Darwin, Slavery, and Science (2009) more

Darwin, Slavery, and Science. B. Ricardo Brown, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Cultural Studies Pratt Institute for The Civil War and Reconstruction Era: 1850s-1877 in the series Conflicts in American History, edited by Brian L. Johnson and Edward J. Blum. Columbia, S.C., Manly, 2009. In an era of revolutions, tucked away on the Down House estate, Darwin was the most reclusive of revolutionary figures. His theories were based upon direct observation, rather than philosophical speculation. Yet his views on the origin and variation of species transformed our understanding of natural and human history. While Darwin's work is often seen in terms of its conflict with Christian doctrines on creation and design, this was not the controversy that Darwin sought to engage. The Biblical chronology had been under siege for quite some time. The great naturalists that preceded him --- Linne, Cuvier, Blumenbach, and Lamarck--- all placed humans in the natural order, and the wide variety of new species of plants and animals, and new varieties of humans, confronting Europeans on their voyages of discovery and conquest, scientific research came to center on what was referred to as the species question. What could explain the rich variety of species found in the world? Why is there such variety to a divinely created and designed world? If the variety of nature was too great to allow one to answer these questions, then humans could serve as a model. If we could understand why humans vary, then we would have the key to the species question. A decade before the publication of the Origin of Species, the American craniologist Samuel G. Morton stated flatly that “the question of the origin of species is of the human species.” In the years between 1830 and 1859, a new scientific theory of human origins known as polygenesis ---which held that humans were divided into races, each with a separate origin and with fixed characteristics--- had come to dominate the understanding of human origins. Advocated most vigorously by a group of naturalists and doctors that came to be known as the American School, the polygenic theory of human origins was used by many as a scientific justification for slavery and used against the abolitionists who often turned to the Biblical account of humans as having one single origin, or monogenesis, to support their cause. Although Darwin's work is often associated with the challenge it posed to Christian doctrine, this was not the opponent Darwin had in mind when he wrote the Origin of Species. His scientific intervention was against the polygenic theory and its implicit justification of slavery. To do this, Darwin proposed a scientific, and not religious, monogenic theory of the origin and variation of species. Although humans are not mentioned at all in the work, its argument led to an unavoidable conclusion that humans are one species. The scientific foundation for slavery was ripped away, much to Darwin's satisfaction. The American School, associated with such naturalists and doctors such as Morton, Josiah Nott, George Gliddon, and Louis Agassiz were perhaps the first American scientist to be fully recognized by their European peers. By 1850, the American School's polygenic theory had succeeded in challenging the Biblical chronology of the history of the earth and its inhabitants. Freed from doctrine, the American School hailed a new era of “free scientific inquiry” into human origins was upon us. The proponents of the American School elaborated the polygenic theory with such rigor that it was taken as the accepted scientific truth in the two decades before the publication of the Origin. The debate between the monogenists and polygenists was between two powerful explanations for human variety. It would be simplistic to think that the polygenic/monogenic debate was between pro and anti-slavery advocates who wanted to wrap themselves in the veneer of scientific respectability. This debate went to the very core of the ethics of scientific inquiry. Supporters of slavery could be found on each side, as could abolitionists. The monogenist and co-author with James Audubon, the Rev. John Bachman of Charleston supported slavery, while those opposed to slavery included George Squire, polygenists and founder of the New York Anthropological Society. It is often uncritically accepted that the ideas and concepts Darwin brought together so masterfully in the Origin of Species had been “in the air” as part of the “spirit of the age.” But was everything already neatly in place and pointing to the same inevitable conclusion? Was Darwin's work the mere assembling and making intelligible insights already available? What is certain is that Natural History had reached a crisis amidst the disputes over fixity, variation, and classification. If a puzzle was before Darwin, it had been laid before him by the polygenists. (text II) Darwin purposely avoided the use of the term evolve or evolution until the very last sentence in order to avoid any confusion of his work with the already well know use of the term. Evolution at the time of Origin of Species was most often used in the sense of an inevitable and determined unfolding over time of characteristics already present from the beginning. The homunculus, or the little man in the head of each sperm, best represented this type of evolutionary view: “all future generations had been created in the ovaries of Eve or testes of Adam, enclosed like Russian dolls, one within the next--a homunculus in each of Eve’s ova, a tinier homunculus in each ovum of the homunculus, and so on.” Darwin redefined evolution to mean indeterminate change over time, i.e., change directed only by the needs of the individual to survive its struggle for existence and its ability of the species to adapt and vary in the course of the struggle for life. Instead of a movement towards an end or a higher stage, the history of nature became the struggle of life to perpetuate itself, in part through “natural selection” --defined by Darwin as “the preservation of slight changes.” Darwin put to rest the scientific discourse on the species question, which dominated the study on human origins. Darwin's work was grounded not only in the elements that he carried forward --- the importance of the fossil record, embryology, and rudimentary organs --- but also in the debates and discourses which he would either transform or destroy. The Origin of Species asks the central question of Darwin's time: What explains the origins and variety of species? That variation exists is obvious to any observer, Darwin notes at the beginning of his work. In 1842, a reviewer of recent polygenic works was led to begin by asking “[i]n surveying the globe in reference to the different appearances of mankind, the most extraordinary diversities are apparent to the most superficial observer.... Hence arises the question --- Have all these diverse races descended from a single stock?” Human variety held the key to the species question precisely because the question always referred to human variety, and because Linne, Cuvier, and Lamarck had the wisdom to place humans in the animal kingdom. (text I) Variation in one could explain variation in all because the process was at work on all. The struggle for life points to a commonality that is fundamentally genealogical. Darwin's theory, though, was neither eugenic nor teleological; and for him genealogy rather than Spirit connected all life. The Origin is structured as an argument for the theory. It begins with an exposition on variation as it exists under domestication, and without the intervention of humans. Instead of fixity, Darwin's takes variation to be the norm: individuals, even those classified as belonging to the same species vary across time and space. Variation is the central theme and the essential product of the struggle for life, and variation is generated by the struggle. Natural selection, amongst other forces is the basis of this law of variability. At the heart of nature rests variation. Life, embroiled in the struggle for existence, maintains itself through variation. The remaining portion of the Origin is given over to anticipating objections to the theory. Instinct, especially discussed in terms of slave-making ants and mutualistic aphid/ant relationships, hybridity approached as the permanent production of variety, and not as a violation of fixity. Other problems of the geological record (fossils and catastrophe and extinction); the succession of organic beings (preformism, teleology) and geographic distribution (design and special creation) are addressed as possible areas from which objections will be heard. In spite of these difficulties, or perhaps because of them, Darwin proposes a new science arising from genealogy, morphology (the comparative study of function, behavior, and environment), embryology, and the study of rudimentary organs. This is the structure of the Origin which reveals the transvaluation of Natural History into the science of life. "All true classification is genealogical, that community of descent is the hidden bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seeking, and not some unknown plan of creation, or the enunciation of general propositions, and the mere putting together and separating objects more or less alike." Darwin’s genealogical tree of evolution represents the history of Nature, and that species are an expression of continuity, but also of this discontinuity of past extinctions and adaptations. History is not the striving of different species for supremacy, but the conflict within one species in particular as it confronts its own conditions of life. To Darwin, the torments of the rest of nature are rare and brief, only humans have learned to make suffering itself into a way of living. To see this, one needed only to observe, he often remarked, the torment of animals under the whip of the driver, or the knife of the vivisectionist, or the wars and enslavement of humans themselves.(text IV) Darwin did not engage in the active defense of his theory, leaving it to his friends Thomas Huxley and Asa Gray to respond to the more heated attacks. There were many reasons for this, including his health, which had been severely compromised during the five year circumnavigation of the Beagle. It was not known at the time what caused his chronic illness and bouts of intense pain, but it is now speculated that he contracted a disease akin to sleeping sickness while on his excursions inland. Much of Darwin's work was shaped by his voyage. He had begun the voyage a believer in fixity and creation, and by the end had already begun to sketch the outlines of the theory. He had also begun the voyage as an ardent opponent of slavery, and related how he was often told that experiences in the slave countries would prove to him the inferiority of the Negro. He wrote to his sister that his experiences in Brazil in particular only hardened his opposition to slavery. Darwin was not the Beagle's naturalist, but more the social companion for Captain Fitz-Roy. British naval commanders were drawn from the upper class and it was forbidden for them to socialize even with their own junior officers. It was a lonely life for a ships captain, made all the more apparent by the suicide of the Beagle's first Captain while sheltering in a harbor in the Straits of Magellan. FitzRoy took Darwin even though he was concern, given his interest in craniology, that the shape of Darwin's nose suggested that he was not up to the hardships of the voyage. Reluctantly, Fitz-Roy took Darwin aboard and they shared the cramped quarters of the ship for five years. The smallness of the cabin became even more pronounced when the two discovered their opposing views of slavery. FitzRoy shared the common view tat slavery was a necessary evil because of the inherent inferiority of the enslaved races. Slavery would ultimately raise the Negro to civilization, he thought. Fitz-Roy was himself returning three captives taken from Tierra del Fuego during the previous voyage to be trained as missionaries and potential colonial agents. The attempt ended in failure and tragedy. But it was in Brazil that Darwin observed slavery for himself, and his experiences never left him. (texts III, V, VII, VII, VIII) His son Francis remembered that his father was often awaken by nightmares of his Brazilian experiences, and he would become enraged at the mere suggestion that slavery might have any redeeming value. Those who thought so, he wrote, had never put themselves in the position of the slave. When his friend and mentor Charles Lyell wrote to Darwin about the forced separation of a slave family, Darwin's response was brutal, though once he realized that Lyell was only relating the views of another, he excused himself by saying that only the subject of slavery made his emotions get the better of him. During the period between Darwin's return from the Beagle and the publication of his major works, it could not have been lost on anyone at the time ---especially one who like Darwin maintained a voluminous international correspondence--- that they were seeing the transformation of scientific knowledge --- and the “Spirit of the Age” is really only the structure of knowledge and its disciplines. Physics and chemistry were already becoming the province of specialists. The laboratory was becoming the locale for organizing the production of scientific knowledge. The rapid foundation of new learned associations and societies reflected both the move towards specialization and the speedier dissemination of results and theories. Science had finally turned to the study life. Just one governing principle remained to be overthrown: the view of Man as the apex of creation. In this regard, the Origins of Species is a profound argument for human humility. The history of the Earth could no longer be thought of as identical with the history of Man, but it was now possible to assert that it was key to understanding the history of life. “As all the organic beings, extinct and recent, which have ever lived on this earth have to be classed together, and as all have been connected by the finest gradations, the best, or indeed, if our collections were nearly perfect, the only possible arrangement, would be genealogical. Descent being on my view the hidden bond of connection which naturalists have been seeking under the term of the natural system.” The Tree of Life was transformed into the tree of genealogical affinities: “I believe this simile largely speaks the truth” Darwin modestly stated. The Tree of Life, as well as his evocation of the “tangled bank,” represented a dynamic and indeterminate Nature. (text IX) Darwin executed