Issues from the third volume of the Voice of Industry.
The 16 July 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 1).
The 23 July 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 2).
The 30 July 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 3).
The 7 August 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 4).
The 14 August 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 5).
The 21 August 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 6).
The 27 August 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 7).
The 3 September 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 8).
The 10 September 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 09).
Notes on Books.
Poverty: Its Illegal Causes and Legal Cure.
By L. Spooner. [the American individualist anarchist Lysander Spooner] Boston: B. Marsh. 1846.
This work has been sometime before the public, and has received considerable notice and criticism, both favorable and unfavorable. We dissent entirely from the conclusions of the writer, and think that notwithstanding the acknowledged legal erudition and logical power of the writer, he has signally failed, in the book before us, to establish the point which it is his aim to establish. The causes of poverty lie too deep to be reached by any modification of our judicial code. The work is for sale by Bela Marsh, No. 25 Cornhill, Boston.
Aristocracy.
Why is it that so many of those for whom we are murdering ourselves by slow degrees to support in idleness and heap up mountain-masses of wealth, look down upon us with such supreme contempt? And why do they, while through fraud and oppression they live in riotous splendor on our labor, demand that we treat them with humble deference and adoration? Ought they not rather to be truly grateful and treat us with kindness and civility?
Let no one object to the terms “fraud and oppression.” Those who consume without producing, by their own personal, useful industry, live on the labor of others; and does each one of us willingly support himself and one or two others? If not, do they not obtain their support through fraud and oppression—robbery? True, we consent to be robbed, and that for the very good reason that we are compelled to.
The Declaration of Independence says that all have an equal right to life, liberty, &c., but the child of poverty finds the rights practically denied to him. God’s earth is all monopolized, by the agency of money, and not even a spot on the public lands can he use to raise a single potato to support “life.” He can produce nothing for his subsistence without the consent of others, and hence can only live—if he be permitted to live at all—on such terms, and enjoy only so much liberty and happiness as others dictate. They give us “liberty” to devote half our time to support their lives and ministers to their happiness. And this is demanding quite enough. They are no better entitled to our respect and esteem than if they did not practice such oppression and extortion unless it be on the ground that they are useless idlers; but a watch which would not keep time, or a bee which makes no honey, might as justly claim more admiration than one which does.
It seems strange that the rich should claim our worship merely because they succeeded in depriving us of the products of our honest industry, but stranger still that it should be so freely granted. [Is it] not time to show enough respect for ourselves to loudly firmly and determinedly demand our just, equal, inalienable rights?
- J. E. Thompson
The Emigration of French Communists to the United States (From the Herald).
A French publisher, Mr. Cabet, editor of a newspaper called Le Populaire, printed in Paris, published in one of his last numbers an appeal to all the French communists, of which he calls himself chief. The article is as follows:
Workmen, let us depart for Icaria—what advantages have you here? What is your fate in this country? Recollect, children of the people, poverty seizes you when you are born, and leaves you only when you die. Filth and rags for many, deprivations of every kind, ignorance and superstitious examples of vice for all—work imposed before your strength is developed. Such is your fate. From your infancy excessive labor is imposed upon you—often attended with danger. You are obliged to expose your lives to a thousand risks for an insufficient salary. Sickness—the conscript—the livrel—no rights, no future, but a perpetual dread of the future, with fear of slavery and poverty. * * * * Such is your destiny in your youth.
How many are deprived of the happiness of marriage, and of family comforts! And for those who dared to marry, how many troubles and afflictions have they not to encounter? And in your old age, how many among you, after a laborious life, and numerous services rendered to the country have only for their share destitution, rebuke, infirmities, the hospital and death? Death which puts an end to long sufferings. Look around you and see the wealthy condition of your taskmasters, the opulence of these privileged men who had but the trouble of coming to life to enjoy riches without producing any thing, whilst you have no enjoyment and create all.
And to say nothing that is not just and true, let us not entertain towards the classes reported happy, either envy, or hatred, for they have also their troubles and tribulations. Their ruins and miseries, like ourselves, if not more. They are also victims of a very bad social organization, by which we are all their slaves, and which spreads everywhere antagonism and war, and which leaves to nobody either safety or true happiness. But if the employers and privileged persons are not happy, we workmen—we are bent under the weight of poverty, which every day becomes more and more intolerable, and which renders necessary some heroic and evil extirpating remedy.
In Icaria, in that Icaria which we are on the eve of forming in the United States of America, let us see what will be the fate and happiness of the working classes. There will be no poor people wanting the first necessaries of life, side by side with proprietors overstocked with abundance—but we all shall be proprietors or co-proprietors of an immense collective, social, inseparable, and national property—consequently, no more paupers, no more poverty, with its troubles and anguish—no more riches with their concomitant oppressions and disturbing vices—but an assured existence for all; by industry, and also abundance and good living; consequently, there will be no pauperism! No longer workmen, no longer bosses or masters, but associated—all brothers, all equal, all obliged to work according to their physical and intellectual strength. All the works will be considered as public functions, and all functions as work, consequently no more taskmasters. No more wages but an equal distribution of all products by shares, among those associated. No more want of employment neither an oversupply of labor, but order in both, and an organization the best possible that can be fixed by experience and wisdom—by public opinion and the will of the workers themselves. All the labor of agriculture or manufacture will be divided into appropriate departments, and carried on in extensive workshops. This work will be shared between all the citizens, so that each and all will be occupied and none overworked. The workhouses will be healthy, comfortable, clean and neat. Nothing will be spared by the community to help, relieve, and protect the working man.
The machinery for performing dirty, fatiguing or perilous work will be indefinitely and perpetually multiplied. All the instruments as well as the material are furnished by the community. The labor will be chosen as much as possible according to the vocation, taste, and aptitude of each workman.
All the employments will be temporary, and decided by election.
All citizens will be elected or be eligible for election according to their shares in the general interest.
No more work books, or rather chains; no more military service except that of the national militia; no more taxes, but work; and nothing will be spared to render that work short, easy, without danger or disgust, and agreeable and attractive.
The community will guarantee everybody a house, food, instruction, education, medical attendance and medicine, liberty to marry and have children, and all the reasonable enjoyments of civilization.
No aristocracy, no privilege, no inequality, but the purest democracy, as between brothers, and from that principle of brothership, equality in labor as well as in enjoyment—equality according to the ratio of distribution, in order to have every body equally happy, nobody being happier than others, and seeing nobody happier than himself. In short, in Icaria, the workmen will be the people, the nation, the society, the country—they will be a government by and for themselves—and when a most perfect education will have given to a new generation all the development that it is susceptible of, you will easily perceive that mankind will rapidly advance on all the roads of progress towards the degree of perfection designed for humanity by Nature and Providence.
Workmen! We who are now tied, abused, chained—who have no rights, are not cared for; no work, no bread, no future, as at present—let us go and seek elsewhere, for the Providence or nature which offers us all the treasures of their love and beneficence. Let us go and make the foundation of Icaria on the American Land.
The Chartist Land Plan.
The Chartists of England, at the head of whom is Fergus O'Connor, now one of the most popular men in England, are engaged in an important, and thus far successful movement. In 1845, we believe, the National Land Company was formed, for the purpose of accumulating means, through a system of co-operation to purchase, from time to time, such estates as may be for sale, at the whole sale price, and apportion them by lot in two, three and four acre farms, at the same price. This plan finds great favor with the people. We find the following paragraph in regard to it in Howitt's Journal.—Ed.
Within two years they have collected a capital of upwards of 30,000l., and purchased two estates, one one of which, that of O'Connorville, many families are located in the cottages. O'Connor is most indefatigable in his exertions, and the utmost confidence of ultimate success prevails among the Chartist body. May it be realized; for it certainly is a great experiment on the co-operative principle, and every attempt to incite the working classes to accumulate and secure property, is deserving of the warmest commendation. We cannot help thinking, however, that a union of trade with agriculture, must give a more certain element of stability to such a plan.
Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.
Attachments
Comments
The 17 September 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 10).
The 24 September 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 11).
The 1 October 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 12).
The 8 October 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 13).
The 15 October 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 14).
