scores, not to say hundreds of them, who are unable to trace back their sires to Africa. I know that in my own ease, my maternal ancestors have trod American soil, and therefore have used the English language wellnigh as long as any descendants of the early settlers of the Empire State.[1] And, doubtless, this is true of multitudes of the sons of Africa, who are settled abroad in the divers homes of the white man, on the American continent.
At the present day, be it remembered, there are 10,000,000 of the sons of Africa alien from this continent. They live on the main land, and on the islands of North and South America. Most of them are subjects of European and American Governments. One growing prominent section of them is an independent Republic.[2] They speak Danish, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English; the English-speaking potion of them, however, is about equal to all the rest together. The sons of Africa under the Americans, added to those protected by the British flag, number 5,000,000.[3]
Now what is the peculiar advantage which Anglo-Africans have gamed by the loss of their mother tongue? In order to answer this query, we must present those direct and collateral lingual elements in
- ↑ New York.
- ↑ Hayti.
- ↑ In the N. Y. Tribune of the 10th January I find the following estimate:—Negroes on this Continent.—It is estimated that there are some 14,000,000 persons of African descent on this continent. In the United States, they number 4,500,000; Brazil, 4,150,000; Cuba, 1,500,000; South and Central American Republics, 1,200,000; Hayti, 2,000,000; British Possessions, 800,000; French, 250,000; Dutch, Danish, and Mexican, 200,000.
