September 2, 2025 • 18 mins
Discover a rich tapestry of voices in Black Experience in America, 18th-20th Century. This collection features a diverse range of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, drama, and speeches sourced from Project Gutenberg, highlighting works by and about African Americans. From the poignant epistolary exchanges of late 18th-century black Baptist preachers to the powerful testimonies of ex-slaves from the 1930s, this anthology offers a profound exploration of the African American journey through time. (Summary by BellonaTimes)
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Section seventeen of Black Experience in America eighteenth to twentieth century.
This is a LibriVox for courting. All LibriVox recordings are
in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. The Passing Tradition and the
African Civilization by Monroe en Work, Black Experience in America
(00:27):
eighteenth to twentieth century by various Section seventeen The Passing
Tradition and the African Civilization by Monroe en Work from
the Journal of Negro History, Volume one, January nineteen sixteen.
(00:47):
A close examination shows that what we know about the Negro,
both of the present and the past, vitally affects our
opinions concerning him. Men's beliefs concerning things are to a
large extent, determined by where they live and what has
been handed down to them. We believe in a hell
of roaring flames, where in the fiercest of heat, the
(01:08):
souls of the wicked are subject to eternal burnings. This
idea of hell was evolved in the deserts of the
Arabian Peninsula, where heat is one of the greatest forces
of nature with which man has to contend. Among the
native tribes of northern Siberia, dwelling in the regions of
perpetual ice and snow. Hell is a place filled with
(01:29):
great chunks of ice upon which the souls of the
wicked are placed and there subjected to eternal freezings. This
idea of hell was evolved in the regions where man
is in a continual battle with the cold. The beliefs
of Negroes concerning themselves have to a large extent been
made for them. The reader, no doubt will be interested
(01:49):
to know that the prevailing notions concerning the inferiority of
the Negro grew up to a large extent as the
concomitant to Negro slavery in this country. The bringing of
the first Negroes from Africa as slaves was justified on
the grounds that they were heathen. It was not right,
it was argued for Christians to enslave Christians, but they
could enslave heathen, who, as a result, would have an
(02:12):
opportunity to become Christians. These Negro slaves did actually become Christians,
and as a result, the colonists were forced to find
other grounds to justify their continuation of the system. The
next argument was that they were different from white people.
Here we have a large part of the beginnings of
the doctrine of the inferiority of the Negro. When about
(02:35):
eighteen thirty anti slavery agitation arose in this country, a
new set of arguments were brought forward to justify slavery.
First in importance were those taken from the Bible. Science
also was called upon and brought forward a large number
of facts to demonstrate that, by nature, the negro was
especially fitted to be a slave. It happened that about
(02:57):
this time anthropology was being developed. Racial differences were some
of the things which especially interested scientists in this field.
The races were defined according to certain physical characteristics. These,
it was asserted, determined the superiority or inferiority of races.
The true Negro race, said the early anthropologists, had characteristics
(03:20):
which especially indicated its inferiority. Through our geographies, histories, and encyclopedias,
we have become familiar with representations of this so called
true Negro, whose chief characteristics were a black skin, wooly hair,
protuberant lips, and a receding forehead. Caricaturists seized upon these
(03:40):
characteristics and popularized them in cartoons, in songs, and in
other ways. Thus it happened that the Negro, through the
descriptions that he got of himself, has come largely to
believe in his inherent inferiority, and that to attain superiority
he must become like the white man in color, in achievements,
and in fact, along all lines. In recent years, it
(04:03):
has been asked, why cannot the Negro attain superiority along
lines of his own, That is, instead of simply patterning
after what the white man has done, why cannot the Negro,
through music, art, history, and science make his own special
contributions to the progress of the world. This question has
arisen because in the fields of science and history there
(04:24):
have been brought forward a number of facts which prove
this possibility. First of all, the leading scientists in the
field of anthropology are telling us that while there are
differences of races, there are no characteristics which per se
indicate that one race is inferior or superior to another.
The existing differences are differences in kind, not in value.
