skin, the Negro
reinforcement shows itself generally in the slight inclination of the
lips toward thickness, the lustrious black of the eye and hair which is
generally abundant and slightly woolly in texture. This is brought out
plainly in the case of the Jew. Although centuries have passed since the
Jews very extensively amalgamated with the dark races of Egypt and
Canaan, their dark complexions, lustrous black eyes, abundant woolly
hair plainly reveal their Hamatic lineage. To pass through the Bowery or
lower Broadway in the great metropolis at an hour when the shop and
factory girl is hurrying to or from her work, one is struck by the
beauty of Jewish womanhood. King David's successful campaigns placed
Solomon over large dominions of Moabitish and Canaanitish peoples; and
for the stability of his kingdom, Solomon took wives out of all of these
nationalities; and Solomon's most favored wife was his black princess,
Naamah, the mother of Rehoboam, his successor. The poet describes Naamah
as the "Rose of Sharon, the most excellent of her country." The marriage
of Solomon to his black princess was the most notable of any of his
marriages; for that wonderful poem, "Solomon's Songs," is mainly a
eulogy to this one of his many wives. "I am black but comely, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of
Solomon. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath
looked upon me." In the most beautiful language in the gift of the poets
of that day Solomon converses with Naamah in the following dialogue:
"Return, return O Shulamite; return, return that we may look upon thee."
Naamah, "What will you see in Shulamite?" Solomon, "As it were a company
of two armies."
We have conclusive evidence that the Southern gentleman did, and does
sing such love ditties, and talk sweet nothings to the Southern black
woman, and the woman of mixed blood, but unlike Solomon, he is too much
of a coward to publicly extol her. During the slave period in the West
Indian Islands a child born to a slave woman shared the fortunes of its
father; and if the father was free, so was the child. But the American
slave holder reversed that law so that he could humble the bond-woman
and damn her offspring with impunity. Upheld by the law the Southerner
sold his own daughter and sister into a life of shame. The pretty
Negress and the woman of mixed blood brought extortionate prices in
Southern markets. Northern sympathizers may ta
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