We have the most unequivocal evidence, historical and monumental, that slavery was among the earliest of the social institutions of Egypt, and that it was imposed on all conquered nations, white as well as black.^[108] So numerous was this unfortunate class of persons, that it was the boast of the Egyptian kings, recorded by Diodorus, that the vast structures of Luxor and Karnak were erected by the labour of foreigners alone. Of Negro slavery, in particular, the paintings and sculptures give abundant illustration. “Black people,” says Sir G. Wilkinson, “designated as natives of the foreign land of Cush, are generally represented on the Egyptian monuments as captives or bearers of tribute to the Pharaohs;” and the attendant circumstances of this inhuman traffic appear to have been much the same in ancient as in modern times. It is curious, also, in a numerical point of view, to observe that Arrian, who wrote in the second century, gives three thousand as the number of Negroes annually brought down the Nile in his time; while Madden, writing in our own day, and consequently sixteen hundred years later than Arrian, estimates the present number in nearly the same words. If it be allowable to make these data the basis of calculation for the past thirty-five centuries, it will follow that upwards of ten millions of Negroes have been brought as bondsmen into Egypt during that period. This I regard a reasonable calculation; for in the present wasted and depopulated condition of the country, the demand for servants and slaves must be far below what it was in the flourishing epoch of the Pharaohs.^[109]

This vast influx of Negroes into the valley of the Nile must necessarily have left its impression on the physical traits of the Egyptians themselves; in modern times, as seen in the Copts, and in more distant periods, as proved by the Negroid heads, in which both the configuration and expression are too obvious to be mistaken. But it may be inquired, how does it happen that Negroes or their descendants should be found in the catacombs, if they constituted a menial or slave-caste in Egypt? In reply, it may be observed that persons of this race have been capable, in all ages, of elevating themselves to posts of distinction in the east, and especially and proverbially those who have belonged to the class of eunuchs.^[110] It is also important to observe, that so tenacious were the Egyptians of the rights of their offspring, that they admitted them to equal privileges with themselves, even when the mother was a slave; and these usages extended to inheritance.^[111]

The preceding facts, without multiplying more on the same subject, amply account for that interminable amalgamation of the Caucasian and Negro races which has been going on in Egypt from the remotest times; while they also explain that incidental social elevation of the Negro caste, to which the monuments and catacombs alike bear witness.

This blending of races is farther illustrated in the present population of Nubia. The traveller Burckhardt remarks, that the slaves sent down the Nile, and those transported to Arabia, bear but a small proportion to the number kept by the Mahommedans of the more southern countries of Africa. At Shendy, for example, from one to six are seen in every family; and the custom prevails as far as Senaar, and westward to Kordofan, Darfour and Bornou. All the Bedouin tribes who inhabit or surround these countries are well stocked with slaves, nor does the number diminish in the very remote provinces of Houssa and Begarmeh; and we are told by the same intelligent observer, that the result of this promiscuous intercourse is a mixed progeny, which blends the characteristics of the Arab with those of the Negro.^[112]

Negroes are abundantly represented on the pictorial delineations of the Egyptian monuments of every epoch. Complexion, features, and expression, these and every other attribute of the race, are depicted precisely as we are accustomed to see them in our daily walks: indeed, were we to judge by the drawings alone, we might suppose them to have been executed but yesterday; and yet some of these vivid delineations are nearly three thousand five hundred years old! and, moreover, as if to enforce the distinction of race by direct contrast, they are placed side by side with people of the purest Caucasian features.

The delineations of the Negro which are supposed to be of the most ancient date have not yet been identified with the epoch to which they belong. Such are those in a tomb at Thebes of the age of Amontuonch, an “unplaced king,” who is supposed to date prior to the sixteenth dynasty, and consequently more than two thousand years before Christ.^[113] There is, however, a difference of opinion on this point; but we can refer with confidence and certainty to the celebrated “Procession” of the age of Thotmes the Fourth, at Thebes, in which Negroes are represented as tribute-bearers to that monarch at a period which dates about seventeen hundred years before our era.^[114]

Sir G. Wilkinson describes a painting in a catacomb at Thebes of the age of Amunoph the Third, in which that personage, seated on his throne, receives the homage and tribute of various nations. Among these are represented several “black chiefs of Cush, or Ethiopia,” whose presents consist of rings of gold, bags of precious stones, “a camelopard, panthers, skins, and long-horned cattle, whose heads are strangely ornamented with the hands and heads of Negroes.”^[115] The author justly adds, that the latter effigies were probably artificial; for the people of Cush would scarcely have decapitated their own people to adorn their offerings to a foreign prince: yet at the same time these melancholy symbols were obviously designed to express the most abject self-abasement and vassalage.

Other Negro delineations which can be identified with the age to which they belong, are found on the monuments of Horus, Rameses the Second, Rameses the Third, &c. in various places in Egypt and Nubia; and the first of these kings, (who dates with the nineteenth dynasty,) is represented standing on a platform which is supported by prostrate Negroes.^[116]

For the purpose of illustration, we select a single picture from the temple (hemispeos) of Beyt-el-WÀlee, in Nubia, in which Rameses the Second is represented in the act of making war upon the Negroes; who, overcome with defeat, are flying in consternation before him. From the multitude of fugitives in this scene, (which has been vividly copied by Champollion^[117] and Rosellini, and which I have compared in both,) I annex a fac-simile group of nine heads, which, while they preserve the national features in a remarkable degree, present also considerable diversity of expression.

The hair on some other figures of this group is dressed in short and separate tufts, or inverted cones, precisely like those now worn by the Negroes of Madagascar, as figured in Botteller’s voyage.

In the midst of the vanquished Africans, seated in his car and urging on the conflict, is Rameses himself; whose manly and beautiful countenance will not suffer by comparison with the finest Caucasian models. The annexed outline, (for all the figures are represented in outline only,) will enable the reader to form his own conclusions respecting this extraordinary group, which is believed to date about fifteen hundred and seventy years before the Christian era.