more than just a rhetorical maneuver with the naming of The Origin of the Species. Darwin choose to avoid the question of human origins, because to do so would have been to play on his opponents board and make his work a part of the monogenic-polygenic debate. To make a break with that controversy, Darwin answered the species question by demanding that we consider humans to be just one of an infinite variety of living organisms, all of which were created by the same processes that could even now be seen at work. Darwin shifts man from a central place in understanding variety in nature, and so produces a break with the polygenic/monogenic debate. If humans can tell us so much about the origins of the vast cacophony of nature, then there was no reason to privilege humans as the special key to knowledge. Any species could answer some or all of the question of origins. Darwin combined the genealogical classification of species with the gradual accumulation of small variations --- “a grain of sand is enough to tip the balance”--- and a theory of population. With these he destroyed the theory of the fixity of species and the multiple origins of humans. Even Cuvier's theory of a series of creations could no longer be accepted. Darwin was profoundly materialistic. With his intervention into the monogenic/polygenic controversy, the fixed, closed systems of classification of Natural History could no longer adequately describe the world. Now the Earth could only be seen as a planet where life “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” This, the last sentence of the book, is the only instance in the Origins of Species where evolution is used. It is significant that it is used in this passage to juxtapose the fixity of the law of gravity with the plasticity of descent with modification, a plasticity that is due in large part to the workings of chance. Most simply put, Darwin made the question of human origins a matter of the origin of any species. Humans were no longer at the center. Linne may have placed Man in the chart of classification and as the measure and explanation for its origins, but Darwin placed humans in the genealogical tree of life, that is, directly in nature itself, and allowed that other species shall now explain the origin of man. Darwin's work opens us to the infinity of nature, and makes humans just one of many species joined in life's great struggle for existence “whilst this planet has gone cycling according to the fixed law of gravity.” We should not think of Darwin's intervention as the triumph of reason over false-science, for with the new theory came also new forms of knowledge such as degeneracy and eugenics, and new forms of control that relied on new systems of classification which never quite left behind those of the late period of Natural History. These were not new forms of unreason, and neither was polygenesis merely a false and wretched knowledge that was a perversion of reason. It constituted scientific reason in relation to Man. Our present everyday knowledge of race owes much to it, but so too the the same degree do the sciences of life such as biology and sociology insofar as they came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to buttress the eugenic movement. Life and its struggle now occupied the center, and the displacement of Man could not be sustained under the guise of Natural History. New fields such as biology, sociology, and ecology would now supplant Natural History with the new study of life. The end of Natural History came along with the end of the dispute between the monogenists and polygenists. The polygenic theory was turned on its head by Darwin's account of a single common line of descent shaped by natural selection, among other conditions of life. Darwin does not directly refer to polygenism until ten years later in the Descent of Man, and by then the polygenists had already been eclipsed by the combined forces of Darwin's critique and the American Civil War. That we do not remember the monogenic/polygenic debate is what Darwin hoped would be one of his most notable achievements. (text X) Chronology 1809 12 February Born in Shrewsbury, England, the son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. The same day as the birth of Abraham Lincoln. 1831 Darwin meets Captain Robert FitzRoy and makes preparations for the voyage. Begins Beagle diary. Rev John Bachman meets James Audubon and begins a life-long friendship and collaboration. Bachman's wife Maria Martin becomes Audubon's assistant and she paints many of the backgrounds, plants, and insects used in his Bird's of North America. 1832 In mid-January, Beagle reaches St Jago, Cape Verde Islands. Darwin begins the field notebooks that he will continue to use throughout his life. From February 1832 to May 1834 the Beagle surveys the east coast of South America. 1834 Early part of the year is spent surveying in Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. April to May Darwin and Fitz-Roy travel inland along the River Santa Cruz. From June 1834 to September 1835 the Beagle surveys the west coast of South America. 1835 Beagle departs Lima, Darwin spends 16 September to 20 October exploring the Galapagos Archipelago, then traveled on to spend November in Tahiti and New Zealand. 1836 Beagle drops anchor at Falmouth, England, on October 2 and on October 4 Darwin returns home to Shrewsbury. Begins to publish scientific papers. 1837 George Gliddon and Samuel G. Morton begin corresponding. Gliddon obtains several specimens for Morton's work. Darwin publishes The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle (1838-43). In July begins his first notebook on the transmutation of species. 1839 Samuel G. Morton, Crania Americana; or a Comparative view of the Skulls of various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America; to which is prefixed an essay on the Varieties of the Human Species (Philadelphia, 1839) George Combe, Notes on the United States of America during a Phrenological Visit in 1838-1840. Darwin marries Emma Wedgwood on 29 January. Publishes Journal of Researches, later known as Voyage of the Beagle. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 1840 Based upon many errors, the Census suggests that Negroes are prone to violence and insanity in the North. Despite many efforts to correct the results, Secretary of State John C. Calhoun prevents any challenges and the results remain official. The attempts to overturn the Census result in the founding of the American Statistical Association. 1840-1852 Gliddon undertakes a series of widely popular lectures on Egyptology around the United States using a 800 foot long moving backdrop and many artifacts. 1841 Samuel G. Morton, “Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Man of America,”Annual Address before the Boston Society of Natural History. George R Gliddon, Ancient Egypt : a series of chapters on early Egyptian history, archaeology, and other subjects connected with hieroglyphical literature. 1844 Samuel G. Morton, Crania Ægyptiaca; or Observations on Egyptian Ethnography, derived from History and the Monuments, dedicate to Gliddon. Darwin expands an early sketch of the theory of natural selection into a longer essay. He writes a note to Emma Darwin requesting that this essay should be published if he should die unexpectedly, providing some funds as wel as the names of possible editors. 1845 Josiah Nott, “On the Pathology of Yellow Fever,” American Journal of the Medical Sciences”, 9, new series, 277-293. Nott argues that those “hybrids” of “mixed” race are less likely to contract Yellow fever than Whites or Negroes. Josiah Priest. Slavery, as it relates to the Negro... and Causes of his State of Servitude ... with strictures on Abolitionism. Rev. John Bachman, having newly taken over as minister, actively recruits African Americans to join St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston. Black membership reaches 200. A segregated Sunday School for African-Americans is established with 150 pupils and 30 teachers and staff. 1846 Josiah Nott, “Unity of the Human Race,” Southern Quarterly Review, January 1846 Louis Agassiz arrives in Boston. 1847 Louis Agassiz in Charleston. Thomas S. Savage and Jeffries Wyman. "Notice of the External Characteristics and Habits of Trolodytes Gorilla, A New Species of Orang from the Gaboon River." Boston Journal of Natural History. The first anatomical description of a gorilla in the United States, compares its anatomy with that of the Caucasian and the Negro. 1848 Charles Pickering, a supporter of the polygenic theory, publishes The Races of Mankind and their Geographical Distribution. Josiah Nott, “Yellow Fever Contrasted with Billious Fever --- Reason for Believing it a Disease of Sui Generis... Probably Insect or Animalcular Origin,” New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. Nott correctly suggests that Yellow Fever is transmitted by an insect. E. George Squire and Edwin Hamilton Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising the Results of Extensive Original Surveys and Explorations 1849 Josiah Nott, Two Lectures on the Connection Between the Biblical and Physical History of Man Nott advances the polygenic argument against Biblical authority and for what he called “free scientific inquiry.” George Robins Gliddon, Handbook to the American panorama of the Nile : being the original transparent picture exhibited in London at Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, purchased from its painter and proprietors, Messrs. H. Warren, J. Bonomi and J. Fahey. John Bachman and John J. Audubon, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. 1850 Louis Agassiz, “The Diversity of Origin of Human Races” Christian Examiner XVIII. Josiah Nott, “Ancient and Scriptural Chronology” Southern Quarterly Review. De Bow, “Physical Characteristics of the Negro, De Bow’s Review IX. 1851 De Bow, “ Diversity of the Human Race,” DeBow's Review X. Samuel G. Morton, “Value of the Word Species in Zoology,” American Journal of Science and Arts, 11, 2nd Series, 275-276, 1851. Josiah Nott, An Essay on the Natural History of Mankind, Viewed in Connection with Negro Slavery (Mobile, 1851). Herbert Spencer, originator of the term “survival of the fittest” and advocate of cosmic evolution, publishes his Social Statics. Samuel G. Morton dies. John James Audubon dies. 1853 Josiah Nott, “Geographical Distributions of Animals and the Races of Man” New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, IX John H. Van Evrie, M.D., Negroes and Negro “Slavery”; the first an Inferior Race --- the Latter, its Normal Condition. (Baltimore, 1853) Josiah Nott “Aboriginal Races of America” Southern Quarterly VIII 1854 - 1855 Josiah C. Nott and George R. Gliddon. 1855. Types of Mankind: or, Ethnological Researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history:/ illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton ... and by additional contributions from Prof. L. Agassiz, LL. D., W. Usher, M. D., and Prof. H. S. Patterson. John Bachman, “Types of Mankind,” Review, Charleston Medical Journal, IX 1856 Samuel F. Haven, Archaeology of the United States; or Sketches, Historical and Bibliographical, of the Progress of Information and Opinion respecting the Vestiges of Antiquity in the United States. Smithsonian Institution. 1856 - 1857 Darwin begins writing up his views for a projected big book called 'Natural Selection'. Louis Agassiz, Essay on Classification. Josiah C. Nott, George R. Gliddon, and Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury, Indigenous races of the earth; or, New chapters of ethnological inquiry; including monographs on special departments. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & co George Gliddon dies. 1858 Josiah Nott translates and publishes the first English edition of Gorbineau’s Essay on the Inequality of the Races 1859 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species. It will go through six editions in Darwin's lifetime. Newberry College, a liberal arts college in Newberry, S.C., is founded by Rev. John Bachman 1860 Rev. John Bachman leads the opening prayer at Institute Hall in Charleston as South Carolina votes for secession. Though opposed to secession and a social reformer in terms of slavery, Bachman fiercely defended the South and lambasted profiteering in writings for Carolina newspapers. Josiah Nott admits that Darwin's theory is correct, but says that “at least it is a capital dig at the parsons.” At his church in Charleston, Bachman baptizes 67 Euro-Americans & 76 African-Americans and confirms 19 Euro-Americans and 40 African-Americans; African-American now constitute 35% of the membership of St. John's Lutheran Church. 1861 Attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, begins Civil War. Rev. Bachman and Josiah Nott would both lose sons fighting in the opposing armies. 1863 Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln. 1864 John Bachman, Characteristics of Genera and Species, as Applicable to the Doctrine of Unity in the Human Race. 1865 Sherman begins his March to the Sea. Charleston is evacutated and later is destroyed. Bachman attempts to move his collection and his wife's work to Newberry College for safe-keeping. Most are lost in the destruction of Charleston. Bachman is severely beaten when he encounters a detachment of Union soldiers and left partially paralyzed. The Civil War ends. John James Audubon and Rev. John Bachman, The Quadrupeds of North America. 1871 Charles Darwin publishes The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. 