The 22 October 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 15).
The 29 October 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 16).
The 5 November 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 17).
The 12 November 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 18).
The 19 November 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 19).
Attachments
Comments
Will be having a look at that.
I love grand laborist mastheads, perhaps because when I were a tyke, my parents had The Irish World/American Industrial Liberator (among others) in the house:
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM135478
The advertisements are pretty good too...

Never heard of the Irish World, will have to check it out.
Beautiful it is to see human souls thus struggling with poverty and toil, sustained only by those ministering angels, Hope and mutual Faith.
What a quaint tale of thrift and diligent labour. Such a shining example to recalcitrant proletarians.
Jean Paul says, truly, "Wealth bears far heavier on talent than poverty. Under gold mountains and thrones, who knows how many a spiritual giants may lie crushed down and buried?"
Whilst abroad prosaic realists dealt with the savagery of our daily lives, making of German Romanticist poetry what it is, a mockery.
westartfromhere wrote: What a quaint tale of thrift and diligent labour. Such a shining example to recalcitrant proletarians.
westartfromhere wrote: Whilst abroad prosaic realists dealt with the savagery of our daily lives, making of German Romanticist poetry what it is, a mockery.
The first page of most Voice issues was often some kind of reprinted story/novel. I'm not sure why you think that that particular story dialogue was intended as any kind of instruction to "proletarians." I mean if you're arguing that the Voice was somehow in favor of workers working diligently and being obedient toward capitalists, then that's just complete nonsense that's refuted by nearly every issue, such as the current issue:
Jaques and Orvis wrote: We know it is all twaddle, the talk about the elasticity and health of factory girls, who are shut up thirteen hours a day, in an atmosphere stifled with heat, and heavy with cotton [fumes]. He is either mad or near crazy, who says that dyers, shoemakers, hatters, &c., can be healthy, whilst compelled to bend over their work from thirteen to fifteen hours per day.
I don't agree with every single word printed in the Voice by every single contributor/editor, but that's not the point of archiving stuff.
The words speak for themselves:
Beautiful it is to see human souls thus struggling with poverty and toil, sustained only by those ministering angels, Hope and mutual Faith.
It is these words which are "complete nonsense". It is you that wish to reproduce these archives here. For what purpose, only you know. Certainly not for 'instruction of "proletarians" '. For how can nonsense give instruction?
adri wrote: I'm not sure why you think that that particular story dialogue was intended as any kind of instruction to "proletarians."
You missed the point, adri. The point is, does The Voice of Industry give good instruction to we recalcitrant proletarian readers today? Is it merely of historic interest, or is it relevant to our struggle for communism today? Or, in your own words, "I don't mean to be rude, but what does this have to do with communism?" The answer is, all written work, including that of the republican bourgeoisie of the nineteenth century above, or Black religious nationalism (see below, a reproduction of an article removed by the Administrator at some point after 12/10/2025, with vociferous voices of disapproval, and other comments on the text) of the early twentieth century, contributes knowledge for our contemporary struggle. Even a management manual could have insights in that management is effectively a tool of suppression of communism. With the reference to the deleted article and comments below, surely, dispelling the supremacy myth of European, White, civilisation, i.e. barbarism, is of foremost need? In 1935, anarchists still referred to us as "THE NEGRO", whilst we called our self BLACK.
The Black Man, The Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History
A great book written by the man that earlier wrote, circa 1919, "there shall come a Universal King and according to Biblical History, he will be a black man with woolly hair. His word will be his sword." This lead many in the Caribbean and beyond to look towards Africa, and away from Europe, for the crowning of such a man, thereby causing much distress to, and brutal suppression by, the colonial powers.
Webb's prophecy was plagiarised for nefarious ends by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the famed entrepreneur and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities (Imperial) League and related capitalist enterprises, such as the Black Star Line shipping company and the Negro Factories Corporation. Woe for all these pinnacle thieves!
Submitted by westartfromhere on October 4, 2025
PREFACE.
I have many objects in presenting this book to the public.
First: I love my race regardless of the prejudice against her, the unenviable position she holds, and the things she is falsely said to be guilty of.
I demonstrate my love for her by launching this book before the public as somewhat of a defense against the prejudice of ancient, as well as modern historical writers and lecturers, who have misrepresented her, and took from her the good deeds and honors that are justly due her.
Secondly: I realize that my race has had defenders, and has some now, men of my race and men of other races. But I am simply presenting this book as an humble race defender, in connection with the body of race defenders, and if my theory in this book is accepted as one of the little fingers of this splendid body, I will feel that I have accomplished some results and thus portrayed the story of “The Widow’s Mite” [1] —she gave all she had, and I contribute likewise.
Thirdly: To appreciate my argument, the reader had best have a Bible at [Pg 4] his finger tips so as to examine my references and compare them with my statements, which I make wholly and solely upon the authorities found in the Bible, which in turn is the real and only authority on ancient history (again my authority is not inspired in the slightest degree with malice or hatred for the white race). My profession as a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would not permit me to defend in the name of justice, harboring malice and hatred or any ill feeling toward my white brethren. I am acting with that meek and humble spirit and with a gigantic pride in my race, which I hope, pleases God.
J. M. WEBB.
INTRODUCTION
THE Bible gives the first and only true account of the origin of mankind. It is the only book containing an accurate record of the progress of man toward civilization, and it is the indispensable reference of all searchers after the real facts of the birth of humanity and its progress toward the civilization of today; beginning with his creation, it is the only authentic record of man; authentic because it is first hand, not a copy of something else or a scientific or literary review, but a dispassionate record of man’s creation and progress, untrimmed, unshaped and unvarnished, to suit prejudice. It would not be a complete record if it did not show with the rest of them the origin of the black man and “Woe for all these pinnacle thieves” [2] —it shows that he, the “black man” is the “father of civilization.”
The black man has been misrepresented by prejudiced historians and lecturers. It has been and is now quoted that Ham, the father of the black man, was cursed by his father, Noah. Now, in regard to this [Pg 6] incident let us take the Biblical record for it, and anyone not totally blind with prejudice will be convinced by reading in the Book of Genesis the 9th Chapter from the 20th to the 27th verse inclusive, that Noah did not, “for he could not curse” Ham, although he did in a fit of intoxication pronounce a curse on Canaan, the son of Ham. In passing, I might mention that Canaan was never inconvenienced by the curse of Noah, because he was the Father of seven prosperous nations, foremost among them were the Canaanites, Phoenicians and Sidonians. The Sidonians sprang from Sidon, who was the first son of Canaan, according to Genesis 10th Chapter 15th verse. These same Sidonians are the men “descended from black men” whom Solomon ordered Hiram of Tyre to engage to do the skilled hewing and designing of the timber work on Solomon’s temple—Solomon declaring that these Sidonians, “black men” were the only men possessed with anywhere near sufficient skill to take charge of and successfully complete the artistic timber work on “His” Solomon’s temple. First Kings 5th Chapter 6th verse speaks very plainly of this fact. Solomon knew the black race was a superior, not an inferior race. He married Pharoah’s daughter—see 1st Kings, 3rd [Pg 7] Chapter 1st verse; 7th Chapter 8th verse, also the 9th Chapter and 16th verse. Solomon’s wife might have been of as dark skin or even as black as he was, for history shows that Egypt had two full blooded Ethiopian Pharoahs just before and during the reign of Solomon, according to Herodotus, the names of these two Ethiopians were Sabaco or “Sebichos” and Sethos, so Solomon surely got an Ethiopian “Negro or black” woman for a wife. This naturally increased the proportion of Negro blood in the veins of the future King of the Jews. Viewing the progress of the immediate descendants of Ham we learn that a curse laid upon one by a mortal of that day was as foolish and ineffective as it is in this, the story about this curse, also the story of the black man who contended that a black skin and woolly hair is a disgrace, has, according to the Bible, no foundation. Speaking of black skin, the greatest brain work and wisdom ever given to this world was given by men of black skins, or at least in whose veins the greatest portion of blood was Ethiopian or Negro blood. As to this assertion and King Solomon, see “Songs of Solomon 1st Chapter 6th verse.” Solomon’s dark skin should cause no surprise, because his mother, Hittite, was also the [Pg 8] widow of Uriah (see 2nd Samuels 12th Chapter 9th and 10th verses). The Hittites are the descendants of Heth and Heth was the second son of Canaan (see Genesis 10th Chapter 15th verse).
