Untitled - African American History

WHAT IS SLAVERY. Cclxi
The uncertain and as yet unlocated Ethiopia of the
ancients, is also referred to as an example of negro civilization.
1
"When discovered, and its .monuments, and
people, and works of art, and records of history, are
brought before the world, we will be called on to examine
the witness, and determine his competency and
credibility. From the examination I have been able to
give this question, I am disposed to believe, that with the
ancients Ethiopia included all unknown or little known
and unexplored countries. It certainly included India
and Central Africa.
The ancient kingdom of Meroe has also been referred
to sometimes as evidence of a negro self-sustaining and
self-evolving civilization. The Zerah of the Bible (2
Chron. 14 :
9), is supposed to have been one of its kings,
and its high civilization and great power are almost be-
yond question. Its situation, at the head of the Nile, in
the midst of Ethiopia, is referred to as positive proof of
the negro type of its inhabitants. Much learning and
research have been exhibited in tracing its history and
fathoming
its fate. 2
Into this field we are forbidden to
go. To conclusions alone we must address ourselves,
and since the labors of the Prussian scientific mission,
many of the former opinions of scientific men have been
proven fallacious. Chev. Lepsius states the fact to be
now undoubted, that the Meroites, the people who built
the Pyramids, and left other undoubted traces of civili-
zation, were a red people, and of the Caucasian race.
He adds, that there is not to be drawn from Meroe, the
slightest trace of un Ethiopian civilization properly so
1
The first book of the Iliad comes as near locating as any other au-
thority, where the mother of Achilles tells him that Jupiter is " not at
home," having set off with all the gods '"'
to feast with the excellent
Ethiopians."
2 Cf. Heeren. Ideen. vol. i, p. 385, et seq. Oxford trans. ; Anthon's
Class. Diet. " Meroe," and authorities there cited ;
tiaca.
Morton's Crania Egyp