(04:44):
On the other hand, whatever superiority one race has attained
over another has been largely due to environment. A German writer,
in a discussion on the origin of African civilizations said
some time ago, what bold investigators, great piani ears still
find to tell us and civilizations nearer home proves more
and more clearly that we are ignorant of hoary Africa,
(05:08):
somewhat of its present, perhaps we know, but of its
past little open and illustrated geography. And compare the type
of the African Negro, the bluish black fellow, of the
protuberant lips, the flattened nose, the stupid expression, and the
short curly hair with the tall bronze figures from dark
Africa with which we have of late become familiar their
(05:30):
almost fine cut features, slightly arched nose, long hair, et cetera.
And you have an example of the problems pressing for
solution in other respects too. The genuine African of the
interior bears no resemblance to the accepted Negro type, as
it figures on drug and cigar store signs, wearing a
shabby stove, pipe hat, plaid trousers and a very colored coat.
(05:55):
A stroll through the corridors of the Berlin Museum of
Ethnology teaches that the real Africans need by no means
resort to the rags and tatters of bygone European splendor.
He has precious ornaments of his own, of ivory and plumes,
fine pleated willow ware, weapons of superior workmanship. Justly can
it be demanded, what sort of civilization is this? Whence
(06:17):
does it come? It is also pointed out that one
of the most important contributions to the civilization of mankind
was very probably made by the Negro race. This was
the invention of the smelting of iron. The facts brought
forward to support this view are that no iron was
smelted in Europe before nine hundred b C. That about
(06:38):
three thousand b C. There began to appear on the
Egyptian monuments pictures of Africans bringing iron from the South
to Egypt, that at a time considerably later than this,
iron implements began to appear in Asia, that there is
no iron ore in Egypt, and that in Negro Africa
iron ore is abundant. In many places. It is found
(07:00):
on top of the ground, and in some parts it
can be melted by simply placing a piece of ore
in the fire, very much as you would a potato
to be roasted. Studies in the fields of ancient and
medieval history are also showing that in the past there
were in Negro Africa civilizations of probable indigenous origin, which
attained importance enough to be mentioned in the writings of
(07:22):
those historians and poets of those periods. The seat of
one of the highest of these civilizations was Ethiopia. Here
the Negro nation attained the greatest fame. As early as
twenty five hundred years before the birth of Christ, the
Ethiopians appeared to have had a considerable civilization. It was
well known to the writers of the Bible, and is
(07:44):
referred to therein some forty nine times. In Genesis we
read of Kush, the eldest son of Ham. Kush is
the Hebrew word for black and means the same as Ethiopia.
One of the most famous sons of Kush was Nimrod,
whom the Bible mentions as being a mighty hunter before
the Lord, whereof it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty
(08:06):
hunter before the Lord. The Bible refers to Ethiopia as
being far distant from Palestine. In the Book of Isaiah,
we read the land of the rustling of wings, which
is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that sendeth ambassadors by
the sea. The rivers of Ethiopia mentioned in Isaiah are
the upper tributaries of the Nile, the Atbara, the Blue Nile,
(08:30):
and the Sabbat. The later capital of Ethiopia was Mereau.
Recent excavations have shown Moreau to have been a city
larger than Memphis. The Temple of Ammon, where kings were crowned,
was one of the largest in the valley of the Nile.
The great walls of cut stones were fifteen feet thick
and thirty feet high. Heaps of iron slag and furnaces
(08:54):
from smelting iron were discovered, and there were magnificent keys
and landing places on the river side for the export
of iron. Excavations have also shown that for one hundred
and fifty years, Egypt was a dependency of Ethiopia. The
kings of the twenty third and twenty fourth Egyptian dynasties
were really governors appointed by Ethiopian overlords, while the twenty
(09:17):
fifth dynasty was founded by the Ethiopian king Sabaco in
order to check Assyrian aggression. Palestine was enabled to hold
out against Assyria by Ethiopian help Senacareb's attempt to capture
Jerusalem and carry the Jews into captivity was frustrated by
the army of the Ethiopian king Taharka. The nation and
(09:40):
religion of Judah were thus preserved from being absorbed in
the heathen lands. Like the Lost Ten tribes, the Negro
soldiers of the Sudan saved the Jewish religion. The old
Greek writers were well acquainted with Ethiopia. According to them,
in the most ancient times, there existed to this south
of Egypt a nation and a land designated as Ethiopia.
