The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored RaceBrown, William Wells
History
The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race
Brown, William Wells
African Americans -- Biography; African Americans -- History; Black race; Slavery -- United States
The Kru people are also on the coast, and have less general
intelligence than the Fulahs, Mandingoes, and Degos. They are
physically a fine-appearing race, with more real energy of character
than either of the others. It would be difficult to find better
specimens of muscular development, men of more manly and independent
carriage, or more real grace of manner, anywhere in the world. No
one ever comes in contact with them, for the first time, without
being struck with their open, frank countenances, their robust and
well-proportioned forms, and their independent bearing, even when they
have but the scantiest covering for their bodies.
Their complexion varies from the darkest shade of the Negro to that of
the true mulatto. Their features are comparatively regular; and, though
partaking of all the characteristics of the Negro, they are by no means
strongly marked in their general outline or development. The most
marked deficiency is in the formation of their heads, which are narrow
and peaked, and do not indicate a very high order of intellectual
endowment. Experience, however, has shown that they are as capable of
intellectual improvement as any other race of men.[31]
In the interior of Youeba, some distance back from Cape Coast, lies the
large city of Ibaddan, a place with a population of about two hundred
thousand souls. Abeokuta has a population of more than one hundred
thousand, and is about seventy-five miles from the sea coast, with
a history that is not without interest. Some fifty years ago, a few
persons of different tribes, who had been constantly threatened and
annoyed by the slave-traders of the coast, fled to the back country,
hid away in a large cave, coming out occasionally to seek food, and
taking in others who sought protection from these inhuman men-hunters.
This cavern is situated on the banks of the Ogun, and in the course
of time became the hiding-place of great numbers from the surrounding
country. At first, they subsisted on berries, roots, and such other
articles of food as they could collect near their place of retreat; but
growing in strength by the increase of population, they began to bid
defiance to their enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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