J. J. Thomas, from Froudacity
(1889)
We find paraded ostentatiously enough the
doctrine that in the adjustment of human
affairs the possession of a white skin should
be the strongest recommendation. Wonder might
fairly be felt that there is no suggestion
of a corresponding advantage being accorded
to the possession of a long nose or of auburn
hair. Indeed, little or no attention that
can be deemed serious is given to the interest
of the Blacks, as a large and (out of Africa)
no longer despicable section of the human
family, in the great world-problems which
are so visibly preparing and press for definitive
solutions. The intra-African Negro is clearly
powerless to struggle successfully against
personal enslavement, annexation, or volunteer
forcible "protection" of his territory.
What, we ask, will in the coming ages be
the opinion and attitude of the extra-African
millions— ten millions in the Western
Hemisphere— dispersed so widely over
the surface of the globe, apt apprentices
in every conceivable department of civilised
culture? Will these men remain for ever too
poor, too isolated from one another for grand
racial combinations? Or will the naturally
opulent cradle of their people, too long
a prey to violence and unholy greed, become
at length the sacred watchword of a generation
willing and able to conquer or perish under
its inspiration? . . .
. . . Accepting the theory of
human development propounded by our author,
let us apply it to the African race. Except,
of course, to intelligences having a share
in the Councils of Eternity, there can be
no attainable knowledge respecting the laws
which regulate the growth and progress of
civilisation among the races of the earth.
That in the existence of the human family
every age has been marked by its own essential
characteristics with regard to manifestations
of intellectual life, however circumscribed,
is a proposition too self-evident to require
more than the stating. But investigation
beyond such evidence as we possess concerning
the past— whether recorded by man himself
in the written pages of history, or by the
Creator on the tablets of nature— would
be worse than futile. We see that in the
past different races have successively come
to the front, as prominent actors on the
world's stage. The years of civilised
development have dawned in turn on many sections
of the human family, and the Anglo-Saxons,
who now enjoy preeminence, got their turn
only after Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece,
Rome, and others had successfully held the
palm of supremacy. And since these mighty
empires have all passed away, may we not
then, if the past teaches aught, confidently
expect that other racial hegemonies will
arise in the future to keep up the ceaseless
progression of temporal existence towards
the existence that is eternal? What is it
in the nature of things that will oust the
African race from the right to participate,
in times to come, in the high destinies that
have been assigned in times past to so many
races that have not been in anywise superior
to us in the qualifications, physical, moral,
and intellectual, that mark out a race for
prominence amongst other races?
The normal composition of the typical Negro
has the testimony of ages to its essential
soundness and nobility. Physically, as an
active labourer, he is capable of the most
protracted exertion under climatic conditions
the most exhausting. By the mere strain of
his brawn and sinew he has converted waste
tracts of earth into fertile regions of agricultural
bountifulness. On the scenes of strife he
has in his savage state been known to be
indomitable save by the stress of irresistible
forces, whether of men or of circumstances.
Staunch in his friendship and tender towards
the weak directly under his protection, the
unvitiated African furnishes in himself the
combination of native virtue which in the
land of his exile was so prolific of good
results for the welfare of the whole slave-class.
But distracted at home by the sudden irruptions
of skulking foes, he has been robbed, both
intellectually and morally, of the immense
advantage of Peace, which is the mother of
Progress. Transplanted to alien climes, and
through centuries of desolating trials, this
irrepressible race has bated not one throb
of its energy, nor one jot of its heart or
hope. . . .
. . . The above summary of our
past vicissitudes and actual position shows
that there is nothing in our political circumstances
to occasion uneasiness. The miserable skin
and race doctrine we have been discussing
does not at all prefigure the destinies at
all events of the West Indies, or determine
the motives that will affect them. With the
exception of those belonging to the Southern
States of the Union, the vast body of African
descendants now dispersed in various countries
of the Western hemisphere are at sufficient
peace to begin occupying themselves, according
to some fixed programme, about matters of
racial importance. More than ten millions
of Africans are scattered over the wide area
indicated, and possess amongst them instances
of mental and other qualifications which
render them remarkable among their fellow-men.
But like the essential parts of a complicated
albeit perfect machine, these attainments
and qualifications so widely dispersed await,
it is evident, some potential agency to collect
and adjust them into the vast engine essential
for executing the true purposes of the civilised
African Race. Already, especially since the
late Emancipation Jubilee, are signs manifest
of a desire for intercommunion and intercomprehension
amongst the more distinguished of our people.
With intercourse and unity of purpose will
be secured the means to carry out the obvious
duties which are sure to devolve upon us,
especially with reference to the cradle of
our Race, which is most probably destined
to be the ultimate resting-place and headquarters
of millions of our posterity. Within the
short time that we had to compass all that
we have achieved, there could not have arisen
opportunities for doing more than we have
effected. Meanwhile our present device is: "Work,
Hope, and Wait!"