(10:04):
This was the land where the people with the sun
burnt faces dwelt. The Greek poet Homer mentions the Ethiopians
as dwelling at the uttermost limits of the earth, where
they enjoyed personal intercourse with the gods. In one place,
Homer said that Neptune, the god of the sea, had
gone to fast with the Ethiopians, who dwell afar off.
(10:25):
The Ethiopians, who are divided into two parts, the most
distant of men, some at the setting of the sun,
others at the rising. Herodotus, the Greek historian, described the
Ethiopians as long lived and their country as extending to
the southern Sea. The great fame of the Ethiopians is
thus sketched by the eminent historian Hron, who, in his
(10:48):
historical researches says, in the earliest traditions of nearly all
the more civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this
distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests
were full of them. The nations of Inner Asia, on
the Euphrates and the Tigris have interwoven the fictions of
the Ethiopians with their own traditions of the conquests and
(11:12):
wars of their heroes, and at a period equally remote,
they glimmer in Greek mythology, when the Greeks scarcely knew
Italy and Sicily by name. The Ethiopians were celebrated in
the verses of their poets. They spoke of them as
the remotest nation, the most just of men, the favorites
of the gods. The lofty inhabitants of Olympus journey to
(11:35):
them and take part in their feasts. Their sacrifices are
the most agreeable of all that mortals can offer them.
And when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives
way to the clear light of history. The luster of
the Ethiopians is not diminished. They still continue to be
the object of curiosity and admiration, and the pens of cautious,
(11:56):
clear sighted historians often placed them in the highest ranks
of knowledge and civilization. Of these facts, most modern historians
know but little, and Negroes in general almost nothing. For example,
how many have ever heard of Albacris, the Arab writer
who in the eleventh century wrote a description of the
(12:17):
western Sudan of such importance that it gained him the
title of the historian of Negro Land. How much by
means of research might be learned of the town of Ghana,
situated on the banks of the Nijer, which the historian
Albacrie described as a meeting place for commercial caravans from
all parts of the world. This town, he said, contained
(12:38):
schools and centers of learning. It was the resort of
the learned, the rich, and the pious of all nations. Likewise,
most of us have never heard, perhaps of another Arab rider,
Eben Khaldoun, who, in writing about the middle of the
fourteenth century, of Melae, another of the Kingdoms of Sudan
reported that caravans from Egypt, consisting of twelve thousand laden camels,
(13:02):
passed every year through one town on the eastern border
of the empire on their way to the capital of
the nation. The load of a camel was three hundred pounds.
Twelve thousand camelodes amounted therefore to something like sixteen hundred
tons of merchandise. At this time, we are told that
there was probably not a ship in any of the
merchant navies of the world which could carry one hundred tons.
(13:25):
Two hundred and fifty years later, the average tonnage of
the vessels of Spain was three hundred tons, and that
of the English much less. The largest ship which Queen
Elizabeth had in her navy, the Great Mary, had a
capacity of a thousand tons, but it was considered an
exception and the marvel of the age. Another thing that
is not generally known is the importance to which some
(13:48):
of these Negro kingdoms of the Western Sudan attained during
the Middle Ages and the first centuries of the modern era.
In size and permanency, they compared favorably with the most
advanced nations of Europe. The Kingdom of Melay, of which
the historian Iban Chaldun wrote, had an area of over
one thousand miles in extent and existed for two hundred
(14:10):
and fifty years. It was the first of the kingdoms
of the Western Sudan to be received on equal terms
with the contemporary white nations. The greatest of all the
Sudan states was the Kingdom of Songhay, which in its
golden age had an area almost equal to that of
the United States and existed from about seven hundred fifty
(14:31):
eighty to fifteen ninety one. There is a record of
the kings of Songey in regular succession for almost nine
hundred years. The length of the life of the Songay
Empire coincides almost exactly with the life of Rome, from
its foundation as a republic to its downfall as an empire.
The greatest evidences of the high state of civilization which
(14:54):
the Sudan had in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were
the attention that was paid to education in the US
the unusual amount of learning that existed there. The University
of Sancor at Timbuctoo was a very active center of learning.
It was in correspondence with the universities of North Africa
and Egypt. It was in touch with the universities of Spain.