As to the woolly hair, Jesus, the Blessed Saviour of Mankind, will have His head covered with woolly hair when he comes to judge the world, (Daniel 7th Chapter 9th and 10th verses). Now, if Daniel’s prophecy is true that when Christ left this earth he had woolly hair, he naturally will return with woolly hair, and the pictures of Him today are an erroneous conception of Him, by the artists. This grand old book the Bible, does not show that God ever turned a man black to disgrace him for his sins, or anything else, but this same Bible does show that God’s power did turn a man white to disgrace him because of his sins, and said that his seed would be likewise forever. Facts are stubborn things and often very disagreeable, sometimes even sickening, and by reading carefully the 5th Chapter of the 2nd Kings, 25th, 26th and 27th verses, many of our highly civilized brethren “whose ancient ancestors disgraced them” will suffer an alarming fit of nausea. Among the many low cowardly things that [Pg 9] have been said and done against the Negro during this Christian era, one poor benighted individual published a “joke” in book form, in which he claims that, the Negro is a beast, the poor fellow tries to be serious, and no doubt thinks he is offering at least some proof of his assertion. The poor fellow of course, receives some sympathy, and would no doubt receive as much as any of the rest of his class, were it not for the fact that he holds a Professorship in one of our leading American Christian Universities. Of course the disgust, if any, is felt for those responsible for placing the poor devil in such a position, and the real and well placed sympathy is for the student, who must suffer because of this fellow. The fact remains, however, that regardless of what has been said and done against the Negro and of whatever might be said or done against him in future, he is the ONLY man who can trace himself back through the ages to his origin, and find monumental evidence of his unequaled greatness, his prowess, the laurels and great honors he won, the things he created and perfected which have a direct influence on our civilization of today.
The “black man” I boldly assert “was the Father of civilization,” born in the land [Pg 10] of Egypt, and the different branches of Science and Art were simply transmitted to other races, which, as the ages have rolled by have only been enlarged and to some extent improved upon. Even the modern American Negro has proven that he is original, for instance—as a Tonsorial Artist he has no superiors and no Negro was ever known to enter a “Barber College” to learn the trade. Negroes inherit the sweetest, most musical voices, and if you have not heard a Negro quartette or chorus after they have arranged the harmony of a piece they are to sing, you have not heard what is best and sweetest in vocal music. As instrumentalists “not forgetting the many others” I simply mention Blind Tom, and Blind Boone, the fame of these two men needs no comment. They only displayed that talent handed down to them through centuries by their black ancestors. As for the Negro being original, why the Negro has given great America the only claim she ever did or ever will have to a National music.
God honored the black man by allowing some of his Ethiopian blood to flow in the veins of His only Son Jesus Christ, and I unhesitatingly assert that Jesus would in [Pg 11] America be classed a NEGRO. I make this assertion only on the authority of the Bible, according to which Jesus was born out of the tribe of Judah. Judah had only five children and they were males, (1st Chron. 2nd ch. and 4th v.), three by his first wife and two by his second wife (1st Chron. 2nd ch. 3rd and 4th vs.), and both of his wives were descendants of Canaan, a black man who was the son of Ham (Genesis 10th ch. 6th v.). Tamar, Judah’s second wife, bore him two of these sons whose names were Phares and Zarah (1st Chron. 2nd ch. and 4th v.), these two names appear in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Book of Matthew (1st Chapter 3rd verse), so it is no trouble to see that Judah of whom Christ was to come, started out by presenting to the world children of Canaanite women who were Hamite descendants. Now, Virgin Mary, of whom Christ was born was beyond all doubt a woman out of the tribe of Judah, and every Bible reference proclaims that Jesus was to spring from this tribe of Judah (Genesis 49-10, Heb. 7-14, Rev. 5-5th). Our beloved St. Paul tells us in (Romans 1-3) that Jesus was of the seed of David according to the flesh. David is the 10th man named from Judah in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1st[Pg 12] Chapter, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th verses). Added to this David’s great, great grandfather “Booz” was born of the woman Rahab, who was a direct descendant of Ham (Matthew 1st Chapter 5th verse). This also shows that David, one of God’s greatest soldiers, was one who most successfully led his people and one who had Negro blood in his veins. Bible history is full of honors for the Black Man, Jethro the Ethiopian or Negro father-in-law of Moses, who was the author who first employed that, which is today, our judicial system, considerably twisted and revised to meet the changing conditions of civilization (Exodus 18th Chapter). This chapter tells of Jethro’s visit to Moses, and how he gave Moses the foundation of what is today our system of graded courts for pronouncing judgments. Again Moses “The Hebrew Emancipator” was named by a black woman “Pharoah’s daughter”—she said she called him Moses because she drew him out of the water (Exodus 2-10) and besides black men educated Moses. At any rate he received what education he had in the schools of the black people of Egypt (Acts 7th 22nd), so there is nothing remarkable in the fact that Dr. Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, W. S. Scarborough and [Pg 13] many other Negro or black men occupy places among the foremost and most eminent educators of the world, and why should they not? They are descended from fathers who ruled Egypt centuries ago and with their great wisdom layed the foundation of learning.
THE BLACK MAN
FIRST CHAPTER.
"THAT time changes all things” is a saying so old and so true as to admit of no argument. It is exemplified in so many different ways as to require no comment, and yet when we hear the phrase used glibly and thoughtlessly, every day, it is but natural to wonder if the one who uses it realizes what he is saying, or rather, if he knows what those few commonplace words mean, when used to form that sentence.
It is a foregone conclusion that he does not. He never stopped, “he, of this enlightened age, I mean,” long enough to examine even a little of the abundance of indisputable proof that the saying “Time changes all things” applies to things and conditions, seldom if ever present, to his own narrow mind, and far away and beyond even his meaner and low prejudiced influence. If he did, his retrospective mood, would, before carrying him back to the very beginning, suffer something of a shock, and his attitude would change. Instead of delighting in history, modern, medieval and [Pg 16] ancient, his attitude would change so noticeably that an observer would imagine that his only interest was in tearing down and falsifying facts, and concealing records that he could not falsify. When we hear or read the sayings of some of our “misnamed” great men, but in reality disgustingly conspicuous public figures, we are fully justified in making the charge of falsifying and concealing such facts as they are not really ignorant of. One of these conspicuous public characters delights in making the assertion that the Hamite Ethiopian or Negro never amounted to anything, or possessed anything, never occupied an eminence, save to which the Semitic or white man had dragged or driven him up to. If ignorance alone was responsible for this glaring falsehood, a great deal of sympathy would go out to those who make the statement as well as those who believe it to be true because of their ignorance. As harsh as it may seem sympathy would be wasted for a great deal of the self asserted enlightenment of today is but egotism. Much of the so-called wisdom is self praise for successfully concealing, or at least surrounding historical facts with such mystery as to place the descendants of Shem upon an eminence which is not justly his and makes him in his own [Pg 17] opinion appear much larger than what he really is. And yet with all the egotism, some knowledge of the true origin of mankind exists, and it is this knowledge that causes the fasifying and hiding as much as possible the true historical records, especially of the black man. It cannot be said that the learned historical writers, the great Divines, Theological students and lecturers of today are ignorant of the history of Ham, the son of Noah, and his descendants, such as Nimrod, the founder of the great ancient city of Babylon, and also Menes the first King of Egypt and the founder of the great ancient city of Memphis.
Ridpath says that the traditions of antiquity points to Memphis and Babylon as the fountains of human wisdom. If those above-named are ignorant of the history of the last-named, they are doing the world a great injustice in assuming the position of teacher and leader. If they are familiar with the history of the races and the deeds of men, they will no doubt have for them and their kind good and sufficient reasons for making false and misleading statements as to some historical records, and totally forgetting or demeaning others.
