The National tribune., 1902-11-13

"God, that made the world and all things
therein hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and hath deter
mined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitations. ns."-(Acts Il:
"a and 26)
Such was the language of Paul, the
great Apostle to the GentileS, as he STOOD
in the midst of Mars Hill and addressed
the men of Athens more than l.SOO years
ago. Paul spoke with a knowledge from
on High and he was a firm believer Ill the
universal brotherhood of the human race.
We have a record of the brotherhood
of man of still greater authority: And
the sons of Noah that went forth of the
ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth: these
are the three sons of Noah and OF them
was the whole earth oyerspread. (Gen-
esis 9: 1S and 49,
As before the flood "the earth was
filed with violence" so after the flood
man was perverSe, wicked and ter
ribly cruel, ahd from the day that Noah
drank wine and was drunken in his tent,
to the present hour, MANS inhumanity to
man. hath made countless millions mourn.
For long and dreary ages before the
sublime doctrine evolved by the Declara-
ton of American Independence that All
men are created free ana equal, and
that of their inalienable rights the most
prominent are life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness, the strong and pow
erful had oppressed and enslaved the weak
and helpless from the poles to the equator
from the rising to the setting OF tile sun.
In comparatively modern times we see
the self-styied enlightened natiors of the
world turning their united power
against unfortunate Africa and carrying
her sons and daughters beyond the seas,
condemning them to hopeless and, SEEM
ingly, everlasting bondage.
T., Al r., ,cfa of nv
lea we find two records very diverse, the
one from the other. The first reads: 1T
is curious to observe how largely this
country was peopled in its earlier days
by refugees for religious faith. The HUI
guerots, the Puritans, the Quakers, the
Presbyterians, the Catholics, the perse,
cuted of every sect and creed, all hocked
to this home of the free
= The other record is from the chronicles
of the Erst English settlement ON Amer.
ican soil at jamestown, Va, in 1907, and
is as follows: They were ii. e., the col
onists who settled JamestOwn) mostly
gentlemen by birth, unused to labor
and came out in search Of wealth and
adventure, expecting when rich to return
to England" Then, 13 years later, in
1919, we read: 1.-The Captain of Dutch
trading vessel sold to this colony 70 ne
groes. They were employed in cultivat-
Ing tobacco. As their labor was found
to be profitable, larger numbers were al
forwards imported"
This importation continued until the abo-
lition of the slave trade in 1871, and 30
years before that event, or up to 1776,
the year of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, 100000 Africans had been stolen
from their homes, imported into the Brit
ish colonies in America and sold into sla-
very.
THE AFRo-AMERICAN IN THE REvoLU-
TIoNARY WAR.
In 1920 the Puritans settled in Massa-
chusetts; so We see that America had
actually been made the land of the slave
at jamestown, Va, one year before the
'home of the free" had been planted
upon Plymouth's ice-clad rock in the old
Bay State.
The African did not come to America
Of his own free will, as his AngloSaxon
brother did; nevertheless, in the devel-
opment of America the African and the
Afro-American have borne an important
part. For more than 200 years he was but
the "hewer of wood and drawer Of wa
ter for the Anglo-Saxon brother, but it
is stated by that eminent scholar and
humorist, Judge Tourgee, that In every
American war the sons of Africa were
always found defending the flag SO far
as lay in their power"
American history is very chary in
speaking of the deeds IN war of the Afro
American, but if ve search its pages
carefully we will find abundant evidence
to sustain the truth of Judge Tourgee's
statement. Beginning with the War of
Independence, we find that the first at
tack ON the British soldiers in Boston,
March 10, ITO, was led by Crispus At
tucks, negro runaway slave, and he
was also the first man killed of the four
who fell at that time. Some may ex-
cept to the honesty of Crispus Attucks,
because he ran away from his master,
but the people of that day even SO far
forgot this blemish ON his character, that
they buried the man who loved freedom
20 well that he not only ran away from
his master, but gave his life in the cause
Of freedom with his three comrades who
died with him, the black and white to-
gether, and over their graves erected &
monument that bears this inscription:
"Long as in Freedoms cause the wise
Dear to your country shall your fame
extend;
While to the world the lettered stone
shall tell
Where Attucks, Caldwell, Grey and Nav
erick fell"
eairn, the British officer who caused the
first effusion of blood at Lexington, as
he mounted the American works shout
ing "The day is ours" was shot and
killed and the British advance thereby
checked, by Peter Salem, a negro SOL
dier of the patriot army. Many years
after, at the unvailing of the statue in
memory of Gen. Warren, who fell at
Bunker Hill, Edward Everett, the ora
tor of the day, said: 1T is the monu-
ment of the day of the event of the bat
tie Of Bunker Hill; all Of the brave men
who shared its perils-alike of Prescott,
Putnam, Warren and the cOlored soldier,
Salem"
1t is recorded Of Maj. William Law
renee, who fought through the Revolu-
ton, from Concord until peace and inde-
pendence were established, that at one
time he commanded a full company of
negro soldiers, of whose courage, mill
tary discipline and fidelity he always
spoke in highest terms of praise.
Other personal incidents might be cited,
but these will suffice, with the substan-
tial facts that during the Revolutionary
period the colored population of the Nor
thern Colonies did not exceed $4,000 peo-
pie, yet of the 100000 soldiers of the
War of the Revolution who won for us
National independence, 5000 of them
were Afro-Americans. They furnished
their full quota of soldiers in the North
while in the South the negro slaves as
sisted their masters in throwing off the
British yoke.
AFRo-AMERIcANs IN THE WAR OF 1872
The primal incident leading up to the
War of 1872 was the capfure Of the