Gold • 
Coast, the .\sbantees periodically put the settlements in jeopa.rdy. 
Lagos is uuder the influence of the interior tribes. Foreigners are 
confined to the coast, or admitted to the wealthy and populous 
inland districts by the edicts at Abbeoknta. At G,boon, Dr. Lenz 
tells us, that the whole native population is being rapidly driven to 
t~ interior by the Fans. In the Congo country, serious difficulties 
environ the situatioD. Liberia, and bel' influences, compare 
favourably witb ,II tbese . 
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