Black Experience | Page 4

father, Earl Coombs, for his
invaluable assistance in helping with the hours of painstaking research
demanded by such a project. Miss Dorothy Ruhl provided the detailed,
careful labor necessary to help prepare the manuscript for the printer,
and Mrs. Doris Kist performed the demanding task of proofreading it. I
also want to thank Cecyle S. Neidle, the editor of the Immigrant
Heritage of America series, for her helpful supervision and advice.
Finally, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my wife, Jean, for typing the
manuscript, for a host of other miscellaneous tasks and, above all, for
her forbearance and encouragement.

N. C.

Part One From Freedom to Slavery


CHAPTER 1
African Origins
The Human Cradle
THREE and a half centuries of immigration have injected ever-fresh
doses of energy and tension into the American bloodstream. As diverse
peoples learned to live together, they became a dynamo generating both
creativity and conflict. One of the most diverse elements in American
life was introduced when Africans were forcibly brought to the
American colonies. The American experiment had begun and consisted
mainly of white men with a European heritage. The African was of a
different color, had a different language, a different religion, and had an
entirely different world view. But perhaps the most striking contrast
was that, while the European came voluntarily in search of greater
individual opportunity, the African came in chains. Because the
European was the master and thereby the superior in the relationship,
he assumed that his heritage was also superior. However, he was
mistaken, because the African had a rich heritage of importance both to
himself and to mankind. When people interact intimately over a long
period of time, the influences are reciprocal. This is true even when
their relationship is that of master and slave.
To trace the importance of the African heritage one must go back
millions of years. Evidence is accumulating to the effect that Africa is
the cradle of mankind. Professor Louis Leakey argues that Africa was
important in the development of mankind in three ways. First, some
thirty or forty million years ago, the basic stock which eventually gave
rise to both man and the ape came into existence in the vicinity of the
Nile Valley. Second, some twelve or fourteen million years ago, the
main branch which was to lead to the development of man broke away
from the branch leading to the ape. Third, about two million years ago,
in the vicinity of East Africa, true man broke away from his now

extinct manlike cousins. The present species of man-Homo
Sapiens--developed through a complex process of natural selection
from a large number of different manlike creatures-hominids.
One of the most numerous of the early hominids was Australopithecus
Africanus who originated in Africa. Although he also did some hunting,
he lived mainly by collecting and eating vegetables. One of the things
that identified him as a man was his utilization of primitive tools. He
had a pointed stone which may have been used to sharpen sticks, and
these sticks were probably used for digging roots to augment his food
supply. Leakey believes that Homo Habilis, who lived in East Africa
about two million years ago, was the immediate ancestor of man and
the most advanced of all the hominids. Although the hominids spread
far outside of Africa, it is clear that they originate there and that it was
in Africa that true man first emerged. As Darwin predicted a century
ago, Africa has been found to be the father of mankind.
For many thousands of years, Homo Sapiens and the other hominids
lived side by side in Africa as elsewhere. By ten thousand years ago,
however, all the hominids had disappeared. Scholars believe that this
was the result of the gradual absorption of all the other hominids by the
more biologically advanced Homo Sapiens. This process may explain
the appearance of variations within Homo Sapiens. At various times
and places, as Homo Sapiens absorbed other hominid strains,
differences within Homo Sapiens developed. In any case it is clear that
the various types of man came into existence very early. In Africa, this
process led to the development of three main types: the
brownish-yellow Bush- men in the south, the darker Negroes
throughout most of the continent and the Caucasoid Mediterranean
types in the north.
Most of the concepts, held even by scholars about the nature and origin
of races, are being proven inaccurate. Anthropological literature used to
suggest that skin color in some groups was a possible indication of
Mongoloid influences or that the thin, straight lips common in another
group could be envisioned as a Caucasoid feature. However, it has
become increasingly obvious that an analysis based on specific single
traits such as these is always a poor indication