An early Queen of Egypt was a descendant of the Ethiopian or Negro race. [Pg 18] This is conceded by some of the modern writers; some of them going so far as to say that her skin was very black, and a few of them acknowledge that it was this black queen who placed the first fleet of war ships on the river Nile. They have no doubt traced this woman back to where they are satisfied that she was descended in a direct lineal line from Zipporah, the black and Ethiopian wife of Moses. We read very little of these two women, because modern writers seek to obscure them, and our ministers of the gospel never preach or lecture on that part of the Bible in which they are mentioned. WHY? Because, if they do they must give credit to black people. In this connection, I do not speak of Biblical history only. Were it not for the fact that the dimensions of this book would be extended far beyond what was intended, I could begin even with Hannibal, the Carthagenian General, and record the accomplishments of black men without the intervening of any long periods of time, down to the time of Alexander Dumas, Toussant L’Overture, and Alexander Sergievitch Pouskin, Russo-African poet. I could do more, I could come into the borders of this Republic and beginning with Crispus Octikus, or Alexander Hamilton—record the[Pg 19] accomplishments of these same black descendants of Ham, down to this day. This modern record would contain many references to both the war of Independence and the war of the Rebellion. It would also mention a great many black men who can never forget El Caney and San Juan Hill. Besides the heroes of war, modern history is replete with the names of black men famous in peace for their accomplishments in science and letters of art. Space will not permit me to dwell upon these men and their accomplishments and the towering obstacles in spite of which they succeeded. I could not fail, however, to mention Frederick Douglas who was one of the greatest statesmen America ever had, even though he was born a slave. Dr. Booker T. Washington was also born a slave, and is one of the greatest educators the world has ever known. As to the many other great things black men have done and are doing, I cannot fail to mention the north pole, for, if human beings have stood on the spot claimed as the north pole, the black man was preceded by no one. I speak of Mr. Matt Henson, the Negro, who, if indeed, the pole ever was reached, was one of the first of the only two “to date” to reach it.
SECOND CHAPTER.
HIS FIRST HOME
God but faintly revealed the puzzle of civilization to Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japhet (Genesis 9th Chapter 1st seven verses), and it became their duty to start to work on the first moves of the puzzle, as well as to create nations. He, who would begin from the first, moves and works the matter out to perfection.
Ham, the father of the black man, located in Africa. Africa was his homestead, so to speak. David, the Psalmist, credited Ham with this territory in the 105th Psalm 23rd and 27th verses, and also in the 106th Psalm 22nd verse. Now, if this is not true, and we reject it on the ground of not being sufficient proof of the black man’s first and original home, we can on quite as good ground reject any and every other part of the Bible, for what I here state is no wild imagination, but FACTS taken from the Bible.
Cush, Mizriam, Phut and Canaan were the first sons of Ham (Genesis 10th [Pg 22] Chapter, 6th verse), and these four sons including Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, were the first to start work on the problem of civilization; in a word they were the pioneers and the very pillars of civilized governments.
Cush located in South Egypt on the River Nile. He became the father of the Ethiopians as well as the father of the Cushites through Nimrod who located on the Southern part of the Euphrates River. It is to be remembered that Nimrod is the founder of the Babylonian kingdom (Genesis 10th Chapter, 10th verse.) Mizriam located on the upper part of the River Nile, and he became the father of the Egyptians. Phut located in the Northern part of Africa. Canaan located in the land known as the old Palestine country, which is modern Turkey. Canaan became the father of the Canaanites (Genesis 10th Chapter, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th verses). According to the Bible the above is the exact location of the first sons of Ham, and the question which naturally follows is, “Was civilization born in their land and given birth by Ham’s first offspring?” It is conceded by John Clark Ridpath and a few other writers on ancient history that the Egyptians were the fathers of civilization, [Pg 23] according to the chronology of Manetho, an Egyptian priest. Egypt was founded in the year B. C. 3892, and Menes was the first mortal King. The all important question now arises, “Were the Egyptians descendants of black men, or were they descendants of white men? Were they descendants of Ham or Shem?” It is well known that students claim to be divided in their opinion as to the original stock from which the ancient Egyptians came. Ridpath, among others, says they were neither Semitic nor Negro, but concludes his remarks on the origin of the Egyptians by saying that the ancient Egyptians were considered a branch of that part of the Cushite family, which settled in Asia. Probably the little matter of the Cushites being the grand-children of Ham slipped Ridpath’s mind, else his statements would not have been so conflicting, because he just says that they were not Negroes, but ends his argument by saying that they were a branch of the Cushite family of Asia.
It requires no laborious research to establish the facts that Cush was the father of all Cushite nations. He was also the first son of Ham (Genesis 10th Chapter, 6th verse). Now then, if the Ethiopians and all other Cushite nations who sprang from this first son of Ham were not Negroes, will [Pg 24] some of our historians omit the word “probably,” so much used by them, and say what they were. It is fair to assume that with their boasted intelligence and superior brain power, by this time they would have been able to search out and connect at least some of the many facts, and plain, indisputable records in the Bible which leaves no room for doubt or “probably.”
We learn from the Bible that Ham is the father of the African family; the Ethiopian is the darkest or blackest tribe of the Hamites. Cush was the founder or father of this tribe. Moses selected his wife from this black or Ethiopian tribe (Numbers 12th Chapter, 1st verse). It must be plain to any one who will read the parts referred to in the Bible, that Ridpath’s contention that the Egyptians sprang from the Cushites was the wrong avenue to escape the blood of the Negro, or their relation to the black man’s family. I believe, however, that Ridpath wrote in good faith for the majority of the historical writers claim that the Egyptians descended from a white race, notwithstanding they admit that the Old Testament gives the truest, the most complete and reliable record on the origin of the Egyptians of any other book, so it is not unnatural to believe [Pg 25] that their opinions are influenced by racial prejudice.
Now it is true that the Bible contains the only authentic, and certainly the most ancient record of not only the Egyptians, but of all mankind, and I CAN and will PROVE by it that the Egyptian—Hamite—sprang from Mizriam.
According to the Biblical Gazette, the word “Egypt” is derived from the word Mizriam, and this word “Mizriam” was the name of one of the first sons of Ham (Genesis 10th Chapter, 6th verse). By the word “Egypt” being coined from the word “Mizriam,” it strengthens my contention that the Egyptian was descended from the black man. I will now dig down further into the rich earth of proof for more enlightenment out of the Book of Truth. By viewing the ancient Bible map of Africa and Asia, which map can be found in the back of the New Testament, one can readily pick out the spots upon which Shem, Ham and Japheth first located. You will notice that Mizriam, the second son of Ham, and the accredited father of the Egyptians located on the very spot, so to speak, where the great City of Memphis was built by Menes, the first King of Egypt. Again you will notice that all [Pg 26] the names within African borders are names of the sons of Ham, Shem and his offspring, located in Asia. Perhaps a better way to locate Ham, Shem and Japheth and their first offspring is first to read the 10th and 11th Chapters of Genesis, then locate their names on the map, and it will be seen that not a Shemite, or white man, originally located in Africa. All of the white men located in Asia, and according to the Bible white men never began to travel in Africa until Abraham’s time, B. C. 1921. The Egyptians lived in a high state of civilization near 2,000 years before Abraham’s first visit to Egypt, and the appearance of white people was a circus and a curiosity to the black people. Abraham realized this fact and commanded his wife to represent herself as his sister, because as he said, “she was fair to look upon,” white (Genesis 12th Chapter, 11th, 12th and 13th verses). This would indicate that the Egyptians were not white, and I will say without fear of my assertion being disproven, that until after the time of Abraham, the Egyptians were a simon pure black race. Shortly after Abraham’s visit, the Shemitic or white travellers began to pour into Egypt to such an extent that the Egyptians began inter-marrying with them, and of course, [Pg 27] this inter-marrying had its effect of contaminating the pure Negro blood, and this inter-marrying was the cause of the black man, or full blooded Egyptian losing the power of control in the Kingdom. In other words—this is the loop through which the Shepherd or white or Shemitic kings slipped through and took possession of the Egyptian kingdom.
THIRD CHAPTER.
