Year: 1859

From Negroes and Negro Slavery" By LII Tan Eprie,


d. d.


The External Form.


To consider and properly contrast the
attitude or the general outline of the ne
gro form with that Of the Caucasian,
needs large space to do the subject JUS
tlce. But few brief points are sufficient
to grasp its essential features and enable
every one to add or to fill up the details
from their own experience. Cuvier, the
great French zoologist, it is said, might
pick up bone of any kind, however,
minute, IN the deserts or Arabia, and from
this alone determine the species. genera
and class to which it belonged This at
first seems almost incredible. but a mo-
ment's reflection shows not only its prac-
ticability, but the ease and certainty with
which it is or may be accomplished. In
deed, we have recently witnessed q still
more remarkable instance of this trac-
ing the life and defining the relations of
organized beings from a minute and re-
mote point. Agazzis has been able from
single scale of fish, to determine the
specific character of fishes, and those, too,
which he had never before seen! A bone
is picked up at random by the zoologist.
He soon discovers that IL is q bone of the
thigh of some animal, and this necessarily
leads to the fact that it belonged to the
quadrumania, and it, in its turn, leads to
other facts equally connected and depend
ent on each other, for that great funda-
mental and eternal law of harmony or
adaptation which God has stamped on the
organic and material universe permits of
no incongruities or contradictions to mar
its beauty or deface its grandeur. Thus,
an anatomist who had given a certain at
tention to the subject, might select the
smallest bone, the meticarpal or bone of
| the finger, for example, and from among
millions of similar ones determine wheth-
er it was that of white man or of negro
| with perfect certainty and the greatest
| ease. He would know that such bone form
ed part of hand with a limited flexibility-
| that the bony structure was in accord
with the tendons and muscles that moved
it, and gave it, compared with that of the
! Caucasian, a restricted capacity of action,
ofsusceptibility, &C., and he would neces-
| sarily connect this hand with an arm of
corresponding structure, and going on
| multiplying the connections and rela-
| tions, he would be led to the final result
and without possibility of mistake, that
the bone in question belonged to a negro
But while the analysis of a single bone or
| of a single feature of the negro being is
| thus sufficient to demonstrate the specifc
| character or to show the diversity of race,
that great fact is still more obviously
and with equal certainty revealed in the
form, attitude and other external quail
ties. The negro is incapable Of an erect or d.
rect perpendicular posture. The general
structure of his limbs, the form of the
| pelvis, the spine, the way the head is set
on the shoulders in short, the tout ensemble
| of the anatomical formation, forbids an
| erect position. But while the whole
structure is thus adapted to a slightly
STOPPING posture, the head would seem to
| be the most important agency, for with
any other head or the head of any other
race it would be impossible to retain an
upright position at all.


| The form or figure of the Caucasian is
perfectly erect, with the eyes on plane
with the horizon, and the broad forehead,
distinct features and full and flowing beard
stamp him with a superiority and even
majesty denied to all other creatures and
relatively to all other races of men. On
the contrary, the narrow and longitudinal
head of the negro projecting posterially,
places his eyes at an angle with the hori-
zon, and thus alone enables him to APP
proximate to an erectposition. Of course
we are not to speculate on what is impos-
sible or to suggest what might happen il
the negro head resembled that of the
Caucasian, for the slightest change of ar
elementary atom in the structure woulC
render him an impossible monstrosity.-
But with the broad forehead and small
cerebellum of the white man, it is perfect
ly obvious that the negro would no longe
i =, f1n
these philanthropic people who woult
educate" him into intellectual equalit,
or change the mental organism of the ne
gro, would simply render him incapabl,
of standing on his feet or of an upright


position on any terms. Every one mus
have remarked this popularity in the
form and attitude of the negro. Hi
head is thrown upwards and backwards
showing a certain though remote approx
nation to the quadrumania both in it
actual formation and the manner in which
it is set on his shoulders. The marrow
forehead and small cerebrum-the centre
of the intellectual powers-and the pro
lection of the posterior portion-the cen
tire of the animal functions-renders tht
negro head radically and widely differen
| from that of the white man. This ever,
one knows, because every one sees it ever,


day, and the universal and all pervadinj


law of adaptation which God has eternal


ly stamped upon the structure of all Hi


creatures enables the negro to thus pre-
serve a centre of gravity and comparative


ly an upright posture. But were it tru


that men can make themselves, can pusl


aside the Almighty Creator Himself, a
taught by certain ''reformers" of the day


and vastly improve the breed" and, a
the friends of humanity" hold, that tn
negro can be made to conform in his in


tellectual qualities to those of the whit
man, then it is certain that their difficul
ties would become greater than ever
: That the cerebrum or anterior portion O


the brain is the centre the seat, the OF


ganism in fact, of the intellectual nature


is as certain as that the eye is the organ @


sight, and that in proportion to its siz


relatively with the cerebellum-the cen


tre of the animal instincts-is their mer


tai capacity, however latent it may be i


the case of individuals, is equally certain


And should these would be reformeI


of the work of the Almighty change tn


intellectual nature of the negro, the


would necessarily change the organise


through which, and by which, that natul


is manifested, and thus enlarging the al


terror and diminishing the posterior po


ton of the brain into correspondent


with our own, it is perfectly evident thi


they would destroy the harmony whic
n exists between the negro head and I'll
% negro body, and instead Of btack-whi
n man or a being with the same intelle
te ual nature as ours, they would render hi
l. as utterally incapable of locomotion or
IN an upright position at all as if they h;


cut off his head, instead of recreating
,e on the model of their own!


o The whole anatomical structure, t
j. | feet the hands, the limbs, the size al
IS form of the head, the features, the ha
~ the color, the tout ensemble of the neg
n. being, as it is revealed to the sense, e
le bodies the negro inferiority when co
of pared with the other races; and as
a. CARDS the white man or Caucasian, it p
tn sents a contrast so striking and an int
ir- val so broad and unmistakable that
n seems impossible any ones senses cot
ve be so blunted, or their perceptions so p
IN perverted as to be rendered incapable
10 perceiving it. The flexible grace of t
oT limbs, the straight lines of the figure, t
=. expressive features, the broad forehe
~ and transparent color, and flowing beal
"a all combine to give grace and majesty
the Caucasian man that stamps him Il
- disputed master of all living beings, al
n even the creatures of the animal wor
a. perceive and acknowledge this suprem
is- cy. 1t is not an uncommon thing in
o. dia for tiger, rendered desperate by hu
So ger, to suddenly leap into crowd and


carry off a man, but instead of Europe
at he invariably selects native, and VIII
to such thing as the seizure of white m
in is unknown, the negroes in Sierra Leo
m are frequently carried off and eaten
is. lions.