1873 Louis Agassiz dies. Josiah Nott dies. 1874 Rev. John Bachman dies, saying at the end “Little children... love one another.” He is buried under the alter of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston. 1882 Charles Darwin dies at Down House on April 19 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. His last words were "I am not in the least afraid to die." Text I Classifications of Human Variety by Linne and Blumenbach. These classifications were the basis for the scientific understanding of human variety, and still carry much influence today. Note how Linne's scheme became more complex over time, especially of note is the addition of cultural and social characteristics. Blumenbach's is notable for his simple description of the Caucasian, a term he coined in reference to one female skull in his collection. Classis I QUADRUPEDIA Ordo 1. Anthropomorpha. teeth four fore-teeth, or none. 1. Homo. Know thyself. Homo varieites: Eurpaeus albus Asiaticus fuscus Americanus rubescens Africanus niger _________________ Carl Von Linne’s classification of human varieties adopted from the second edition of Systema Naturae, Stockholm, Sweden, 1740. Mammalia 1. Primates foreteeth, upper 4, parallel Petoral mammae, 2 1. Homo know thyself Sapiens Ferus 1. H. Diurnus; varying by culture and place on all fours, mute, hairy. Americanus a. reddish, choleric, erect. Hair black, straight, thick; Nostrils wide; Face harsh, Beard scanty. Obstinate, merry, free. Paints himself with fine red lines. Regulated by customs. white, sanguine, muscular Hair flowing, long, Eyes blue. Gentle, acute, inventive. Covered with close vestments. Governed by laws. sallow, melancholy, stiff. Hair black. Eyes dark Severe, haughty, avaricious. Covered with loose garments. Ruled by opinions. black, phlegmatic, relaxed. Hair black, frizzled. Skin silky. Nose flat. Lips tumid. Women without shame. Mammae lactate profusely. Crafty, indolent, negligent. Anoints himself with grease. Governed by caprice. _________________ Europaeus b. Asiactus g. Afer d. Linne’s classification of human varieties, adopted from the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, Stockholm, Sweden, 1758-59. Name Caucasian Geographical Location Europe, including Lapps, North Africa, America, Eskimo and Greenlanders derived from Lapps, Western Asia Rest of Asia Africa excluding Northern Africa White Color Characteristics Beautiful in form Mongolian Ethiopian Brownish/Olive Black Straight face, narrow eyelids, scanty hair Muscular, prominent upper jaws, swelling lips, upturned nose, very curly black hair Broad nose, scanty hair, thin habit of body Very deep brown, Broad nose, thick hair American Malayan Non-European Americans Southern Pacific Copper _________________ Blumenbach’s Classification of Human Variety, from De generis humani varietate nativa, 1781, in Anthropological Treatises, tr. Thomas Bendyshe, London, 1865. Text II Excerpt from Types of Mankind Josiah C. Nott and George R. Gliddon. Types of mankind: or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history:/ illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton ... and by additional contributions from Prof. L. Agassiz, LL. D., W. Usher, M. D., and Prof. H. S. Patterson. 1855. Nott and Gliddon summarized in Types of Mankind, the work of the polygenist American School. The work was itself intended as well as a tribute to Samuel G. Morton, the craniologist and leader of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Morton possessed the largest collection of crania of his time, over 900 skulls. Gliddon is remembered for his introduction of Egpytology to America (he was the U.S. Vice Consul, during which time he bought and stole crania for Morton's Crania Egpytia. Nott acknowledged Darwin's theory, taking solace in it being at least “a capital dig a the parsons,” and moving to New York City after the Civil War because he said he could “not abide living in niggerland.” There he help found the New York Anthropological Society. Many reviewers noted the nationalistic emotion that the triumph of polygenesis created in America. “It is not without an emotion of national pride that we hold up to public view the works whose titles we have above recited. They are all American, all relate to a subject of the highest importance, all are works of original investigation, and of high scientific character, and together form a valuable contribution to the stock of human knowledge. They discuss the grandest problem of natural history, the question of the unity of the human race.” MR. LUKE BURKE, the bold and able Editor of the London Ethnological Journal, defines Ethnology to be "a science which investigates the mental and physical differences of Mankind, and the organic laws upon which they depend; and which seeks to deduce from these investigations, principles of human guidance, in all the important relations of social existence." 1 To the same author are we indebted not only for the most extensive and lucid definition of this term, but for the first truly philosophic view of a new and important science that we have met with in the English language. The term "Ethnology" has generally been used as synonymous with "Ethnography," understood as the Natural History of Man; but by Burke it is made to take a far more comprehensive grasp- to include the whole mental and physical history of the various Types of Mankind, as well as their social relations and adaptations; and, under this comprehensive aspect, it therefore interests equally the philanthropist, the naturalist, and the statesman. Ethnology demands to know what was the primitive organic structure of each race? - what such race's moral and psychical character?-how far a race may have been, or may become, modified by the combined action of time and moral and physical causes? -and what position in the social scale Providence has assigned to each type of man? " Ethnology divides itself into two principal departments, the Scientific and the Historic Under the former is comprised every thing connected with the Natural History of Man and the fundamental laws of living organisms; under the latter, every fact in civil history which has any important bearing, directly or indirectly, upon the question of races - every fact calculated to throw light upon the number, the moral and physical peculiarities, the early seats, migrations, conquests or interblendings, of the primary divisions of the human family, or of the leading mixed races which have sprung from their intermarriages." Such is the scope of this science- born, we may say, within our own generation - and we propose to examine mankind under the above two-fold aspect, while we point out some of the more salient results towards which modern investigation is tending. The press everywhere teems with new books on the various partitions of the wide field of Ethnology; yet there does not exist, in any language, an attempt, based on the highest scientific lights of the day, at a systematic treatise on Ethnology in its extended sense. MORTON was the first to conceive the proper plan; but, unfortunately, lived not to carry it out; and although the present volume falls very far below the just requirements of science, we feel assured that it will at least aid materially in suggesting the right direction to future investigators. The grand problem, more particularly interesting to all readers, is that which involves the common origin of races; for upon the latter deduction hang not only certain religious dogmas, but the more practical question of the equality and perfectibility of races- we say "more practical question," because, while Almighty Power, on the one hand, is not responsible to Man for the distinct origin of human races, these, on the other, are accountable to Him for the manner ia which their delegated power is used towards each other. Whether an original diversity of races be admitted or not, tihe permanence of existing physical types will not be questioned by any Archaeologist or Naturalist of the present day. Nor, by such competent arbitrators, can the consequent permanence of moral and intellectual peculiarities of types be denied. The intellectual man is inseparable from the physical man; and the nature of the one cannot be altered without a corresponding change in the other. The truth of these propositions had long been familiar to the master-mind of JOHN C. CALHOUN; who regarded them to be of such paramount importance as to demand the fuillest consideration from those who, like our lamented statesman in his day, wield the destinies of nations and of races. An anecdote will illustrate the pains-taking laboriousness of Mr. Calhoun to let no occasion slip whence information was attainable. Our colleague, G. R. GLIDDON, happened to be in Washington City, early in May, 1844, on business of his father (United States' Consul for Egypt) at the State Department; at which time Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of State, was conducting diplomatic negotiations with France and England, connected with the annexation of Texas. Mr. Calhoun, suffering from indisposition, sent a message to Mr. Gliddon, requesting a visit at his lodgings. In a long interview which ensued, Mr. Calhoun stated, that England pertinaciously continued to interfere with our inherited Institution of negro Slavery, and in a manner to render it imperative that he should indite very strong instructions on the subject to the late Mr. WM. R. KING, of Alabama, then our Ambassador to France. He read to Mr. Gliddon portions of the manuscript of his celebrated letter to Mr. King, which, issued on the 12th of the following August, ranks among our ablest national documents. Mr. Calhoun declared that he could not foresee what course the negotiation might take, but wished to be forearmed for any emergency. He was convinced that the true difficulties of the subject could not be fully comprehended without first considering the radical difference of humanity's races, which he intended to dis cuss, should he be driven to the necessity. Knowing that Mr. Gliddon had paid attention to the subject of African ethnology; and that, from his long residence in Egypt, he had enjoyed unusual advantages for its investigation, Mr. Calhoun had summoned him for the purpose of ascertaining what were the best sources of information in this country. Mr. Gliddon, after laying before the Secretary what he conceived to be the true state of the case, referred him for further information to several scientific gentlemen, and more particularly to DR. MORTON, of Philadelphia. A correspondence ensued between Mr. Calhoun and Dr. Morton on the subject, and the Doctor presented to him copies of the Crania Americana and'gyptiaca, together with minor works, all of which Mr. Calhoun studied with no less pleasure than profit. He soon perceived that the conclusions which he had long before drawn from history, and from his personal observations in America, on the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Teutonic, French, Spanish, Negro, and Indian races, were entirely corroborated by the plain teachings of modern science. He beheld demonstrated in Morton's works the important fact, that the Egyptian, Negro, several White, and sundry Yellow races, had existed, in their present forms, for at least 4000 years; and that it behoved the statesman to lay aside all current speculations about the origin and perfectibility of races, and to deal, in political argument, with the simple facts as they stand. What, on the vital question of African Slavery in our Southern States, was the utilitarian consequence of Calhoun's memorable dispatch to King? Strange, yet true, to say, although the English press anxiously complained that Mr. Calhoun had intruded Ethnology into diplomatic correspondence, a communication from the Foreign Office promptly assured our Government that Great Britain had no intention of intermeddling with the domestic institutions of other nations. Nor, from that day to this, has she violated her formal pledge in our regard. During a sojourn of Mr. Calhoun, on his retirement from office, with us at Mobile, we enjoyed personal opportunities of knowing the accuracy of the above facts, no less than of receiving ample corroborations illustrative of the inconvenience which true ethnological science might have created in philanthropical diplomacy, had it been frankly introduced by a CALHOUN. No class of men, perhaps, understand better the practical importance of Ethnology than the statesmen of England; yet from motives of policy, they keep its agitation studiously out of sight. DR. PRICHARD, when speaking of a belief in the diversity of races, justly remarks "If these opinions are not every day expressed in this country [England], it is because the avowal of them is restrained by a degree of odium that would be excited by it." Although the press in that country has been, to a great extent, muzzled by government influence, we are happy to see that her periodicals are beginning to assume a bolder and more rational tone; and we may now hope that the stereotyped errors of Prichard, and we might add, those of Latham,4 will soon pass at their true value. The immense evils of false philanthropy are becoming too glaring to be longer overlooked. Wile, on the one hand, every true philanthropist must admit that no race has a right to enslave or oppress the weaker, it must be conceded, on the other, that all changes in existing institutions should be guided, not by fanaticism and groundless hypotheses, but by experience, sound judgment, and real charity. "No one that has not worked much in the element of History can be aware of the immense importance of clearly keeping in view the differences of race that are discernible among the nations that inhabit different parts of the world. In practical politics it is certainly possible to push such ethnographical considerations too far; as, for example, in our own cant about Celt and Saxon, when Ireland is under discussion; but in speculative history, in questions relating to the past career and the future destinies of nations, it is only by a firm and efficient handling of this conception of our species as broken up into so many groups or masses, physiologically different to a certain extent, that any progress can be made, or any available conclusions accurately arrived at. "The NEGRO, or African, with his black skin, woolly hair, and compressed elongated skull; the MONGOLIAN of Eastern Asia and America, with his olive complexion, broad and all but beardless face, oblique eyes, and square skull; and the CAUCASIAN of Western Asia and Europe, with his fair skin, oval face, full brow, and rounded skull: such, as every school-boy knows, are the three great types or varieties into which naturalists have divided the inhabitants of our planet. Accepting this rough initial conception of a world peopled everywhere, more or less completely, with these three varieties of human beings or their combinations, the historian is able, in virtue of it, to announce one important fact at the very outset, to wit: that, up to the present moment, the destinies of the species appear to have been carried forward almost exclusively by its Caucasian variety." In the broad field and long duration of Negro life, not a single civilization, spontaneous or borrowed, has existed, to adorn its gloomy past. The ancient kingdom of Meroe has been often pointed out as an exception, but this is now proven to be the work of Pharaonic Egyptians, and not of Negro races. Of Mongolian races, we have the prolonged semi-civilizations of China, Japan, and (if they be classed under the same head) the still feebler attempts of Peru and Mexico. What a contrast, if we compare with these, "Caucasian progress, as exhibited in the splendid succession of distinct civilizations, from the ancient Egyptian to the recent Anglo-American, to which the Caucasian part of the species