The Journal of Negro History Volume IV Part 14

It is interesting to note in this connection that nowhere in these songs do we discover the slightest references to Africa. They reflect no memories of a far off happier land. Before the Negro gained his emanc.i.p.ation Africa had, so far as he was concerned, almost ceased to exist. Furthermore, the whole tone and emphasis of these songs and of all other religious expressions of the American Negro are in marked contrast with the tone and emphasis of African religious ideas. The African knew of the existence of another world, but he was not interested in it. The world, as the African understood it, was full of malignant spirits, diseases and forces with which he was in constant mortal struggle. His religious practices were intended to gain for him immunity in this world, rather than a.s.surance of the next. But the Negro in America was in a different situation. He was not living in his own world. He was a slave and that, aside from the physical inconvenience, implied a vast deal of _inhibition_. He was, moreover, a constant spectator of life in which he could not partic.i.p.ate; excited to actions and enterprises that were forbidden to him because he was a slave. The restlessness which this situation provoked found expression, not in insurrection and rebellion--although, of course, there were Negro insurrections--but in his religion and in his dreams of another and freer world. I a.s.sume, therefore, that the reason the Negro so readily and eagerly took over from the white man his heaven and apocalyptic visions was because these materials met the demands of his peculiar racial temperament and furnished relief to the emotional strains that were provoked in him by the conditions of slavery.

So far as slavery was responsible for the peculiar individuality of the Negro's religion we should expect that the racial ideals and racial religion would take on another and a different character under the influence of freedom. This, indeed, is what seems to me is taking place. New ideals of life are expressed in recent Negro literature and slowly and imperceptibly those ideas are becoming inst.i.tutionalized in the Negro church and more particularly in the cultural ideals of the Negro school. But this makes another chapter in the history of Negro culture in America.

I have sought in this brief sketch to indicate the modifications, changes and fortune which a distinctive racial temperament has undergone as a result of encounters with an alien life and culture.

This temperament, as I conceive it, consists in a few elementary but distinctive characteristics, determined by physical organization and transmitted biologically. These characteristics manifest themselves in a genial, sunny and social disposition, in an interest and attachment to external, physical things rather than to subjective states and objects of introspection; in a disposition for expression rather than enterprise and action. The changes which have taken place in the manifestations of this temperament have been actuated by an inherent and natural impulse, characteristic of all living things, to persist and maintain themselves in a changed environment. Such changes have occurred as are likely to take place in any organism in its struggle to live and to use its environment to further and complete its own existence.

The general principle which the Negro material ill.u.s.trates is that the racial temperament selects out of the ma.s.ses of cultural materials, to which it had access, such technical, mechanical and intellectual devices as meet its needs at a particular period of its existence. It clothes and enriches itself with such new customs, habits, and cultural forms as it is able, or permitted to use. It puts into these relatively external things, moreover, such concrete meanings as its changing experience and its unchanging racial individuality demand.

Everywhere and always the Negro has been interested rather in expression than in action; interested in life itself rather than in its reconstruction or reformation. The Negro is, by natural disposition, neither an intellectual nor an idealist like the Jew, nor a brooding introspective like the East Indian, nor a pioneer and frontiersman like the Anglo-Saxon. He is primarily an artist, loving life for its own sake. His metier is expression rather than action.

The Negro is, so to speak, the lady among the races.

In reviewing the fortunes of the Negro's temperament as it is manifested in the external events of the Negro's life in America, our a.n.a.lysis suggests that this racial character of the Negro has exhibited itself everywhere in something like the role of the _wish_ in the Freudian a.n.a.lysis of dream life. The external cultural forms which he found here, like the memories of the individual, have furnished the materials in which the racial wish, that is, the Negro temperament, has clothed itself. The inner meaning, the sentiment, the emphasis, the emotional color which these forms a.s.sumed as the result of their transference from the white man to the Negro, these have been the Negro's own. They have represented his temperament--his temperament modified, however, by his experience and the tradition which he has acc.u.mulated in this country. The temperament is African, but the tradition is American.

