“AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO”: EXCERPTS
02/27/17
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
I was utterly amazed today reading AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO by Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward (1855, 1970). I study black history year-round, and have done so, for years. Therefore, imagine my surprise in reading this quotation which I would have ordinarily attributed to Booker T. Washington, who was born a year after this book was published in 1856:
“I have known a black man to move into a neighborhood where it was difficult for him to rent a house to live in, because of his color; but edging his way in, and proving himself to be as good a mechanic, farmer, laborer, or artisan, as anyone else, he was sure to be patronized and respected by the very best customers. I have known whites to go hear a Negro lecture, or preach, just for the fun of the thing: they have come away saying the most extravagant things in his favor. My advice to our people always was, Do the thing you do in the best possible manner: if you shoe a horse, do it so that no white man can improve it; if you plow a furrow, let it be plowed to perfection's point; if you make a shoe, make it to bespeak further patronage from the fortunate wearer of it; if you shave a man, impress him with the idea that 'such' shaving is a rare luxury; if you do no more that black boots, send him out of your boot-black shop looking towards his feet, divided in his admiration as between the blacking and the perfection of its application. As one of our own poets hath it,
Honor and fame from no distinction rise:
Act well your part—there all the honor lies.”
p. 68-69.
I am reminded of the scripture, Colossians 3:23-24New International Version (NIV)
“23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
I have recently deduced from my study of Euclid's Elements that “Euclid” was an African—a black man to be more precise—based on several sources online. Imagine, then, my surprise again to read the following in Rev. Ward's book:
“Nor would I degrade myself by arguing the equality of the Negro with the white; my private opinion is, that to say the Negro is equal morally to the white man, is to say very little. As to his intellectual equality, Cyprian, Augustine, Tertullian, Euclid and Terence, would pass for specimens of the ancient Negro, exhibiting intellect beyond the ordinary range of modern literati, before the present Anglo-Saxon race had even an origin.”
p.63
The foregoing excerpt evokes Nahum 3:9-10, which reads:
“Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. Nah.3:9-10
Need I reiterate that there is nothing new under the sun?
Monday, February 27, 2017
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO
“AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO”: EXCERPTS
02/27/17
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
I was utterly amazed today reading AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO by Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward (1855, 1970). I study black history year-round, and have done so, for years. Therefore, imagine my surprise in reading this quotation which I would have ordinarily attributed to Booker T. Washington, who was born a year after this book was published in 1856:
“I have known a black man to move into a neighborhood where it was difficult for him to rent a house to live in, because of his color; but edging his way in, and proving himself to be as good a mechanic, farmer, laborer, or artisan, as anyone else, he was sure to be patronized and respected by the very best customers. I have known whites to go hear a Negro lecture, or preach, just for the fun of the thing: they have come away saying the most extravagant things in his favor. My advice to our people always was, Do the thing you do in the best possible manner: if you shoe a horse, do it so that no white man can improve it; if you plow a furrow, let it be plowed to perfection's point; if you make a shoe, make it to bespeak further patronage from the fortunate wearer of it; if you shave a man, impress him with the idea that 'such' shaving is a rare luxury; if you do no more that black boots, send him out of your boot-black shop looking towards his feet, divided in his admiration as between the blacking and the perfection of its application. As one of our own poets hath it,
Honor and fame from no distinction rise:
Act well your part—there all the honor lies.”
p. 68-69.
I am reminded of the scripture, Colossians 3:23-24New International Version (NIV)
“23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
I have recently deduced from my study of Euclid's Elements that “Euclid” was an African—a black man to be more precise—based on several sources online. Imagine, then, my surprise again to read the following in Rev. Ward's book:
“Nor would I degrade myself by arguing the equality of the Negro with the white; my private opinion is, that to say the Negro is equal morally to the white man, is to say very little. As to his intellectual equality, Cyprian, Augustine, Tertullian, Euclid and Terence, would pass for specimens of the ancient Negro, exhibiting intellect beyond the ordinary range of modern literati, before the present Anglo-Saxon race had even an origin.”
p.63
The foregoing excerpt evokes Nahum 3:9-10, which reads:
“Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. Nah.3:9-10
Need I reiterate that there is nothing new under the sun?
