CHAPTER X. 



Origin of the: American Nkgro — British Slave Industry — 

 Liberia the; Ame:rican Coi^ony in Africa — 24,000 Amer- 

 ican Born Negrofs Have Gone to Liberia — The Troglo- 

 dytes OF Africa — Pygmies in Central Africa — Who Are 

 the Boers? — The Diamond Mines of Kimberly — Abys- 

 sinia AND Its Ancient Cfiristian Faith — Ivory, How 

 Obtained and Used — Ostrich Farms in Africa and 

 California. 



O OME authorities claim that a Dutch man-of-war brought twenty 

 ^ negroes to the Colony of Virginia in May, 161 9. Others claim 

 that the ship "Treasurer" brought 14 to Jamestown in 1620 when 

 the colony of Virginia had but 15,000 inhabitants^ At any rate all 

 seem to agree that the first negroes were landed in Virginia and 

 exchanged by the ships bringing them for supplies. It was a long 

 time before there were any laws recognizing slaves as property. 

 The American negro came from the west coast of Africa. It is 

 said that the first negroes taken as slaves were glad to escape and 

 be taken into captivity by white men. They had been pursued to 

 the coast by the stronger tribes of the interior and many were 

 massacred. 



Whether the first lot of negroes brought to our country in 161 9 

 or 1620 as slaves were 20 or 14, we have nearly 10,000,000 of them 

 in our country now, and they are a force in our social and political 

 life to be reckoned with. 



England's connection with Africa was originally through the 

 iniquitous slave-trade. Slave-trading having been legalized by an 

 act during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, her chief naval com- 

 mander, Sir John Hawkins, sailed at once to Sierra Leone, seized 

 three hundred negroes, carried them to Hayti, and sold them there. 

 Between 1686 and 1786, more than two million slaves were imported 

 into the English colonies. In 1771, 192 slave-ships left England for 



123 



