The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His AchievementsBrown, William Wells
History
The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements
Brown, William Wells
African Americans -- Biography
If there is any man living who is more devoted to the idea of a "Negro
Nationality" than Dr. Delany, that man is J. Theodore Holly. Possessing
a good education, a retentive memory, and being of studious habits,
Mr. Holly has brought himself up to a point of culture not often
attained by men even in the higher walks of life. Unadulterated in
race, devotedly attached to Africa and her descendants, he has made
a "Negro Nationality" a matter of much thought and study. He paid a
visit to Hayti in 1858 or 1859, returned home, and afterwards preached,
lectured, and wrote in favor of Haytian emigration. In concluding a
long essay on this subject, in the _Anglo-African Magazine_, he says,--
"From these thoughts it will be seen that whatsoever is to be the
future destiny of the descendants of Africa, Hayti certainly holds the
most important relation to that destiny. And if we were to be reduced
to the dread alternative of having her historic fame blotted out of
existence, or that celebrity which may have been acquired elsewhere by
all the rest of our race combined, we should say, Preserve the name,
the fame, and the sovereign existence of Hayti, though every thing else
shall perish. Yes, let Britain and France undermine, if they will,
the enfranchisement which they gave to their West Indian slaves, by
their present apprenticeship system; let the lone star of Liberia,
placed in the firmament of nationalities by a questionable system of
American philanthropy, go out in darkness; let the opening resources
of Central Africa be again shut up in their wonted seclusion; let
the names and deeds of our Nat Turners, Denmark Veseys, Penningtons,
Delanys, Douglasses, and Smiths be forgotten forever; but never let the
self-emancipating deeds of the Haytian people be effaced; never let
her heroically achieved nationality be brought low; no, never let the
names of her Toussaint, her Dessalines, her Rigaud, her Christophe, and
her Petion be forgotten, or blotted out from the historic pages of the
world's history."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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