HIS RULE IN EGYPT
Dr. Leonhard Schmitz, Ph. D., LL. D., F. R., S. E., says in his work on ancient Egyptian history, that these Hyksos or Shepherd Kings were Semite people. “White,” of course, and they comprised the 15th, 16th and 17th dynasties, which covered 511 years. Now, during this period, Jacob and his twelve sons and their families moved from Canaan to Egypt, and other Semite or whites from Asia did likewise, because the white man had begun to rule Egypt. At the 18th Dynasty, however, fortune turned against the white rulers of Egypt, and the black men or the Negroes regained possession of their country, and banished the whites from their land, except the Jews, whom they held as slaves. They reorganized the Kingdom with their own blood, “the blood of the Negro.” Aahmas was the first King after the whites were driven out, and his wife was Nefruari, the Ethiopian Princess, greatly celebrated for her dusky charms, her wealth and her [Pg 30]accomplishments. The beginning of this reorganization of a period is recorded in the 1st Chapter of the Book of Exodus, which shows that at the beginning of the slavery of the Jews, God told Abraham that his people would be held in bondage in Egypt for 400 years (Genesis 15th Chapter, 13th verse). Those 400 years marked the period of Egypt’s most rapid and substantial progress, as Dr. Schmitz says in writing on ancient Egyptian history, those years were the most brilliant in Egypt’s record, and the period at which her art reached its highest point. It is but reasonable to suppose this to have been so, for the Shepherd, or “white Kings” had destroyed all of the former brilliancy of Egypt, and did not because they could not do anything to replace or imitate its grandeur or beauty. The black people when they regained possession of their Kingdom and again began to rule, made slaves of the Jews and compelled them to do all the heavy, dirty, unskilled labor, such as carrying bricks and mortar and working in the field (Exodus 1st Chapter, 13th and 14th verses). While the Egyptians turned their attention to science and art and reorganizing and drilling their army, so as to be able to protect their country against all nations. As Dr. Schmitz [Pg 31] says, the Eastern boundaries of Egypt were well protected by strong fortresses. This is but natural, because on the East, the Semitic or white races reigned, and no doubt they were unfriendly to the Egyptians, or “black” people, because they had expelled the Shepherd or “white” Kings from their land. Now, when the Egyptians had attained “in that Age” to the highest degree of intelligence and wisdom, and were possessed of the greatest human power, God deemed it wise to make His own Infinite wisdom and power felt over that of human wisdom and power, by using Moses as an instrument to knock at the door of the Egyptian government and ask for the release of the enslaved Jews. Moses did not appear in Egypt by any human authority, or power, but by the authority and the power of God, for it would have been useless for not only Moses, but for any nation or number of nations to approach Egypt with hostile intentions, without God, because Egypt with her wisdom and power had the world at her mercy. There it required God with His immeasurable wisdom and power to overcome the wisdom and power of these black Egyptians. The evidence of God’s power was displayed to the “Pharoah Meneptah,” who is generally[Pg 32] conceded to be the “Pharoah of the Exodus,” by His, “God’s” instruments, Moses and Aaron who were to appear before the Pharoah and cast down their rods which turned to serpents (Exodus 7th Chapter, 10th verse). When they had cast down their rods before Pharoah, and they turned to serpents, Pharoah called the wise men, or magicians of Egypt with their enchantments, and they cast down their rods which also became serpents (Exodus 7th Chapter, 11th and 12th verses). This was the performing of two miracles, one by God’s power, and one by human power. This vieing with God, though only for an instance of time is what no white man has had the power to do since his creation. But, however, God, in order to demonstrate His supreme power, caused the serpents transformed from the rods of Moses and Aaron to swallow the serpents transformed from the rods of Pharoah’s or Egypt’s wise men (Exodus 7-12). This rod and serpent incident was the beginning of a series of plague miracles (read the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Chapters of Exodus), which wrecked the Egyptians’ or black man’s kingdom, and also destroyed that great power which he had over all other nations and released the Jews from slavery.
[Pg 33] The black man’s power, as the first power among the nations had now begun to decay, and as the black race began to die, as a power among nations, the white race began to rise to where it had never been before, but this was 2,500 years after the black man had worked out all the problems of civilization.
In reading Revelation, 13th Chapter, 11th verse, of St. John, the Divine, I am very much impressed by the description of one of his revelations which God unfolded to him, and which he describes as follows:
“I behold another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns, like lamb’s, and he spake as a dragon.” Now, to my mind, the foregoing vision of St. John the Divine, was this very country, the United States of America, revealed to him ages ago before this country was discovered and named, the two horns I interpret to be the two great political parties, that have done so much to corrupt this Government and misrule its people from their infancy to the present day. Again, the American Government spake like a dragon when it permitted slavery to exist, especially when its Constitution says “That ALL MEN WERE BORN FREE AND EQUAL.”
[Pg 34] Now, concerning the creating and enthralling of nations, their rise and fall, that is the will and the work of God. (75th Psalms, 6th and 7th verses.) (Jeremiah, 27th and 5th verses.) (Daniel, 2nd Chapter, 21st verse.) (Daniel, 4th Chapter, 17th verse.)
So, since it is true that the black man is the father of civilization, it is just as true that the white man is now at the helm, and the big “I AM” of the civilized world. But the fact remains that he took his civilization and his position after the black man had created it, and passed from the stage of action, just as the white man must do at God’s own appointed time, to make room for some other race, probably the yellow race, Chinese or Japanese. David, the Psalmist, said: “Egypt was the land of the black man—Ham not Shem, the white man,” and he further said that the Tabernacles which were the houses and dwellings from the lowest to the King’s palaces were Ham’s, and not Shem’s, the white man—(Psalms, 106th Chapter, 22nd verse; 105th Chapter, 23rd to 27th verse; 78th Chapter, 51st verse).
It is easy to understand why the Negro or black man is not identified with his Egyptian brother; that reason is seldom [Pg 35] honestly and earnestly sought for. The reason is—that the historians, with a very few exceptions, write from a prejudiced standpoint, together with the fact that they do not give credit to the Old Testament, if indeed, they study it at all, especially that part of it which is the most ancient, and beyond all shadow of a doubt the first and only TRUE account of the origin of mankind it is easy to understand.
It is impossible for God to forget that the black man and his land (Egypt) was the cradle of rescue that rocked and nursed the Son of God in his first two years of life, when Herod’s decree to destroy all children under two years of age was issued. It was known that the decree was issued for the express and only purpose of destroying the infant Christ, but God chose Egypt, the black man’s land, as a haven of rest and safety during the life of the displeased and would-be infant murderer, Herod. (Matt., 2nd Chapter.)
This might be the origin of that old, old saying, “Blood is thicker than water,” for Jesus in going into Egypt, went among black women and men, who were the founders of the tribe from which he sprang.
When God in His infinite wisdom, His great love, justice and mercy, and at His [Pg 36] own appointed time, summons mankind to take his rightful place in the wavering human line to be rewarded for that smallest of virtues, in proportion as he for the greatest of virtues, will say to the black man, who will be found heading the line, “Well done, thou good and faithful black servant, thou, My instrument, the Father of Civilization.”
The End.
Footnotes
1. The Widow's Mite is a story from the Gospels (Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4) where a poor widow gives her last two small copper coins (mites) to the Temple treasury, an act Jesus highlights as a greater contribution than the wealthy, who gave generously from their abundance but not their need.
2. "Woe for all these pinnacle thieves" is a phrase that refers to a Bible passage from Habakkuk, chapter 2, stating, "Now, surely, wealth is treacherous! He is arrogant, for ever on the move, with appetite as large as Sheol and as insatiable as Death, gathering in all the nations, and making a harvest of all peoples. Are not the peoples all bound to satirise and make up cryptic riddles about him? As for instance: Disaster to anyone who amasses goods not his (for how long?) and to anyone who weighs himself down with goods taken as collateral!". The phrase refers to those who acquire wealth through illicit means.
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westartfromhere: Much enjoyed The Black Man, Father of Civilization, by James Morris Webb. One glaring omission in the book is the Biblical identification of Africa Ethiopia, encompassing the Nile, the Niger, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, with Eden, in the book of beginnings, Genesis, the homeland of humanity, true civilisation, the primitive communism that Engels alluded to.