(15:16):
In the sixteenth century, Timbuctou had a large learned class,
living at ease and busily occupied with the elucidation of
intellectual and religious problems. The town swarmed with students. Law, literature, grammar, theology,
and the natural sciences were studied. The city of Meleae
had a regular school of science. One distinguished geographer is mentioned,
(15:41):
and allusions to surgical science showed that the old maxim
of the Arabian schools, he who studies anatomy pleases God,
was not forgotten. One of these writers mentions that his
brother came from Jene to Timbuctoo to undergo an operation
for the cataract of the eyes at the hands of
a celebrated surgeon. There, it is said that the operation
was wholly successful. The appearance of comets, so amazing to
(16:05):
Europe of the Middle Ages, and at the present time
to the ignorant, was by these learned blacks noted calmly
as a matter of scientific interest. Earthquakes and eclipses excited
no great surprise. The renowned writer of the Sudan was Abdurahman, aside.
He was born in Timbuctu in fifteen ninety six. He
(16:26):
came of learned and distinguished ancestors. He is chief author
of the History of Sudan. The book is said to
be a wonderful document. The narrative deals mainly with the
modern history of the Songay Empire and relates the rise
of this Black civilization through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
and its decadence up to the middle of the seventeenth century.
(16:47):
The noted traveler Bart was of the opinion that the
book forms one of the most important editions that the
present age has made to the history of mankind. The
work is especially valuable for the unconscious life which it
throws upon the life, manners, politics, and literature of the country.
It presents a vivid picture of the character of the
(17:07):
men with whom it deals. It is sometimes called the
Epic of Sudan. From this brief sketch which I have
given of the African in ancient and medieval times, it
is clear that Negroes should not despise the rock from
which they were hewn. As a race. They have a
past which is full of interest. It is worthy of
serious study. From it we can draw inspiration, for it
(17:31):
appears that not all black men everywhere throughout the ages
have been hearers of wood and drawers of water. On
the contrary, through long periods of time, there were powerful
black nations which have left the records of their achievements,
and of which we are just now beginning to learn
a little. This little, however, which we have learned, teaches
us the negroes of today should work and strive along
(17:53):
their own special line, and in their own peculiar way,
they should endeavor to make contributions to civilization. Their achievements
can be such that once more black will be dignified,
and the fame of Ethiopia again spread throughout the world.
End of section seventeen.
Section seventeen of Black Experience in America eighteenth to twentieth century.
This is a LibriVox for courting. All LibriVox recordings are
in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. The Passing Tradition and the
African Civilization by Monroe en Work, Black Experience in America
(00:27):
eighteenth to twentieth century by various Section seventeen The Passing
Tradition and the African Civilization by Monroe en Work from
the Journal of Negro History, Volume one, January nineteen sixteen.
(00:47):
A close examination shows that what we know about the Negro,
both of the present and the past, vitally affects our
opinions concerning him. Men's beliefs concerning things are to a
large extent, determined by where they live and what has
been handed down to them. We believe in a hell
of roaring flames, where in the fiercest of heat, the
(01:08):
souls of the wicked are subject to eternal burnings. This
idea of hell was evolved in the deserts of the
Arabian Peninsula, where heat is one of the greatest forces
of nature with which man has to contend. Among the
native tribes of northern Siberia, dwelling in the regions of
perpetual ice and snow. Hell is a place filled with
(01:29):
great chunks of ice upon which the souls of the
wicked are placed and there subjected to eternal freezings. This
idea of hell was evolved in the regions where man
is in a continual battle with the cold. The beliefs
of Negroes concerning themselves have to a large extent been
made for them. The reader, no doubt will be interested
(01:49):
to know that the prevailing notions concerning the inferiority of
the Negro grew up to a large extent as the
concomitant to Negro slavery in this country. The bringing of
the first Negroes from Africa as slaves was justified on
the grounds that they were heathen. It was not right,
it was argued for Christians to enslave Christians, but they
could enslave heathen, who, as a result, would have an
(02:12):
opportunity to become Christians. These Negro slaves did actually become Christians,
and as a result, the colonists were forced to find
other grounds to justify their continuation of the system. The
next argument was that they were different from white people.