I present this thesis merely as a hypothesis. As such its value consists in its suggestion of a point of view and program for investigation. I may, however, suggest some of the obvious practical consequences. If racial temperament--particularly when it gets itself embodied in inst.i.tutions and in _nationalities_, that is, social groups based upon race--is so real and obdurate a thing that education can only enrich and develop it but not dispose of it, then we must be concerned to take account of it in all our schemes for promoting naturalization, a.s.similation, Americanization, Christianization, and acculturation generally.

If it is true that the Jew, as has been suggested, just because of his intellectuality is a natural born idealist, internationalist, doctrinaire, and revolutionist, while the Negro, because of his natural attachment to known, familiar objects, places and persons, is preadapted to conservatism and to local and personal loyalties: if these things are true, we shall eventually have to take account of them practically. It is certain that the Negro has uniformly shown a disposition to loyalty, during slavery to his master, and during freedom to the South and the country as a whole. He has maintained this att.i.tude of loyalty, too, under very discouraging circ.u.mstances.

I once heard Kelly Miller, the most philosophical of the leaders and teachers of his race, say in a public speech that one of the greatest hards.h.i.+ps the Negro suffered in this country was due to the fact that he was not permitted to be patriotic.

Of course, all these alleged racial characteristics have a positive as well as a negative significance. Every race, like every individual, has the vices of its virtues. The question remains still to what extent so-called racial characteristics are actually racial, that is, biological, and to what extent they are the effect of environmental conditions. The thesis of this paper, to state it again, is: (1) That fundamental temperamental qualities, which are the basis of interest and attention, act as selective agencies and as such determine what elements in the cultural environment each race will select, in what region it will seek and find its vocation, in the larger social organization; (2) that, on the other hand, technique, science, machinery, tools, habits, discipline and all the intellectual and mechanical devices with which the civilized man lives and works, remain relatively external to the inner core of significant att.i.tudes and values which const.i.tute what many call the will of the group. This racial will is, to be sure, largely social, that is modified by social experience, but it rests ultimately upon a complex of inherited characteristics, which are racial.

It follows from what has been said that the individual man is the bearer of a double inheritance. As a member of a race, he transmits by interbreeding a biological inheritance. As a member of society or a social group, on the other hand, he transmits by communication a social inheritance. The particular complex of inheritable characters, which characterizes the individuals of a racial group const.i.tutes the racial temperament. The particular group of habits, accommodations, sentiments, att.i.tudes and ideals transmitted by communication and education const.i.tute a social tradition. Between this temperament and this tradition there is, as has been generally recognized, a very intimate relations.h.i.+p. My a.s.sumption is that temperament is the basis of the _interests_; that as such it determines in the long run the general run of attention, and this, eventually, determines the selection in the case of an individual of his vocation, in the case of the racial group of its culture. That is to say, temperament determines what things the individual and the groups will be interested in; what elements of the general culture, to which they have access, they will a.s.similate; what, to state it in pedagogical terms, they will learn.

It will be evident at once that where individuals of the same race and hence the same temperament are a.s.sociated, the temperamental interests will tend to reinforce one another, and the attention of members of the group will be more completely focused upon the specific objects and values that correspond to the racial temperament. In this way racial qualities become the basis for nationalities, a nationalistic group being merely a cultural and eventually a political society founded on the basis of racial inheritances. On the other hand, when racial segregation is broken up and members of a racial group are dispersed and isolated, the opposite effect will take place. This explains the phenomena which have frequently been the subject of comment and observation, that the racial characteristics manifest themselves in an extraordinary way in large h.o.m.ogeneous gatherings.

The contrast between a ma.s.s meeting of one race and a similar meeting of another is particularly striking. Under such circ.u.mstances characteristic racial and temperamental differences appear that would otherwise pa.s.s entirely unnoticed.

When the physical unity of a group is perpetuated by the succession of parents and children, the racial temperament, including fundamental att.i.tudes and values which rest on it, are preserved intact. When however, society grows and is perpetuated by immigration and adaptation, there ensues, as a result of miscegenation, a breaking up of the complex of the biologically inherited qualities which const.i.tute the temperament of the race. This again initiates changes in the mores, traditions and eventually in the inst.i.tutions of the community. The changes which proceed from modification in the racial temperament will, however, modify but slightly the external forms of the social traditions but they will be likely to change profoundly their content and meaning. Of course, other factors, individual compet.i.tion, the formation of cla.s.ses, and especially the increase of communication, all cooperate to complicate the whole situation and to modify the effects which would be produced by racial factors working in isolation. All these factors must be eventually taken account of, however, in any satisfactory scheme of dealing with the problem of Americanization by education. This is, however, a matter for more complete a.n.a.lysis and further investigation.

