Holm's race assimilation; or, The fading leopard's spots; a complete scientific exposition of the most tremendous question that has ever confronted two races in the world's history

Front matter

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HOLM'S

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE 15

INTRODUCTION. By Marion Edward

Preface

I propose to treat the race problem in America from a scientific viewpoint never before attempted. In addressing my readers I shall use the plural number, because I feel that it is not "I" but "We," who are writing this book. I feel the spiritual assistance of Garrison, Phillips, Douglass and others, to strengthen, encourage and embolden me to tell, without fear or favor, the unvarnished truth.

If my reader believes that this book is written in defense of the Negro he is, indeed, mistaken. I, as a scientist, write in defense of justice. That means that I condemn those elements in human society which tend to pull apart, tear down and destroy, and defend those elements which build up, unite and harmonize. This book is not intended to be. used in a praise service, nor yet in an indignation meeting, but in the spacious "Hall of Reason and Justice."

A scientist may predict an earthquake, not because he believes in one or enjoys one, but because the indications of one are apparent to him. This is the position I occupy. There are certain unalterable natural laws that man must obey, though he squirm, sputter and protest under the focused heat of compulsion, he is forced to submit to the inevitable in the end. This, both races

16 PREFACE

(the colored and white) must ultimately do in America.

We propose to take the noose from the neck of Miss Justice and let her cut and slash with her flaming sword, Mr. Wrong, who sits upon the throne and tramples under foot the helpless, just because he is popular. I hope that we may induce our readers to look Justice squarely in the eye and stand back and reason together upon the greatest problem which confronts the American people, viz., legal amalgamation and social justice between the races. This book may be received with wailing and gnashing of teeth by the wrong-doers in the pit of human depravity, who flaunt in the face of justice the red rag of anarchy and crime without a blush of shame; but to the justice-loving citizen, white and colored, we believe it will at least prove a prophecy, or, perchance, a beacon light that will show the way to that day when all men, white, black, brown, red and yellow will join hands in unison on a common level, for the betterment of all mankind.

I wish to state positively here that I have no message for the unfortunately developed souls who are only able to see things through the stained glass of prejudice and lewdness, and are consequently not able to discern right from wrong.

PREFACE 17

It has been necessary for me to assume the attitude of a surgeon in the examination of a ghastly, putrifying cancer that must be treated with scientific certainty, and be laid bare to the light of day from which it was so long hid, though of its existence all were aware; and which has been regarded by the Church and State in a cool, philosophical manner — a necessary evil. If I made any attempt to please my readers I should fall far short of what I wish to say, and what I believe a large number of seriousminded people of both races want to know, and ought to know on the questions discussed herein.

There will no doubt be objections raised by the over-wrought, self-righteous personalities, in regard to the influence, of a questionable kind, this book may exercise over the young people of both races. This is no Sunday school book for little children. Those of mature years will find in it instructions and advice of vital importance to themselves, their posterity, and the entire human family. It is my aim to place this book in the hands of all intelligent young people of both races, as far as possible, for nothing will quicker eradicate color lines and race prejudice than to show, in unmistakable language, to all young Americans that the future greatness of this country depends upon the peaceful assimilation of all its people; and that it is only the i

18 PREFACE

silly and ignorant, the savage and barbarian, who exalts himself and debases his neighbor of another color.

On the other hand, I also desire to show our young Americans that the variety of races in our country means future greatness and unlimited possibilities; and that when these races are judiciously crossed, scientifically mated, a new man will in time result, with marvelous intellectual and physical powers such as the world has never known. I wish to show them that the best and bluest blood in the South has crossed with the Negro race ever since the earliest days of slavery, and inculcate a moral sense of this kinship. I, furthermore, wish to show them that illicit mixing is condemned by the civilized world and the laws of Nature; but that the legitimate union of two souls of marked dissimilarities, when perfectly harmonized, will produce a posterity superior to all others, and that it is not a shame but an honor to uphold and defend, in true wedlock, the affinity of their soul, whether that affinity be black, brown, red, yellow or white. I shall give ample scientific proof that racial admixture is inevitable, that intermarriage prohibition is an outrage to human justice, contrary to a fixed law of Nature, demoralizing to both races .and the crowning curse of our boasted civilization. THE AUTHOR.

FROM hours already crowded with a multiplicity of my public duties, I snatch a few minutes to write a short

introduction to this great book, and its true import, by Prof. John James Holm.

