Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-03-21
"WAs HANNIBAL A NEGRO 2"


To the Editor of the Nero York Times
In your paper of the goth inst. there
appears an article in reply to a criticism
Of yours upon the lecture Of William
Wells Brown in which that person as
sumed the ground that the negro is alike
the descendant of the Tyreans, Garth
agenians, and Egyptian.
The hypothesis of Brown is without
the slightest foundation in history or
tradition. .-.-
The negro is distinct type and may be
traced on the monuments Of Egypt with
certainty as nations back to the twelfth
dynasty, 2300 years B. c.; 1000 years
before Neeho, king of Egypt, or the
Charthagenians ever dreamed of send
ing a feet to explore the African coast
and it cannot be assumed that they were
not then as old as any other geological
epoch. 1t may be seen by a glance at
Africa that not only is that vast cOntin-
ent inhabited by types quite as varied as
those Of Europe or Asia, but that there
exists regular gradation from the Cape
of Good Hope to the Isthmus of Suez,
of which the Hottentot and bushman
from the lowest and Egyptian and
Berber types the highest links that all
these gradations of African man are
indigenous to the soil, and that no his
torical time existed when they were
not.
The position assumed by William
Wells Brown, that Africa was settled by
Egyptians or Carthagenians and that
the negro Il the descendant Of these and
other races, with has biAek skin, crisped
hair, fat nasal organ with his projected
jaws and receding forehead is about the
same as to assert the OK, the goat, and
the horse all descended from one family
Natural history teaches US that the
white and black races are distinct
species. That men kind has been de-
rived from one pair of parents, or that
the different climates are the cause of
change of color is too absurd to claim seri-
Gus attention. William Wells Brown
sours, with an Indignation above his
castle at the idea that the maledie-
ton of Noah should be construed BY
some as the cause Of color in his
brethren. Brown is correct. The curse
of Noah on the descendants Of Ham
the Canaanites-neVerr reached the negro;
it was intended for Cush, the swarthy,
and not Nashi the negro race.
A word about the whites and black
Jews of Malabar. Late researches
have shown the latter to have been bond
men who, after their conversion were
manumitted by their masters, the Jews.
The white or Jerusalem jews live in
| lewiston, about a mile from Cochin, and
the black Jews with small exceptions
inhabit town in theinterior of the prov
ince. @Their Hindoo complexion and
their imperfect resemblance to the
European Jews indicate that they have
been detached from the parent stock, In
Judea many ages before the Jews in
the west and that there have been inter-
marriages with families not Israelitish-
The Rev. G. Buchanan alluding to them
saws: al had heard that these tribes
which had passed the Indus had assimu-
lated so much to the customs and habits
Of the countries in which they live that
they sometimes may be seen BY atrayeler
without being recognized as jews. The
white Jews look upon the black Jews as
an inferior race, and not of pure caste,
which plainly demonstrates that they do
not spring from common stock In
India" The evidence Of Buchanan
can scarcely leave room for doubt that
the white Jews had been living thou
sand years in Malabar, and were still
white Jews, without even an approxima-
ton in type to the HindoOs; and that
| the black Jews were an inferior race,
not of pure caste, or, in other words
/ adulterated by dark HindOos-Jews in
doctrine, but not in stock. The black
Jews of Malabar, says Mr.. RapkAil--
a scholar who has lately vis;sed the
country here mentioned" are not the
descendants of Abrahsn, Isaac and
Jacob, but are of nndoo origin. AZ
Cochin. there arr two distinct eOmmunl-
| ties of jews one, white, originally set-
| tied at Cranganor, bat when the Por-
i tupuese became too powerful on the
Il coast "a. D. 1900 removed to Cochin.
II These Jews have been residents in India
considerably over thousand years but
st;ll retain their Jewish cast of features,
and though Of dark complexion, are not
black. They never intermarry with the
second community, also Jews, but black,