The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History

Webb, James MorrisProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
54K words
Chapters
6

Tags

English Originals Religion Racial IssuesHumanistic CareIntellectual EnlightenmentSocial CritiqueWestern ThoughtMoral DilemmaAcademic StudyReligious OriginsCultural ChangePsychological Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History by WebbAuthor: Webb, James Morris,Language: English, Class: BS: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: The Bible, Old and New Testament, Release Date: Apr 22, 2012

Editor's review

Framed by biblical history, this book discusses the place of Black civilization in human history and belongs to the early tradition of African American authors retelling the origins of civilization through religious texts. Its value lies chiefly at the level of historical document: readers can observe how some African American intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used biblical narrative to claim the dignity of civilization and historical subjectivity. Its argument is built mainly by stringing together scriptural passages rather than by modern historical or anthropological empirical research, so today's reader should keep its era and methodological limits in mind. It is suitable as supplementary material for the history of religion, African American intellectual history, or the history of biblical reception, and should not be treated as a general history or a scientific work. Readers are advised to maintain a critical sense of historical sources, distinguish the text's argumentative intent from historical fact, and compare it with other scholarly works.

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Reading tips

  1. Start by learning the author's historical context, then read the main text, to avoid reading it out of context.
  2. Record scriptural quotations and historical arguments separately to facilitate critical reading.
  3. Read alongside modern works on African history or biblical scholarship for comparison.
  4. After reading, write a short review noting which arguments are expressions of faith rather than historical evidence.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6

FAQ

Is this book a work of historical research? It is not empirical historical research in the modern sense. It builds its account of the origins of civilization mainly on biblical passages and is an argumentative text within a religious framework; it should be distinguished from works of history when read.
Can I read it without knowing the Bible? You can, but your understanding will suffer. The book quotes extensively from Scripture and names, so if you are unfamiliar with biblical narrative, consult the relevant chapters first or use an annotated Bible as a companion.
What reading value does this book still have today? Its value lies mainly in intellectual and documentary history: it shows how early African American authors constructed a narrative of civilization through religious texts, offering a historical sample for studying race, religion, and identity politics.
Is the e-edition suitable for scholarly citation? The public-domain e-edition can be used for reading and general reference, but scholarly citation should verify edition information, page numbers, and the original text, and should rely preferentially on reliable publications or original holdings.

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About the author

Webb, James Morris Author

James Morris Webb is an author about whom very little is publicly known; no reliable records confirm his nationality, dates of birth and death, or educational background, and only one of his works is held in the collection. His representative work is The Black Man, the Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History, whose title indicates an attempt to argue, on the basis of biblical history, for the foundational contribution of Black people to human civilization. Writing of this kind generally belongs to the polemical literature combining racial history with biblical exegesis that emerged in the English-speaking world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it carries a distinctly apologetic and communal-defence character. Webb's method relies mainly on setting scriptural quotation alongside historical narrative, with a direct argumentative style aimed at general readers rather than specialists. Given the limited sources, details of his life and the reception of his work cannot be established with certainty, but his choice of subject shows a concern with the relations among racial origins, the origins of civilization, and the interpretation of sacred texts, and his book may serve as a sample of this kind of discourse.