Origin of the White Race

I would not attempt to express my idea of the origin of any race, were it not for the oft-repeated declaration that “the white people are, and always have been, the original superior race” and that “they alone have the God – given right to rule,” besides which, “their inherent superiority of moral, social, intellectual and physical development and propensity have characterized that race from time immemorable,” in contradistinction to all other races. They claim a pedigree so ancient that they don't know for certain who the first white man was, or where he came from. They refer their origin relatively back, beyond any definite point of chronological history, to the pre-Adamite man, and claim him as their progenitor; they do more than this on the whole, as the majority of their able writers do not ascribe their origin to be the work of God, but the outcome of evolution, the result of natural forces, helped by the theory of the “survival of the fittest.” Now, I believe in proving certain things by the aid of Biblical testimony.

The Bible, as we now have it, is largely the result of the white man's literary and historical research, and, therefore, he ought to be willing to allow it to decide this matter; the more so, as he has persistently taught the American Negro for years that his color and servitude were accounted for by the curse of Noah upon Canaan, thus – “A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren;” – they usually added the word “forever” as an explanation why the curse lasted so long.

I claim, in the presentation of the following facts, that (1) races , the same as individuals or families, have their day of infancy and ignorance, then power and renown, after which they decline into weakness, and eventually pass into oblivion, leaving naught behind but a perishable history of past achievement. But, nevertheless, throughout the whole course of their existence they retain certain characteristics which mark or prove the peculiar individuality of each race. Thus, a child is born, grows to mature age, passes to old age and death, with the conscious knowledge of its own personal identity. I shall endeavor to make plain the testimony herein presented by the rule of racial character.

I claim (2) that from the beginning of race history there were no white men prior to the flood, nor perhaps for seventeen hundred years after it. I shall prove this by physical characteristics, as per above.

I claim (3) that the record of 2 Kings 5: 20-27 is historically correct, relative to the entrance of the white people, as a race, into the history of the world. I shall prove, by the above rules and something else, my right to make these assertions.

The subject under consideration is the origin of the races as recognized by geography and recorded in the Bible. We have five distinct races of mankind: the white or Caucasian, the red or Indian, the black or Negro, the brown or Malay, and the yellow or Mongolian, of which the Bible says, “that of one blood” God had made them, and then gives a clear, definite account of the origin of each. (We depend upon the current interpretation of the names Adam and Ham.) It is commonly reported that Adam was of a yellowish complexion, or at least of a very light brown color, as all clay-colored articles are generally classed between these shades, and, until the birth of Ham, there had been no appreciable change from the original color of Adam, which, we will say was yellow. Now read Genesis 5:5, where it states that Japheth’s descendants (yellow people) settled in the islands after their tongues, families and nations. It seems strange, but true, that to this day the yellow race, as represented by the Chinese, Japanese, etc. have a penchant for exclusiveness and non-intercommunication with foreign people. The progeny of Ham, the darky (see 20th verse), settled in the countries and first made use of state names, which are recognized by the world at large as being identically the same now as then. Shem (we will suppose, having no evidence to the contrary) was of a brown complexion… Asia is nominally the yellow man’s country, although the brown race flourishes unmolested in large numbers. I wish to state here that the Jews are not, and never have been, classed as white men, they are from the stock of Shem the brown man. (See Gen. 10:21 and 11:10-26.)

Africa is known always to have been, and is, the land of the darky or black man; America, the red man’s country originally; and Australasia the home of the brown-skinned race. I would like to state that the brown race has followed every other known race on earth, except the white race, in intermarriage and social union, remaining distinctively brown to the end. It was found wherever the black, red, or yellow man settled, and also lived in its own country remote from the above-named race. We have, then, four distinct races accounted for; but how comes it that the first-named on the list has no history in the appointment of the world at this time (1846 B.C.)? It is that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “The first shall be last and the last first.” The yellow race had its day from Adam to the flood. The blacks had their day from the building of Babel to the fall of Nineveh and Babylon. The red man has had his day from Esau’s migration until his acquaintance with the white race. The white race is now havinh its; next will come the brown man’s turn, and the prophecy of unity and harmony in racial religion and social life, by Noah, will be fulfilled (see Gen. 9:26, 27); for Shem was the last of Noah’s children, and Christianity is the last of all revealed religion, and Christ is of the brown race, being a Jew, a descendant of Abraham…

