Page:The negro's origin.djvu/9

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The Negro's Origin.


LET us search up the Negro's origin. The inhabitants of the post-diluvian world find their paternity in Noah, from whose loins sprang Shem, and Ham, and Japheth. Shem, in the Hebrew signifies "renown, or a great name" Ham or Cham signifies, "warm or hot." Dr. Hale says, "black" Japheth or Yepheth, "expanding, widely spreading."

According to common chronology, Moses wrote eight hundred and fifty-seven years after the flood, and these are the names which he gives to the patriarchs. The question is, Did the fathers name their descendants? or did the descendants name the fathers?

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