ROBERT E. PARK

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This address was delivered before the American Sociological Society convened in annual session at Richmond in 1918.

[2] "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment," _American Journal of Sociology_, V, 44, March, 1915, p. 589.

[3] Rivers, "Ethnological a.n.a.lysis of Cultures," _Nature_, Vol. I, 87, 1911.

[4] W. J. McGee, _Piratical Acculturation_.

[5] There is or was a few years ago near Mobile a colony of Africans who were brought to the United States as late as 1860. It is true, also, that Major R. R. Moton, who has succeeded Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton as head of Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, still preserves the story that was told him by his grandmother of the way in which his great-grandfather was brought from Africa in a slave s.h.i.+p.

[6] _Domestic Manners and Social Condition of the White, Coloured and Negro Population of the West Indies_, by Mrs. Carmichael, Vol. I.

(London, Wittaker, Treacher and Co.), p. 251.

"Native Africans do not at all like it to be supposed that they retain the customs of their country and consider themselves wonderfully civilized by being transplanted from Africa to the West Indies. Creole Negroes invariably consider themselves superior people, and lord it over the native Africans."

[7] The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was founded in 1701 and the efforts to Christianize the Negro were carried on with a great deal of zeal and with some success.

[8] JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, Vol. I, 1916, p. 70.

[9] _Afro-American Folksongs: A Study in Racial and National Music_, by Henry Edward Krehbiel. (New York and London, G. Schirmer), p. 37.

From a letter of Lafcadio Hearne.

[10] _Army Life in a Black Regiment_, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Boston, Fields, Osgood and Co., 1870.

[11] Krehbiel, _Afro-American Folksongs_, p. 16.

[12] Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, edited by The Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University, Vol. 37, New York, 1910, No. 3--_Social and Mental Traits of the Negro_, by Howard W. Odum, Ph.D., p. 91.

[13] Krehbiel, _Afro-American Folksongs_.

THE COMPANY OF ROYAL ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND TRADING INTO AFRICA, 1660-1672

INTRODUCTION

The English commercial companies trading to the west coast of Africa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have practically escaped the attention of historical students. Doubtless this neglect is the result of the little importance which has until recently been attached to African territory since the abolition of the slave trade.

Previous to that time the west coast of Africa vied with the East Indies for popular attention, and the English African companies often appeared to be but little less important than the great East India Company.

The cause for the popular esteem of the African coast during the earlier centuries was the intimate connection which the slave trade had with the development of the English plantations in the West Indies. About the middle of the seventeenth century the growing of sugar cane and other products in the West Indies began to open up enormous possibilities which, it was universally agreed, could be realized only by the extensive use of Negro slaves. At the restoration of Charles II in 1660 the English commercial cla.s.s directly supported and a.s.sisted by the king's courtiers determined to secure as large a portion of the West African coast as possible. To reach this end they organized that year The Company of the Royal Adventurers into Africa.

This decision at once brought the company into conflict with the Dutch West India Company, which, during the twenty years of domestic trouble in England, had all but monopolized the desirable portion of the West African coast.

It happened therefore that the Company of Royal Adventurers played a very important part in the events which led up to the Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-67. The war resulted in the financial ruin of the company which was in existence only about eleven years, at the end of which time it was succeeded by the much larger and better organized Royal African Company.

It has seemed to the author as if the English African companies were a very profitable field of historical investigation. Therefore, the present dissertation on the Company of Royal Adventurers will be followed shortly by a history of the Royal African Company, 1672-1752.

For a.s.sistance in writing the history of the Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the librarians, and officials of the British Record Office, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Rijks Archief at The Hague, and the Cornell University Library. To Professor R. C. H. Catterall, now deceased, I am greatly indebted for reading the ma.n.u.script of this book, and for many valuable suggestions. Above all, I wish to express my deep appreciation to my wife, Susie Zook, for her unfailing inspiration and her constant a.s.sistance in the writing of this book.

