An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species Part 13

As mankind were originally of the same stock, so it is evident that they were originally of the same colour. But how shall we attempt to ascertain it? Shall we _Englishmen_ say, that it was the same as that which we now find to be peculiar to ourselves?--No--This would be a vain and partial consideration, and would betray our judgment to have arisen from that false fondness, which habituates us to suppose, that every thing belonging to ourselves is the perfectest and the best. Add to this, that we should always be liable to a just reproof from every inhabitant of the globe, whose colour was different from our own; because he would justly say, that he had as good a right to imagine that his own was the primitive colour, as that of any other people.

How then shall we attempt to ascertain it? Shall we look into the various climates of the earth, see the colour that generally prevails in the inhabitants of each, and apply the rule? This will be certainly free from partiality, and will afford us a better prospect of success: for as every particular district has its particular colour, so it is evident that the complexion of Noah and his sons, from whom the rest of the world were descended, was the same as that, which is peculiar to the country, which was the seat of their habitation. This, by such a mode of decision, will be found a dark olive; a beautiful colour, and a just medium between white and black. That this was the primitive colour, is highly probable from the observations that have been made; and, if admitted, will afford a valuable lesson to the Europeans, to be cautious how they deride those of the opposite complexion, as there is great reason to presume, _that the purest white[079] is as far removed from the primitive colour as the deepest black_.

We come now to the grand question, which is, that if mankind were originally of this or any other colour, how came it to pa.s.s, that they should wear so various an appearance? We reply, as we have had occasion to say before, either _by the interposition of the Deity_; or _by a co-operation of certain causes, which have an effect upon the human frame, and have the power of changing it more or less from its primitive appearance, as they are more or less numerous or powerful than those, which acted upon the frame of man in the first seat of his habitation_.

With respect to the Divine interposition, two epochs have been a.s.signed, when this difference of colour has been imagined to have been so produced. The first is that, which has been related, when the curse was p.r.o.nounced on a branch of the posterity of _Ham_. But this argument has been already refuted; for if the particular colour alluded to were a.s.signed at this period, it was a.s.signed to the descendants of _Canaan_, to distinguish them from those of his other brothers, and was therefore _limited_ to the former. But the descendants of _Cush_[080], as we have shewn before, partook of the same colour; a clear proof, that it was neither a.s.signed to them on this occasion, nor at this period.

The second epoch is that, when mankind were dispersed on the building of _Babel_. It has been thought, that both _national features and colour_ might probably have been given them at this time, because these would have a.s.sisted the confusion of language, by causing them to disperse into tribes, and would have united more firmly the individuals of each, after the dispersion had taken place. But this is improbable: first, because there is great reason to presume that Moses, who has mentioned the confusion of language, would have mentioned these circ.u.mstances also, if they had actually contributed to bring about so singular an event: secondly, because the confusion of language was sufficient of itself to have accomplished this; and we cannot suppose that the Deity could have done any thing in vain: and thirdly, because, if mankind had been dispersed, each tribe in its peculiar hue, it is impossible to conceive, that they could have wandered and settled in such a manner, as to exhibit that regular gradation of colour from the equator to the poles, so conspicuous at the present day.

These are the only periods, which there has been even the shadow of a probability for a.s.signing; and we may therefore conclude that the preceding observations, together with such circ.u.mstances as will appear in the present chapter, will amount to a demonstration, that the difference of colour was never caused by any interposition of the Deity, and that it must have proceeded therefore from that _incidental co-operation of causes_, which has been before related.

What these causes are, it is out of the power of human wisdom positively to a.s.sert: there are facts, however, which, if properly weighed and put together, will throw considerable light upon the subject. These we shall submit to the perusal of the reader, and shall deduce from them such inferences only, as almost every person must make in his own mind, on their recital.

