Accéder au contenu principal

Santo Domingo: its Revolution and its Hero Toussaint Louverture

Santo Domingo: its Revolution and its Hero Toussaint Louverture

   I have thought that a short life of Toussaint Louverture might be desirable for two purposes —one is, that it may, in some degree, weaken that bitter prejudice of color, which denies the blacks the rights of citizens—which drives them away from the Communion-table—and will not let them enter an omnibus, nor, if it can prevent it, into Heaven. The other is, that it may encourage the blacks to deserve respect and honor—as he did—by growing industrious, and rich, and intelligent, and brave, and noble, and strong, and so prove their manhood against all infidels, north and south—in the Church and out of it. It should be borne in mind, that Toussaint was a negro, and that he was not more ashamed of being black than he should be of being white. Columbus called the Island of Santo Domingo “The Paradise of God.” The beauty of its valleys, the wildness of its mountains, the tropical luxuriance of its plains, confirm his opinion. But the Spaniards who followed him cared not for beauty or fruitfulness; they were hungrier then than now for gold, and plunged into the bosom of the beautiful island for that: a million of the simple natives was sacrificed without mercy or care, to discover and dig the yellow metal. Las Casas only was moved to pity, and he said, “Might not the grosser and hardier African be made to take these burdens, and spare this destruction of the mild Indians?” To steal, to seduce, and to buy negroes from the African coasts, and to sell them to this island, soon became a great and profitable traffic, yielding large returns to the Lisbon merchants. Kings and emperors participated in it, and bishops did not always condemn. Three hundred slave ships, every year, spread robbery, conflagration, and carnage along the African coasts. Eighty thousand creatures, torn from their homes, crowded their holds, and were carried to market. “The laws and usages of Africa forbade this,” but those of Europe did not. 

---> Read More


Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

The Myth of Hercules

  The Myth of Hercules.   “Some men are born to a great deal of trouble, yet bear it with so light a heart that they never seem to have a care in the world. This was the case with Hercules. His troubles began early, and they never ceased until the day he died, but he was always cheerful and strong. When he was a mere babe of a few months, he met his first great danger. His mother, Alcmena, had put him to bed one night with his twin brother, Iphicles. Their cradle was the inside of a bronze shield. The babes were healthy, and they had been given a good warm bath and plenty of milk before they were tucked in, so they were asleep in a moment. Toward midnight two huge snakes came crawling into the nursery. Marvelous snakes they were, and their eyes shone with a light which filled the room with its glare. They came gliding swiftly toward the cradle, and there might then have been an end of both of its little occupants, but at that moment the children awoke. Iphicles, ...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite

Ancient History of Fiji Islands

  Ancient History of Fiji Islands This book deals with the ancient history of Fiji. The Fiji is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean that gained its independence in 1970. This former British colony consisting of an archipelago, the most important in Polynesia, lies between 15° and 20° South. The first western contact with Fiji was made in 1643 when Captain Abel Tasman entered Fijian waters and sighted several islands and reefs without realizing the nature of his discovery. Over a hundred years later, Captain Cook made a second contact by stopping at one of the southern Lau Islands. Real knowledge of the area began in 1792 when Captain Bligh sailed through the archipelago from the southeast to the northwest, following the famous mutiny of the  Bounty . Bligh made an attempt to land, was attacked by natives, and continued through the islands with no more landings. He did, however, make a record of most of the islands he passed. In the nineteenth century, commercial conta...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite

The Origin of Human Speech - and the Psychic Mechanism of the Voice

    Speech is so familiar a feature of daily life that we rarely pause to define it. It seems as natural to man as walking, and only less so than breathing. Yet it needs but a moment’s reflection to convince us that this naturalness of speech is but an illusory feeling. The process of acquiring speech is, in sober fact, an utterly different sort of thing from the process of learning to walk… One theory is that primitive words were imitative of sounds: man copied the barking of dogs and thereby obtained a natural word with the meaning of ‘dog’ or ‘bark.’ To this theory, nicknamed the bow-wow theory, Renan objects that it seems rather absurd to set up this chronological sequence: first the lower animals are original enough to cry and roar; and then comes man, making a language for himself by imitating his inferiors. But surely man would imitate not only the cries of inferior animals, but also those of his fellow-men, and the salient point of the theory is this: so...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite