The American Nations of North and South America, Vol. 1

“In proceeding from the known to the unknown: we ascertain that a multitude of nations has come to America since 1492, as colonist or visitors. The principal was 1. Spanish: who have colonized or conquered from New Mexico to Chilli, and from Florida to Buenos Ayres. But they came not alone, and have brought along with them as auxiliaries. 1. Italians, 2. Flemish, 3. Biscayans, 4. Canarians, &,c., while as slaves 5. Moors of Mauritania, and G. Many African–negro nations. 2. Portuguese: who have colonized the whole of Brazil, and brought there besides many Negro nations, some Moors, Gypsies, Chinese, &c.”

 

 

“Thus it is a positive fact that many ancient nations of the east, such as the Lybians, Moors, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Hindus, *c. had heard of America, or knew nearly as much of it as we did of Australia and Polynesia 100 years ago.” “Nearly all the ancient sciences and useful primitive arts were known in America, as well as commerce and navigation, symbolic and alphabetic writing, nearly all the Asiatic religions, &c. The most civilized nations had even colleges and universities, canals and paved roads, splendid temples, and monuments, *c.”

 

 

“American anthropology will teach that there were men of all sizes, feature, and complexions, in this hemisphere before 1492?: notwithstanding the false assertions of many writers, who take one nation for the whole American group.” “The Uskihs, the Purunays, the Parias, the Chons, &c. were as white as the Spaniards, 50 such tribes were found in South America; while many tribes of Choco, the Manabis, the Yaruras, &c., were as black as negroes.”

“All the other shades of brown, tawny and coppery, were scattered everywhere. There was not a single red man in America unless painted such. Some tribes had scanty beards as the Tartars, Chinese, Berbers, &c., others bushy beards. The Tinguis or Patagons were 7 or 8 feet high and the Guaymas only 4 or 5 feet.”

Source: The American Nations: or Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South America

The Routledge Handbook of the History of Race and the American Military

“In addition to compassion, Euro-Americans believed that Mexicans lagged behind in other areas: agriculture, industry, and commerce. These failings resulted in the land not fulfilling its potential. In their reasoning, it was clear that the fault must lay with the Mexicans themselves, who were a mixture of Spaniard, Indian, and even African. The majority of Mexicans were indigenous to the region, the descendants of the tribes changed little since the Spanish Conquest.”

“Although a Christian nation, Mexico followed Catholicism, which brought into question Mexicans’ ability to be true republicans since they owed allegiance to Rome. A church building, the cartographic icon for a civilized nation, expressed the power that an established religion such as Catholicism had over its people. The series of changing governments in Mexico since independence from Spain in 1821 disappointed Euro-Americans.”

“To them, Mexico had committed the ultimate civil sin of betraying the republican ideals of Enlightenment and deserved punishment. The American’s pre-war military was woefully small and unprepared to meet the placed on it by the conflict. Numbering less than five thousand men and officers, the regular establishment attempted to fill the units already authorized by Congress through increased recruitment.”

“How, by mid-war, a looming manpower shortage prompted the raising of ten new regiments to augment those that already existed. All told, only 26,922 regulars served from 1846-1848, not enough to prosecute the war. The legislation allowed individual states to provide volunteers for national service. Two separate calls (the first for twelve months and the second for the duration of the war) resulted in a total of 73,532 state volunteers for the war.”

“Although there may have been exceptions, these men–regulars and volunteers–were predominately white Protestant Euro-Americans. The 1841 edition of the General Regulations of the United States Army limited recruiting to “free white male persons.” Purportedly, these men received an examination by a doctor in the presence of the recruiting officer and were checked for medical conditions or defects that might hinder their usefulness. Examiners also looked for any obvious or subtle indication of a race other than white.”

“Dr. Thomas Henderson addressed the issue of race in a postwar edition of Hints on the Medical Examination of Recruits for the Army, in which he wrote. “The question can never occur whether the man be white or black; it arises in cases of the offspring of the white man, and of the mulatto woman. Henderson related two incidences where this had occurred. In the first case, the man remained in the service.”

“In the latter, the Army discharged an enlisted recruit at Fort Monroe, Virginia, after his father revealed him the offspring of a union with a mulatto slave woman. Henderson contended that the matter was serious because “Soldiers would not tolerate the mixed breed as comrades.” The doctor offered several suggestions to prevent the enlisting of mulattoes by mistake. “The most conspicuous feature is the hair,” noted Henderson, “which has a very coarse texture.”

“Even this was not enough because “course hair is frequently seen in undoubtedly white cases.” Moreover, “The color of the skin is not more dark than in many unmixed white families in the Southern States, or in the branches of the olive colored (Mongolian or Mauritanian) race seen in all parts of the country.” He offered one other method of ascertaining a man’s race. “One of the best tests in doubtful cases of this kind is afforded by the appearance of the external organs of the generation…The skin covering these organs is much darker in persons having a trace of negro blood, than in the white race.”

Source: The Routledge Handbook of the History of Race and the American Military edited by Geoffrey Jensen

The Story Of The Moors In Spain: Backwards Ones Are Called Negroes [Blacks]

9781616404307_p0_v1_s260x420The Story of the Moors in Spain is a history of the Moorish Empire in Andalusia, chronicling the rise and fall of the Islamic empire, and with it the stymie of a “civilized and enlightened State.” Author Stanley Lane-Poole catalogues the art, architecture, religion, science, and industry that flourished with the establishment of the Muslim regime in Spain. A rare non-Christian history from the 19th century, students and researchers alike should cherish this classic text, included here with original illustrations. Born in 1854 in London, England, STANLEY LANE-POOLE was a British historian, orientalist, and archaeologist. Lane-Poole worked in the British Museum from 1874 to 1892, thereafter researching Egyptian archaeology in Egypt. From 1897 to 1904 he was a professor of Arabic studies at Dublin University. Before his death in 1931, Lane-Poole authored dozens of books, including the first book of the Arabic-English Lexicon started by his uncle, E.W. Lane. Scholar, John G. Jackson, gave the introduction to Stanley Lane Poole’s , in the Book The Story of the Moors in Spain, he quoted Dr. Bertram Thomas, former Prime Minister of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman”This scarce book was originally published in 1896.

Its 301 pages contain 14 detailed chapters that cover the history of Islamic Spain. It is a comprehensive and informative look at the subject by an industrious and scrupulous author. Contents Include: The Last of the Goths; The Wave of Conquest; The People of Andalusia; A Young Pretender; The Christian Martyrs; The Great Khalif; The Holy War; The City of the Khalif; The Prime Minister; The Berbers in Power; My Cid the Challenger; The Kingdom of Granada; The Fall of Granada; Bearing the Cross; Index.”

“Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.” “the course of time two big migrations of fair-skinned peoples came from the north, one of them the mongoloids, to break through and transform the dark belt of man beyond India, and the other, the caucasoids, to drive a wedge between India and Africa. (p. 339)

“In ancient times, Africans in general were called Ethiopians; in medieval times most Africans were called Moors; in modern times some Africans were called Negroes. The Ethiopians were named by the Greeks.” “The word Ethiopia means “burntface,” from the Greek names ethios + face. This description referred to the dark complexion of these Africans, which the Greeks attributed to sunburn. In the literature on Africa, Africans are commonly identified in two groups: one progressive, the other, backward. The progressive peoples are called Hamites, Kushites, Moors, etc., whereas the backward ones are called Negroes.”

“The word Negro comes from the Latin word niger, meaning black. Hamites, Kushites, and Moors were also black, but they have been inducted into the white race. The word Negro was manufactured during the Atlantic Slave Trade; or to put it another way, there are many species of small fish in the ocean; when put into cans they are called sardines.”

“Scientific progress in astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, geography, and philosophy flourished in Moorish Spain. Scholars, scientists, and artists formed learned societies, and scientific congresses were organized to promote research and to facilitate the spread of knowledge. A brisk intellectual life flourished in all Islamic dominions, since both caliphs of East and West were as a rule, enlightened patrons of learning…”

“Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to the most humble, while in Christian Europe ninety-nine percent of the populace were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, public libraries in Europe were nonexistent, while Moorish Spain could boast of more than seventy, of which the one in Cordova housed six hundred thousand manuscripts. Christian Europe contained only two universities of any value, while in Moorish Spain there were seventeen great universities.”

“The finest of these were located in Almeria, Cordova, Granada, Juen, Malaga, Seville, and Toledo. Scientific progress in astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, geography, and philosophy flourished in Moorish Spain. Scholars, scientists, and artists formed learned societies, and scientific congresses were organized to promote research and to facilitate the spread of knowledge. A brisk intellectual life flourished in all Islamic dominions,….”

See The Story of the Moors in Spain Paperback – July 26, 2010 by Stanle…

The Mohammedan Africans Remain Of The Old Stock Of Slave Imports

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“As the old stock from Africa died out of the country the grosser customs, the ignorance and paganism of Africa, died with them. Their descendants, the country-born, were better looking, more intelligent, more civilized, more susceptible of religious impressions. Having brought distinctly to view this multitude of people introduced amongst us in the inscrutable providence of God, the original stock being in a state of absolute Heathenism, we may inquire into the efforts made for their Religious Instruction.”

“The Moral and Religious Condition of the Slave Negro Population. Ignorance of the doctrines and duties of Christianity is prevalent among the Negroes. Their notions of the Supreme Being; of the character and offices of Christ and of the Holy Ghost; of a future state; and of what constitutes holiness of life, are indefinite and confused. Some brought up in a Christian land, and in the vicinity of the house of God, have heard of Jesus Christ; but who he is, and what he has done for a ruined world, they cannot tell.”

“The Mohammedan Africans remaining of the old stock of importations, although accustomed to hear the Gospel preached, have been known to accommodate Christianity to Mohammedanism. “God,” say they, “is Allah, and Jesus Christ is Mohammed–the religion is the same, but different countries have different names.”

“Such being the state of affairs, we ought not to anticipate any remarkable degree of attention, to the religious instruction of the Negroes, within the Colonies, as an independent class of population. Especially too, as the effect of the slave trade, during its existence, was to harden the feelings against the unfortunate subjects of it, while their degraded and miserable appearance and character, their stupidity, their uncouth languages and gross superstitions, and their constant occupation, operated as so many checks to benevolent efforts for their conversion to Christianity. And thus, those who advocated the slave-trade on the ground that it introduced the Negroes to the blessings of civilization and the Gospel, saw their favorite argument losing its force, in great measure, from year to year.”

See The Religious Instruction of the Negroes. In the United States: Jones, Charles Colcock, 1804-1863