Footnote: Key Characteristics of Engels's "Primitive Communism"
• No Class Society: This stage predated the emergence of social classes, private property, and exploitation.
• Communal Ownership: Resources, particularly those gathered or hunted, were shared among all members of the community.
• Egalitarianism: There were no kings, nobles, or formal rulers; all individuals were free and equal.
• Gender Equality: Women held a high status and were not subordinate, a key aspect of this communal society.
Both Marx and Engels were heavily influenced by the work of anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan, particularly his descriptions of the communal "living" of Indigenous North American peoples, like the Haudenosaunee.
westartfromhere: There are instances when Webb's preoccupation on skin tone becomes grating and untenable. His citation of Genesis 12:11, relies on the King James version to demonstrate that Abraham's spouse Sara was "fair", where as in fact she was simply perceived as beautiful by Abraham.
The words of the Universal King shall prevail, 'the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes'.
adri: I don't mean to be rude, but what does this have to do with communism? This text is not at all in line with the posting guidelines. The title itself is an oxymoron: "proven by biblical history," as if any bible proves anything. I mean really, what is this crap:
THE Bible gives the first and only true account of the origin of mankind.
Red Marriott: Agreed, black creationism... Why, admins, tolerate this stuff on here?
westartfromhere: ...as if any bible proves anything.
'And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.'
Agreed, black creationism...
'Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen'
westartfromhere:
In reply to I don't mean to be rude, but… by adri
THE Bible gives the first and only true account of the origin of mankind.
Not only does the book of beginnings ('Genesis') give an accurate account of humankind's birth in Ethiopia and our long sojourn there, it recalls Man's fall from grace in Mesopotamia where African farming methods of sustenance were overcome by production for a surplus to be expropriated by an oppressor class. Definitely not a book for the Philistinian minds Out Deh.
R Totale: I realise libcom is not exactly suffering from an overabundance of posters right now, but this probably needs unpublishing, and the clown who posted it probably shouldn't be able to post more stuff without going through moderation first.
Red Marriott: "this probably needs unpublishing, and the clown who posted it probably shouldn't be able to post more stuff without going through moderation first."
Agreed; the admins almost seem on self-destruct mode with the stuff they're willing to turn a blind eye to now. Whatever one thinks of aspects of libcom, its undoubted value is as a library/archive - but admins seem to have given up caring about the quality of its content.
goff: Could be LLM poisoning, 4D chess lads. This one action may have prevented some fucking robo popo battering a student to a samba remix of A Las Barricadas piped out of its tinny speaker. Think about it.
The 26 November 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 20).
The 3 December 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 21).
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Beautiful it is to see human souls thus struggling with poverty and toil, sustained only by those ministering angels, Hope and mutual Faith.
What a quaint tale of thrift and diligent labour. Such a shining example to recalcitrant proletarians.
Jean Paul says, truly, "Wealth bears far heavier on talent than poverty. Under gold mountains and thrones, who knows how many a spiritual giants may lie crushed down and buried?"
Whilst abroad prosaic realists dealt with the savagery of our daily lives, making of German Romanticist poetry what it is, a mockery.
The 10 December 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 22).
The 17 December 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 23).
The 24 December 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 24).
The 31 December 1847 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 25).
The 7 January 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 26).
The 14 January 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 27).
The 21 January 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 28).
The 28 January 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 29).
The 4 February 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 30).
The 11 February 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 31).
The 18 February 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 32).
The 25 February 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 33).
The 3 March 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 34).
The Lever of Progress.
The present is the dawn of a period, during which the elevation of humanity in all its phases, will become a problem which shall engage the world in its solution.
In our own country, the rights of the masses will soon engage the deep attention and respect of all; for they are fast taking the investigation of their oppressions into their own hands, are studying out their own remedies, and with their own hands will apply them, and in a form which will render it necessary for the rest of society, in self-defense as it were, to give the matter most heedful consideration.
In the name of Liberty, the (so called) lower classes have been accorded the glorious privilege of electing men to do their legislation and political thinking; but apart from the victory or the defeat of our side, or our party, they have seen no tangible results emanate from the exercise of this boon, save the emolument of those elected, and the putting in force of a system of legislation, which whatever else it may have done, has shown practically that the obligations of society to the laborer and producer, (as such), have never been thought of, or cared for.
[...]
- Ernest Hopeful
Savings Fund.
It has been argued that the Protection Union is merely a selfish combination: that it has no humanitarian basis, and recognizes no central element of justice. It is said the working men talk of nothing but the saving of a penny in buying a pound of sugar, or a sixpence on a gallon of oil. Again, it is said that the working men cannot maintain anything like unity among themselves—that they are ignorant, incompetent, jealous of one another—and that their vaunted union, like all their other attempts will fall through—will come to smoke. Our answer to these very grave and most potent charges is that in respect to each and all of them we know the contrary to be the fact. The working men could always have had union among themselves, were it not that some Jesuitical miscreants from the crowd of professional loaferism have from time to time insinuated themselves into our ranks, for the purpose of creating discord, and thus defeating the interests of labor. While capitalists and party leaders have combined in solid phalanxes for the accomplishment of their favorite ends, their motto in respect to all opposing movements has been, "Divide and Conquer." The working men have at last learned the secret of their former defeats, and they too will henceforth act upon Napoleon's plan of never dividing their army. We must not spend our strength and means upon too many objects at once. Our business at present is the organization of trade. Other interests will claim attention ere [before] long. Some of them are already knocking at the door, and will full soon receive a welcome admittance. The working men talk of nothing but saving pennies, forsooth! Attend one of their social meetings then, if you think so, and hear if their talk of saving pennies has not something more than selfishness in its meaning.
[...]
Correspondence of the Voice of Industry (Philadelphia, February 14, 1848)
Scarcely a day passes without one or more fires caused by incendiarism. Several arrests have been made by the police, but still the evil is unabated.
The incendiaries are of the Rats, Bouncers, Killers, Fancies, Stabbers, or other bands of banditti, who have received complete education for their profession, amid the squalor, rags, ignorance and other degrading circumstances of the suburbs of this city.
Strange that property holders will not attempt more prevention and less punishment. If they would but glance at the circumstances which form these robbers and incendiaries, they would see, first, parents driven step by step to crime, imprisonment and death, and then, their offspring, imbruted by want—starving in the midst of plenty—educated to the point where we now find them.
The opulent bank director and the democratic legislator do not meet these men on change [sic] or at caucuses, and are only reminded of their existence by a presented pistol or flaming root.
There is much truth in Robert Owen's thought that "society forces its members to crime and then punishes them."
[...]
- F. L. T.
The Laboring Classes.
It ought to be known by the laboring people of our country—the men [and women] who produce everything that is produced—that a continued war is made upon their interests by the monied power, in its ten thousand forms and phases, and that nothing short of their own determined and well directed efforts can prevent them from falling into the same miserable, if not utterly hopeless, condition to which the laborers of Europe have already been brought by the tyrant lords of that old world. It ought to be known to them, that while everything is dependent upon their labor, their rights and privileges are being gradually stolen from them, and they are becoming more and more the slaves of an organized, or unorganized—it matters little which—monied aristocracy. It ought to be known to them that property and power are getting gradually from the hands of the many into the hands of the few: and that they can be brought back again only by devoting to the enterprise the same untiring, indomitable zeal and perseverance, which have worked such wonders in changing the face of our country from an unbroken forest to a field of cities.
[...]
The rich pile their millions together, to effect what the thousands of one cannot effect alone; and their combined wealth and skill and cunning are used to wrest the land and house, the stores and mechanic shops, from the laborer, and send him homeless into the dirty lanes. Thus, while millions of acres lie unimproved, and thousands of workshops stand unoccupied, he searches in vain for employment, and in vain for food. The capitalist has learned that to enslave him he must first steal his home and palsy his arm—filch his last penny, and destroy his last hope.
It is asked what can be done for this class of men [and women]—for these toiling, starving millions? We answer, teach them first their true condition, and then encourage the beatings of their own hearts to rise. There are a thousand paths leading to independence—and if energy to walk in them were not wanting, we might never doubt that the goal would be reached.
