|
Thomas Jefferson |
|
. |
|
It will probably be asked, Why not retain
and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expense of
supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave?
...The first difference which strikes us is that
of colour. Whether the black of the Negro resides in the reticular
membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself;
whether it proceeds from the colour of the blood, the colour of the bile,
or from that of some other secretion, the difference is fixed in nature,
and is real as if its seat and cause were better known to us.
...The circumstance of superior beauty, is thought
worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and other
domestic animals; why not in that of man? Besides those of colour, figure,
and hair, there are other physical distinctions proving a difference of
race. They have less hair on the face and body. They secrete less by the
kidnies, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very
strong and disagreeable ordour.
...A Black, after a hard labour through the day, will
be induced by the slightest amusements to sit up till midnight, or later,
though knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning.
...They are more ardent after their female: but love
seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture
of sentiment and sensation.
...Their griefs are transient. Those numberless
afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to us
in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with them. In
general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation then
reflection.
...I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the
blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and
circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body
and mind.
Thomas
Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, writing in 1781, a small
book that analyzes the natural bases of the State. |
|
racism |
|
|