THE LIBRARY $ sJ The University of NorthSZGCarolina Nr^ R598n '''" " Y 4 Si ? v O UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00016226040 This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. E DATE DUE RET DUE WhiM7\V JnxrjJVffn ...MflYl S'7Q a is ]y/g n \1 A NARRATIVE OF THE NEGRO BY MRS. LEILA AMOS PENDLETON Formerly a Teacher in the Public Schools of Washington, D. C; founder (in 1898) of the Alpha Charity Club of Anacostia, and for thirteen years its president; founder and president of the Social Purity Club of Washington; Vice-President for the District of Columbia of the Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs ; Secretary of the National Association of Assemblies of the Order of the Golden Circle, Auxiliary to the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, S. J., U. S. A. WASHINGTON, D. C: Press of R. L. Pendleton, 609 F Street, N. W 1 9 1 2 Copyrighted \\ Mrs, Leila Amos Pendleton i 9 i 2 ! PREFACE. This little volume contains, in story form, a brief outline of the history of the Negro. In collating the facts herein set forth it was my privilege to consult the Congressional Library at Washington, the libraries of Harvard and Yale universities and the Boston Public Library. I am fully aware that such opportunities should have insured a better book, but I earnestly hope that the motive which prompts me may cause the short- comings and imperfections of the work to be forgiven. 1 wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following authors: Hereen (Historical Researches), Edmund D, Morel, Robert P. Skinner, Edward Howell, T. J. Alldridge, J. V. Delacroix, J. J. Crooks, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Ashe, records of the American Colonization Society, W. J. Gardner, John Atkins, John Bigelow, Hasting Charles Dent, Frank Wiborg, J. W. Birch, Joseph A. Tillinghast, Rev. Robert Walsh, Increase N. Tarbox, Lydia Maria Child, Sir Harry Johnston, Sir Henry M. Stanley, Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, Prof. Kelly Miller, Dr. Booker T. Washington, Charles W. Williams, Joseph T. Wilson, William Still, W. H. Grimshaw, James M. Trotter, W. H. Crogman, J. T. Headley, B. J. Lossing, J. W. Gibson, Zachary Macaulay, Edward W. Blyden, J. J. Pippin, Mrs. E. M. O'Connor, Mrs. F. B. Williams, Andrew Carnegie, G. W. Forbes. For assistance in other directions, I wish, also, to thank Hon. Robert Spurgeon, Brooklyn; Mr. Reginald Peters, St. Kitts; and Miss Beatrice Le Strange, of Boston. Because of his unfailing interest, encouragement and advice in this attempt I owe most of all to my husband. In presenting this narrative, as a sort of " family story " to the colored children of America, it is my fervent hope that they may hereby acquire such an earnest desire for greater informa- tion as shall compellingly lead them, in maturer years, to the many comprehensive and erudite volumes which have been O written upon this subject. Lfjla Amos Picndijcton. ^ Washington, D. C, March, 1912. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://archive.org/details/narrativeofnegroOOpend LEILA AMOS PENDLETON A Narrative of the Negro. CHAPTER I. A TALK WITH THE CHILDREN. MOST girls and boys, who are from twelve to fourteen years old can tell, if one should ask them, many inter- esting things about America, the country in which we live and most children whose foreparents came from Europe or Asia have been taught to love those countries just because their kinfolk once lived there. Many little colored children can draw a map of Africa, tell some of its products and describe some of its people ; I wonder how many have been taught to think of Africa with interest and affection, because our great, great grandparents came from that continent? Perhaps if we talk awhile about our Motherland and some of the notable things which have happened there, we shall all learn to love that wonderful country and be proud of it. " In these talks, though sometimes the adjective " colored will be used just as the word " white " is frequently made use of, we shall, as a rule speak of ourselves as " Negroes " and always begin the noun with a capital letter. It is true that the word Negro is considered by some a term of contempt and for that reason, many of us wince at it ; but history tells us that when England had been conquered by the Normans, centuries ago, and the Norman barons were beating, starving and killing the natives, the name "Englishman" was considered an abusive term, and the greatest insult one Norman could offer another was to call him an " Englishman." You know that now all who claim England as home are justly proud of it, and no English- man is ashamed of that name. If history repeats itself, as we are often told it does, the time will come when our whole race will feel it an honor to be called " Negroes." Let us each keep that hope before us and hasten > o*c Algeria tripo l , 8RVTIS H £RE !Aa u r e t a r>) i /v' R^ FSeNCH TERRITORy fRfr. fa /| M IGERIA '? J BAST I* AFRICA CONG O STATE V.