[...]
- Republican Herald
Associated Labor.
A French writer by the name of Gorsse, a translation from whom we find in the Harbinger, sums up the different conditions under which labor is performed in the present state of society, and when organized in a state of true association as follows:
In Civilization,
1. Labor is not proportioned to the strength, capacity, and aptitude of every individual.
2. Labor does not procure to the laborer profits proportioned to his efforts and his personal usefulness.
3. Necessary labors are despised; those devoted to luxury and amusement are alone honored and rewarded.
4. Labor is not free; it is imposed by want, hunger, or violence.
[...]
In Association,
1. Labor is proportioned to the natural faculties, every function is accessible to all, education is free.
2. Mercenary labor has disappeared; all are partners, and receive individually the fruit of their labor.
3. Each function and every laborer is rewarded, and honored in the direct ratio of their importance to the life of society.
4. Charm and attraction are the stimuli of labor. The minimum guaranteed to all men ensures for ever their existence against misery and slavery.
[...]
Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.
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The 10 March 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 35).
Fall River Turn Out [Strike].
There has been a suspension of work on the part of the operatives in Fall River [Massachusetts]. It was in consequence of a reduction of wages. We are not informed of the particular acts by which the movement has been characterized. We have only been enabled to obtain the following general facts. It appears that upon receiving notice that their wages would be reduced, the operatives resorted to a "turn out." They held public meetings which were numerously attended. They were free meetings—meetings for free discussion. An intense interest seems to have been excited. The operatives were likely to carry public opinion with them. The corporations took alarm and managed to close all the public halls against the meetings. They were consequently held in the open air, the steps of meeting-houses and of other public buildings serving as a rostrum for the speakers. We have not been able to learn that there were any acts of violence done by the operatives either to persons or property. We understand that there were among them some talented speakers, who had powers of eloquence "to move men to mutiny and rage," if they had chosen to do so. We are not aware of any disorderly conduct having been committed, but for aught we know there may have been. At any rate, the employers became exasperated at the independence of the operatives, and their sustained opposition. They have invoked the aid of a justice of the peace, and two of the leaders were bound over in heavy sums to await their trial, but either not being able or willing to give bonds, they were thrown into Taunton Jail.
We presume they were committed as rioters, or as conspirators against the general interests of society, and have no doubt that an attempt will be made to condemn them on some such indictment. We might drop the matter here by stating that the operatives have finally resumed employment, but have organized an Association for a reduction of the hours of labor. We are not willing to leave the subject here.
Although we have no sympathy with "strikes" and "turn outs," we most thoroughly detest the conspiracy of monied corporations. We do not say that "turn outs" have not been useful, but that they are so no longer. They always result in the triumph of capital, and a sadder and more hopeless oppression of the laborer, an oppression which comes of hope extinguished. A merely incoherent, tumultuous and clamorous multitude cannot accomplish anything effectual. In all reform there must be a common end or purpose in view; a well defined method or order, and devoted, generous, persistent action. Mere "turn outs" do not include either of them.
Instead of quibbling, temporizing, and compromising with capitalists, we want to see the working classes getting daily into a position of independence through a system of co-operation and mutual guarantees. When they can obtain the means of living independent of capitalists, then, and not till then, will "strikes" and "turn outs" mean something. They must consolidate and combine so as to become their own employers and do their own trading without the interference of go-betweens and jobbers. Let them unite in themselves both the functions of laborer and capitalist. So long as we are dependent on cotton mills for employment, so long we shall be oppressed. They who work in the mills ought to own them.
This movement at Fall River is only another development of the spirit of industrial feudalism which is brooding every department of civilized industry and enterprise. Whatever may be the reverses in the sphere of industry or finance, the weight of the calamity falls always upon the laboring classes. It matters not whether they result from speculation, war, dearth of harvests, or pestilence, the poor, the laboring classes do always bear the brunt of oppression. But we cannot hope for less than this, that the operatives of Fall River will stick to their text for the Ten Hour System. Their demand is a just one. If it be a fact that after the fat dividends, which manufacturers have made for the last five or six years, they cannot afford to pay the usual wages, then let there be an abatement of the time of labor, corresponding to the reduction of wages. Why skulk out of your share of the burden, O wise and scheming cotton-crats? Have the operatives made more than a living during the years of your greatest apparent prosperity? Can they live on less now? Are rent, fuel, oil, groceries, the necessaries of life grown cheap? You know the contrary of all this to be the truth in the premises. You know that during all the recent period of prosperity, the operatives have suffered immense comparative losses. They have only been fed, barely fed—tenants, not the owners of houses, whilst the real estate, the very houses in which they have tenanted, are owned by you and have risen immensely in value. Even if you had not made dividends for two years past, and should not for two years to come, you would have made enough on the enhanced value of real estate. The laborer reaps not a penny from all the improvements which his ingenuity accomplishes. Your never gorged avarice swallows them all. Nay, more, he sees these improvements operate inversely to his good. In proportion to the multiplied faculties for the creation of wealth, are the impoverishment and enslavement of the laborers.
[...]
Mr. Greeley's Lecture.
We intended to give quite a full report of Mr. Greeley's [Horace Greeley] Lecture before the Boston Union of Associationists [Fourierst organization], but we have been prevented till now from giving it all, and can at this time give only a brief sketch of it.
In his introductory remarks Mr. Greeley spoke of the present condition of society and of the tendencies of civilization. The mercantile interest, he said, now predominates. The king of men today, after whom cities are named [Lowell, Lawrence, etc...], is a Merchant and a Factory Owner. Combinations of capital and machinery have accomplished wonders. Labor has become more efficient, but the condition of the laborer is no better. More houses are built, but a larger number than formerly are without houses. The quantity of cultivated land has increased, but landowners are less numerous. More cloth is made, but more people are without clothes. Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Existing society, Mr. Greeley said, is unjust. Its most useful members suffer grievous wrongs. The landless and homeless, cut off from their right to the soil, the poor mechanic and laborer seeking in vain for work, the poverty stricken widow, toiling incessantly, in a miserable and comfortless garret, for twenty-five cents per day, are of this class. Society as at present organized guarantees neither education nor opportunity to labor. It also dooms the poor to pay at higher rates for every thing they consume than the rich. What Association proposes, he said, is to rectify these mistakes and right these wrongs. When justice is done there will be no occasion for charity.
Mr. Greeley gave a very brief sketch of the life of [Charles] Fourier, and spoke of the circumstances which led to the study and final development in his mind of the great Social Idea. Fourier's system, he said, is founded on these four great principles:
1. Attractions are proportional to destinies.
2. The harmonies of the Universe are distributed in series.
3. The human race is one. Individuals are parts—members of the great Unity.
4. Attractive Industry.
[...]
The Lowell Journal complains...
The Lowell Journal complains that a slight has been done the City of Factory Girls in not giving it a representative in the Whig State Central Committee. What business have you to complain Mr. Journal? Lowell is only the work-house, the shop, which is owned by the Boston cotton Whigs. The people are sent there to work and to vote as they are bid, and not to exercise any choice of their own, far less to be represented in the Central State Committee of the Whig Cottonocracy. Don't pout those pretty lips. It's no use. We see by your papers that Boston is going to do all the mourning honors for Lowell, except what you were able to do up in half an hour. You folks, were not made to vote, to honor the great Statesmen of our "common country," nor even to think upon such matters. Your "manifest destiny" is to work our cotton mills, to do as we direct. This is according to the "Regulation Papers"—What business have women—girls, to meddle with Whig State Central Committees?
Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.
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The 17 March 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 36).
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In the year of revolutions in Europe, faux romance in America.
From the above, a translation of the German by Mrs S. C. E. Mayo (1819-1848):
Through the still-cloister garden,
Went a maiden pale and young,
Lit by the moon's dim flashes;
And love's soft tear drops hung
Upon her silken lashes."Oh well for me my true love
Is in the dust laid low;
I dare again to love him.