The name of Prof. Holm is in itself a guarantee of its soundness of logic, and the excellence of the presentation of this production of his richly endowed and highly cultured mind.

In this book the author discusses a subject that has been a stubborn controversy for centuries. To one that might at a glance of the subject turn away from the book without carefully and diligently reading the able, convincing arguments it contains; let me say, he will miss an opportunity of improving heart and mmdr which, when he comes to realize it fully, will be to him a cause for many regrets.

This great book is not a rehash of old arguments. The learned author, by careful, laborious research, brings to us arguments of originality and freshness. The arguments put forth are not only interesting and eloquent, but to any fair-minded man convincing. It seems to me it exhibits not only a thorough familiarity with the facts and doctrines of the Divine Writings, but a remarkable insight into their true import, which seems to have been born of his reliance on God for the presence of the Kfoly Spirit to shed light upon his work.

I rejoice that in rapidly increasing numbers we are already beginning to see more clearly some of the fallacies so detrimental to our progress. The numerous and practical illustrations with which the author has interspersed his book will have a peculiar attraction for all interested in this progress, which the races of America so sadly need.

In my long and varied experience as a minister of the great African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, I have found that for every great occasion of local or national magnitude in the upbuilding of my race a man or a woman of strong convictions and firm faith has stepped out boldly to proclaim the truth at any cost. Sometimes it has been one of our race, sometimes of the white race. In this case it is again a white man of the old Teutonic race who has dedicated his broad experience and remarkable scientific intellect to the advocacy of a cause that concerns the vital interests of both races in America. LNothing is as strange as the unpolished truth. When I had the distinguished honor to peep into the manuscript of this book, my eyes were opened and the scales fell, and I saw the real condition of my people in the South. I was convicted and convinced that we all have been laboring under a bugbear and dared not stand erect; but as an old adage says: "The truth crushed to earth will rise again." We can no longer hide our faces after a careful reading of this book and plead ignorancej

There is perhaps no man in either race better equipped to handle the subject of this book than Prof. Holm. When but a boy he manifested a great interest in psychological science. He was an early student of Prof. O. S. Fowler, and has ever since been a close student of human nature, making extensive investigations relative to the races in the South and elsewhere, covering many years. A man with such a natural-born gift, who has spared neither time or money to obtain the truth as he presents it, must be heard. No one can read this book without feeling that the heart of the author is wrapped up in its every page. He has been a believer in Universal Brotherhood since early manhood — that every man is his brother and every woman his sister, regardless of color or condition in life. I have often heard him say that he cannot feel a social difference between the respectable colored man and woman and a white man or woman who is respectable. His position or belief is perhaps most fully expressed in the closing words of a memorial address, delivered in the A. M. E. Zion Church at Citronelle, Alabama, in behalf of the Rt. Rev. M. R. Franklin, D. D., who died last May (1909).

"Live for those who love you, And for your enemies too, And life will prove a true success, In the good that you may do."

Prof. Holm was reared in the great state of Wisconsin; he did not see the face of a Negro until grown; and when it was his privilege to associate with colored people, he did not see through the stained vision of race prejudice, but as a student of human nature the Negro proved very attractive material to him, and he discovered the latent possibilities of the race and became the friend of our downtrodden people. Years later, after gaining considerable knowledge from books, teachers, and by experience, it was under the guidance of an all-wise and gracious Providence that he traveled South and lived near the colored people of all classes. After spending more than twenty-six years of his life and money in study and research he comes forward with this book that will be instrumental, more than any other thing at the present time, in solving the race problem.

Yours for the cause,

MARION EDWARD CHURCH, A. B.

Chapter I The Blood Of Ham And Japheth Introductory

OUR POSITION.— In the following chapters we will endeavor to present to the reader in our homely, practical manner, some of the real and imaginary difficulties existing between the white and colored branch of the human family in America. We do not aim to escape the eye of the critic of this mixed family. We think and reason independent of and regardless of criticism and prejudice, and present the truth as we have found it, plain enough and practical enough to be understood by our readers.

While we unhesitatingly condemn the prevalent wrongs, we do not try to minimize or obscure the grievances of the white people, and especially magnify the grievances of the black man, or the colored offspring of the white man. We wish our readers to bear in mind, in reading this book, that all the wrongs which the Caucasian has done the Negro would have been reversed, if that race had been on top and the white man underneath.