The first point, that occurs to be ascertained, is, "What part of the skin is the seat of colour?" The old anatomists usually divided the skin into two parts, or lamina; the exteriour and thinnest, called by the Greeks _Epidermis_, by the Romans _Cuticula_, and hence by us _Cuticle_; and the interiour, called by the former _Derma_, and by the latter _Cutis_, or _true skin_. Hence they must necessarily have supposed, that, as the _true skin_ was in every respect the same in all human subjects, however various their external hue, so the seat of colour must have existed in the _Cuticle_, or upper surface.

Malphigi, an eminent Italian physician, of the last century, was the first person who discovered that the skin was divided into three lamina, or parts; the _Cuticle_, the _true skin_, and a certain coagulated substance situated between both, which he distinguished by the t.i.tle of _Mucosum Corpus_; a t.i.tle retained by anatomists to the present day: which coagulated substance adhered so firmly to the _Cuticle_, as, in all former anatomical preparations, to have come off with it, and, from this circ.u.mstance to have led the ancient anatomists to believe, that there were but two lamina, or divisible portions in the human skin.

This discovery was sufficient to ascertain the point in question: for it appeared afterwards that the _Cuticle_, when divided according to this discovery from the other lamina, was semi-transparent; that the cuticle of the blackest negroe was of the same transparency and colour, as that of the purest white; and hence, the _true skins_ of both being invariably the same, that the _mucosum corpus_ was the seat of colour.

This has been farther confirmed by all subsequent anatomical experiments, by which it appears, that, whatever is the colour of this intermediate coagulated substance, nearly the same is the apparent colour of the upper surface of the skin. Neither can it be otherwise; for the _Cuticle_, from its transparency, must necessarily transmit the colour of the substance beneath it, in the same manner, though not in the same degree, as the _cornea_ transmits the colour of the _iris_ of the eye. This transparency is a matter of ocular demonstration in white people. It is conspicuous in every blush; for no one can imagine, that the cuticle becomes red, as often as this happens: nor is it less discoverable in the veins, which are so easy to be discerned; for no one can suppose, that the blue streaks, which he constantly sees in the fairest complexions, are painted, as it were, on the surface of the upper skin. From these, and a variety of other observations[081], no maxim is more true in physiology, than that _on the mucosum corpus depends the colour of the human body_; or, in other words, that the _mucosum corpus_ being of a different colour in different inhabitants of the globe, and appearing through the cuticle or upper surface of the skin, gives them that various appearance, which strikes us so forcibly in contemplating the human race.

As this can be incontrovertibly ascertained, it is evident, that whatever causes cooperate in producing this different appearance, they produce it by acting upon the _mucosum corpus_, which, from the almost incredible manner in which the cuticle[082] is perforated, is as accessible as the cuticle itself. These causes are probably those various qualities of things, which, combined with the influence of the sun, contribute to form what we call _climate_. For when any person considers, that the mucous substance, before-mentioned, is found to vary in its colour, as the _climates_ vary from the equator to the poles, his mind must be instantly struck with the hypothesis, and he must adopt it without any hesitation, as the genuine cause of the phaenomenon.

This fact[083], _of the variation of the mucous substance according to the situation of the place_, has been clearly ascertained in the numerous anatomical experiments that have been made; in which, subjects of all nations have come under consideration. The natives of many of the kingdoms and isles of _Asia_, are found to have their _corpus mucosum_ black. Those of _Africa_, situated near the line, of the same colour. Those of the maritime parts of the same continent, of a dusky brown, nearly approaching to it; and the colour becomes lighter or darker in proportion as the distance from the equator is either greater or less. The Europeans are the fairest inhabitants of the world. Those situated in the most southern regions of _Europe_, have in their _corpus mucosum_ a tinge of the dark hue of their _African_ neighbours: hence the epidemick complexion, prevalent among them, is nearly of the colour of the pickled Spanish olive; while in this country, and those situated nearer the north pole, it appears to be nearly, if not absolutely, white.

These are facts[084], which anatomy has established; and we acknowledge them to be such, that we cannot divest ourselves of the idea, that _climate_ has a considerable share in producing a difference of colour. Others, we know, have invented other hypotheses, but all of them have been instantly refuted, as unable to explain the difficulties for which they were advanced, and as absolutely contrary to fact: and the inventors themselves have been obliged, almost as soon as they have proposed them, to acknowledge them deficient.

The only objection of any consequence, that has ever been made to the hypothesis of _climate_, is this, _that people under the same parallels are not exactly of the same colour_. But this is no objection in fact: for it does not follow that those countries, which are at an equal distance from the equator, should have their climates the same. Indeed nothing is more contrary to experience than this.

Climate depends upon a variety of accidents. High mountains, in the neighbourhood of a place, make it cooler, by chilling the air that is carried over them by the winds. Large spreading succulent plants, if among the productions of the soil, have the same effect: they afford agreeable cooling shades, and a moist atmosphere from their continual exhalations, by which the ardour of the sun is considerably abated.

While the soil, on the other hand, if of a sandy nature, retains the heat in an uncommon degree, and makes the summers considerably hotter than those which are found to exist in the same lat.i.tude, where the soil is different. To this proximity of what may be termed _burning sands_, and to the sulphurous and metallick particles, which are continually exhaling from the bowels of the earth, is ascribed the different degree of blackness, by which some _African_ nations are distinguishable from each other, though under the same parallels. To these observations we may add, that though the inhabitants of the same parallel are not exactly of the same hue, yet they differ only by shades of the same colour; or, to speak with more precision, that there are no two people, in such a situation, one of whom is white, and the other black. To sum up the whole--Suppose we were to take a common globe; to begin at the equator; to paint every country along the meridian line in succession from thence to the poles; and to paint them with the same colour which prevails in the respective inhabitants of each, we should see the black, with which we had been obliged to begin, insensibly changing to an olive, and the olive, through as many intermediate colours, to a white: and if, on the other hand, we should complete any one of the parallels according to the same plan, we should see a difference perhaps in the appearance of some of the countries through which it ran, though the difference would consist wholly in shades of the same colour.

The argument therefore, which is brought against the hypothesis, is so far from being, an objection, that we shall consider it one of the first arguments in its favour: for if _climate_ has really an influence on the _mucous substance_ of the body, it is evident, that we must not only expect to see a gradation of colour in the inhabitants from the equator to the poles, but also different[085] shades of the same colour in the inhabitants of the same parallel.

To this argument, we shall add one that is incontrovertible, which is, that when the _black_ inhabitants of _Africa_ are transplanted to _colder_, or the _white_ inhabitants of _Europe_ to _hotter_ climates, their children, _born there_, are of a _different colour from themselves_; that is, lighter in the first, and darker in the second instance.

As a proof of the first, we shall give the words of the Abbe Raynal[086], in his admired publication. "The children," says he, "which they, (the _Africans_) procreate in _America_, are not so black as their parents were. After each generation the difference becomes more palpable. It is possible, that after a numerous succession of generations, the men come from _Africa_ would not be distinguished from those of the country, into which they may have been transplanted."

This circ.u.mstance we have had the pleasure of hearing confirmed by a variety of persons, who have been witnesses of the fact; but particularly by many intelligent[087] Africans, who have been parents themselves in _America_, and who have declared that the difference is so palpable in the _northern provinces_, that not only they themselves have constantly observed it, but that they have heard it observed by others.

Neither is this variation in the children from the colour of their parents improbable. _The children of the blackest Africans are born white_[088]. In this state they continue for about a month, when they change to a pale yellow. In process of time they become brown. Their skin still continues to increase in darkness with their age, till it becomes of a dirty, sallow black, and at length, after a certain period of years, glossy and s.h.i.+ning. Now, if climate has any influence on the _mucous substance_ of the body, this variation in the children from the colour of their parents is an event, which must be reasonably expected: for being born white, and not having equally powerful causes to act upon them in colder, as their parents had in the hotter climates which they left, it must necessarily follow, that the same affect cannot possibly be produced.