Here we have a large part of the beginnings of
the doctrine of the inferiority of the Negro. When about
(02:35):
eighteen thirty anti slavery agitation arose in this country, a
new set of arguments were brought forward to justify slavery.
First in importance were those taken from the Bible. Science
also was called upon and brought forward a large number
of facts to demonstrate that, by nature, the negro was
especially fitted to be a slave. It happened that about
(02:57):
this time anthropology was being developed. Racial differences were some
of the things which especially interested scientists in this field.
The races were defined according to certain physical characteristics. These,
it was asserted, determined the superiority or inferiority of races.
The true Negro race, said the early anthropologists, had characteristics
(03:20):
which especially indicated its inferiority. Through our geographies, histories, and encyclopedias,
we have become familiar with representations of this so called
true Negro, whose chief characteristics were a black skin, wooly hair,
protuberant lips, and a receding forehead. Caricaturists seized upon these
(03:40):
characteristics and popularized them in cartoons, in songs, and in
other ways. Thus it happened that the Negro, through the
descriptions that he got of himself, has come largely to
believe in his inherent inferiority, and that to attain superiority
he must become like the white man in color, in achievements,
and in fact, along all lines. In recent years, it
(04:03):
has been asked, why cannot the Negro attain superiority along
lines of his own, That is, instead of simply patterning
after what the white man has done, why cannot the Negro,
through music, art, history, and science make his own special
contributions to the progress of the world. This question has
arisen because in the fields of science and history there
(04:24):
have been brought forward a number of facts which prove
this possibility. First of all, the leading scientists in the
field of anthropology are telling us that while there are
differences of races, there are no characteristics which per se
indicate that one race is inferior or superior to another.
The existing differences are differences in kind, not in value.
(04:44):
On the other hand, whatever superiority one race has attained
over another has been largely due to environment. A German writer,
in a discussion on the origin of African civilizations said
some time ago, what bold investigators, great piani ears still
find to tell us and civilizations nearer home proves more
and more clearly that we are ignorant of hoary Africa,
(05:08):
somewhat of its present, perhaps we know, but of its
past little open and illustrated geography. And compare the type
of the African Negro, the bluish black fellow, of the
protuberant lips, the flattened nose, the stupid expression, and the
short curly hair with the tall bronze figures from dark
Africa with which we have of late become familiar their
(05:30):
almost fine cut features, slightly arched nose, long hair, et cetera.
And you have an example of the problems pressing for
solution in other respects too. The genuine African of the
interior bears no resemblance to the accepted Negro type, as
it figures on drug and cigar store signs, wearing a
shabby stove, pipe hat, plaid trousers and a very colored coat.
(05:55):
A stroll through the corridors of the Berlin Museum of
Ethnology teaches that the real Africans need by no means
resort to the rags and tatters of bygone European splendor.
He has precious ornaments of his own, of ivory and plumes,
fine pleated willow ware, weapons of superior workmanship. Justly can
it be demanded, what sort of civilization is this? Whence
(06:17):
does it come? It is also pointed out that one
of the most important contributions to the civilization of mankind
was very probably made by the Negro race. This was
the invention of the smelting of iron. The facts brought
forward to support this view are that no iron was
smelted in Europe before nine hundred b C. That about
(06:38):
three thousand b C. There began to appear on the
Egyptian monuments pictures of Africans bringing iron from the South
to Egypt, that at a time considerably later than this,
iron implements began to appear in Asia, that there is
no iron ore in Egypt, and that in Negro Africa
iron ore is abundant. In many places. It is found
(07:00):
on top of the ground, and in some parts it
can be melted by simply placing a piece of ore
in the fire, very much as you would a potato
to be roasted. Studies in the fields of ancient and
medieval history are also showing that in the past there
were in Negro Africa civilizations of probable indigenous origin, which
attained importance enough to be mentioned in the writings of
(07:22):
those historians and poets of those periods. The seat of
one of the highest of these civilizations was Ethiopia. Here
the Negro nation attained the greatest fame. As early as
twenty five hundred years before the birth of Christ, the
Ethiopians appeared to have had a considerable civilization. It was
well known to the writers of the Bible, and is
(07:44):
referred to therein some forty nine times. In Genesis we
read of Kush, the eldest son of Ham. Kush is
the Hebrew word for black and means the same as Ethiopia.