\ v^ ANGOLA *>, c BKHV^/ % PROTEc- '0«/tTl I C/lp E coLo/vy gf^'-K' MAP OF AFRICA A NARRATIVE OF THE NEGRO 9 CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA. LET us look at a map of the Eastern Hemisphere. In the northern part we see Europe and Asia, and southwest of these lies Africa, almost entirely in the Torrid Zone. As vast as is the United States, the continent of Africa contain? more than three times as many square miles. In the northeast- ern part of Africa we see Egypt, moving westward we come to — what are called the Barbary States - Tripoli, Fezzan, Tunis and Morocco. Remember these countries, for on their soil many of the most important events of the ancient world took place. Some hundreds of years before our Saviour was born in Bethlehem, hundreds of years before men had even heard the names " England," " France," " German}," " America," the people of northern Africa were engaged in building cities, sailing the waters and rearing statues and monuments, some of which latter are standing until this day. Let us now start from Alexandria in Egypt on the Mediter- ranean Sea and sail down the east coast of Africa. We may touch the coasts of Nubia, Eritrea, French Somali coast, British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, British Ea^t Africa, German East Africa, Portuguese East Africa, Transvaal, Natal, and at the southernmost part of the continent we find Cape Colony, while jutting out from the very tip of Cape Colony is the famous Cape of Good Hope. And now we start up the west coast passing German Southwest Africa, Angola, French Congo, Kamerun, Nigeria, Dahomey, Ashanti, French West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone, French and Portuguese Guinea, British Gambia, Rio de Ora, and so back to the Barbary States and Egypt. In our travels we sailed through the Suez Canal, which cuts Africa off from Asia and make- of it an island continent; down the Red Sea where Pharaoh and his army were drowned; through the Gulf of Aden; clown the Indian Ocean; through A NARRATIVE OF THE NEGRO the Mozambique Channel, which separates Africa and the island of Madagascar ; around Cape Good Hope, where the winds and the waves have made it very dangerous for us ; up the South Atlantic Ocean ; through the Gulf of Guinea ; into the Atlantic again, and through the Strait of Gibraltar. On the north coast of Gibraltar stands the great rock considered by the ancients the western boundary of the world and prized by the English who now own it as one of their most important posses- sions. Leaving Gibraltar we find ourselves again in the Medi- terranean and back to Egypt. While sailing up the South Atlantic and passing southern Angola, we should have taken a long look directly out to sea, for in that direction but more than one thousand miles away lies the little island of St. Helena where Napoleon Bonapart was held prisoner and where he died. But with all this travelling we have seen nothing of the great heart of Africa, which in ancient times was sometimes called Libya, sometimes Ethiopia, where dwell millions of people, thousands of wild animals, fruits and vegetables in greatest profusion and where many of the articles highly prized by civilized man are to be found in abundance — diamonds, gold, ivory, india rubber, ebony, ostrich feathers and many other valuable articles. Among the native animals of Africa are elephants, lions, monkeys, snakes of many kinds, leopards, camels, giraffs, gorillas, wolves, jackals, hyenas, zebras, rhin- osceros, buffalos, and many species of birds of beautiful plu- " mage. How would our zoos " and our circuses manage if it were not for Africa? In some parts of Africa sugar cane, cotton and the coffee plant grow wild and beside these apples. peaches, plums, grapes, pomegranates, dates, spices, cereals, melons, gourds, cocoanuts and many other fruits and vege- tables are to be found. Looking again at the map we see just below the northern countries and stretching from east to west almost the entire width of the continent, the Sahara and Libyan deserts — the greatest in the world, Below these lies the Soudan, farther A NARRATIVE OF THE NEGRO south and crossed by the Equator is the Congo Free State, which is anything but free ; while still farther south we find Matabele and the Transvaal.