and their genius paralyzed, because they are not tempted by any thing but what satisfies their sensuality, or their natural desires. Their character being more indolent than active, they seem to be more fitted to be ruled, than to govern, in other words they were rather born for submission, than dominion. Moreover it is very seldom they know how to command; for it has been observed, that when they have power, they are capricious tyrants. This last character does not apply only to negroes; experience has taught us that the most tractable slaves, become always in every country the worst masters, because they wish to be indemnified in some measure for what they have suffered, by inflicting pain on others. It has been said of Caligula, a Roman Emperor, that he had been the best of servants, and the most cruel ruler. system,against which they so loudly exclaim: viz: the FREE LABORERS working under the terror of the bayonet and sabre! The present condition of Hayti, arising from the events which have taken place, should render us exceedingly cautious how we plunge our own colonies into the same misery and calamity; by conferring on a rude and untaught people, without qualification, or without the least restraint, an uncontrollable command over themselves. However acutely we may feel for the miseries to which the West Indian slave was at one period subjected, yet I cannot conceive it possible that any one is so destitute of correct information on the subject, as not to know, that at this moment the slave is in a condition far more happy, that he possesses infinitely greater comforts and enjoyments, than any class of laborers in Hayti, and that, from the judicious measures which have been already adopted by the colonial legislatures, and from others which are in contemplation, for improving the condition of the slaves, it is rational to conclude that before long, slavery will be only considered as a name, and that were it to receive any other designation, it would furnish no peg on which the European philanthropist might hang his declamations against slavery.-(James Franklin: Present State of Hayti, (St. Domingo) p. 6-9, London, 1828.) ON THE PECULIAR STRUCTURE OF THE NEGRO COMPARISON BETWEEN THE NEGRO, THE WHITE MAN, AND THE ORANG OUTANG. We have now considered the negro in his moral relations. If his color does not proceed from the heat and light of his climate, as has been maintained, let us endeavor to ascertain the causes of it. Doctor Mitchell, of Virginia,* states that the degree of blackness in the negro's skin, corresponds to the degrees of intensity and opacity produced by the heat on its teguments. According to P. Barrère, the extreme heat of the climate thickens and concentrates the bile, which, flowing through the tissues, as in cases of jaundice, renders Southerners dark, tawny and black. This bile, black in negroes, according to Santorini and Springer, gives a yellow tinge to the albugineous coats of the eyes; finally, the "capsules atrabilaires" are larger, and more swollen than in whites. Such an hypothesis has found a defender in Lecat.t Nevertheless, the same author is far from admitting that climate could entirely change the color of the skin, still less cause the many differences in physiognomies, which distin *Philos. Transactions, not. 474. See also Cassini, Observations sur un blanc devenu noir, (Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, 1702, Hist p. 29, and Abraham Baeck in the Vetenskap, Acad. Hanlinger, 1748, s. 9. guish each species of men: it is evident, says he, that heat, climate, and sun cannot alter physiognomies.* The old opinion that the black color is especially the effect of temperature, and manner of living of negroes, has been adopted by Buffon, Robertson, Paw, Zimmerman &c. &c. from the the ancient philosophers; but some authors, and above all Reynold Foster, who accompanied Cookt in his navigation round the world, have opposed to it strong arguments and facts. Indeed, Moors living from an immemorial time in Africa, have not become black, whilst negroes, whose residence out of Africa and the Tropics, is lost in the darkness of past ages, have not turned white So Banians and Bramins of India, living in a climate as hot as that of Africa, although tawny, have retained the white constitution, owing to never being connected with negroes by alliances; on the contrary, the Portuguese of Goa and Indies, become darker by intermarrying with them. In every part of America, the aborigines of that new continent are always copper colored. In the Islands of the South Sea, there are men belonging to a tawny, or Malayan race, and negroes. Both perpetuate their races separately. Blumenbach attributes the cause of the black tinge in negroes, to their humours, containing a great quantity of carbone, secreted with hydrogene, in the tissue of Malpighi. The oxigene of the air combines with hydrogene, and forms a serosity, which is carried away by perspiration, whilst carbone is deposited alone under the derma.