Hence also, if the hypothesis be admitted, may be deduced the reason, why even those children, who have been brought from their country at an early age into colder regions, have been observed[089] to be of a lighter colour than those who have remained at home till they arrived at a state of manhood. For having undergone some of the changes which we mentioned to have attended their countrymen from infancy to a certain age, and having been taken away before the rest could be completed, these farther changes, which would have taken place had they remained at home, seem either to have been checked in their progress, or weakened in their degree, by a colder climate.

We come now to the second and opposite case; for a proof of which we shall appeal to the words of Dr. Mitch.e.l.l[090], in the Philosophical Transactions. "The _Spaniards_ who have inhabited _America_ under the torrid zone for any time, are become as dark coloured as our native _Indians_ of _Virginia_, of which, _I myself have been a witness_; and were they not to intermarry with the _Europeans_, but lead the same rude and barbarous lives with the _Indians_, it is very probable that, in a succession of many generations, they would become as dark in complexion."

To this instance we shall add one, which is mentioned by a late writer[091], who describing the _African_ coast, and the _European_ settlements there, has the following pa.s.sage. "There are several other small _Portuguese_ settlements, and one of some note at _Mitomba_, a river in _Sierra Leon_. The people here called _Portuguese_, are princ.i.p.ally persons bred from a mixture of the first _Portuguese discoverers_ with the natives, and now become, in their _complexion_ and _woolly quality_ of their hair, _perfect negroes_, retaining however a smattering of the _Portuguese_ language."

These facts, with respect to the colonists of the _Europeans_, are of the highest importance in the present case, and deserve a serious attention. For when we know to a certainty from whom they are descended; when we know that they were, at the time of their transplantation, of the same colour as those from whom they severally sprung; and when, on the other hand, we are credibly informed, that they have changed it for the native colour of the place which they now inhabit; the evidence in support of these facts is as great, as if a person, on the removal of two or three families into another climate, had determined to ascertain the circ.u.mstance; as if he had gone with them and watched their children; as if he had communicated his observations at his death to a successor; as if his successor had prosecuted the plan, and thus an uninterrupted chain of evidence had been kept up from their first removal to any determined period of succeeding time.

But though these facts seem sufficient of themselves to confirm our opinion, they are not the only facts which can be adduced in its support. It can be shewn, that the members of the _very same family_, when divided from each other, and removed into different countries, have not only changed their family complexion, but that they have changed it to _as many different colours_ as they have gone into _different regions of the world_. We cannot have, perhaps, a more striking instance of this, than in the _Jews_. These people, are scattered over the face of the whole earth. They have preserved themselves distinct from the rest of the world by their religion; and, as they never intermarry with any but those of their own sect, so they have no mixture of blood in their veins, that they should differ from each other: and yet nothing is more true, than that the _English Jew_[092] is white, the _Portuguese_ swarthy, the _Armenian_ olive, and the _Arabian_ copper; in short, that there appear to be as many different species of _Jews_, as there are countries in which they reside.

To these facts we shall add the following observation, that if we can give credit to the ancient historians in general, a change from the darkest black to the purest white must have actually been accomplished.

One instance, perhaps, may be thought sufficient. _Herodotus_[093]

relates, that the _Colchi were black_, and that they had _crisped hair_. These people were a detachment of the _aethiopian_ army under _Sesostris_, who followed him in his expedition, and settled in that part of the world, where _Colchis_ is usually represented to have been situated. Had not the same author informed us of this circ.u.mstance, we should have thought it strange[094], that a people of this description should have been found in such a lat.i.tude. Now as they were undoubtedly settled there, and as they were neither so totally destroyed, nor made any such rapid conquests, as that history should notice the event, there is great reason to presume, that their descendants continued in the same, or settled in the adjacent country; from whence it will follow, that they must have changed their complexion to that, which is observable in the inhabitants of this particular region at the present day; or, in other words, that the _black inhabitant of Colchis_ must have been changed into the _fair Circa.s.sian_[095].

As we have now shewn it to be highly probable, from the facts which have been advanced, that climate is the cause of the difference of colour which prevails in the different inhabitants of the globe, we shall now shew its probability from so similar an effect produced on the _mucous substance_ before-mentioned by so similar a cause, that though the fact does not absolutely prove our conjecture to be right, yet it will give us a very lively conception of the manner, in which the phaenomenon may be caused.

