The Life and Time of Wilhem Amo PDF
The Life and Time of Wilhem Amo PDF
The Life and Time of Wilhem Amo PDF
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Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana , Vol. VII , 1964
William Abraham
Only the barest facts of the life of Anton Wilhelm Amo are now
known for certain - his African birth, his distinguished scholarly
career in Europe, his eventual return to Ghana. He was born sometime
around 1703, taken to Holland four years later, served at the court
of Duke Anton Ulric in Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, attended the uni-
versities of Halle, Wittenberg and probably Helmstedt, taught at
Halle, Wittenberg and Jena, returned to Ghana sometime before 1753
and died on the coast probably during the i76o's. In this paper I
have tried to examine these bare facts as closely as possible, to fill
them out with a careful study of the known records of, and references
to, this remarkable man, and thus to present the most comprehensive
picture of his career yet done.
I
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 6l
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Ó2 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
6 Wolfram Suchier, "A. W. Amo. Ein Mohr als Student und Privatdozent
der Philosophie in Halle, Wittenberg und Jena, 1727/40/' Akademische Rund-
schau , 4 Jahrg. H 9/10 (Leipzig, 1916); "Weiteres über den Mohren Amo,"
Altsachen Zeitschrift des Altsachsenbundes für Heimatschutz und Heimatkunde,
N0. 1/2 (Holzminden, 1918), pp. 7-9.
6 Suchier, realizing Amo would not have been able to preserve his Ghanaian
name, permits himself to doubt that "Amo" is an African name at all; his
strange idea is that Amo could have portrayed a little Amor at court or could
have been showered with such a profusion of love that he was even called
"Amor," and that he lost the "r" in the course of years. All this is quite wrong;
"Amo," of course, is a common Ghanaian name.
7 The misconception that Africans were selling their children probably arose
from a mistranslation of phrases used by the African slavers; their "Medze ba
bi aba " (Akan) or "Mo gbe omo kon wa" (Yoruba) should not have been trans-
lated as "I have a son for sale" but "I have a chap for sale."
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 63
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64 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
II
In 1707 young Amo was sent to the court of Duke Anton Ulric,
a rather strange old man but an ardent promoter of science and the
arts, a composer of hymns and a novelist. His most serious work was
Fifty Reasons why one must be a Catholic , which convinced at least its
author, who in 1710 abandoned the Augsburg Confession and was
received into the Catholic Church ; but since Amo arrived before this
conversion he was baptised as a Protestant. The baptismal ceremony
took place on 29 July, 1708, in the chapel of the castle at Wolfenbuttel
and is mentioned in the church register thus :
This twenty-ninth day of July has been baptized a little Moor
in the Saltzthal Castle Chapel, and he has been christened
Anton Wilhelm. His Godfathers are all 11 of them very noble
Lordships.12
10 Assembly X of 28 March, 1708, to Johann van der Star.
11 The use of "all" instead of "both" is probably a grammatical laxity, since
Amo's Christian names were most likely taken from his godfathers, Duke
Anton Ulric (died 17 14) and his son Wilhelm August (1 662-1 731); if the
third member of the family, Ludwig Rudolph (1676- 1735) had been a godfather,
his name would undoubtedly have been added, as it was in 1721.
12 Saltzthal Chapel register in the Staatsarchiv at Wolfenbuttel.
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 65
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66 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 67
We can thus conjecture an account for the years from 1717 to 1720,
but it is more difficult to account for those from 1721 to 1727, during
which period there are no records of Amo at all. Lochner supposes
that he was studying at the University of Helmstedt, near Wolfen-
buttel, a supposition which I think is tenable for a variety of reasons;
the fact that there is no direct evidence of this could be explained by
the cessation of that university, whose records were lost. Brent jes'
contention that Amo could not have attended this Protestant uni-
versity since the ducal court of Wolfenbuttel was Catholic 15 is based
on the mistake of thinking that because Anton Ulric became a Catholic
the whole court followed suit, which is not true; the university was
undoubtedly irritated by the Duke's conversion but that could hardly
have turned it into a deadly foe of every member of his household.