ANCIENT HISTORY records the fact that when the dark-skinned people were on top, that is, the most enlightened and civilized, they treated inferior races, or rather those less powerful, with as much and even more cruelty than the Negro has ever suffered under the domination of his white brother. The cruelties which the coffee-skinned Egyptian perpetrated toward the inoffensive Hebrews, is but one striking example of what other races suffered, in ancient times, as subjects and slaves of the dark-skinned or black races, when they ruled the world. On the other hand, the cruelties the Ethiopian has from time to time practiced on his own race undoubtedly exceeds all wrongs he has ever endured at the hands of other peoples.

Slavery existed among the kinky-haired people from the earliest history; in fact, slavery originated with the Ethiopian or so-called Hamitic branch of the human family. The dark people were the first who attained any degree of civilization, and through warfare came in possession of inferior tribes of various kinds, whom they enslaved. The pink-skinned man was undoubtedly among these, to serve his apprenticeship in the arts of civilization as a slave. )

We have not the least doubt but that the first prehistoric race of man was black complexioned.

Ridpath shows in his history of the world, on Race Chart No. i (showing the distribution of mankind on the hypothesis of a common origin) that the original stock was black, from which sprang the prehistoric brown or Mongoloid, from which sprang the prehistoric ruddy or white.

NOAH AND THE FLOOD.— We have no reasons to doubt the authenticity of the Jewish Bible, which records the flood and the history of Noah and his sons. Science has never successfully proven to the contrary, but often affirms the fact that there was a universal inundation at some prehistoric period; and, if there was, it is just as reasonable to believe that there was a Noah to battle the floods and preserve our species. And if there was a Noah, it is a scientific certainty that his skin was black. No white-skinned people could exist in the prehistoric climate of Noah's time. Prior to the flood the earth was enveloped in a sheath of vapor, rendering the atmosphere very humid and hot. To make ourselves understood by our readers we will take an egg as an illustration: The yolk represents the earth; the white, the atmosphere, and the shell, the sheath of water that surrounded the earth in prehistoric times, or, more correctly, before the flood. The flood was simply the breaking up of the envelopment of this sheath of water which surrounded the earth, and the settling of it upon the same, much as we see it at the present time. We have no space to devote to the exposition of this theory in this book. Others have devoted much time and study to this subject. We believe that the sudden change in animal life and vegetation, and also in climate upon the earth, as geology reveals, is one of the strongest proofs as to the correctness of this theory of the flood. The antediluvians were aware of the existence of this water envelopment of the earth, so also was the writer of Genesis. He speaks of it in the following manner: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven." Then the writer speaks of the water and land division of the earth as follows: "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas." The condition of the atmosphere, the writer describes in the following language: "But (there being no rain in that early day) there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." We can easily imagine the humidity of the atmosphere, with a mist sufficiently heavy to water a luxuriant tropical growth. During the antediluvian period there was no place on earth where irrigation was necessary.

Out of this kind of environment Noah and his sons emerged when the clouds cleared away and the bright sun shone for the first time in a clear, crisp heaven. Prior to this time the sun had been hid by the sheath which enveloped the earth, causing a subdued brightness. Now it would burst forth in all its glory in the morning, and shine throughout the day. The writer says: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

The strongest Biblical evidence we have that there was "Water above the firmament," is the appearance of the rainbow in the cloud after the deluge. The writer of Genesis was no doubt familiar with the natural cause of the rainbow.

Without the rays of the sun reflecting against a rain cloud there could be no rainbow. While the earth was surrounded with a shell of water above the atmosphere, a "bow in the cloud" was an impossibility, because there was no sun that shone clearly and no cloud to reflect it. When the windows of heaven were opened the water

HOW SCIENCE AND PREJUDICE DIFFER IN THE LIKENESS OF NOAH.

fell and the rainbow in the cloud appeared as a covenant that "All flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth." The sudden breaking away of the water crust which surrounded the entire earth between four and five miles from its surface, caused a universal inundation. This leaves no ground for the argument often put forth that all mankind was not destroyed by the flood, but that some escaped on dry land, among them a sort of half man and half monkey, which has since evolved into what is today known as the "inferior race."

All races of people in the world today have their common origin in Noah and his offspring. No matter how man may have originated during the antediluvian period, there is not a scrap of evidence in either history, science or theology, that any escaped the deluge save a few of the most intelligent, under the guiding hand of a creative and preserving power.

VARIETY AND UNION.— A variety is divine, in union there is strength. Some day, not far distant, mankind will realize this tremendous fact. We want our readers to realize this now. This book is not written to arouse race antagonism or hatred, but to alleviate existing difficulties, harmonize as far as possible the opposing forces, and bring about a mutual understanding between a people who are today tied by many inseparable ties that must finally, triumphantly, end in harmony and permanent union.

