The Negro in Ancient History (1869) by Edward Wilmot Blyden

About Edward Wilmot Blyden

The Negro in Ancient History (1869) by Edward Wilmot Blyden

Edward Wilmot Blyden's The Negro in Ancient History, first published in 1869, is a pioneering work of Pan-African scholarship that established the historical agency of the black race. In just 28 pages, Blyden makes the case that the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians were indeed black, and that their descendants have a proud history predating European civilization. Blyden writes with the goal "that the eyes of the blacks may be opened to discern their true mission and destiny; that, making their escape from the house of bondage, they may betake themselves to their ancestral home, and assist in constructing a Christian African empire." Drawing parallels between the slavery of the Israelites and African-Americans, Blyden argues that the ancestors of today's Negroes were the same who constructed the Tower of Babel. Marcus Garvey called Blyden "the greatest Negro of his day", and historians consider him "the most learned man of the race".