It would not be terribly unusual for a European nobleman to send
an African protege to university and, indeed, the example of Peter
the Great of Russia, who sent the African Ibrahim Hannibal through
school in Paris, would undoubtedly have been known at Wolfenbuttel,
where the court had connections with the Russian royal family. An
if the Duke of Wolfenbuttel - at this time Augustus Wilhelm - were
so inclined, it is likely that he would have sent Amo first to the local
university, Helmstedt, to see his mettle first-hand before sending
him on to other more distant, and possibly more difficult, universities.
There are several other reasons to support this theory. First, if
we are right in assuming that Amo was in fact in school from 1717 to
1720, it is unlikely that he would have been made to wait until
1727, when he entered the University of Halle, for his higher education;
presumably he would have gone to university as soon after 1720 as
possible. Second, in the Register of Undergraduates of the University
of Halle, Amo has signed himself as immatriculating on 9 June 1727,
and in the next column is entered tiie word "gratis," meaning that he
had sought and obtained exemption from paying matriculation fees.
This suggests that Amo was not then being supported by the Wolfen-
buttel court, perhaps because he had already been supported through
one university - i.e., Helmstedt - after which the court would feel
no obligation to keep paying his fees. Third, in this same register a
number of students who have come directly from a secondary school
indicate this fact, mentioning the name of the school and the number
of years they had spent there,16 and the implication is that those
against whose names there was no such information had not come
from a school but from a university; there is no mention of a school
against Amo's name. Finally, and most important, it is reported that
15 Ibid.
16 For example, Entry 485 of 8 June 1727 was one Andreas Fridericus Wil-
helmus de Crohn, who had been at the Rostock Academy; Entry 486 was a
Johannes Gottlieb Stremel who had spent two years in the Leipzig Academy;
Entry 483 was Nicolaus В. Brokelman who had spent a year in the Leipzig
Academy.
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68 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
III
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 69
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70 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 7I
IV
Amo presumably left Halle after defending his thesis in 1729, and is
not heard of again until 2 September 1730, when he immatriculated
into the University of Wittenberg, not far from Halle. He may very
well have considered going to Leipzig, where Christian Wolff had gone,
but that university was then festulating with enemies of Christian
Thomasiusm whose wrath he had unleashed by his free- thinking views.
And at Wittenberg he would have had a mentor, Martin Gotthelf
Loescher, a friend of Lude wig' s who taught Amo medicine, physiology
22 Johann Joachim Lange, "Clear Proof that the 130 Questions of the New
Mechanic Philosophy especially the Metaphysic" [sic], 1735.
23 This dispute between the free-thinkers and the clericals is illustrated by a
passage from Nikolaus Hironymus Gundling's Vollstandinge Historie der
Gelehrheit (Frankfurt /Leipzig, 1734), Part 4, p. 5256: ". . . . the medical men
have ranged themselves in two sects these days, if we can speak in such world.
First there are the Mechanists, and second the Stahlians. Of them the former
endeavour to maintain that the vital actions in the human body originate and
for the most part act in health as in sickness mechanically, and by use of the
body's physiology. They say even that the medicaments applied act in a mecha-
nical way in the body; and hence that the soul contributes little or nothing to
all this. To this, the Stahlians state the opposite view: namely that the human
soul is the prime mover in the body, and that the body through its physiological
structure is only a mobile instrument; also that the medicaments applied are
only stimulants which prompt the soul to motion/'
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72 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 73
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74 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
But though in our own times indeed that part of the world is
reported to be more prolific in other things than in learning,
nevertheless, that it is by no means exhausted of genius,
Anthony William Amo here, that Most Distinguished Master
of Science and the Liberal Arts, would teach by his example.
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 75
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76 FILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 77
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78 WILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 79
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8o WILLIAM ABRAHAM
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANTON WILHELM AMO 8l
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