One of the most famous sons of Kush was Nimrod,
whom the Bible mentions as being a mighty hunter before
the Lord, whereof it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty
(08:06):
hunter before the Lord. The Bible refers to Ethiopia as
being far distant from Palestine. In the Book of Isaiah,
we read the land of the rustling of wings, which
is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that sendeth ambassadors by
the sea. The rivers of Ethiopia mentioned in Isaiah are
the upper tributaries of the Nile, the Atbara, the Blue Nile,
(08:30):
and the Sabbat. The later capital of Ethiopia was Mereau.
Recent excavations have shown Moreau to have been a city
larger than Memphis. The Temple of Ammon, where kings were crowned,
was one of the largest in the valley of the Nile.
The great walls of cut stones were fifteen feet thick
and thirty feet high. Heaps of iron slag and furnaces
(08:54):
from smelting iron were discovered, and there were magnificent keys
and landing places on the river side for the export
of iron. Excavations have also shown that for one hundred
and fifty years, Egypt was a dependency of Ethiopia. The
kings of the twenty third and twenty fourth Egyptian dynasties
were really governors appointed by Ethiopian overlords, while the twenty
(09:17):
fifth dynasty was founded by the Ethiopian king Sabaco in
order to check Assyrian aggression. Palestine was enabled to hold
out against Assyria by Ethiopian help Senacareb's attempt to capture
Jerusalem and carry the Jews into captivity was frustrated by
the army of the Ethiopian king Taharka. The nation and
(09:40):
religion of Judah were thus preserved from being absorbed in
the heathen lands. Like the Lost Ten tribes, the Negro
soldiers of the Sudan saved the Jewish religion. The old
Greek writers were well acquainted with Ethiopia. According to them,
in the most ancient times, there existed to this south
of Egypt a nation and a land designated as Ethiopia.
(10:04):
This was the land where the people with the sun
burnt faces dwelt. The Greek poet Homer mentions the Ethiopians
as dwelling at the uttermost limits of the earth, where
they enjoyed personal intercourse with the gods. In one place,
Homer said that Neptune, the god of the sea, had
gone to fast with the Ethiopians, who dwell afar off.
(10:25):
The Ethiopians, who are divided into two parts, the most
distant of men, some at the setting of the sun,
others at the rising. Herodotus, the Greek historian, described the
Ethiopians as long lived and their country as extending to
the southern Sea. The great fame of the Ethiopians is
thus sketched by the eminent historian Hron, who, in his
(10:48):
historical researches says, in the earliest traditions of nearly all
the more civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this
distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests
were full of them. The nations of Inner Asia, on
the Euphrates and the Tigris have interwoven the fictions of
the Ethiopians with their own traditions of the conquests and
(11:12):
wars of their heroes, and at a period equally remote,
they glimmer in Greek mythology, when the Greeks scarcely knew
Italy and Sicily by name. The Ethiopians were celebrated in
the verses of their poets. They spoke of them as
the remotest nation, the most just of men, the favorites
of the gods. The lofty inhabitants of Olympus journey to
(11:35):
them and take part in their feasts. Their sacrifices are
the most agreeable of all that mortals can offer them.
And when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives
way to the clear light of history. The luster of
the Ethiopians is not diminished. They still continue to be
the object of curiosity and admiration, and the pens of cautious,
(11:56):
clear sighted historians often placed them in the highest ranks
of knowledge and civilization. Of these facts, most modern historians
know but little, and Negroes in general almost nothing. For example,
how many have ever heard of Albacris, the Arab writer
who in the eleventh century wrote a description of the
(12:17):
western Sudan of such importance that it gained him the
title of the historian of Negro Land. How much by
means of research might be learned of the town of Ghana,
situated on the banks of the Nijer, which the historian
Albacrie described as a meeting place for commercial caravans from
all parts of the world. This town, he said, contained
(12:38):
schools and centers of learning. It was the resort of
the learned, the rich, and the pious of all nations. Likewise,
most of us have never heard, perhaps of another Arab rider,
Eben Khaldoun, who, in writing about the middle of the
fourteenth century, of Melae, another of the Kingdoms of Sudan
reported that caravans from Egypt, consisting of twelve thousand laden camels,
(13:02):
passed every year through one town on the eastern border
of the empire on their way to the capital of
the nation. The load of a camel was three hundred pounds.