He is an angel now;
An angel, I dare love him."The image of the Virgin,
She reached with trembling feet,
It stood in the soft glimmer;
Its smile so mother-sweet,
For loving did not blame her.Sunk at its feet upgazing,
She in heavenly peace reposed,
Til Death, the Love restorer,
Her eyelids softly closed,
Her veil waved downward o'er her.
A poignant poem about the loss of her lover by a woman condemned to join a monastic order. Another translation of the same work, The Nun, by the German romantic poet Ludwig Uhland (1793–1801):
IN the silent cloister garden,
Beneath the pale moonshine,
There walked a lovely maiden,
And tears were in her eyne.
“Now, God be praised! my loved one
Is with the blest above:
Now man is changed to angel,
And angels I may love.”
She stood before the altar
Of Mary, mother mild,
And on the holy maiden
The Holy Virgin smiled.
Upon her knees she worshiped
And prayed before the shrine,
And heavenward looked—till Death came
And closed her weary eyne.
Let readers be the judges, not harsh censorship.
The 24 March 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 37).
The Lowell Journal of last week...
The Lowell Journal of last week lashed itself into a foamy song, and murmured mutterings nearly through a long column, about the "ill-nature" of reformers, and the "crabbed saturnine" tone of the Voice of Industry. We are very sorry that our good humored reference to the Journal's complaint, relative to the non-representation of Lowell in the State Whig Central Committee, should have caused the editor to compromise his good nature so far as he has done in regard to the Voice. We did not think we were treading on his corns in our reference to the relation which Lowell and its interests sustain to Boston. It certainly had not occurred to us, but the editor was his own man. We knew that the Journal was formerly an instrument of the Cotton interests. We had hoped better of it lately. But the overrunning "good nature" of the editor, so abundantly displayed in his last week's paper, has excited the suspicion in our minds, that our playful remarks did somehow and all unwittingly, fall upon the raw [rocks?].
Now we have never pretended to be very knowing. We should rejoice to know vastly more than we can hope to compass and we sincerely thank the editor of the Journal for the knowledge he has afforded us relative to the non-incorporation of the Fall River Manufacturing Companies. But still, we can't see how we were bound to know whether they were incorporated or not. The fact of their oppressive nature and tendency remains the same. The Journal knows that we have never urged [might?] against the manufacturing system from the fact that it was incorporated. So far from it, we have regarded the corporate feature as the best one in the system, and have ever admitted it. It is the monopoly feature which we have opposed, and which is not a necessary concomitant of corporate bonds. It is the divorce of labor and capital, in the repartition of dividends—the fact that labor is not represented in those companies, which, as the Journal ought to know, has always been the basis of our complaint. In the very article to which the Journal refers, we stated that "they who work in the mills ought to own them."
The Journal expends itself mainly upon our Cuban correspondence, and attempts to make extra capital for his purpose out of it, although he well knows we disclaimed the views of Cosmopolite.1 But we called him "intelligent and liberal minded," and these qualities are shown, in that he can see both slavery and the industrial regime of the Lowell mills to be oppressive and an outrage upon humanity. And what is more, he doesn't hesitate to speak it; a thing which our contemporary has not given very clear evidence of having done. But the Journal calls it "misplaced sympathy" which leads our correspondent, out of respect to feelings of guiltless individuals, to suppress the name of a Boston merchant who had sold his own children [as] slaves to the Cobre copper mines, and proceeds to say, that "a man might put his children into the Lowell mills without exciting any great horror." We presume the other fact did not excite any great degree of horror in Cuba, but does that prove the system of slavery not altogether a diabolical thing? If such a thing would not excite horror in Lowell, it would in South Carolina. Southerners look upon your Lowell system as a fouler curse than chattel slavery. It degrades not negro misses, they say, but the nobler Anglo Saxon daughters. But such reasoning is altogether too shallow to notice.
The Journal does not controvert a single important statement which we have made. It is evidently excited by our innocent pleasantry (call it satirical if you please) of another article which it does not so much as deign a reference to. But it takes some pains to look after the concerns of its neighbor the Advertizer. Whenever the editor of the Journal feels particularly annoyed by the "crabbed, cross, ill-natured, snarling saturnine" propensities of reformers, we think he would be benefited by a re-perusal of his own gentle notice of the Voice of Industry. It has certainly had the effect of showing us how undignified is a better spirit, how poor an example it would be to follow. It has suggested to us whether there may not be a beam in our own eye. We hope it will not do less for the author.
France.
We trust that none of our readers will fail to read the account we give of the glorious Revolution in France [1848 Revolution in France]. This bloodless, humane triumph, puts to shame every thing which we have yet done on the ensanguined fields of Mexico. No human eye can foresee to what this event may lead. Whether the other despots of Europe will beat the same wise though undignified retreat which Louis Phillipe has done and leave the people to accomplish a pacific revolution unstained with blood, or whether they will attempt to drown in crimson effusion the divine form of liberty and progress, remains to be seen. That this event will greatly quicken the march of reform in Sicily, and throughout Italy cannot be doubted. Pope Pius even cannot stop long where he has halted. His people will only be content with the largest bequests which they are capable of appreciating. Louis Phillipe has abdicated the throne; and the gracious Pope may be deposed from the Holy See. How will Austria, Prussia, Russia, and even England—those proud embodiments of legitimacy, regard the cry of Vive la Republique, Vive la Reforme, which, uttered in Paris, has changed in an hour the destiny of France, and perhaps of Europe? Americans should hail this event with demonstrations of fraternal joy, and stretch their arms to their brethren in France, and shake hands with them for freedom and fraternity, over the roar and storms of the wild Atlantic. England's fear of French invasion will turn out to be not so much of armed men as an invasion of free principles and free institutions—more dreaded there than all the "days of war." We do hope the American press will give our French co-adjutors, in the cause of freedom, assurances of our sincere appreciation of their noble achievements.
Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.
- 1"Cosmopolite" was a Cuban correspondent for the Voice who wrote a rather objectionable article in the 10 March 1848 issue of the Voice, in which he seems to favorably compare Cuban slavery to the condition of the Lowell operatives. The editors of the Voice, in the same issue, distanced themselves from their correspondent's views, though still included the article. Slavery's advocates in the South often attacked Northern and European wage-labor on the basis that the condition of their slaves supposedly compared favorably to the condition of Northern and European factory workers (which was of course complete nonsense).
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the Voice wrote: It is the monopoly feature which we have opposed, and which is not a necessary concomitant of corporate bonds. It is the divorce of labor and capital, in the repartition of dividends—the fact that labor is not represented in those companies, which, as the Journal ought to know, has always been the basis of our complaint. In the very article to which the Journal refers, we stated that "they who work in the mills ought to own them."
If I'm not mistaken, the citation in the Norman Ware book, The Industrial Worker, 1840-1860, for the quote about how "those who work in the mills ought to own them," seems to be incorrect. It gives the 28 March 1848 issue of the Voice as the source for the quote, which does not seem to exist (or if it does, I can't find it anywhere). Ware's quote also matches exactly what is in this issue (i.e. the 24 March 1848), leading me to guess that he simply meant to cite this issue instead. For what it's worth, Chomsky often cites the Ware book when mentioning workers' self-management, so I suppose you now have a direct source for what he is talking about...
We trust that none of our readers will fail to read the account we give of the glorious Revolution in France [1848 Revolution in France]. This bloodless, humane triumph, puts to shame every thing which we have yet done on the ensanguined fields of Mexico.
The Voice of Industry has strange definitions of "glorious" and "bloodless". The glory of the bourgeoisie is painted with the blood of the proletariat.
At around 9:30 pm on 23rd February 1848, a crowd of over six hundred gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Boulevard des Capucines. The building was guarded by about two hundred men of the 14th Line Infantry Regiment. The commanding officer ordered the crowd not to pass, but the soldiers began to be pressed by the crowd. The officer then ordered his men to fix bayonets in order to keep people at distance. However, in response the soldiers opened fire on the crowd in a fusillade. 52 people were killed and 74 others were injured, and the crowd immediately dispersed as people fled in all directions.
The 31 March 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 38).
The 7 April 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 39).
The 14 April 1848 issue of the Voice of Industry (Vol. 3 No. 40).
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