THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY BY THE REV. EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN 1869

 

           THE NEGRO  IN ANCIENT HISTORY 

                  Dr. EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN

"The Negro in Ancient History" by Rev. Edward W. Blyden, published in 1869, argues that people of African descent played a prominent role in the founding of ancient civilizations, drawing a parallel between the ancient Israelites' exodus and what he saw as the potential for African Americans to return to Africa. Blyden connects the ancient biblical descendants of Ham to modern African Americans and suggests that returning to Africa would be a way for African Americans to find freedom and help build a "Christian African empire". 

• Date and origin: The work was published in January 1869 as a detached article from the *Methodist Quarterly Review*.
• Author: The author, Edward W. Blyden, was an educator, writer, and diplomat primarily associated with Liberia.
• Main argument: Blyden uses ancient history to argue that people of African descent had a significant role in founding early civilizations, according to the *NYPL Digital Collections*.
• Historical parallel: He draws a parallel between the ancient Israelites' time in Egypt and the situation of African Americans, suggesting a parallel between Pharaoh and the Egyptian aristocracy and modern anti-Black politicians.
• Ethiopianism: Blyden believed that the African American community could follow the model of Zionism by returning to Africa to redeem and develop it, an ideology sometimes referred to as Ethiopianism.
• Criticism: This perspective was criticized by some African Americans who sought to gain civil rights in the United States rather than return to Africa. 

------------------------------------------------------

Click Link below to read entire manuscript: touch each page to move to the next

THE NEGRO IN ANCIECT HISTORY

The Negro in ancient history:

by REV. E W BLYDEN — The author of the following treatise is a person of unmixed African extraction, born at St. Thomas, W. I., August 3,1832, came to the United.

54 pages·3 MB