This probability may be shewn in the case of _freckles_, which are to be seen in the face of children, but of such only, as have the thinnest and most transparent skins, and are occasioned by the rays of the sun, striking forcibly on the _mucous substance_ of the face, and drying the acc.u.mulating fluid. This acc.u.mulating fluid, or perspirable matter, is at first colourless; but being exposed to violent heat, or dried, becomes brown. Hence, the _mucosum corpus_ being tinged in various parts by this brown coagulated fluid, and the parts so tinged appearing through the _cuticle_, or upper surface of the skin, arises that spotted appearance, observable in the case recited.

Now, if we were to conceive a black skin to be an _universal freckle_, or the rays of the sun to act so universally on the _mucous substance_ of a person's face, as to produce these spots so contiguous to each other that they should unite, we should then see, in imagination, a face similar to those, which are daily to be seen among black people: and if we were to conceive his body to be exposed or acted upon in the same manner, we should then see his body a.s.suming a similar appearance; and thus we should see the whole man of a perfect black, or resembling one of the naked inhabitants of the torrid zone. Now as the feat of freckles and of blackness is the same; as their appearance is similar; and as the cause of the first is the ardour of the sun, it is therefore probable that the cause of the second is the same: hence, if we subst.i.tute for the word "_sun_," what is a.n.a.logous to it, the word _climate_, the same effect may be supposed to be produced, and the conjecture to receive a sanction.

Nor is it unlikely that the hypothesis, which considers the cause of freckles and of blackness as the same, may be right. For if blackness is occasioned by the rays of the sun striking forcibly and universally on the _mucous substance_ of the body, and drying the acc.u.mulating fluid, we can account for the different degrees of it to be found in the different inhabitants of the globe. For as the quant.i.ty of perspirable fluid, and the force of the solar rays is successively increased, as the climates are successively warmer, from any given parallel to the line, it follows that the fluid, with which the _mucous substance_ will be stained, will be successively thicker and deeper coloured; and hence, as it appears through the cuticle, the complexion successively darker; or, what amounts to the same thing, there will be a difference of colour in the inhabitants of every successive parallel.

From these, and the whole of the preceding observations on the subject, we may conclude, that as all the inhabitants of the earth cannot be otherwise than the children of the same parents, and as the difference of their appearance must have of course proceeded from incidental causes, these causes are a combination of those qualities, which we call _climate_; that the blackness of the _Africans_ is so far ingrafted in their const.i.tution, in a course of many generations, that their children wholly inherit it, if brought up in the same spot, but that it is not so absolutely interwoven in their nature, that it cannot be removed, if they are born and settled in another; that _Noah_ and his sons were probably of an _olive_ complexion; that those of their descendants, who went farther to the south, became of a deeper olive or _copper_; while those, who went still farther, became of a deeper copper or _black_; that those, on the other hand, who travelled farther to the north, became less olive or _brown_, while those who went still farther than the former, became less brown or _white_; and that if any man were to point out any one of the colours which prevails in the human complexion, as likely to furnish an argument, that the people of such a complexion were of a different species from the rest, it is probable that his own descendants, if removed to the climate to which this complexion is peculiar, would, in the course of a few generations, degenerate into the same colour.

Having now replied to the argument, "that the Africans are an inferiour link of the chain of nature," as far as it depended on their _capacity_ and _colour_, we shall now only take notice of an expression, which the _receivers_ before-mentioned are pleased to make use of, "that they are made for slavery."

