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From the National Fro.Alexander PushkinOi tl 2Stlt o( tl1st month,1837^n onovil the stably mansions of the Northern Capital, on the lmnlcs of I ho Neva, a great man lay dying. The rooms which led to the chamber of suffering were thronged with the wealthy, the titled, the giftod of St. lVt'W.-bmg, anxiously inquiring niter the condition of the sufferer. A great light was going out. Alexander Pushkin—the poet and historian, the favorite alike of Emperor and people—stricken in a fatal dm I two days before, lay wailing for his summons to the world of spirits. And when, at last, the weeping Jtikovskii, himself only second to Puskin as a poet, announced to the anxious crowds in attendance, that his friend wa? no more, prince and peasant bow-led their heads in sorrow The cold heart of the North was touched with the pang of a great bercfivment. The poet of Russia, the only man of the age who Could wear with honor the mantles of Derzhavin and Kar-ain-iii, had passed beneath that shadow, “the light whereof is darkness.”Now, who was Alexander Puskin ? Can it ho jK»ssibln that this man. so wonderfully ;iltod, so honored, so lamented, was a colored i man—a negro? Such, it seems is the fact, incredible as it may appear to the American Mis maternal grand father was a negro, nnmeil I Aitnibul who was patronized by the Czar, and became an ollieer in the marine scrviee. Of his African origin, Pushkin boro, in his lorrfonal nppcsmmcu inti mental eh:irncterilt;« iics tlic most iineijtiivocal marks. An article in Rhtekwood, for the Oth month, 18*15, dc-1 scribes h?fh as follows:“ The closely curled wiry hair, the mobile 'and irregular features, the darkness of the complexion, nil betrayed bis African d** *lt;*nt. and served us an appropriate outside to bis character.”At an early ago Pushkin became a pupil in the Imperial Lyceum, then recently csthb-lishod and richly endowed by Alexander.—While here, the young man, after reciting one of his pieces, on a public ocCndon, was pronounced a poet by the aged D rAhnvin,;lm author of that sublime o.'le to the Supremo, which has no equal out of t he Rook of Rooks. On leaving the Lvceuni, in 1S17, ha was attached to the .Ministry of Foreign A Hair*.— While in this honorable position, he published his first poem, which immediately attained a high degree of popularity. He now became a traveller, visiting every romnii'ia section of the vast empire, ilia prinoipal noetic work. “Kvg.mii OnJe«jln* \lt; *aj,i jK. mnat complete imbbdiment that exists in Russian literature* of the nationality of the* co inlrv. -Hi- small ptMttns and brief stork*, «»r novelettes were published in several volumes rin. id -ticccssinn. His tragedy of UorU Gwbi-jio/T is spoken of by the writer jn wood. whom we have quoted, as ludonMn*' to . I’e* highest order of dramatic literature. He had just tini-hed his History of Peter the Croat, when lie liorninr* involved in the quarrel which resulted in his death, ut the aero of thirty-eight, lb* wax not ashamed of his negro ancestor.On the contrary.In* seems to have boon proud of hi* decent. hf. conv/criilcl more limn
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Brandon Voice of Freedom
Brandon, Vermont, US
Thu, Feb 25, 1847
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CA, USA 01 May 2021
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