"Allied to this intellectual outgrowth, is another incident of hope for the race,--'its moral and spiritual perception.'...
"[I]t is a difficult thing to obliterate aboriginal qualities. The history of man shows how 'innate' tendencies abide in a people, notwithstanding the most adverse, and even deteriorating circumstances. It is thus, through this peculiarity, that the Negro has held on to those special moral qualities, to those high spiritual instincts which were recognized by ancient Pagan writers as qualities of the Hamitic family; and which have been noticed by discerning Christian philosophers and philanthropists in all subsequent times.
"Back of all the moral infirmities of nature and of the special vices bred of ignorance and servitude , there are certain constitutional tendencies in the race which are, without doubt, unique and special. A high moral attitude is a primitive quality, antecedent to the coming of Christianity ; and which has developed into more positive forms, in Christian lands, under the inspiration of Christian teaching ."
P.179, "Hope for the Negro Race in America," (1895) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS : SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL (1997) edited by J R Oldfield
Monday, April 20, 2015
ABORIGINAL, ANTECEDENT "CHRISTIAN" QUALITIES OF THE NEGRO
"Allied to this intellectual outgrowth, is another incident of hope for the race,--'its moral and spiritual perception.'...
"[I]t is a difficult thing to obliterate aboriginal qualities. The history of man shows how 'innate' tendencies abide in a people, notwithstanding the most adverse, and even deteriorating circumstances. It is thus, through this peculiarity, that the Negro has held on to those special moral qualities, to those high spiritual instincts which were recognized by ancient Pagan writers as qualities of the Hamitic family; and which have been noticed by discerning Christian philosophers and philanthropists in all subsequent times.
"Back of all the moral infirmities of nature and of the special vices bred of ignorance and servitude , there are certain constitutional tendencies in the race which are, without doubt, unique and special. A high moral attitude is a primitive quality, antecedent to the coming of Christianity ; and which has developed into more positive forms, in Christian lands, under the inspiration of Christian teaching ."
P.179, "Hope for the Negro Race in America," (1895) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS : SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL (1997) edited by J R Oldfield