Twelve thousand camelodes amounted therefore to something like sixteen hundred
tons of merchandise. At this time, we are told that
there was probably not a ship in any of the
merchant navies of the world which could carry one hundred tons.
(13:25):
Two hundred and fifty years later, the average tonnage of
the vessels of Spain was three hundred tons, and that
of the English much less. The largest ship which Queen
Elizabeth had in her navy, the Great Mary, had a
capacity of a thousand tons, but it was considered an
exception and the marvel of the age. Another thing that
is not generally known is the importance to which some
(13:48):
of these Negro kingdoms of the Western Sudan attained during
the Middle Ages and the first centuries of the modern era.
In size and permanency, they compared favorably with the most
advanced nations of Europe. The Kingdom of Melay, of which
the historian Iban Chaldun wrote, had an area of over
one thousand miles in extent and existed for two hundred
(14:10):
and fifty years. It was the first of the kingdoms
of the Western Sudan to be received on equal terms
with the contemporary white nations. The greatest of all the
Sudan states was the Kingdom of Songhay, which in its
golden age had an area almost equal to that of
the United States and existed from about seven hundred fifty
(14:31):
eighty to fifteen ninety one. There is a record of
the kings of Songey in regular succession for almost nine
hundred years. The length of the life of the Songay
Empire coincides almost exactly with the life of Rome, from
its foundation as a republic to its downfall as an empire.
The greatest evidences of the high state of civilization which
(14:54):
the Sudan had in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were
the attention that was paid to education in the US
the unusual amount of learning that existed there. The University
of Sancor at Timbuctoo was a very active center of learning.
It was in correspondence with the universities of North Africa
and Egypt. It was in touch with the universities of Spain.
(15:16):
In the sixteenth century, Timbuctou had a large learned class,
living at ease and busily occupied with the elucidation of
intellectual and religious problems. The town swarmed with students. Law, literature, grammar, theology,
and the natural sciences were studied. The city of Meleae
had a regular school of science. One distinguished geographer is mentioned,
(15:41):
and allusions to surgical science showed that the old maxim
of the Arabian schools, he who studies anatomy pleases God,
was not forgotten. One of these writers mentions that his
brother came from Jene to Timbuctoo to undergo an operation
for the cataract of the eyes at the hands of
a celebrated surgeon. There, it is said that the operation
was wholly successful. The appearance of comets, so amazing to
(16:05):
Europe of the Middle Ages, and at the present time
to the ignorant, was by these learned blacks noted calmly
as a matter of scientific interest. Earthquakes and eclipses excited
no great surprise. The renowned writer of the Sudan was Abdurahman, aside.
He was born in Timbuctu in fifteen ninety six. He
(16:26):
came of learned and distinguished ancestors. He is chief author
of the History of Sudan. The book is said to
be a wonderful document. The narrative deals mainly with the
modern history of the Songay Empire and relates the rise
of this Black civilization through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
and its decadence up to the middle of the seventeenth century.
(16:47):
The noted traveler Bart was of the opinion that the
book forms one of the most important editions that the
present age has made to the history of mankind. The
work is especially valuable for the unconscious life which it
throws upon the life, manners, politics, and literature of the country.
It presents a vivid picture of the character of the
(17:07):
men with whom it deals. It is sometimes called the
Epic of Sudan. From this brief sketch which I have
given of the African in ancient and medieval times, it
is clear that Negroes should not despise the rock from
which they were hewn. As a race. They have a
past which is full of interest. It is worthy of
serious study. From it we can draw inspiration, for it
(17:31):
appears that not all black men everywhere throughout the ages
have been hearers of wood and drawers of water. On
the contrary, through long periods of time, there were powerful
black nations which have left the records of their achievements,
and of which we are just now beginning to learn
a little. This little, however, which we have learned, teaches
us the negroes of today should work and strive along
(17:53):
their own special line, and in their own peculiar way,
they should endeavor to make contributions to civilization. Their achievements
can be such that once more black will be dignified,
and the fame of Ethiopia again spread throughout the world.
End of section seventeen.
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