Submitted to the Daily Reflector May, 2007
Greenville Native's First Book Available
Special to the Daily Relfector by Susan Butler
The Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection has recently acquired the first book written by Greenville native Boston Napoleon Bonapart Boyd. Boyd, who was a former slave, landowner, and civil rights activist, wrote this book entitled, Seventh Wonder of the World: Discoveries of the Twentieth Century; Natural Science (1903), as a rebuttal to the writings of white supremacists who used religion and pseudo scientific theories like Social Darwinism and eugenics to justify racism and discrimination.
Boyd was born in Greenville on August 27, 1860 and at age fifteen he taught himself to read using a bible that he had purchased for 75 cents. Boyd was a strong advocate of equal rights for all people and was a devote Christian who abhorred the use of religion as a means to justify the suppression of African Americans and others. He expressed his views in his fervent discourse in the book by noting African Americans’ roles in establishing the American colonies, fighting for freedom during the nation’s wars, “from its early days down to the present day.” Boyd lamented the writings of the time that characterized the black man’s place in the world as the “so-called inhabitants of Africa.” While Boyd pointed out the current conditions of the black and white races today were the responsibilities of “our foreparents,” he did not propose that anyone apologize for the wrongs on the account of those conditions—and, neither as he wrote “do we propose to oppress the right to cater to popular sentiment.”
Boyd also wrote Revised Searchlight on the Seventy Day, Bible and X-Ray: by Organic, Supernatural and Artificial Science (1924) as another effort to disprove the racist writings of his day. These books, as well as a third book that Boyd wrote about the same subject were credible attempts to change mainstream opinions of the racist thinking of the white supremacy movement.
Also included in the North Carolina Collections is another book on early race relations that was written by the Reverend Joseph E. Hayne, a former professor at Allen University in Columbia, SC. Hayne was an African American minister living in New Bern during the late nineteenth century when he wrote The Black Man; or the Natural History of the Hametic Race (1893). Rev. Hayne wrote The Black Man during a time when there was increasing racial tensions during the post-Reconstruction period. Hayne saw a growing need among African Americans to establish racial solidarity and wrote The Black Man suggesting self-help as a strategy in an effort to turn the tide of rising hostility between the races. Reverend Hayne offered such advice as “Arrogance can never become the standard by which racial lines are to be established; this, however, as a fact, is only known to learned men.” He also noted that since African Americans demands for equality were being refused, they must learn to build strong social and economic institutions of their own and gave salient suggestions on how to establish these.
Interested parties are encouraged to come to the North Carolina Collection, where many additional sources useful in studying state and local history are located. For more information, call 328-6601 or visit http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/index.cfm
Susan Butler is a staff member in the Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection.
