XXXV EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN THE career of Edward Wilmot Blyden, who died February 7, 1912, at Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa, illustrates very graphically several facts. First, the difficulties which the American Negro had to encounter in the last half of the nineteenth century; Second, how these frequently stimulated the activities of the individual who is determined to make the best of his opportunities; Third, how they become at times like withes of straw as handicaps either to dwarf the intellectual, moral or physical growth of the individual. Blyden was born August 3, 1832, on the Island of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies. His parents were of pure Negro stock, of the Eboe tribe and were members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Rev. John P. Knox, Blyden's teacher, an American Missionary of the same denomination perceiving that the youth had unusual intellectual capacity, advised him to pursue a collegiate course in the United States. To fulfill this design the youth came in 1850 to New York but found admission to the colleges to which he applied denied him on account of race. This was just after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law when public excitement was at fever heat, manifesting its opposition in many ways against the individual as well as the class. It had been Blyden's purpose on the completion of his studies to settle in Africa, but the denial of the opportunity determined him to go at once to that distant land. He landed in Liberia, January 26, 1851, and became a pupil in the Alexander High School at Monrovia. Such was the assiduity with which he applied himself to study that he soon be came one of the instructors and in 1858 its principal. When Liberia College was started in 1862, he was made professor of languages. In this year he visited the United States. Dr. Crummell, then a Missionary in Liberia, was also in America. While in this country, Blyden published his first work, "Liberia's Offering." The author recalls a visit by Blyden to the Institute for Colored Youth upon which the young African scholar in the course of an address to the pupils expressed in unmistakable language his contempt for the attitude of the American Negro with respect to his servile condition and the popular indifference in which he was held. Said Blyden: "I would make my mark. I would do something to demand the attention of the American people, if I had to burn the Astor House down." Benjamin Coates, the Quaker merchant, a trustee of the school and a friend of Liberia, interrupted and attempted to rebuke the speaker, but Blyden in his calm manner rejoined, "I don't mean to make marks like they do down South." Another incident was a confirmation in the Church of the Crucifixion, Right Reverend Alonzo Potter, Bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania, officiated while in the chancel, though of a different communion, Dr. Blyden was honored with a seat. In 1864 because of his influence in Liberian politics, which the world-wide traveler, Sir H. H. Johnston, said was almost from the beginning of his citizenship and a result of his exceptionally good education, Blyden was appointed Secretary of State, the duties of which he performed in addition to his educational work at the college. He was not successful, nevertheless, in a movement to amend the Liberian Constitution of 1847 which made Liberia an independent nation. With a view to improve his knowledge of the Arabic language, Dr. Blyden made a journey to Egypt, Syria and Palestine. His experiences in this tour he published in "From West Africa to Palestine." In 1871 he resigned his college professorship and spent two years in Sierra Leone. While here he was entrusted by the British Gov ernment with two important diplomatic missions to native chiefs, one result of which was the negotiation of treaties that added to the territory of the province. Upon the completion of this special work, he returned to Liberia to accept an appointment as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia at the Court of St. James. 1880 once more finds him in America, this time as a representative to the Presbyterian General Assembly at Madison, Wis. On his way thither he visited Chicago during the meeting of the Republican National Convention which nominated James A. Garfield for the Presidency. Here Blyden met representative Negroes from the South, an opportunity which opened the way for visiting many cities in this section and for invitations to preach and lecture on the relation of the American Negro and Africa. His appearances were before large and appreciative audiences who listened to him with profound respect if not with enthusiasm and admiration. Several of these addresses were collected in "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race," which is regarded as his most important literary work. The American Colonization Society at this period elected him as Vice President and on not a few occasions he aimed to convince his audiences that it was the duty of the American Negro to return to Africa and there build up an independent civilization. On his return to assume the duties of the college presidency, the call to which was extended to him during his stay in America, he took with him two of the most thoroughly trained and strongest intellects of the race, Hugh M. Browne and T. McCants Stewart, shortly after their graduation from Princeton Seminary. Their connection with Liberia and its college was of the briefest period. In 1884 Dr. Blyden resigned from the college to take up educational work among the Mohammedans. In 1892 he was again appointed Liberian representative at the Court of St. James. |