We now proceed to determine the origin of the white race. We will first read Lev. 13:10-13, 20, 30, 37, 42, where we have the actual description of the white man as he exists today. The physical characteristics are, (1) skin darkish-white, reddish-white and white, with (2) hair yellow, black or white. These peculiarities of hair are the white man’s greatest proof of unmixed blood in the race; in fact, no other race of people are reddish-white or darkish-white with yellow, golden or auburn hair, except the Caucasian race, and none but they ever have a pure white face and black hair. In the thirteenth verse we have the original feature of a white man, who, however, could not reproduce white children, because his blood was not contaminated. The disease was similar in certain respects to our smallpox, it was in part progressive, incurable and contagious in all of its stages until it reached the climax – “all turned white,” – the victim was marked for life, as the pitts of the smallpox remain to prove a person’s infection; in both cases the disease is not constitutional or transmittable. I thus claim that the original races were not white men in the Caucasian sense of the word; for proof, read Ex. 4:6, 7, then Num. 12:10 and Lev. 13:46. This brings us to the origin of the white race as found in 2 Kings 5. We notice first that a white skin was not a badge of honor, neither was it a condition to be desired in those days, and nobody in the Bible boasts of being white; it is true that Salomon in his Song (5:10) says “my beloved is white and ruddy;” and David, when a youth, was described as being ruddy and fair; but the word “ruddy” does not mean pure white, and Salomon declares (Songs 1:5) that he himself was black, and as his most notable wife was a black king’s daughter, we presume he knew what he was taking about; in fact, the explanation of the contrast between his love and the other women was not one of color, as the average white man might suppose, but was simply that of beauty. “She was very fair, the chieftest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.” Now, in 2 Kings 5:20, we notice what Gehazi, the servant of Elisha said: “As the Lord liveth, I will run after him and take somewhat of him.” We will bear in mind the well-fromed excuse and bold request he made to Naaman; we shall remember his actions of secrecy, and the unblushing falsehood relative to his journey when he stood in the presence of the prophet; we call attention to his master’s question, “Is it a time to receive money, garments, olive yards, etc.?” The inference was that this was not the first time that Gehazi had prostituted his holy office. We introduce Elisha’s curse, which had an immediate effect, and upon Gehazi ' s seed, present and future, forever, – “and he (Gehazi) went out a leper, white as snow. “We remark here that this condition now became constitutional or transmissible from parent to child, with the accompanying physical characteristics of hair…

We sum up our facts thus: That Gehazi was the progenitor of the Caucasian or white race,

First, by racial characteristics as to hair, skin, etc., as through him white children were destined to be produced, as Adam, by sin, doomed all of his seed to labor and death.

Second, by social instincts. “I will run after him.” The white men are the greatest travelers on earth. All of their modern inventions tend to one end, and that is to make haste. There is no nation on earth known to mankind but what the white man deems it his duty to “run after” them, usually as the servant of God. But, strange to say, he never loses his identity, his interest or motive.

Third, by moral characteristics. “I will take somewhat of him.” The white men first overran Europe, and the extinction of the former inhabitants gave them the country. America, the red man’s original home, is almost theirs, and their extinction is merely a matter of time; in Asia, the yellow man’s home, and in Africa, the country of the blacks, he is working on the same plan – to get something. He has taken his religion from the Jews, law from the Romans, literature from the Greeks, music from the Italians, history from the Egyptians, astronomy from the Chinese, mathematics from Arabia; and indeed every science, save that of increased speed – as represented by the locomotive, telegraph and steamship, the electric light and infidelity – is borrowed or attained by fraud from other races. In fact, it is the boast of the white race that contact with it means to all other races, either by absorption or extermination; as Gehazi did to Naaman’s talents of silver and changes of raiment – he used the one and spent the other. So does it to all other races.

Fourth, by religious characteristics. “As the Lord liveth,” etc. Gehazi had a full knowledge of Elisha’s mysterious power in God’s name; but although he carried the prophet’s staff, he could not perform a miracle. He willfully dared to hoodwink the master with a lie, and after being disgraced and driven off, held on to the title as “servant of the man of God.” And so today the white race builds churches and attempts to evangelize the whole world for Christ; but its religion, as a whole, is intellectual, not emotional or spiritual; it believes in destiny, or rather, that “mind is superior to matter,” that “evolution is the cause of creation,” and that “there is no conclusive evidence of a life beyond the grave.” It is the only race on earth that produces infidels, who believe there is no God. […]

Fifth, by racial antipathy. There is always a physical shock experienced on both sides whenever the white race for the first time meets with any of the other races, be they yellow, black or red. There is, also, an almost unconquerable aversion existing between the white and black races, because the white race willingly mingles its blood with the others, but stubbornly refuses to allow intermarriage with its own. […]