Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly: A Story of the Wilmington Massacre.Thorne, Jack
History
Hanover; Or The Persecution of the Lowly: A Story of the Wilmington Massacre.
Thorne, Jack
African Americans -- North Carolina -- Wilmington -- Fiction; Wilmington (N.C.) -- History -- Fiction
Wat yo say is right frum start to finish. We uns air watchin
um; wese got ther guns, an we uns'll hold em till we see how things air
goin ter wurk. Reach up there an han me my pipe Mandy."
CHAPTER V.
Molly Pierrepont.
"Sweet and low, sweet and low
Wind of the Western sea
Low, low, breathe and blow
Wind of the Western sea
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon and blow
Blow him again to me
While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps."
This sweet old lullaby of Longfellow's, sung by a rich soprano voice
floated upon the cool October air out from a beautiful and richly
furnished suburban cottage in Wilmington. The singer sat alone at the
piano. Though vulgarly called a "Negress," her skin was almost as fair
as a Saxon's; and because of the mingling of Negro blood--more beautiful
in color. She was gowned in an evening dress of gossamer material, ashes
of rose in color. Her hair let out to its full length hung in silky
profusion down her back. There were plain old fashioned half moon rings
in her ears, and bands of gold upon her bare arms enhanced their beauty.
No one will deny that among the women of mixed blood in the South, there
are types of surpassing beauty. The inter-mixture of Negro and Saxon,
Negro and Spanish and Indian blood gives the skin a more beautiful color
than exists in the unadulterated of either race. While the mulatto and
octoroon may reveal the Saxon in the fairness of the skin, the Negro
reinforcement shows itself generally in the slight inclination of the
lips toward thickness, the lustrious black of the eye and hair which is
generally abundant and slightly woolly in texture. This is brought out
plainly in the case of the Jew. Although centuries have passed since the
Jews very extensively amalgamated with the dark races of Egypt and
Canaan, their dark complexions, lustrous black eyes, abundant woolly
hair plainly reveal their Hamatic lineage. To pass through the Bowery or
lower Broadway in the great metropolis at an hour when the shop and
factory girl is hurrying to or from her work, one is struck by the
beauty of Jewish womanhood. King David's successful campaigns placed
Solomon over large dominions of Moabitish and Canaanitish peoples; and
for the stability of his kingdom, Solomon took wives out of all of these
nationalities; and Solomon's most favored wife was his black princess,
Naamah, the mother of Rehoboam, his successor. The poet describes Naamah
as the "Rose of Sharon, the most excellent of her country." The marriage
of Solomon to his black princess was the most notable of any of his
marriages; for that wonderful poem, "Solomon's Songs," is mainly a
eulogy to this one of his many wives. "I am black but comely, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of
Solomon. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath
looked upon me." In the most beautiful language in the gift of the poets
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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