Richard Hollerman

As we begin looking at the origin and view of “blacks” in
America, we need to present a few words on this term. The term “blacks” would be the preferred term (especially since the 1960s, when it became popular) although “African-Americans” has also become widespread today. Before this time and during this period, “colored” was the preferred word but this is somewhat misleading. After all, what do we mean by this term?

Although “colored” was preferred by “whites” and “blacks” alike, it does present problems. Some thousands of years ago, we all came from Noah (and Mrs. Noah) about 4450 years ago (in 2450 BC) and, before that, there was Adam and Eve. We must all “live with” these facts for they don’t change.

Today, we are in the midst of an amazing amount of conflict and confusion in America but perhaps these few words as background will help.

What about the “blacks”? We know that these people have been in America for a long time! Before the blacks arrived, for at least 2,000 years, and even before that time, America was a barren land. After the flood, came the birds and then animals. Finally, by 3,000 years ago, we have in people populating America. Scientists tell us that the first people in the Western Hemisphere came from China, Mongolia, Russia, and other countries in the Old World, through the Bearing Strait, which was a land bridge after the first “ice age” occurred.

They then spread east, and south, and into America as we know it. They also spread into Central America, South America, the Caribbean islands, and elsewhere.

We also know that “Indians” were divided into dozens of warring and belligerent tribes that had much conflict with one another. These dozens of different tribal divisions, along with the wars and many different languages, that we see, brought terrible suffering among the people. And, of course, we find idolatry, murder, rape, and all sorts of wickedness.

Secular researchers would likewise want to point out the illnesses that the “white” man brought to the Americans. Contagion was commonplace. Of course, as secularists and even those opposed to the truth, we know that they overlook the benefits to the blacks that came from the immigration policies from perhaps 1650 to 1865 (at the end of the famous “Civil War” in America). These people were taken from a continent filled with disease, war, famine, murder, and surely rampant idolatry.

In time they were exposed to a form of “Christianity” and salvation (even though it was diluted in a measure). Even with this, we can see that it was better than had been the case back in Africa. This might be a reason (among others) why very few (only about 12,000) close to return to their “homeland” and decided to remain in America, although this was the land that had enslaved many (not all) of them. We find that this was a strange outcome of the situation.

The tribes in the Americas were in much array. The Mayans (of Mexico and Guatemala), the Incans of Peru and Bolivia, and the Aztecs of Mexico could be war-like—and idolatrous. They murdered their own people and their enemies. Actually, Romans 1 was fulfilled in the Americas at this time in large measure.

We digress. We are particularly concerned with the “black” populace here and we must proceed. They came from Africa, of course, but where did they have their origin? It seems that the Arabs (those from Arabia) or the Muslims brought these “blacks” from three main areas: Ghana,  Mali, and Songhai. We know that these Muslim “slave stealers” or “kidnappers” (1 Timothy 1:10), sold some of them to slave-traders, especially from Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, as well as Britain, France,  and other places. (We mention all of this in another article, “Where did North American Peoples Come from?” at https://truediscipleship.com/ where-did-north-American-peoples-come-from/).

We must remember that some five percent (5%) of them came to America, whereas many or most of them were sold to South America (especially Brazil) and Central America (such as Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, and Dominican Republic). This is to be dated from the 1500s onward. The first English settlements were in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. This continued from that time until the slave-trade ended in the early 1800s, particularly through the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery in 1865 by Abraham Lincoln who was then President in America.

We know that five million people would be a large number! Some of these, of course, would hail from the North and others in the South were ship-builders, domestic servants, etc., but a large number of them came from the Southern plantations too! (We know that many of these “slaves” from Africa came as “indentured servants” as did some of the whites.)

In the early 1800s until the time of Abraham Lincoln, the great “liberator,” there was a concerted effort (especially in the North) to allow these “slaves” to return to their homeland in Africa. At this time, there was an effort to establish this place of “refuge” along the West coast of Africa in a new country called “Liberia” (named for “liberty”). Sadly, only perhaps 12,000 of them were willing to go. These became the “elect” or the highest class in this new country. (Some also were to go to Haiti too, along with Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and other places.)

Now we have a desperate situation in America. It is a country of perhaps 330 million people. Immigration has become a “hot topic” with 80 or more countries vying for entrance, some paying as much as $8,000 to the “Cartels” (illegally) for this privilege. Of course, these 6 million people are “illegal” in nature, and it seems that the United States government (led by President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) enter the country with the Democrats happy for this to be. These desperate people came especially through the jungles of Central America, the deserts of Mexico, and across the Rio Grande River, into these forbidden shores. If 5 people awaited each of these “illegals” we would have some 36 million people, all of whom are illegal! What an “impossible” situation!

As for the “blacks” in the United States (the ones who refused to go back to their homeland), at the time of the Civil War there could have been five million people enslaved. Today, there could be 47 or 48 million of them (in 2023)! This would be one in seven (1 in 7) people! But this is not the “whole story” for we must remember that beginning at least 2,000 years to 3,000 years to even 4,000 years ago, Indians were also here in this country. At the time of Noah, about 2450 BC, the earth was without inhabitant. Animals and birds where the first to arrive in the Western Hemisphere, then people began to come across the Bearing Strait into Alaska and beyond. (At this time there was a “land bridge” between China, Mongolia, Russia and Alaska.)

After these arrived, after the “Indians” came, finally the “white” people arrived (from Spain, toward the South, and Britain, toward the North). We then have the British coming and then the Scottish. Eventually, the Germans arrived, then the Irish (especially after the potato harvest was decimated as a crop in the early 1800s).  Eventually, Italians, Hungarians, Polish, and others also arrived to these shores.

We must realize that these “whites” were not the orderly, religious, and politically-correct people that we might suspect. By the time that America was founded in 1776, we understand that a certain few Catholics also came (perhaps one percent), along with perhaps one percent of Jewish people, and others.

And the first “whites” were denominationalists whom we would not want as immigrants today. Further, we refer to people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (both of whom owned slaves) who were not only slave-holders but pioneers. The former was an Anglican and the later was a skeptic or “free thinker” who rejected Organized Religion (and even made his excised and edited “Bible”). Yes, some whites were “bad” and others were “good” in a measure, while the same could be said of the blacks—some were “bad” and others “good.” Actually, it was a “mixed bag” in America.

Thus, “blacks” have a varied and strange history in America, the “land of the free.” In some respects, this was a “utopian” land and a land of opportunity, but in other respects, it was a very human and worldly land. How would God view it?

(See also Ephesians 4:17-32.)