has given birth." Nor when we examine their past history, their anatomical and physiological characters, and philological differences, are we justified in throwing all the Indo-European and Semitic races into one indivisible mass. "Our species is not a huge collection of perfectly similar human beings, but an aggregation of a number of separate groups or masses, having such subordinate differences of organization that, necessarily, they must understand nature differently, and employ in life very different modes of procedure. Assemble together a Negro, a Mongol, a Shemite, an Armenian, a Scythian, a Pelasgian, a Celt, and a German, and you will have before you not mere illustrations of an arbitrary classification, but positively distinct human beings, men whose relations to the outer world are by no means the same." "In all, indeed, there will be found the same fundamental instincts and powers, the same obligation to recognized truth, the same feeling for the beautiful, the same abstract sense of justice, the same necessity of reverence; in all, the same liability to do wrong, knowing it to be wrong. These things excepted, however, what contrast, what variety! The representative of one race is haughty and eager to strike, that of another is meek and patient of injury; one has the gift of slow and continued perseverance, another can labour only at intervals and violently; one is full of mirth and humour, another walks as if life were a pain; one is so faithful and clear in perception, that what he sees to-day he will report accurately a year hence; through the head of another there perpetually sings such a buzz of fiction that, even as he looks, realities grow dim, and rocks, trees, and hills, reel before his poetic gaze. Whether, with phrenologists, we call these differences craniological; or whether, in the spirit of a deeper physiology, we adjourn the question by refusing to connect them with aught less than the whole corporeal organism-bone, chest, limbs, skin, muscle, and nerve; they are, at all events, real and substantial; and Englishmen will never conceive the world as it is, will never be intellectually its masters, until, realizing this as a fact, they shall remember that it is perfectly respectable to be an Assyrian, and that an Italian is not necessarily a rogue because he wears a moustache." Looking back over the world's history, it will be seen that human progress has arisen mainly from the war of races. All the great impulses which have been given to it from time to time have been the results of conquests and colonizations. Certain races would be stationary and barbarous for ever, were it not for the introduction of new blood and novel influences; and some of the lowest types are hopelessly beyond the reach even of these salutary stimulants to melioration. It has been naively remarked that “Climate has no influence in permanently altering the varieties or races of men; destroy them it may, and does, but it cannot convert them into any other race; nor can this be done by an act of parliament; which, to a thoroughgoing Englishman, with all his amusing nationalities, will appear as something amazing. It has been tried in Wales, Ireland, and Caledonia, and failed." Not enough is it for us to know who and what are the men who play a prominent part in these changes, nor what is the general character of the masses whom they influence. None can predict how long the power or existence of these men will last, nor foretell what will be the character of those who succeed them. If we wish to predict the future, we must ascertain those great fundamental laws of humanity to which all human passions and human thoughts must ultimately be subject. We must know universal, as well as individual man. These are questions upon which science alone has the right to pronounce. "Where, we ask, are the historic evidences of universal human equality, or unity? The farther we trace back the records of the past, the more broadly marked do we find all human diversities. In no part of Europe, at the present day, can we discover the striking national contrasts which Tacitus describes, still less those represented in the more ancient pages of Herodotus." And nowhere on the face of the globe do we find a greater diversity, or more strongly-marked types, than on the monuments of Egypt, antedating the Christian era more than 3000 years. ..... Four years ago, in our "Biblical and Physical History of Man,"11 we published the following remarks: "If the Unity of the Races or Species of Men be assumed, there are but three suppositions on which the diversity now seen in the white, black, and intermediate colors, can be accounted for, viz.: "1st. A miracle, or direct act of the Almighty, in changing one type into another. "2d. The gradual action of Physical causes, such as climate, food, mode of life, &c. 3d. Congenital, or accidental varieties. "There being no evidence whatever in favor of the first hypothesis, we pass it by. The second and third have been sustained with signal ability by Dr. Prichard, in his Physical History of Mankind." Although, even then, thoroughly convinced ourselves that the second and third hypotheses were already refuted by facts, and that they would soon be generally abandoned by men of science, we confess that we had little hope of seeing this triumph achieved so speedily; still less did we expect, in this matter-of-fact age, to behold a miracle, which exists too, not in the Bible, but only in feverish imaginations, assumed as a scientific solution. Certain sectarians12 of the evangelical school are now gravely attempting, from lack of argument, to revive the old hypothesis of a miraculous change of one race into many at the Tower of Babel! Such notions, however, do not deserve serious consideration, as neither religion nor science has anything to do with unsustainable hypotheses. The views, moreover, that we expressed in 1849, touching Physical Causes, Congenital Varieties, &c., need no modification at the present day; but, on the contrary, will be found amply sustained by the progress of science, as set forth in the succeeding chapters. .... The Physical history of Man has been likewise trammelled for ages by arbitrary systems of Chronology; more especially by that of the Hebrews, which is now considered, by all competent authorities, as altogether worthless beyond the time of Abraham, and of little value previously to that of Solomon; for it is in his reign that we reach their last positive date. The abandonment of this restricted system is a great point gained; because, instead of being obliged to crowd an immense antiquity, embracing endless details, into a few centuries, we are now free to classify and arrange facts as the requirements of history and science demand. It is now generally conceded that there exist no data by which we can approximate the date of man's first appearance upon earth; and, for aught we yet know, it may be thousands or millions of years beyond our reach. The spurious systems, of Archbishop Usher on the Hebrew Text, and of Dr. Hales on the Septuagint, being entirely broken down, we turn, unshackled by prejudice, to the monumental records of Egypt as our best guide. Even these soon lose themselves, not in the primitive state of man, but in his middle or perhaps modern ages; for the Egyptian Empire first presents itself to view, about 4000 years before Christ, as that of a mighty nation, in full tide of civilization, and surrounded by other realms and races already emerging from the barbarous stage. In order that a clear understanding with the reader may be estab lished in the following pages, it becomes necessary to adopt some common standard of chronology for facility of reference. An esteemed correspondent, Mr. Birch, of the British Museum. aptly observes to us in a private letter"Although I can see what is not the fact in chronology, I have not come to the conclusion of what is the truth." ---Scientific truth, exemplified in the annals of Astronomy, (teology, Chronology, Geographical distribution of animals, &c., has literally fought its way inch by inch through false theology. The last grand battle between science and dogmatism, on the primitive origin of races, has now commenced. It requires no prophetic eye to foresee that science must again, and finally, triumph. It may be proper to state, in conclusion, that the subject shall be treated purely as one of science, and that our colleague and ourself will follow facts wherever they may lead, without regard to imaginary consequences. Locally, the "Friend of Moses," no less than other "friends of the Bible" everywhere, have been compelled to make Large concessions to science. We shall, in the present investigation, treat the Scriptures simply in their historical and scientific bearings. It will be observed that, with the exception of Morton’s, we seldom quote works on the Natural History of Man, and simply for the reason that their arguments are all based, more or less, on fabled analogies, which are at last proved by the monuments of Egypt and Assyria to be worthless. The whole method of treating the subject is herein changed. To our point of view, most that has been written on human natural history becomes obsolete; and therefore we have not burdened our pages with citations from authors, even the most erudite and respected, whose views we consider the present work to have, in the main, superseded On former occasions, and in the most respectful manner, we had attempted to conciliate sectarians, and to reconcile the plain teachings of science with theological prejudices; but to no useful purpose. In return, our opinions and motives have been misrepresented and vilified by self-constituted teachers of the Christian religion! We have, in consequence, now done with all this; and no longer have any apologies to offer, nor favors of lenient criticism to ask. The broad banner of science is herein nailed to the mast. Even in our own brief day, we have beheld one flimsy religious dogma after another consigned to oblivion, while science, on the other hand, has been gaining strength and majesty with time. "Nature," says Luke Burke, "has nothing to reveal, that is not noble, and beautiful, and good." In our former language, "Man can invent nothing in science or religion but falsehood; and all the truths which he discovers are but facts or laws which have emanated from the Creator. All science, therefore, may be regarded as a revelation from HIM; and although newly-discovered laws, or facts, in nature, may conflict with religious errors, which have been written and preached for centuries, they never can conflict with religious truth. There must be harmony between the works and the words of the Almighty, and wherever they seem to conflict, the discord has been produced by the ignorance or wickedness of man." Text III Excerpt of letter from Louis Agassiz to his mother. from Stephen J. Gould The Mismeasure of Man. 2nd edition, revised and expanded. New York, W.W. Norton. Agassiz was the most formidable critique of Darwin and a fierce believer in polygenism long after other naturalists had turned to Darwin's work. Agassiz had little interest nor was he deeply troubled by the implicit support for slavery that lay with the polygenic theory and was notably frank in describing his experiences of his newly adopted country. Before coming to America, Agassiz had never seen a Negro, and rarely considered the species question. Once here, he almost immediately became convinced of the inferiority of Negroes, in part because of what he described as his “profound visceral revulsion” at being served by them in his Philadelphia hotel. In this letter to his mother, he relates his first experiences while in Philadelphia to see Samuel Morton. He had just arrived from Europe, emigrating to avoid bad debts and to enjoy “freedom of scientific inquiry.” He later told friends that in Morton he found a scientist comparable only to Cuvier. Stephen J. Gould found the complete text of his letter, which he was the first to publish. It was in Philadelphia that I first found myself in prolonged contact with Negroes; all the domestics in my hotel were men of color. I can scarcely express to you the painful impression that I received, especially since the feeling that they inspired in me is contrary to all our ideas about the confraternity of the human type [genre] and the unique origin of our species. But truth before all. Nevertheless, I experienced pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, and their lot inspired compassion in me in thinking that they are really men. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to reprocess the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, their large curved nails, and especially the livid color of the palm of their hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race---to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes in certain countries! God preserve us from such contact! Text IV Francis Darwin on his father. Francis Darwin. ed. 1887. The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. London: John Murray. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, Cambridge University, http://darwin-online.org.uk/ Darwin's son relates his father's experiences and views of slavery, vivisection, and even the plight of a an unknown asylum dweller. It was in November 1875 that my father gave his evidence before the Royal Commission on Vivisection..... Something has already been said of my father's strong feeling with regard to suffering both in man and beast. It was indeed one of the strongest feelings in his nature, and was exemplified in matters small and great, in his sympathy with the educational miseries of dancing dogs, or in his horror at the sufferings of slaves. (He once made an attempt to free a patient in a mad-house, who (as he wrongly supposed) was sane. He had some correspondence with the gardener at the asylum, and on one occasion he found a letter from a patient enclosed with one from the gardener. The letter was rational in tone and declared that the writer was sane and wrongfully confined. My father wrote to the Lunacy Commissioners (without explaining the source of his information) and in due time heard that the man had been visited by the Commissioners, and that he was certainly insane. Sometime afterwards the patient was discharged, and wrote to thank my father for his interference, adding that he had undoubtedly been insane, when he wrote his former letter.) The remembrance of screams, or other sounds heard in Brazil, when he was powerless to interfere with what he believed to be the torture of a slave, haunted him for years, especially at night. In smaller matters, where he could interfere, he did so vigorously. He returned one day from his walk pale and faint from having seen a horse ill-used, and from the agitation of violently remonstrating with the man. On another occasion he saw a horse-breaker teaching his son to ride, the little boy was frightened and the man was rough; my father stopped, and jumping out of the carriage reproved the man in no measured terms. One other little incident may be mentioned, showing that his humanity to animals was well-known in his own neighbourhood. A visitor, driving from Orpington to Down, told the man to go faster, "Why," said the driver, "If I had whipped the horse THIS much, driving Mr. Darwin, he would have got out of the carriage and abused me well." With respect to the special point under consideration,--the sufferings of animals subjected to experiment,--nothing could show a stronger feeling than the following extract from a letter to Professor Ray Lankester (March 22, 1871):-"You ask about my opinion on vivisection. I quite agree that it is justifiable for real investigations on physiology; but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity. It is a subject which makes me sick with horror, so I will not say another word about it, else I shall not sleep to-night." Text V Darwin's descriptions of Robert Fitz-Roy, Captain of the Beagle from Nora Barlow, ed. 1945. Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle. London: Pilot Press, pages 35-36. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, Cambridge University. http://darwin-online.org.uk/ Although they frequently clashed over slavery during the five year long voyage of the Beagle, Darwin only had praise for the Captain of the ship. He credited Fitz-Roy for his becoming a naturalist and for giving him the basis for a life time of work. For his part, Fitz-Roy was a noted scientific figure. Upon the Beagle's return, Fitz-Roy turned his attention to developing an accurate barometer and to establishing a system of weather stations connected by telegraph that would become the Royal Meteorological service. He made available to newspapers the first daily weather prediction, which he called a “forecast.” A devout Christian, Fitz-Roy blamed himself for taking Darwin on a trip that gave rise to his theory, and this may have contributed to his eventual suicide soon after hearing Huxley at the Royal Society. The Captain does every thing in his power to assist me, & we get on very well.—but I thank my better fortune he has not made me a renegade to Whig principles: I would not be a Tory, if it was merely on account of their cold hearts about that scandal to Christian Nations, Slavery.— I am very good friends with all the officers; & as for the Doctor he has gone back to England.— as he chose to make himself disagreeable to the Captain & to Wickham. He was a philosopher of rather an ancient date; at St Jago by his own account he made general remarks during the first fortnight & collected particular facts during the last. — Darwin, C. R. to Henslow, J. S., 18 May & 16 June 1832 Rio de Janeiro. Fitz-Roy's character was a singular one, with very many noble features: he was devoted to his duty, generous to a fault, bold, determined, and indomitably energetic, and an ardent friend to all under his sway. He would undertake any sort of trouble to assist those whom he thought deserved assistance. He was a handsome man, strikingly like a gentleman, with highly courteous manners, which resembled those of his maternal uncle, the famous Lord Castlereagh, as I was told by the Minister at Rio. Nevertheless he must have inherited much in his appearance from Charles II., for Dr. Wallich gave me a collection of photographs which he had made, and I was struck with the resemblance of one to Fitz-Roy; and on looking at the name, I found it Ch. E. Sobieski Stuart, Count d'Albanie, a descendant of the same monarch. Fitz-Roy's temper was a most unfortunate one. It was usually worst in the early morning, and with his eagle eye he could generally detect something amiss about the ship, and was then unsparing in his blame. He was very kind to me, but was a man very difficult to live with on the intimate terms which necessarily followed from our messing by ourselves in the same cabin. ---Darwin relates that he and Fitz-Roy argued over the Captain's defense and praise of slavery. We had several quarrels; for instance, early in the voyage at Bahia, in Brazil, he defended and praised slavery, which I abominated, and told me that he had just visited a great slave-owner, who had called up many of his slaves and asked them whether they were happy, and whether they wished to be free, and all answered "No." I then asked him, perhaps with a sneer, whether he thought that the answer of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything? This made him excessively angry, and he said that as I doubted his word we could not live any longer together. I thought that I should have been compelled to leave the ship; but as soon as the news spread, which it did quickly, as the captain sent for the first lieutenant to assuage his anger by abusing me, I was deeply gratified by receiving an invitation from all the gun-room officers to mess with them. But after a few hours Fitz-Roy showed his usual magnanimity by sending an officer to me with an apology and a request that I would continue to live with him. Text VI Darwin on Slavery and Brazil: excerpts from his Diary and from Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, Cambridge University, http://darwin-online.org.uk/ One finds in these excerpts not only slight, but also significant variations on the story. More importantly, one finds Darwin shaken by his experiences in the slave country at the same time he is drawn to the rich diversity of species he encounters there. One sees the theory of how this diversity came to exist beginning to take shape at the same moment that Darwin is observing human events that will haunt him for the rest of his life. From Darwin's Diary: (12th). — [April 1832] Started in the morning & doubted whether I could proceed. — Cinnamon & port wine cured me in a wonderful manner; passed through more swampy country & then entered a magnificent forest: sublime. trees lofty. well seen & contrasted in the cleared parts: palms very thin stalks. beautiful in the forest cabbage palm. edible; [spannable] arrived at the Fazenda of Sosego. situated in a Forest. square. coffee Mandioka. much game, number of horses cattle poultry & wild animals: patriarchal style of living a long house. with a [roof] of reeds. [small sketch] at one end gay furniture a long dining room & bed rooms kitchen & large store houses: situated on a hillock. on the other side of the square. sleeping rooms, & round the [hils] the house of more than one 100 blacks: children of [these] people stray into dining room. till driven away: daughter of our host Donna Maria, handsome & dignified married to Mr Lawne a Scotchman & brother of our companion: on receiving a guest or the Signor a large bell is rung & cannon fired. on leaving the house a crowd of blacks come to be blessed by the white man: one morning before daylight I was admiring the stillness of the forest. when it was broken by a Catholic [moving] raised by [the] blacks. effect sublime: our eating was sumptuous forced to taste everything: This patriarchal style fascinating. but destroyed by our host being a villain [word heavily deleted]: enterprising character. has cut excellent roads through the wood: saw mill cutting up thick planks of Rose wood. something like a large-leaved acacia: dreadful the difficulty of procuring surgical aid: our host plenty of medicines: saw a canoe building 70 feet long & 40 more left of solid & thick trunk: I should think in this family the blacks were decidedly happy. — The son in law coming only 2 days short journey found it necessary to bring 17 people with him: stayed at Sosego during the 13th [April 1832] On the 14th [April 1832] started at midday for Mr Lennon's estate, after a beautiful ride stopped at a Facend. within a league of our end; blacks miserably worked long after dark: were received very hospitably by the only brazilian that I have yet seen with a pleasant expression 15th [April 1832] Started early saw some beautiful birds, Toucans & bee eaters all the rock is gneiss granite. Mica dark coloured large plates: I should think rain had not much degrading effects: valley flat, well seen in the cleared parts; Started early for Mr Lennon's estate: it is the last cultivated piece till having passed over many miles of country: on our road saw some bamboos. disappointed (day before saw a Papyrus?) & some small elegant tree ferns. — had a man to cut a road for us with a sword: when we arrived heard a disagreeable & most violent quarrel — between Mr L & Cowper his agent: they talked of pistols: so bad a character that we were cautioned to recollect poison. — Blacks in a bad state; wet cold evening 75˚. — threatened to sell his child as a punishment. yet most certainly a very humane man. — I observe here & at Sosego the clouds rest at a very low level not more than often at 2 or 300 feet above the & only scarcely any above the adjoining country: Rio Macae is navigable the whole way & not [more] 5 or 6 leagues in length & runs close by these places. — At here the air where passing over the forest on the level of the house becomes converted into cloud: rain has fallen every day: a remarkable scarcity of rounded pebbles during all our course in the interior: 16th [April 1832] started early in the morning to the Juer do Paz. & proceeded to Sosego. pleasant ride & much enjoyed the glorious woods: Bamboo 12 inches in circumference. Several sorts of trees ferns: 17th [April 1832] Sosego. twiners entwining twiners. tresses like hair beautiful lepidoptera. silence hosannah. Frog habits like toad. slow jumps. Iris copper coloured colours become fainter Snake. Cobris de Corrall Fresh water fish. edible [Blaps] musky shell. stain fingers red one fish from salt Lagoa de Boacica. 2 from brook one do. pricks the fingers Manoel Joaquem da Figuireda after clearing coffee & mandioka is planted. afterwards solely coffee. brother of Manuel has 95000 trees, producing 2 lb per tree (some produce 8 lb) rice on the swampy parts & some sugar cane 3 bags of rice produced 320. — Teijõa beans are cultivated. one bag bringing sometimes 80 bags: Mandioka stems & leaves eat by cattle. roots are ground. a slave holding them against the wheel. the pulp is then pressed dry & baken: excellent eating. — March is the great season for planting. — the juice thus procured from the root is deadly poison: but the animals very fond of it. always dye: — from this Tapioka the made: 18th [April 1832] Socego.[encircled] mimosa exquisite foliage & ferns ditto. — trees average 3-4 feet circum in the bole. A creeper circum. 1 ft '' 4 spent the whole morning in thus rambling in the forests. sublime devotion the prevalent feeling: this days delay was owing to Mr Lennon going to visit his estate with Mr Cooper [sic] 19th [April 1832] Left Socego & slept at Venda de Matto: took a most glorious walk on the beach high & magnificent surf. — 20th. [April 1832] returned by the old route to Compos novos. a tiresome ride all through a scorching & heavy sand. plain of rhododendrons had some difficulty in making our horses swim & in danger from a drunken man in canoe. — From Charles R. Darwin, 1860. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy R.N. London: John Murray. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, Cambridge University, http://darwin-online.org.uk/ As it was growing dark we passed under one of the massive, bare, and steep hills of granite which are so common in this country. This spot is notorious from having been, for a long time, the residence of some runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the top, contrived to eke out a subsistence. At length they were discovered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinacy.... April 13th. -- After three days' travelling we arrived at Socego, the estate of Senor Manuel Figuireda, a relation of one of our party. The house was simple, and, though like a barn in form, was well suited to the climate. In the sitting- room gilded chairs and sofas were oddly contrasted with the whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and windows without glass. The house, together with the granaries, the stables, and workshops for the blacks, who had been taught various trades, formed a rude kind of quadrangle; in the centre of which a large pile of coffee was drying. These buildings stand on a little hill, overlooking the cultivated ground, and surrounded on every side by a wall of dark green luxuriant forest..... The pasturage supports a fine stock of cattle, and the woods are so full of game that a deer had been killed on each of the three previous days. This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the tables did not groan, the guests surely did; for each person is expected to eat of every dish. One day, having, as I thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared in all their substantial reality. During the meals, it was the employment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old hounds, and dozens of little black children, which crawled in together, at every opportunity. As long as the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style of living: it was such a perfect retirement and independence from the rest of the world. As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set tolling, and generally some small cannon are fired. The event is thus announced to the rocks and woods, but to nothing else. One morning I walked out an hour before daylight to admire the solemn stillness of the scene; at last, the silence was broken by the morning hymn, raised on high by the whole body of the blacks; and in this manner their daily work is generally begun. On such fazendas as these, I have no doubt the slaves pass happy and contented lives. On Saturday and Sunday they work for themselves, and in this fertile climate the labour of two days is sufficient to support a man and his family for the whole week. April 14th. -- Leaving Socego, we rode to another estate on the Rio Macae, which was the last patch of cultivated ground in that direction. The estate was two and a half miles long, and the owner had forgotten how many broad. Only a very small piece had been cleared, yet almost every acre was capable of yielding all the various rich productions of a tropical land. Considering the enormous area of Brazil, the proportion of cultivated ground can scarcely be considered as anything, compared to that which is left in the state of nature: at some future age, how vast a population it will support! During the second