I do not think all the Negroes were that bad.

 Posted by John Engelman, Raceology

 

 

Hinton Rowan Helper, who compiled the accounts in The Negroes in Negroland which was published

1868,was a Southern white man who opposed slavery, voted Republican, and supported Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause during the American Civil War. He also hated Negroes. In his introduction he wrote, “Those black people…have no trait of character that is lovely or admirable. They are neither high-minded, enterprising, nor prudent.”

A blanket condemnation of an entire race is not an explanation of why Helper hated Negroes; it is an assertion of his hate. I do not recognize the Negroes I have liked and befriended over the years in this description. I suspect that he has a more personal reason for his hated. He may have been a victim of black criminals. I know how that works. I have been a victim too.

The Negroes in Negroland consists mainly of accounts taken from books and essays written by whites with some knowledge of Negroes living in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these books and essays are no longer available. I believe Helper honestly copied from them. I also believe that he was looking for confirmation of his hatred, and ignored accounts that portrayed Negroes favorably.

In his excerpts about Negroes living in sub-Saharan Africa Helper gives lurid descriptions of cannibalism, human sacrifice, and hovels decorated with human skulls. I have read from other sources that cannibalism and human sacrifice did happen among some of the Negroes of sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, I wonder at the extent.

The French Encyclopedia was published in 1765. It includes an essay by Le Romain entitled “Negroes.” In this essay Le Roman writes, “A considerable number speak Arabic and appear to follow the religion of Mohammed.” Islam would not have permitted cannibalism and human sacrifice.

Some of these accounts complain that sub-Saharan Negroes resisted efforts to convert them to Christianity. That may have been true prior to 1868. Currently 49% of Africans are Christians. Because northern Africans are usually Muslims, a clear majority of sub-Saharan Negroes are Christians.

When reading these accounts of sub-Saharan Negroes I became skeptical that white observers could have observed them in the detail they claimed. Until medicines against African diseases were invented in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, African diseases were an effective barrier against white explorers. While sub-Saharan Negroes had resistances against the diseases, they were not immune. A high percentage of sub-Saharan Negroes died from the diseases. Only two of the excerpts in The Negroes in Negroland mention disease at all.

Many of the accounts in The Negroes in Negroland claim that both male and female Negroes were extremely promiscuous. AIDs was not around back then. The other diseases were. They were incurable. There is no mention in this book of venereal diseases.

These accounts claim that slavery was widespread among the Negroes of sub-Saharan Africa, and that free Negroes sold Negro slaves to white slave traders, who did not enslave the Negroes themselves. In his account written a century earlier Le Romain confirmed this. This is usually ignored by those who claim that Negro slavery was a uniquely Western injustice inflicted on innocent Negroes.

Helper presents a convincing argument that the institution of slavery in the South harmed whites who did not own slaves. Family farms could not compete with plantations. Unskilled whites could not compete with slave labor. The institution of slavery in the South was responsible for the fact that science and technology were less developed in the South, that manual labor was looked down on, and that European immigrants usually moved to the North because that is where the opportunities were.

This of course is no reason to hate the Negro slaves who had no choice but to obey their masters. It does refute the arguments of those who claim that the work of Negro slaves enriched the United States, so the descendants of those slaves are entitled to reparations.  

Helper claims that Negroes are cowards. Negroes have served honorably and fought well in each of our wars. The high rate of black gang warfare and black on black homicide indicates something other than cowardice.

Helper quotes Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate that they agreed with him that Negroes in the United States should be deported to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Nevertheless few American Negroes wanted to leave the United States. Few whites in the United States were willing to force them to leave.

So here they are. I am not one who believes that “Race is only a social construct,” and “We are all the same under the skin.” I can easily demonstrate that whites and blacks differ in average intelligence, and in average criminal and sexual behavior. I believe these differences are caused genetically. Genes vary between races and also between individuals. I have known blacks as admirable as any of the whites I have known.

 

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