We hope to present overwhelming facts that will prove the truth of the above statement. We wish to prove to every reader — and let this book go on record — that race integrity in this great, free America is a myth ; that it has been a myth in every age of human experience, and that the few advocates of it today, in both races in this country, are opposing a natural law of evolution and human growth that no amount of racial hatred or prejudice can render inoperative.

THE THREE DIVISIONS OF THE RACES. — Asia was undoubtedly the birthplace of mankind. It is believed that at a time far back of history there lived a people in Bactra that had considerable advancement in the arts of civilization. These people called themselves Aryas or Aryans, signifying to walk upright or straight. While Asia was the birthplace of man, Africa was the cradle of advanced civilization.

The Aryan branch (Japhetic), to which all white-skinned people belong, has, since early history, been the competitive and aggressive one. The fittest among them have survived the climatic and combative conditions, under which they existed for so many ages, developing a strong race of people.

The Semitic branch has contributed to mankind the three great religions of the world — the Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan — teaching the worship of one God. It has also given us the moral law. C. Osborn Ward says in his book, "The Ancient Lowly" (1893) :

"The law of Moses had partly abolished slavery among the Hebrews as early as B. C. 1400, probably on account of the contempt for that degradation which the Hebrews felt, after the deliverance from their protracted slavery in Egypt It appears that the Hebrews were the chief originators and conservators of what is now known and advocated in the name socialism; and their weird life, peculiar language, laws, struggles and inextinguishable nationality scintillates through many of the obscurities of history in a manner to command the wonder, if not the awe, of all lovers of democratic society."

The Hamitic branch, to which all the brown and black races belong, has been the great builder and the earliest cultivator of the soil on an extensive scale. It has been remarkable for its massive architecture, which yet covers the tracks of these people, after thousands of years, the marvel of the modern world. The building proclivity of these people has only been feebly imitated by succeeding ages. When modern "skyscrapers" have crumbled to dust the great pyramids and ruins of the ancient Ethiopian will yet be in evidence.* When all the rest of the world was in darkness, this branch of mankind lived in cities and was skilled in the art of working in wood, metal and clay. It discovered the manufacture of malleable glass and the embalming of bodies, which today belong to the lost arts.

THE KINKY-HAIRED HAMITE.— The kinky-haired branch of the Hamitic race originally occupied but a small area in west Africa, to which the parents of these people undoubtedly migrated from the seat of the earliest Ethiopian civilization. We have reasons to believe that this kinky-haired branch scarcely existed on the west coast of Africa at the time Moses led the Egyptian army into Ethiopia. (See history of Josephus.)

The white race has perhaps never given full credit to the colored branch of the human family for the complete sway it had in the world in prehistoric times as well as in the earliest recorded history. Fresh proof that the ancient Ethiopians were a people of high culture and marked intellectual advancement is furnished by Prof. David Randall Maclver of the University of Pennsylvania, who has gathered a collection of antiquities from Nubia of much variety and

*See "The Footprints of the Hamitic or Negro Race in History," in the resume of this book, by Rev. John H. White, D. D.

artistic worth, aggregating five tons in weight. The articles he has gathered, Prof. Maclver says, represent early Negro civilization that lasted for at least seven centuries. Including among the antiquities are various works of art and also some Ethiopic inscriptions. Prof. Maclver adds: "Our excavations have shown that the source of civilization of the period \vhich our work in lower Nubia covered was Ethiopian. All the Negro works of art were discovered in an extensive cemetery lying about ten feet under ground between Wady Haifa and Assouan in lower Nubia."

WAS BUDDHA A KINKY-HAIRED NEGRO? — Buddha, one of the greatest moral and religious reformers the world has ever known was, for instance, at least as much a so-called Negro as Frederick Douglass or Booker T. Washington. In the old statues extant he resembles often, in feature as well as in the curl of his hair, a Negro. More than three million Buddhists in Asia worship at the shrine of a Buddha who has Negro features as well as the crisped hair. And there are two other statues of Buddha, one in Calanse and one at Ceylon, which have the kinky hair and long, pendant earrings. The Daibutsu, or great Buddha at Ueno, Japan, is a monstrous image to which the people of Tokyo resort to worship, and pay tribute for the remission of their sins. We give a pen drawing of the Daibutsu.