CHAPTER I

EARLY DUTCH AND ENGLISH TRADE TO WEST AFRICA

In 1581 the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands declared their independence of Spain. As the intrepid Dutch sailors ventured out from their homeland they met not only the s.h.i.+ps of their old master, Philip II, but those of the Portuguese as well. Since the government of Portugal had just fallen into the hands of Philip II the Dutch s.h.i.+ps could expect no more consideration from Portuguese than from Spanish vessels. Notwithstanding the manifest dangers the prospects of obtaining the coveted products of the Portuguese colonies inspired the Dutch to such a great extent that in 1595 Bernard Ereckson sailed to the west coast of Africa, at that time usually called Guinea. There he and the Dutch who followed him discovered that the Portuguese had long occupied the trading points along the coast, and had erected forts and factories wherever it seemed advisable for the purpose of defense and trade. The Dutch merchants and sailors turned their dangerous situation into an opportunity to despoil the weakened Portuguese of their forts and settlements in Africa.

On August 25, 1611, the Dutch made a treaty with a native prince by which a place called Mauree was ceded to them. In the following year they erected a fort at that place which they named Fort Na.s.sau.[1]

Shortly after this, in 1617, they bought the island of Goree at Cape Verde from the natives in that region. Four years later the West India Company was formed, its charter including not only the West Indies and New Amsterdam but also the west coast of Africa. This new organization found much in the new world to occupy its attention but it did not neglect the Guinea coast. The Dutch realized that the African trade was indispensable to their West India colonies as a means of supplying slave labor. Hostilities, therefore, were continued against the Portuguese who still had possession of the princ.i.p.al part of the African trade. In 1625 the Dutch made a vigorous attempt to capture the main Portuguese stronghold at St. George d'Elmina which had been founded on the Gold Coast in 1481.[2] They were unsuccessful at that time but in 1637 Prince Maurice of Na.s.sau with 1,200 men succeeded in capturing this base of the Portuguese trade.[3] In 1641 a ten years'

truce was signed between Portugal and the United Provinces, but before the news of the truce had reached the coast of Guinea the Dutch had taken another of the Portuguese strongholds at Axim which, according to the terms of the treaty, they were permitted to retain. From these various places factories were settled along the coast, and treaties made with the native rulers. Furthermore, in the treaty of peace, August 6, 1661, the Dutch retained the forts and factories which they had conquered from the Portuguese on the African coast.[4] After the truce of 1641 and the peace of 1661, therefore, the Dutch regarded themselves as having succeeded to the exclusive claims of the Portuguese to a large portion of the west coast of Africa including a monopoly of the trade to the Gold Coast.[5]

Although it was the Dutch who succeeded in depriving the Portuguese of the most important part of the West African coast, the interest shown by the English in this region can be traced back to a much earlier date. In 1481, when two Englishmen were preparing an expedition to the Guinea coast, John II, king of Portugal, despatched an amba.s.sador to the English king, to announce the overlords.h.i.+p of Guinea which he had recently a.s.sumed, and to request that the two Englishmen should refrain from visiting the Guinea coast. Edward IV complied with this request.[6] Thereafter no English expedition to Guinea was attempted until 1536 when William Hawkins, father of the famous John Hawkins, made the first of three voyages to Africa during which he also traded to Brazil. Again in 1553 Hawkins sent an expedition to the Gold Coast.

Near Elmina the adventurers sold some of their goods for gold, and then proceeded to Benin where they obtained pepper, or "Guinea graines," and elephants' teeth. After losing two-thirds of the crew from sickness the expedition returned to England.[7] In the following year another expedition under Hawkins' direction secured several slaves in addition to a large amount of gold and other products.[8]

Also, in the years 1555, 1556, 1557, William Towrson made three voyages to the Guinea coast in which his s.h.i.+ps were hara.s.sed by the Portuguese, who attempted to prevent them from trading. English cloth and iron wares were in such demand, however, that notwithstanding this opposition a lucrative trade was obtained.[9]