An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African: Translated from a Latin Dissertation, Which Was Honoured with the First Prize in the University of Cambridge, for the Year 1785, with AdditionsClarkson, Thomas
Philosophy
An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African: Translated from a Latin Dissertation, Which Was Honoured with the First Prize in the University of Cambridge, for the Year 1785, with Additions
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa; Slavery -- History
[Footnote 084: We beg leave to return our thanks here to a gentleman,
eminent in the medical line, who furnished us with the above-mentioned
facts.]
[Footnote 085: Suppose we were to see two nations, contiguous to each
other, of black and white inhabitants in the same parallel, even this
would be no objection, for many circumstances are to be considered. A
black people may have wandered into a white, and a white people into a
black latitude, and they may not have been settled there a sufficient
length of time for such a change to have been accomplished in their
complexion, as that they should be like the old established inhabitants
of the parallel, into which they have lately come.]
[Footnote 086: Justamond's Abbe Raynal, v. 5. p. 193.]
[Footnote 087: The author of this Essay made it his business to inquire
of the most intelligent of those, whom he could meet with in London, as
to the authenticity of the fact. All those from _America_ assured him
that it was strictly true; those from the West-Indies, that they had
never observed it there; but that they had found a sensible difference
in themselves since they came to England.]
[Footnote 088: This circumstance, which always happens, shews that they
are descended from the same parents as ourselves; for had they been a
distinct species of men, and the blackness entirely ingrafted in their
constitution and frame, there is great reason to presume, that their
children would have been born _black_.]
[Footnote 089: This observation was communicated to us by the gentleman
in the medical line, to whom we returned our thanks for certain
anatomical facts.]
[Footnote 090: Philos. Trans. No. 476. sect. 4.]
[Footnote 091: Treatise upon the Trade from Great Britain to Africa, by
an African merchant.]
[Footnote 092: We mean such only as are _natives_ of the countries which
we mention, and whose ancestors have been settled there for a certain
period of time.]
[Footnote 093: Herodotus. Euterpe. p. 80. Editio Stephani, printed
1570.]
[Footnote 094: This circumstance confirms what we said in a former note,
(Footnote 085), that even if two nations were to be found in the same
parallel, one of whom was black, and the other white, it would form no
objection against the hypothesis of climate, as one of them might have
been new settlers from a distant country.]
[Footnote 095: Suppose, without the knowledge of any historian, they had
made such considerable conquests, as to have settled themselves at the
distance of 1000 miles in any one direction from _Colchis_, still they
must have changed their colour. For had they gone in an Eastern or
Western direction, they must have been of the same colour as the
_Circassians_; if to the north, whiter; if to the south, of a copper.
There are no people within that distance of _Colchis_, who are black.]
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