Hamitic peoples

“ Had any other division of the human family been subjected to the influences of the same depressing climate, for an equal length of time, as were the Hamites, and surrounded by the same degrading circumstances, having no light without the assistance of divine counsel, their degeneration would have been equally as great as these descendants of Ham, when first began their involuntary migration into this country. ”

“ He approved the sentiments of Hamet, as they had indeed been infused by his own instructions; and some precepts and cautions were now added, which the accession of Hamet to a share of the imperial power made particularly necessary.
'Remember,' said Omar, 'that the most effectual way of promoting virtue, is to prevent occasions of vice. There are, perhaps, particular situations, in which human virtue has always failed: at least, temptation often repeated, and long continued, has seldom been finally resisted. ”

“ It is monstrous to call such people slaves, branded by the hereditary curse of the inebriated patriarch of mankind. In truth, of all the people of antiquity, the accursed and enslaved race of Ham were the most free-born, enlightened, and enterprising! Never was such a perversion of Scripture interpretation to palliate and bolster up the systems of wickedness of this and former days! Shall we compare the Model Republic and the miserable and degraded nations of Brazils, Spain, and Portugal, the present enslavers of the alleged posterity of Ham, with the once mighty Egyptians and Carthaginians? ”

“ Instead of holding out an example of what might be accomplished by a people released from bondage, without first having been prepared for freedom by moral and religious instruction, I think Hayti rather forms a beacon to warn us against the dangers and difficulties by which that unhappy country has been overtaken. ”

“ And having created us rational and intelligent beings, he acts towards us on such rational and intellectual principles as we can understand. He, therefore, created Ham for a peculiarity of climate, which he contemplated in the destruction of the world; but the conduct of Ham, with the curse upon him and his posterity, were all incidents by the way, and were no more a part of the divine plan and arrangement, than murder, theft and injustice occurring under the moral government of God, is a part of that government. ”

“ Hamet, who was struck with astonishment at this declaration, and the vehemence with which it was uttered, after a short recollection made this reply: 'It is the glory of a prince, to govern others, as he is governed by Him, who is alone most merciful and almighty! It is his glory to prevent crimes, rather than to display his power in punishment; to diffuse happiness, rather than inforce subjection; and rather to animate with love, than depress by fear. Has not He that shall judge us, given us a rule of life by which we shall be judged? is not our reward and punishment already set before us? ”

“ To return to Sergi’s two branches, besides the differences in skin colour and hair-texture there is also a cultural difference of great importance. The Eastern Hamites are essentially a pastoral people and therefore nomadic or semi-nomadic; the Berbers, who, as said above, are the purest representatives of the Libyans, are agriculturists. The pastoral habits of the Eastern Hamites are of importance, since they show the utmost reluctance to abandon them. ”

“ It taught them to look on themselves as the victims of avarice, the play-things of cruelty, the foot-balls of oppression, the most injured people in the world: and the original greatness of their race, which was an idea they received with uncommon pleasure, and its reviving grandeur in the liberated Hayti, convinced them they possessed the power to redress their wrongs, and raise themselves into a mighty nation. ”

“ That Ham's talents, abilities, genius, power, grandeur, glory, should now be attempted to be stolen, and to be stolen, not by the negro, for he has neither genius or capacity for such a theft, but stolen by the learned men of this and the past ages, and thrust upon the negro, who has not capacity to understand, when, where, or how, he had ever performed such feats of legislation, statesmanship, government, arts of war and in science. ”

“ God's Bible is against your views; concurrent history is against them: the existing race of Ham is against them: God's living testimony is against them, in the dead children of Mizraim, embalmed ever since the flood, but now brought forth into the light of day, and testifying for Ham, that he and his descendants were and yet are of the white race. You must now come forth and abandon your fortress of assumptions, for here that citadel falls; for, if Ham is not the father of the negro (which is shown to be an impossibility) then the negro came out of the ark, and as we now find him ”

