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Alexander von Humboldt: „Baron Humboldt on American Slavery“, 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-04-neu> [abgerufen am 27.04.2024].
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| Titel | Baron Humboldt on American Slavery | ||||
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| Jahr | 1858 | ||||
| Ort | Fremont, Ohio | ||||
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Nachweis in: Fremont Journal 6:19 (4. Juni 1858), [o. S.].
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz. | ||||
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Accept, my dear Froebel, if only in a fewlines, my most cordial thanks for
your kindletter and for the gift of an able work onyour personal
experience in America, inwhich you have submitted all classes of
so-ciety to such a sagacious comparison. Youare here warmly cherished
in the memoryof all who are acquainted with your distin-guished
scientific attainments, the noblenessof your character, and the peculiar
featuresof your mind. I have boasted of your endur-ing friendship with
me in the new volume of
Kosmos, p. 541. I closed this volume justas I
received the first part of your travelsand researches, which had already
oftenbeen described to me by friends, and es-pecially by Varnhagen von
Ense. I trust Ishall not lose your favor on account of mydiffering
from you in regard to the connex-tion between the North Mexican
high-lands and the Rocky Mountains. Our con-troversy, as you will find
when you read at-tentively (pp. 431—440,) is almost entirelyone
of words. I make a distinction betweena broad, continuous elevation, and
the dis-connected chain rising above it, often steeplyand like
battlements. The word mountainis very indefinite. In spite of my
hereticaldisposition, however, your ninth chapter,
(pp.504—518,) gives me a great deal of in-struction. You have
explained manypoints which were only hinted at in
the“Remarks” (Contributions to Phys. Geog.,Smithson.
Inst). But there are otherthings which come nearer my heart thanthose
elevations. Your next volume on thepolitical future of America, would I,
almostthe original Adam, gladly live to see. Con-tinue to brand the
shameful devotion toSlavery, the treacherous importation of ne-groes,
under the pretence of their becomingfree—a means to stimulate the
hunting ofnegroes in the interior of Africa. Whatatrocities have been
witnessed by one whohas had the misfortune to live from 1789,to 1858.
My book against Slavery (Politi-cal Essay on the Island of Cuba) is not
pro-hibited in Madrid, but cannot be purchasedin the United States,
which you call “TheRepublic of distinguished people,”
exceptwith the omission of everything that relatesto the sufferings of
our colored fellow-men,who, according to my political views, are
en-titled to the enjoyment of the same freedomwith ourselves. Add to
this, the anathemaon other races of men, forgetting that themost
ancient cultivation of humanity, beforethat of the white Hellenic race in
Assyria,in Babylon, in the valley of the Nile, inIran, in China, was
the work of coloredmen, though not woolly haired.
I still work hard, mostly in the night,because I am unmercifully tormented
witha constantly increasing correspondence, forthe most part of not
the slightest interest. Ilive joyless in my 89th year, because of
themuch for which I have ardently strivenfrom my early youth, so
little has been ac-complished.
With renewed expressions of the friendshipof many years, which political
events havenever troubled,
I am ever your illegible
Baron Humboldt on American Slavery. a private letter to mr. julius froebel.Communicated to the Tribune with Humboldt’s consent.
AL. HUMBOLDT.
Berlin, January 11, 1858.