"Antedating" "American African"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The two exx. being discussed appear to be quite exceptional. I can't find
anything comparable for the time period in the digitized Times of London,
Early American Newspapers, American Periodical Series, Gale 19th C. U.S.
Newspapers, or 19th C. British Library Newspapers Ser. I and II.

JL

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 4:29 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "Antedating" "American African"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> David Daniel's message led me down another path
> -- what did *American African* mean in the early
> 1800s?  (It's not in the OED, either as an entry or in quotations.)
>
> Spoiler alert -- "Americans of African
> descent".  And, in some contexts, "the American <something> in Africa."
>
> A.  Noun.
>
> 1a)  1830 Jan. 18 --
>
> The Greek [slave, I assume] might have fought his
> way to freedom ­ the American African was
> hopeless of assistance, unless from the free will
> of those who held him in bondage;
>
> The Thirteenth Annual Report of the American
> Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour
> of the United States (Washington: James C. Dunn,
> 1830.  Page xi; page [iii] dates the meeting.
>
> [This seems an unequivocal reference to
> people.  Although I suppose it could be called
> "merely" a collocation, or "merely" the adjective
> "American" applied to "Africans".]
>
> 1b)  1830 Feb. [a reprint of the above address to the meeting, I assume] --
>
> The Greek [slave, I assume] might have fought his
> way to freedom ­ the American African was
> hopeless of assistance, unless from the free will
> of those who held him in bondage;
>
> The African Repository, vol. 5, page 369.  Date
> confirmed from running page header.
>
>
> B.  Adjective.
>
> 1)  1827 July/Aug. --
>
> [From the Raleigh (N. C.) Star]
> The American African Colony.---The most authentic
> accounts represent the Colony at Liberia ... It
> is well known that 5 or 6 years ago, when a small
> handful of emigrants were planted as a colony on
> a few square miles on Montserado ... .
>
> The Christian Visitant[; or Religious Miscellany
> ... ], Vol. 1, No. 4 (July and August, 1827),
> Boston: Simpkins and Co., 1827, page 197.
>
> [I note that for "American African", just as for
> "African American", the adjectival use may
> precede the noun.  This instance perhaps is
> ambiguous; I concede that the following have a
> different meaning.  But surely the phrase can have two meanings!]
>
> [My only access to the Raleigh Star does not include 1827 or 1826.]
>
> 2)  1845 May 31 --
>
> AMERICAN AFRICAN SQUADRON. The US ship Jamestown,
> Commander Cunningham, arrived at Monrovia on the
> 1st of March, from Port Praya.
>
> Niles' Weekly Register, From March, 1845, to
> September, 1845---Volume LXVIII---or, Vol. XVIII,
> Fifth Series, page 195, col. 2.
>
> [This presumably means "the American squadron
> to/at Africa."  And Port[o] Praya is in Cape Verde, not Liberia.]
>
> 3)  1826 Nov. 10 --
>
> A letter from Monrovin, (American African
> Settlement,) dated August 12th, states that
> negotiations had been entered into with the
> Chiefs of Cape Mount, which promised the American
> Colony a "strong hold upon that important point of the African coast"
>
> Daily National Journal (Washington, DC) Friday,
> November 10, 1826; Issue 697; col B
>
> [This is perhaps ambiguous -- more likely "the
> American colony in Africa" (viz. "the American
> Colony" later in the text), but perhaps "the colony of American Africans".]
>
> 4)  A quote from 1840, in A Geographical Survey
> of Africa ..., refers to "the American African
> Repository'; this must mean "the American-held
> repository of [geography of] Africa".
> -----
>
> The above gleaned from an exhaustive search of
> GBooks results before Dec. 31, 1849, plus 19th Century U.S. Papers.
>
> Joel
>
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