“ Hamlin, in common with most sincere reformers, divided the world into two classes—the helpers and hinderers. Between these lay, of course, a No Man's Land, where each class wandered aimlessly; the helpers, like the Squire, became hinderers and hinderers, like Uncle, might become, unexpectedly, helpers. Fancy, he acclaimed as a helper in or out of the debateable territory. Insensibly, her refinement and modesty would raise the tone in his kitchen, and radiate purer beams from a house hospitably accessible to all his congregation. ”

“ I have been appointed to perfect virtue, by adversity; and in the folly of her own projects, to entangle vice. The charm, which could be formed only by guilt, has power only to produce misery: of every good, which thou, Almoran, wouldst have secured by disobedience, the opposite evil is thy portion; and of every evil, which thou, Hamet, wast, by Obedience, willing to incur, the opposite good is bestowed upon thee. To thee, Hamet, are now given the throne of thy father, and Almeida. ”

“ They would reform from their errors, but their rules are bars against reform. They would have peace, but they mock the voice that utters it. They would be happy, but happiness is misunderstood through want of experience. They would be pure, but purity is meaningless in the mouth of folly. They would wrong no one, but wrong is right to them. Such are the conditions of the impure and pure. The wisdom of this circle will acknowledge no law but love, no religion but goodness, no worship but worth, no ruler but God. ”

“ Hamet shall still disdain the joy, which is at once sordid and transient: in the breast of Hamet, lust shall not be the pander of revenge. Shall I, who have languished for the pure delight which can arise only from the interchange of soul with soul, and is endeared by mutual confidence and complacency; shall I snatch under this disguise, which belies my features and degrades my virtue, a casual possession of faithless beauty, which I despise and hate? Let this be the portion of those, that hate me without a cause; but let this be far from me!' At this thought, he felt a sudden elation of mind ”

“ While thou art there, thou art in safety: and though the world should unite against thee, by the united world thou canst not be hurt.'
'But what friendly power,' said Hamet, 'shall guard even the path of virtue from grief and pain; from the silent shaft of disappointed love, or the sounding scourge of outrageous jealousy? These, surely, have overtaken the foot of perseverance; and by these, though I should persevere, may my feet be overtaken.' 'What thou sayest,' replied Omar, 'is true ”

“ Vincent, and the Maroons of Jamaica, were originally enslaved Africans; and what they now are, the freed negroes of St. Domingo will be hereafter,—savages in the midst of society, without peace, security, agriculture, or property; ignorant of the duties of life, and unacquainted with all the soft endearing relations which rendered it desirable; averse to labour, though frequently perishing for want; suspicious of each other, and towards the rest of mankind revengeful and faithless, remorseless and bloody-minded ”

“ And have I got this Hamelin in my hands,
To make it pay its thousand cruelties
With such a fool's one-more? . . .
—You know right well,
'T was not the thousand guilders that I wanted
For thee, or me, or any!—Ten would serve.
But there it ached; there, in the money-bag
That serves the town of Hamelin for an heart!
That stab was mortal! And I thrust it deep.
Life, life, I wanted; safety,—sun and wind!—
And but to show them how that daily fear
They call their faith, is made of blasphemies
That would put out the Sun and Moon and Stars,
Early, for some last Judgment! ”

“ All sentiments appear ridiculous when we do not share them, so the French laugh at English humanitarianism as the British critic laughs at a Frenchman’s tenderness about his mother. My favourite French newspaper, the Temps, never misses an opportunity for a hit at this English eccentricity. French hardness dates from the time when the influence of the Church was universal; and, whether she taught the doctrine formally or not, her followers believed that animals, being unbaptized, had no rights. A dog or a horse is an infidel, and therefore cruelty to it is blameless. ”

“ If, in your armies, you suffer it to be any man's interest, rather to preserve the life of a horse than a man; be assured, that your own sword is drawn for your enemy: for there will always be some, in whom interest is stronger than humanity and honour. Put no man's interest, therefore, in the ballance against his duty; nor hope that good can often be produced, but by preventing opportunities of evil.'
To these precepts of Omar, Hamet listened as to the instructions of a father ”