Compare the Daibutsu with the physiognomy of the yellow, red or white race, and you fail to

THE DAIBUTSU AT UENO, JAPAN.

There is a striking resemblance between this ancient statue and many leading men of the Afro-American race that no physiognomist can overlook. There is the same high forehead, the same eloquent eye, the same powerful nose, the same firm, passionate mouth, the same decisive chin and the same stubborn jaw we often meet in a leader of his race.

OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 37

find any resemblance; but a cross between the Negro and Caucasian would produce features and talents like this Buddha possessed.

THE DAIBUTSU OP INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION AT TUSKEGEE. ALABAMA.

THE NEGRO.— The statement that the Negro or Ethiopian race is a young race, is, as already intimated, not really true. It is true that it is young in its present undeveloped state, but this youth is its second childhood. The brown race and its prototype are the oldest in the world. And in passing we wish to say that we believe that there was a time when curly hair and a coffee-brown skin was considered a stamp of royalty among a people representing the highest culture and civilization of the world. This stamp of royalty was universally recognized and emulated, so much so that it is to this day imitated by many straight-haired people in the artificial curling of the hair.

The Ethiopian and other branches of the same family spread their civilization and culture into every part of the known world. They conquered the then existing wild tribes in various places, and amalgamated and assimilated them. Out of these amalgamations other great races in time sprang up, and in turn they conquered their ancient conquerers ; but finally a remarkably strong, pink-skinned race made its appearance upon the world's arena; and while it was rapidly tainted with Ethiopian blood, it maintained its own, and adopted and absorbed all the glory and civilization of this wonderful dark-skinned people, who then slowly passed out of the foremost ranks of progress.

While a remnant of this people was in the lowest depths of savagery in the steaming, blistering jungles of equatorial Africa, thousands of

OR THE FADING LEONARD'S SPOTS 39

years later, slavery was introduced on the western continent, and thousands of these poor, retrograted beings were brought here and to other parts of the civilized world, to again toil and spin like their ancient forefathers, but this time not for themselves alone, but for the white-skinned people whom they once knew and despised as pale-faced savages.

HE AGAIN ATTAINS CIVILIZATION.

— It is gratifying to note that the savage remnant of a once advanced people are again entering the ranks of civilization. Even in Abyssinia, that obscure ancient Ethiopian country, all male children over twelve years of age are now under a compulsory educational law, the state providing the education and building many schools.

The dark races are advancing in all parts of the world. Mr. Frank Carpenter, the noted traveler and correspondent, has given an encouraging report of the work Gorden college is doing for the natives in the Soudan, reaching every class from the Negro savage up to the more cultivated Arabian.

The law of dissemination has again, for several centuries past, operated in favor of these people, in that it has not only distributed thousands of them in every country, but also in crossing them freely with every race with whom they have come in contact. This fact is fullv illustrated in the millions of mixed blood in the United States. And in Africa it is scarcely less true. The blood of the white and other races is flowing in the veins of thousands on that continent. It has penetrated to its very center. Many Negroes brought to America were of mixed stock. We find many with long, wavy black hair, whose skin is decidedly black. And as railroads and civilization conquer the trackless forest and impenetrable jungle, the mixing process will become more and more apparent on the dark continent. The day will again come when, not only on this continent but in Africa, a sunburnt or tan-skinned, curly-haired race will demand and receive recognition.

MR. ROOSEVELT SAYS THERE WILL BE A WHITE AFRICA. — Ex-President Roosevelt spoke at a luncheon given in his honor at the African Inland Mission, an American 'institution at Kijabe, British East Africa, while on his hunting tour. He said: "I believe with all my heart that a large part of East Africa will form the 'white man's country.' Make every effort to build up a prosperous and numerous population.

"I ask the settlers to co-operate with the missionaries and treat the native justly and bring him to a higher level."

The Southern Statesman (white) says: " 'The white man's country' is an expression which indicates that it is the established policy of the white settlers to eventually drive the natives out of the most desirable portion of their own continent and confine them to the portions in which white men cannot thrive. A white Africa and a black Africa are to settle the matter in the dark continent."

Now, we believe that the native will no more be driven out of Africa, or that portion of the country best suited to the white man, than he is driven out of the United States. The Indian has been driven out of his country by the white man ; every other race of men may be driven out by the white man, when he so determines ; but we can find no instance in history where the Negro and Caucasian settled together in large numbers, where they ever again succeeded in separating. These two races seem to be better adapted to live together than any two extremely opposite races.