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Alexander von Humboldt: „Baron Humboldt on American Slavery. A Private Letter to Mr. Julius Froebel. Communicated to The Tribune with Humboldt’s consent“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1858-Baron_Humboldt_on-01-neu> [abgerufen am 11.09.2024].
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| Titel | Baron Humboldt on American Slavery. A Private Letter to Mr. Julius Froebel. Communicated to The Tribune with Humboldt’s consent | ||||
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| Jahr | 1858 | ||||
| Ort | New York City, New York | ||||
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Nachweis in: New-York Daily Tribune 8:5335 (27. Mai 1858), S. 4.
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Postumer Nachdruck Ingo Schwarz (Hrsg.), Alexander von Humboldt und die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Briefwechsel, Berlin: Akademie 2004, S. 433–436. Weitere posthume Drucke siehe dort.
in: „Das Humboldt-Buch“ AvH, Eine Darstellung seines Lebens und wissenschaftlichen Wirkens ... dem Andenken des unsterblichen Groß-Meisters ... gewidmet von Dr. W.F.A. Zimmermann". Berlin III 1859, S. 58 ff. (mit geringen Abweichungen in der Interpunktion) [Zimmermann ist angeblich ein Pseudonym für C.G.W. Vollmer] |
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung. | ||||
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A PRIVATE LETTER TO MR. JULIUS FROEBEL. Communicated to The Tribune with Humboldt’s content.
Accept, my dear Froebel, if only in a few lines, mymost cordial thanks for your kind letter and for thegift of an able work on your personal experiences inAmerica, in which you have submitted all classes ofsociety to such a sagacious comparison. You arehere warmly cherished in the memory of all who areacquainted with your distinguished scientific attain-ments, the nobleness of your character, and the pe-culiar features of your mind. I have boasted of yourenduring friendship with me in the new volume of
Kosmos, p. 541. I closed this volume just as I re-ceived the first part of your travels and researches,which had already often been described to me byfriends, and especially by Varnhagen von Ease. Itrust I shall not lose your favor on account of my dif-fering from you in regard to the connexion between theNorth Mexican highlands and the Rocky MountainsOur controversy, as you will find when you read at-tentively (pp. 431-440), is almost entirely one of wordsI make a distinction between a broad, continuous ele-vation, and the disconnected chain rising above it,often steeply and like battlements. The word moun-tain is very indefinite. In spite of my heretical dispo-sition, however, your ninth chapter, (pp. 504-518)gives me a great deal of instruction. You have ex-plained many points which were only hinted at in the“Remarks” (Contributions to Phys. Geog., SmithsonInst). But there are other things which come nearermy heart than those elevations. Your next volume onthe political future of Americs, would I, almost theoriginal Adam, gladly live to see. Continue to brand theshameful devotion to Slavery, the treacherous importa-tion of negroes, under the pretense of their becoming free—a means to stimulate the hunting of negroes in the interior of Africa. What atrocities have been witnessedby one who has had the misfortune to live from 1789to 1858. My book against Slavery (Political Essay onthe Island of Cuba) is not prohibited in Madrid, butcannot be purchased in the United States, which youcall “The Republic of distinguished people,” exceptwith the omission of everything that relates to the suf-ferings of our colored fellow-men, who, according tomy political views, are entitled to the enjoyment ofthe same freedom with ourselves. Add to this, theanathema on other races of men, forgetting that themost ancient cultivation of humanity, before that of thewhite Hellenic race in Assytia, in Babylon, in the va-ley of the Nile, in Iran, in China, was the work ofcolored men, though not woolly haired.
I still work hard, mostly in the night, because I amunmercifully tormented with a constantly increasingcorrespondence, for the most part, of not the alightestinterest. I live joyless in my 89th year, because of themuch for which I have ardently striven from my earlyyouth, so little has been accomplished.
With renewed expressions of the friendship of manyyears, which political evants have never troubled,
I am ever your illegible
Berlin, January 11, 1858.
BARON HUMBOLDT ON AMERICANSLAVERY.
A PRIVATE LETTER TO MR. JULIUS FROEBEL. Communicated to The Tribune with Humboldt’s content.
AL HUMBOLDT