Alexander Crummell: A Study of Civilization and DiscontentThis remarkable biography, based on much new information, examines the life and times of one of the most prominent African-American intellectuals of the nineteenth century. Born in New York in 1819, Alexander Crummell was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, after being denied admission to Yale University and the Episcopal Seminary on purely racial grounds. In 1853, steeped in the classical tradition and modern political theory, he went to the Republic of Liberia as an Episcopal missionary, but was forced to flee to Sierra Leone in 1872, having barely survived republican Africa's first coup. He accepted a pastorate in Washington, D.C., and in 1897 founded the American Negro Academy, where the influence of his ideology was felt by W.E.B. Du Bois and future progenitors of the Garvey Movement. A pivotal nineteenth-century thinker, Crummell is essential to any understanding of twentieth-century black nationalism. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... morally rigid and isolated . Constant exposure to prejudice and racial insults made the sensitive and bookish lad bitter and resentful . As a result , he developed a prickly disposition and often found it difficult to make or to retain ...
... morally rigid and isolated . Constant exposure to prejudice and racial insults made the sensitive and bookish lad bitter and resentful . As a result , he developed a prickly disposition and often found it difficult to make or to retain ...
Page 6
... morality . Black studies has been dominated by liberal , egalitarian , and antiestablishmentarian modes of thought . Thus Crummell , who was conserva- tive , elitist and establishmentarian , fits neither the academic 6 / Introduction.
... morality . Black studies has been dominated by liberal , egalitarian , and antiestablishmentarian modes of thought . Thus Crummell , who was conserva- tive , elitist and establishmentarian , fits neither the academic 6 / Introduction.
Page 7
... moral , and economic science . The laws were universal— they did not belong to any race or culture . They were discovered , not invented , and hence not the creation of any race or nation . The fact that Europeans were farther along in ...
... moral , and economic science . The laws were universal— they did not belong to any race or culture . They were discovered , not invented , and hence not the creation of any race or nation . The fact that Europeans were farther along in ...
Page 8
... moral fashion that would come with the First World War . Although they , like most other social theorists , spoke ... morality on the masses of black peasants . Many black leaders seemed to as- sume that white people would treat black ...
... moral fashion that would come with the First World War . Although they , like most other social theorists , spoke ... morality on the masses of black peasants . Many black leaders seemed to as- sume that white people would treat black ...
Page 14
... morals , lit- erature , and the mechanical arts . " The society sponsored numerous cultural , intellectual , and social activities , including a series of scientific lectures . It promoted the founding of " Ward Societies , " which ...
... morals , lit- erature , and the mechanical arts . " The society sponsored numerous cultural , intellectual , and social activities , including a series of scientific lectures . It promoted the founding of " Ward Societies , " which ...
Contents
3 | |
11 | |
3 The Struggles of a Young Priest 18411847 | 34 |
4 Arrival in England 18481849 | 52 |
5 Cambridge Influences 18491853 | 67 |
6 Adjustment to Africa 18531861 | 89 |
7 Changing Attitudes in America and a Visit Home 18531863 | 119 |
8 Liberia College and the Politics of Knowledge 18631867 | 146 |
11 Reconsidering the Destiny of Black Americans 18721882 | 196 |
12 A Man of Mark 18821894 | 222 |
13 Pastor Emeritus 18941896 | 242 |
The American Negro Academy 18961898 | 258 |
15 Crummells Universality and Significance | 276 |
Notes | 303 |
Bibliography | 348 |
Constitution and ByLaws of the American Negro Academy | 365 |
9 Last Battles with the Bishop 18671870 | 162 |
10 Missionary Work and Final Disillusionment 18701872 | 179 |
Index | 367 |
Other editions - View all
Alexander Crummell: A Study of Civilization and Discontent Wilson Jeremiah Moses Limited preview - 1989 |
Common terms and phrases
abolitionist Africa and America African Civilization African Free School African Repository Afro-American Alexander Crummell American Colonization Society American Negro Academy Anti-Slavery April August believed Bishop Payne black Americans black nationalism Blyden Bois Booker Boston British Bruce Papers Cambridge Cape Palmas Christ Christian colonizationists congregation Convention Cromwell Crum Crummell Papers Crummell to Jay Crummell's culture Delany Denison Domestic and Foreign duty Edward Wilmot Blyden England English Episcopal Church Episcopalians Foreign Missionary Society Frederick Douglass friends Future of Africa Grimké heathen Henry Highland Garnet Ibid idea intellectual Jay Papers labor later Liberia College Luke's mell mell's Monrovia moral nationalist native never Onderdonk People's Advocate philosophy political preaching progress Protestant Providence racial religion reported reprinted seemed sermon Sidney slave slavery social Spirit of Missions spoke Stokes tion Trustees of Donations United vestry W.E.B. Du Bois Washington William Woodson writings wrote York young
Popular passages
Page 143 - The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad continent not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours.
Page 103 - That day of wrath, .that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay ? How shall he meet that dreadful day ? When, shrivelling like a parched scroll, The flaming heavens together roll ; When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead ! Oh ! on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away ! HUSH'D is the harp — the Minstrel...
Page 37 - ... nothing of the sort" Of all the three temptations, this one struck the deepest Hate? He had outgrown so childish a thing. Despair? He had steeled his right arm against it, and fought it with the vigor of determination. But to doubt the worth of his lifework, — to doubt the destiny and capability of the race his soul loved because it was his; to find listless squalor instead of eager endeavor; to hear his own lips whispering, They do not care; they cannot know; they are dumb driven cattle, —...
Page 93 - We know, and, what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good, and of all comfort...
Page 37 - England — he stood at last in his own chapel in Providence, a priest of the Church. The days sped by, and the dark young clergyman labored; he wrote his sermons carefully; he intoned his prayers with a soft, earnest voice; he haunted the streets and accosted the wayfarers; he visited the sick, and knelt beside the dying. He worked and toiled, week by week, day by day, month by month. And yet month by month the congregation dwindled, week by week the hollow walls echoed more sharply, day by day...
Page 19 - Where dogs would howl to lie, women, and men, and boys slink off to sleep, forcing the dislodged rats to move away in quest of better lodgings.
Page 149 - Thro' all the years of April blood; A love of freedom rarely felt, Of freedom in her regal seat Of England; not the schoolboy heat, The blind hysterics of the Celt...
Page 269 - It is not a mere negative proposition that settles this question. It is not that the Negro does not need the hoe, the plane, the plough, and the anvil. It is the positive affirmation that the Negro needs the light of cultivation; needs it to be thrown in upon all his toil, upon his whole life and its environments. What he needs is CIVILIZATION. He needs the increase of his higher wants, of his mental and spiritual needs. This, mere animal labor has never given him, and never can give him. But it...