|| * Traité de la couleur de la peau humaine, Amsterdam, 1765, 10, in 8vo. + Remarques à la traduction Allem. de l'Histoire Naturelle de Buffon. It is what probably misled the Abbe Dumanet; Afriq.Franç. vol. 2. Dissertation sur les Negres, p. 226, where he maintains, against the opinion of Lecat, that heat and light are the only causes of the color in negroes. See also Niebhur, Voyage en Arabie, vol. 1, page 558. Lord Kaimes, Sketches on the History of Man, vol. 1, p. 13 The opinion of Meckel consists in believing, that the complexion of Negroes, is owing to the black color contained in the cortical part of their brain. According to this anatomist, nerves emerging from their brown "Medulla oblongata," and brain, convey such a black color to all the body, even to the skin.* But what is the origin of the black color of those great nervous centers in negroes? It is evident that causes attributed to climate, heat and light are not sufficient, since such agents have not the same effects on many other animals which remain white, or of a light color, in Africa. Yet Wm. Hunter, Stanhope Smith, and Zimmermann, agreeing in opinion with Buffon, maintain that an atmosphere constantly heated, especially with hot winds, as the Samiel, Kampsin, Harmattan, which destroy any kind of humid freshness and herbage, in the deserts of Africa and Australasia, together with a scorching sun, render any vegetable or animal substance dry,crisped and brown, by carrying away the lympha which moistened their organs. On the contrary, cold preventing perspiration, augments the humidity of bodies which serves to render the skin whiter, the hair softer, longer, and of a lighter color; Danes, Germans, Englishmen have light hair; thus, hares, foxes, bears, and birds, at the north, become white during the winter, and colored in summer. Under the foggy climate of some parts of Europe, during the long nights of winter, every thing in nature is faded and withered. The white man becomes leuco phlegmatic, weak and lymphatic. The patient Dutchman at Batavia, has a placid countenance, among ferocious and boisterous Malayans; his pale and light complexion, contrasts with their tawny and olive colored skin, black and hard hair. The former is all phlegm, the latter all bile. Hence, we conclude, (those authors would add,) that northern nations of a tall stature, with light smooth hair, and blue eyes, are diametrically different from inhabitants of the Torrid Zone, whose height is short, natural constitution dry and brown, hair crisped, and as black as their skin.’ *Mem Acad. de Berlin, vol ix, p. 101. Inhabitants of intermediate countries, will form the middle shade. We see then northerners placed at one extremity, and negroes at the other of the human race.* We will remark, that nations become darker in proportion, as they are more or less in the vicinity of the Equator; their hair is crisped, as if it had been exposed to a fire. We also remark that the wool of sheep in Africa becomes as hard as hair: no wonder if negroes, having always been from their intancy exposed in a state of nakedness, to the rays of a burning sun, and to open air, being very seldom sheltered by huts, have acquired in process of time this dark color. Ovid, speaking of the fall of Phaëton, says: "Inde etiam Ethiopes nigrum traxisse colorem "Creditur." In the hot and barren soils of Guinea and Ethiopia, we hear of the sun incessantly pouring his scorching rays which blacken and wither (if we may use the expression) men, animals and plants. The hair of the negro is crisped by dessication, his skin covered with an oily black perspiration, which soils the clothes. Dogs, as well as mandrills and baboons, lose their hair; their skin, like the snout of these monkeys, is tawny, or of a purplish color. Cats, oxen and rabbits are black. The sheep lose their soft and white wool, and are covered with brown rough hairs. The feathers of fowls are of a jet black; so at Mozambico, black hens are to be seen, whose flesh is also black; all creatures are tinged with a black color. Herbage, instead of being of the soft and lively green color of our climate, is livid and black. Plants are small, ligneous, crooked and shrunken by dryness; their dark shaded wood becomes hard, viz: Ebony, Aspalathus, Sidorexylon, Clerodendron, a kind of negro trees. Tender grass is not to be found, but in its stead hard and solid blades: the fruits, as cocoa nuts, &c. are enveloped in a woody brown covering. Almost all flowers are painted in deep and strong colors, *Aristot. Lib. 2. and Meteor, C. 2, Comm. Averroes. |