Had the Africans been _made for slavery_, or to become the property of any society of men, it is clear, from the observations that have been made in the second part of this Essay, that they must have been created _devoid of reason_: but this is contrary to fact. It is clear also, that there must have been, many and evident signs of the _inferiority of their nature_, and that this society of men must have had a _natural right_ to their dominion: but this is equally false. No such signs of _inferiority_ are to be found in the one, and the right to dominion in the other is _incidental_: for in what volume of nature or religion is it written, that one society of men should _breed slaves_ for the benefit, of another? Nor is it less evident that they would have wanted many of those qualities which they have, and which brutes have not: they would have wanted that _spirit of liberty_, that _sense of ignominy and shame_[096], which so frequently drives them to the horrid extremity of finis.h.i.+ng their own existence. Nor would they have been endowed with a _contemplative power_; for such a power would have been unnecessary to people in such a situation; or rather, its only use could have been to increase their pain. We cannot suppose therefore that G.o.d has made an order of beings, with such mental qualities and powers, for the sole purpose of being used as _beasts_, or _instruments_ of labour. And here, what a dreadful argument presents itself against you _receivers_?

For if they have no understandings as you confess, then is your conduct impious, because, as they cannot perceive the intention of your punishment, your severities cannot make them better. But if, on the other hand, they have had understandings, (which has evidently appeared) then is your conduct equally impious, who, by destroying their faculties by the severity of your discipline, have reduced men; who had once the power of reason, to an equality with the brute creation.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 073: Genesis, ch. iv. 15.]

[Footnote 074: Genesis, ch. ix. 25, 26, 27.]

[Footnote 075: Jeremiah says, ch. xiii. 23, "Can the aethiopian change his colour, or the leopard his spots?" Now the word, which is here translated _aethiopian_, is in the original Hebrew "_the descendant of Cush_," which shews that this colour was not confined to the descendants of _Canaan_, as the advocates for slavery a.s.sert.]

[Footnote 076: It is very extraordinary that the advocates for slavery should consider those Africans, whom they call negroes, as the descendants of _Canaan_, when few historical facts can be so well ascertained, as that out of the descendants of the four sons of Ham, the descendants of Canaan were the only people, (if we except the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Canaan, and were afterwards ruined) who did not settle in that quarter of the globe. Africa was incontrovertibly peopled by the posterity of the three other sons. We cannot shew this in a clearer manner, than in the words of the learned Mr. Bryant, in his letter to Mr. Granville Sharp on this subject.

"We learn from scripture, that Ham had four sons, _Chus, Mizraim, Phut_, and _Canaan_, Gen. x. 5, 6. _Canaan_ occupied _Palestine_, and the country called by his name: _Mizraim, Egypt_: but _Phut_ pa.s.sed deep into _Africa_, and, I believe, most of the nations in that part of the world are descended from him; at least more than from any other person."

_Josephus_ says, "_that Phut was the founder of the nations in Libya, and the people were from him called (phoutoi) Phuti_." Antiq. L. 1. c.

7. "By _Lybia_ he understands, as the _Greeks_ did, _Africa_ in general: for the particular country called _Lybia Proper_, was peopled by the _Lubim_, or _Lehabim_, one of the branches from _Mizraim_, (Labieim ex ou Libnes) Chron. Paschale, p. 29.

"The sons of _Phut_ settled in _Mauritania_, where was a country called _Phutia_, and a river of the like denomination. Mauritaniae Fluvius usque ad praesens Tempus _Phut_ dicitur, omnisq; circa eum Regio _Phutensis_.

Hieron. Tradit. Hebroeae.--Amnem, quem vocant _Fut_." Pliny, L. 5. c. 1.

Some of this family settled above aegypt, near aethiopia, and were styled Troglodytae. (phoud ex ou troglodotai). Syncellus, p. 47. Many of them pa.s.sed inland, and peopled the Mediterranean country."

"In process of time the sons of _Chus_ also, (after their expulsion from Egypt) made settlements upon the sea coast of _Africa_, and came into _Mauritania_. Hence we find traces of them also in the names of places, such as _Churis, Chusares_, upon the coast: and a river _Chusa_, and a city _Cotta_, together with a promontory, _Cotis_, in _Mauritania_, all denominated from _Chus_; who at different times, and by different people, was called _Chus, Cuth, Cosh_, and _Cotis_. The river _Cusa_ is mentioned by _Pliny_, Lib. 5. c. 1. and by _Ptolomy_."