day's journey we found the road so shut up, that it was necessary that a man should go ahead with a sword to cut away the creepers. The forest abounded with beautiful objects; among which the tree ferns, though not large, were, from their bright green foliage, and the elegant curvature of their fronds, most worthy of admiration. In the evening it rained very heavily, and although the thermometer stood at 65 degs., I felt very cold. As soon as the rain ceased, it was curious to observe the extraordinary evaporation which commenced over the whole extent of the forest. At the height of a hundred feet the hills were buried in a dense white vapour, which rose like columns of smoke from the most thickly wooded parts, and especially from the valleys. I observed this phenomenon on several occasions. I suppose it is owing to the large surface of foliage, previously heated by the sun's rays. While staying at this estate, I was very nearly being an eye-witness to one of those atrocious acts which can only take place in a slave country. Owing to a quarrel and a lawsuit, the owner was on the point of taking all the women and children from the male slaves, and selling them separately at the public auction at Rio. Interest, and not any feeling of compassion, prevented this act. Indeed, I do not believe the inhumanity of separating thirty families, who had lived together for many years, even occurred to the owner. Yet I will pledge myself, that in humanity and good feeling he was superior to the common run of men. It may be said there exists no limit to the blindness of interest and selfish habit. I may mention one very trifling anecdote, which at the time struck me more forcibly than any story of cruelty. I was crossing a ferry with a negro, who was uncommonly stupid. In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked loud, and made signs, in doing which I passed my hand near his face. He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and was going to strike him; for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut eyes, he dropped his hands. I shall never forget my feelings of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful man afraid even to ward off a blow, directed, as he thought, at his face. This man had been trained to a degradation lower than the slavery of the most helpless animal. Darwin leaves Brazil: On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in which it has always been said, that slaves are better treated than by the Portuguese, English, or other European nations. I have seen at Rio de Janeiro a powerful negro afraid to ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the point of separating forever the men, women, and little children of a large number of families who had long lived together. I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of; -- nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers will ask slaves about their condition; they forget that the slave must indeed be dull, who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears. It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty; as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely than degraded slaves, to stir up the rage of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified, by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children -- those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own -- being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin. Text VIII Excerpts on Letters from Darwin's letters on Slavery Darwin Correspondence Project http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/i While on his voyage, Darwin wrote many letters home to his family and friends. Upon his return, he, like most naturalists of his day, kept in constant contact with others naturalists through letters and queries. This was all the more important to Darwin due to his chronic health problems. In the midst of thses letters, Darwin frequently comments on his opposition to slavery and his reading of Frederick Law Olmsted's Travels in the South and Cairne's The Slave Power. His correspondence with the American botanist Asa Gray and their exchanges on the Civil War are especially revealing. All of Darwin letters are being made available by the Darwin Correspondence Project (http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/i). June:—.... My letters are both few, short, & stupid in return for all yours; but I always ease my conscience by considering the Journal as a long letter. If I can manage it, I will before doubling the Horn send the rest.— I am quite delighted to find, the hide of the Megatherium has given you all some little interest in my employments. These fragments are not however by any means the most valuable of the Geological relics. I trust & believe, that the time spent in this voyage, if thrown away for all other respects, will produce its full worth in Nat: History: And it appears to me, the doing what little one can to encrease the general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life, as one can in any likelihood pursue.— It is more the result of such reflections (as I have already said) than much immediate pleasure, which now makes me continue the voyage: together with the glorious prospect of the future, when passing the Straits of Magellan, we have in truth the world before us.— Think of the Andes; the luxuriant forest of the Guayquil; the islands of the South Sea & new South Wale. How many magnificent & characteristic views, how many & curious tribes of men we shall see.—what fine opportunities for geology & for studying the infinite host of living beings: is not this a prospect to keep up the most flagging spirit?— If I was to throw it away; I dont think I should ever rest quiet in my grave; I certainly should be a ghost & haunt the Brit: Museum.— How famously the Ministers appear to be going on I always much enjoy political <goss>ip, & what you, at home think will &c &c take place.— I steadily read up the weekly Paper: but it is not sufficient to guides one opinion: & I find it a very painful state not to be as obstinate as a pig in politicks. I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery.— What a proud thing for England, if she is the first Europae symbolan nation which utterly abolishes it.— I was told before leaving England, that after living in Slave countries: all my opinions would be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the Negros character.— it is impossible to see a negro & not feel kindly towards him; such cheerful, open honest expressions & such fine muscular bodies; I never saw any of the diminutive Portuguese with their murderous countenances, without almost wishing for Brazil to follow the example of Hayti; & considering the enormous healthy looking black population, it will be wonderful if at some future day it does not take place.— There is at Rio, a man (I know not his titles) who has large salary to prevent (I believe) th<e> landing of slaves: he lives at Botofogo, & yet that was the <b>ay, where during my residence the greater number of smuggled slaves were landed.— Some of the Anti-Slavery people ought to question about his office: it was the subject of conversation at Rio amongst some of the lower English. — Charles Darwin, C. R. to Emma Darwin, 22 May – 14 July, 1833 Maldonado. Rio Plata Hurrah for the honest Whigs! I trust they will soon attack that monstrous stain on our boasted liberty, Colonial Slavery. I have seen enough of Slavery and the dispositions of the Negroes, to be thoroughly disgusted with the lies and nonsense one hears on the subject in England. Thank God, the cold-hearted Tories, who, as J. Mackintosh used to say, have no enthusiasm, except against enthusiasm, have for the present run their race. — Charles Darwin to J.M. Herbert. Maldonado, Rio Plata, June 2, 1833. I was delighted with your letter, in which you touch on slavery; I wish the same feelings had been apparent in your published discussion.— But I will not write on this subject; I shd. perhaps annoy you & most certainly myself.— I have exhaled myself with a paragraph or two in my Journal on the sin of Brazilian slavery:you perhaps will think that it is in answer to you; but such is not the case, I have remarked on nothing, which I did not hear on the coast of S. America. My few sentences, however, are merely an explosion of feeling. How could you relate so placidly that atrocious sentiment about separating children from their parents; & in the next page, speak of being distressed at the Whites not having prospered; I assure you the contrast made me exclaim out.— But I have broken my intention, & so no more on this odious deadly subject. — Charles Darwin, to Charles Lyell, 25 August 1845. I am particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray's letter; how very pleasantly he writes. To see his & your cautions on the species-question ought to overwhelm me in confusion & shame; it does make me feel deuced uncomfortable. I cannot quite understand why you & he think so strongly that it “does more harm than good to combat such views.”— It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz How very singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such immense knowledge on many branches of Natural History, should write such wonderful stuff & bosh as he does. Lyell told me that he was so delighted with one of his (Agassiz) lectures on progressive development &c &, that he went to him afterwards & told him “it was so delightful, that he could not help all the time wishing it was true.” I seldom see a Zoological paper from N. America, without observing the impress of Agassiz's doctrine's,—another proof, by the way, of how great a man he is.— I was pleased & surprised to see A. Gray's remarks on crossing, obliterating varieties,f13 on which, as you know, I have been collecting facts for these dozen years. How awfully flat I shall feel, if I when I get my notes together on species &c &c, the whole thing explodes like an empty puff-ball. — Charles Darwin, C. R. to J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1854. I read Cairns's excellent Lecture (Prof. J.E. Cairns, 'The Slave Power, etc.: an attempt to explain the real issues involved in the American contest. 1862.), which shows so well how your quarrel arose from Slavery. It made me for a time wish honestly for the North; but I could never help, though I tried, all the time thinking how we should be bullied and forced into a war by you, when you were triumphant. But I do most truly think it dreadful that the South, with its accursed slavery, should triumph, and spread the evil. I think if I had power, which thank God, I have not, I would let you conquer the border States, and all west of the Mississippi, and then force you to acknowledge the cotton States. For do you not now begin to doubt whether you can conquer and hold them? I have inflicted a long tirade on you. — Charles Darwin to Asa Gray. Down, February 23,1863. I have not read H. Spencer, for I find that I must more and more husband the very little strength which I have. I sometimes suspect I shall soon entirely fail... As soon as this dreadful weather gets a little milder, I must try a little water cure. Have you read the 'Woman in White'? The plot is wonderfully interesting. I can recommend a book which has interested me greatly, viz. [Fredrick Law] Olmsted's 'Journey in the Back Country.' It is an admirably lively picture of man and slavery in the Southern States... — Charles Darwin to J. D. Hooker, Down January 15, 1861. I never knew the newspapers so profoundly interesting. North America does not do England justice; I have not seen or heard of a soul who is not with the North. Some few, and I am one of them, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the North would proclaim a crusade against slavery. In the long-run, a million horrid deaths would be amply repaid in the cause of humanity. What wonderful times we live in! Massachusetts seems to show noble enthusiasm. Great God! How I should like to see the greatest curse on earth — slavery— abolished! — Charles Darwin to Asa Gray. Down, June 5 [1861]. I thank you sincerely for your very long and interesting letter, political and scientific, of August 27th and 29th, and September 2nd received this morning. I agree with much of what you say, and I hope to God we English are utterly wrong in doubting (1) whether the N. can conquer the S.; (2) whether the N. has many friends in the South, and (3) whether you noble men of Massachusetts are right in transferring your own good feelings to the men of Washington. Again I say I hope to God we are wrong in doubting on these points. It is number (3) which alone causes England not to be enthusiastic with you. What it may be in Lancashire I know not, but in S. England cotton has nothing whatever to do with our doubts. If abolition does follow with your victory, the whole world will look brighter in my eyes, and in many eyes. It would be a great gain even to stop the spread of slavery into the Territories; if that be possible without abolition, which I should have doubted. You ought not to wonder so much at England's coldness, when you recollect at the commencement of the war how many propositions were made to get things back to the old state with the old line of latitude, but enough of this, all I can say is that Massachusetts and the adjoining States have the full sympathy of every good man whom I see; and this sympathy would be extended to the whole Federal States, if we could be persuaded that your feelings were at all common to them. But enough of this. It is out of my line, though I read every word of news, and formerly well studied Olmsted.... — Charles Darwin to Asa Gray. Down, September 17 [1861?] Text IX Excerpts from Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray. 5th edition, 1869. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online , Cambridge University, http://darwin-online.org.uk/ The green and budding twigs may represent existing species; and those produced during former years may represent the long succession of extinct species. At each period of growth all the growing twigs have tried to branch out on all sides, and to overtop and kill the surrounding twigs and branches, in the same manner as species and groups of species have at all times overmastered other species in the great battle for life. The limbs divided into great branches, and these in to lesser and lesser branches, were themselves once the former and present buds by ramifying branches may well represent the classification of all extinct and living species in groups subordinate to groups. Of the many twigs which flourished when the tree was a mere bush, only two or three, now grown into great branches, yet survive and bear the other branches; so with the species which lived during long-past geological periods, very few have left living and modified descendants. From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off; and these fallen branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state. As we here and there see a thin straggling branch from a fork low down a tree, and summit, so we occasionally see an animal like the Ornithorynchus or Ledidosiren, which in some small degree connects by its affinities two large branches of life, and which has apparently been saved from fatal competition by having inhabited a protected station. As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications. In the case of every species, many different checks, acting at different periods of life, and during different seasons or years, probably come into play; some one check or some few being generally the most potent, but all concurring in determining the average number or even the existence of the species. In some cases it can be shown that widely- different checks act on the same species in different districts. When we look at the plants and bushes clothing an entangled bank, we are tempted to attribute their proportional numbers and kinds to what we call chance. But how false a view is this! Every one has heard that when an American forest is cut down, a very different vegetation springs up; but it has been observed that the trees now growing on the ancient Indian mounds, in the Southern United States, display the same beautiful diversity and proportion of kinds as in the surrounding virgin forests. What a struggle between the several kinds of trees must here have gone on during long centuries, each annually scattering its seeds by the thousand; what war between insect and insect - between insects, snails, and other animals with birds and beasts of prey - all striving to increase, and all feeding on each other or on the trees or their seeds and seedlings, or on the other plants which first clothed the ground and thus checked the growth of the trees! Throw up a handful of feathers, and all must fall to the ground according to definite laws; but how simple is this problem compared to the action and reaction of the innumerable plants and animals which have determined, in the course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on the old Indian ruins! When the views advanced by me in this volume, and by Mr. Wallace in the Linnean Journal, or when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be a true species. This I feel sure, and I speak after experience, will be no slight relief. The endless disputes whether or not some fifty species of British brambles are good species will cease. Systematists will have only to decide (not that this will be easy) whether any form be sufficiently constant and distinct from other forms, to be capable of definition; and if definable, whether the differences be sufficiently important to deserve a specific name. This latter point will become a far more essential consideration than it is at present; for differences, however slight, between any two forms, if not blended by intermediate gradations, are looked at by most naturalists as sufficient to raise both forms to the rank of species. Hereafter we shall be compelled to acknowledge that the only distinction between species and well-marked varieties is, that the latter are known, or believed, to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations, whereas species were formerly thus connected. Hence, without rejecting the consideration of the present existence of intermediate gradations between any two forms, we shall be led to weigh more carefully and to value higher the actual amount of difference between them. It is quite possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be merely varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names; and in this case scientific and common language will come into accordance. In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species. The other and more general departments of natural history will rise greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists of affinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, &c., will cease to be metaphorical, and will have a plain signification. When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting,—I speak from experience,—does the study of natural history become! A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and disuse, on the direct action of external conditions, and so forth. The study of domestic productions will rise immensely in value. A new variety raised by man will be a more important and interesting subject for study than one more species added to the infinitude of already recorded species. Our classifications will come to be, as far as they can be so made, genealogies; and will then truly give what may be called the plan of creation. The rules for classifying will no doubt become simpler when we have a definite object in view. We possess no pedigrees or armorial bearings; and we have to discover and trace the many diverging lines of descent in our natural genealogies, by characters of any kind which have long been inherited. Rudimentary organs will speak infallibly with respect to the nature of long-lost structures. Species and groups of species, which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the ancient forms of life. Embryology will often reveal to us the structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great class. When we can feel assured that all the individuals of the same species, and all the closely allied species of most genera, have within a not very remote period descended from one parent, and have migrated from some one birthplace; and when we better know the many means of migration, then, by the light which geology now throws, and will continue to throw, on former changes of climate and of the level of the land, we shall surely be enabled to trace in an admirable manner the former migrations of the inhabitants of the whole world. Even at present, by comparing the differences of the inhabitants of the sea on the opposite sides of a continent, and the nature of the various inhabitants of that continent in relation to their apparent means of immigration, some light can be thrown on ancient geography. The noble science of Geology loses glory from the extreme imperfection of the record. The crust of the earth with its embedded remains must not be looked at as a well-filled museum, but as a poor collection made at hazard and at rare intervals. The accumulation of each great fossiliferous formation will be recognised as having depended on an unusual concurrence of favourable circumstances, and the blank intervals between the successive stages as having been of vast duration. But we shall be able to gauge with some security the duration of these intervals by a comparison of the preceding and succeeding organic forms. We must be cautious in attempting to correlate as strictly contemporaneous two formations, which do not include many identical species, by the general succession of the forms of life. As species are produced and exterminated by slowly acting and still existing causes, and not by miraculous acts of creation and by catastrophes; and as the most important of all causes of organic change is one which is almost independent of altered and perhaps suddenly altered physical conditions, namely, the mutual relation of organism to organism,—the improvement of one organism entailing the improvement or the extermination of others; it follows, that the amount of organic change in the fossils of consecutive formations probably serves as a fair measure of the lapse of actual time. A number of species, however, keeping in a body might remain for a long period unchanged, whilst within this same period, several of these species, by migrating into new countries and coming into competition with foreign associates, might become modified; so that we must not overrate the accuracy of organic change as a measure of time. During early periods of the earths history, when the forms of life were probably fewer and simpler, the rate of change was probably slower; and at the first dawn of life, when very few forms of the simplest structure existed, the rate of change may have been slow in an extreme degree. The history of the world, as at present known, although of immense length, will hereafter be recognised as short, compared with the ages which must have elapsed since the first organic beings, the progenitors of innumerable extinct and living descendants, appeared on the stage. In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history. Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of the individual. When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity. And of the species now living very few will transmit progeny of any kind to a far distant futurity; for the manner in which all organic beings are grouped, shows that the greater number of species in each genus, and all the species in many genera, have left no descendants, but have become utterly extinct. We can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to foretell that it will be the common and widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and dominant groups within each class, which will ultimately prevail and procreate new and dominant species. As all the living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Silurian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation has never once been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of equally inappreciable length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection. It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. Text X Excerpt from The Descent of Man and selection in relation to sex. 1st ed. London: John Murray. Volumes 1 and 2. 1st edition. 1871, pages 243-248. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online, Cambridge University, http://darwin-online.org.uk/ Some naturalists have lately employed the term "sub-species" to designate forms which possess many of the characteristics of true species, but which hardly deserve so high a rank. Now if we reflect on the weighty arguments, above given, for raising the races of man to the dignity of species, and the insuperable difficulties on the other side in defining them, the term "subspecies" might here be used with much propriety. But from long habit the term "race" will perhaps always be employed. The choice of terms is only so far important as it is highly desirable to use, as far as that may be possible, the same terms for the same degrees of difference. Unfortunately this is rarely possible; for within the same family the larger genera generally include closely-allied forms, which can be distinguished only with much difficulty, whilst, the smaller genera include forms that are perfectly distinct; yet all must equally be ranked as species. So again the species within the same large genus by no means resemble each other to the same degree: on the contrary, in most cases some of them can be arranged in little groups round other species, like satellites round planets. The question whether mankind consists of one or several species has of late years been much agitated by anthropologists, who are divided into two schools of monogenists and polygenists. Those who do not admit the principle of evolution, must look at species either as separate creations or as in some manner distinct entities; and they must decide what forms to rank as species by the analogy of other organic beings which are commonly thus received. But it is a hopeless endeavour to decide this point on sound grounds, until some definition of the term "species" is generally accepted; and the definition must not include an element which cannot possibly be ascertained, such as an act of creation. We might as well attempt without any definition to decide whether a certain number of houses should be called a village, or town, or city. We have a practical illustration of the difficulty in the never-ending doubts whether many closely-allied mammals, birds, insects, and plants, which represent each other in North America and Europe, should be ranked species or geographical races; and so it is with the productions of many islands situated at some little distance from the nearest continent. Those naturalists, on the other hand, who admit the principle of evolution, and this is now admitted by the greater number of rising men, will feel no doubt that all the races of man are descended from a single primitive stock; whether or not they think fit to designate them as distinct species, for the sake of expressing their amount of difference. With our domestic animals the question whether the various races have arisen from one or more species is different. Although all such races, as well as all the natural species within the same genus, have undoubtedly sprung from the same primitive stock, yet it is a fit subject for discussion, whether, for instance, all the domestic races of the dog have acquired their present differences since some one species was first domesticated and bred by man; or whether they owe some of their characters to inheritance from distinct species, which had already been modified in a state of nature. With mankind no such question can arise, for he cannot be said to have been domesticated at any particular period. When the races of man diverged at an extremely remote epoch from their common progenitor, they will have differed but little from each other, and been few in number; consequently they will then, as far as their distinguishing characters are concerned, have had less claim to rank as distinct species, than the existing so-called races. Nevertheless such early races would perhaps have been ranked by some naturalists as distinct species, so arbitrary is the term, if their differences, although extremely slight, had been more constant than at present, and had not graduated into each other. ---Whether primeval man, when he possessed but a few arts, and those of the rudest kind, and when his power of language was extremely imperfect, would have deserved to be called man, must depend on the definition which we employ. In a series of forms graduating insensibly from some ape-like creature to man as he now exists, it would be impossible to fix on any definite point where the term ‘man’ ought to be used. But this is a matter of very little importance. So again, it is almost a matter of indifference whether the so-called races of man are thus designated, or are ranked as species or subspecies; but the latter term appears the more appropriate. Finally, we may conclude that when the principle of evolution is generally accepted, as it surely will be before long, the dispute between the monogenists and the polygenists will die a silent and unobserved death Recommended Readings: The works and the letters of Charles Darwin are currently being placed online in multiple formats by Cambridge University. The Complete Works of Charles Darwin can be accessed at http://darwinonline.org.uk/ and the Darwin Correspondence Project at http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk Agassiz, Louis. Essay on Classification. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962. --- Agassiz was the last great opponent of Darwin. A confirmed polygenist, Agassiz is remembered more for his contributions as a naturalist than for his defense of Biblical authority. This work is his definitive statement on classification and the place of man in what he thought was the order of creation. Anonymous. “Diversity of the Human Race.” Debow’s Southern and Western Review, 1i (1851). --A review of the polygenic/monogenic debate and of the general acceptance of the polygenic view. Bachman, John. “The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race, examined on the Principles of Science.” Debow’s Southern and Western Review, 1850. Debow directed the United States Census of 1850 and 1860. He also published his own quarterly reviews which became primary venues for the public debate over the polygenic theory. Bachman, though an opponent of polygenism, was frequent contributor and also co-author with James Audubon. Bachman, John. 1851. “Diversity of the Human Race.” Debow’s Southern and Western Review, 10 (1851). Bachman's defense of the monogenic theory against Samuel G. Morton. Bendyshe, Thomas, ed. 2001. The Anthropological Treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: With Memoirs of Him by Marx and Flourens, and an Account of His Anthropological Museum by ... John Hunter, M.D., on the Varieties of Man. New York: Adamant Media Corporation, 2001. ---Blumenbach, a monogenist, also gave us what has become the standard racial classifications. He also coined the term Caucasian. This is a collection of his most imporatnt writings, many unavailable elsewhere. Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man, Revised Edition (original title Race and Culture). New York: Free Press, 1938. ---Franz Boas sustained argument against racial theory and eugenics movedanthropology away from its 19th Century connection to colonialism. Canguilhem, Georges. Rationality and Ideology in the History of the Life Sciences. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. ---Canguilhem in this short work develops some of the fundamental concepts that have guided much recent scholarship in the history of the life sciences. Here he uses Darwin and his predecessors to discuss the role of error in the history of science, continuity and discontinuity, and what he called scientific ideologies. Gossett, Thomas F. Race: the History of an Idea in America, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford Universoty Press, 1997. ---A important look at the intellectual history of racial thought. Notable for its inclusion of scientific attitudes towards Native Americans. Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man, 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996. Truly considered a classic in the debunking of intelligence testing, also contains historical chapters on phrenology and the craniology of Samuel G. Morton. Gould, Stephen Jay. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. Gould's summation of evolutionary theory. A masterpiece of a great naturalist and holder of the Louis Agassiz professorship at Harvard University. Jacob, Francois. The Logic of Life: a History of Heredity. Paris: Gallimard, 1970. ---Nobel Prize winner examines the transformation that Darwin created in his ushering in of the study of life. One of the best histories of biology. Hawkins, Mike. Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as model and nature as threat. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Hawkins looks at the after math of the triumph of Darwin's intervention and the appropriation of Darwin's work in to Social Darwinism. Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston Beacon Press, 1955. Written during World War II, Hofstadter reviews the history of Social Darwinism in American philosophy, sociology, and politics. Though he thought that the war would spell the end of Social Darwinism, the work stands as one that should be consulted. Morton, Samuel G. Crania Americana; or a Comparative view of the Skulls of various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America; to which is prefixed an essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. Philadelphia: F. Turner,1 839. ---Morton's study of Native American crania which he says proved that the races constituted different species with independent origins. Nott, Josiah. “Unity of the Human Race,” Southern Quarterly Review, January, 1846. Adamant Media Corporation. Nott's adaptation of public lectures in which he announced the end of Biblical authority, though he said that it would only be strengthened by acceptance of the polygenic theory as it accorded best with what little of the Bible could be taken as fact. Josiah C. Nott and George R. Gliddon. Types of mankind: or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history:/ illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton ... and by additional contributions from Prof. L. Agassiz, LL. D., W. Usher, M. D., and Prof. H. S. Patterson. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1855. Their tribute to Morton and summation of polygenic theory. Ritvo, Harriet. The Animal Estates: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987. Examines the place of animals, and humans who were considered more animalistic, during the Victorian era. Slotkin, J.S. Readings in Early Anthropology. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1965. A vast edited collection of hundreds of writings on human diversity and culture. Stanton, William. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. The best work on the American School and the social context of its work. Tort, Patrick. Darwin and the Science of Evolution. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. A concise and reliable scientific biography of Darwin. Nott, Josiah (March 31, 1804 - March 31, 1873) was a leading exponent of polygenism and figure in the American School of Ethnology, which dominated the scientific understanding of race in the decades before Charles Darwin. Josiah Nott investigated yellow fever, edited the first translated Arthur de Gorbineau's Essay on the Inequality of Races, and with George Gliddon published Types of Mankind, a tribute to their mentor Samuel G. Morton and summation of their evidence that the races were separate species of Homo sapiens. Nott was born in Columbia, South Carolina. His father served in the U.S. Congress and on the South Carolina Court of Appeals. Nott received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and traveled widely in Europe studying Natural History and medicine. Returning to the United States, he settled in Mobile and into a well regarded medical practice as well as social life noted for its indulgences in horses and dalliances. Having lost two sons in the war, one from wounds at Gettysburg, Nott could not endure a South transformed, he said, into “Negroland.” He settled in New York City, drawn he said to a place “without morals, without scruples, without religion, & without niggers.” There he rebuilt his practice, joined George Squire's New York Anthropological Institute, and flourished until age and health forced his final return to Mobile. Stanton, William. 1960. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) Born into a Quaker family, Morton studied medicine in Philadelphia under Joseph Parrish, at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Edinburgh. Establishing his practice in Philadephia, Morton was active in the Academy of Natural Sciences, becoming first its corresponding secretary which brought him into almost constant contact with the leading scientists of his day, and later in 1850 its President. Morton's successful practice, wide reputation, and an inheritance from the proverbial wealthy uncle allowed him to live at ease, finance the collection of crania, and finance the publication of his work. Morton's early interests was in geology, but he soon turned his attention to craniology when serving as a professor of anatamy at Pennsylvania College. He had difficulties teaching his lectures on “The Different Forms of the Skull as exhibited in the Five Races of Man” due to a lack of skulls representing each race. “...I at once resolved to make a collection myself,” and so Morton developed collection, with nearly 900 human skulls and 600 other animal crania. His friend George Squire wrote: “As Americans we may take pride in the reflection that an American physician, with the aid of a few personal friends, made a Craniological Museum surpassing in extent the united collections of half of Europe, and one which must now be consulted by every scholar before he can undertake to write upon the great questions involved in the natural history of man.” In Morton, Louis Agassiz found no less a scientist than he had in Cuvier. Morton accepted Blumenbach's classification of human variety, but Morton's work represented a break with the aesthetics of human variety in favor of a true scientific ideology. Morton, ever the one to avoid religious controversy, did not argue against Biblical authority. That his work undermined and contradicted the biblical story of common origin was not a point that Morton aggressively made, but an inevitable conclusion he willingly left to his readers. Squire spoke of Morton's as “essentially a man of no theories, he brought to the service of science an earnest love of truth in its simplest and severest form.... He had, in short, a true appreciation of the dignity and aims of philosophy.” William Stanton perhaps described him best: “Tall, cadaverous, and 'of a large frame, though somewhat stooping,' with 'bluish, grey eyes, light hair, and a very fair complexion,' of an urbane, though somewhat retiring nature, Morton was an altogether improbable person to foment revolution in American science, to provide the boots and saddles and spurs with which to ride the mass of mankind.” Stanton, William. 1960. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. E.G. Squire. 1851. “Announcement of Morton's Death to the Ethnological Society” in the International Magazine of Literature, Art, and Science. vol. 3, no. 4. July, 563. George Robins Gliddon (1809 – November 16, 1857) born in England and raised in a merchant family that moved from England to Malta and then to Alexandria, Gliddon is remembered as the popularizer of Egyptology in the United States. He was Josiah Nott's friend and co-author of Types of Mankind and Indigenous Races, though Nott thought him a showman and not really inclined to scientific inquiry. Gliddon was educated in England to pursue a career in business. Upon his return to Egypt, Gliddon was appointed vise-consul for the United States. He began corresponding with Samuel G. Morton and legally and illegally obtaining crania for his collection. Morton would dedicate his Crania Aegyptiaca to Gliddon. Traveling to the United States to purchase machinery for Egypts cotton industry, Gliddon said that he fell in love with the America and returned in 1840 to begin his series of lecture tours that would last until 1852. In 1848, he added to the many artifacts and mummies that toured with him a “Grand Moving Transparency” over 800 feet long that provided a panorama of Egyptian history. Disappointed that he had not been given supervision of the US Army's experimental Camel Corps in the Southwest, Gliddon left the United States to manage the Honduras Inter-Oceanic Railway in 1857. There, gripped by a tropical fever, he accidently overdosed on opium. Stanton, William. 1960. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. John Bachman (February 4, 1790 – February 24, 1874) was born in Rhinebeck, New York. For 56 years he served as minister of St. John's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and as a professor at the College of Charleston. He was the close friend and co-author of John James Audubon of Quadrupeds of North America and Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. As a religious and educational figure, he helped found Newberry College, the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, as well as the South Carolina Lutheran Synod. Bachman was educated in Philadelphia, where he became a part of the growing number of naturalists in the area. There he made the acquittance of Alexander von Humboldt, with whom he remained friends. Humbodlt nominated Bachman for some of the several honorary degrees that marked his international reputation as a scientist. Bachman is said to have spent much time as a child in the forest accompanied by the family slave, who gave him the qualities of a naturalist. Later, Bachman's constant companion in the forests was James Audubon, whose love of drink and snuff contrasted sharply with Bachman's spartan lifestyle. The two were so close, however, Audubon's two sons married Bachman's daughters. Maria Bachman, his second wife, provided many of the background paintings for Audubon's Birds of North America and Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, including those for the some of the several species Audubon named in honor of her and her husband, such as the illustration for Bachman's Warbler, where the steeple of St. John's can be seen in the distance. Bachman's arguments for the single origin of all humans at times approached that of Darwin's, but his own religious beliefs as well as the Civil War. Bachman delivered the opening prayer at the convention that passed the Ordinance of Secession in December 1860. Though he opposed the war, he supported the Confederacy and allowed the bell of his church melted down for bullets as Sherman's troops approached. Bachman was beaten by Union soldiers as he evacuated Charleston and was left paralyzed on his left side. Much of his collection, as well as Maria Bachman's studio was destroyed. St.John's Church, which had a membership of as much as 40% African-American was burned as well as the attached school buildings that housed the segregated schools he has established there. After the war, Bachman's primary attention was given over to reestablishing St. John's Church. He died in 1874 and was buried under the altar. Stanton, William. 1960. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. www.johnbachman.org, Newberry College Alumni Association.