“ Is it not strange, that intelligent and learned men, should be compelled to rely on such puerilities, as arguments and truly supporting such tremendous conclusions? But they say it was his name in conjunction with the curse, that made him and his descendants the negro we now find on earth. It is an axiom in logic, that, that which is not in the constituent, can not be in the constituted. We have seen, that the making of Ham a negro, is not in the name, which is one of the constituents, now let us see, if it is in the other constituent, the curse. ”

“ I have seen these wrongs germinate in the mind where they were sown, and produce a great harvest of wrongs. They have brought forth their own fruit; they have not brought forth love, sympathy, kindness, and mercy. The seed of cruelty, no matter with what care it may be cultivated, or sown, never will produce the fruit of righteousness. I have seen these wrongs inculcated by law, by creeds, by sects, by nations; but I have never known them to do good. I have never known a good doctrine to produce evil fruit, nor evil seed to produce a good work. I have seen cruel doctrines produce cruelty. ”

“ At all costs we must get rid of our hypocrisies and falsehoods and see ourselves as we are—a domineering race, vengeful and brutal, as exemplified in Haiti; we must study the inevitable effects of our soulless, brainless selfishness as shown in the world-war. ”

“ To govern in concert with thee, is to associate with the powers of hell. The beings that are superior to evil, are the friends of Hamet; and if these are thy enemies, what shall be thy defence?' Almoran replied only by a contemptuous smile; and the assembly being dismissed he retired to his apartment: and Hamet and Omar went out to the people, who had gathered in an incredible multitude about the palace. ”

“ Vice saps the foundation, and gradually impairs and undermines the mental and moral constitutions of mankind. Ham being more vicious than his brothers, the mental and moral deterioration of his race, commenced in his own person, and was transmitted by him to his posterity. A man transmits his intellectual powers, his moral nature, or sentiments, as well as his physical organization to his progeny ”

“ We discern in the foregoing citation the exercise of a charity that is unquestionably born of fetish-worship, which, whether it be obeah generally, or restricted to a mere human skin, can be so powerful an agent in the formation and retention of beliefs. Hence we see that our philosopher relies here, in the domain of morals and spiritual ethics, on a white skin as implicitly as he does on its sovereign potency in secular politics. The curiousness of the matter lies mainly in its application to natives [209] of Hayti, of all people in the world. ”

“ I have been led on, from misery to misery, by ineffectual expedients, and fallacious hopes. In this crisis of my fate, I will not trust, with implicit confidence, in another: I will be present at the interview of this powerful, but suspected Being, with Hamet; and who can tell, but that if I detect a fraud, I may be able to disappoint it: however powerful, he is not omniscient ”

“ I have heard them decry against slavery, when they were slaves to the most tyrannical of all masters—the ignorance of their conceited ambition to occupy the highest seat in the kingdom of heaven, without the requisite modesty to admit their superiors to an equal condition. I have seen the land of freedom, the home of the free; but I never knew wisdom to rule where disorder and wrong overcame the harmony of goodness and peace.
C. Verily, you make wrangling the worst of all vices.
T. What is greater?
C. The wrong of injustice.
T. The wrong of wrangling is the wrong of injustice. ”

“ I have in this city an inveterate foe, who has heaped upon me every injury which can most bitterly sting the heart of man. This man is brave as he is haughty; and I must confess that the dread of his strength and valour has hitherto deterred me from resenting his insults as they deserve. Now, Hamet, your look, your form, your words, convince me that you were born for manly daring. ”

“ Hamet, in the impatience of his jealousy, concluded, that the passions which he saw expressed in her countenance, and which arose from the struggle between her regard to truth and her tenderness for Hamet, proceeded from the consciousness of what he had most reason to dread, and she to conceal, a breach of virtue, to which she had been betrayed by his own appearance united with the vices of his brother: he, therefore, drew back from her with a look of inexpressible anguish, and stood some time silent. She observed, that in his countenance there was more expression of trouble, than rage ”